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Exposed: "Preferred" Shop Cutting Corners

Chris Medine • Nov 20, 2015

After you've been in an accident, how do you know if you need a post accident repair inspection? How do you know if the preferred body shop of your insurance company did the job to your satisfaction ,or to the insurance company's satisfaction. Just because your car looks like it has been fixed properly doesn't mean that it has. The video below shows a "preferred" shop cutting corners.


This video exposes a few glaring short cuts that would put the owner of the vehicle in danger if they are ever involved in another accident. The first of these shortcuts is that they didn't replace the reinforcement bar behind the front bumper. What this means to the driver is that a vital piece of the vehicle, whose only purpose it to protect the driver in the event of a crash, is broken. With a damaged reinforcement bar, if the car is ever in another accident, there is nothing there to absorb the energy of the impact of the collision and the result is that all of that energy is transferred directly to the engine, pushing it into the front seat of the vehicle.

The next shortcut was that they didn't replace the trunk pan. Instead, they welded and repaired the current pan. This means that the owner of the vehicle now has a compromised pan, which makes it weaker. This means damage from a rear end collision would be greater.


One other shortcut worth noting is that they skipped the corrosion protection. This is a much bigger deal than one may first think. It may appear to be an aesthetic issue, but it is really a matter of safety and value. First of all, even if you never get in another accident again, having a rusted out vehicle is going to harm the resale value of the car. But, if you are in another accident, regardless of where the rusted out metal is, it stands to reason that healthy metal would absorb more energy from the impact than crumbling, rusted metal would. 




As we said earlier, just because your vehicle looks like it has been repaired properly, doesn't mean that it has. In fact, close to seventy five percent of vehicles are improperly repaired after an accident. There is a lot that can't be seen by the naked eye, and a lot that can be missed by a cursory glance. Scheduling a post accident repair inspection can remove all doubt.

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