Healthy Cars are Worth More
Be Certain You Pay Enough

If your only criteria for selecting a body shop to repair your car are the low bid, odds are sooner or later you will fall prey to the incompetent repairman and lose hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars over what you paid him.

Consider the man who took his Honda Accord in to have the "parking lot rash" removed from the sides. When the car was returned to the customer, he workmanship was so poor, the car was "wavy" down both sides and looked as though it had been wrecked severely. It cost the owner a cool thousand dollars loss in appraised value when he traded for a new model.

It's good thinking to have all damage to your car repaired. That includes mechanical as well as body damage. Body damage really hurts the value of a mechanically sound car, plus it is indicative to the dealership appraiser, at trade-in time, of a lack of interest in the overall upkeep of the car. In other words, if the owner doesn't have enough pride in the car, to repair the damage and keep his car looking "to-notch", he probably extends this philosophy to his car maintenance habits too.

The new car dealership that sells your brand is often a good choice to do your body repair. Most of them use factory replacement body parts, and have a lot of experience working with your make and matching your type of paint. ---Most dealerships do, but ask anyway if they use the same type paint the factory uses. You don't want the worked over area to have a different tone to it in 12 months.

Never make the mistake of letting the estimator cover your deductible in the estimate. Often an estimator can figure repairing damaged panels after the insurance adjuster has paid for new panels.

When you agree to this, you are playing his game, and you are apt to get the short end of the deal. It is fraud any way you look at it. He may repair the parts that were paid for as new ones, or he may buy after market sub-standard parts to cover the deductible plus pad his own pockets.

You end up with a lumpy and bumpy quarter panels and doors to save a $250.00 deductible, and end up losing big because next summer your car is three shades of blue.

Keep the copy of the estimate and the paid repair bill and have it with you at trade time. It may be worth money to you to be able to prove that repairs were insignificant. No body repair is perfect. Some flaws will exist and indicate that repairs have been made, but it's hard for an appraiser to tell to what extent. The paid bill and estimate will prove your story.

You can protect yourself by asking questions. Talk to your insurance agent, talk to your dealer, but most of all don't let the low bid be the determining factor. It's OK to try to save, but be sure you pay enough!