What affects the cost of a car body repair?

The size of a mark is only part of the story. A shallow dent with the paint still intact can often be worked out cheaply, while a sharp crease that has split the paint needs filling, priming and refinishing. Damage that reaches the structure underneath, rather than just the outer panel, is a bigger job again.

This is why an estimate needs the car in front of us. Guessing from a photo tends to be wrong in one direction or the other.

Some panels are simply more involved to work on, remove or refit than others. Paint matters too: metallic and pearl finishes take more care to match than a flat solid colour, and the paint on an older car will have faded from its original shade, so blending into the surrounding panels is part of getting it right.

A tidy repair is often cheaper than fitting a new panel or bumper, and it keeps the original part on the car. Sometimes replacement is genuinely the better call. We will tell you which applies to your car rather than defaulting to the more expensive route.