Choosing a “Plastic Surgeon” for your Car

No matter how hard you try to be careful, you may find a time when you need to pick a body shop to complete the repairs to your vehicle from accident damages. When you have just a little ding on the hood or a scratch on the side panel, you soon will find out the differences in body repair shops.

When you are investigating a repair shop to work on your car, sometimes you do have to worry about more than just the cost of the job because sometimes the cost of the work is an indicator that the body shop does not have the expertise that you may be expecting in a finish vehicle repair project.

You can easily call an auto body repair shop and discuss what you need before stepping foot in the garage if you feel it is easier to talk over the phone instead of face to face, sometimes this does give you are good feel for how much business the company does just by how they talk to you about your problem. If you find that they are not customer friendly on the phone this could be another indicator that you don’t want to do business with this auto body repair business. When a business can be customer friendly on the phone, you know they value your business and your situation.

When you are shopping for an auto body repair business, you do have the right to ask for references. Whose car have the repaired, how do they match colors, can they guarantee the match of colors, what happens if the paint bubbles or peels after you have it home a week? These are just some of the questions you might want to ask when you are talking to the auto body shop. They should be able to match your paint, and if they cannot guarantee your paint color, why? It could be that you special ordered the color on your car, the car is older and the paint is faded, what ever their reason you should be told what the guarantee is.

One last question for your auto body shop is, how long with this repair take? They should be able to give you an answer within a matter of a day or two. For example, if you are taking your car in to have the hood repainted because a baseball hit it – you would expect to have your car back with in two days of your delivering the car to them. If they say, ‘we will call you when it is done’ you should reply with something along the lines of, ‘I need to know what day’ so you can fit picking up the car in your busy working day as well, and also so that the auto body shop does not try to put off your repair job and put someone else ahead of your project. If an auto body shop is too busy to take the time to talk to you about a timeline for your repair project, maybe they are too busy to accept your project?

Ask your friends, your family, and your neighbors who they have dealt with and why they liked that company. You can often find the best referrals from someone you know and trust.

Also see

Your Car's Exterior

Goodyear Introduces Run-Flat Tires

How to Repair a Damaged Finish on Wheels

High Mileage Car Maintenance

Scratching the Surface

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