Does My Insurance Company
Choose My Body Shop? No, You Do.

Who decides where your car is repaired

After you report a claim, your insurer will often give you a name or a short list of shops. That is a recommendation. The shops on it are usually in the insurer's own network, and that arrangement is between the insurer and the shop. It does not bind you, and nothing in a claim requires you to follow it.

What the insurer does control is the claim itself: what it will pay for, based on its adjuster's estimate or its own review. The shop you choose writes its own estimate from the damage it finds once the car is opened up. On a hit that hid damage behind a bumper or fender, those two numbers often differ. When they do, the shop sends the insurer the documentation for the extra work and asks for approval before doing it.

That is where a shop that works directly with insurers earns its place. We deal with the adjuster, send the estimate and the photos, and carry the paperwork, so you are not relaying messages between two parties who each have their own number.

Why drivers choose their own shop

Drivers who pick their own shop are usually picking a result: how the structure is measured, how the paint is matched and what stands behind it. Every paint job we complete carries a lifetime guarantee for as long as you own the vehicle, and we use the Spies Hecker paint line with color-matching technology. You can compare that against what any other shop, including an insurer's preferred one, will put in writing.

If the car cannot be driven, the choice is not harder. Towing and pickup and delivery are available county-wide, so a shop across the county is not out of reach.