Hey all, new to the site. Have had a Honda Fit 2016 LX for a few years. I have only been driving since I was around 31 (10 years) but have never hit anyone or anything, so I am clueless about this.

Today, coming out of chemo treatment (not on any mind altering drugs, maybe just distracted by stress,) I managed to take a turn to tight and really mangle the side of my car. I honestly don't know how it is this bad when I was going about 5-10mph. I feel so peeved at myself.

I called the Honda dealership I get repairs at who recently outsourced their phones to untrained operators and talking to a worker is near impossible. The operator told me dealerships can't help and it has to be a collision center. I did some googling to find one with ok reviews and sent this image their way. Waiting to hear back from both the dealership and I contacted a local junkyard, too, to see what's up.

I recently raised my collision deductible to $2000 for the first time mere weeks ago to save money for healthcare costs. That was not smart. I know these things can be thousands.

Anyway, the door closes, locks, and power windows work. The worst part is the hole to the bottom left on the panel around the door (not sure the name.) So the door doesn't fit flush. I am honestly less worried about cosmetics even though this is the first car I have loved. I am more worried about dangers and structural issues causing future problems.

I know you can't tell me exactly online, but has anyone dealt with this sort of damage and have any idea of the cost or any advice on what to do moving forward?
Thanks in advance.


(this image upload is showing a broken icon no matter how much I resize it or upload it, hopefully you can see this one embedded from elsewhere.)

 

Sorry to hear about your accident and your health issues.

When you rub against an immobile object, it doesn't take much contact to cause damage. I grew up driving on the farm from an early age, but in my first official training drive on the highway with my dad I rubbed the passenger door of his car on a pole at a gas station. He was not happy... Take this as a learning experience and it hopefully won't happen again.

Repair costs can vary considerably in different markets, so it's difficult to for us to predict for you. I would suggest that you get estimates from multiple shops. It's probably more effective to take your car to them than to send pictures. In most cases they're experienced enough to give you a cost estimate after looking at the damage for a few minutes.

Because you're in PA and probably experience salted roads in the winter you should get this fixed or you will face further rust damage.

On the door, I can't tell if I'm seeing bare metal or paint transfer from whatever you rubbed against. If it's paint transfer, it can probably be cleaned off relatively easily. The door would still be wrinkled but if it closes and latches correctly you might be able to live with that. If you've exposed bare metal you will need to get the door repainted. When you're getting estimates you can ask for a comparison between repair + repaint and replacing with a used door from a scrap yard. Again, parts from scrap yards vary considerably in cost depending on your market, but the process of swapping the door would be quick and relatively cheap for any body shop or mechanic. If you're lucky you might even find one in the same color. If not you could wait until you have more money for a repaint.

The area behind the door is more tricky. Although the damage looks relatively superficial, you'll notice that the damaged panel continues unbroken below the doors, behind the rear door to the roof, and above the doors. So, unlike the rear door, you can't easily replace this piece. The repair will likely involve cutting out the punctured and wrinkled area, welding in replacement metal, and then painting to match. Unfortunately many (most?) body shops will tell you that they don't repaint small areas like this and will want to paint the entire panel, which increases your cost significantly. It sort of depends on the skill of the painter at the shop, along with the color of your car as some colors are easy to blend whereas others (e.g., metallics) are nearly impossible and require the entire panel to be repainted.

Like I said at the top, your first step is to get multiple estimates. You probably want to eliminate the highest and anything that seems too good to be true. If you get a bunch of similar estimates you can be more confident that you're not being fleeced.

Good luck with your car and your treatment.

 

PDR and some body shop will get that cleared out for you. Hopefully fix that before winter