Judging by the damage to the VW in the pics, there's going to be a claim on their insurance regardless of how you get your money. Get an estimate from the highest body-shop in town, you know, the one that works on Mercedes, Lexus, Porsche and Land Rover... Give that to the kid's insurance and cash the check when it comes.

Happy Rovering, enjoy your new bumper!

 

I remember when I was in High School this spoiled ******* kid threw a huge chunk of concrete right into the side of my cousin's Pontiac Firebird. Sounded like a gunshot inside the car. We stopped, and there was a massive dent right in the door. We told the Police Officer in school who did it and filed a report and stuff. Report got filed, parents got called, kid got into a shytload of trouble. We took it to this body shop down the road from where we were living at the time (we always saw Mercedes', Lexus', Ferrarris, and just about any expensive car you could think of sitting outside), and they kind of balked at us when we pulled up in his 1988 Pontiac Firebird. We told them what was going on, and they were more than obliged to give him his estimate...a little over $3000. The car cost him $2800).

Long story short: Dude's parents cut my cousin a check, he did the repair himself, and pocketed the rest.

 

I got 1600$ for some scratches. You'll definately get a new hardcore bumper and maybe some sliders out of that!

 

My wife backed into the neighbors car and cracked my rear bumper(-18F outside). I couldn't believe it cracked even then. Called my agent and was told that if I didn't get original rear bumper I would lose my full coverage ins. until they could verify that the car was "safe". I figured that somebody would muck it up, so I still don't have those ARB bumpers I want. By the way, my bill was only $525 for the new bumper and left turn/fog assy installed.

 

Personally I think the step saved it from more damage, the bumper would have been hit harder and it would have bent the mountings as well.

 

This just happened to me 2 months ago. Its different in every state, but my insurance said if I filed the claim through them, then I had to pay the deductible and wait for them to collect. In addition, because I had a lien, they would cut the check to me and the lienholder.

If I filed the claim through their insurance, I didn't have to pay the deductible and the check was made out to me. HTH.