m1bjr

I know of a local shop that works for Admiral group of companies and receives a paltry £22 per hour from them as an 'approved repairer'.

Try fixing an S2000 on those rates and you'll see why the computer rules of 'Crap in = Crap out' apply!

propete10

Someone went into the back of me on the way back from Reading on Friday, and I already am still dealing with a claim for when the flatbed lorry driver pulled the towing eye through my front bumper last year >=E

From my experience, the insurer's prefer to pay the garages directly to get the work done but hopefully they will just send you a cheque! Wish mine would, as Ill now have about £700 - 800 signed off!

How much is a new paint job? =D

cheggers

Sorted! Rodgson and Williams are all booked up for the work on the 8th of March. Bit of a wait but I'd rather that if it means getting a superior finish.

Going to stick with the older style bumper too as looking at pics online, I actually think I prefer it. Plus a newer one would mean newer rearlights to keep it legal for MOT. Might treat the car to an OEM front spoiler though seeing how its in the spray shop anyways.

lovegroova

m1bjr

Hope it all works out okay Cheggs.

Let us know in a post in here how the finish is?
Always good to have up to date reviews of what were always good body shops near 'home'.

I use Brin Jones in Filton (Bristol) now for all my paint and they are excellent.
Had a pal at R&W many moons ago, but left to work at vospers I think.

Steve.

Nick Graves

These closed shop arrangements stink of kickback and stink generally.

andye30m3

No wonder they don't do a decent job, they'll be rushing to beat book times just to to brake even.

As others have said get recommendations for local bodyshops and insist on using the place of your choice.

lower

I completely disagree.

I spend a lot of time in body shops through work and will often get very involved in the quality of finish our booth produces. I therefore have a fair bit of relevant experience and in my opinion there is no solid correlation between quality of finish and whether the body shop is insurance approved.

Some body shops are insurance approved and crap. Some body shops are insurance approved and actually very, very good.

The bigger insurance bodyshops will often have an insurance quality inspector and assessor on site all the time and it is in the insurer's interest for their bodyshop to do a decent job.

In addition to that the most efficient body shops get the job right first time and then don't get involved in rework that they get no revenue for.

The best way to tell the quality of a body shop is to get a recommendation. Otherwise go down and have a look at the body shop itself, talk to the staff and view some of the work they've done. But don't rule out a bodyshop just because its insurance approved. That being said, i also wouldn't suggest choosing a bodyshop just because it is insurance approved.

As for the rates they work on, different processes operate on different rates. There's no denying that insurance work is lower margin, but you'll find that insurance bodyshops will tend to replace rather than repair because it works out more cost effective for them at the rates they work at.

The rate system is very complex, but suffice to say there are some very well off insurance approved body shop owners around who produce some very good work and have really invested in quality equipment to allow them to achieve these results.

cheggers

Well, the shop (here) are approved repairers for most insurance companies. Before I knew that though I'd already had some glowing recommendations for them in work.

I got 4 different quotes before I visited their shop (all of them had 'approved repairer' signs) and TBH I was v. impressed by their set-up compared to the others (made them look amateur). Saw a few cars that they had repaired and were awaiting collection and they looked like they hadn't had any damage done at all!

Afty

+1 for this idea.

Some moons ago before I acquired the S, I was involved in a corner-corner affair, needed a new wing, wishbone etc.

The car went into the "approved" shop, I finally got to pick it up 17 days later, at 6pm only the receptions and security guard left at the building. It was in the carpark, pointing down the driveway to the road - I started it, drove off, got to the road, rotated steering wheel left, and she started to respond, then I felt no feedback at all on the steering wheel, and the car shot straight out across the road into the path of an oncoming lorry - luckily the driver of it was alert.

Apparently something hadn't been secured right on the rack & pinion setup, and it just sheered right off leaving me with no steering at all.

When I mentioned to the security guard that my car nearly killed me, and was currently blocking the main road outside he said "what do you want me to do about it, I just work here" - when I suggested (for the first of two times) that he call his boss and let him know what just happened he said "hmm, could do, but he doesn't really like being called out of hours. Can you not just drive it home and call tomorrow morning". Somehow I didn't go off the rails... barely... he did make the call very shortly afterwards.