<p>I got insurance a day ago and a day later already had my first accident. I left a note and haven’t heard a response. I want to pay him directly and not involve insurance. </p>
<p>I hit the rear of the car and a part of the car is hanging out a little. How much estimated will this cost to repair? Please help and advice! I am only 17 and just a minor! I probably won’t drive to school again. I’ve learned my lesson.</p>
<p>**Sorry, this is an unrelated topic, but I am very stressed and scared.</p>
<p>Well, maybe the owner doesn’t want to mess with it. Or you may hear from him soon.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t let this keep you from driving to school. Only with practice do we become better drivers. Maybe take your parent along for a couple of more months to help you become more proficient?</p>
<p>Don’t let this become too big in your mind. Most adult drivers have had at least one fender bender or other “incident”.</p>
<p>Take a deep breath! It’ll be ok. Leaving a note was a very good decision which will impress your parents I’m sure.</p>
<p>Tell your parents (if you haven’t). It’s possible that the other care won’t pursue it. If they do you can certainly ask them to get an estimate and tell them you’re hoping to pay without involving insurance. Probably better for your parents to handle this part if it’s their car you were using.</p>
<p>D1 had a very similar thing happen when she first started driving. The owner contacted her, got estimates, and the repair was not too terribly expensive. She wrote a lovely note to my D afterward telling her to keep driving, the only way to get better was to keep at it and she knew she would never make the same mistake again. You’ve done the right things so far. I hope the owner is as kind as ours!</p>
<p>OP, one of my friends was a new driver when he overcorrected on a curve and ended up in someone’s swimming pool. :eek:</p>
<p>One of my best friends ran her car into a fence the day she got her driver’s license. I backed my Dad’s car into a telephone pole when I was 16. I thought it had no damage so I didn’t mention it. Later, my Dad said "did you back my car into a telephone pole?’’ I said, “Uh, why do you ask?” He responded, “Well, either you backed into a telephone pole or a covered wagon backed into you, because there is a piece of wood sticking out of the tail light.”</p>
<p>It looks like the back bumper is damaged. I had such a bad luck with one car that I had my back bumper replaced 3 times in 6 months, each time was around $600. The dealership had one waiting for me after a while. It was a while back, not sure why $600 stuck in my mind. I paid out of pocket instead of putting in claims.</p>
<p>I’ve seen similar damage to one of the vehicles in my family. We found a place that I think fixed it for no more than $500. The car in your picture looked fairly new, and I’d imagine that they’d want it fixed, or at least I would. If its been awhile since the accident, maybe you lucked out and won’t contact you. From the pictures, it doesn’t look too costly. Take a deep breath and know millions of other teenagers have done the same thing.</p>
<p>Our s didn’t fully pull his emergency brake in his 5 speed and his car rolled into another. It damaged the bumper on a 10 Yr old Saab. We got the estimate today and it was $850. Yes, it’s annoying. But not the end of the world.</p>
<p>Most people are surprised to discover how expensive body damage repair is. It’s almost always more than most people think it’ll be. </p>
<p>No one here can give you an accurate estimate of the repairs from your pictures. You never know what might be damaged that can’t be seen - i.e. things that are behind the panel.</p>
<p>As to how ‘expensive’ it’ll be, that’s a subjective term. What isn’t expensive (ex: $600) to some people might be considered quite expensive to other people and this is influenced by one’s expectations of repair costs based on experience and knowledge, neither of which you have, as well as one’s financial resources.</p>
<p>You’ll have to find out how much this will really cost, have it all documented since you don’t want to offer to pay $200 only to get a supplementary bill for another $400 because of things they might not have known. Don’t just trust whoever owns the car no matter how nice they seem - make sure you get everything in writing.</p>
<p>If you go through an insurance company they take care of this kind of stuff for you and taking care of accidents is what you’re paying insurance for but you’re wise to realize that your insurance rates may go up due to this and that might end up costing more than just paying directly to get it fixed. On the other hand, it might cost less.</p>
<p>You did the right and honorable thing to leave a note. And don’t be too upset, this is relatively minor damage (but could be relatively costly, or not), no one was hurt, and most people will experience fender benders multiple times in their driving career - some their fault and some someone else’s fault. And on top of that this is more likely to occur with a young inexperienced driver - i.e. you’re not the only 17 y/o to have a fender bender or two. This is part of the cost of driving in addition to the usual gas, maintenance, insurance.</p>
<p>Let me guess… A partially torn off bumper plus some body damage… Bumpers never get repaired if the repair is done professionally. The cost of replacing a bumper on a Toyota Corolla is about $800-$1200. How do I know that? Parent of former teen drivers… Stuff happens, and that’s why we have insurance! You did the right thing by leaving the note.</p>
<p>My advice - DO NOT GO THROUGH YOUR INSURANCE!! My son lost his car insurance with State Farm after we filed two minor claims. We were naively under the impression that while the insurance might go up, that’s what it is there for. No! State Farm dropped his coverage after having two “at fault” incidents - even though the dollar amount of each one was not that much. Both were minor parking lot incidents. I even offered to REPAY State Farm for the total - and they still dropped his coverage.</p>
<p>We have new insurance now and if any family member ever has a small incident we will work it out with the other driver in cash and not file a claim unless it is thousands of dollars. Lesson learned.</p>
<p>Understand that if I was the owner of the car you hit the first thing I’d do is contact my own insurance company and give them whatever info I have, including the info on the note. I’d then let them handle it. I certainly wouldn’t do this off the record and simply trust and hope the 17 y/o will readily pay up because a lot (maybe even a majority) of people who promise to pay it up front end up not doing so for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that owner’s insurance company will need to contact yours if you’re ready and willing to pay but that would be up to the procedures that company uses.</p>
<p>Just recently had a similar experience. Backed into the back fender of a car in a parking lot. Very tight area so would have had to jockey back and forth but I didn’t :(. I paid out of my pocket for the repair so not to alert my insurance. The body shop wanted 1200. Seems a dented bumper means you have to also replace the quarter panel. </p>
<p>Insist the person get more than one bid if they take it somewhere and you could also show those photos to a body shop you would prefer to deal with to get an idea. (ask your car mechanic who to go to)</p>
<p>Also, arrange to pay the body shop, not the person for the damage. Have them sign a note that you are no longer responsible for the repair upon payment and that satisfaction of the repair is to be handled with the body shop, not you. After you get the note signed, go pay the body shop and have them sign they have received the payment in full.</p>
<p>This is how I did it. The process was very quick actually. I guess they were nice and it was a fair deal. </p>
<p>If they had gone through insurance they still would have to get more than one bid and probably pay the bill first themselves and get reimbursed from their insurance.</p>
<p>It looks like a Toyota Camry. If you had to replace the bumper, it would be about $400, to buff it up and repaint it should be under $200. Of course, it depends on where you live and what the shop charges. Usually, if they repaint the bumper, (or any other panel), they have to take it off and repaint the whole thing.</p>
<p>If that was damage to your own car, you could buy a little vial of matching paint and do the touch up work yourself since the bumper is plastic and you don’t have to worry about rust. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t be too pushy with the other driver, they will be doing you a favor if they agree to get it fixed without involving your insurance.</p>
<p>If you haven’t heard from the other party yet after a couple of days, odds are you probably never will. He could have been operating his car without a valid driver’s license or one under suspension and not had any auto insurance and he/she won’t want to have police involved in any manner. Or, you may not have caused enough damage to other car to even concern them. Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with shrinkrap. If I’m the one who caused the accident, I’m in no position to insist they take it to more than one body shop to get estimates. That’s wasting their time and money when they shouldn’t have to be going through this is the first place.</p>
<p>OP, I had an accident and hit a similar looking Lexus when the brake cable on my 1996 van with 199k miles broke. It didn’t look like anything (less than yours) but the whole suspension/shock absorber system behind the bumper had to be replaced. Almost $2000 but I paid him off.</p>
<p>It’s very, very honorable that you left a note and I hope my daughter would do the same, but my guess is that it will be big bucks. Have you told your parents? S**t happens! On her first practice drive at night (required by NYS law for a teen driver-to-be), my daughter backed into a pole in the post office parking lot. I have a great mechanic and recommend him all the time so they fixed it at cost–pulled out the dent and replaced the little plastic piece over the running lights for $100. But I don’t care much about cosmetics. My daughter was freaked out but I told her these things happen, and that we were much the better than if another car was involved or someone was hurt or the air bags inflated. (She was going almost zero mph but thought she had run up on the curve and kept going.)</p>