Body shop rates/markup are ridiculous (since most of their clients are insurance companies they can get away with it, especially dealers), someone backed into my old car in a parking lot a few years ago and a cracked headlight and torn bumper cover (the foam in the bumper wasn't even damaged, just a small tare in the corner of the cover below the headlight) cost nearly $1,500 (paid by the other driver's insurance), $700 of that was just to paint the new bumper cover (they come from the factory in unpainted black plastic) to match the car.

 

Paint and prep materials have an outrageous markup. I have to input body shop estimates when one of my fleet vehicles gets damaged, it's a huge pain in the butt and can take an hour just itemizing the parts, body repair labor, paint labor, consumable materials, hazmat fees. Then they always find some hidden damage and the estimate has to be amended.

 

Thats why i hate street parking and parking lots,People will hit your car and act like its nothing and don't feel bad.

 

I walked into Walmart leaving a perfectly fin Jeep in the parking lot and the came out to this.

 

^ That's about right lol ^


My wife parks out in the last space at the end of parking lot at WalMart a half the time comes out to find some parked right beside her and 30 empty spots in the same row down closer to the store.

 

I'm lucky i have a driveway but my next door neighbor don't and about 3 or 4 years ago a drunk driver plowed her car hard in the middle of the night parked on the street and totaled it.After that she started parking her new car in the back yard since.

 

pocket the cash fix the mechanical stuff, put a headlight in the thing and pop the bumper out, call it good?

your sitting pretty. it's a jeep not a range rover..... my 2 cents.