celestial

Bad luck I guess-
just passed 600 on the odometer today and decided to get out on the highway and rev her up- was behind a honda accord and didn't see a hubcap come off until too late- rolled into the front bumper at 70mph- lucky it stayed under the bumper I guess- put some gouges and scratches in the lower half of the bumper on the passenger side- probably would need to be replaced.
Not sure whether I should leave it or repair it- I'm leasing and I was told that Acura had a $1500 end of lease allowance for body work- my last car had no dings after 3 years. Guess I'll have to admire the car from the other side-
Wonder if my insurance premium would go up if I reported it and got it repaired-
anyone have an idea about the front bumper cost- Anyone get touch paint for the RL yet?
bummer,
Celestial

vp911

First, sorry to hear about this. It is dissapointing to see damages to any cars. Yes, acura does have a $1500 end of lease allowance for damages. Is the damage visible? How bad is it really? Pictures are always helpful to the pros around here (not myself). Your insurance will probably go up if you report it and ahve them repair it. On the other hand, it may be cheaper to simply go to a few body shops and see how much they will charge for teh repair work.

Mike_McCready

Karl_in_Chicago

As someone who has had to have too many body repairs in too short of time of ownership, I sympathize with you. The key questions that need to be answered are which and how many body panels were damaged - that will determine the repair cost. It costs you nothing to go to a body shop and get an estimate - go to a trusted body shop, ask your Acura dealer for shops they recommend. Unless you have a really bad driving record with a lot of claims your insurance company isn't going to jack you over filing a claim - that's what you pay them for. I had one side of the car scratched by a valet within one month of buying the car and the other sideswiped while parked one week later. Was about $4,100 - over 2 claims - but was professionally repaired by the body shop my Acura dealer suggested. I was out the $250 deductible for one of the claims but got reimbursed the other $250 from the valet company. This was all with State Farm, who has always been great in my experience. Any insurance company that would frack with you and mess with your rates just for filing a claim is not an insurance company you want to be with - they've already factored in the various risks in determining your rates, to penalize you for actually using their service is not right.

vp911

Karl is correct. I was thinking collision, not comprehensive. If there are three or more comprehensive claims many insurance companies will raise your rates.

Even still, if they did, they won't increase them significantly, maybe a few bucks every 6 months/year (depending on how your policy is)

Karl - Sorry to hear about the damages to your car. Must have been very dissapointing.

bkw