GusRandall

Had someone hit my car in a parking lot: I had pulled out and she backed into me. The good news is that it appears that it only damaged the PPF and only on a single piece. I can't be sure the paint isn't touched but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. The PPF has to be replaced though because it did get scraped and there was some wrinkling that is visible from 10 feet away. So here's the dilemma: it's her fault and I got her insurance information and such but I really didn't want to do insurance which would show up on my car's history (even if I can prove there was no paint or structural damage). So I got a price from XPEL to replace the piece and recoat with ceramic and the cost wasn't bad but she didn't take the bait when I suggested that she work with XPEL on payment and save her insurance premiums. So I can go with her insurance and get my car history marked up or pay for it myself to avoid that. There is no 3rd option besides ignoring it which I'm not doing on a $113K car with <300 miles on it.

If it was you and you could afford the $650 to replace or let insurance take care of it (for the possible cost of car history), what would you do? I'm getting really frustrated by all the money I've been spending on this car (PPF, Ceramic, $4K in hail damage - seriously, this car is cursed; I have no idea how it avoided the engine replacement recall) but I don't want to be penny smart (let ins pay) but pound foolish (possible depreciation on car history) but then I really don't know what kind of hit (pun intended) I'd take with that history. Anybody have any idea?

Thanks in advance. I want to make the decision soon so that if I go insurance they don't question why I didn't report it immediately.

rooster17

Is the $4K hail damage not already on the cars history? I’d be much more concerned with that buying your car than a piece of PPF being replaced.

DFW01TT

You never know what will show up in the public arena for damages. I put 22k in damage on an AMG car some years back and it never showed up.
Something <1k may be invisible.

GusRandall

I probably should have mentioned that I did the hail damage out of pocket rather than thru insurance. FWIW, the hail all came out perfectly, in part because the PPF prevented any paint damage and I had a really good hail guy who is based in town and works only by word-of-mouth recommendations. Not one of those companies that drives a bunch of guys in after a storm and tries to fix 10 cars a day and get out before the quality of the work is noticed. So, the car's record is still clean.

You're probably thinking "well, if you paid $4K already to keep a clean record, what's $650 more?" I'm trying not to fall into a version of the sunk cost fallacy wherein you **** good money after bad. But like I said, I'm tired of spending money and there is a principle (she hit me, I gave her a chance to work something out that would help her record too and she spurned it). But just as I'm trying to avoid a sunk cost mistake, I'm trying to avoid the opposite mistake of avoiding $650 in expense now vs an unknown reduction on resale. I don't have enough data to figure decide but suspect that the diminished value of simply having a this on the cars record is worth more than $650.

rooster17

If I had just forked over $4K to keep the hail off the record I’d fork over another $650 to keep the bumper cars incident off also. Then again, have to draw the line somewhere.

Glad the hail came out well. Good luck moving forward, that’s a rough streak.

Haha, your edit (2nd para) hit the nail on the head on what I was thinking. I’d still fork over the $650 personally.

Driv200

Agree

dnimi123

whats another $650... BTW were you caught driving in the hail storm or does your girlfriend make you park a few doors down the street in case her husband drives by (mine does... just kidding)? You must garage the car right?

GusRandall

Golf ball hail at 4AM in my driveway (garage not an option but carport being added in a few weeks).

dnimi123

Oh gosh. Thats terrible... must have been awful coming out to see that... hope better days ahead for you... AND the GTS. Best of Luck!

bob78h

This might depend on where you live, but I thought damage under $1000 is not usually reported to Carfax?

Bob Z.

[edited] Tell your insurance company she admitted it was her fault and make them pay - you will sleep better for it.

Zhao

I dont think i've ever seen a carfax for under 1g. I'd put it through her insurance.

Plus anyone who is going to walk from buying a car for a <1g hit on carfax for xpel replacement is probably not very serious about buying the car to begin with and will flake regardless. Just keep the paperwork and pictures for the claim so you can prove it was just xpel replacement.

Jeff Jones

Is the sexism necessary? This isn’t 4chan.

mjw930

I'm probably not a good point of reference because I would have submitted the hail claim and been done with it. I pay for insurance, I use it when needed and worry about the CarFax bull crap down the road. never had a problem and never had any "lost value" because of some scratch and dent claims. Most never showed up.

The whole "CarFax" thing has become more urban legend than fact IMHO. Live your life, drive your car and take advantage of the value of things like insurance when they come your way. Your life will get a lot simpler when you stop worrying about cause an effect years down the road.

Zeus993

My thoughts exactly. Just use her insurance to get the PPF fixed and have done with it. No serious buyer is going to handle on that, or at least if they do make sure to start high if you are selling the vehicle.

Sorry to hear of your tough luck on this one. Time to get out and DRIVE IT on a road trip! And good luck!