Got hit on the driver side fender and door area; other driver ran off but, long story short, I was able to read the plate and file a claim to his insurance.

The fender and door are dented and scratched. Before I was able to file, I got some estimates from body shops that varied from repairing it directly to replacing the fender.

Now that my claim is approved, I will take it to a partner shop (via Geico ARX) for the streamlined process and to get access to a rental car.

I'm not sure if I'll have much sway over the repairs but a few questions came to mind:

• would replacing the fender be better than repairing it for future resale value?
  • the door has scratches with no major dents so they'll probably just repair it
• I have a small crack on the headlight that may or may not have been the result of the collision; never noticed it before but not sure how much proof of causality they need to be able to include it. Any experiences with requesting to include such things that are not blatantly obviously caused by a collision?

 

Ex-wife once has an accident years ago, but they also repaired pre-existing damage that was in the same general vicinity. They should fix everything without you saying anything, unless there's a preponderance of evidence that said damage couldn't have been caused by the accident in question.