Paint chip in rear bumper, need advice!!

Hello, I am in need of some advice. A few days ago, I backed up my 2010 328i into a cement pillar in a parking garage and stopped immediately when I hit it. It left quite a large mark in the area of the bumper that was hit. I was able to buff off a lot of the paint transfer with some wax, but there are still some faint scratches left behind and a chip in the paint, about the size of half of a penny.

Should I get the entire bumper replaced, get my current bumper sanded and repainted, or just do touch up paint? I already touched it up, but am considering getting the whole thing replaced. My concern is, if I get it replaced, or even just sanded and repainted, the color will not match my original color due to fading..the color match is never going to be perfect. Would repainting the whole car be a good option? I'm really not sure..any insight would be appreciated. Please refer to my photos.

Right when it happened



After buffing with wax



Before and After, again


With the touch up paint on the chip



From afar with the touch up paint

There is a thread here about how to smooth out that touch-up paint blob, that should help you out (do a search). Once you get that smoothed out it should be almost unnoticeable, as white is one of the easiest colors to work with. I would do that rather than a repaint.

Buffing with the wax did a really good job. What type of wax did you use? Did you hand buff? In my opinion, you dont need to get the bumper replaced or repainted, your probably the only one who will notice this.

I would leave it alone, the damage is too minor to repaint the whole bumper, consider yourself lucky. However, you put on too much touch up paint which is a common error. People put on a glob of it thinking more is better. You have to put on a thin layer, wait for it to dry and then repeat until you have the level you want.

It's a bumper!

(Yes, I know. It's a BMW!)

I have a lot of chips on my front bumper from stones and I don't have a lot of miles on my car. If I can't see it standing 5 feet away from the car it's not there. If I can see it, I'll get it fixed.

I'd wait for the inevitable rear end hit at the traffic light and then have the bumper replaced or repainted.

Even if you replace the bumper it will be repainted. They come from the factory ready to paint not painted. Your touch-up looks pretty good, but if you want perfect you should have the bumper repainted. A good body shop should be able to match your color perfectly. Be prepared to pay for good work. There is a reason that cheap paint jobs are cheap.

Thank you all very much for the advice, I so appreciate it. I used the Zymol cleaner wax, original formula in the blue bottle and a washcloth to buff it out. Before I had posted this, I made an appointment with the dealer to have it looked at and today was the appointment.. They recommended just sanding the area and repainting the whole bumper so that's what I had them do. There are quite a few faint scratches that don't show well in the photos but they are there.. If it had just been the chip, I think I would have left it alone but since those scratches were there and visible, I opted to have my bumper repaired and repainted.

Thank you again for replying, everyone! Appreciated.

Wow. My car got rear ended at a stop light, leaving the bumper with some small bruises from a license plate holder. This was six months into ownership. But after all the crap my car has already been through in the short time I've had it, the last thing I was going to do was pay hundreds of dollars to have someone repaint the entire bumper. I work a mile and a half from home and drive my car to work. I was hit at the stoplight just before I turn in to the garage at work. If it can happen under those circumstances within six months of ownership, it will happen again. People out here are horribly distracted idiots.

Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that! People are dumb sometimes...very dumb. I know what you mean but at the same time I just didn't feel right having that big chip and faint scratches in my bumper, I have this weird complex about it lol..this is my first car/first BMW so I'm a little paranoid.