Accident Repairs
Road traffic accidents are an unfortunate but inevitable occurrence. Given the number of cars and other vehicles on the roads, most people will at some point be involved in an accident. Fortunately for those local to the Hinckley and Barwell area, Allied Automotive’s accident repair service can have you back on the road and your vehicle in better shape than before.
SELF FUNDING
In most cases, there are three ways in which accident repairs are organised and paid for.
The first is a self-funding repair to your own vehicle. This may involve an accident where you wish to avoid claiming on your insurance.
Making an insurance claim can often affect your premium and combined with your excess may not be the most economical way to repair your car.
Here at Allied Automotive, we can provide you with a free, no-obligation quote, where costs will be transparent, and you will not pay for the repairs until you are happy with the outcome.
Once the repairs are complete, you simply pay the agreed price and collect your vehicle.
INSURANCE
The second way in which accident repairs are processed is through insurance. Whether you are at fault, or another road user, the process is relatively straight forward. If you are at fault, the first thing you need to do is obtain an estimate, visit us at our bodyshop in Barwell. We will provide a full estimate that will be more than sufficient for all mainstream insurers. Once you have received your estimate, it is time to contact your insurer. At this point, the insurance company is likely to tell you that the insurance repairs must be carried out at their “approved repairers”. This is not correct. Most insurance companies have formal contracts with large repairers to carry out a high volume of work at reduced costs. As you can imagine, this often ends with reduced quality, long waiting times and high volumes of unhappy customers.
Remember, however, that it is you that pays your insurance premium. You are the customer, and you have every right to take your vehicle wherever you choose. Instead of taking your body repairs to “approved repairers”, we would always advise telling the insurers you want to take your car to a garage you know and trust. Whether that be us, or another local company, you will get a much more personal and quality service from companies that will appreciate your custom and want you to return. Who is going to take more pride in their work; the large organisation looking to please shareholders or the smaller, local garage looking to earn a living? Once the figures have been agreed between the garage and the insurance engineer, it will be a simple case of booking in the repair, waiting for it to be completed, and then signing a satisfaction note and paying the excess on collection.
NON- FAULT ACCIDENTS
The process can work a differently if another road user is clearly at fault. In 99% of non-fault cases, we recommend the use of an accident management company. We work with a few different accident management companies, and the process is very straight forward.
First, you visit us, so we can take images and assess the damage. We will then notify the accident management company of the incident and pass your details to them. To be clear – this is not the annoying “have you been involved in an accident” calls. A claim handler with then be in touch, take the details of the incident, and assess whether your vehicle is roadworthy.
If not, they will arrange a hire vehicle usually the same or next day. They then request an estimate from us, approve it, and we repair your car. Your insurance company is not involved at all. Once repairs are complete, you collect the car from us as usual and we invoice the accident management company who then reclaim it from the third party insurer.
GOING DIRECTLY TO THE BODYSHOP
Finally, with the growing cost of insurance premiums and excesses, third parties are increasingly agreeing to pay bodyshops directly. In this scenario, another person damages your car, and agrees to pay for the damage subject to an estimate. In many cases, the third party is more comfortable to pay the bodyshop directly (understandably), and this is something we are more than happy to do. If you find yourself in this situation, please feel free to visit us in Barwell for a free, no-obligation quote, we can then look to get you booked in for repair.
If you are in the Hinckley, Barwell, Burbage or surrounding areas, contact us or visit for a free estimate.
