My friend bumped into an prelude driver and made a small hole in the back bumper. The dude now wants to replaced the bumper and have it repainted. He says its about 300 for the bumper and 600 for the repainting and labor. Anyone have any advice? I feel 900 dollars is too much for a bumper and he is very adamant about going to his mechanic.


here's a picture

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Thanks!

 

check on e-bay I got a fully painted front bumper shipped for $320 about 2 months ago. Tell him that you want three quotes from different shops. 900 is way steep but I dont know what the availability is for this car

How do you put a hole in a bumper like that?

 

he is really adamant about his specific shop. She cut the cost down to 800. But yeah the thing is the car color is a special white and he wants the new bumper repainted. Thanks for the help

 

then let insurance deal with it. what's the deductible?

 

This sounds ridiculous, I'd probably turn it over to insurance. A hole that small might be patchable and then repainted. I doubt the car is a special color, I've seen creme white preludes before. If they are that adamant about a specific shop I'd be very concerned that they might be trying to get more out of you.

Go to the Honda dealership and ask them what they'd charge. Then go to an independent body shop and ask them the same. Once you have those quotes then you will have a better idea of how to deal with this. If these quotes are substantially different (honda's quote will be quite high) then I'd send it to insurance. Insurance companies will protect their clients against people who are trying to take advantage of a situation.

 

Cant you just prep the area, bondo it, and get it paint matched for like.. $100 at most? seems like just a 2 inch area that would be messed with

 

her deductible is 750. The thing is she is a new driver and doesn't want her insurance to go up. But the ***** is now asking her to pay for a rental car for a week since he needs it for work ($300). I'm telling her to go with insurance. This guy is really hard to deal witih.

 

few years ago when I had loss with State Farm, the agent said that if the amount SF has to pay
is less than $750 it doesn't 'count' against you - they look on it as a nuisance claim.

Yes - go to insurance, they are used to dealing with uncooperative peeps; it's a system to them.
But, I'd print out the photo and give to agent when she goes in to start a claim, or attach it to email to send to her insurance company
so her people can see how trivial it is from the start. Get them started in the right frame of mind...