Forums

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally posted by John Phoenix
Sounds like the dent is not causing any serious damage to the car. Here's my take on it.

If you can live with the dent and the scratch, do so. I did a quick analysis on Kelley Blue Book of the value of your car, and it came up with:

Excellent $6,100

Good $5,545

Fair $4,580

for a 2001 6 cylinder, automatic, two wheel drive Grand Cherokee Limited with 90,000 miles and no special options. Figure that's about $1,000 difference if the body didn't have the dent versus the dent being there. It would cost you more than that to fix it.

If the accident was your fault, you're out the $500 now, and increased insurance premiums later. (Believe me, for small claims, the insurance companies get their money back. You should consider raising your deductible to something like $1,000 or $2,000 or so - otherwise, if you make small claims, they'll get the money back in increased premiums later, and you also could save on your premiums for the higher deductible.) So, an insurance claim probably is not worth it.

At the time of the new car purchase, you could either trade your car in, and take the $1,000 hit, or you could donate it to a charity and take the full value of the car as a tax deduction. Well, I take that back. You could a couple of years ago; I'm not sure that rule remains in place and unchanged. If it is in place, take the tax deduction, and get a better deal on the purchase of the car - no haggling over the value of the car, etc.

FYI, not that this matters in the analysis, but it's the V8, 4wd, 60th anniversary package (which means totally loaded).

I'm leaning towards just living with it as is, at the moment. But like I said, I value your all opinions.