Vandalism would normally be covered by comprehensive coverage, and won't affect your premiums; you'll just have to pay a deductible. If you tried to do it yourself, you'd never get the paint to match quite right, so you're better off taking it to an auto body shop to have it professionally repaired.
Yes, I had this happen to me last year. Insurance covered it under comprehensive, no noticeable change to my insurance rate.
If when you run a fingernail over it, if your nail catches in the scratch, the scratch is very likely too deep to fix with paint correction(like buffing/polishing).
A proper fix will require prep, painting and blending, which you shouldn't try to do yourself. You could buy a touch up stick that matches your paint to cover the scratch. It won't look perfect and won't last forever without clear coat on top, but it will prevent rust.
Before you decide how you'll deal with this, you can bring it to a body shop for an estimate, most shops will do that for free. Most shops can give you an estimate from photos emailed or submitted to their websites.
Depends, how much do you care, and how good does your car still look?
If you drive a pristine car that you plan on selling eventually: get it done at a bodyshop.
If you drive an older car or plan to keep it until it dies, and dont care about the looks too much: chrisfix has some good videos on working with a paint pen
If you drive a 20 year old car in the rust belt: lol
It's somewhere in between. A 2012 ford mustang. Some minor scratches on the driver's side that i bought it with. The passenger side was perfect. I care a good amount but I'm not made of money. I'm definitely considering some DIY rn
Definitely repair. If you have comprehensive coverage, then double definitely!
My deductible is $500 though and that feels like a lot to spend on a scratch.
Basically any bodywork job involving painting panels is going to cost at least $800. And if it's multiple body panels it will be more.
If you're just worried about rust I'd say do it yourself it's not that hard
If you're in the the US, file a police report. If for anything documentation (and local crime statistics). I'm sure there won't be any real investigation, but it does help identify patterns.
Also, when/if you choose to file an insurance claim, you'll have a police report number. Which may or may not help grease the wheels of the claim.
In the European countries that I am familiar with, a police report is mandatory for an insurance claim, and a formality.
acab
My local pd lets you submit police reports yourself online. I've done maybe 10 or so in the past for work. No cops required lol.
Did you park like an ass? Sorry to hear that happened, a body shop is your best bet
It doesn’t matter. Leave a note, don’t destroy someone else’s property.
I’m not advocating for vandalism, but people don’t usually key cars for no reason
I once parked a car for a while on a well populated road, in a completely legal spot, without parking in a weird angle, without parking too close to anyone, and there's no one there that would know me and have a problem with me, so the only likely explanation is that some jackass teenager found it funny to key my car for no reason.
I’m not advocating for vandalism, but people don’t usually key cars for no reason
lol
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