Body Shop (San Antonio, Troy, Anton: insurance, deductible, shops)

[sxybeast]

Hi,

I need to take my car to a body shop. Any recommendations?

[scuba steve]

Oddly enough, a future coworker I met up with during my visit to San Antonio had the same problem. A car guy in the group recommended Art's Body Shop (I think on Bandera Road) to him. They had a long discussion about shops... the only things that I remember was that he had great luck at Art's and someone else had a horrible experience with a place called Gunn that gave him his car back without putting it all together. The badge on the front of his car was held on with double-sided tape instead of the screws it's supposed to be attached with, and nearly fell off on his way home.

[mpfree]

I would highly recommend BBB Auto Body. The guy's name is Troy. His number is 637-0774 and he is located at 5501 Brewster, SATX 78233.

Troy is a really good guy and he REALLY enjoys doing body work. I hit a deer last year and after getting a payment from the insurance company to get it fixed (less my $500 deductible), Troy only charged me an additional $150! And the car looked fantastic.

He actually tries to save you money, he doesn't charge you more than he needs to.

The only thing I need to warn you about Troy is that he is really busy and he sometimes doesn't answer the phone. BUT, if you can go to his shop and talk to him or are able to get him on the phone, it's very much worth it. He's a small operation but big on quality.

Also, keep this in mind (since I had this conversation just a few days ago), whether you take your car to get it repaired at a dealership, a big body shop, or a small guy like Troy, it doesn't really matter if you get after market body parts or OEM parts, your car was damaged and it will depreciate the same. In addition, if you are having your insurance pay for it, the policy terms state that they will pay for "like, kind, and quality" which doesn't translate automatically into OEM parts. If you want OEM parts, you must pay the difference between "like, kind, and quality" and OEM.

Now some may say that you can argue with the insurance company to pay for OEM parts and that is true. There are times when you get a claims adjustor who went to church on Sunday and are still feeling the Spirit but that is not very often. And again, when after market is just as good and your car is going to depreciate the same, just go for the aftermarket.

[scuba steve]

Good advice... my other thing to add is to have a look at some of the finished cars sitting around. If you see overspray or misaligned panels, your car will probably come back in similar condition. If you like the look and can't tell the repaired area from the new you may like your results. I used to inspect used cars before people bought them. There are *really* good shops out there that can make the car exactly as it was beforehand but they are few and far between. Most places will leave signs that they did something behind. A little overspray somewhere, modern plastic bumpers can be very hard to align correctly with the body, and sometimes they lose an original interior trim fastener and don't bother getting a substitute from the dealer.

[majormadmax]

What part of town are you in? There are tons of body shops out there, good and bad. I take my car to MD Automotive on 1560 between Culebra and Bandera Roads outside of 1604, and they've always done a great job on my car. I've had mechanical and body work done, with similar results. Maybe not the cheapest place in town, but they do quality work and they stand behind it. I guy I work with also goes there, and he had a problem with a part they replaced a year or so back. The problem most likely wasn't due to the part they replaced but something else, but they still fixed it again free of charge. I would rather pay a little more and know that the work is backed by the shop, than save a few bucks and find it was done badly a few years later.

Cheers! M2