Hey everyone, looking for some outside perspective on a situation.
A driver hit my parked car in a parking lot recently. They were kind enough to leave a note, and it turned out to be a 17 year old girl. Her parents ended up taking responsibility, and offered to pay for all damages out of pocket instead of going through insurance. I got multiple quotes from body shops, and repairs are coming in around $3,000. They also said they’d cover a rental car while it’s in the shop, so roughly $3500 coming to me.
Now I’m torn on what to do. I don’t need the money urgently, all my bills are paid, no debt, and I have savings. My car still runs completely fine, but it has a pretty noticeable dent on the passenger rear side.
Part of me thinks I should just get it repaired and restore the value/appearance of the car. The other part of me thinks I could keep the $3,500, live with the dent, and use that money on something else or just to keep it.
TLDR:
So I guess my question is: if you were in my shoes, would you fix the car or take the cash and invest it? How much would resale value / future regret factor into your decision if I don’t plan on getting a new car unless this one is totaled.
Driver hit my car and willing to pay out of pocket
byu/RecommendationDear19 inpersonalfinance
Posted by RecommendationDear19
11 Comments
I think you should be an honest person and do with the money what it’s intended for. Especially as you’ve said you don’t need the money.
Their daughter is most likely not on the policy or they don’t want their premium to increase.
If you were going through insurance, their insurance company would cut you a check for the amount of the initial repair. If you moved forward with the repair, the insurance company would cut you a check for any additional cost for damages found upon teardown.
It’s really up to you as to what to do, you can accept a one time payment and call it a day or take your car to the shop and have it repaired properly
If you don’t fix the car now you might regret it later. Especially if rust or other unintended consequences appear. Constantly seeing the damage might have a grating impact on you later.
I would fix the car. Look, these people are dealing with you honestly over a huge amount of money. They offered to make things right for you and repair your car. They didn’t offer to bribe you so that you don’t report the damage. If I were you, I would be honest and fulfill my end of the bargain, which is to sit back and let my car be repaired.
Put it in a high interest savings account until you determine what you want to do with it. I say you can do whatever you want with the money – they caused the damage, and then both parties agreed on a fair amount for compensation based on how much it would cost to fix the damage. Whether you decide to use the money to actually fix the car or use it for something unrelated is up to you. At some point the money might be more useful than an un-dented car. And besides, it only takes one more minor incident to put another dent in the car, it would be very annoying if that happens shortly after getting it fixed.
They’re probably worried about the kid destroying their rates and don’t want a mark on anyone’s driving record. You can avoid using insurance but CYA just incase they try to ghost your
Get things in writing. Information, contact, id, written statement saying their side of the story and signatures. Id say get a police report but that’s probably what they want to avoid the most.
Get a quote and email it to them. Leave a paper trail. If they try to Welch, you can take them to small claims court or file an insurance claim and let them sort it all out.
Is it just dented or is the paint scratched or flaking?
If it’s just dented, paint less dent repair might fix it for $100-500 or so. It might not be perfect, but they’d do it while you wait… no rental.
Personally, if you didn’t want to repair it or you wanted to do PDR I would take the $3000 (and not the $500). They owe making your car right (and seem to be honest about doing that), but I don’t think they should owe you rental money if your car isn’t getting repaired.
If you choose to use a repair that doesn’t fully restore the car (like PDR) or you choose not to repair, that’s your choice, IMO.
It’s really up to you. I hit someone in a parking lot back in college while backing out. There was a big dent on the rear right side. The Mexican guy asked for $300 to settle it. We met up, signed a paper I printed online, took photos, and each kept a copy as proof. I also filed an insurance claim, but they couldn’t reach him. Claim closed.
You could try the plunger trick to pop the dent out. I’m not a car expert, but there’s a chance the window components could be affected. Depend on the age of car, if newer-ish, I would fix it. Old and window working, I’ll take the money.
The biggest risk is that they ghost you and don’t pay up, and by then, too much time has elapsed to follow up with insurance. The safest route for you is to go through insurance. OTOH, if you trust them, have them put it in writing and get the money ASAP.
The other thing to consider is what happens if the damages end up being more extensive than initially estimated? If it ends up costing $5000 instead of $3000, are they going to follow through and cover the costs, or will you then have to go to small claims court?
What’s the car worth, less than $35k? Don’t worry about fixing it.
10%+ for a cosmetic bandaid? Unless it’s a collectors or you’re handy, you could always try pulling the dent yourself.
I took $1,200 instead of repair for my truck bumper being hit and slightly angled down. It’s not really noticeable unless you’re looking for it, and I think trucks are meant to get beat up a bit. 14 years later, I’m still happy with the decision.