When driving around a city, there is always the risk of damaging the bumper on your car because people are constantly rushing left and right. Not looking at both sides, driving too fast on slow areas such as school zones or parking lots. In these kinds of situations, it does not really matter how good of a driver you are because you simply cannot control the actions of the person at fault. They made an awful decision and that is why the bumped into your vehicle.
Depending on the angle and the speed of the collision, the damage to your vehicle may vary by a lot. It could be a simple dent or a scratch on your bumper or it might be cracked and totally unrepairable. When you find yourself in this kind of situation, it is normal to feel angry and frustrated, especially when you start thinking about the cost of the repairs you will have to do.
However, if the damage is minimal, there really is no reason why you should feel angry. Frustration won’t fix anything. If you have previous knowledge about how much car bumper repairs cost, you may analyze the future expenses on your vehicle right at the scene of the collision. With this article, you will surely learn everything there about bumper repairs.
What is it?
Before we get into the detail about repair time and costs, we should first give you an explanation of the meaning of a bumper on a vehicle. This piece of your vehicle is usually placed both on the back and the front of a vehicle for protection. It is usually made out of plastic or rubbers on cheaper cars and it is made out of aluminum or steel on more expensive ones.
This piece of plastic or aluminum is placed there to protect you and every other valuable part of the automobile. It is designed to crumple on impact to absorb most of the force of the collision. If there wasn’t any kind of protection on the front, the engine would be destroyed which would probably cost you tens of thousands of dollars. This way, you will only have to repair the exterior of your automobile.
Bumper dent
One of the most common types of damage that happens to a vehicle’s bumper is a dent and they just happen so easily. One moment you are backing out of a parking lot after you have been grocery shopping and the next someone has already hit you. All of this happens in a tight space and in just a couple of seconds, there really is no way to avoid this kind of situation. You get out and notice a big dent on your car.
For this kind of repair, you will probably have to spend between 150 and 250 USD. If there are no marks on the paint and the material is just dented, an expert will easily return your bumper to its original state.
Fortunately, this kind of problem can be easily solved even without professional help. Assuming that you have the right tools for the job, you can pull the dent out. You can do this by heating up the location of the impact with a hairdryer and then pull it out with a plunger. Sometimes, the plunger won’t have enough grip to pull it out which means you will have to push it from the inside. If you can’t seem to do it, make sure the material is warm enough. If you do not want to risk it and cause more damage to your vehicle, check out tachoirauto.com.
Paint scratches
While dents are more common, paint scratches are much more frustrating because most of the time people do not have the right tools to fix this kind of problem. The worst part about this kind of damage is the fact that they usually happen while you are not even in your car. You leave it at the parking lot to go shopping, only to be met with a scratch that goes along the entire bumper.
Of course, the person that caused the damage is long gone. This means you are left paying for the repair by yourself because you do not have any kind of evidence to prove to your insurance company that it wasn’t your fault.
If you decide to take your car to a professional repair service, the paint job will probably cost you somewhere around $300, but it will depend on the width and length of the scratch. For plastic bumpers, they will usually offer to completely replace it.
Cracks
The worst type of damage that your car bumper can endure is cracks. Not only are these much more expensive to fix and look awful, but they also pose a danger to your automobile and other drivers on the road. The force from the air resistance may cause the cracks to split and spread through the entire bumper which might cause it to fall off while driving.
We would advise you to avoid driving fast if you have noticed serious cracks in your car. Take it to a garage as soon as possible to have it fixed. The cost for this kind of service will probably cost you a bit more than all of these other problems. Depending on the vehicle, it can be anywhere between $300 and $1500.
Should I consider a replacement instead of a repair?
A lot of times, people feel like paying so much money for a repair does not make any sense because by adding just a bit of cash, they can replace their bumper entirely. And in some situations, yes, it is actually smarter to get a replacement instead of going for a regular fix.
Sometimes, fixed cracks can start reappearing from high-speed and driving. This usually happens because some cracks are simply too wide and long to be properly repaired.
Keep in mind, all of these problems we mentioned and the cost of their repairs might vary a lot by your location and the type of vehicle you have.
