Last Friday, I had the unfortunate situation to be in a fender bender. It was my fault.

I did not notice the car in front of me slamming the breaks while changing lanes. I was not going fast (under 30 miles per hour) so the damage was limited. I had to file a police report and make an insurance claim.

I am planning to get the vehicle fixed at the Land Rover dealership.

Question: How much will my car devalue now that it has an accident reported? It will show up on CarFax, etc. Anyone with experience on trading/selling post fender bender?

Thanks.

 

hopefully none, minimal damage.
Do you have the detailed estimate?

 

The bigger concern is the CarFax report. The report doesn't show extend of the damage so everyone assumes the worst.

I'm getting an estimate on Wednesday at 3 pm and then it heads to the Land Rover collision shop.

 

Save all the data if someone runs a report, and ask about it, show all the data to them. Are you plan on selling it soon? Title will be clean.

 

So, I had a very similar incident a while back - except in my case, the car in front of me rolled back into me at a stop light. You can see in the picture there is a little bit of misalignment in the bumper cover around the lower air dam. I had warning lights about the adaptive cruise / emergency braking. It was over $7k in damage - mainly the adaptive cruise radar or sonar thing, and a headlight. Although the headlight looked fine, the impact broke several clips you couldn't see.

 

Wow! Over $7k seems extreme. I also have the adaptive cruise control, etc.

I get a courtesy estimate on Wednesday.

 

Actually, it was over $8200 (labor was $1200). Here are some pics - pink marks are where something was broken/damaged. I was blown away based on how there wasn't much to see on the outside. I appreciated the photos and markups from the shop I used and feel they did a great job to put it back in like-new condition. Luckily it was no real "body"/frame work - just replacing "pieces"

 

Thanks for the pictures and estimate.

Now I have a better idea what to look for and expect. Thanks!

 

Depending what you want to do with the vehicle... you can have it fixed, and sell it now (as you know there is a big demand for used cars and it may not matter much - pricewise ), or use it and enjoy it. CarFax is a double sword. I have a truck that I had an accident with it ( a DOT lawn mower has dislodged a stump and threw it in front of my truck at 70 MPh) No time to stop or slow down. Fixed like new, but damage was over $ 12K with paint and labor - 90% cosmetic !. The interesting part ? it never showed in CarFax. I did it under insurance and authorized shop, and also got a police report and all ... never in CarFax. Another thing was when I bought a RR Sport which had a small ding in the back from another car, but it was fixed and looked like factory. CarFax report would have you believe that it was a major damage. Good thing I have seen the pix from the accident and invoices - under 1200$.
So, CarFax is pretty sloppy.
Then again, if you find a customer that swears by it ... then yeah, you take a ding in value.