Get Your Car Fixed Right Without Getting Ripped Off

This article on Edmunds.com is right on the money.

For most consumers, auto body shops are intimidating and mysterious. The good ones restore your beloved car to gleaming perfection. The bad ones hide problems and stick you with a big repair bill. We talked with three veterans of the auto body industry, two of whom (Brian and Neal) run their own collision repair businesses and the third expert (Andy) who is a well-connected industry observer. Our sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, shed light on this shadowy world and offer suggestions on how to manage costs, avoid rip-offs and ensure that sure your car is fixed right.

Know That Body Shops Run the Quality Gamut
"I don't care what state you live in, for every 10 body shops, three of them are unethical and five of them do mediocre work at best," Neal says. It's clear that finding the right shop and building a relationship with the owner or manager is an essential first step in the repair process. There will always be fly-by-night shops, and even mobile dent-repair guys working out of the trunks of their cars. Consumers should look for brick-and-mortar body shops that have been in business a long time and have a solid track record of satisfied customers.
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Understand Your Estimate Price quotes from different body shops seem to vary wildly, and this shouldn't be the case. Our three experts remind us that collision-repair facilities and insurance companies use one of three systems for estimating repair jobs to arrive at standardized, impartial quotes. Theoretically, this means three different shops will present similar estimates. But insurance companies will sometimes present their policyholders with a low quote that bears no relationship to the product of these estimating systems, Brian says. And if the consumer decides he can live with minor body damage and elects to pocket the check rather than pay to have the damage repaired, the carrier has quickly cleared another claim.

 It's increasingly tough for body shop owners to provide an accurate cost estimate that will cover the expense to fix the car properly and still make a profit. Brian says automakers frequently change vehicle designs as the Environmental Protection Agency raises fuel-efficiency standards. They are increasingly using lighter materials like aluminum and high-strength metals like ultra-hard boron steel, particularly in the frame and suspension parts. Such parts are expensive. Body shops are supposed to restore cars to the standards of the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), but they know from experience that doing so is going to be prohibitively expensive. Instead, they don't even consult the manufacturer's specifications and fix the car according to time-tested methods. Those methods might not fix the car safely or completely. "So all of a sudden the lowest common denominator — the insurance company's quote — becomes the benchmark," Brian says. And the shop with the lowest cost is likely the one the consumer will pick. Neal adds that there is another factor that makes the process difficult for consumers. "One guy might have a different definition of what a fair profit is from the next guy for procedures that are identical between the two shops." This is the dreaded gray area in evaluating cost estimates and it can hit your wallet hard.

http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/confessions-from-the-auto-body-shop.html