A Guide to Types of Car Dents and How to Identify Them During Trade-Ins

Accurately valuing car trade-ins can be a challenge for dealers. And vehicles with damage in the form of dents or dings can make assessing value more difficult—especially when they’re complex or hardly noticeable. In this article we’ll outline the types of dents you’ll commonly find and how you can explain them to customers, while outlining how you can use tools to ensure you don’t overlook or overvalue any vehicles that cross your path. 

Four types of car dents 

Various incidents like accidents and collisions, debris, or even falling trees or limbs can cause dents and damage to a vehicle’s body. But not all dents are the same—some are more difficult to fix. Let’s explore the four main dent classifications:  

1. Round: These are small dents that look like an object such as a golf ball or hail may have hit the car. These dents typically have a small central point in the middle.
2. Sharp: With deeper and more angular grooves than a round dent, typically sharp dents result from a more impactful object hitting the car at a higher speed. (i.e. rocks, pebbles or construction debris)
3. Crease: These dents occur when a metal panel on the cars body folds in on itself after being it with a great force.¹ Some examples of this could be tree branches,  a car door hitting a parking/bollard pole, or a bicycle handlebar getting dragged across the vehicle)
4. Multi-point: These extreme dents usually are from an animal or larger crash and have no pattern to the damage, with several points of impact.² 

What’s a ding?

Unlike dents, which are generally considered more significant, dings are usually points of damage that span less than ½ inch in diameter. Typically, they do not impact the paint job and usually just result from a very minor incident. They also aren’t usually as noticeable and apparent.³ Common examples of dings are a loose shopping cart in a parking lot hitting a car or someone opening their car door and hitting the side of a vehicle. 

Can all dents be repaired? 

In most cases, dents can be repaired – but it’s not always advantageous or cost-effective. Sometimes, if a customer is looking to trade-in a vehicle that has complex dents that will be expensive to fix, and their vehicle won’t be able to sell at retail for a high price, it may not be worth it to pursue repairs and a resell. Some common situations when repairs may be expensive include when there is a lot of paint damage, when dents cover multiple vehicle panels, or if they are located close to other important parts like the frame or electronics. These are instances when accepting a trade in requires extra caution.¹  

What dealers can do to be aware of all dents and dings during trade-in

Because dents can be small and potentially go unnoticed, dealers need to be extra cautious when checking for damage in the trade in process. To achieve a small margin of error, it’s helpful to use a tool like ClearCar which offers AI vehicle damage detection that results in more accurate inspections and quoting. By scanning photos of the customer’s vehicle, the AI tool can identify any issues, including dents or scratches that may even go unnoticed by the human eye. From there, you can evaluate the vehicle’s overall condition to finesse your pricing process.

Use ClearCar to easily identify dents and dings? 

First, customers start with the ClearCar Capture feature. They’ll receive a link and be asked to submit photos through their phone in a self-guided process. The photos show ClearCar the true condition of the vehicle. The AI tool within ClearCar then scans the images, comparing it to standard undamaged models, and points out any scratches, dents, rust, or other damage. ClearCar provides a report of the issues indicating the severity and can integrate this with real-time market data to help dealers accurately value the trade-in.

Damage detection is a crucial step in evaluating trade-ins, and our tool makes the process pain-free, accurate, and efficient. Try ClearCar today. 

Sources

1. Valley Collision. 2023. “A guide to the different types of car dents and how to fix them.” Valley Collision. Retrieved April 14, 2025. https://valleycollision.com/blog/a-guide-to-car-dent-repair/ 
2. Cutting Edge Collision Center. “The 4 types of car dents.” Cutting Edge Collision Center. Retrieved April 14, 2025. https://www.cuttingedgeref.com/types-of-car-dents/ 
3. PrimeTime PDR. “Distinguishing Car Dents and Dings.” PrieTime PDR. Retrieved April 14, 2025. https://www.primetimepdr.com/distinguishing-car-dents-and-dings/