Does this bumper really need replacing?

Winger_PL

Hi,

My wife had a car park mishap where she bumped into a 2010 Skoda Superb causing a dent as per the picture below (high resolution):

http://winger.pl/userfiles/skoda.jpg

The owner says that according to the garage (Skoda dealer near the airport) the whole bumper needs replacing. Now, it was my wife's fault so I'm all for ensuring that the car is fixed properly, but isn't that a bit of an overkill?
I was hoping to pay for the repair myself to avoid loss of NCB & premium hike, but replacing the bumper might go into hundreds of euro?

mickdw

No doubt it can be repaired but why should the owner of that car have a repaired/filled bumper just because of someone elses stupidity?
Id say a new bumper and painting would be in the region of 700 hundred for that car.
i would be annoyed about having to have paint work done at all even with the new bumper.

Where To

Yep, needs replacing

Holes don't push out

DublinWriter

I had a young muppet go into the back of me on the Navan Road a few years back while I was stopped at lights.

He suggested that he paid for it using a garage that he knew as he 'already had a crash a month ago' and that his premium would go through the roof.

I said no thanks, and subsequently introduced his insurance company to Mr.Joe Duffy, the BMW dealer and not the radio presenter. Cost of replacing the bumper was in excess of €1K.

You might consider that a bit mean of me, but I put up with a bit of back/shoulder discomfort for a few months afterwards without raping him for whiplash.

Consider yourself lucky that your wife backed into a Skoda (nothing against them, my next car will be a Superb).

Winger_PL

OK, fair enough. I'm not trying to negate the responsibility here, but I'm not going to sit quietly if I believe I might be getting ripped off. I thought this might be a simple repair, but if it can't be restored to the exact previous condition I'm all in for a replacement.
Also, I would never consider suggesting any garage to the owner, it's his car and his decision on where does he want to have it fixed.

mickdw, I do not appreciate your disrespectful comment about stupidity towards my wife; a pedestrian nearly walked into her car as she was reversing, this distracted her as a result of that she bumped into that car. I don't see how she was 'stupid' here, could happen to anyone.

On a completely separate note, there's not a scratch on wife's 10-year old Passat, makes you wonder how cars are built these days.

Owen

where do i go from here wrote: »

Yep, needs replacing

Holes don't push out

Holes do push out on bumpers. That can be reformed with heat in about 10 minutes, and then about 2 hours to paint it. The issue is that the owner of the car is perfectly entitled to the new bumper, he shouldn't have to settle for a repaired one.

Do my eyes see things, or is the bootlid creased too?

On another note, this is my 10000th post here. I need to get out more.

Winger_PL

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Do my eyes see things, or is the bootlid creased too?

On another note, this is my 10000th post here. I need to get out more.

No, that's just reflection of another car.
Congratulations :-)

Gavman84

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Do my eyes see things, or is the bootlid creased too?

Looks like the reflection of a Renault thats behind it I think!!

Where To

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Holes do push out on bumpers. That can be reformed with heat in about 10 minutes, and then about 2 hours to paint it. The issue is that the owner of the car is perfectly entitled to the new bumper, he shouldn't have to settle for a repaired one.

Do my eyes see things, or is the bootlid creased too?

On another note, this is my 10000th post here. I need to get out more.

Dents push out

Holes don't

qz

where do i go from here wrote: »

Dents push out

Holes don't

Where's the hole?

(Post only to be read in the context of this thread please and thanks to all the potential smart arses!!)

where do i go from here

where do i go from here wrote: »

Yep, needs replacing

Holes don't push out

I made a huge dent in the front bumper of a Rav4 one morning when I worked in a car park with the rear of a 3 series compact. Pushed out lovely, was a wet day so a rub of WD40 and a bucket of water got rid of all my paw prints too, an eye witness to it happening didn't think it was the same Rav4 a few hours later (I moved it and agreed that it wasn't :pac:)

mickdw

Winger_PL wrote: »

mickdw, I do not appreciate your disrespectful comment about stupidity towards my wife; a pedestrian nearly walked into her car as she was reversing, this distracted her as a result of that she bumped into that car. I don't see how she was 'stupid' here, could happen to anyone.

While my original comment was meant in more general terms i.e. should someone have to have a repaired/filled bumper even though someone else was responsible, the more you draw attention to this, it does sound like very dodgy driving by your wife. She was reversing. One would assume if reversing anywhere there is a possibility of pedestrians that the speed would be very low. Any surprise pedestrian coming on the scene should surely result in a quick stop, not continuing the move distracted. It always seems to be the people in the older car with the couple of dents that are most easily distracted leading to these type of accidents.
IMO, you should be very glad to pay for the new bumper, not coming on here wondering if it can be filled. An apology to the owner for damaging there property would be in order too. The skoda is worth maybe 25 times what your car is worth yet some people in older worthless cars drive in a manner that would suggest all cars are worthless or at a minimum that an odd ding here or there is no harm.

Where To

qz wrote: »

Where's the hole?

(Post only to be read in the context of this thread please and thanks to all the potential smart arses!!)

skoda 2.jpg

Owen

That's not a hole ...

Where To

PaintDoctor wrote: »

That's not a hole ...

What is it?

Owen

It's just the black plastic of the bumper where the paint's been chipped away.

Where To

PaintDoctor wrote: »

It's just the black plastic of the bumper where the paint's been chipped away.

Dunno, looks like a hole and four cracks coming from it to me.

I have been wrong before though:)

where do i go from here

where do i go from here wrote: »

Dunno, looks like a hole and four cracks coming from it to me.

I have been wrong before though:)

I don't think it's a hole either tbh

Owen

It's a bit of chipped paint, and the cracks around it are the edges of the chip lifting. To push a hole that small through the bumper, it'd need to be a knitting needle attached to the OP's car that hit it. If a car caused the hole, it'd be a bigger hole with much more deformation around it.

Where To

RoverJames wrote: »

I don't think it's a hole either tbh

I just had an eye-test last week and all:mad:

Think I might need a second opinion:D

Winger_PL

That's not a hole, the paint chipped away in that spot.
Doesn't matter anyway as I'm happy to have it replaced after checking with you lads, I simply don't have any knowledge on repairs hence I posted this thread to get an answer.

mickdw, she was driving very slow otherwise there would be more damage, I wasn't there so I can't offer an explanation as to how exactly did this happen. And the owner got apologies a few times so far, I'll be probably getting him a bottle of good whiskey as well as additional apology as I'm aware he's been inconvenienced by the situation.

Big Nasty

PaintDoctor wrote: »

It's a bit of chipped paint, and the cracks around it are the edges of the chip lifting. To push a hole that small through the bumper, it'd need to be a knitting needle attached to the OP's car that hit it. If a car caused the hole, it'd be a bigger hole with much more deformation around it.

As a matter of interest how much would you charge to fix the above PD vs how much a new bumper (or bumper cover if ya like) plus respray and fitting would cost from a Skoda Dealer?

I know you can't say for sure without a proper viewing but ball-park.

Owen

It's not crazy money TBH, I'd be more or less the same as any Smart repairer, 100 euro minimum, rising to a max of 120 depending on the quantity of materials and time used. Some bumpers are a complete nightmare, especially ones with factory fitted PDC, you have to unmount the bumper partially and get the sensors out which can add an hour to the whole job. Here's an Almera I did a few months back, which shows the kind of result any Smart repairer can get, it wasn't my best work as the guy couldn't give me enough time, but it's damn close :

Nonoperational

To be honest you could go the PDR route and get it perfect for around €120, you could get the bumper repaired and the whole thing repainted at a bodyshop for around €250 cash or you could get a genuine skoda bumper and paint it for around €700. All would probably produce near perfect results but at the same time he is perfectly entitled to demand the expensive option.

A similar thing happened to me before Christmas and I ended up getting it repaired and painted for around €200. There was no real denting though.

Nonoperational

To be honest you could go the PDR route and get it perfect for around €120, you could get the bumper repaired and the whole thing repainted at a bodyshop for around €250 cash or you could get a genuine skoda bumper and paint it for around €700. All would probably produce near perfect results but at the same time he is perfectly entitled to demand the expensive option.

A similar thing happened to me before Christmas and I ended up getting it repaired and painted for around €200. There was no real denting though.

Tropheus

Those bumper covers are plastic and almost impossible to repair to "as new" condition. If it was my car and someone else damaged it, I'd insist that it was restored to the condition it was in before the accident. That would necessitate a new bumper cover.

The bumper cover itself isn't expensive, it's painting it that's the killer.

ZENER

Hopefully the Skoda owner doesn't notice the dented boot lid, it's definitely dented !! That could ad a few more quid to the bill - actually many more quid I'd say !! Give them the 700, get a receipt as full and final payment for the damage and count your lucky stars !!

Ken

Winger_PL

There is no dent on the boot lid, it's simply a reflection of a Renault badge.

ZENER

The edge of the boot lid is deformed as you can see from the pic plus the reflection is creased from the corner of the boot to the tail light !

Ken

Yawns

Is that not a water drop?

ZENER

ZENER wrote: »

Hopefully the Skoda owner doesn't notice the dented boot lid, it's definitely dented !!

When they go for their quotes it will be noticed I'm sure.

kirving

Does is not look that way because the whole bumper is out of place?

biko

Nothing that a heat gun and some Tipp-Ex couldn't fix

faigs

Winger_PL wrote: »

mickdw, she was driving very slow otherwise there would be more damage, I wasn't there so I can't offer an explanation as to how exactly did this happen. And the owner got apologies a few times so far, I'll be probably getting him a bottle of good whiskey as well as additional apology as I'm aware he's been inconvenienced by the situation.

There's no satisfying the high horse brigade, you're better off ignoring! They're perfect drivers, see! :rolleyes:

Gophur

New bumper would be the only acceptable repair for the "victim".

And some lessons in observation for "the wife"!

(God knows why she's blaming some pedestrian for her own lack of concentration.)

faigs

There we go again!ˆˆ

Gophur

faigs wrote: »

There we go again!.../QUOTE]

Where are you going?

faigs

Gophur wrote: »

faigs wrote: »

There we go again!.../QUOTE]

Where are you going?

It's an open forum so say what you want, but I don't think he's looking for criticism of his wife's driving, just some advice. I'm sure she's learned from her mistake!

Nonoperational

Sur everyone has a tip now and again. No big deal.

Owen

They don't call them bumpers for nothing!

user1842

Looking at the pic I thing a bumper replacement is not necessary. The op could suggest that if his repair is not perfect, he will shout for a new bumper. It could backfire if you dealing with a unreasonable person.

Winger_PL

The cost of repair was established at ~1346 EUR :pac:
I'll bite the bullet and sort it through insurance.

Big Nasty

Winger_PL wrote: »

The cost of repair was established at ~1346 EUR :pac:
I'll bite the bullet and sort it through insurance.

:eek::eek::eek:

Gophur

Ouch!

Not nice.

There was a time when bumpers were bumpers. Not any more.

(It's unpleasant but that's what Insurance is for.)

Marcusm

Winger_PL wrote: »

The cost of repair was established at ~1346 EUR :pac:
I'll bite the bullet and sort it through insurance.

I was going to post that I'd be surprised if you saw much change out of €1500. On the plus side, a friend of mine reversed his week old car into a neighbours and had to replace his own bumper. The paint alone cost €1441 not including the spraying!! Total job cost was €12,000.

If you're feeling hard done by as a result of them insisting on a new bumper, you can comfort yourself by realising they'll never manage to match Tge White colour perfectly anyway.

cojomo2

Marcusm wrote: »

I was going to post that I'd be surprised if you saw much change out of €1500. On the plus side, a friend of mine reversed his week old car into a neighbours and had to replace his own bumper. The paint alone cost €1441 not including the spraying!! Total job cost was €12,000.

If you're feeling hard done by as a result of them insisting on a new bumper, you can comfort yourself by realising they'll never manage to match Tge White colour perfectly anyway.

:eek:What does your neighbour drive, a gold plated Aston Martin !?

-Chris-

Winger_PL wrote: »

The cost of repair was established at ~1346 EUR :pac:
I'll bite the bullet and sort it through insurance.

Have you got alternate quotes? Other Skoda dealers or reputable bodyshops?

Marcusm

Marcusm wrote: »

.............a friend of mine reversed his week old car into a neighbours and had to replace his own bumper. The paint alone cost €1441 not including the spraying!! Total job cost was €12,000.

If you're feeling hard done by as a result of them insisting on a new bumper, you can comfort yourself by realising they'll never manage to match Tge White colour perfectly anyway.

What's your friend driving?

Matching white is not a huge problem really.

Owen

TBH, matching colours will soon be a thing of the past anyway. A lot of paint manufacturers have colour spectrometers now, which you hold against the car, and they take magnified photos of the paint from about 6 different angles and bluetooth them to your laptop/deskop for analysis. A fair few bodyshops are getting these now. I just wish I could afford one

E39MSport

Feck that - new bumper for me if it was mine. Let the OP have the original to fix up and sell if he's so confident.

btw - a pedestrian and a vehicle in one manoeuvre is good going.

It BeeMee

Winger_PL wrote: »

The cost of repair was established at ~1346 EUR :pac:
I'll bite the bullet and sort it through insurance.

Doesn't sound that bad.

This little ding cost around 2,000 to repair I think.
Backing out the cost of the lenses and a parking sensor will get it down around your number.