Not kidding at all. That's not a scratch. That's as pretty good scrape that has done more than take paint off the bumper. That large black patch on the edge of the fog light area has plastic that's been worn away as well, no? That's a flexible panel, you can't add regular body filler there. If you merely sand it down and respray it that will likely be noticeable. There is far more to body repair than most people realize. You cannot simply brush on a little touchup and call it repaired. Salesman have no clue how much repairs cost. Hopefully I'm wrong but..... let us know.

 

No plastic came off with the collision, just paint. I'm hoping that's it because the bumper clips are good and I don't think there's anything else to it, but I'll keep you all posted.

 

I own 2 Mercedes and I also own multiple VW s driven by my children in high school and college. I have fixed the VWs on multiple occasions due to minor bumps and scrapes. Fixing bumpers properly is not cheap! A Mercedes Bumper can be expensive to fix. Take it to the body shop and get an estimate. I had a scraped bumper on my wife's GL fixed not cheap!

 

The speed of the collision was very low, so that's good. I stopped immediately after sensing something off with the bumper and backed up clear. After assessing the damage, the bumper seemed to be pushed back a bit (not aligned with fender by a few millimeters like shown on the picture) and as a given, the paint was scraped off. It was only the paint and not any plastic that makes up the bumper itself. Also, I hit a door panel, which is relatively smooth so if it were to damage the bumper further from the paint it would probably dent it at an angle.

The following morning, I waxed my vehicle and a good part of the scratches came off, just the two big ones (beneath the headlamp and above fog light) remained. Anything in between those two, and the vertical scratch near the bumper are gone (the picture here is from before the waxing)

I was mostly worried about the misalignment of the bumper with the fender, because that could mean hidden/internal damage. I opened the hood to try and see a part of the bumper, and though I couldn't see anything everything did seem in place. I then looked into the wheel well and checked for the clips, which I saw all of them in place. The one closer to the exterior of the car seemed to be a bit forced past its normal capacity but still in place, however after I saw it again later on it seemed to be in place normally, and comparing to the other side of the bumper which incurred no damage they look the same.

Another thing is that the bumper and the hood crease (above the grill) did not seem aligned, but only to the passenger side, or to the left of the central star. It didn't seem like much, I noticed that in a picture I took but I took it from an angle, and I never really noticed it in person like I did in the picture. Good to note though. I'm just hoping they sand out my bumper, re-paint it Polar White and reattach it with the same clips and it should be good to go! That is the best case scenario. Worst case scenario would be what some of you guys are telling me, internal damage etc. If that's the case, it's fine by me because though I did not want to go through insurance one of the claim agents called and offered to fix it so after I get some quotes I'll decide and definitely send over the prices to you guys so you have a reference. If it's more than US$1000, my deductible, it's all I pay and the insurance covers the rest. The other party's issue is solved which is great to hear so I can focus on this one after I get my ML350's tire fixed!

So far, you guys have been great and thank you so much! I can't wait to get it fixed to take some good shots of the car which I haven't had a chance to do so yet, and I want to with a pretty bumper! I'll keep you guys posted

 

I have learned from personnal experiences that even for a tiny scratch,if you're not a professionnal it will always look like **** when trying to use touch up paint. The few touch up jobs I made on my c300 always ended up annoying me and looking obvious especially with the sun. I went to my mb dealer and made them fix the few scratches and it cost like 100$.


So don't even think about doing it yourself for this case and for possible futur little scratches, pay a professional , you won't regret it.


good luck!

 

Just had the front cover on my '11 E350 R&R and fully painted for 900.

 

that's not too bad! but I'm guessing you didn't take it through the dealer's body shop right?

 

Mercedes Benz of West Chester Body Shop.

 

Nice. My insurance company is asking to take my car to this place for them to get me a quote on the repair, but I also want to take it to my dealership to see what they will charge me.If you got 900 for that, I don't think I'll be doing much worse.

 

Well, remember you can take it where you want - its just the insurance may not pay the full price your place wants (I have never seen them say no to a dealership for high-line cars though)

 

Funny, that's what I did

 

You may do slightly better price-wise if you search for MB Certified body shops in your area, then go directly to the shop and bypass the dealer. I could be wrong, but it would be worth asking.