insurance companies & bodyshops

[aquanaut]

Hello all, reading the other thread re car insurance got me thinking back to when i had a minor prang and hassles with the approved bodyshop. So i am curious when it comes time to reinsure your pride and joy does everyone go for the cheapest quote they can or do you consider the companies approved bodyshop when making your decision. When i had a small repair job in my old C36 i was insured through Admiral who insisted i sent my car to Arnold Clark Citreon bodyshop. Needless to say lots of problems were the result even though the repair was relatively minor. I know if you can provide cheaper quotes you could put it elsewhere.
Anyway was just curious as i went for a more expensive ins. company this time with the bodyshop being mercedes approved. Still at £375 for a C55 though which i think is pretty good! Admiral were £350 but put it up to £575 after i got 3 points!
Thanks

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

I had some nightmares with Admiral and their approved bodyshop repairers, this was a few years ago but the scars are still there.

 

[Beetnik]

Don't use the approved bodyshop - simple as. Yes, they'll encourage you to do so but no, you're not obliged to.

 

[Rory]

The only problem with using a different body-shop to the one the insurance company wants you to use is that you're a bit stuffed if you have a problem and the body-shop is awkward about it.
The insurance company doesn't care because you went somewhere else and you're on a sticky wicket with the body-shop, as you're not legally their customer, the insurance company is.

 

[SL300-24]

Not really....when you pick up your car from the bodyshop, you sign a satisfaction form before you accept it, and the insurance company pays the bodyshop.
No form signed....no payment from the insurer to the bodyshop. So you must be Satisfied or you do not sign.
If you are not happy you agree a solution with the bodyshop before you sign. If you sign and are not really satisfied, you have little comeback

 

[crockers]

By using a non MB workshop surely your body warranty for those panels are void. Does the insurance Company want to underwrite this going forward? I doubt it so I would always use this argument.

 

[Swozza]

Don't use the approved bodyshop - simple as. Yes, they'll encourage you to do so but no, you're not obliged to.

I couldn't agreed more. I was none the wiser until I looked into it. Direct Line use Just Car Clinic and it was the worst experience I've ever had. They had my car nearly 4 months and told me all sorts of porky pies, customer service was zero. Had I known what I know now my car would have gone directly to MB.

 

[Rory]

Not really....when you pick up your car from the bodyshop, you sign a satisfaction form before you accept it, and the insurance company pays the bodyshop.
No form signed....no payment from the insurer to the bodyshop. So you must be Satisfied or you do not sign.
If you are not happy you agree a solution with the bodyshop before you sign. If you sign and are not really satisfied, you have little comeback

The issues arise if you don't notice something until later - of course ot would be ideal if you noticed any problems on collection, but that rather depends on your expertise and the extent of the repair.

 

[SL300-24]

The issues arise if you don't notice something until later - of course ot would be ideal if you noticed any problems on collection, but that rather depends on your expertise and the extent of the repair.

Agreed....

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

Not really....when you pick up your car from the bodyshop, you sign a satisfaction form before you accept it, and the insurance company pays the bodyshop.
No form signed....no payment from the insurer to the bodyshop. So you must be Satisfied or you do not sign.
If you are not happy you agree a solution with the bodyshop before you sign. If you sign and are not really satisfied, you have little comeback

Alternately the bodyshop don't provide the courtesy car you're entitled to while they repair your car, your business suffers because you can no longer service your customers by visiting.

Despite the insurance company telling you to go back every day, they should have a car available for you, the bodyshop deny any responsibility for providing a courtesy car.

Even after 3 weeks of the car in the bodyshop you're looking forward to getting your car back, the bodyshop won't release the car until you've signed their satisfaction form even though they've not completed the work and tell you you'll need to bring it back once they have one of the parts that needed replacing (the nearside mirror).

Your boss tells you you need to get to the customers sites as previously agreed 2 months before any of this happened and you keep on having to postpone it - eventually you're threatened with a disciplinary because you're incapable of meeting the basic premise of your employment.

Yes, I could have hired a car, no I didn't have any money with which to do this, earning £4586 per annum basic plus commision on sales which I was supposed to bring in by.. yes you guessed it, visiting customers, no I had no close family, and not one of my "friends" were willing to loan me their car.

And all of this because some blind bat ploughed into the back of my car while it was parked on the side of a road in broad daylight, shoving it so hard it moved into the middle of the road where a car coming the other way ran down the side of it.

I was not even in it at the time, I watched all of this from the house I was in, unable to believe my eyes.

There... I've said it.. rant over. Admiral, if you're reading, I really hope you don't use that bodyshop anymore.

 

[LTD]

Easy MB answer to the 'approved' bodyshops.

Mobilo.

One word with a load of ramifications.

 

[whitenemesis]

Easy MB answer to the 'approved' bodyshops.

Mobilo.

One word with a load of ramifications.

Could you explain for the slow of understanding? (me! )

 

[ringway]

The reason insurance companies have approved bodyshops is down to one factor - cost.

I know when my S210 had some front end damage recently my insurance company (MORE TH>N) wanted me to take it to a non-MB bodyshop. The reason for this is that the non-MB bodyshop charged £24 per hour and the approved MB bodyshop charged £34 per hour.

If you can imagine the amount of claims an insurer has per annum and think of the £10 per hour difference the saving would certainly run to hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds.

Another consideration is, I think a low paid garage would be inclined to cut corners (that the insurer wouldn't see, to try and boost the low profit margin) and the insured then suffers.

An insurer has no right whatsoever to dictate where a car is repaired and if you stick to your guns they will let you use the garage of your choice (I have done this twice in the last couple of years.

The threat from an insurer of "no courtesy car if you don't use our bodyshop" doesn't cut any ice because an approved garage of your choice will almost certainly loan you a car if you pay the insurance on it (this is inexpensive - around £13 per week on a small car IIRC).

 

[The Boss]

Using an proper body shop for accident damage is critical in my opinion and talking from experience.

Just before selling one of my bmws, i was hit on the OSF corner by a looney woman.. whose name was Mrs Cardash.... arghh....anyway went to repair body shop, repaired all, but i got car back and as driving, the fan noise was running funny..

sent it back.. and it was still running funny, ie.. sound was winning and louder than usual..

Anyway, i complained, they got one of their investigators to look at it, found nothing, thus had no more to do, so i got BMW to investgate it at my cost, about £250 and they found a wire had been severed in the OSF corner, which linked to some system, that triggered the fan, and thus i took this back to the insurers..

eventually they repaired it fully, but i then took it up with court for negligence on the insurers part to me and my time and effort and stress blab blah. I got about £25k out of it and the rest.. as they say is history...

moral of story, insurers should always use original parts and ideally the original bodyshop for the the brand.. as im sure they outsource their work, but some are better than others...

 

[Badboysun]

Swift insurance cover

Swift cover the one on the tele with Iggy pop.Last year when I had a minor accident in London, to my rear bumper.MB gargage quoted £800 approx with a wait of 10 days, Swift were only prepared to pay half if I took it to a none recommended garage, and no loan car, I enquired about this, they said the MB labour cost were higher, Swifts offer £600 approx minus my excess of £200. I said I would pay the difference between the labour costs about £30 if I could take it to the MB garage, their reply "they have a system in place that buys mercedes parts at a discount" garages that charge a set fee for labour and they dont have to pay for a road test. I was told to read the small print on my policy that stated they would use their garages to save costs. "Cheap insurance means even cheaper cover"

 

[davidjpowell]

When my partner pranged the Renault (garage attacked her) Direct Line wanted to send it to one of their approved repairers. I have a healthy cynicism that the approval relates more to the cost than standard of work.

They tried a fair few bits of blackmail... You will have to pay the cost and claim it back... We won't pay for a loan car etc...

The Renault approved bodyshop was happy to provide the loan car (and by the way insurance companies don't provide loan cars typically - they sling that onto the bodyshop unless it's a non-fault claim), and did in the end pay the bodyshop direct.

They did send an engineer out before agreeing the estimate.

 

[grober]

I would always advise using a Mercedes/Mercedes Approved bodyshop for any repair for the reasons given above. Perhaps a good illustration that the "cheap car insurance" is not necessarily the best deal------- not so "SIMPLES" then !

 

[Rory]

There... I've said it.. rant over. Admiral, ...

To be honest, if you depend on the car then you should have paid the extra few pounds for the guaranteed courtesy car option.

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

To be honest, if you depend on the car then you should have paid the extra few pounds for the guaranteed courtesy car option.

I had, this was part of my saga.

 

[lopes80]

The reason insurance companies have approved bodyshops is down to one factor - cost.

I know when my S210 had some front end damage recently my insurance company (MORE TH>N) wanted me to take it to a non-MB bodyshop. The reason for this is that the non-MB bodyshop charged £24 per hour and the approved MB bodyshop charged £34 per hour.

If you can imagine the amount of claims an insurer has per annum and think of the £10 per hour difference the saving would certainly run to hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds.

Another consideration is, I think a low paid garage would be inclined to cut corners (that the insurer wouldn't see, to try and boost the low profit margin) and the insured then suffers.

An insurer has no right whatsoever to dictate where a car is repaired and if you stick to your guns they will let you use the garage of your choice (I have done this twice in the last couple of years.

The threat from an insurer of "no courtesy car if you don't use our bodyshop" doesn't cut any ice because an approved garage of your choice will almost certainly loan you a car if you pay the insurance on it (this is inexpensive - around £13 per week on a small car IIRC).

Could not agree more with the above post and don't forget the bold bit!

Think about this, approved shop charges insurance company £24 ph, a top panel beater or painter is on £18+ ph, how on earth are these bodyshops making money?

I am in the Bodyshop trade, we often correct work from other garages. Be really careful where you go, even main dealers, they often use non manufacturer approved bodyshops.

Ps, Admiral/Elephant sometimes ask for two estimates, ignore that, go to your bodyshop get them to send in the estimate and it will get authorised, specially if the bodyshop works with Audatex.

Paul