recentlydivorced

Need some help. My 2016 NRB Vette got backed into. Damage to the nose from a truck trailer receiver hitch. Have a dent, a square indentation(from reciever hitch) with about 2 total inches of gouging(1/8 inch deep), and some paint transfer.

Thank god the people were honest and left a note.

Since NRB has been discontinued, how hard will it be to match the paint?

Any recommendations for body shops in the Houston Area? I had one I used for years, but the owner retired and closed up shop.

Any suggestions or knowledge about how the diminished value thing works? With a minor repair like this how much diminished value is there anyway? I will have all the records and pictures of damage and what was done.

Any Idea on how difficult Gieco is to deal with?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

skamp

Foosh

With today's computer software-driven paint matching methodology, matches are nearly perfect. Any decent collision shop will be able to do it. Moreover, it sounds like a pretty simple nose replacement unless they hit in the area of the frame crush zones, but those can be replaced too.

Also, I just checked and Geico allows you to choose the repair facility of your choice, although some insurance companies may quibble about the price if they think it's too high.

Steve_R

recentlydivorced

don't think any crush zones caught me right in the middle.

Vetteman Jack

Foosh

I doubt it as well, plus sounds like a 1-2 mph impact. My guess is the damage is purely cosmetic, and once painted, that nose piece can be swapped out in an hour or so.

joemessman

I hate to hear that. But you'll be OK. It could have been a lot worse! Easy fix, and don't worry.

recentlydivorced

Thanks all. Just so disappointing. always try to park far away from other cars but in this busy place there was no option for that. I was so pissed, but when I was reading the note, the guy walked out of the store and was so apologetic, I could not show how mad I was. He seemed as upset as I was over it.

Foosh

Nice to hear stories of honest, caring people in this world. You are lucky it was someone like him.

Thunder22

Whether a color has been discontinued by the factory or not won't impact what a body shop can buy/match to fix a car. You'll be fine. New fascia and some paint... done.

Foosh

Just to give you a good idea of how good the best body shops have gotten at color matching, I'll relay a personal example based on a repair done 6 months ago to my wife's 2017 Infiniti Q60 RS400. She wasn't paying attention one day and brushed the passenger side front fender against the garage door frame.

The car is a dark titanium metallic, and I took it to the body shop with the best reputation in Annapolis, MD. Based upon their experience, they told me they had 23 different "shades" of that color in their records for recent Infiniti vehicles listed under the same paint code, and that going by the color code alone will never produce a perfect match. They were just slight variations, but enough to be noticeable on panels side-by-side. The reason for this is that manufacturers aren't perfect either when mixing paint batches even using the same color recipe.

What this shop does for every respray is to mix very small batches, shoot what they call "spray-out cards," until they find an exact match for a particular vehicle. It took this shop 2 days, and multiple mixes, but they nailed it. You absolutely cannot tell that the fender was replaced and resprayed, except that the newly painted panel has slightly, and I mean very slightly, less OP than the factory paint job, but that is absolutely invisible to all but the most OC person when examining under harsh fluorescent lights. Most would say that car has no OP because Infiniti does very fine paint jobs.

TEXHAWK0

Recently divorced and someone randomly backs into your car? Don't think so.

Skid Row Joe

I would research finding a shop that doesn't report the front end collision to Carfax. When shopping for a used car, I always checked the Carfax for accidents. Never fails to reduce a car's value on the used market.

Some advise for you; don't expose the looow nose of your Corvettes' to possible back up damage. Always point your *** end out to other cars/SUVS/trucks, so there's less chance of being hit by parking cars.

Foosh

No reputable body shops report to CarFax, but insurance companies do. The body shops hate CarFax, but insurance companies love it in providing an incentive to not file claims.

The honest person who tapped the OP might well be willing to pay out of pocket to avoid having his rates increased. That would keep the OP's car CarFax clean.

PatternDayTrader

Take a pic of the damage.
No one is going to care even if it is on Carfax.

orca1946

It will be fixed. I also needed nose repair as I left it under a garage door that came down on the nose!!!
What I learned from this is to ALWAYS check to see where I park it !!!!!!!!

bankers1

How much "Damage" is needed to be listed in Carfax?
Drive into a curb @ 5MPH, push splitter into fender, wheel well swells out, screw pops out, spat needs to be re alingned.

A Carfax issue???

Steve_R

There are no rules for what is or isn't reported. Some shops report everything, some report nothing. Carfax isn't mandatory and people need to realize that it may or may not be accurate.

I always find it funny when people say they always get a Carfax report on a car they're considering buying, but also give advice on how to keep repairs off of Carfax. You can't have it both ways.

z06inVB