How much does it cost to replace a car bumper

What a replacement price includes

• The new bumper cover, which normally arrives in primer rather than your colour.
• Preparing and painting it to match your car, including any blend onto neighbouring panels where needed.
• Moving grilles, trims, number plate mounts and lights across from the old bumper, or fitting new ones where they were broken.
• Fitting it to the car and checking the gaps line up with the wings, lights and bonnet or boot.
• Transferring parking sensors, cameras or radar and calibrating them where the car requires it.

What sets the price of a replacement

Front bumper or rear bumper

Rear bumpers usually carry parking sensors and sometimes a camera surround, so rear replacements more often fall in the lower band. Front bumpers on newer cars often house radar for adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking. That radar has to be set up correctly after fitting so the system reads the road accurately, which is why front replacements more often land in the upper band.

When replacement is the right call

Plastic bumpers are surprisingly repairable. Scuffs, scrapes and many cracks can be plastic welded and refinished, and a repair usually costs less than replacement. A new bumper tends to make sense when the plastic is torn across a large area, several mounting points have broken away, a section is missing, or the cost of repairing heavy damage would come close to the price of a new part.

If the knock was hard enough to push the bumper in, the parts behind it, such as the reinforcement bar and brackets, should be checked too. Those are assessed as part of the estimate, not assumed.

Insurance and bumper replacement

Bumper replacement is a common part of accident repairs. We handle insurance and private work, and you have the right to choose your own repairer when you claim. If you are paying privately, the free estimate lets you compare the cost with your excess.