Does it make sense to file DV claim for small damage?

[Cheburashka]

Today a bus full of children going to camp drove into me head on. Luckily, I was able to throw the car in reverse and floor it, and the only damage caused was a deep scrape on the bumper. So, I will probably need a new bumper.

Since I have to go through the bus company's insurance, this will definitely affect my car's clean Carfax.

Does it make sense to file DV claims for things like this or no?

 

[Babaron]

if you don’t mind living with a scratched bumper and then forget about it. But it’s definitely gonna show up on the car when you go to sell it if you don’t fix it.

But having a bumper replaced is not a big deal even if it shows up on the Carfax.

 

[drklain]

Agreed. Having it show up on Carfax is nothing. To be clear, you likely aren't replacing the bumper (that's the metal bumper), you are replacing the bumper cover (a non-structural fascia). The big issue when replacing is to make sure all the parking sensors get installed correctly (not a big deal).

DV claim on this will get you nothing. On a fairly significant rear-end collision, I got several thousand dollars DV after a lot of fighting and hiring a company to do a DV estimate for me (which cost a couple of hundred dollars). Your DV is likely to be only 1 or 2 hundred dollars (assuming only damage is to the bumper cover). Not worth it.

 

[brkaus]

Keep photos of the damage showing how minor.

 

[aerodyne]

This must have been seriously scary event.

Take a moment and thank your stars all are OK.

In hindsight, DV does not seem all that important.

But, go to your GP and make sure you don't have whiplash from going into reverse. Let the other insurance company know you have this concern.

 

[trm2]

A claim like that probably will not hit carfax. The bus company’s insurance isn’t like personal passenger insurance and they won’t care about reporting. Heck any personal auto insurance company wouldn’t report such damage. The body shop may report, that depends on their policies. This is likely something Tesla can do and I highly doubt they have any idea how to report it to carfax let alone any desire to do so.

 

[Cheburashka]

Thanks for the advice. I sure hope it isn't reported.

 

[OrbiterTI4]

Things I would check in your county/state and factors for you to personally consider:

Small claims court process and damage limits
Statute of limitations for filing property damage claim
Any state rules regarding insurance and/or body shop disclosure of accidents
Age/mileage of car
If accident had not occurred, what was plan for keeping/selling car (i.e. you always trade in at 100k miles, you always keep forever, you lease every 3 years, etc)
Time available to you for researching court process and/or finding legal counsel and/or proceeding with negotiations and trial

You HAVE suffered a damage, as any accident noted on a CarFax/equivalent lowers your cars value. If you have to pay annual property taxes on the value of the vehicle, this could be a consideration. If you were planning to sell in the near-term, this could be a consideration.

As others have noted, if the damage was visible but minor and non-structural (and the repair bill falls in line with this), the damage you've suffered was likely low in value. Combined with age of the car, you may be talking in the hundreds.

Without details, I'd guess its worth asking the insurance company for a couple hundred, they'll probably say no, and that will be that.

Full disclosure: I went through the DV process as described in (Collision, Repair and DV/LoU Lawsuit: My Nearly 500 Days of Fun).

 

[AMPd]

I had my bumper cover replaced along with the garage door sensor thingy, and the hood. total cost was 4600, did not show up on carfax.