At work I have to move my car every 2-3 hours cause we don't have enough parking spots for the 3500 employees in the building so I have to park on the damn street.. and its all parallel parking, which is fine becuase i've been doing it for 3 years now and I do it like 3 times a day.. well, something went wrong on monday.. I hit a maxima while pulling into the spot.. It was a 2001 Maxima

i scratched his bumper, took the paint off one spot (inch x 2 inch spot) very small and there was a small scratch around it also. it wasn't really that much damage..

I left the guy a note, saying that I was parallel parking and scratched his car, i apologized and left my name and number.. he calls back later in the afternoon, we decided that he is gonna go to his dealer and get a quote.. in that conversation I said that It can't cost more than $100 cause the scratch isn't that bad, he said since I took the paint off the car and it went to the primer or whatever that they might have to repaint the whole bumper, i kept on insiting that no, it can be touched up.

He calls me back later on that night and says that since I took the paint off in that spot, the dealer said that he needs a new bumper.. I told him its ridiculous and there is NO way that he will get a new bumper out of this..

what do you guys think of this?

 

It could be this guy is trying to **** u, or he knows nothing about cars and his 'trusted' dealership looks at this as an opportunity to pull in some easy coin.

Either case, you need to find out where this guy is coming from and put down some clear objectives.

The clear objective is to be a good guy and fix the bumper fixed without getting hosed.

As an insurance company would, you can ask him nicely to get 3 different quotes at the same you can get 3 quotes to repair the damage.

Take the average of all and that can be your settlement...

do not get overly involved with the total repair of the damage, you want to pay him and walk away.

the settlement should be fair to both parties.
ie: pay for the damage you caused.

1) If he chooses to just to touch up the damage your settlement should definately cover that plus he should have some cash to spare.
2) If he chooses to repaint the whole bumper your settlement should cover most/all of the cost
3) If he chooses to get a whole new bumper and paint it, he's going to have to pay for most of that out of his own pocket.
4) He can take the money and not repair it.

You're responsibility is to pay for the damages...

Not to repair the bumper or how he chooses to use the settlement.

If he's going to be a dick, get him to sign an agreement with the understanding that once you pay him, this is settled.

 

my friend had something like that.. but bigger damage
it costed him like $150 at a regular body shop..
he went to one in east chinatown

 

There is no way the whole bumper has to be redone. I would go with the 3 quotes by him and 3 quotes by you.

 

right on!! thanks for the advice..

when he calls me back, i'm definetely gonna go with the 3 quotes me and 3 quotes him idea... and i'm glad that all of your think that replacing the bumper is ridiculous!!

 

man i'll give u credit for having a heart and being honest but make sure this guy doesn't rip you off. Similar thing happened to me i hit a brand new mercedes from the back, i damage my bumper a little bit and the mercedes doesn't even have a scratch, Anyways i gave the guy my insurance and all the info(BTW it's not even his car, he said it was his boss) and he said everything is alright until i get a call from him the next day and he wanted me to pay him$500 so i told him to go screw himself and i never heard from him again, no claims on my insurance either. Goodluck to you anyways