Hey guys, most of you probably don't know me or haven't seen me in a while here. I am now getting ready for college so further modding on my car has ceased due to financial reasons. I just recently sold my wheels and put stock ones back on and put my cat and stock hood back on. I originally bought my car @ 70k miles for $17k 05'. Was it a good deal? no. But my father was getting pissed at me for spending a lot of time looking and decided to get it. I'm now at 92k miles and have had the car for almost 2 years now. I am going to get a compression test soon to see if I qualify for a new engine before the 100k mark. If I don't I may just have to sell. But if I do I may sell it as well because I can get a solid 4+ grand for a new engine. Now my question is, if I do decide to get a new car (not an rx8 sorry guys =[) would I get more money from a part out or a trade in? Note this. I've had 2 non moving accidents which were both not my fault, 1 was a hit and run at a parking lot and 1 was a guy backing up into me. Both were close together and my dad decided not to put me on his insurance because It would cost too much..?... and he didn't have collision coverage so my insurance did not pay for either. I have a nice dent on my bumper



and a nice scratch on my passenger side door that was quoted at $1k to fix.. well at this point it doesn't really make much sense to spend $1.5k fixing everything up. I really don't know what to do. My dad is telling me to just drive this car until it breaks down and then sell it off, but I don't want to buy a car for full price.. help..

 

i'd say you would get more if you traded it towards a car purchase but it's hard to tell..

if you were to do so i would fix the bumper. look around for a partout and see if you can snag a bumper for cheap? maybe ask a friend to work his magic and buff out the scratches?

 

that dent in the bumper looks like it should come out, but paint is probably damaged

 

The bumper is just a type of plastic isnt it? If you wanna go for a cheap repair you can try just grabbing a plunger on a hot day and trying to pull it out, it works. I would say buy a new plunger for this though lol, and the smaller the better. You want one made of rubber obviously so it can get a seal. It works great on big dents, that may be just the right size for it. Pump the plunger a few times til it gets some suction and pull it might take a few tries.

If it has been dented like that for a while you might be SOL but I am not sure about how this type of bumper reacts to being dented and then popping back to shape. If you may be getting a new bumper to fix it, there is no harm in making an attempt at this.

 

I would just take off the bumper, heat up the back side with a heat gun, and push it out little by little so the paint doesnt get damaged in the process.