My first true Fit damage....my college kid who came home last week had parked his car to the far right side of the driveway...I KNEW it was there, but wasn't paying attention today...backed out of garage and down driveway....SCRAPE!!! I can't show you pics because our camera is broken, but I dinged the right fender and scraped the bumper...fender and bumper came apart...no big damage but I don't need another expense right now. His car only has a little paint scraped off the rear bumper (but it's a 95 Camry with 135 K on the odometer, so we aren't going to fix anything much on it now).

So what I want to know is, should I take my baby to the Honda body shop and get an estimate? Hubby had a rear-ender in his Toyota years ago, went to a non-dealer body shop, and the part they replaced (hatch) faded out MUCH faster than the rest of the car. I don't want a non-matching paint job or something.

Tell me what you'd do. I don't want to cheap out and then regret it later. I don't know how much it will cost or what they will have to do. Nothing else is damaged, the light housing is fine, and maybe the bumper just needs repainting, it's not damaged, but the fender did get dented. Maybe they can pull out the dents and repaint that too? Anyway, advice please!

This weekend already sucked before I did this, now it totally sucks!!!

 

sorry to hear, Juliane!

actually i have the same damage on my passenger side fender. it was hit last Feb and i pushed out the dent the best i could (no one can really tell it was damaged unless i really point it out) but the paint is cracked so been wanting to get that repainted...but too busy (and lazy) to get it professionally done.

for fenders, depending on how bent it is, they will decide to just get you a new one and paint it. it can be an expensive fix if they decide to 'blend' the new paint on that side of the car....which means they will paint your fender and then clearcoat the doors and quarter panel.

should run $500-950 depending on bodyshop and service you require. im thinking about getting mine sanded, spot bondo'ed on the lip where my PDR tools could not fully pushout, and painted for probably $350. i dont really care to blend to the rest of the car because silvers are hard to match and it will probably not perfectly match anyway.

here's where i got hit. fender bent, headlamp scratched, bumper scratched. 1600 in damages.




here's my fix....can't tell unless i point it out. this is after about 5hrs pushing it out with my PDR tools... paint was already cracked from initial impact so i couldn't really do much more. resurfaced the headlamp, touchedup the bumper. $0.00...

 

Well your fender was way less scraped than mine is...but you had a bigger single dent.

Estimate from Honda - 1694.50 and yes, they do want to fix and blend, etc. and it will take them 5-6 days (do they have an agreement with the rental car agencies???)

Estimate local body shop - 606.40 for the same work, taking 2.5 days.

It's kind of a no-brainer. I can't fix the dents, I don't think, and the paint is pretty messed up. The light has a mark on it too but I don't care about that.

 

If the local body shop is reputable, and they have a guarantee (find out their guarantee and warranty first) then yes, it's a no-brainer. Let them do it all though... mark on light and everything. They probably won't charge you any extra for repairing the light damage.

Dealers are always going to be a lot more expensive than anyone else... as you probably know. Doesn't mean they're any better than local shops, and in some instances the local shop paint jobs are much better than dealers.

If you go local then make absolutely sure what kind of repair and paint job you will get from them, in writing, before turning over your ride to them.

Sorry about your "baby."

 

I worked in insurance claims for 25 years. Just because a dealership has a body shop that does not necessarily mean their work is good. The best repair shops, by far, were the independent shops that relied on body work only for their business.

 

If possible find a body shop that is operating in a small town close by.... They have lower overhead and can do the work cheaper...They may have to have your car longer than a bigger shop in the city but if you have a car to use while the repairs are being done it might be less costly.... I really hate that you are having to go through this.

 

Oh it's OK, Coyote, it's not a big problem. The car is driveable and there are many worse things that might have happened. I may go to another shop for another estimate, I can't find any reviews of the shop I visited and I like to know that others have been pleased with a business especially since this is one of those things that you may not recognize as done improperly for several years. I know my hubby's Celica looked good when he had the repair done, but after several years, the hatch was completely faded and oxidized, the paint was matte, it looked terrible. It was obvious that that part had been replaced. Fortunately we drive our cars until they absolutely DIE, so we only sold it when we had to, to a private owner who didn't care.

I plan to drive my car until it won't go any more, but I don't want to see a faded-out fender in a few years.

I was distracted on Sunday and that is always a dangerous state to be in and get behind the wheel. I may as well have been driving drunk, my mind was in such a whirl.

 

Thanks, whaap. I guess I was shocked by the price difference, I would have expected a few hundred extra from the dealer but not $1000! The labor for repair is the same rate from both, $42/hr, but the dealer has a whole lot of other charges tacked on, including that they want to replace the entire right front headlight although it only has a scratch on the bottom, that's nearly $300.

I'm going to check another place, too. Maybe 2 places. Here's one of the places, the pictures are good.

http://www.autobodypainthouston.com/

 

i would def. go to a local body shop over a dealer. Seems to me that they put more effort and care into their work. I worked at a dealership that had a body shop for a while and i would never ever bring my car their, even with employee discount. Gf's car got fixed there 2 yrs ago and its still not fixed. She would rather live with it than go back there for the 345425345 time.

 

score04w, I guess the dealers tend to get a lot of insurance work, they sure priced my repair like someone else was paying for it, even though I told the estimator it's not an insurance claim. I need a fix that is really fixed, the Fit is my DD, and we go everywhere together! The car I scraped my Fit on will be my "rental," I was driving it until my son was ready to go up to college and then we passed it on to him. I want good work, fair price, and fast.

 

So I took my baby over to Master Collision today, it's gonna take 3 days to fix. I asked the guy if he could do the dings and scratches for me too and he agreed.

About $750 all in. Quite an expensive 3 or 4 seconds not to check where my son's car was in the driveway.

I wouldn't have it fixed yet but I will probably be going on a road trip soon and don't want to start out with a messed-up fender.

 

3 days later juliane will look like =>

 

Yahoo it'll be all smiley face and pretty again.

 

Sounds like you have a plan Juliane and a production shop that is busy and needs a good reputation to stay in bussiness is were I'd give my $ to.
Make Sure that All Work is noted Especially the dings & scratches. and ask to see the estimate so everyones on the same page Before the work begins! I worked for Macco some years ago and if it's written in the estimate then it should be completed at pickup/payment. I hope all goes as planned and the vacation is GGGRRREAT! Helps with a clean straight ride...enjoy

 

Yeah!!! Like

and then




hasta baby!!!

 

I wish my camera wasn't busted!!! Oh, shit, I just realized I could have had my son use his iPod camera....oh well, hopefully I will never have another damage to post up.

 

OK I picked her up, the fender is PERFECT and they even washed the whole car and vacuumed it, and gave me a "free" paper. I will take photos tomorrow while it's still clean.

 

^^^ Yeah for Juliane's Fit!! Perfect timing Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend

&Thankz Juliane
Mike

 

YWQ! That fender feels incredible, like the best claybar job you ever felt...In fact, I think the paint feels like Honda SHOULD have made the paint feel...maybe I can save up and have the whole thing done again.....