It's the law, you can choose your collision repair shop

When you're involved in an accident you will likely turn to your insurance carrier for support in regard to getting your vehicle repaired. When you begin the claim process your insurance may provide you with a list of acceptable or preferred auto body repair centers that they like to work with. Well guess what? There is no legal reason that you need to go to any of these shops. You have every right to research and find a shop that will competently and completely repair your vehicle to its pre-accident condition, and your insurance company must still pay out on your claim.

Another misunderstanding is that you don't actually need multiple quotes for auto body repair, which is often requested by insurance companies as a way to find the cheapest shop. Cheapest, however, is not always a good thing. Let's take a closer look at these misconceptions regarding auto body repair services.

Your choice of auto body repair

Federal law states that it is the vehicle owner's choice which auto body repair shop works on their car after an accident. This is to help prevent poor partnerships between shops and insurance carriers that are mutually beneficial for those two parties, but may end up leaving your vehicle unfit for the road. So following an accident be sure to do your research and find a collision center that will be able to get your car back to showroom condition. This usually means that they would have completely disassembled your vehicle during the quoting process in order to identify any hidden damage.

Only one collision repair estimate is necessary

The other issue that occurs following an accident is that people are often left under the impression that they need to receive multiple quotes from various repair agencies to provide their insurance company. This isn't true either. You only need to provide them with a single estimate, from any collision repair shop. If the insurance company wants to send a claim adjustor or other personnel of their own in order to inspect the vehicle you can let them know what shop the car is at and they can visit it at that location.

It's good to be vigilant about the shop that services your vehicle because you need your car to be cosmetically and mechanically restored to its pre-accident condition in order to be safe, beautiful and reliable. To learn more about these and other laws surrounding auto body repair in Phoenix or elsewhere get in touch with DG Auto Body. We provide full service collision repair services for all makes and models of import and domestic vehicles. If you need to schedule an estimate for collision repair in Phoenix give us a call at . We look forward to helping you get back on the road.

DG Auto Body Blog

Written By Brian Corey

Published By MORBiZ