Well I made a mistake ladies and gents. My girlfriend's father was helping me with a home improvement project and we needed to move his truck. I of course offered to move the vehicle. In my haste, I bumped the edge of my house and left some very nice sub-surface scratches on his truck. Not being an expert on auto-body repair, I assumed it would be a relatively easy and inexpensive fix- man was I wrong! The quote from the auto-body shop was over $1000! This seems absolutely insane to me- I did not notice any dents, just the sub-surface scratches. Maybe there was damage I was unaware of, but the vehicle was going approximately 2 MPH and the range of the scratches, which are near the wheel-well, is less than a foot. Does this seem like an outrageous price?
Now I am left trying to determine my next move. Of course since it's not my vehicle, I assume I cannot make a claim on my own vehicle insurance. There is no damage to my home, so I don't know that there is anything that can be done with my homeowners insurance. I also don't think it is fair for him to have to make a claim on his own insurance which would raise his premiums down the road. Am I stuck shelling out $1000 for this relatively tiny mistake? I realize I can get a second opinion on the amount of the repair, but I am wondering if there are any other solutions out there that I am not thinking of. I don't expect that he would be excited for me to take a stab at doing the repair myself since I have no auto-body experience. This definitely feels like this might be a small setback that I am stuck with. Anyone have any better ideas to save some stache cash?