Got hit while parked and got a nice dent next to the headlight on the side of the hood - no damage to headlight or paint. (2017 Mini Cooper 4 door) Should I: 1) use my $500 deductible on a $1500 collision bill from BMW who wants to repaint entire hood, replace stripes, blah, blah
2) pay $1000 cash to another local collision place for fix 3) leave the dent until a bigger accident and deal with insurance then 4) pay $250 for a local paintless dent removal company to try and suck out the dent - which may not work 100%

 

Since you asked... you might try #4

But, IMHO, unless you need to have this fixed immediately (e.g. for insurance purposes), I'd go with #3 and leave it, at least for now. Yes, it may bug you every time you walk past it but the dent looks clean and doesn't appear it will lead to further damage to the body or electrical issues with the lights. I have two dents in my coupe, very small and not dissimilar to yours. I'm going to wait them out and try and find some kind of "lesson" about myself in all this. Plus, it never hurts saving the money. We never know what's just around the corner... could be another bad driver. Best of luck and motor on, Ace1287.

 

If you have a PDR specialist who has been recommended and has years of experience I'd go with that. My PDR guy told me MINI/BMW metal is easy to work with. Insurance will probably just bump your rates to recover the cost over the next few years to recover the outlay.

 

That is good advice Minnie - i appreciate it - seems like this PDR is reputable - it would seem to be the best option - even if he gets it 75% better its still a win considering the collision places want to strip the whole hood

 

...strip the hood? Wha? It would be cheaper to just replace the hood.

I would go with the paintless repair out of pocket, even a mostly fixed for about $250. is better than the possibility of your Insurance company charging you more over the next couple of years resulting in fees that would be more than the cost out of pocket.

(I have a dent in one of my tailgates, I have worked it out the best I can and it will stay that way until I either find a complete rear hatch I can swap it with or someone offers to fix it for free)

Motor On!

 

A good PDR guy can take care of that. It has no hard edges that are dinged and the paint does not look to be cracked. Also it is in an easy area to work on.

Check out a few well known PDR guys in your area. Do not deal with or even tell your insurance company.

 

I'd also try PDR. Most of the time they wont charge you (or discount it) if they cannot deliver on fixing it. Most will simply ask for you to text them some picture to determine if it can be done.

For future reference, play with your deductible. I had a similar thing happen to a door once. $1000 deductible. OUCH. Turns out a $250 deductible would have been like $7/month more at best. Nobody should have a high comprehensive deductible (which this situation should be)

 

Leave the dent as is & spend the money on a dash cam so you can nail the next hit & runner!

 

I had my hit-and-run parking lot damage repaired through insurance. Since I wasn't at fault, and have not had a claim in years, I didn't see a premium hike, and I didn't have to pay my deductible (GEICO). Damage repair bill was $3k. I put a pair of dual dashcams in for front, back, left- and right-sides. My cams run full-time while driving, and wake up on impacts while in park. Each pair of cams has a dedicated battery pack as to not drain the battery whilst in park mode. Cost me about $1500, but to me, peace of mind is well worth the cost.