{"id":46189,"date":"2026-04-30T14:49:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/think-you-can-fix-it-later-think-again\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:49:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:49:29","slug":"think-you-can-fix-it-later-think-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/think-you-can-fix-it-later-think-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Think you can fix it later? Think again"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a familiar moment for many South African motorists.<\/p>\n

You return to your parked car and spot it – a dent on the door or on the fender. It’s irritating, but not urgent. You tell yourself it’s minor, purely cosmetic, something you’ll get to later when it’s more convenient.<\/p>\n

But according to the South African Motor Body Repairers Association (SAMBRA), that delay can be more costly than most drivers realise.
\n“Motorists often assume that if a dent looks small, the damage is insignificant,” says Juan Hanekom, National Director of SAMBRA. “But modern vehicles are highly engineered systems. Even seemingly minor impact damage can affect how forces are distributed through the structure of the vehicle.”<\/p>\n

He explains that what appears to be surface damage can, over time, influence far more than just appearance. “Today’s vehicles are built using lightweight materials designed to absorb and manage impact energy in very specific…<\/p>\n

\n

Read more on Arrive Alive <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a familiar moment for many South African motorists. You return to your parked car and spot it – a dent on the door or on the fender. It’s irritating, but not urgent. You tell yourself it’s minor, purely cosmetic, something you’ll get to later when it’s more convenient. But according to the South African […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/773e646f-0e0c-441a-b212-46ccde3b9fe7.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-accidents"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/773e646f-0e0c-441a-b212-46ccde3b9fe7.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}