Some Inside Advice On Body Shops
Jun 26 '00
It's on everyone's mind when you drop off your car or truck at a body shop, "What's going to happen to happen to my car while it's here? How will it be treated?" Well, after working for a couple different body shops since I was 18 I can inform you on how you can tell exactly how your car will be treated and some extra measures to ensure your peace of mind.
The first thing to look for in a body shop is recommendations, especially by insurance companies. Usually, insurance companies do follow ups on major repairs keeping tabs on satisfied customer ratios to better judge the effeciency of the shop. Another good place to look for recommended body shops is the BBB, they have an extensive list of body shops in all areas.
As for knowing first hand how your car will be treated, a little detective work never hurt. Stop by on lunch and take a cruise around back. If the shop is in a strip mall, park and observe the overall care of other cars there. It only takes 5 or 10 minutes to see how cars are treated. Also, if you can, stop by 15 minutes before closing time. Look for how the people are driving the dropped off cars around the building, and fro where they park them(inside, outside gravel lot, etc). 9 times out of 10, this is where it's most obvious to see the care taken in the customers car.
Another good tip when your car is at the body shop and you want to see first and what the car is doing, show up at the shop unexpectedly saying you need you insurance card or information out of the glove box. Since no shop should go into the glove box, or arm rest 99% of the time someone will escort you into the shop to your car. From there, check whatever it is that had you concerned in the first place. After all it may be in their shop, but it is your car. Usually if a shop acts a little shady or nervous when you request to go into your car, it means they have something to hide.
A lot of people I have noticed reset the trip odometer. This will only tell you so much, and can actually act as a false alarm. Usually if your car was involved in a front end collision, it will have to get a front end alignment to ensure correct wheel position. Most body shops that I have run into don't have the proper equipment to do that, and as a result send the car to another shop to have it done. With this in mind the trip odometer may have acessive mileage on it, but was never mistreated. In other words reseting the trip meter is usually a waste of effort, and a misleading source of judging the care put into the car.
Most body shops are not out to screw customers, at least not the mechanics. The actual body men who work on the cars, have little say on what will be done to the car. Most of the time they just fix it. The people that you have to watch are the ones giving the estimates on the damage to your car. Most of the time these people work on comission, thus MORE DAMAGE = MORE MONEY.
Since most shops are concerned with the reputation they leave on customers and insurance companies, they won't purposly mistreat your car. But accidents do happen, that's why you were there in the first place. Sometimes, even if a shop is know to run over on the time quoted, they may be the better shop. Auto repair is not an easy task, and the most difficult part to perfect is the final process of repainting the car. Sometimes, runs in paint, slight color variations or scratches beneath the paint cannot be seen until after it is painted. thus setting the repair back at east a couple of days.
The best way in my mind to get your auto body work done is to know a body man that can do it for you in the shop. Unfortunetly most people don't have this convienence, and as a result end up searching for a body shop that they feel they can trust. Take my advice, and do the 15 minutes of homework on the shop because it can save you hours of headaches and days without your car.
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lowdog420
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