Brendan,

My wife who is insured by Privilege had a coming together with a car earlier in the year.

We took her Citroen AX to Nationwide Crash Repairs in Ifield Green and thier service was excellent. I can't really fault them.

They applied an emergency fix to the car within hours and booked the car in to be fixed a few days later. They gave us a brand new courtesy car to use while it was being fixed and much to my wife’s disgust fixed her car in 3 days (when they had quoted 5) so we had to give the courtesy car back early

Not too bad!

Your closest Subaru dealer is Gatwick Subaru (near Three Bridges). Have you tried them?

Dave

 

have you asked the various bodyshops if theyd take a trip out to see your car where it is to provide a quote? I had some work done a couple of years ago and the garages sent someone round to check out the damage,

bren

 

Hi All

I have to take my Terzo in to replace the lower wishbone and clean up the bodywork. Under Privilege Insurance, I can use their or my own nominated repairer. As this is my first claim in 10 years of premiums, and I have to pay the first 500 pounds anyway, I’d like Damn Good service (wondered about doing it myself, but have just been reading the thread on FSSH).

I’m in the Reigate/Redhill area of Surrey, and thought of Cheam Motors, who seem to have an excellent reputation as a dealer; problem is, I don’t know what they’re like as a repairer. Privilege have offered me Nationwide Crash Repairs in Ifield Green, near Crawley, who they say do official Subaru work.

The catch is that, to authorise the work with my choice of repairer, I have to fax the repairer’s estimate to Privilege; and the repairer can’t make the estimate without me incurring towing costs to get there (car is not drivable), so I can’t really shop around. Cheam Motors did not seem too keen on sending someone out to make an estimate, and I don’t know if anyone else would be.

So the questions for the panel are:
1. Are Nationwide in Crawley respectable? Positive answers post here, feel free to email me with horror stories if webbie disapproves of their posting .
2. If not, who receives the popular vote in order for me to tow it there and get the estimate?

Thanks in advance

BJH

 

I know someone recommended a body shop in New Malden, but I can't remember who??

Let me have a search through the old posts!

 

 

I have just had my RA repaired through privilege. They also offered me Nationwide in Crawley (I live near Reigate) but when I called them they had no idea what the RA was, and suggested about 5 weeks for sourcing parts. I am sure their actual work is great, but some of our cars are very specialised and I didnt want to risk it. My car went back to where I bought it (Park Lane in Alton) who did a fantastic job - a week to get parts and 3 days repairing. The garage dealt with getting the estimate approved - but I did have to chase up the engineer to inspect it.

The downside was that no courtesy car was available as it wasnt their apprvd garage - but then Nationwide wouldnt have given me one until the parts were there and repairs started. You get one free tow so I would just decide on a reliable place and get it taken there. Privilege cant argue too much on the cost anyway - well they didnt with me.

 

Brendan

I believe Chris L had his car repaired through Cheam motors and all I can say is that whoever Cheam motors used did a fantastic job - you really can't tell the difference.

I'm sure Chris will post to confirm.

Cheers

Justin

 

Certainly did.

I was going to post earlier, but I saw that Brendon had already spoken to Cheam Motors. If there is anyway you could get your car there, they are very good.

My car needed a new passenger side door after some one kindly opened their door into mine. I think the car was sent to Cheam's third party bodywork repairers in Dorking (Sorry don't have the name, but I can probably find out if you need it).

As Justin has said, the fit and finish is faultless and the paint match is outstanding. Cheam are very fussy about the third parties that they use and it shows.

I know that Cheam Motors get a lot of praise on this site, but they really are good and well worth considering.

Cheers

Chris

 

Many thanks for all that, folks!

Sounds like I can't go too wrong either way. I might ring both companies. Courtesy car would be nice, but not necessary, as a friend of mine has lent me his old banger for the duration.

Scoobynet; great place for word-of-mouth (/keyboard??) recommendations!

BJH

 

Brendan.....A few tips:

1. Find a garage you are happy to carry out the work, and make them know you are fussy.

2. Get Subaru Assist or equivalent to recover the car to the garage and get the garage to deal with your insurers (they do this on a daily basis and know how best to handle them). Don't listen to your insurers. They are trying to guide you down the path they want, not that you want.

3. If you are VAT registered don't tell the garage this, as they will charge you VAT which you will have to recover.

4. All Bodywork shops who are approved repairers have to provide their own fleet of loan cars as part of their contract with the insurers. These are payed for and run by the garage, not the insurer as the insurers have you believe. Therefore treat it with the respect you expect to receive from the garage.

5. Before relinquishing your loan car go over your repaired car with a toothcomb prior to taking it away. Those hire cars are costing the garage money so they want it back ASAP, so will be keen to rectify any faults you might find more quickly if you still have their loaner.

6. The insurers have squeezed the bodyrepair shops to the point of collapse, so there is no money in repairing cars anymore. See what deal can be done for Cash, without going via your insurers bearing in mind the likely hike in your premium following a claim. Good bodywork shops generally look after cash/ non insurance customers better.

Steve