Some of life’s lessons are more expensive than others. Take the poor guy who backed into my car on Saturday. One minute he and the kids are piling into the van and the next minute he’s out $1968 for repairs to my car. Not including a 4 or 5-day rental while mine is in the shop.
The damage itself appears insignificant, until you start to closely examine the car. Metal is bent, and the underlying brackets and supports are damaged. Worst of all the paint is damaged and has to be redone. The body shop can feather the new paint into the old, but they can’t feather the clear coat. Where ever they stop it will leave a line; so the entire piece has to be cleared. In the case of my car the piece extends up the C-pillar and across both doors and down the A-pillar. A lot of gaskets to be taken off and replaced, and a lot of masking to perform. Two-thirds of the cost is labor, mostly centered around the repainting and refinishing work.
$1968 because he didn’t look.
