<p>Keep in mind, if you pay it yourself, you will probably be expected to pay for a rental vehicle while the damaged car is in the shop.</p>
<p>You did the right thing. Try not to feel too bad about it; these things happen.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel better… as I was backing out of my driveway, I scraped up against my husband’s car. I was so worried about how mad he’d be, I pulled forward again real fast and hit the edge of the garage, denting the front of my car and knocking bricks off the house. In a span of 3 seconds I’d dented his car, my car in two places, and our house. And I’d been driving for 20+ years. The insurance guy said he’d never seen anything so “blonde.”</p>
<p>OP, try not to worry. Everything will be ok. I would keep the insurance company out of it if possible. Chances are, it won’t even meet the deductible anyway. </p>
<p>Actually, if I were the owner, and you left me a teary note telling me how sorry you were and you were a college student, I’d probably go get an estimate, and if it wound up being less than $600, I’d probably just pay it myself, and call you and tell you to keep studying and have a great day. :)</p>
<p>Good for you leaving a note.</p>
<p>It was nice and honest of you to leave a real note! Tell your parents. Do not be afraid to drive again! Practice will only make you a better driver.</p>
<p>I had a note left on my car once except it was a fake - adding insult to injury! The note contained a fake phone number and the following:
Yeah I hit your car. I do not want my date to think I am a jerk so I am leaving a note. Good luck finding me.</p>
<p>Well the first bid the person got was $1600 and the second was $1200. Perhaps insist is too strong a word but I was glad to save $400.</p>
<p>I guess I would hope that like me, you don’t want to report anything minor to your insurance. Even if it is not your fault, it all goes in your file and comes back to you later as a higher premium.</p>
<p>If the OP had hit me, that is what I would do. </p>
<p>Sorry FenwayMama, that guy was such a jerk.</p>
<p>I would guess about $1,500, mostly because it can be very expensive to get the paint to match: you often have to tint it down, then blend it with the nearby parts of the car so that it looks normal. </p>
<p>Very sorry to hear about this - cars are so expensive, and it’s so stressful to be hit with a bill for a thousand dollars (or so).</p>
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I got one of those once too - irritating!</p>
<p>“I would guess about $1,500, mostly because it can be very expensive to get the paint to match: you often have to tint it down, then blend it with the nearby parts of the car so that it looks normal.”</p>
<p>Paint is really cheap and can be easily matched to the manufacturer’s color by their code. Replacement bumpers come unpainted, they are not expensive either. It is the labor (and shop space taken by the car) that add up to the unbelievable number on the repair bill. Even a slightly torn off or bent bumper most of the time cannot be re-attached without compromising its integrity and safety, and reputable shops will not do this - huge liability. Insurance companies will not for sub-standard repair work either.</p>
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<p>It’s not funny, and yet…:D</p>
<p>An open heart surgeon I knew said he got a page about an emergency, so he hopped in his car to go to the hospital. He started the engine, put it in reverse and took off! Only…he hadn’t put the garage door up yet. Took the whole thing off. :o</p>
<p>oldmom - haha thanks for the shout out (my vent on “getting off your chest” thread). I thought the same thing when I read that OP left a note: what a good girl! Unfortunately, in my son’s case, it was cruel and deliberate vandalism to his car (and quite bad, as well), not merely an accident. Hard to have faith in people’s goodness when something like that happens. But it did lighten my spirit to see OP’s initial post. Her parents raised her well!</p>
<p>OP - I agree with the others; you’ll be fine. It will be a blip on the screen a year from now. And likely will make you an even more cautious driver! I also agree with those who suggest enlisting your parents’ help to discuss NOT going through insurance with the car owner if you ever hear from him/her. In addition to the deductible you will pay, your insurance rates will go up dramatically since you are such a young & inexperienced driver. And you will have one strike against you as well, so little room for further error.</p>
<p>What I have found on our insurance (unrelated to son’s incident above, which he did have to pay a sizeable deductible on even though he was of course totally not at fault since he wasn’t even there when it happened, which grrr makes one pretty frustrated about insurance in general) is that if the damage to the other party’s car is over $500, you’ll get a surcharge. And amazingly the damage estimate by the insurer always seems to come out anywhere between $502 and $522. Not kidding, that happened to us twice (for what seemed liked very simple bumper fixes, like OP’s accident). And the surcharge lasts for several years.</p>
<p>So YES, do everything in your power to just pay directly to the car’s owner. Hopefully the person will be nice and grateful you left a note, and will work with you to make that happen. (I would given the circumstances). And once again, good job being honest!</p>
<p>OP, sorry to hear this.</p>
<p>My friends dad hit my car last year and while the dent looked small it cost 1500. We didn’t go through insurance. They had to replace the whole door panel.</p>
<p>That being said, I had a dent in my bumper and the bumper got ripped off two years ago when a flying tire hit me on the highway (truck in front of me popped it and it flew out right at me). Cost me 2.50 to fix it myself.</p>
<p>Bunsen: matching the paint is expensive - trust me, I got itemized repair bills from four auto body shops when I rear-ended a car and paid repairs out of pocket. The hood was $200ish, and putting it on, painting it, and blending the paint was another $650ish. Hoods are really, really easy to replace, so most of it was making the paint look right, not like a beater car.</p>
<p>I had a far more trivial scratch in the 2010 Civic and asked 4 body shops, all coming back with a $500-600 estimate regardless of insurance. Basically they have to get the bumper off and paint it, they will not do it in place. In my opinion this is asinine because they are not repainting the whole bumper, and $10 worth of masking tape and plastic is cheaper than $400 labor to remove and reinstall the bumper. I chose to live with it, it is in the air dam under the bumper.</p>
<p>Where I live, and based on the photos, I’d be surprised if it received any estimates less than $1000, and more likely $1,500. There are places that can do work for less, but they are hard to find. I hope I’m wrong about what I’m seeing, but it looks like there is sheet metal damage on the rear quarter panel, as well as damage to the plastic bumper. </p>
<p>In the meantime, reflect on how this happened. If it was worse than it should have been because the sounds of contact were masked by a loud radio, consider a change in your driving/audio protocol. If it was just bad spatial judgement, just slow down and be more cautious. </p>
<p>PS: its not anywhere near as serious as my first two accidents. Everything will work out ok.</p>
<p>"…putting it on, painting it, and blending the paint was another $650ish."</p>
<p>The key words are "putting on"and “painting” - that’s the cost of <em>labor</em>, not paint itself. Paint, as I said, is dirt cheap. There is no special blending or matching needed even for older cars - the paint is mixed according to the instructions per manufacturer’s code (all you need is to check the sticker on the inside of the driver’s side door for that number), just like the guys at the HD can mix you any of the RL, Disney or their own brand paints.</p>
<p>The easiest way to fix things like this is to find the exact same car at a junk yard and buy their bumper. Paint will already match. :)</p>
<p>I’m not sure that just using the manufacturer’s paint code would work on older cars because the paint on a car fades somewhat over time.</p>