[BBursey]

Hi -

I got my first door ding the other day - and unfortuantely, it's in the plastic bumper cover. The dent is half the size of a thumbnail and not very deep, but the paintwork on the car is very nearly perfect otherwise. The paint appears "smudged" from the impact, but not broken and neither is the plastic cracked. (Sorry, but I can't get a photo that does it justice.)

I got quotes this morning from reputable shops and now I'm a little torn on how to proceed. To repair, they've proposed to blend a base coat at the damaged area and then re-clear the entire cover. That's going to cost me ~$600.

Part of me thinks I should retain the factory paint and not touch this up unless / until it gets damaged further, but the other part of me wants the car back to looking new and again try to keep it that way.

Thoughts on the value of factory paint with a small door ding vs. a repaired bumper that looks like new?

Cheers,
Bryan