At the end of the day , your car is your property and you have the final say in who repairs it .
Unless the damage was your own fault , it is not YOUR insurer who is paying for the damage but the other party's insurer with whom you have no contract or agreement anyway . It is possible that with some insurers , by taking out their policy , you enter into a contract agreeing to use their preferred repairer in the event of damage , but this would still only apply in the case of own-fault damage where your own insurer is footing the bill .
On two separate occasions when I was rear ended by other drivers whilst stopped myself , I insisted on my car going into the local MB dealer's bodyshop . Both other drivers were insured through Direct Line as it happened ; they phoned me up a short time after each incident accepting responsibility on behalf of their drivers , offering to pay and deal with everything ( so I only informed my own insurer , rather than using them to process a claim ) and no quibbles about using the MB bodyshop . The car was , at the time(s) of the two crashes a year apart , a three/four year old W124 300TE .
Oh , and both times I got courtesy cars via a company called Three Arrows who , in the case of non-fault accidents , give you the car and stick the bill royally to the other party - this often speeds up decision making on the part of other insurers as they are getting billed daily for the hire car . I saw the forms in the bodyshop and filled it out there and then , had the courtesy car in less than an hour as three Arrows are part of Avis , who actually supplied the car .
Unless the damage was your own fault , it is not YOUR insurer who is paying for the damage but the other party's insurer with whom you have no contract or agreement anyway . It is possible that with some insurers , by taking out their policy , you enter into a contract agreeing to use their preferred repairer in the event of damage , but this would still only apply in the case of own-fault damage where your own insurer is footing the bill .
On two separate occasions when I was rear ended by other drivers whilst stopped myself , I insisted on my car going into the local MB dealer's bodyshop . Both other drivers were insured through Direct Line as it happened ; they phoned me up a short time after each incident accepting responsibility on behalf of their drivers , offering to pay and deal with everything ( so I only informed my own insurer , rather than using them to process a claim ) and no quibbles about using the MB bodyshop . The car was , at the time(s) of the two crashes a year apart , a three/four year old W124 300TE .
Oh , and both times I got courtesy cars via a company called Three Arrows who , in the case of non-fault accidents , give you the car and stick the bill royally to the other party - this often speeds up decision making on the part of other insurers as they are getting billed daily for the hire car . I saw the forms in the bodyshop and filled it out there and then , had the courtesy car in less than an hour as three Arrows are part of Avis , who actually supplied the car .
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