mick_foley

My wife had an accident this morning in her '02. She rear-ended this guy and messed up his rear bumper and damaged her front bumper. My wife, stepson, and unborn child are all good.


The guy's rear bumper was messed up pretty bad. My wife's car, which is a pearl white BTW, had a few scuff marks on the lower part of the bumper and the part of the bumper below the lower grille is completely broken near the center. The car is still very much operational, just looks a little ugly when you get to the bottom portion of that front bumper. Insurance is in my name and my wife is a driver under it basically.

My question is what are my real options here to minimize my "personal" damage?

I figure my insurance will spike unless I pay for both damages directly out of pocket but if I just let my insurance handle it, will it even matter in terms of total cost?

Would it be feasible to buy another bumper from a junk yard or ebay and have it professionally painted, then install it myself to save cash?


I'm all ears here. This sucks.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

It may seem like it is just the plstic bumper that is damaged, but there is a beam behind it that you will have to change if it is damaged, most likely

rlx101

good to hear that everyone is fine, thats the most important thing. I believe your insurance will increase in any case, your wife was at fault, so she'll get a few points on her driving record for this, actual premium increase depends on your state, it could be very little for you in mississippi.

check radiator support just in case...

mick_foley

Yeah, I'll be sure to check for damage behind the bumper. I hope all is fine back there. At first glance, it didn't look like the bumper cover wasn't impacted too much.

EDIT: And as far as the premium, I was previously a Geico customer and had a collision with a mailbox. Based on my premium increase and the time allotted for the increase, they were making me pay for the entire repair cost for the accident which I found to be ridiculous since I pay so much for insurance already. So in reality you are only really covered for uninsured motorists, everything else comes out of your pocket. IN fact, they attempt to get their money back from the uninsured motorist so they don't really expense for anything except for odd comprehensive coverage.

mick_foley

Looks like nothing behind the bumper was bent. Went to get an estimate at the body shop on the repairs - $800. He only indicated the bumper cover in his estimate so he didn't see anything else wrong either.

rlx101

800 sounds about right for your car.

mick_foley

Yeah, it seemed legit though still expensive for a little damage at the bottom of a bumper. But I guess that's just the auto body repair industry.

Parker Gen

You can buy an entire front bar and have it sprayed for less than half that price. Look at buying a new front bar, even if it's not OEM. $800 is ridiculous, for a broken front bar.

mick_foley

front bar? It's the front bumper cover.