2010 Chevrolet Malibu - Repair Shops

How about an article on Body Repair Shops. They all just want to put new parts on the vehicle at a bigger cost to us. Thanks.

They want to put new parts on because it is cheaper than the labor to fix the old ones their customers have bent up in accidents. So it is actually a LOWER cost to you. Accident repair is difficult, labor intensive and thus expensive.

Why are you complaining about this?

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If you want cheap repairs with ripples in the sheet metal that will detract from future value there is a nation wide chain that will do that. Another another “feature” of that chain is the probability that the paint will fail in a few years.

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Here’s an in-depth look at the body shop business with regard to new technology from our partner site written by a CarTalk contributor. If it makes you feel better, it seems from this story that your insurance company is on your side. They want inferior and incorrect materials to be used in the repair of your vehicle to keep costs down. Again, not my opinion, just one of my take-aways from the story.

Not enough information given…
I’m not sure what your problem is because you have not stated what has caused you to take this point of view…

Rather, how about an article on auto insurance companies that won’t authorize new parts for vehicle repairs, insisting on used (“recycled” they like to call them) parts? I’ve seen fairly new vehicles damaged and repaired using parts older than the vehicle or questionable new after-market pieces.

Under certain circumstances, however, a car is better repaired using used parts than it is using new or aftermarket parts. How do I know this? I was a Body Shop Manager at one point in my life (before a decades long career not in automotive).

Insurance companies have been in lawsuits over some of the practices involving repair parts and have changed some procedures as a result.

To answer your original request, it’s not as simple as seems to appear to you.
CSA
:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

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Personally I have never had a problem with insurance or a body shop. I do remember back in 1966 though at the dealer I bought my Morris from, they had a poster from maybe Dupont or some supplier showing the new method for fixing rust holes. They were common on the fenders by the headlights, so they showed the process of using the foil tape to bridge the gap and then filling it in with body filler. Who is to argue if the supplier comes up with a new method? I even used it myself on my own cars. But then after a while, the foil rusts through, and the filler absorbs the water, and the whole thing falls apart. So then it’s back to welding in new metal or replacing the panel. Most of the time you are given the choice of paying to pound a panel out or replacing it, pay the higher labor or pay the higher cost for the panel. I’ve never been unhappy replacing the part.

Gee I just found out it’s my anniversary. I get the badge for being here a year and making at least one post. I feel like a boy scout with all these badges so be nice to me.

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A 140 bucks for a new fender or 5 hours of labor @ 100 an hour to rework a damaged one. Which would you want…

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Mine too . . . and I have nothing to show for it :slightly_frowning_face:

How about a cake :cake:

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New parts are so easy to find and they get delivered. Plastic parts are breakable and in the old days body shops would glue a piece of wood in place of headlight adjustment screws. Anything to hold things in position to get the job out the door. Sometimes an artist is not the desirable technician that you should have working on your car. The purely plastic headlight adjusters on the 91 Camry were something I could fix with plumber’s tape (that metal strip with holes in it) but you might not like it if I charged you for the work. It would cost the same as a new part. It would work better and be permanent. Some body shops will never put the car together right no matter what parts they can get.

If your anniversary notice is like mine, there are likely several years missing from those anniversaries. Mine began in 2008, and despite being a constant presence in this forum ever since, there is a gap between 2009 and 2015.

What happened to 2010 through 2014?
Were those “The Vanilla Years”??

… just sayin’…
:smirk:

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  1. Paying a salvage yard to remove some parts would cost more than just buying new.

  2. It would cost more to prep the old parts than it is to just use new.

  3. There’s an old saying that " Oats are not cheap. The cheap oats have already been thru the horse."

Yosemite

I recently replaced both driver’s side doors and front fender with salvage yard parts of the exact same color. It took about two hours to hang the parts. PAINTING, or just paint, is ridiculously expensive. The three stage paint alone would have cost almost $600. I probably spent $1500 less than having a body shop buy and paint new parts for me.