Well, I'm sure even in Michigan, if the insurance company is never called, they can't raise your rates! I imagine the trick is to convince the other guy to pay you instead of calling and reporting his insurance.

In this case, as far as his and my insurance knows, this never happened. He never reported it, neither did I. Now, if I don't get paid, I'd call them.

Funny, the same thing happened to me last weekend! I noticed a big scratch (1") as well as a ding/crease in the right rear panel behind the passenger door. It was either a shopping cart or I think somebody totally bumped into my car with a big heavy box. I was bummed. I'll rub it out a little but it's not bad enough to pay a few hundred dollars to get it fixed. After 3 months, I guess it's bound to happen. Pretty soon maybe I won't even park far away in big parking spots to avoid dings...but I still do! Not looking forward to the parking lots at Christmastime though.

Well, I had an "indentation" kind of dent on it that just showed up one day. Some idiot with a shopping cart or something.

I could have had it completely fixed for around $500-600, but I decided to go with a paintless dent repair place that did it for $125. They said they got it 80% out, but i challenge anyone to find it. In fact, I can't find it anymore. I guess when you run you hand over it, you might be able to feel a little wave, but after staring at it today from all angles, I couldn't find where the dent used to be.

So that ended up being a really good option. If anyone in the DC Metro area needs that kind of repair, let me know and I'll tell you where I had it done--they were reallyg good and took it very seriously. And $125 is more than reasonable.

It's true. I've used dentless repair shops for three cars, with damage ranging from small-but-deep dings to dents of 8" or more. In every case, they removed the dent with 100% success, completely undetectable by any standard.

Each time I'm amazed.

Steve Villatoro
www.stevenvillatoro.com
“An enlightened guide to small business mastery.”

There should be a law giving the death penalty to mass murderers, child molesters, and people who open their doors into the sides of other peoples' cars.

Just kidding about the mass murderers and child molesters.

My initial reaction to the guy who rear-ended me---while I was still in my car--was that I was going to lay into that guy (not physically obviously), but fortunately I calmed myself down before saying anything, and my anger has subsided with his apologies and willingness to pay. I did get the check in the mail already, so I'll deposit it Monday.

Now, if I were to get a hold of the jackass who dinged my door and didn't leave a note, that's another thing.

don't you just ****[not like] those kind of people who never leave a note?

A good friend of mine does PDR here in san diego. I built his first web site years ago (he has since taken this over), but I went out to take pictures for the website and was amazed at how he could pull little dents and dings out. He recently worked on a Ferrari 360 and it came out like new. Fortunately I haven't had the need to call him for my tch yet!

Matt, has the check cleared and have you got the car in the body shop yet? You will have it back before you know it - looking like new.

And may you never!


I do have the check and deposited it. I believe it takes a few days for it to officially "clear," so we'll see. I was going to wait just to make sure. Plus, I haven't had time to get it fixed!