Meh, shops have there ways of getting OEM parts regardless of what icbc says. There is a loophole for everything.
Aftermarket body panels, lights etc are complete crap.

My car is currently with No.1 Collision on Lougheed. (Certified for Mercedes and BMW)
They were saying my car will take 5 weeks. (that was told 1.5 weeks ago. 3.5 more weeks to go from then.)

I will post review later on.

I have "new body parts replacement benefit" from Optiom.
So that should be beneficial for me to get new OEM fender?

I'm being swamped by stupid paper work right now. Such a big hassle.
Optiom keeps telling me to make sure I get authorization from them before I proceed to take my car to a shop.

At the moment, I'm leaning toward Fastrack Auto. But I'll have to call them later and find out their estimated wait time. If it's too long, I might decided to go elsewhere.

I'll be the first to say that I had a pretty poor experience at Fastrack (must be my luck).

Long story short, 5 seperate visits to resolve issues, missed deadlines, poor communication, poor workmanship (initially), additional damage done by tow truck while in their possession, and an epic alignment fail and engine oil overfill by Dynamic Performance Auto Centre.

The saga wasn't resolved until I escalated the case with ICBC who stepped in and I dealt solely with Andrew (who did do his absolute best to work with me) instead of Johnny who after the 2nd visit back wanted no part of resolving the workmanship issues.

I'm not here to bash, as in the end they did satisfy their end of the deal, but it absolutely should not have regressed as far as it did with a near 2 year timeline from start to finish.

Clearly I'm in the minority which, for the most part, should mean you're in good hands. Would I personally go back? Nope.

What kind of damage was on your car? 2 year start-finish is a longggggg time...

Did you keep getting loaner vehicles in between?

Fast Track is backed up until 2nd week of May...
I made an appointment to get the car assessed on Friday. But not sure should I cancel the appointment and look else where?

How does this work? If one shop assesses my vehicle, can I later change my mind and go to another shop? And once I bring my car in for assessment, do they take it in then, or do I come back when they are ready to begin work?

seems pretty reasonable for appointment
You can goto any shop but if the other shop submits an estimate to your insurance company it can be a bitch to get it changed over. They usually download your claim, make a note to order some of the parts if needed closer to your drop off date. You come back with your vehicle when your appointment date comes up.
If you don't think you want to wait until the middle of may then i would suggest not taking the assessment appointment on friday.

Doesn't work that way. Why do so many people think that you can just demand OEM parts.

Even if a shop downloads the claim, as long as they don't summit anything, another shop can still draw the claim in. Most shops wont submit anything as you can't do a thorough estimate without taking the car apart (if needed)

On another note, I'm not surprised Dynamic performed an epic fail of an alignment.

A lot of dealerships are price matching aftermarket parts, so it is up to the shop if they are willing to do that or not. Optimum Insurance will cover a new part ONLY if ICBC determines the part is being replaced. So if the claim states the part is being repaired, your 3rd party insurance wont do anything. Only if the part that is being replaced is aftermarket/used, then will Optimum reimburse the shop the difference for the OEM part.

Took car to openroad auto body in Richmond for simple bumper painting after a hit and Run.

They were fast. Got car back after couple days.

Paint job upon closer inspection with flash light, I saw a couple of tiny imperfections in the Clear coat. Like a small hairline. Also saw what looks to be a finger print.

It was so tiny I didn't bother going back for a repaint. The color matching was good though.

I'd give 7/10.



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^ why not. They said their work is lifetime guaranteed.

Overseas auto body in Surrey did a great job on my grandpa's van would recommend them 100%

Cosmos

Going to echo some of the experiences shared above and say that Fastrack was awesome when I recently had my car in to get a scratched and dented front passenger side door repaired.

Very satisfied with the quality of service and work provided. Upon picking up the vehicle, I noticed two very minor scratches on the door I had repaired and repainted, Andrew immediately took care of it for me getting it polished out before I left. Everything was clean, no weird things going on anywhere. Otherwise no paint imperfections, perfect paint match on a light metallic green colour for a 2004 car with 310,000kms.

I was unhappy with the Kia Soul courtesy car they had as it seemed to have some motor issues with a very rough idle at times, I called in to let them know and they accommodated me and was able to get me into another car without any hassle.

They are a very busy shop, but the level of work and professionalism they display seems like they put in a lot of passion into what they do. And Andrew is a super awesome guy as well!

Because you can, you walk into a shop not be a dick hole, explain your concerns any shop that would be an aftermarket or used part on your car would not be to smart

For those people further out into the Valley, Bavara Auto Haus did a really good job on my vandalized GTI. Very happy with their work.

Unless it's out of your own pocket, you(or the shop) doesn't have a choice on what parts go on the car. The goal for an express shop to make ICBC happy is to repair the car for as cheap as possible. And yes saving $5 is a big enough difference

The only way to get OEM parts on your car is

No recycled parts available
&
Dealer can match aftermarket price
or
No aftermarket part available
or
Sometimes aftermarket part is defective/poor quality(usually headlights)

OR you can pay the price difference between aftermarket and OEM

I wont go into this to far but your going to the wrong shops if you are not getting OEM parts

If you don't have proper coverage and requirements listed above aren't met, it's considered fraud and can get you and the shop in lots of trouble.

That being said, most jobber parts are complete shit and get returned and replaced with an OEM part.

If you ever want an example of "you get what you pay for", look at aftermarket body parts and compare them to their OEM counterpart. It's incredible how A/M manufacturers pass that shit through QC.

Were talking about getting OEM parts, not sure where fraud comes into this

I'm an estimator at an express shop with one of the highest icbc set rates in Vancouver. I'm sure if we were doing something wrong we wouldn't have our accreditation.

Remember icbc picks what parts goes onto the car, they pick the cheapest part and if there is a cheaper alternative available and you chose to ignore it to buy oem then you're fucked.

Then hopefully you are getting your customers OEM parts that ask for them.

I honestly can't tell if you're being purposely ignorant or just stupid. Icbc pays for repairs so icbc decides how the car is repaired. If the customer was paying the difference or for the whole repair, they can ask for whatever they want.

Well in this case i would never go to your shop.
If icbc is telling you how to repair a vehicle well then....

From my personal experience, Twin star collision always fights to get OEM parts when ICBC is trying to unload aftermarket parts.

FUCK ICBC.

Some shops do, some shops tell you ICBC told them they HAD to use this aftermarket part, which is unture. The shop is telling you this because they are making 50%+ mark up on that part.