Car Bumper Repair

Everything does not go smoothly when you’re driving on the roads. You might be a really good driver but that doesn’t mean you will never be involved in an accident. Contrary to this, you may find yourself in a situation where damage has been done to your vehicle but you were not at fault like what happened to me when my car front bumper got dented and scuffed because of the stupidity of another driver.

Without going in too much detail about the accident itself, I found that my car had a huge dent on the left side of the front bumper and it was scraped badly around that area as well. It was a plastic bumper and I managed to knock the dent out so that it was not so noticeable. However the plastic had broken a bit round the edge possibly because of the impact.

I had bought a DIY Repair Kit for my car some time ago because the front bumper got scratched while I was reversing. It consisted of a base paint, a spray which was the same colour as my bumper, light sandpaper and some fine paintbrushes. I didn’t want the hassle of having to fix the bumper because none of this was my fault, so I decided to get it repaired through my insurance company. However, I was informed that I had to pay my excess first and then any amount above that will be paid by them. They also said that all the money will be retrieved from the 3rd party once they accepted liability for the claim and that I will have to go to one of their approved garages; otherwise I wouldn’t get my money back.

I called a few garages to see how much they would charge me to repair the bumper and I was surprised with the quotes. The lowest I could get was around £250 for a replacement plastic bumper. And I thought that plastic was cheap! The garages said the bumper could not be repaired and it needs to be replaced.

Unfortunately I couldn’t go with any other garage than Dagenham Motors as it was the closest approved garage to where I lived by Churchill (my insurer at that time). Coincidently, they charged me £499 for this replacement bumper when my excess was £500 (I was a new driver and having a high excess was the only way to bring down the car insurance quote!). So I had to pay everything myself while Churchill sat down without any worry as they didn’t lose any money.

It took the garage nearly a week to get the bumper sorted. They said that it comes in grey colour and that they need to respray it to match the original colour of my bumper. I drove a courtesy car for a week and when my car was returned to me, it had a new bumper which cost me a fortune. The new plastic bumper was around £230 and labour costs were around £269. It’s unbelievable how much you pay for basic things like a bumper made of plastic which can be obtained in standard sizes and need only a touch of paint and a few screws to hold securely to your car.