“Well, it could have been worse.” How many times have you said something to the effect of this very sentence to yourself, a friend, or a family member? While we don’t want to hear it in the moment, it is absolutely true, and it is a good perspective to have.

Tons of things can go wrong in life, and many people have worse luck than you. Health problems, money problems, relationship problems, when something goes wrong, that’s a bummer, but it could be a lot worse.

However, there are caveats to this: some things can actually be worse than they seem at first blush. Yes, it’s good to have perspective, but sometimes we think we got out of that tough spot pretty light, but only later find that it was much worse than we thought.

Maybe a slight muscle pull turned out to be a month’s recovery period. Maybe that drywall repair turned out to be replacing load-bearing things. Maybe that slight fender bender ended up sending your car to the shop for repairs.

Auto repair and minor collisions

If you have to have a collision, a minor vehicle collision is preferable to a major one. Minor vehicle collisions are usually defined as an impact at low speed resulting in no serious injuries and very little damage to the driver, passengers, cyclists, or pedestrians.

Minor collision examples might be:

• Scraping an object, for example, a changing-rooms pillar, scraping it on the way into a space in a parking garage
• A fender bender where someone behind lightly bumps you in stop-and-go traffic at a speed sufficient to jolt you, but does no real visible damage except a scrape to the bumper
• A sideswipe where you simply brush against another vehicle in a parking lot or while merging lanes and going very slowly.
• An intersection “mis-hap” where two cars arrive at the same intersection at the same time and then collide at right angles, like a T-bone impact at very slow speeds.
• Parking lot “impacts” like flung doors, absent-minded bumps, and runaway carts.

What types of collision repair are needed after a minor crash?

A minor impact usually requires only minor auto body repair. As we’ll discuss later, this isn’t always the case, but it is often true.

These repairs can be inconvenient and annoying, but in such situations, it’s best to remember the aforementioned axiom, “It could have been worse.”

Some common examples of minor collision repair include: 

Automotive paint repair

Sometimes, all a minor collision does is scratch the paint. This seems like a simple enough auto body repair, and it is, but with one caveat: color matching.

Automotive paint can be hard to get right; what might look “close enough” under one light looks far from a perfect match under different lighting.

That’s why it’s important to visit a professional auto repair shop with advanced paint matching techniques and paint booths that limit debris and dry the paint properly.

Dent repair / paintless dent repair (PDR)

If an impact has done more than scrape the finish, it may leave an impression in the vehicle panel. Dent repair is one of the most common types of collision repair.

Sometimes, the dent doesn’t scratch the paint, so auto body repair technicians can pull or gently hammer the dent back into shape. Because it doesn’t affect the paint, this is known as PDR.

Auto glass and light repair

A minor collision can easily break glass. Windshields, passenger windows, and light casings often crack from slight impacts.

Most of these must be replaced, but glass repair technicians can fix small chips and cracks in windshields with special resins. 

Alignment and suspension fixes

Now we’re getting to the borderlands of “minor auto repair.” A low-speed collision can be enough to knock a vehicle’s wheels out of alignment or damage the suspension. If the impact was truly minor, then these auto repairs should be relatively simple (and inexpensive). 

Hidden damage behind minor collisions

The above auto body repairs are the most likely fixes that will need to be completed after a minor collision. However, even low-speed impacts can cause significant hidden damage to your vehicle that can be dangerous and impair the performance of the car.

This damage may be hard to spot, even by a repair technician. Structural frame misalignments, suspension and steering damage, miscalibration of cameras and sensors that run the ADAS systems, and electrical failures can all be the result of a minor accident.

This is why it’s crucial to observe how your vehicle handles and if it begins to drift, vibrate, or light up warning lights, consult a professional repair technician as soon as possible.

Always exchange insurance information with another driver involved in a collision, no matter how minor. Auto repair is costly, and you can’t always judge how extensive the damage is until days or weeks after the incident.

Common hidden damage discovered during “minor” collision repair

Repair technicians and drivers sometimes notice damage from:

• Body and sealing: Trunk and hood misalignments and leaks in the trunk or inside the car can be signs of a structural hit.
• Mechanical and fluid: Collision damage to cooler hoses, gaskets etc., can create shifting or hidden leaks, or transmission problems.
• Safety and electronics: ADAS needs sensors and cameras to “see” streets. Even a small bump can move them out of position enough for safety features to no longer fully work properly.
• Structural and frame: A small bend in a car’s frame can sap its ability to keep people safe in a subsequent crash.
• Suspension and steering: Things like the control arms are also susceptible to bending, resulting in vibrations through the steering wheel, pulled alignment, or vague handling.

A full inspection can solve a lot

Best way to check for any of this hidden damage? Visit an auto body repair shop you can trust, and have a repair technician inspect your vehicle closely using the tools and tricks at their disposal. This will root out any problems and assure you.