I bumped my car. How much to fix?
 

So last night, I was backing into my driveway, and like a fucking idiot, bumped my mailbox with my car. I fixed the mailbox, but my car was left with a bump on the trunk lid and some scratches on the bumper. It's a 2006 Toyota Corolla. How much can I expect to pay to fix the bump and the scratches? Do I go to an independent body shop or the dealer?

Here's the evidence of my dumbassery:

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9143/bump1ak.jpg

100-200$$$at a dent pusher place......500-700$ at a bodyshop,,,xoxoxoo

i would expect at least $500 since it does need paint. I wouldnt take it to the dealer unless the shape of the panal is bent then you could just get a new one but from the look of it its just a surface dent and nothing bad like that.

It doesnt need all that much paint. Just scratch fixes, ones the dent is popped back out. A paintless dent removal place will be much cheaper, and if this is a later model car, you can get paint markers from auto parts stores that match your paint code, and will cover up the scratches so you can pretty much not tell they ever existed.

Don't believe the infomercials. Touch-up paint never turns out looking good; if you want it to look like it was never there, you should really get it professionally done. That'll cost you, though. $500 is probably about what I'd peg it at.

Update

I took it to a paintless dent repair place (Dent Wizard in Davie, FL) and the guy said he can make it look a little better but can't make it look perfect because it's on a creased surface and it's concave (or something like that). He said I should leave it alone. I'm probably going to learn to live with this dent even though it bugs the shit out of me.

Concave... as opposed to a convex dent ? Hehe I have never seen a car dent outward before.

Anyway, if you aren't opposed to the idea, you could always fill it with fiberglass (AKA: Bondo), then sand it yourself and have a paint shop repaint it, for about half of what a dent specialist will cost to do the exact same thing.