Car park hit and run - (insurance or local panel beater)

[AshOz85]

Hey all,

Well it has finally happened, the faith I have in the general public has officially disappeared. Not sure when this happened, (i reverse park into almost every car spot) but I think it was either this past wednesday or saturday. Some low life has done a hit and run on my car and left her cosmetically under the weather.

Pics below:





As you can see the damage only appears to be paint. My options are:
1) pay my excess and get the car fixed through AAMI. However i only recently changed to them about a week ago and I think it will look bad. Also my excess will be approx $720

2) Find a local panel beater and get a quote from them.

At the moment Im looking at option 2 because from what i can see it appears most of the paint transfer can be buffed out and there is only minor paint scraping on my bumper.

Does anyone around here with knowledge in this area able to give me a rough estimate at what i could expect the repairs to be for option 2? Some ppl at work who have had it happent to them say around the $400 mark is what I would expect.

Thanks guys/gals. Im trying to keep from losing it here, its the first bit of real damage to the car.

[sleeper]

yeah, by the look of it in the pics basically all u will need is a guard respray, probably around $300/400. ( full guard)
much cheaper than AAMI.

[dubdocker]

That's nasty, need to find a pillar spot next time

Take it to a panel beater and see what they say about it

[Sushi]

I had a similar thing happen a couple of months ago. Every panel up my right side was either scratched or dented, rear mag had chucks out of it n the side mirror was ripped off. Toyota driver kept driving. I toke it to the repair place n was quoted 3k to fix so paided my excess of $400.
Best to get a quote to fix the paint work n see which one is cheaper.

[AshOz85]

I had a similar thing happen a couple of months ago. Every panel up my right side was either scratched or dented, rear mag had chucks out of it n the side mirror was ripped off. Toyota driver kept driving. I toke it to the repair place n was quoted 3k to fix so paided my excess of $400. Best to get a quote to fix the paint work n see which one is cheaper.

Ouch Rach that sounds horrible mate, i hope the repairs were done to your liking. They must have hit u pretty decent for all that damage.

Thanks for all the input peeps, I will definitely check out a few panel beaters for quotes, I have Friday off so I can go around to a few of them.

Also could there be any possible continued damage from weather (rain and stuff) on the uncovered section of the bumper if I dont get it fixed straight away? Id imagine not, but for im also considering just getting the paint transfer buffed out and leaving the scratch there as its really only quite small.

Thoughts?

[squala]

The bumper is plastic so the structural rigidity won't be affected by weather. You can buff the traded paint out then possibly have Autobarn mix a rattle can of your colour code for $30 or so. Sand the area a bit to regain some smoothness and spray. Do multiple light, quick sprays.

The finished product won't be perfect but you could save hundreds in the meantime.