When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My first time at Walmart and my C63S got hit in the parking lot.
Do you guys have any recommendations of how to get this fixed? I don’t want to change the entire bumper, but what’s a cost effective and a decent fix for this. Where can I take it?
Last edited by superstarR; Jan 22, 2021 at 01:32 AM.
You will need to take car to the body shop and let pros prep and respray. Anything else will look pretty bad.
It will probably cost around $500 or less so it is not worth reporting it to the insurance company.
Ouch! You can submit your information through the Mercedes Me app and they'll connect you with a certified shop. Here in NorCal I'd recommend the BMW Collision Center in Concord if that's not too far out of your way. They did work on my RS5 and installed the XPEL on my C63. I'm pretty sure they are Mercedes certified, but either way, I would take mine there if I had damage, especially on a panel that has XPEL as they'll handle everything under one roof. At a minimum they'll have to strip the paint of that bumper, fill those gouges and repaint the bumper and blend into the adjacent panels. Might be cheaper to just get a new bumper and paint it. You might be able to sell this to your insurance as vandalism at which point it'll fall under your comprehensive coverage. Basically some object hit it, I would almost bet that somebody deliberately rammed a shopping cart into it. Not a good idea to show up with a flashy AMG at a Walmart at the moment. Many of those people are struggling big time right now. If it clearly was another car, then it would be a no fault collision, either way you shouldn't see a hike in your premium. It's more a question of deductibles. For example I have a low $100 deductible on my comprehensive coverage, but $1000 on my collision. Get an estimate and take it from there. This can quickly get expensive. I had somebody bump into my rear bumper once in a parking lot with their car at like 2 mph. It was around $1500 to get it repaired and it was only minor paint damage, but it had PPF on it, so they had to redo it.
Last edited by superswiss; Jan 23, 2021 at 02:00 AM.
2017 Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 Cabriolet, 2014 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S
Originally Posted by AMG82
You will need to take car to the body shop and let pros prep and respray. Anything else will look pretty bad.
It will probably cost around $500 or less so it is not worth reporting it to the insurance company.
we took our CLS in for very minor damage to the front bumper, they have to remove it to prep it and respray it. Cost us $1300.
A good body shop will be able to repair that and it'll be a lot more cost effective than a new bumper. It'll likely be more than $500 though after all is said and done.
I recently took my wife's car into MB for a recall. While dropping hers off, I curbed the front right corner of my bumper in the parking lot (-.-).
I went to a body shop who said they'd need $2K to fix it. Talked to my MB SA who suggested he could have it fixed at the dealership by the third party company who fixes all the blemishes on their trade-ins, CPOs, etc. Cost me $490 out the door. I'm sure your dealership has a similar system. Have you tried asking your SA?
2020 s63 amg............2018 e63s amg w213............2017 C63s Coupe W205
I manage repairs at a certified collision center in MA, the bumper is repairable. The black trim is too, though we would likely replace it to ensure exact color match. We would charge probably close to $1500 to repair that, which includes that trim and the other 1 time use hardware that would need to be replaced (mainly rivets). The bumper is removed from the vehicle and all parts/trims would be removed. Repair front with repair kit and reinforce rear if necessary. Then seal,wet sand, prime, wet sand, paint, wet sand/denib, reinstall and final buff/polish.
Thanks for all these great ideas. Anything under $500 seems quite reasonable. I’ll check with my SA.
Originally Posted by Go Dawgs
I recently took my wife's car into MB for a recall. While dropping hers off, I curbed the front right corner of my bumper in the parking lot (-.-).
I went to a body shop who said they'd need $2K to fix it. Talked to my MB SA who suggested he could have it fixed at the dealership by the third party company who fixes all the blemishes on their trade-ins, CPOs, etc. Cost me $490 out the door. I'm sure your dealership has a similar system. Have you tried asking your SA?
If you try these hack job repairs, expect poor color match, clear coat to peel after 1-2 years and overspray everywhere
While I typically agree, the reply from OP that you posted was directed towards my suggestion.
The company that fixed my boo-boo for $490 is the 3P contractor for the largest AMG service center in my state. They do minor body work on countless AMGs monthly. It goes without being said, OP.. but obviously make sure to vet the contractor before using if your dealership has a similar service. The guy doing the work walked my car with me personally. I felt very comfortable letting them take care of it. You have to think - $490 to them is not the same as $490 to a guy doing bumper repairs in his backyard. They do a tremendous amount of volume with the dealership. As sinister.c63s was implying.. 'ya get what ya pay for!'. Good luck.
Last edited by Go Dawgs; Jan 25, 2021 at 12:08 PM.
2020 s63 amg............2018 e63s amg w213............2017 C63s Coupe W205
Originally Posted by Go Dawgs
While I typically agree, the reply from OP that you posted was directed towards my suggestion.
The company that fixed my boo-boo for $490 is the 3P contractor for the largest AMG service center in my state. They do minor body work on countless AMGs monthly. It goes without being said, OP.. but obviously make sure to vet the contractor before using if your dealership has a similar service. The guy doing the work walked my car with me personally. I felt very comfortable letting them take care of it. You have to think - $490 to them is not the same as $490 to a guy doing bumper repairs in his backyard. They do a tremendous amount of volume with the dealership. As sinister.c63s was implying.. 'ya get what ya pay for!'. Good luck.
I understand, Ive been managing dealer-based collision centers for almost 15 years, so Im very familiar with the parking lot warriors vs. dealer recon vs proper repairs. I also understand where youre coming from, along with the OP, and I only meant to make clear that these parking lot repairs are meant to be temporary bandaids to sell cars. There are many issues with these repairs, not-the-least of which is that fact that its performed on the car, often outside of element free repair locations. This alone lends the job to dirt, contaminents and overspray. The spot repair is often spot blended, which leaves a bullseye in the paint where one spot looks darker/lighter than the surround. The worst part is that they attempt to what we call "burn in the clear", where they try to meld in new clear coat with the existing. This is where the pealing happens. There are new products that help to improve this, but the repair will fail and the ring where the new and old clear coat meet, will eventually peel. The other thing to factor in here is the color, silver is one of the hardest colors for a shop to paint/color match because of how thin it is, so a spot refinish would also likely be more evident.
I can understand using this type of repair to fix curb rash, or very low damage, but his is right below the headlamp on the flat surface.
I didnt intend to be defensive in my tone, I just cant stand when expensive cars get sub-standard repairs. File a claim as a non- fault loss and have it done right without your rates going up. You pay your deductible and thats it.
Take your car to the best quality place possible, sparing no cost. DO NOT report it to the insurance company, Mercedes Me app, or anyone that would generate a report. You do not want CarFax to even get a sniff of this. This minor scratch could end up costing you big time when you go to sell your car. As minor as this damage is, it will be used against you by everyone, especially a dealership. This is very minor damage and it should not end up costing you thousands if it hits CarFax. If you lease, get it repaired properly without paying an arm and a leg.
I also work for a very large smash repairer, we repair over 15 cars per day, 70 insurance cars a week consistently, I will agree that there are some mobile bumper repairers that are pretty crap, but most are professional trades people that have taken their normal day job and moved it to a mobile service without a drop in quality, they use the same products we do and the jobs are just as good as we do from a workshop based smash repairer.
I have seen our guy in action and the car is completely covered when he paints a small repair just the same as we do with a major repair
Our shop has a full time bumper and plastics repairer, who was the head repairer for a bumper exchange company, he is very knowledgeable when it comes to bumper repair techniques and plastic coatings, he would repair both parts of the bumper, we would only spot the side of the bumper that is damaged and lower section would be texture coated as per original texture, the job would be professionally done and come with a life time warranty as all of our work does.
Take your car to the best quality place possible, sparing no cost. DO NOT report it to the insurance company, Mercedes Me app, or anyone that would generate a report. You do not want CarFax to even get a sniff of this. This minor scratch could end up costing you big time when you go to sell your car. As minor as this damage is, it will be used against you by everyone, especially a dealership. This is very minor damage and it should not end up costing you thousands if it hits CarFax. If you lease, get it repaired properly without paying an arm and a leg.
That's only true if it gets reported as an accident, which it shouldn't given the circumstances. I'm speaking from experience. I had two vandalism claims on my previous car and the 2mph parking lot incident I mentioned above. The only thing that came up during trade in discussions was the parking lot incident, because it was reported as an accident. The vandalism claims, one resulted in having to respray a rocker panel, did not concern anybody. I'm not sure they even showed up on the reports. The main concern about accidents is the impact from another moving car and potential hidden damage. I also had an accident report on another car previously that I traded in, and the dealership asked how fast the other car was going. In this case, the other car was rolling out of a gas station into the side of my car while I was waiting at a traffic light. The lady didn't firmly stand on her brakes and didn't realize the car was rolling forward until she bumped into me. Once I explained the situation, the dealership wrote it off and didn't ding me on the trade in.
You guys have all been extremely helpful. I wonder why someone just doesn’t get into the business of providing amazing mobile bumper work for a reasonable price. It seems like it could be quite lucrative through volume.
I never thought about the carfax issue, but I guess if I just have it repaired at any shop and there is no accident report than it won’t go on the carfax.
I don’t have PPF, but do you think that would have helped protect it? I’d probably just have to pay another $1K to get the bumper redone with the PPF after the scratch.
You guys have all been extremely helpful. I wonder why someone just doesn’t get into the business of providing amazing mobile bumper work for a reasonable price. It seems like it could be quite lucrative through volume.
I never thought about the carfax issue, but I guess if I just have it repaired at any shop and there is no accident report than it won’t go on the carfax.
I don’t have PPF, but do you think that would have helped protect it? I’d probably just have to pay another $1K to get the bumper redone with the PPF after the scratch.
Not filing a claim with your insurance doesn't necessarily keep it off carfax. The body shop may still report it. PPF may have reduced the damage, but it looks quite forceful and likely would have punched through the film, but perhaps you could have been lucky and the damage would have polished out. That's what happened when my bumper got hit in a parking lot. It punched through the film a bit, but only the clear coat was affected and it polished out, so paint remained original. I had another incident while my car was in the shop. A technician tried to squeeze a cart by my car and ended up banging into the front fender. Again most of the damage was absorbed by the PPF, but this time it slightly damaged the paint, so the fender had to be resprayed before putting on new PPF. The PPF overall did its job and definitely prevented all kinds of damaged from road debris and minimized damage from the two accidents. Both times replacing the film was paid for by the other insurance company in my case.
Last edited by superswiss; Jan 28, 2021 at 05:44 PM.
That definitely sucks. Just deep enough to be significant. As a side note.....how much does PPF cost for the front bumper and hood on these? I have a 4runner that came with it. Now have a 2018c63 and the front bumper is getting resprayed paid for by the folks I bought it from. Figure it maybe a good time to do PPF although I'll probably have to touched up one rock chip on hood first. On the fence since it's already over 2 years old. I know not protective but may just go straight to ceramic instead. Stuck on the fence at the moment.
I was rear ended last summer while stopped at a stop sign - guy was going maybe 2mph but he was in a Jeep Wrangler with that steel ram bar on the front and it crushed the impact plate on my 63S.
Took it to a certified MB collision center and had to have the rear bumper cover replaced. It was $1,340 for the OEM cover and $750 in paint/labor (plus $464 to replace the impact plate). Guy who hit me paid it all and the whole thing sucked but thankfully you'd never know the difference. Replaced the XPEL ($800) and AMG license plate frame too.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
