steve

I'm furious - sometime in the past two hours, some jerk bumped into my car - there's an 8 inch long scratch in my front bumper. Its not even a scratch - its more like a GROOVE thats been carved into the bumper - the paint looks like its peeling and i can feel and see the depth of the scrape. Ack...im so frustrated. Anyone know how much something like this will cost to fix? I'll take it in to get it checked out...<p>Well, thanks for listening to me vent...i love my car, thats all. =)<p>-steve<br>98.5 1.8tqm

Ash

I feel for you man, this happened to my rear bumper, and when I took it in (my dealer has a body shop in house), they said they basically had to remove the bumper to fix the scratch (I had one 9" scratch, and a couple of 3 to 4 inch ones).. Now the rear bumper ain't that bad to take out...the front is harder. So this may cost quite a bit in terms of labour and then the actual paint job....don't mean to be the bearer of bad news...just want to prepare you. <p>Good luck.......<p>-Ash<br>Silver 98.5 1.8TQMS

Zsolt

First I went to the dealer, me idiot. "Well, we will probably just replace the whole bumper", the MF said. (I have a crack in the bumper, true, but I still do not believe it should be replaced.) $740 if replaced bumper, $510 if repaired.<p>I went to an independent paint shop, and their repair price is $275. They would repair the crack, spot paint the problem area and clearcoat the whole bumper.

Luyen Chou

I had the same thing happen to my rear. License plate screws tore grooves into the rear bumper exposing the black plastic underneath. And it happened in my valet parking garage. <p>Let me know if the third-party $275 solution works, cause that's what I'll do if it does! Thanks!<p>Also, anyone with any info on protective bras for the fenders during parking? (See my post below). Thanks!

Ash

This was at my dealer too...so it wasn't that bad of a deal I think. I remember getting a quote for a new front bumper (cuz that one was backed into as well!). I was quoted $950 (canadian) for everything...ouch!<p>-Ash<br>98.5 1.8TQMS

tomt

Had a small 1 x 2" scrape on rear bumper - cracking paint plus some exposed black plastic underneath - was repaired at my dealer's body shop for ca. $275 (and I thought this was excessive consider ing how much work actually had to be done). Included filler, paint plus clear coat, with NO bumper removal. Looks as good as new.<p>Tom<br>'97 2.8q

Noah

There are usually autobody shops that specialize in fixing such<br>problems and will charge FAR LESS than a typical dealer. Case<br>in point, some schmuck left a big scratch across the top of my <br>4 month old VW Cabrio. A couple of phone calls got me $400<br>estimates. In contrast, Miracle Auto Painting and Body Repair<br>(Mountain View CA, if you're near) fixed it via wetsanding for<br><$30. It looks new. So shop around and check out the<br>non-dealer groups! Good luck!<p>