I will be turning my car in in about 6 months. A year ago, while getting out of tight spot in a parking garage, I scraped the side. No real damage to the door, just needs paint. When I took to an autobody shop, the whole door needs to come apart, they can’t just paint the scrape, it needs to be blended, etc. $500 to $1,500!
Anyone know what Kia will charge me for this? It is past normal wear and tear, I think?
That isn’t “normal wear and tear.” You’re going to have to get it repaired properly or pay the excess wear and tear from Kia. Maybe someone on here can chime in that’s had experience with turning in a damaged Kia. That way you can try to determine whether it’s cheaper to get it repaired properly or just pay the excess wear and tear charge.
Wait a bit. Watch what used car prices do. If they rise enough you can exit as is with nothing out of pocket. Or maybe even some cash in your pocket
Don’t do anything now, just wait until you’re within ~60 days of your lease end date and get the 3rd party inspection done. They will note the scratches and you’ll know exactly what the damage charges will be if you just turn it in.
At that point you can make the call, either fix it yourself or just turn it in and pay the damage charges.
No direct experience with Kia, however with most banks for relatively minor scraches and dings it’s typically much cheaper to just turn it in and pay the damage charge, rather than going through the hassle and expense of fixing it yourself. Based on the pics I’d say you’re looking at $200-$300 tops.
The picture could be misleading but it doesn’t look horribly deep in the photo. Have you tried gently using an auto polishing compound with a damp microfiber cloth? It may help remove some of it but you don’t want to go too hard and make it worse. You could try getting the correct touch up paint but that looks hard to hide well. If you get the lease end inspection done they should be able to provide you with what the charge will be at turn it, it most likely will not be an absurd amount of money.
Buff out the white and wait to what the inspector comes back with. Usually it’s not worth fixing ahead of time (unless you don’t like driving it that way).
Best way to try to buff this out is with what product(s)? I don’t want to do more damage than what is already there. BTW, I just got a quote from an autobody show of 1,500!
I’ve used stuff like this with good results on similar looking marks. You could try buffing it with wax first if you are concerned about anything and then step up to a polishing compound if that doesn’t work.
It’s either way worse than it looks in the picture or they are just trying to rip you off.
May not necessarily be a rip off. They may have to paint (blend) onto the adjacent panel to get a good color match. When you have damage right next to an adjacent panel you can’t always just paint the damaged panel (especially with metallic paints). When you blend onto the adjacent panel you get a better color match. Also, the plastic piece at the back of the door may be scraped too. So, replacement of that may be in the estimate. My dad is retired from the paint and body business so I know how expensive these things can get. And how unrealistic the pricing is perceived. There’s more work to fix that than most people realize. Mind you, I’m talking about a like new repair. Not just a “patch up”
Your picture is either a silver or white paint transfer from whatever scraped against the car, or that is bare metal showing below the paint and clearcoat.
For the first (paint transfer), something like old school Turtle Wax polishing compound (applied lightly and then stepped up if no swirls or other damage, etc.) can usually get the paint transfer off.
For the second (bare metal), it is either a body shop for full fix or for to “touch up” on the scratches with a paint match. You can also touch it up yourself with factory paint from Kia or Dr. Colorchip but it will look awful as a touch up job no matter who does it.
Looks like you should either see if it rubs out on the transfer or wait and get the 3rd party inspection done before lease end as was said above and see how much they will ding you. Good luck!
Nice tutorial below about scratches in general:
Yes. The body shop said if they just buff and repaint, even with kia paint, it will look like a touch up job. They said they need to do the whole door for it not to look like a touch up job. This involves taking all the trim off the door etc. I am sure if I said a touch up job would be ok, then the price would be 200-400, not 1500.
That’s what I mean…I get that if you want this to look good as new for a car you’re keeping that it’s going to cost. Maybe OP wasn’t clear about the fact that it just needs to look good enough to pass a lease end inspection. If it’s just surface damage like it appears to be in the photo that should be able to be buffed out and look good enough to get by.
That’s most likely all you need to pass a lease end inspection. Anything beyond that is overkill.
Unless it really bothers you it’s probably best to get the pre-return inspection as soon as it’s available. Determine how much they are going to ding you for the damage. Then you can make an educated decision on how to proceed. No one here can really offer you a finite answer.
Clean it up and hope for not getting charged for it. If you get charged, call Kia finance and request it to be waived. Even if you get it charged, I doubt it will be more than what you will pay to get it fixed. Also check online, most captives have some kind of a guidance how to charge for damages e.g. $150 per panel for less than two separate defects.
Get the black sharpie out and see if the inspector notices.
Is this the new Snowy Off Ramp?
Too late for snow … but this might work
Oh no, Toonces! Look out!
