Insurance approved repair vs. finding your own

Hudzy · 10 Sep 2021 at 22:33

I've had a bit of a bump on my front bumper and it's looking likely I'll be claiming through insurance. It's a tangerine Focus ST and I'd definitely want to use genuine parts and have the colour be essentially perfect.

I'm almost definitely looking at a new bumper and grille. Unknown damage behind the grille but it looks fine at the moment.

I'm trying to decide whether to let the insurance company use one of their approved repair shops, or book in somewhere I can read reviews of first and get them to handle the claim.

Has anyone got any advice or experience with this?

Part of me worries an insurance approved shop will just be working towards the cheapest repair possible, or might struggle to match the paint.

It would be through Admiral.

EDIT: I guess I'd potentially have more comeback through the insurance approved one if they do a poor job?

Hudzy · 10 Sep 2021 at 22:41

The two in Bristol don't seem to do repairs. I think Newport is my closest.

Hudzy · 11 Sep 2021 at 09:37

I think I'm leaning towards using the approved repairer, at least if I can find out who it is and it doesn't have horrific reviews.

I just read a page on Admiral's site that claims their approved repairers use genuine parts "where possible" but then all the searching on Google is just countless posts about people getting rubbish work done, cheap third party parts, avoid Admiral, etc.

It's depressing.

Hudzy · 11 Sep 2021 at 13:42

Conscript said:
To be fair to them - it was only the bent suspension that we had issue with; the paintwork they did was perfect, so if the OP is worried primarily about colour matching, then perhaps this tale of woe isn't even relevant

Admittedly that is probably my biggest worry. Along with using a genuine part to avoid any misaligned panels, etc.

This would be a fault claim if that makes any difference to this Auxilis company getting involved.

Hudzy · 13 Sep 2021 at 10:26

I'm hoping to talk to Admiral today to clarify some things, approved repairers and all that.

Hopefully the quality of the fixes are the same for a fault claim.

Hudzy · 14 Sep 2021 at 00:25

I've been referred to a place which seems to have lots of good reviews at least.

Fingers crossed.

Hudzy · 14 Sep 2021 at 16:48

The good reviews I read were apparently for a different branch, so at this point I'm just going to expect the worst I think.

I noticed the paperwork from the insurance company says the repairer will "use parts made to the manufacturer specification" which is slightly different wording to the advisor on the phone assuring that they would use genuine parts.

The company doing the fix is a Vauxhall workshop so probably not approved by Ford.