Someone hit my car, now what?

You can do everything you can to take care of your car, maintain it well, enjoy it, but it only takes one careless idiot to damage it. My S4 was parked in a Tesco car park – in a disabled space no less, I was only in the shop for a couple minutes picking up some lunch. I came back out and as I was walking round the back of the car to get to the driver’s seat, I noticed a black mark on the rear bumper. I thought it might have been some bird… droppings… but after a quick inspection I realised it wasn’t. That was the bare plastic, the paint had been scrapped off. No note left, nothing.

Of course, this isn’t the end of the world. The car still works perfectly fine, and the damage is only the paint – there’s no gouges out of the plastic at all, but it’s incredibly frustrating to care a lot about your car only to have someone carelessly damage it – and knowing it’ll be your expense to fix it. Which brings us nicely onto what to do about it.

It obviously depends on the extent of the damage. If someone has hit the car fast enough to cause significant damage like smashed doors, crash structure and bumpers, then your insurance is the best port of call. Assuming the other driver is insured, you shouldn’t have to pay out anything so long as you get their insurance policy number. If that has happened but the other vehicle has fled, then you might want to call the police to report a hit and run and criminal damage, then contact your insurer. You’ll likely be asked to pay your excess, but if the police can find the other vehicle you might be able to get their insurance to cover it and get a refund.

For me, my excess is well over £800 so any fix that costs less than that I may as well do myself. My first thought was painting it myself. I’ve done it before, a few times actually, but it comes with mixed results. For a flat non-metallic paint like this Ibis White it’s generally easier to colour match and fade in plus since the damage is paint only, you can lightly sand back the area around it, put down some primer, sand that back, put down some colour coat and sand that, then use 2K clear coat (with a proper respirator) and coat it well. It’s not going to be perfect, but with enough time and energy – and your ability to keep the area free of dirt and bugs you can get a reasonable quality finish.

The downside is that you’ll need to spend a good £50-100 in materials, and you’ll likely take a full weekend to get it right. An orbital sander does make it easier, but if you don’t already have one it’s another hundred, plus what is your time worth? If that doesn’t sound up your alley, then getting it resprayed professionally might be for you. This is likely more expensive, but saves you the hassle and time, and might end up being a better result.

There are two options you can choose from these days, a full respray – what I had – or a “smart repair”. The latter is normally cheaper, however won’t necessarily solve other imperfections with your paint, and can be more tough to colour match and fade well. For the right paint type, and damage, I might actually prefer that option. However, for my car, my rear bumper already wasn’t perfect. It had some scratches from pulling the wheelchair in and out, and the usual rock chips and that sort of thing so I opted for a full respray. I got a quote of £250 from a local shop, and took them up on it. They had the car for just a single day and night, and it came out looking like new.

Upon closer inspection, it isn’t perfect. There are still a few little marks and divots, but the main damage is completely gone. It also doesn’t look like it’s been painted, so the imperfections look fitting to the car’s overall state and age.

There is one more option you’ve got – a replacement part. Now I’m not talking about getting a brand new bumper from someone like Audi – you certainly can but it’s going to be painfully expensive to get it painted. No, my suggestion would be to look on ebay or facebook marketplace. You can search for the name of your car, the paint colour, and “bumper” and you should find some options, but another option is searching the name of your car, the paint colour and “breaking”. That’s people who are looking to sell individual parts of the car without actively listing every part. You message them asking for the parts you want, they’ll give you a price and then you can haggle it, check pictures and all that. You’ll need to spend some time finding one that can either be delivered or it’s close enough to collect, and make sure the condition is better than what you’ve already got. It’s probably less effort than repainting it and if you have gouges or structural damage this will be a lot easier than trying to repair it.

To round up, having someone else damage your stuff sucks, and you might end up out of pocket which makes it even worse. Personally, I took the opportunity to improve the overall quality of my car and while it sucks to have £250 missing from my account, it helps to increase the value of it a little (not that I’m selling it) and I’m pleased with the result. I hope this video is helpful if you are in the same situation I was, and feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below.