Every day thousands of people suffer some sort of damage to their car’s front or rear bumper. Once you decide to have an auto body repair done on your bumper, contact a body shop and they will give you an estimate and schedule a repair date. You drop your car off at the shop and after a few days or a few weeks, depending on how bad the damage was, they will call you when your car is fixed and ready for pick up. You go to the shop to retrieve your vehicle, but before you pay and drive away, be sure to check that the auto body repair was done properly.
In order to get the best look at the quality of repairs, you’ll want to schedule the pick up during daylight hours so you can look it over thoroughly. Try inspect the repair in direct sunlight and view the vehicle from different angles and vantage points.
Tips on what to look for in an auto body repair on bumpers
- Panel gaps – are they even and does the bumper line up flush with adjacent body panels?
- Is the bumper cover smooth? – Look for ripples, indentations, and distortions
- Paint color match – make sure the paint is a close match to the rest of the car. Note: painted plastic bumpers often look slightly different than painted sheet metal due to the difference in substrate material and the contours of a bumper can reflect light differently
- Paint overspray – Check bumper moldings, trim, step pads, textured lower covers, reflectors, and lamps for paint overspray
- Paint quality – paint should be smooth with very little “orange peel” look to the texture
- Look for “fish eyes” which are tiny pin holes in the clear coat paint
- Look for runs in the paint
- Look for debris in the paint such as dirt, dust, and other contaminants
Once you have your car repaired to industry standards, then you’ll want to check to see if the accident damage has caused your vehicle to lose value.
Even minor damage confined only to your bumper can cause a loss in resale value. On most newer vehicle’s, the diminished value due to bumper damage could be as high as $3,000 to $4,000, just for having a minor bumper repair and an accident on your vehicle’s history report. The diminished value could be even greater on an expensive high end vehicle.
To learn more or to see what your vehicle’s diminished value is, please contact us at (850) 201-1950 for a free claim review and estimate of your loss in value.
DVCHECK is a nationwide provider of diminished value appraisal reports that will help you document, demand, negotiate, and recover your car’s diminished value after a car accident.
