Rear ended, need body shop help
 

Got hit, need a new rear bumper plus some of the stuff underneath. Not too much damage.

I'm not familiar with any of the bodyshops here yet, but I've been referred to both Advanced and Prancing Horse by some of the BMW guys. Anyone here have an opinion? Thanks!

I've been to Parker a couple of times now and it is without a doubt the nicest, most professional shop in town. They did some work on my mom's car and it was flawless.

I've also had great work done at Boyd, although if you're not going through ICBC then it can be very, very pricey.

Other users of this forum will recommend Pre-Tech and Lima as well, although I've never had work done at either. My friend had work done at Advance and it was not a good experience for him.

I took it into to Prancing Horse...they do the dealer work for the BMW, Mercedes and Porsches here. Little hole-in-the-wall place, but judging from what I saw there they know their stuff.

IB4 Horror stories.

Cool, let us know how it works out.

I just came from having a little job done at Parker this afternoon. Fantastic service, nicest lobby ever, and great work for a reasonable rate. I doubt I'll go anywhere else in the near future.

I've had work done there in the past, it was great.

As mentioned above, Lima's is great too. I've seen some of their work.

Stupid question here, but do you still have to pay the $300 deductible if you are rear-ended (i.e. not at fault)?

No.

Cant give recommendations but can give caution. Stay away from Advance Collision. I made the mistake of going there twice (I was hit once, half-assed fixed and hit again. I had to have the first repair seen to so I thought I'd give em the chance to do the second accident. Dumbest move I've made, never again.

Some of the problems:
Missing screws from trim - inside and out (parts never removed before so I find it hard to believe that many screws were "missing before it came in", missing lights in trunk, terrible paint blending, mis-aligned parts (hood still rattles as it isnt aligned right, trunk took visits), don't return calls for days, car was ready for 3 days no phone call to pick up (i called and found out it was done), huge under-estimates (>30%) on work (luckily it was not my deductible), car was filthy inside when i picked up - dust everywhere with a 20sec clean job. I can go on.

All work was cosmetic: bumpers, lights, trim, paint, no mechanical work, no panel work - just a new hood and trunk lid.

OFF TOPIC: Best part was they were out of their loaner cars so the gave me a rental from budget. They were supposed to call when one of their cars was back in. No call for 3 weeks =$1200 car rental. Got a panicked call asking to please return the car right away and they'd meet me at the rental with one of their loaners. There goes the profit margin.

I want them to fix the hood, but I really dont want to deal with them again. sigh.

Parker's did a really crappy job when my lowrider got hit. Had an 8" long drip on the fender and another nasty drip on the door. When I went to get them to fix it, they jerked me around (kept telling me when to go in to get it fixed and they'd get to it right away. When I went in, they told me they couldn't get to it and I'd have to leave it for a few days when they knew I lived out of town and couldn't leave it for more than a few hrs) ... they never ended up fixing it. Stay away from them.

Continental Autobody! I deal with a lot of bodyshops and they are awesome! Best price, best colour matching, best finishing and will work with your budget. The painter chris is wicked. They are doing a complete on my car and I wouldnt let anyone else touch it

They do everything from Classic cars to rust bucket repairs. They arnt a glamorous shop but honest hardworking dudes who are honest.

Give them a ring: 250-388-0707

Even better yet go see them: 411- 417B Hillside Ave. (just behind my shop)

Pretech! Pretech bad.

pretech! pretech good.

they have always taken care of me, but generally i go where slammedcivicsi ends up. HE has always taken care of my cars.

keep in mind folks, that its not always the shops, but more or less the technicians doing the work, and they change shops faster than you change your oil.

I currently am at Belmont Collision, and have so far been impressed with our managements honestly and customer relations.

Thanks all I'll say.

-Brad

Not limas. Seach for this a thread like this and you will see what good and whats bad

I also got run into the other day. Two doors and a quarter panel need work. It's a brand new Civic Si. I'm so dreading having work done on it. I have no idea where to go...

Actually, I just called Porsche and they recommended Advanced.
Mercedes recommended Continental.

Honda recommended Pre-tech, which is just down the street from them. there lot is full of Hondas so I suspect they at least have experience working on Hondas. Campus Honda probably owns them.

Seems like wherever you go it will never end up being as good as it was when it was new. Nobody's going to take the time to do it right.

Actually Stan Van Basten owns that company. And yes they do lots of Hondas, their technicians are very qualified to do the work.

Sorry for the no-posts :)

I went with Prancing Horse, I think they did a fantastic job. Perfect paint match, laid on an extra coat of clear like I asked and even fixed a couple of things that they didn't need to. I'd recommend them to anybody!

The only thing I did that I suggest other people do is tell them NOT to wash your car when they're done. The guy they have washing cars knows ZILCH about what he's doing: he washes them with a brush, but he drags the end on the ground. I can only imagine how much damage that's done. The guy I dealt with says that this guy is probably not long for the shop as he has been warned about that before :P

how can you recommend them after that? Thats pretty brutal

Thanks for the info, I'll definitely check them out.
It's weird Honda uses them, yet Acura uses Parker's. I'll probably check both places out. It's probably best to go with a company that has a lot of experience with your particular car make.

I suppose the only reason Mercedes, VW and Audi use Continental is because those cars require specific knowledge to take apart and put together. For example, Porsche said they use Advance only because they have the specific tools needed to work on those cars.

Jesus! A brush? Well, I hope it's a good one? Every brush I've ever used has left swirl marks. Getting it on the ground is ridiculous though.

Campus Honda use Parkers as well but their primary body shop they use is Pretech. They have a good relationship with them which is probably one of the biggest reasons they continue to use them, I would also say they work on more hondas then another other body shop in town so if you want a shop with experience on that particular brand then they are your shop.
I had my car painted at Advance a few years ago, lets just say I don't go there anymore. After only 4 months my car began to rust where they had just prepped and painted and when asked them about it, they claimed there was nothing they could do or would do to help me. Even though I had just put close to $10,000 through there in the past 3 months on my car alone not to mention the countless other cars I recommended to them through work (i was working at nissan at the time) so I said I wouldn't go there again. I didn't expect them to fix it for free since its a pretty common place to rust on my Civic but I would hope they try to help me out someway but they didn't want to so....
I think any shop is going to have horror stories and faithful customers but I would just do your research and look for any patterns. If you see a number of people swearing off a certain shop, they stay away, and of course vise versa with people with promote a certain shop. No shop is perfect so don't expect not to hear some bad stories every once in a while.

most dealerships choose to use a bodyshop thats close to their location. Thats tipically why they choose a shop, unless they have a problem, then they stop using them. Every bodyshop has the "Specific" tools to fix all vehicles, regardless of make. Mercedes tend to be the worst, because they dont use a pinch weld, so you cant chain and clamp them on a p4 system. They have a special clamp to attach them to the frame rack. But any decent shop should have those pieces.

-Brad