Panel beating cost

That would be my estimate but I am down the country and generally in rural areas jobs are cheaper to get done.

The plastic bumper can be either very cheap or very expensive. I can never guess by looking on the likes of those.

Best of luck with it.

Does the owner of the vehicle you hit have insurance cover? I am presuming yes, so they should first get a quotation for the repair and then decide whether to claim against their own insurance or not. Judging by your description of the damage the cost could be around the thousand euro mark.

Why would they claim of their own insurance? They did nothing wrong.

They should be claiming against the ops insurance. That is what it is there for for god sake.

Remember the OP said " I backed into a family members car" . I think fault has been decided.

Reads like one vehicle was stationary. Or, playing the part of the pillar, if you prefer?

Ah for god's sake. Is he going to cause ww3 and tell the family member claim it on their own insurance? Ffs.

.

Never involve insurance if it can be avoided, they will get you either in loss of no claims or rise in premiums. Garages will charge triple to the insurance company, that's how it is. It does depend on the age of the car and paint finish as well of course, a 2020 5 series or E Class in pearlescent paint is going to cost a lot more than an 08 Focus and will require a more serious level of repair as well.

First off find a local panel beater and get a quote. Then find another to be sure they aren't fleecing you. The game is full of sharks sadly.

"The game is full of sharks"

The lord jaysis...

The damaged party (the car owner) decide who repairs the car. Nobody else.

I presume that his dog was responsible for the accident? And your insurance paid up, and said that they would go after him for their costs, but then did nothing? Could well be ( and most likely was ) a case of throwing good money after bad as far as they were concerned. Maybe he had no insurance ( if he had, 100% they would claim of them) and no prospects of a successful claim, even if they took him to court.

If you have NCB protection then it probably makes more sense to let the insurance company deal with it, although, like you , i would be inclined to payout up to 1K.

However , this time last year, my car was struck by another in a supermarket car park. A scrape and slight dent. He decided to put it trough his insurance company and they nominated a 'preferred repairer'. The quote was over €1200 . When it came to actual do the repair, they gave me a replacement car for three days. But they had difficulty getting parts and I hade the replacement car for 10 days. I am not sure what that costs but i suspect up to another €1000.

This has to be a late entry for thread of the year.

Family member lads...

Say Christmas dinner is fun in ye're houses

It was me that said it. Don't get bogged down in pedantry - The same advice applies to their family member, obviously. Unless they want to be a geebag and saddle a loved one with unnecessary expense.

Try and keep up.

You can label it pedantry if you wish but the basic fact still remains - the liable party doesn't get to decide. If they are not happy with the cost presented then let the insurance company handle it.

Two different scenarios:

(1) The man who is at fault, has full comprehensive insurance, full no claims bonus protection etc. and duly reports it to his insurance and then goes with the owner to his dealership, who prepares an estimate, which is forwarded to the insurance. In due course, the insurance assessor arrives, inspects the car and agrees a repair figure,,,,,everything, car hire, depreciation etc. The person who caused the damage has nothing further to do at this stage, its all now between the owner, the Garage and the Insurance. So he shakes hands with his cousin / relative, apologies for the disruption, and go for a pint / coffee etc. End of story.

(2) Man at fault, only has basic 3rd party fire & theft.....no bonus protection etc. To makes matters worse, he has only 3/4 years no claims, and from his initial first insurance , which was very high ( as they tend to be ) to begin with, he now faces stepping back to Zero again, with all that entails price-wise. So he asks his cousin if he will be OK with trying to get 3 quotations, and accepting the lowest? Or does the owner want to get his own quotation from his garage, and he will pay, as he does not want to get his insurance involved unless he really has to, for the fore mentioned claim reasons. So, owner being a relative says, go ahead, get the best quotation you can, and I will accept that.

Or owner says, no dice, my car is too new, and I want it repaired by the dealership, as I will be trading it in to them, and I don't any problems when that happens. And the Garage quotation is pretty high, and the "hitter! has to put it through his insurance, and face the consequences. And as collateral damage, the family relationship might never be the same again.

It's always the owners right to accept or refuse a suggestion from whoever causes the damage. Only difference is what caused the damage, owner or 3rd party, if the owner is paying himself, he / she tend to go for the cheapest quote, and when the insurance is paying, the sky's the limit. But this can be explained too,,,,usually cheaper quotes will come from small independent Bodyshop's, with smaller over head's while main dealerships will be much higher, assuming they actually have a body shop on the premise's, or else they will sub-contract to an independent shop, and charge fees for their service.