Every driver’s worst nightmare is to get a dent in their precious car. Unfortunately, there will always be times where your car will get a dent.
There could be any number of reasons leading to the damage of your vehicle, whether they be your fault, another driver’s mistake, or natural disasters.
But regardless of them, if you are wondering how much does it cost to fix a car dent then the repair cost of even the slightest dent will cost you anything starting from $50 and it can goes up to $110 – $180 depending on the size.
The cost, however, is very factor specific, and it can easily rise depending on different factors that will be discussed in the article.
I’ll explain how much it can cost to fix a car dent and the factors in play that determine this cost. Let’s get into it without any further delay!
Table of Contents
How To Find Out Dent Damage & Costing
For the lucky and rare individuals who have never experienced a dent, a car dent is extensive amounts of damage done to the car, requiring metalwork, replacement, or repainting.
A ding is something quite similar to a dent, but it is less in diameter and does not cause substantial damage compared to dents that can go deeper than they appear.
I will now discuss the categories of dents and how they appear according to cost:
Minor Dent
This dent is the product of very small collisions the car faces, such as stones or hail. The damage is small and requires little to no time and effort to repair.
The amount of effort and experience needed to fix these dents is so little that you may not even require a trip to a garage and do it at home.
However, if you decide to go to a shop, this dent may cost you anything from $50-$200.
Moderate Dent
Once again caused by small objects but now slightly bigger, such as golf balls or billiards, if the object is big enough, it may cause a moderate amount of damage to your vehicle, enough so that you may not be able to fix it yourself and be forced to visit a technician.
This visit will, in turn, cost you anything from $2,000-$5,000, which is quite a big repair cost for a dent, but the damage is usually such that the price cannot be helped.
Major Dents
Anything as big or bigger than a baseball can easily cause severe damage to your car in the form of massive dents, which are both large on the outside and deep on the inside.
This damage is increased according to the speed of the colliding object.
The repair may require a paintless dent repair that can cost upwards of $10,000, which is very expensive and will undoubtedly take a lot of time for your preferred mechanic to fix.
How Can You Judge The Cost Of A Dent Repair?
As mentioned above, many different factors combine to form the cost of a simple dent repair.
It starts with your car itself, what model it is, what brand it is, and moves up to the amount and size of the dent.
And finally, the main factor in determining the cost is where and how you get these dents fixed.
Despite cars going fast and looking tough, they are fragile things when exposed to the right hazards and even more expensive to repair from any damage they sustain.
A good and capable driver must know the extent of the damage and identify the cost of repair or at least have a general idea by simply looking at the damage.
We have talked about how much a single dent could cost and how it can be identified via severity; however, many more factors need to be discussed.
So let us continue with the article and find out more about how the cost is determined.
The Number Of Dents
A rather simple factor that requires no explanation, the more dents your car has, the more expensive it will be to repair the body.
Lots of minor dents around your car can easily add up and increase the repair price.
If a single such dent costs around $50, you can easily calculate how much it would cost to fix a handful of them.
Sometimes, the dents may be so close together that they form a bigger dent which is much harder and expensive to fix, making a relatively small and cheap problem and turning it into an expensive and severe one.
Make sure to fix the smaller dents as fast as possible before the damage adds up.
The Location Of The Dent
You would think that the location of the dent would be such an important factor, but the area where the dent occurs can make the difference between $50 and $2500.
A mechanic can easily repair the car’s straight and flat surfaces and, depending on the size of the dent, can be done so at home. This will cost you around $50 if you visit a mechanic.
Curved parts of the car are hard to fix and require professionals even to consider fixing them properly. The problem increases when the location of the dent is somewhere curved.
Then you can expect a large amount of money to go down the drain. Most of the money simply goes into the labor cost of the fix.
If the dent is in a hard-to-reach place, mechanics must work harder and smarter, driving up labor prices to a huge degree.
The Size Of The Dent
We have already talked about in extensive detail; small dents can be fixed for relatively cheap, i.e., $50, and sometimes fixed at home to save time and money.
Bigger dents may prove difficult to fix and require a paintless dent repair that easily costs $150 on a good day and $250 on a higher average.
The last type of dent, the major dents, which are big in size and deep, are the most difficult to fix and often require the driver to replace the parts of their vehicle, for now, ones as it would prove to be easier and cheaper to replace the part rather than spend so much time in repairing it.
Where You Get The Repair From
While any novice mechanic may attempt to repair your vehicle for dirt cheap, it can come with various amounts of loss in quality and may not last long in the end.
As mentioned multiple times, some dents are small and easy enough that they can be repaired by the owner themselves at their own homes.
This means that the price of repair is technically free.
In the same case, paying the standard rate, or sometimes even higher than the regular amount, leads to an incredible increase in the quality of the repair, which may last you for a very long time, so long as you do not dent the same place again.
High-quality garages and shops will cost a pretty penny. Still, the result will have you more than satisfied.
The Method Of Repair
There are various methods of repairing a car dent, but they usually fall into these two categories.
- The first one is the traditional way where the mechanic welds steel pins into the metal sheet, filling in the gaps and spraying tons of harmful chemicals to bring the sheet back to its original shape.
- Traditional methods may also involve sanding and repainting. All of this is long and tedious and hurts the value of your car in the long run.
- The second method is PDR or Paintless dent repair which has the mechanic manipulate the dent and pull it towards the original position.
- This method is done by tools that make the process precise and quick, so quick that repairs are finished on the same day. This is coupled with the fact that the repair is cheaper than the traditional method.
Repair Factors Affected By Cost
1. The Time It Takes To Repair The Dent
The repair cost will most likely dictate how long it will take for the repair to be made.
Despite traditional repairs costing more and taking more repair time while PDRs are cheaper and take less time, it does not mean that cheaper costs will provide faster repair time as you can pay the mechanic extra to have repairs done faster.
2. Car Insurance And Repair Cost
Depending on your insurance rate and whether your insurance covers the damage, it can cost you less to get repairs done; saving you extra resources you can spend somewhere else.
3. Quality For Cost
As mentioned, above paying experienced people can cost a lot but will have you receive quality repairs.
Cheap mechanics are prone to making mistakes such as:
- Over-spraying
- Blotching
- Mis-matching colors
You can avoid all of this simply by paying experienced professionals who will not try to cheat you out of quality work, providing you quality services such as multiple coats of paint and proper bodywork, which cheaper mechanics could potentially cheat you out of.
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped provide you with all the information you need to know about how much does it cost to fix a car dent.
Understanding all the various factors related to the cost and how each of them affects the cost can give you a good idea of how much a certain may cost to repair.
Do realize that the cost will depend upon these factors and will not be set in stone despite all of this.
It can be good to visit the mechanic and ask him yourself how much it will cost to fix the dents, but with this article, you will have a rough idea as to how much it should cost and how much does it generally cost to fix the type of dent that you have.
I am Tahir Azam, and I have been writing amazing articles for TaxiHack for as long as I can remember. I know everything that is to know when it comes to automobiles and is always on top of industry news and developments. While I am not an expert by any means, I pride myself on knowing the ins and outs of many different problems and, of course, their solutions. The articles on our website are some of the best and well-researched content that you will find, and I spend countless hours making sure this remains to be true. This is why I ask you to take your time out and read some of my articles, especially if you find a topic that resonates with you or is something you are looking into. This way, you will find the perfect mix of information and tips on your desired topic. Learn more about Tahir.
