Best plan for body damage

One of the rear doors was slightly open while my wife backed out our leased Chevrolet out of the garage. The lip of the door hit the side of the garage and the car door lip crushed in a few inches like an aluminum can. The damage is small (about one inch by three inches) but it’s obvious and visible.

I got a quote today from a body shop. If they replace the door and repaint/blend etc it’s $5k. If they repair the door (only changing the exterior panel), paint, etc it’s $2500. A lot of the cost is in blending paint to match and the repair/install labor.

I was hoping for it to be <$1000. My deductible is $500. I’m looking for advice on what to do. I have about 8 months left on my lease.

  1. Go through insurance and take the hit on my rates for a while

  2. Find a door from a junkyard of the same color. If it’s cheap enough then I would not claim it on insurance. Will this get me dinged on lease return? Seems the color might not match exactly.

  3. Not fix it and just turn in the car as is with the damage. Is this a rational option? I don’t have an excess wear and tear policy.

Other options?

This sounds like the sort of thing that’s perfect for using your insurance on.

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Pictures by any chance ?

It sounds like you structurally damaged the lip of the door so something like paintless dent removal isn’t an option.

You can always ask for a second quote from a body shop for the bare minimum bend, bang and Bondo job, but honestly it sounds like insurance is your best bet. For a claim this small I doubt your rates will take a big hit. I totaled my wife’s Jeep with a $25,000 payout and my rates maybe hiked up 10% (and the payout covered the deductible).

Removed embarrassing pic :slight_smile:

I’ve paid out of pocket more than once to avoid the hit, but at 5-10x deductible I’d just make a claim like @mllcb42 suggested.

Edit: goes without saying it’s just metal, I’m glad no one is hurt, and this is why we have insurance. Not worth getting upset over at all.

Ok sounds like I should just go through insurance. We are planning on using the car for a road trip in July so I plan to get it done after that since it will be out of my possession for 1-2 weeks.

Yes that is definitely something you want to use insurance for.

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It’s bonkers… 3 years ago, I, at-fault (rain, stupidity) totaled a 981 and ended up with a 45k settlement (on a car I had paid 52 for, 3 years prior). Somehow, the only impact was losing my accident forgiveness. Been super careful the last few years, logged into Geico.com the other day and… the AF endorsement is already back. Called and confirmed too. Odd, but I’ll take it… Gecko for Prez!

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Try getting a quote from a local indie shop. They might do the job for way less than a certified body shop imo.

Use insurance. That’s what you pay for it for. Yeah, rates might creep for a bit, but you can always shop around in 6 months-1 year too.

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I’m in the same situation however my damage is on the front quarter panel that I received in a parking lot of course with no note. I was thinking of using insurance however the quotes I got ranged pretty significantly. In the end I’m just going to leave it as is because if I lease a new car from the same manufacturer which I most likely will ill get up to a $1000 worth of damage on the car which should cover that incident.

Thats one thing I don’t want. I feel like using insurance on something like mine would creep up the insurance rate, and with a 500 deductible and the damage being a tad bit more I feel like since I have to pay the $500 deductible already might as well just forget it or eventually find a guy who can fix it for less than that.

If you get it repaired I think it would be best to get a good job not just a patch up. I think if you turned the car back in with a bad repair they could charge you as well. You’re supposed to turn in the car in original condition minus normal wear and tear. A bad repair job is not “normal wear and tear.” I’d hate for you to pay for a sub par repair and then they still ding you for damage when you turn it in.

I don’t think OP is going to find someone to fix 5k worth of damage for 1k or less though. I’d pay cash for 1k. I’d pay my 500 deductible for 5k.

In your situation, I’d let it go if you get a 1k damage waiver for being loyal. Even if the damage ended up being more and you had to pay a few bucks out of pocket, it would be worth it. Now, if they come back on the lease end inspection and say your damage is 2500, I’d go through insurance and repair before grounding

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Insurance broker here. I would call your agent before you file the claim (note do not call the 800# to inquire as that will probably open a claim- and if your without an agent do not call) and see how your rates will be impacted. Most companies will adjust rates based on the accident (does not matter the size). If you have multiple cars on the policy it could effect rates on all of the vehicles. This could send your rates up 20-50% for the next 3-5 years. Only you know your premium and what the total cost of this could be.

If your able to drive the car with the damage safely you could wait until your lease end inspection. You are typically charged by the panel. If your damage is only one panel you might be pleasantly surprised on what the lease end damage costs are. On my last GM financial lease I had about $800 in damages (just a lot of bad luck with that vehicle- and this was several different panels). I called GM to pay at lease end and they negotiated with me to 50% of the costs if I paid immediately with a credit card.

Depending on your state you should have some time to turn in the claim if you go that route (My state is 24 months from the date of damage). So if you can wait it out I would personally not claim the damage now and see what your charges are. Your should have some time to make the decision.

Take it in the other direction: every repair I’ve ever had that wasn’t a bumper cover replacement turned out to be way more involved once they took it apart. I’ve shared pictures of my last accident before: it looked to me like a couple thousand in damage, not $13k+.

If you say it’s a cash repair, they take it apart, and it’s a mess under/around there, you’re stuck fixing it. This is why we have insurance.

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I had someone back into the right rear quarter panel. The damage shouldn’t have been too expensive except for the fact the battery and electronics were in that spot. Guy told me if it were the left quarter panel, it wouldn’t have been more than 1k to repair. Being they had to remove the battery and all the electronic modules stuck in there, 4,000 bucks. Insurance covered it and I didn’t see an increase. It actually went down a few bucks at renewal.

I hate paying for it, and always cringe when I got to file a claim for the dreaded potential increase, but if I need them, I’m using them.

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Our insurance company raised our rates 25-30% for all of our cars last year for no reason at all. They claimed it was because labor repair rates went up in the area but really it was probably just profit taking on their part.

So I’m pretty sure they will use this as an excuse to jack up the rates. I have an umbrella policy so I think I need all the cars through the same insurer, right? If not I’ll gladly dump them after they raised rates and then didn’t lower them when we virtually stopped driving due to COVID shutdowns.

I went.to a few different places the other day and the price literally ranged from $350 to as high as $1250. So I know the $1000 damage waiver will certainly cover it. Like I mentioned its not worth it to put a claim in even if they claim its no.fault. I don’t want my insurance rates going up. I hear far too many people already paying expensive premiums so rather not put the claim in and if i did it would still cost me $500, (deductible) so If I decide to fix it ill pay out of pocket to the guy who said $350 which cheaper than my $500 deductible.