indian gladiator

Hello All,

I have 2017 Prestige, bought in Jun this year. Last week, my wife noticed a deep scratch, about an inch long on the driver side fender near front bumper. There are some scratches on the front bumper also and they all look like from same incident. Since its a new car and scratch free till now, I decided to get a quote to fix the scratches. The two audi authorized body shop in Wash DC area game me quote of 4 to 5 k to fix.

Since every time i walked by the car, that is the only thing i notice so i really want it fixed now but I am not able to decide whether to go through insurance (Geico in my case) or pay out of pocket.

Paying out of pocket will be stretching myself during this holiday season but I am worried that if I go with insurance, they will report to carfax and it will decrease the car value and my premium can go up.

I am not sure if anyone has faced this situation before but I will really appreciate any thoughts or insight on this..

BigKutta

Please post a pic. 4-5k sounds obscene for a 1 inch scratch. Have you tried taking it to a good detail shop first to see what they can do?

indian gladiator

Thanks for the reply, I will post pics later today once i am home. These are the reasons they gave for 4 to 5 K estimate..

- They will have to take out the front bumper to fix the scratches and once they put back the bumper, they will have to re calibrate the sensors. and Re calibrating sensors itself will cost about a grand.
- Not all dents/Scratches can be fixed and if the scratch has created a crack on the front fender, they will have to replace that and repaint it..

And I didn't consider the detail shops- didn't think of that option. I will do it as soon as i can..

Thanks

BigKutta

Its possible i suppose. However, a good detailer can do wonders, and while it may not completely go away, the scratch can be minimized. Whereabouts in the DC area are you. I may have some suggestions...

indian gladiator

I am near Rockville - MD. I went to Tysons Corner Collision center and Euro Pros Collision Center in Gaithersburg to get the estimates..

To be honest, i have never been to any detailers before. I just go for regular car wash periodically so this is very new to me. so any suggestions will be helpful.

Thanks

BigKutta

I just PM'd you

Brimstone

I don't think it would show up on a carfax since its a cosmetic fix (but I could be wrong).

You can attempt to ask about your premiums if you make a claim. I had some damage once to my truck (bumper ding) I actually claimed it like 2 years after it happened, I said my car was parked and then I found it like that never affected my rates.

Jim Jistel

You may or may not get a CARFAX from this. At that price I'd use insurance. The price seems high but it may involve refinishing several panels. Scratches on the flexible portion of the bumper require the whole panel to be refinished as I understand it.

Someone banged into the bumper on my Bentley in a parking lot and left two shallow grooves from their front plate in the rear bumper. It was "only" 2K to refinish the entire bumper. The Bentley dealer encouraged me to take pictures and pay out of pocket if possible. He said they'd had a car with 60K plus worth of damage that had a clean CARFAX at trade in and another that had a couple of minor scratches in the rear bumper repaired that showed as wrecked on CARFAX. It's entirely up to your insurance company wether they report it or not. Made me think CARFAX is a gimmick.

Eppieguy

Insurance companies nor body shops report to CARFAX, they obtain their information from accident reports / Police departments.

sr007

Agreed! I had two cosmetic repairs done on my BMW through insurance and neither were reported on Carfax. It all boils done to how much the repair costs will be. If the estimate cost is something you are comfortable shelling out of your pocket at local bodyshop, then go for it. Else have the insurance pay for it (however, going this route may jack up your future insurance premiums).