Afternoon all,

Unfortunately a local scumbag/drunk/boyracing d!ckhead couldn't drive his sh!tty little hatchback in a straight line last night and scratched, scraped and dented my off-side driver and passenger doors...utter

Anyway, I'm in the process of going through the insurers, but does anyone have any recommendations for body shop repairs in the SE London / Bromley area?

Many thanks,
James

what the  MY08 RR SPORT3.6TD V8 FULLY LOADED, COOLER BOX, GVIF UNIT, PIONEER AVIC-F980DAB HEAD UNIT, RETAINING 4X4 INFO OEM SCREEN AND TS-WX130DA SUB
REAR 9 INCH TOUCH SCREEN HEADREST TV SCREENS, WIRELESS HEADRESTS, IN-CAR WIFI MIRROR BOX FOR WATCHING INTERNET TVIE BBC I-PLAYER ETC... FROM ANDROID, WINDOWS AND IOS PHONES ON THE GO ON ALL SCREENS

Take it to the main dealers MY08 RR SPORT3.6TD V8 FULLY LOADED, COOLER BOX, GVIF UNIT, PIONEER AVIC-F980DAB HEAD UNIT, RETAINING 4X4 INFO OEM SCREEN AND TS-WX130DA SUB
REAR 9 INCH TOUCH SCREEN HEADREST TV SCREENS, WIRELESS HEADRESTS, IN-CAR WIFI MIRROR BOX FOR WATCHING INTERNET TVIE BBC I-PLAYER ETC... FROM ANDROID, WINDOWS AND IOS PHONES ON THE GO ON ALL SCREENS

Why a main dealer? All they will do is farm it out to a body repair shop.

The only advantage is that you are more likely to get a new toy to play with whilst your car is being repaired
 MY08 RR SPORT3.6TD V8 FULLY LOADED, COOLER BOX, GVIF UNIT, PIONEER AVIC-F980DAB HEAD UNIT, RETAINING 4X4 INFO OEM SCREEN AND TS-WX130DA SUB
REAR 9 INCH TOUCH SCREEN HEADREST TV SCREENS, WIRELESS HEADRESTS, IN-CAR WIFI MIRROR BOX FOR WATCHING INTERNET TVIE BBC I-PLAYER ETC... FROM ANDROID, WINDOWS AND IOS PHONES ON THE GO ON ALL SCREENS

Balgores Romford have always done a great job for me, LR authorised repairer also.

JCow17 wrote:

Afternoon all,

Unfortunately a local scumbag/drunk/boyracing d!ckhead couldn't drive his sh!tty little hatchback in a straight line last night and scratched, scraped and dented my off-side driver and passenger doors...utter

Anyway, I'm in the process of going through the insurers, but does anyone have any recommendations for body shop repairs in the SE London / Bromley area?

Many thanks,
James


Strongly recommend main dealer with its own body shop or a LR Authorised repairer. Such places will only use OEM parts and will only replace a wheel rather than refurbish it no matter how small the damage.

Who are you insured with? If it’s any of the DLG (Direct Line Group, so Churchill, Direct Line, Privilege etc) don’t be swayed into using their own in house repair shops, such as UK Assistance. They are shockingly bad. I was naively persuaded some years back to have a repair done by them with the promise of a courtesy car and ended up rejecting the repair three times until they managed to give me something back, that was just about acceptable.
You are legally entitled to use whoever you want to make the repair, regardless of who you are insured with, or whoever the idiot is insured with for that matter, assuming he was insured and you have his details.

Find a repairer who is approved by any of your high end brand local dealerships, such as BMW, Audi, Merc or JLR. They are usually selected by local dealers for their quality workmanship.

GodivaNige wrote:

You are legally entitled to use whoever you want to make the repair, regardless of who you are insured with, or whoever the idiot is insured with for that matter,

That's interesting as it would mean we should buy on price rather than reputation, one of the reasons I insured with A-Plan is I was told my policy covered genuine parts for a claim but it was far from the cheapest quote. I understand how this could be for a claim off a 3rd party, but is this also true for an own fault claim?
I'm kind of lucky with where I live that once the insurer realises there are non of their 'approved' centres we get told to put it where we want (probably cheaper than them shipping it elsewhere (this was tested a few times by my wife on previous cars ) but this may not include genuine parts as I've never looked into that.

Dennis 13MY Range Rover Sport Autobiography SDV6 - mine
14MY Range Rover Evoque Dynamic SD4 Black Pack - wife's
99MY Defender 90 TD5, Soft Top Conversion - my toy, and bairns favourite

It doesn’t matter if it’s a own fault repair or third party, you can legally select who you wish to repair your car.
You may lose the option of a courtesy car or any repair warranty covered by your insurer when doing this, but I’d rather have a decent repair done than one by an in house repairer, as I’ve learnt the hard way, that repairs are rushed through and are completed to well below par standards. The likes of UK Assistance are ‘conveyor belt’ bodyshops where they get them out of the door as quickly and cheaply as possible and because they are in house, they are saving the insurance company a small fortune.
The one and only repair I have had done by them had paint runs, clear masking marks, paint overrun on glass... really very poor but likely acceptable in their minds, by the majority of owners who they hope, dont have a keen eye.

A quick Google search found this

https://www.gocompare.com/car-insurance/approved-repairers/

Mani wrote:

The only advantage is that you are more likely to get a new toy to play with whilst your car is being repaired

Thanks all for your suggestions/advice.

The person who hit the car didn't hang around long to give me their details, I briefly saw their car speed off a few seconds after hearing the smash, so going through our own insurers...

Bit of a headache so far...we're covered by Mulsanne (having initially called A-Plan), we've so far been contacted by 'Intelligent Vehicle Solutions', 'RTA Solutions' and 'Key Claims & Administration'...hoping to have approval to go in for repairs early next week.

I contacted our local independent (JLC in Herne Hill) and they recommended www.thepaintandbodyshop.co.uk who are based near to us so we'll see how it goes there and report back.

Update on the repair...

Insurers eventually allowed us to book the car in with http://www.thepaintandbodyshop.co.uk/ in Beckenham. They had the car for nearly 2 weeks and I'm happy to report what a fantastic job they've done. If anyone lives around this area I would highly recommend them, a couple of pictures below

i would have opted for both doors replaced from a salvage car and had it repainted if you didnt find salvage car of same colour

did you see the car as they repaired it? how much filler was used? 2007 TDV6 RRS HSE..now gone
2012 3.0 SDV6 RRS HSE

I would have thought with doors they would reskin them rather than waste time trying to fill and contour the damage. 2019 5.0 SC SVA (Current)
2012 5.0 SC AB. Sadly written off by a campervan
23 plate Focus ST (Current)
1942 VEP Ford GPW Jeep (Willys) (Current)
1943 Whites M16 Halftrack (Current)
16 plate Eurofighter Typhoon, 2 x Eurojet engines with 20,000lbs thrust each. 1380mph