Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Around 5:00pm yesterday I was driving in Palisades Park NJ and I had the green light at the intersection of Brinkerhoff and Broad Ave. As I am in the intersection ,all of a sudden I see a car coming at me from Broad Ave(which is my drivers side) so I try to stop and honk my horn but I couldn't stop in time and I end up hitting a small Kia on the passenger side. It was almost avoided because it was a light hit but now my front bumper has some scuffs on it.What hurts most about this is I just bought out my lease on this car 2 weeks ago and it had never been hit until that point. I had the cops come because I wanted the woman to admit to the officer that she ran the light and it was her fault. I have her information and everything and I don't want to go through her insurance if I can just have her pay out of pocket which she offered to do but I need to know if the bumpers can be touched up and buffed in or do I need to get a new bumper? I'm not sure if being the bumper is plastic if it can be painted again or does it have to be replaced? I'm sure it would be costly.(probably over a $1000) Any advice on how I should handle this and if the bumper has to be replaced, any ideas on what it should it cost for an 04 G35x. Oh and the woman who ran the light was talking on the cell phone not using hands free. She was very apologetic and told me she was in a rush trying do last minute stuff for the holidays. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

If I were you, I would tell her to pay you within a week or else your going to report it to her insurance. Don't let it drag out man...

 

^+1
Just ask for her to pay for a replacement bumper or get a quote to have it repaired. Depending on how bad the damage is (grooves into the plastic is bad) if it's just surface/paint damage, it can be repaired. Probably for around $500. It depends on whether the shop wants to remove the bumper to spray it or not. Chances are they are going to have to sand down and prep a larger section to spray that one spot because it needs to be blended in so it won't be noticeable.

Good luck.

 

our oem bumpers do not cost that much. if you go through insurance, they will tell you that since the car is no longer new, they will only pay for a refurbished bumper. although if there is none in stock, they will pay for a new one. if it was only bumper damage, it will not come close to 1000. your best bet is to get an estimate. the body shop i go to is Eurotech Autobody in Englewood, NJ. Small shop that does good work.

 

I think you should ask yourself this question. If you were the one that hit her, do you think she would take the chance of you paying her cash and not reporting it to her insurance company. I would go through insurance just to be safe. Only draw back to that is that your title might have the damaged noted in the history of the car

Maybe you can haggle the chick and tell her to pay more $500 over the estimate for your troubles because she would lose more than that in premiums if you were to report the incident. She should be compensating you for your trouble, not just the damage. My $0.02!

 

I was rear ended recently. In fact my G is still in the shop. Used rear bumper costs $600 per insurance adjuster.

 

show us some pictures! If the bumper is surface damage, defintely repairable. $500 is sufficient to respray it and blend it...however, you should get an estimate from the infiniti dealership for a brand new bumper and have her pay you that amount. Then you can decide what route you are going to do with the $ she pays you (which will be like 800 bucks). You can definitely make the best of this situation, and I am not saying to fraud anyone, its just you should be compensated for a brand new bumper. And if you decide to respary it instead, you get a few hundred left over for your troubles and your down time while car is in the shop. What kind of car was she driving? A lot of times you can kind of tell by their car if the person is willing to cough up money rather than go through insurance. Definitely do this quick and not let it drag. The longer it takes, the less willing she will be willing to pay up.

 

i think you should get it done for the exact amount needed. You wouldn't want someone to try to get more money out of you if this was the other way around. good luck and like the others have said don't let it drag

 

Had some minor damage to my bumper a couple weeks ago and the body shop (that my Infiniti dealer suggested to me) gave me two options. Either a complete reconditioning of the bumper, or a new replacement. For the replacement bumper, they charge retail, but i'm sure you could get it cheaper somewhere else. I believe the Infiniti parts website has it for 75-80 less.

Reconditioning:
Reconditioning bumper: $216
Body Labor: $90
Paint Labor: $140
Paint Supplies: $90
Total: $545 (Including tax + extra BS costs)

Full Replacement:
Bumper: $300
Body Labor: $95
Paint Labor: $150
Paint Supplies: $100
Total: $675 (Including tax + extra BS costs)

By the way for each option, the body shop said they'd have to keep my car for 4 days.

Hope that helps.

 

I had a bumper refinished on one of my cars a few years ago (a woman hit me from behind when I was sitting at a red light ) and after a year or so the clear coat started to lift at the edges. It's harder to get paint to stick to a used bumper that already has paint on it versus a new one. I did the same thing you are about to do, I let the woman pay me cash to repair the bumper instead of going through her insurance.

I would definitely suggest getting a new infiniti bumper (sometimes the aftermarket ones don't fit exactly). A good shop should be able to match up your paint and just paint the bumper without painting the surrounding panels. This should easily be under $1,000. You should get an estimate for this and then leave it up to the woman who hit you whether to go through her insurance or not (and obviously get the check and make sure it clears before you start the repair).

 

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to thank you all for the advice and info. I'm meeting up with the woman tomorrow and we're going to the body shop to get an assessment and estimate of the work to be done. We're going to the body shop that Park Ave Infiniti uses. Thanks again and have a great holiday weekend