<prompt> Human: Long story short, dude was driving someone elses car without a valid license and rear ended me at a red light because he was distracted. I took pictures of my car and his in the road, then we moved over to a parking lot to call police. He was cited, the owner of the car has insurance and gave him permission to drive so that insurance will pay for my damages. Heres the thing, its the same insurance company I have so Im a little concerned about a conflict of interest when Im talking to them. My car is a 2014 and took relatively little damage. Scratches, scrapes, a puncture to the bumper, and the plastic ? under part on the bumper is completely caved in. IF its completely cosmetic and doesnt undermine my warranty or anything like questionable structural stability and my safety going forward then I wouldnt be adverse to a cash payout. I plan on having this car another 10 years and I fully expect living in my ghetto ass city to get dinged and kissed a few times in parking lots happened to both my last vehicles. I have an appointment with my insurance guy at a local car place that they chose in like 3 weeks earliest I could get in and its just for the appraisal. He told me that at that time I would get a quote and we would talk about the options, either getting it completely repaired, or taking a cash payout. I have no injuries, my car is completely driveable, and aside from being a huge inconvenience I havent lost work or any wages or anything. So im not looking to boost the payout or get some kind of settlement. The only iffy thing is I had a drink in the cup holder and I didnt realize but it splashed up and hit the roof of my car and stained it a bit seriously I cleaned it off the seats immediately but how the fuck did it splash 3 ft up lol? so is that even worth mentioning? My car was relatively spotless before this. What do you guys think I should do? What questions should I ask? Should I take it in to a local place and get an opinion before going to my insurance peoples place? It goes against my personal beliefs to waste money getting cosmetic issues repaired, and even knowing this impacts the overall value of my newish car I dont care because I plan on driving it for years to come. But what if I get hit again a distinct possibility in my area and then wont fix it because I have existing damage? Guys Im just really split 5050 on this I dont know wtf Im doing.edit: Well I did not expect this to get more than a comment or two. I learned a lot! Thank you all for your comments, insights, experiences, and professional advice! Ive tried to keep up with the comments but there just got to be too many, but I did read them ALL. I will be getting more than one opinion locally, I will most likely get the repair and try to get reimbursement for the interior that got stained as well as potentially payment for diminished value which I didnt know about before today. Im really really glad I posted this. I couldnt find anything like it on reddit and google seemed to be full of people saying how to boost a settlement, not whether or not to take one. I came to this sub specifically because other subs like rcaraccidents and stuff seemed kind of dead and the most similar posts came from here and Im glad I did! In a few weeks Ill try to remember to post an update letting everyone know what the outcome was, both for yalls benefit and anyone who might find this post helpful for reference.  <response>: Make sure you have a real mechanic look at the car, it might not look like it has damage done to it but you dont know what happened underneath. 