Front Wing Smash

R

robert_london

Member
Hi,

I'm new to the forum and first time post is with a problem! After coming out of the supermarket at the weekend, I noticed the dent & scratch below on my passenger side front wheel arch. Quite big and nasty and has scratched right through the paintwork.

I'm phoning around and getting various quotes, of which some are widely more expensive than the others, and wanted some advice.

Would you:

1 - Have the dent removed & painted by some SMART operator - e.g. chips away and swallow the whole cost yourself
2 - Claim on the insurance (DirectLine in my case) pay the excess & have an insurance company approved repair (loosing two years no claims in the process). (I'm eligible for a protected no claims in June if I dont claim)
3 - Have BMW dealer do it - massively expensive - have been quoted c. £1,400 for a new wing and bonnet & door resprayed as paint needs to be blended.

The car is on financed on a baloon payment and we were planning on trading in in 18 months time for something else, so was wondering whether the first two option would cause me problems later down the line? I'm based in South West London and any recommendations would be appreciated.

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Any help greatly appreciated!
 
Ouch - nasty

Very similar to another member who had a ding on a visible part of the wing.

Smart repair will never work on such a place and you'll have to have it done properly if it goes back to BMW. I'd get a quote from a specialist body shop in your area that will be a lot less than BMW and likely better work

Insurance - that's for you to caluculate after you work out excess and future years increase in premium, but likely to work out more in the long run than just paying up.
 
Thanks - when you say "you'll have to have it done properly if it goes back to BMW" - do you mean that they will add it to the work that needs done and charge me for it when I hand the keys back?
 
I beleive they will insist on any work being correctly completed and to their specified standards of parts, protection, etc. If not they may just charge you in the trade in. Read your agreement/contract for full details
 
Guess that other member would be me :?

here is what I did to mine: Bump

In the end I claimed on insurance but I wont lose any no claims.

Place I took it to G & N Coachworks (in Chiswick) did a great job and restored to as new - wouldn't notice the difference. They did a quote for me and and the insurance. Not through insurance came to £500 + VAT, Insurance wasn't actually much more - about £100...

I will add that the chips away guy wouldn't touch it...
 
Thanks for the responses so far - I've given them a call.

I suppose I could wait til June for my protected no claims and then put it through on Insurance?
 
robert_london said:
Thanks for the responses so far - I've given them a call.

I suppose I could wait til June for my protected no claims and then put it through on Insurance?
Click to expand...

Guess you would have to lie about when it happened...

Could you live with it until June :o any bare metal showing - risk of rust etc?
 
I wouldn't worry about rust and just have a new wing put on...

By the time bodyshop have pushed it out, filled, got the edge radius right and so on, it's quicker/cheaper to put a wing on (wings can't be that much shirley?)

The positive swing on it is that if you'd hit the light/bumper it'd be alot worse. Just the wing panel simplifies things a great deal!

Dave
 
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