[ashis89]

Voted for doesn't bother me.

My new car was less than 2 months old when it got a bad gash at one corner of the bumper. Got it evaluated a few weeks later during my routine service and got a very reasonable quote for fixing it. However I still chose not to get it fixed as they wanted to keep the car for 2 days (as expected) and I felt it was not worth the hassle.

On the other hand, my 9 year old car had quite a few scratches but all of them minor. I never fixed those but I did repair and repaint my rear bumper when a biker bumped into it and deformed it. It didn't look good and I got it fixed the very next day.

That said, I expect a new car to be perfect, without any paint defect or panel fit issues. If I am paying full money for a new car, I expect it to be perfect. If not, give me some discount!

[Durango Dude]

It hurts if the car is new, but grows upon you as it ages i.e if it's minor. I've voted for the second option. Now with Chinese Virus, I suggest hold your horses and don't splurge on getting mods and dents and scratches fixed; there'll be much more pressing needs and almost NIL income to speak of.

[anandhsub]

i am not too concerned about panel gaps/ scratches or even minor paint issues but for some reason I hate dents both on my own and other cars. I get it fixed pretty much the next day.

Weird I know..

[uditsharma01]

Wow! I am accompanied with 13.95% BHPians who go crazy even with a single minor scratch. My family and friends have made me believe that I am the only one tabooed. Big sigh of relief.

[Kashish]

For me, it would depend on the individual car in the house.

Elite i20 (2017) - Primarily driven by My dad(74) the car ends up going to the Paint booth every 3-6 months due to the various small scratches/dents my dad manages to put on the car especially the bumpers and fenders. Insurance is claimed if any parts are to be replaced.

Honda City (2013) - This is my sister's daily driver and all the scratches/dents are dealt with annually during the cars annual service. This car has the least downtime in the house. Had to give her a complete paint job last year due to the various dings picked up in almost all the panels.

Honda Civic (2006) - This my daily driver and rarely does it require a paint job. But I end up spending much more on detailing

P.S. All the repairs are done at my trustworthy FNG.

[dr.aviansh]

Dad bought me a Zen Estilo, Red coloured, in 2009 after my Xth board exams. My dad works as a freelance loss assessor under collaboration with many insurance companies. So, the very next day without my knowledge dad took the car to his work instead of his then usual Accent Viva.

Dad had a case of a truck’s accident so naturally he had to visit a truck workshop. Since that particular workshop had no boundaries, I suspect it must have been a local one. My driver parked the one day old car, gleaming in red, next to a container truck and both went off to their concerned truck.

A few minutes later, the mechanic working on the container truck came and opened it’s gates. Before he realised anything the left door, revolved around the axis and hit my brand new car! The rear glass, the whole dickey and right taillight were completely broken.

Imagine how I felt my first, a gleaming red car, on her maiden voyage gets hit by truck’s latch all because my driver didn’t use his brain while parking. ��

[nkrishnap]

Voted for the 3rd option. It bothers me but I do get it fixed from time to time. However, earlier it was "fix it right away". However, with the frequency of the stuff happening with the car and bike, I am a little laid back in getting it fixed. More importantly, age is catching up (either induced thought or reality)

Unless something is critical and needs immediate attention, it is attended to immediately. The rest can wait.

[libranof1987]

We've gone from a family that was a prime candidate for option 1 to one that oscillates between the last two options.

If it affects functionality/drive-ability/safety or ruins the aesthetics: fix immediately
If not, but has a quick (time/money) solution: fix
Else, ignore.

[R2D2]

I fall firmly in category 1. Scratches and dents drive me nuts. I once yelled at a guy who kept his laptop bag on the boot lid. People think it's a parcel shelf. Bloody twits.

As the car got older I became a little more tolerant to seeing small dings and light scratches. But these things still upset me.

[balenoed_]

Fix it immediately, else I have no peace of mind.

There was instance where I have given the car for some dent repairs. While taking the car back after the job was done, I misjudged the exit gate of the workshop and left door scraped a little bit. I didn't want to come back to the same workshop to fix that to avoid me looking a stupid again to him and cause an embarrassment.

So I drove straight to another known workshop to drop it with him on the same day and got it painted again.

And the car is a 16 years old one.

[2000rpm]

I treat different things in the title differently

• Scratches - I get them polished, dont try to paint them as I fear the Color Matching of a repaint
• Dents - I absolutely hate dents, get them removed ASAP. In fact I try to avoid Dent prone cars with poor body strength like Maruti Baleno
• Panel Gaps - There nothing one can do about it, as its a factory fit. I dont mess with factory fit.
• Paint defects - I try to live with scratches rather than risk a complete panel mismatch
• Minor Fit and finish issue - Anything that can be addressed by myself or during routine service will be taken care off. I have learnt to live with a few rattles. I know they only increase once you start searching for them.

[Storm2.0]

In a country like India there's no use of fixing minor dents and scratches. Infact I consider them as "Nazar ka Tika" (ie a mark to keep evil things away from my car/ superstitious stuff).
It a bigger pain to manager these minor dents if one owns a Maruti or a Toyota Innova, both the cars have extremely thin sheet metal.

[GTO]

I buy my cars pre-worshipped, so they already come with a fair share of nicks & dents . New ones don't bother me at all as you can't drive / park in Bombay without other people damaging your ride. That said, what I am particular about is getting all of them cleaned up once a year (when they go in for the annual service).

With new cars, I won't tolerate fit & finish issues on premium models or anything costing over 10-15 lakh rupees. However, if the driving experience is really good, I'll be willing to overlook them.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

I repair my car for major stuff only. For almost 1.5 years, my car was roaming around with a bad FR LH fender dent due to a Bolero pickup deciding to cut my lane in heavy traffic. There was a scratch for ~4 years running from RRRH door to FRRH door mostly due to public space parking. A dent on RRLH door. Multiple scratches on the Rear bumper. Did a major repainting & repair at 6 years where all this was sorted.

[adi.mariner]

Personally I feel the nicks and dents are like battle scars on the car. The surrounding vehicles tend to stay away if there are some on your car. It is impossible to keep the car clean with the sheer amount of traffic around you and the roadside parking which I use sometimes.
I have stopped bothering about small nicks and dents till the car is mechanically sound. I will get them fixed only if it is inevitable to do so or there is a cheap solution.