Last year sometime, I made a fast U-turn and scratched the front lip of my car. Back then, I asked around and found the price to be ~ $300 so I decided to wait since I felt that the longer I waited, the more affordable it will seem because of future value of present money.
During this past year, the scratch did not bother me at all because it was at the front on the passenger side so I did not really see it. A week ago while I was doing car maintenance however (check out how I save a bunch of money during the trip here, I saw a couple advertisements at the repair shop. I talked to the owner about the different ones and he suggested two for me (one for the price with average quality and one which is slightly higher but with good quality).
So, before I left for my trip, I drove my car there and spoke with the owner about re-painting my front lip. He mentioned that it will cost around $300, which we negotiated down to $250 without tax so I decided to do this. So, they took the front lip to be repainted.
Today, after I came back from my trip, I drove my car to get it picked up. All I can say is that I’m very happy about the paint job that was done since it looked brand new.
Did I regret to not wait longer to do the paint job? No since finally I can say that my car is generally scratch free. However, would it have made more financial sense if I waited and waited? What if I never changed it and just sold the car? Would I be able to sell the car without fixing it at the same price as if there were no scratch? These questions I would never know.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I say repaint your car. Sometimes there is money that is well spent. For example, basic food, buying a small gift for your wife etc. Don’t always look at money spent as something that gets in your savings’ path.
There is definitely a difference of sale price if you fix or don’t fix the scratch. I wouldn’t want to buy a used car that I know has a defect since it gives me a bad impression about the owner and how he treats his car.
I’ve been driving around with a dent in the passenger side from a careless shoppers cart in a shopping mall for about 3 years.
My mechanic told me not to even bother getting it repaired since theres no paint damage!
And I always try to negotiate alteast a 5% discount for cash payments!
Best I got was a 30%+ discount on my Omega wristwatch!
Heh I guess we are similar in this way since we both decided to keep our money instead of fix our cars for the longest time
On the negotiation part, I usually only try to do this with certain things like stand alone body shops, watches, small clothing stores etc.