How to Locate Good Body Shop?

[abcd]

Hi,

A deer hit my new 09 Nissan Versa! I have a lot of damage to the
front right of the car. My ins co has lots of places they recommend,
but I want to find a good place. Any websites that have reviews of
body shops? Edmunds used to have one but I can't find it now.

I found one other website that had negative reviews of one shop, so
I know not to go there, but no reviews of good shops.

Any suggestions for body shop review websites?

Thanks

[Paul]

Don't know of any websites but there is a decent
body shop in Katy.
Give them a call or stop by.
Mason Road Collision Center
1277 S Mason Rd, Katy, TX
(281) 647-0055

[Ad absurdum per aspera]

The insurance company's suggestions are probably driven mostly by
cost, but should provide a reasonable starting point for assembling a
shortlist.

If angieslist.com is active in your area, you will find some good info
there. They have "Auto Body Work" as a category, and they post (and
vet) reports from actual consumers. I had a new furnace put in
recently, and found the $20 to be a good investment -- led me straight
to a local company with a solid "A" rating and good reviews, which
lived up to it.

Yelp.com is also of some value, though less rigorous.

At the very least, check out your candidates with the local Better
Business Bureau -- might also look online to see if you have a state
agency that fields consumer complaints.

Finally, a good auto body shop, in the area where they do the actual
work, should look organized and clean (it's hard to do good paint, in
particular, without that). They'll also be proud to show you some of
the "after" examples they've got at the moment. Insurance work that
has to move smartly along to get someone's commute car back into
service is never going to look like connoisseur car-show work, but it
shouldn't be sloppy looking either.

Ask how they check for damage related to the obviously crunched part,
and what if it is not immediately apparent, and how they handle the
billing for that.

Watch out for 'em deer! They can come out of nowhere, especially in
evening and early night, and this is the worst time of year.

--Joe

[Hachiroku ハチロク]

Where are you?

[Nate Nagel]

I'd also add, you migth want to check with a local chapter of a car
club, e.g. Porsche, BMW, etc - especially a club catering to a marque
that is often used for racing and/or are collectible enough to be
restored. Stuff happens, and cars need to be fixed, and the word gets
around as to who does a good job and who just does insurance work.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

[hls]

The AAA also has some lists of approved mechanics (not necessarily limited
to
body shops) which might give you some help.

I recently shopped out a job and the three companies gave vastly different
prices. We took the lowest price, and in this case the job was very well
done.

[Paul]

Probably in Singapore.

[Ad absurdum per aspera]

BTW, here (with a tip o' the mouse to fark.com) is my favorite recent
example of just how smart a deer is, especially at this time of year:
http://tinyurl.com/yjvxdg4

--Joe

[Hachiroku ハチロク]

HEY! I know a dude in Singapore that does ACE body work!

[hls]

Did the OP ever post his location?

[Tegger]

"hls" <h...@nospam.nix> wrote in
news:07GdnRmX5b6VJWfX...@giganews.com:

> Did the OP ever post his location?

Like so many people, the OP seems to have abandoned this thread after his
initial post.

OP appears to be in the Philadelphia area.

He's posting through Google Groups, which gives his originating IP as
4.238.246.242. That's part of Level3's IP block. I don't know who his
actual provider is, though. His reported email address is AOL, but that's
likely fake.

--
Tegger

[Paul]

Ad absurdum per aspera wrote:

Thanks.
That is a great article!