What should I do?

dark_knight_2

Hi,

my wife was parked up yesterday waiting to pick me up when the car beside her reversed into the rear driver side of the car (to the rear of the wheel arch, almost to the rear bumper)

as far as I can tell the damage looks mostly cosmetic (the cars just ‘kissed’ each other) with a scrape of 3-4 inches along the paint work on what I THINK is a fibreglass panel.

question is: should I report this to my insurance and go to the bother of getting it repaired/replaced, or is it insignificant enough that it’s not going to matter come trade in/handing the car back etc, and should I spare myself the hassle of dealing with insurers and repair centres etc?

[Deleted User]

Is it on PCP or lease? If so, get it fixed.

You could always ask the other driver to just pay for the repair.

Grumpy_chap

What is the car - age / condition?

Relatively new car that you plan to change in a couple of years?

Old banger that the next owner will be the scrap-yard?

Somewhere in between?

This makes a real difference to how much you bother about the scrape and, therefore, the way to resolve the issue.

dark_knight_2

Grumpy_chap said:

What is the car - age / condition?

Relatively new car that you plan to change in a couple of years?

Old banger that the next owner will be the scrap-yard?

Somewhere in between?

This makes a real difference to how much you bother about the scrape and, therefore, the way to resolve the issue.

It’s 2 year old, looking to upgrade next year.

only recently made a claim for a damaged wing mirror too

caprikid1

Smart repair ?

dark_knight_2

Never heard of it before but sounds like a possibility 

CliveOfIndia

dark_knight_2 said:

Never heard of it before but sounds like a possibility 

These are small outfits that basically do a touch-up job.  Chips-Away are perhaps one of the better-known companies, but there are dozens of similar companies around these days.  They'll repair minor damage by just "filling in", as it were, the damage itself, rather than respraying the whole panel which is usually what a full-blown body shop would do.  Hence it's a lot cheaper.

A few years ago my dad got a few scratches on his car, used one of the local smart repair companies and was very pleased with the result.  Most of them tend to operate on a franchise basis, so it can depend on how experienced the actual person you get is.

But from friends and family I know of who've used them, they seem to be very good for small repair jobs, and pretty reasonable cost-wise.

As I say, there are lots of them around these days, so you'll probably have a few to choose from in your area.