heres some pics of it :









a big black chevy truck with a solid metal bumper backed up into my rear bumper, putting a dent on the corner of the drivers side and it broke the orange part of the lense of the tailight also.

the guy said he would prefer me not to make a claim with his insurance company and would rather just pay me out with cash, so i did'nt make a claim,

would it be better if i made the claim with insurance company ? or not ?, cause i want to get the most money i can but not have to use it all on the repair either, having extra money i can use on other things would be the best to me.

i got a quote at service king and they quoted $725,

i was thinking if i gave him the quote and he give me the money i can get a used bumper (i saw one good for $50 and tailight perfect condition on ebay for $75, and i can easily put tailight on and i know how to remove and install bumpers, so i can just paint it with this good quality aerosal spray can product i know of online that paint matches to your color and has good nozzles and stuff, and that would be good enough for me since its a crappy faded paint job anyway, so i would just spend like under $200 or so, and have $525 left, something like that would be awesome.

but if i did that, would the guy know i did'nt use the money on the quote and got fixed at service king ?, i mean he would want to see the quote from service king before giving me the money so he has proof, but he would'nt know if i used it towards the getting fixed there?


or could i possibly repair the dent in my bumper using a heat gun to pop it out ? since its not that big ?, or too complex to do good ?

or could i fill it using plastic filler or something and sand it down til its back to shape and prime and paint that area ? keeping my bumper not having to replace it ?

any thoughts or input would be helpfull on me deciding what i should do

 

Ask him for the money. Was there a police report? You may have a hard time depending on how honest this guy is. Easy fix though, could have been worse.

 

Mine was hit in the same area(rear quater panel and bumper) and lightly dented, I used bondo on the quater panel, it worked for a long period of time, but started to crack a little recently, so time to redo it! haha.AS for the bumper I just replaced it, and my driver side tail light still has a small crack in it. If you can get him to give you like 600-the quoted 725 that would be great, if not a insurance company MIGHT claim it salvage title as Crx's don't really go for much according to Kbb, Edmunds, etc. So you could have a chance of being screwed if you go through insurance as well, unless having a salvage title doesn't bug you.

 

The guy owes you for the damage. It is none of his business if you get it fixed or not. The value of your car is diminished by the damage so if you pay someone else to fix it you are putting the value into the car. If you fix it yourself you are getting paid for your labor. I once had a car damaged by someone else and I sold the car before they paid me for the damage. They still paid me for the damage even though I clearly was not going to get the damage repaired. The logic there is that I received a reduced amount for the car when I sold it as a result of the damage.

The advantage to you of a direct payment is that the accident will not show up on your CarFax report.