My car suffered storm damage and we have an insurance claim. An initial repair of the windshield was made so the car would be driveable and then I took the car to a body shop for an estimate. The next day I received a check from the insurance company made out to us for the insurance adjuster's estimate of what the body repairs would cost. It was more generous than the body shop's bid.
My spouse says -- why not live with the body damage and keep the check? I am not fond of the dents. I might see if I can get other bids through a paintless dent removal place and save some money. Note that the car is paid for and I don't have to worry about a lender.
Would you drive a car with body damage to keep the insurance money? It's not a ton of money $2.6k
Have you have any experience with paintless dent removals?
I've never filed a claim for a car so excuse my ignorance, but how did you did cut a check given directly to you? Did the insurance company waive your deductible, or did they cut you a check for the adjustment minus your deductible?
More on topic, if it's a newer vehicle (<5 years old) I would definitely get it fixed based on my past experience. I was in a similar situation, I had a ~5 year old car that someone backed into and put a huge dent in the fender. It was a hit and run while I was parked in a shopping center and the police never found the person.
Despite being a "car guy" that maintains my vehicles to OCD levels, I decided to save the money after getting a couple estimates for repair. (around $1500). 10 years later I go to sell the car and get quotes/blue book/other info that show pretty clearly that with that older car the huge dent lowered the value of the vehicle by the majority of the amount of that repair (despite the fact that the vehicle is relatively low mileage and in great mechanical shape -- people care more about appearance than that). So I drove a car and hated that dent for 10 years and it really didn't save me a significant amount of money. If I had gone about the repair in a more frugal way (e.g. a junk yard part as mentioned here) it could have saved me money in the long run.
Obviously I will get plenty of flack for that opinion on this forum, but if you do care about the damage and it's not causing you significant financial challenges I would fix it.