Auto Body Shop Serving Newtonbrook

Finch to Leslie, and no highway in between

From anywhere in Newtonbrook the route is the same three turns. Take Finch Avenue east from Yonge, past Bayview and the hydro corridor, to Leslie Street; turn south on Leslie to Sheppard; turn east at Sheppard and we are on the north side at Don Mills, next to the mall. In normal traffic that is about 11 to 17 minutes. Finch east of Bayview is a wide, quick road outside the rush, and the lights at Leslie and Sheppard are the only two that really slow you down. If you are already at the east end of the neighbourhood, Leslie south from Cummer or Steeles is the shortcut.

The alternative is the 404. Finch meets it just east of Leslie, and one exit south at Sheppard puts you at our door, but for most Newtonbrook drivers the highway adds a merge and saves nothing. We only suggest it when the car is coming from the Steeles end on a flatbed, because tow operators prefer it. Coming back, the same trip in reverse is easiest before the afternoon rush builds westbound on Finch toward the subway.

Where a Newtonbrook car gets hurt

Finch station is the largest bus terminal on the TTC and the top of Line 1, and the streets around it — Yonge and Hendon, Bishop, the kiss-and-ride loop, the commuter lot — produce a steady run of low-speed rear-ends and door edges caught on concrete. Centerpoint Mall at Yonge and Steeles has a surface lot the size of several football fields, and that means shopping carts on windy days, angled-parking scrapes, and the door ding with no note. Along the Yonge strip between Finch and Steeles the Korean and Persian restaurants share rear lots and laneways built for a different era, so mirrors, rear corners, and lower doors meet bollards, dumpsters, and the neighbour’s bumper.

The side streets tell a different story. The post-war bungalows off Drewry, Cummer, and Patricia are being replaced one at a time by wide new houses on the same narrow lots, with driveways that are short, steep, and edged with stone. A rear bumper dragged on the apron, a rocker on the retaining wall, or a front lip on the garage slab is a Newtonbrook-specific injury. Then there is Steeles itself: delivery trucks, the York Region crossing at Yonge, and drivers who treat the boundary as permission to speed.

• Bus-loop and kiss-and-ride taps at Finch station
• Cart dents and door dings in the Centerpoint Mall lot
• Mirror and corner scrapes in the laneways behind the Yonge Street restaurants
• Bumper and rocker drags on short, steep new-build driveways
• Steeles Avenue rear-ends and delivery-truck sideswipes near the Thornhill line

Running the claim from eight kilometres away

Eight kilometres is close enough that nothing about the claim changes, and far enough that we make sure you only drive it once. Photograph the damage from close up, from the corner of the car, and from across the driveway, and send the three. Our estimator reads them and replies with a written estimate, which is the number the claim opens with. If the car will not move, leave it at Finch station or in the Centerpoint lot and we coordinate the tow; in Ontario the owner decides where a tow truck takes a car, not the operator.

For a not-at-fault hit, your own insurance company pays under DCPD, unless you signed the OPCF 49 endorsement, which removes DCPD, Collision or Upset and All Perils in one go and leaves nobody to bill, the other driver included. Your insurance company may point you to a preferred shop on Steeles or Yonge; Ontario lets you choose, and we open the file with them ourselves. If you had crossed Steeles and the collision happened on the Thornhill side, York Region’s Collision Reporting Centre is the one to file with; south of Steeles it is Toronto’s. Either way we run the claim and arrange the rental through your coverage.