Looking for opinions on what to do about paint/car damage

[BrokenVisage]

A few days ago I was coming home on I-95 and had some kind of hard debris fly into the passenger side of my car. The result sucked , but my car came out better than I expected considering how it sounded once I got to inspect the damage.

As you can see the side-view mirror took the worst of it, but whatever it was must have grazed my hood and some of the side fender as well before hitting it, which is really the bitch of this situation because instead of just replacing the side-view I have to make a decision on what to do about the paint damage.

A collision place I trust quoted me $900 to fix it all, so really it comes down to do I, a) avoid paying a $500 deductible and possibly have my insurance go up by buying a new side-view and having someone paint/install it for me then just use touch-up paint to cover the scars. Or b) go through insurance, hope they consider it comprehensive damage (policy says falling objects don't count against me and my point threshold is $1350 also never filed a claim before) but lose use of my car for possibly a few days and pay $500 as opposed to ~$250 if I went with option A.

It's a new car (2011 Mazda 3) I've had for a year that's already paid off. I never did the touch-up paint thing before so I don't know how well it would work out on my paint damage, but I hear it's tricky to get right on metallic shades which makes me nervous. I'm leaning toward just biting the bullet and going through insurance but I wanted to get some second opinions first. Any thoughts?

 

[Black2na]

i would claim it on your insurance its a comp claim and shouldnt make your rates go up and without any claim history at all its unlikely your rates will jump. and stay away from touch up you will not get a seamless repair and it will look like junk. and having a 2011 it should really be properly repaired.

 

[Doppel]

IMO get the side view mirror replaced. It can't be done with touch-up paint, but it's also only one portion of that job. Unfortunately, the other damage covers two panels, which increases repair cost. However, the scratches are not actually that bad at all. They only look like they are down to the base coat. Therefore, I recommend repair professionally the sideview mirror and use OEM touch-up paint on the scratches. If you apply it lightly and buff away the extra (you can do it or the touch up place can do it much better--but way cheaper than making it "perfect"), you'll still see the scratches but only if you look for them up close. To do it perfectly you have to repaint the entire panel and that's where all the cost comes from but you can get pretty damn close with touch-up paint. If it were a show car or a ferrari I wouldn't say this.

My last two cars were both new. it sucks finding those first scratches but ultimately road rash, idiots with carts etc. will leave the paint scratched up. A $10 bottle of touch up paint and the correct approach can hide 80-90% of those scratches in 10-15 minutes and represent a much better use of money.

I speak from experience, got a new car this year and it was hit by a shopping cart within the first month. Instead of paying the quoted $600 I took touch up to it and I've been very happy I did.