If you drive long enough, eventually, you may get into an accident or have a vehicle damaged by another driver while parked. Collision repair shops offer dent and auto collision repair for most cars and trucks and can make the damage disappear for you, but knowing when to take the car to the shop can be crucial.
Light Damage
A car or truck that is damaged while it is parked is less likely to have critical damage to it. However, if another vehicle hits it hard enough, the damage can be more significant than you might first suspect. A door scratch or minor dent is often not enough to rush the car to an auto collision repair center, but you need to look carefully at any damage to make that decision.
Light body damage is often easily fixed, but in some cases, the cost to fix it is low enough that the insurance deductible is higher than the repair cost. If that is the case with your car, you may want to wait and pay for the repair out of pocket to avoid the claim on your insurance or try to get the other driver to pay for it if you know who hit your car.
If the damage is minor and does not affect how the car runs and drives, it can typically wait for repairs. Damage affecting the functionality or the drivability of the car or truck is more of a concern and should be taken in for assessment and repair sooner.
Vehicle Collisions
A car or truck involved in a collision involving a heavy impact between your vehicle and another often needs significant repair. Modern cars are designed with crumple or impact zones intended to bend and move as they absorb the impact of the crash to protect the driver and occupants.
The side effect is that the vehicle can suffer a lot of damage in a low-speed collision, and often you can't see that damage easily. Taking the car to an auto collision repair center to inspect it thoroughly is often the best way to determine the extent of the damage and whether the shop can repair the vehicle or not.
Because the frame is part of the body on most newer vehicles, a slight bend or twist in the body can cause many things on the car to be out of alignment, and the only way to detect that is to put the vehicle on a frame machine and measure it. Often the frame can be pulled back into the proper position and the car fixed, but you need to take the vehicle to the auto collision repair shop for an evaluation to determine the next step after a crash.
