Hi everyone. Noob.

I love my xB. It's the first car I've ever really, really liked.

I've barely owned it a month and it's been through a few things.

1. Scratches on the rear bumper, lower-right.

2. Rear Bumper connection rip. (This is hard to explain. On the passenger side, the rear bumper connects to the rear of the wheel well via a molded, plastic loop that hooks around a bolt. This loop has torn through and the top part of the bump now doesn't quite connect.

3. Gash in upper front bumper. This is the rubbery-bumper under the SCION logo and grill. It's as if someone took a piercing instrument, like an icepick, and pushed it perpendicular into the top of the bumper, causing a lot of plastic to push up and away from the bump. So, there's this big lump there. This happened when a family member ran an ATV into the front of the car.

4. Small dent in very front of hood, chipping off a tiny area of paint. This was also caused by the collision with the ATV.

I am very upset by these things. It wouldn't feel as bad had the ATV Incident not occurred. For that part, the family members are willing to pay for the problem.

Here are my questions. Keep in mind that I've never really paid much attention to my cars before this one other than standard maintenance. I've never done aftermarket parts, performance upgrades, or DIY kits. I'm willing to consider all of that here, which is why I'm asking these questions in the forum. I want to take care of and dress up this car a bit.

1. Keeping the above in mind, would you bring it to a traditional body shop? Would you take it to a Toyota dealer?

2. Of the two above, who is most likely to have a very large price.

3. Would I be better off dealing with a place that specializes in body enhancement? In other words, would a place that deals with cosmetically upgrading cars be a better bet when it comes to repairing things like this? Would they be more creative in repair matters?

4. Can these bumpers be repaired somehow? Or would they have to be completely replaced? What about the hood?

5. For bumper scratches, can OEM touch-up paint be used? Or will that somehow not hold on whatever material makes up the bumpers?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike....

 

They can be fixed

its the matter of money

Some Toyota dealer (and most all of car dealers) send their repairs to a 3rd party shops
best way is to go to 3 different shops
compare their work and estimate

and pick the one that you think is best for you.

 

you might want to look into aftermarket parts too. Like a carbon hood for < 300 and a billet grill for, I dunno how much they are . Might be cheaper then paying the shop to reshoot/get OEM parts. Just a thought.

 

I've wondered whether aftermarket parts would be better.

Would any of those items void the mfg warranty?

m

 

a hood void a waranty? Nit unless it came unglued, fell into the engine bay sending pieces into the intake or otherwise tore something up. We're talking about body parts, not internals.

 

Heh. Sorry about the noob question. Up until this point, I have never, ever looked into aftermarket anything for a car.

m

 

Most dealers don't do their own paint/body work, they just farm it out and mark it up for you. Better off just going to some shops themselves.