Car Body repair - right thing to do?

Question

Long story short, was in a fender bender, his fault, nice kid, called police to have a report. Got the left front fender AND driver door, so it might get expensive. Dad wants to settle out of insurance to avoid preimiums (the kid just turned 21).

I would like to help them out. I might have a friend of a friend who could do this body work on the cheep. If I get 2 estimates and we decide to split the dif, plus a few days car rental, and he just writes me a check, does it really matter what I do with the money?

I guess 1) Is there a moral delimma here? and 2) Is this a standard practice after an accident? All answers welcome but would love to hear from repair guys!

Answer 1

1)  No moral/ethical question here;  you suffered a loss.  The amount of the loss is, the decrease in the market value of your car.  Best way to measure that is, market value of the repairs.  Fix it yourself on the cheap, that's your business.

2)  Somebody with more experience will have to describe "standard practice."

Answer 2

if you do not know these people then you should make sure the money is good? I would file it with their  insurance, too many things can go wrong? why would somebody want to pay you 3k or so for the repair? their premiums are not going up that much, your taking a risk I would get an estimate asap and get there cash asap,if not go through insurance

Answer 3

yea you can do with as you please