Reading your AI damage report: a complete walkthrough

Every report opens with a 3-piece summary: overall severity, total cost range, and overall repair recommendation. This is the headline of your assessment: the version you'd describe to a friend in one sentence.

Overall severity is the maximum across all damaged parts. If you have minor scuffs and one major dent, your overall severity is major. This means severity reflects worst case, not average. Useful because it tells you whether the assessment as a whole is something to act on quickly or something to live with.

Total cost range is the sum of per-part cost ranges. It's wide on purpose: shop pricing varies by 30-50% even for the same job, so the range gives you the realistic spread you should expect. A quote inside the range is normal; outside the range warrants a second opinion.

Below the summary, every damaged part gets its own line: part name, damage type, severity, repair action, cost range, and a one-sentence reasoning from the AI explaining what it saw and why.

Part names follow a standard taxonomy: 'bumper_front', 'fender_front_right', 'headlight_left', etc. The naming is intentionally machine-readable so body shops can cross-reference with their estimating systems.

Damage type tells you what kind of damage was identified: dent, scratch, paint_chip, paint_scuff, crack, broken, shattered, bent, missing, rust, or hail. The type informs whether DIY is realistic and which shop processes apply.

Repair action is binary: repair or replace. The AI's confidence in this call is encoded in the reasoning: phrases like 'beyond paintless dent repair' or 'requires full assembly replacement' show its certainty.

Reasoning explains the AI's judgment in one sentence. This is the most valuable per-part field because it lets you sanity-check the rating. If the reasoning describes something different from what you see in the photo, the rating is probably wrong.

The insurance guidance section gives a clear yes/no/maybe recommendation on filing a claim, plus an explanation. For minor damage with cost below your typical deductible, you'll see 'pay out of pocket' guidance. For major or severe damage, you'll see 'file a claim' with specific documentation tips.

The recommendation is sensitive to your tier-appropriate context. The AI doesn't know your specific deductible, so it uses typical $500-$1000 ranges. If you have an unusually high deductible, mentally adjust the threshold upward.

If insurance is the right call, the guidance often includes documentation specifics: what photos to take of the surroundings, what receipts to save, what police report numbers (if any) to gather. These are the things a junior adjuster might forget to ask for.

For minor and some moderate damage where the AI judges DIY is realistic, you'll see a DIY instructions section: a step-by-step guide for performing the repair yourself with consumer-grade tools and materials.

Common DIY targets: touch-up paint for clearcoat scratches, paintless dent repair pull kits for small unpainted dents, plastic bumper scuff buffing for surface scuffs, windshield repair kits for sub-quarter-sized rock chips.

DIY isn't 'free'; it's labor + materials. Touch-up paint pens are $15-30. PDR kits are $40-100. Bumper repair compound is $25-50. For damage estimated at $200, DIY at $40 of materials plus 2 hours of your time is a real win. For damage estimated at $1,500, DIY rarely makes sense because you're risking a worse outcome to save a few hundred dollars.

At the bottom of every assessment with non-trivial damage, Chassly's AI suggests follow-up reminders: 're-photograph the dent in 14 days,' 'get a body shop quote within 7 days,' 'file insurance claim within 30 days.' Each comes with a one-sentence reasoning explaining why this specific reminder makes sense for your specific damage and vehicle.

These are drafts. They show up in your /reminders page with Accept and Dismiss buttons. Accept the ones you'll actually act on; dismiss the rest. Active reminders trigger email digests when they come due.

Don't accept everything reflexively. The reminder is opt-in for a reason: over-accepting trains you to ignore the digest emails, which defeats the purpose. Three meaningful reminders that you'll actually act on beat ten that you'll ignore.