Need advice on car repairs

[DR527]

My mother in law was nice enough to house sit and watch our dog. While we went on vacation to the beach. She ask to borrow my car to drive to the grocery store. I said sure. And she scratched the passenger side of my car on our garage door opening. 

My question is I'm not sure what the best option would be to get this fix. I own my car out right(2025 Kia K5 with 10k miles). And I had planed to sale it in two years. Would it be smarter in the long run to pay for the damage myself? Or should I have my insurance company cover the damages. Would the claim even if it's not a car crash drastically reduced my cars value? Or would I be able to keep this off of a carfax report? 

[MarkintheHV]

I recently had to have repairs done on the rear bumper of my F150.  When I went to trade in, I questioned about the difference in trade in (from previous month) and was told it was because I now had a carfax entry on my truck.  I wish I would have paid out of my pocket to fix it

[pizzadude]

What's your auto policy deductible - also have you gotten any ballpark estimates for the work ?

Your description of it being a scratch, is it bad enough that it will require paint work ?

[FicoMike0]

Ditto @pizzadude 

Depends on the cost. A little rubbing compound is cheap. Even an outside mirror is an easy fix. 

Straightening sheet metal and repaint, big deal!

[FicoMike0]

Btw, my first answer to the title was , "get an air wrench" lol. Not useful for body work, but handy for a lot of things.

[DR527]

Still driving home from the beach. Had my mil send a pic. SMH.

[JoeRockhead]

If you want to keep it off Carfax, pay out of pocket to have it repaired.  Any insurance claim for repairs will be reported by the insurance company. 

[cashorcharge]

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@JoeRockhead wrote:

If you want to keep it off Carfax, pay out of pocket to have it repaired.  Any insurance claim for repairs will be reported by the insurance company. 

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THIS!!!  The money to fix it will likely be less than the loss in value if you take it to a Body Shop and the have that reported to CarFax

[DR527]

Left side of garage door.

Right side of garage door

[Thomas_Thumb]

I had an insurance claim for a rear bumper and right rear tail light replacement. Also had front bumper replaced as part of another claim. Both involved a 2nd vehicle/party and they filed claims. My Carfax report showed 0 accidents when I sold the car. Neither incident was associated with a police report.

The insurance company obviously did not report these claims as accidents to Carfax. Also, the company doing the repairs/replacements did not report it. No actual bodywork was required. Just bumper and tail light replacements.

What triggers manditory reporting to Carfax?