Taking Care of Your Investment with Collision Repair Services

Getting the services of a quality collision repair center is a strategic and wise move to protect an investment as important as a car.  The road to selecting the best company may be tricky, but it boils down to asking the right questions and getting yourself a tour of the center’s facilities to aid you in deciding if your investment will be properly accommodated in case it gets into an untoward situation.  Being comfortable after you actually see the facilities yourself is a huge indication that you will be at ease with the work they will be doing to your car.

But why the talk of choosing a collision repair facility even when nothing has happened to your car yet?  Isn’t that a bit too fatalistic?  Not really, because protecting your investments requires a good amount of foresight, and in the case of a car, this includes choosing a repair facility to help in case something adverse happens.  Shopping for a repair business as soon as you get a car is one wise move all car owners who care enough about their investment need to do.  Waiting for something tragic to occur to your car before spotting the best repair shop only results in hit and miss decisions that eventually end up in regret, spending unreasonable amounts of money, or worse, getting screwed by unscrupulous shops.  Here are some tips on how to choose a facility for collision car repair:

Tip #1: Asking friends or family living in the same area for recommendations is a good way to start.
Getting recommendations from people living in your area is a great way to begin your search for the ideal repair center.  Facilities in the area where you live are important here, as family members may actually recommend along nepotistic lines.  I am sure you have experienced having been recommended a repair shop of an uncle of your mom’s 3rd cousin in Portland, in Maine.  How will that be good for you if you live in San Mateo CA? Thus, you have to exercise a bit of quality control with recommendations even if they come from people you trust, especially with the location.  

Tip #2: Find time to do an ‘ocular inspection’ of the facility. 
Before enrolling your kid to the best kindergarten in town, you do visits to all your options to see the facilities and personnel with your own eyes.  Recommendations and testimonials are great, but you wouldn’t want to enlist the services of just any body shop for your beloved baby car unless you’ve seen how good the equipment, how organized and clean the facilities are, and how qualified the personnel are yourself, right?  Besides, being in the shop yourself can give you the ‘feel’ of the place, so you can gauge which shop you are most comfortable dealing with.

Tip #3: Be on the loop regarding qualifications and certifications.
There are shops that come recommended by its patrons, and there are those that not only have loyal clientele, but have the ‘legitimate’ qualifications to back them up.  For example, DnD Body Shop in the San Mateo area not only has great facilities and satisfied customers, but also has technicians actually certified by I-Car, an internationally recognized organization that sets real technicians with extensive and proven knowledge of repairing American, European, and Japanese cars apart from ordinary mechanics.  

 With these tips, you will surely find a repair shop that would be worthy of protecting your investment.

Steering Away from Car Restoration Roadblocks

If your car ends up in a collision, one of the main priorities you will have is car restoration. You would want your car to be restored to the condition it was in before the accident happened. You can even say you would prefer your car looking like the day you bought it. Who would refuse to have a car that not only looks like it had been fully restored, but looks like it has just been taken out of the showroom? Friends and family would surely wonder if you had purchased a brand new ride.

Unfortunately, this is not what happens in most cases. So many self-proclaimed body repair shops end up doing a botched job with their client’s vehicles. You need to know what ‘road blocks’ are there that may prevent you from hiring the best repair company and driving a car that looks new even when it just came from an accident:

Roadblock #1: Collision shops interested in the least hassle.

After all, collision shops are businesses that seek the bottom line of profit for the least expense on their part. This means that some shops tell their clients that their car may be good for a partial repair even when it needs full repair. Some shops also have the tendency to ‘forget’ telling car owners when their insurance companies are not willing to shoulder all items requiring repair.

Moreover, these shops known for being friendlier to insurers because it seems that they are more inclined to follow what the company wants rather than what the customer has specified. Lastly, unscrupulous collision shops usually go to the extent of slinging mud to their competitors by claiming they are cheaper than those that offer quality, but usually more expensive expertise.

By selecting the most competent repair center, you eventually save money, time, headaches, and frustration.

Roadblock #2: Insurers who obviously want to make an easy buck.

Insurers want repair to be fast, and most of all, cheap, for the obvious reason of increasing their profit. The consumer nugget of wisdom that anything cheap is almost always not good and anything good is almost always not cheap applies to repairing cars that have been involved in collisions. Any step of the repair process that has been treated to a short cut most probably will result in further defects and re-repairs.

Moreover, slipshod repairs do not do anything positive relating to the value of your car. Thus, be wary of repair centers that come packaged with your auto insurance policy.

Roadblock #3: Car windshield repairers may be too focused on doing a good job on its end without looking at the entire picture.

In situations when a car has been damaged extensively, the chances of having the vehicle’s glass components (windshields, windows, mirrors) needing repair is inevitable. The thing with glass and windshield repair is that owners have an option to enlist the services of a repair shop that specializes in glass repairs.

A car that has its body repaired in one repair shop and have its glass components fixed in another may end up getting a polished, ‘like nothing happened’ look, but may also look disjointed. Chances are, the finished product may look like a patchwork of different efforts. Spare your car from this look by hiring a single repair shop with the proper qualifications, experience, and certifications, like D&D Body Shop. This way, you are sure your car would look seamless and coherent, and not like something that has spanking new components, but haphazardly thrown in together.

Factor In the Best, Factor In DnD Body Shop

Having to deal with a car involved in a collision accident can be a stressful situation to be in. First, you have to get in contact with your insurance company, which will most likely have a direct repair program wherein the first option you will be presented with is using their "preferred" body repair shop. You will be lured with the promise of affordable cost, since the insurance company has struck a deal with this company to bring in more business. The thing here is, will you be given the high quality level of repair you are expecting for your damaged car?

image credit to  philscollisionrepair.com

This is where you have the option of selecting a shop of your own choosing. Often the "preferred" shop of the insurer will present a warranty guarantee supported by the insurer. But with the quality of the repair in question, you may realize that choosing the shop yourself would be a better idea. This selection should happen even before any accident takes place. In events such as a collision, you should anticipate them before they happen, because deciding on what to do, like choosing which collision repair center you will be entrusting your car to, will be more difficult. Your stress levels and emotional responses may cloud your judgement and make you settle for just any available repair shop. So, while everything is still all right and the situation is still calm, use your better judgement and pick the best repair center.

As with any product or service, the vehicle owner should make a choice of shop based on a number of factors. One of these factors is location. How can you readily take advantage of even the best service for your damaged car if the center you choose is hundreds of miles away from you? If you are in the San Mateo area, there is no need to look in the city’s nooks and crannies, when there is a collision repair shop conveniently located at 955 N. Amphlett Blvd? DnD Body Shop is located well within the center of the city, so there won’t be any problem finding it.

When it comes to reputation, DnD Body Shop has established itself as well. After all, it has sprawling facilities that spell professional all over. The equipment used, orderliness, and cleanliness gives even the most discriminating customer the assurance that his or her car will be given the best treatment available.

In the field of fixing vehicles damaged by collision, there are only a few facilities that can pride themselves on knowing how to handle the wide array of vehicles in the market, from the Toyotas and Hondas to Ferraris and Mercedes Benzes and even Fords and GMs. The expertise required to handle these varied vehicles can only be achieved with technicians undergoing the proper training. That’s another edge of technicians at DnD Body Shop. With their I-CAR Gold certification, customers are assured their vehicles are handled by technicians extensively and intensively trained to tackle repair jobs on cars of any model made in any year; and that’s a quality not every repair shop can pride itself with.

Settling for Nothing Less Than D&D Body Shop

Most people think that there is no need to look for a car restoration company to bring one’s car to in case of an accident. We are used to the idea that when a car gets involved in an accident, we call the insurance company, regardless if the vehicle needs windshield repair, a paint job, or major body re-construction and repair. As a discerning customer who deserves nothing but the best, you need to know that there are other options when it comes to restoring your car to its best condition in case of an accident.

Most likely, insurers have already negotiated discounted rates for parts and labor with these "preferred" shops, in exchange for them giving more clients to the repair shops. In that case, the repair shops do not really have the initiative to perform their best work on clients given to them by insurance companies, because they are getting paid on a discounted rate. Moreover, since they are getting more clients referred to their shop, the quality and amount of attention to detail given to each car is decreased as well. It’s simple economics, really - the more clients the business has, the less quality its products is expected to have, unless its workforce increases. Of course, if a business adds more personnel, its profits decrease because the money it earns will be funneled to the additional personnel’s salary.

Thus, it is recommended that you shop for your own body repair center as a car owner, and as suggested earlier, this should be done separately from selecting an insurance company. But then, remember that as much as insurance companies have their own ‘pet’ repair centers they would love their customers to use, you, as insurance policy holder, can still opt to have your car repaired by a facility of your own choosing. Your insurance company should never force you to have your car done by their recommended partner. If you are faced with this scenario, it is best to find other insurance companies.

The vast majority of the usual collision repair shop's business comes from referral and repeat business. We’ve already covered referrals from insurance companies, so it is only fitting to talk about repeat customers. Like any other business, clients come back to take advantage of a business’ services when they are satisfied or better yet, impressed with their experience. So, it is a good plan to ask friends and relatives for recommendations on shops that have done excellent work for them before.

On your part, look for signs among these recommendations of superior service. Participation in complex technician training such as the I-CAR Gold certification is a sure sign you’re looking at the best options. This means the technicians, like the ones at D&D Body Shop in San Mateo, have excellent knowledge of how to restore card of whatever brand. Whether your car is European, American, or Japanese, whether it is vintage or just came out of the showroom, you can be assured that D&D technicians can professionally do a top-notch job.

As a car owner, you deserve to be informed of your options, because only then can you get the best services for your money’s worth.