First find out whether the dealer fixes the car or forwards it
Ask the service advisor one direct question: will the car be repaired in your own building? A lot of new-car dealerships run a service department and a parts counter but no paint booth or frame bench. When a customer brings in a crumpled fender, the dealer writes it up, sends the car to a collision shop it works with, and may add a handling charge of its own. The car comes back with the dealer’s name on the invoice and someone else’s work under the clear.
That is not a scandal, and some of those arrangements work well. It does mean you cannot judge the repair by the badge on the building. You are choosing the shop down the road the dealer uses, and you have not been told its name. Along the Highway 7 and 404 corridor, where dealerships sit close together, the same outside shop may be doing work for several of them.
Other dealers do run a full collision centre with their own painters and technicians. If yours does, the comparison below applies directly.
Factory parts and factory procedures are not dealer-only
The usual reason people lean toward the dealer is parts. Original manufacturer parts are sold through dealer parts departments, and independent shops buy them there too. When we order an OEM bumper absorber or headlamp for a car, it comes from the same parts network the dealership service bays use. The part number is the same.
Repair procedures are the second reason. Manufacturers publish the instructions for how their cars should be sectioned, welded, bonded, scanned and calibrated, and independent collision shops can subscribe to that information and read it for each job. A careful shop opens the procedure for that model year before the car is taken apart. A careless one, dealer or not, does what worked on the last car.
Where a dealer can have an edge is with programming. Some modules need the manufacturer’s own software session after replacement, and a dealer service department already has that. Independent shops either have the equipment or send the car for that one step. Ask any shop how it handles programming and calibration, and listen for a specific answer.
Where each kind of shop tends to be stronger
A dealer collision centre is often the easier choice when the car is still under its factory warranty and something in the electrical system is also being looked at, because the warranty work and the body work are under one roof. It can also be easier when the damage is minor and you already have a service appointment there.
An independent shop tends to be stronger on communication and on contested claims. The person who wrote the estimate is the person who argues the supplement with the adjuster, and you can reach them without going through a service advisor relaying messages from a sublet shop. For a household with two different makes in the driveway, one independent shop can handle the Honda and the Hyundai with the same process.
Neither structure decides paint quality. Paint quality is set by how the booth is kept, how carefully the panel is prepped, and whether the painter checks a sprayed sample against your car under daylight before the colour goes on.
Timing differs as well. A dealer that sublets has to fit your car into another shop’s schedule, and the car may be towed or driven between the two buildings, sometimes more than once if a calibration step goes back to the dealer. Ask how many times the car will change hands and who signs for it each time.
Questions to put to a dealer and to an independent
Ask the same questions of both and compare the answers. Vague reassurance is an answer too.
- Is the repair done on your premises, and if not, which shop does it?
- Will you open the manufacturer’s repair procedure for my model year before teardown?
- Who runs the pre-repair and post-repair scans, and do I get the reports?
- If a camera or radar needs calibration, is it done in-house or sent out?
- Who do I speak to during the repair, and are they the one writing the estimate?
- What written warranty covers the paint, and who honours it if the work was sublet?
Your insurance company pays the same way for a dealer or an independent repair
The choice of shop is yours in Ontario, whether that means the dealer’s collision centre or an independent down the street. Your insurance company pays the reasonable cost of the repair either way and cannot require one over the other. If the dealer sublets the work and adds a handling charge, the adjuster may question that line, so ask before you authorize.
If you are weighing a dealer’s collision centre against our shop at Sheppard and Don Mills, bring the dealer’s estimate along. Our estimator will sit down with it and mark each place where the two estimates part ways on parts and labour hours.
Questions people ask
Will an independent repair hurt the resale value at trade-in compared with a dealer repair?
The trade-in appraiser looks at gaps, paint and the history report, not at whose name is on the invoice. A well-documented independent repair with factory parts listed on the invoice holds up just as well as a dealer one.
My dealer quoted a body repair and named no other shop. How do I know whether it is sublet?
Ask the service advisor whether the car leaves the property for the repair and what the outside shop is called. It is a fair question, since your car will be sitting there and someone there will be painting it.
Does the dealer get factory parts faster than an independent shop?
Sometimes slightly, because the parts department is in the same building. For parts on national backorder, everyone waits the same amount of time regardless of where the car is.