Minor damage to borrowed car – next step?
Don’t Bodge the fix – DO NOT try and dupe the insurance company – it was just an accident no one was hurt – and there’s not a lot of damage. Wait till they get back, come clean and offer to pay or chores. If your mom’s been with the insurance co for a while, let her decide if she’ll claim or not. Anyhow – who’s to say that the insuance co isn’t looking for a Blue Toyota Solara, owned in Mass … It’s not worth it. Be honest, come clean – Life Lesson: don’t borrow people’s cars without permission and don’t drive without insurance. DO NOT try and patch it – If you can afford it get it repaired by a local Toyota Dealer – Get them to pick-up, fix and return. Your mom will think of it everytime she gets in the car if you botch it.
There’s no reason to hurry – it’s a one-person accident, so even if you are going to go with insurance (which I wouldn’t for that) you can submit the claim just as easily in a week or month from now as tomorrow. I don’t think you’re in too much danger of it getting worse, though with it out like that it’s prone to catch the wind and could be hooked on something and pried out further. Define the ‘low speed’ at which you hit for us. Most bumpers are rated to protect from damage between 2.5 and 5 mph. Above that and you theoretically could have more than cosmetic issues. Chances are what you have is just a cosmetic issue. How cheaply you can get that fixed is pretty random and highly dependent on the shop you take it to. If that Solara is like my old Honda then the actual shock absorption happens at a few posts. That bumper that you see if mostly fascia and those edges probably popped loose when the center of the bumper was depressed, pushing the ends out somewhat. I can’t tell from the p
Agree with d_d 123%. Except that, although slim, there is a possibility that even though the clip is broken, the bumper will perfectly well stay in place by using the undamaged clips that remain. It *should* be fixed eventually, but if you can clip it back in, by all means do so. If not, I recommend taping it together with duct tape to make sure the bumper cover does not catch on something and rip off more. If it were my car (and my wife has in fact done this sort of thing), I would climb underneath and fix it up as best I could with screws, tape, etc., to make sure it is solidly attached, and never think about it again. If your stepdad is handy, he’ll probably do exactly that.
