My mom bought her car in October of 2005. Since having the car for a little over a year, she has been the victim of some parking lot dents and dings ( which we all may have ). Along with those she personally has made her own driving mistakes which had resulted in some minor scrapes on the bumper ( front and back I might add ), also a decent dent in the passenger door from an obvious collision with my brothers car. As you can tell she can't drive and this car has been the example of it.
To lead into the rest of the story...I wake up to the garage door closing and her running up stairs crying...my first thought of course " she wrecked her car, yet again ". This woman makes silly mistakes...so somehow she has wrecked the car ( where the passenger fender and bumper meet ) into the side of the garage door.-AND YES ITS A STRAIGHT LINE OUT to the driveway. Damage is basically a small dent in the fender and what may be some paint on the fender and bumper ( i will try and remove it tonight )
Anyway, without all the " woman can’t drive jokes " and seriously just feeling compasion for someone that should just start taking the bus–my question is this.
The previous dent and dings and whatnots as mentioned above ( these range AROUND the car just in no particular spot ) we have never felt that it was worth filing claims to the insurance company. In addition, she has a $500.00 deductible and we are not rich so thats hurts and has become somewhat of the deciding factor in why we haven’t filed to the insurance comp. Her car is also a lease which makes this worse. ( she make keep it though ) And without just burning the car or someother crazy suggestion…what would you do??? SERIOUSLY to get the car back up to par eventually.
I would make sure your mom gets that stuff fixed before the lease runs out, but maybe like just before, because it seems like she is just going to keep hitting shit. They will bend her over for stuff that is not normal wear and tear. I don’t know what happens if she buys it back though.
Just out of curiosity, would this be a comp claim or collision? If it’s collision, you may want to just try paying out of pocket for the repairs as the insurance rates will go up.
Find a body shop that will punch a card every time she gets a ding fixed. That way her 5th and 10th dings are free!!
Realistically though if you are hard up for money ($500 now and $x in insurance hikes) then just leave it. As long as nothing structural is damaged just deal with the fact that your mom can’t drive very well. When the time comes to trade it back or buy it out - fix it then. (or if you can keep it without fixing the dents just continue to ding it up)
If there is nothing majorly wrong at the moment let it go for now. If something major happens, god forbid, get everything repaired then. Unless you mom got totally bent over on the lease deal she should just go for the buy out in the end anyway as most honda leases I have seen have buyouts a decent amount less than what the actual value of the car is at that point.
Also, if you mom want to get the car fixed because she doesn’t like driving a dinged up buggy, save some hassle and instead of paying a body shop just put the money toward driving lessons.
Just ask Shaggy how bad my moms is:bowrofl: Pulled out of my driveway n he was parke towards the middle of it and ya we… um… she totally side swiped the whole drivers door-quarter panel.:hahano: I had to pull the buick from his quarter. That old car saw tunnels, walls, other cars and mustangs too many times:slap: It’s all good though…shit happens and it’s family:bowrofl: And with a lil bit of tools/know how and some work almost any car can go back to look new so they would never know. All they do is send em to the auction most of the time anyhow, they just get u for it to make bullshit money.
I know body shop guys that will give you a discount if you show them your boobs…or more, then the price keeps dropping. This can help when paying out of pocket. I’m being totally serious. Now a mother/daughter combo flashing would benefit you greatly. Please don’t take that the wrong way, after all, you did ask for a ‘crazy suggestion.’
