Expert: Ernie - 3/10/2007

Question
I hit an ice chunk with my 2006 Honda Civic sedan the other day and it put two cracks in the plastic shell of the front bumper. They are located on the far right side, one on top and one on the bottom both directed towards the license plate. One crack is approximately 6 inches long and the other is 8 inches long. They are both fairly jagged but when you push them back together they are almost invisible. When I called the body shop at the Honda dealer they told me that it would cost something like $600 to replace it (which they claimed was my only option). I was just wondering if i could possibly fix it myself or have a non-dealer body shop do it for considerably cheaper? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Plastic bumper covers become very brittle when the temp. gets very cold.Yes the new bumper is the only economical solution versus repairing it.You do have two other options,you could replace the part with an aftermarket which may not fit as well or you could have a reconditioned bumper installed.A recon. bumper is an original part that has been repaired by an outside source an is generally about 20% cheaper than a new part.