Selling vehicle with small dent

[pugmom]

DH and I had just made up our mind to sell our 2015 Honda Pilot. We may simply stick with one car. When we got home from the supermarket the other day, we noticed a couple of small, but noticeable, dents, which must have happened in the parking lot (see attached image).
DH went to a local auto body shop, and they were swamped. They promised but did not give us an estimate.
Here's the question. If this were a few hundred dollars, I would pay it and be done. But if it is $1-2,000 I am not so sure.
I know that used Hondas are very popular.
If I went to the dealer (who could presumably fix it wholesale), would they ding me the same $2000? NOTE: I am just guessing on the high end.

Does anyone have recent experience with this type of auto body repair?
Also, comments/guesses welcome about whether to fix this before trying to sell it.
I guess we could also try a private sale and maybe they would not care at all!

Thanks!

Pugmom

 

[street]

Me I would private sell it and make more money in the process, dent and all.

Just write up a buy/sell agreement, can find a template example for car sale online.

 

[OldShooter]

I wouldn't even consider repairing the ding whether for private sale or dealer trade-in. Your buyer may not care, he may have a friend or relative in the body repair business, or he may not even notice the ding. You will never get a payback if you do the repair before selling.

 

[Car-Guy]

You might want to try one of these DIY small dent/ding removal kits.. Very cheap ($50 to $75) easy to use and works well for small dents/dings. Even a novice should be able to get ~90% of the dents out pretty quick.

 

[calmloki]

The ding in the crease is much tougher, but paintless dent repair is your friend. Look online - they will hammer the dents out in a truly amazing way - bet it's under $200. The scratches will still be there, but maybe a proper paint code paint and unleash your inner artist (less is more - don't get carried away).
https://www.automotivetouchup.com/touch_up_paint.asp

 

[braumeister]

Me I would private sell it and make more money in the process, dent and all.

Just write up a buy/sell agreement, can find a template example for car sale online.

I agree with this. Best, simplest, quickest solution.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I traded in a 5 year old low mileage Camry that I beat up while living in inner city Chicago. I had “collided” with the side of my condo’s tiny garage wall multiple times while trying to squeeze into the parking spot. I had multiple scratches pretty much down the entire side of the car. When I moved to Texas and wanted to get the mandatory pickup truck, I took the car to the dealer and they told me they could repair it for less than I could get it repaired. They just incorporated the scratches into the trade in value. Since the car only had 25k miles on it, I still got a pretty good deal.

 

[Ronstar]

Me I would private sell it and make more money in the process, dent and all.

Just write up a buy/sell agreement, can find a template example for car sale online.

+2

 

[MC Rider]

Another vote for sell as is.

 

[Jerry1]

How many miles are on it? The more miles, the less it matters. If you’re going to trade it in, the dealer is already going to lowball you so he probably won’t care. I agree with the paintless dent repair if you go that route, but it really matters how much it’s worth. I’m looking to buy my grandson a car for $5K or less. If you have a lot of miles on it and it’s in good condition otherwise, I wouldn’t flinch at that type of damage. Up to about $10K some people might care but you’d probably still get what you want out of it. After that, IMO, it would start to matter. Still, it’s unlikely I’d expect get you to come down more than a few hundred for that type of damage, making it unlikely you repairing it is worth your time or effort.

 

[COcheesehead]

My wife had a Mini with a few dents. We had a paintless dent guy come to the house. He fixed them for less than $300. He told us he works with all the local dealers and if we traded it in that condition, the dealer would have called him and deducted likely $1000+ for our trade.

 

[Lsbcal]

You might first want to get a quote from Carmax. They could probably beat a dealer and you also have a backup plan if a private sale is your choice. If selling don't make that minor repair.

 

[JoeWras]

I just bought an older Honda through a private sale. The last thing I was worried about was dents and scratches. I'm even trying some DYI to fix the scratch issue. I will admit during negotiations, I did use it as a bargaining chip to knock off a few hundred (along with some other small stuff). Still a lot less than what an actual repair would cost.

This matters a lot when selling a newer car. It hardly matters on an old (10+ years) car like the one I bought. Your car is in a gray zone. Some people may be sensitive to it. Others won't. They are looking for Honda reliability. As a buyer, I personally would not flinch at that dent.

BTW, as someone who was just in the buyer's side of the market for a used Honda or Toyota, I will tell you that the market is still hot, and actually recently stopped the decline in prices that was happening the last 5 months. Now is a good time to sell.

Me and the party I bought it from were using the Autotrader Private Seller Exchange to take care of the transaction process. I was intimidated by the selling-buying process, and this platform helped ease the pain. It costs the seller about $150 to $200 in the end, though. (Ad costs $49. If it goes to sale, there's a processing fee $99 or a bit more on a car over $10k.)

I never thought I'd see this day:
1) Bought a Honda. Swore I never would for 40 years.
2) Bought a used car. Swore I'd always buy new.
3) Bought a used car through a private sale. NEVER thought I'd do that.

I have enough confidence that I may try to sell my own car next time.

BTW: Facebook Marketplace will get you action for free, but it is a dangerous cesspool. Autotrader tries to limit spam, but can still get some. I spoke with my seller and he said it was better than FB Marketplace, and he only looked at offers through their verified seller program (have to upload ID). This knocks out a lot of buyers, but maybe that's a good thing.

Seller's wife then chimed in with stories of all kinds of FB Marketplace scams she almost got bit by when selling furniture. You've probably heard them all. ("I'll send you an extra $100 for shipping, just pay the guy $100 cash who shows up at your door as his fee." "Let's use Zelle, but first you need to test the process by sending me some money." And so on.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I'm with calmloki. This is a candidate for paintless dent repair. These repair people are like artists.

About a year ago I came out of the grocery store and found a dimple-like dent about the size of a quarter in my truck's driver door. The offending grocery cart was nearby.

I contacted several paintless dent repair people and got estimates, easily done by texting them photos. I got estimates ranging from $125 (independent shop) to $400 (dealer). Got it fixed for $150. I'm on my tablet right now and don't have the photos handy, but could post them later.

In your case it looks like the paint has been scratched so that's an added complication. If you intend to make your Pilot look as if it was never damaged in that area, it will need more than paintless dent repair, involving applying paint. Maybe touching up the area with one of those small paint match bottles you get from the Honda dealer would do the trick. The dent repair person might have suggestions.

Once you get an estimate of the cost you can decide if it's worth it or not to fix it. If I were looking for a used vehicle I would consider the dents to be far worse than scratches in the paint. That dent located right in the middle of the body line is especially noticeable. If the dents were gone and only scratches visible, I would shrug them off as something I could fix myself with the dealer supplied matching paint bottle.

 

[JoeWras]

Dents in bumpers on older Hondas could also affect the blind spot warning system, if applicable. Sensors are in those locations and get broken or misaligned.

I hadn't originally thought of that in my "don't worry about it" answer. It could be a worry.

 

[Aerides]

Around here I see plenty of ads for mobile dent repair - folks come to your driveway to do it and give quick quotes. Maybe explore that?

If no, for an 8 year old car, I wouldn't expect it to make much difference.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Around here I see plenty of ads for mobile dent repair - folks come to your driveway to do it and give quick quotes. Maybe explore that?

If no, for an 8 year old car, I wouldn't expect it to make much difference.

Don't poo-poo eight year old cars. Used car market is red hot and people do notice small imperfections.

 

[OldShooter]

Don't poo-poo eight year old cars. Used car market is red hot and people do notice small imperfections.

OP can easily test the market (both private and dealer trade-in) without fixing the ding. The feedback will help answer the question of whether to fix, but IMO few buyers will consider it to be a big deal. An ounce of market test data trumps a ton of SGOTI opinions.

 

[Qs Laptop]

OP can easily test the market (both private and dealer trade-in) without fixing the ding. The feedback will help answer the question of whether to fix, but IMO few buyers will consider it to be a big deal. An ounce of market test data trumps a ton of SGOTI opinions.

Agreed market data rules. Having just gone through the used car buying/selling process through my son's experience, the market is very sensitive and people are picky. Eight year old vehicles are golden right now.

BTW, what's SGOTI? Some guy on the internet?

 

[Midpack]

Around here I see plenty of ads for mobile dent repair - folks come to your driveway to do it and give quick quotes. Maybe explore that?

If no, for an 8 year old car, I wouldn't expect it to make much difference.

Dentless car repair is incredible, but the sooner you act the better according to the people who do it. So don’t wait. Dentless won’t replace paint, but maybe some dentless services do touch up paint that could help.

I had a minor dent about a year ago that cost me $1100, so $2000 for what’s pictured (worse than my damage) does not surprise me.

I wouldn’t buy a car with any dents, even a 2015. But I am sure some people will, but you’ll take a good hit selling as is. Any savvy buyer is understandably going to want a discount.

 

[JoeWras]

The more I think about it, the more I think OP should get that dent fixed first by a dent company.

Like I said earlier, 10+ years wouldn't matter as much as this gray area of 7 or 8 years. The used car market is so darn strong right now, and people are flooding the market in this age range. Definitely worth getting top dollar.

Plus, the dent guys can work magic.

My cousin's husband runs a few small businesses simultaneously, like T-shirt printing and dent repair, because both have ebbs and flows in demand, he can do both.

He has magic hands with these dents. They have all kinds of techniques, some involving hundreds of little taps. It is fascinating. He doesn't really do paint, but he does buff and smooth edges on little scratches like this which makes them almost unnoticeable. And his charges are typically in the few hundred range, except for tiny door dents that are sub $100.

 

[Qs Laptop]

My cousin's husband runs a few small businesses simultaneously, like T-shirt printing and dent repair, because both have ebbs and flows in demand, he can do both.

He has magic hands with these dents. They have all kinds of techniques, some involving hundreds of little taps. It is fascinating.

Yep, these guys are artists. It's amazing what they can do with applying heat to the area, the right tools, and various lights at various angles and positions to see the dent clearly.

Here's my repair. This was a fairly straightforward repair but I've seen examples of dents you would never believe could be fixed without paint work, but were fixed.

 

[Car-Guy]

Dentless car repair is incredible, but the sooner you act the better according to the people who do it. So don’t wait. Dentless won’t replace paint, but maybe some dentless services do touch up paint that could help.

Yes it is.... IME, the sooner you fix a small or dent, the easier it is... (Metal Memory seems to be real) And if the paint isn't cracked or damage it will typically pull out too. Ding pulling should really be called "ding massaging" since it takes many smaller pulls or massaging to get it out. Usually no touch up paint is needed for small dings/dents but some rubbing compound or Scratch X might help finish things off once the metal is massaged back into shape.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

In 2009 and 2017 I sold inherited vehicles, and I had them both thoroughly detailed, and one needed about $2K in body work to look like new. I have been recommending that, as I think selling a car in dealership condition can get you a little more $$$, and for me it was worth it then, as Carmax offered me about $4K less than I eventually got in a private sale for the one that had that body work.

But with the way the automobile market is now, it's probably a tossup, IMO. I'd base it on whether you want to try to put in the time and trouble, and if not, I doubt you're leaving much, if any, money on the table.

 

[O2Bfree]

My husband calls cars with little dents "pre-disastered," meaning it's already got a little dent so you won't be crying so much when you inevitably get another.