My car was rear-ended by a suburban. The tail light was busted and pushed into the quarter panel, bumper was scratched, and the quarter panel was rather, well, crumpled. The person who hit me did not want to go through insurance. This being a new experience for me, I agreed. Warning: this can be a much bigger pain than one would imagine, even when you're dealing with an honest individual.
I asked three people independently for a recommendation of a good body shop. They all recommended one near the highschool on Division and Western that had after-market parts. I cased the street, and a condo apparently landed on it. I turned to Yelp, only to find mostly mechanics rather than body shops. I called around to a few places and discovered that body shops generally can't give a quote on the phone as they need to see how extensive the damage is as it may not be visible from the outside. Pain.
I met at a body shop with the person who rear-ended me; her guy gave us a verbal quote for the total. I also drove out to Compact Cars on the recommendation of a friend. He had dealt with Voytek at Compact Cars and had paid for bodywork himself at the shop, which boded well for pricing and workmanship. Voytek turned out to be a friendly, knowledgeable, and fair person to deal with. He gave me a printed version of the quote including a breakdown of parts and labor. I asked him to pop out a dent on the hood and asked about a spot where bird poop messed up the paint, but that ended up being more than I cared to spend. The person who rear-ended me was agreeable, and I made an appointment to hand over my car.
Another shop had quoted me a price to have the panel cut out and replaced. On my car, this panel extends over both passenger windows. I called to ask Voytek about this when I noticed the replacement part wasn't part of the quote. Voytek explained that the damage wasn't extensive, and that he didn't recommend cutting into the frame to the remove the panel. He could keep the panel in place and fix it. I like how he answered my questions, gave his reasoning, and explained it if I had further questions. After dropping my car off, the shop was nice enough to give me a ride to nearby transportation.
I checked in a couple times to see when the car would be done and picked it up a few days after the quoted delivery date. This was acceptable as it was a holiday weekend. When I saw the car, I was stunned. It was beautiful! The paint matched exactly and was the rear panel was flawless. I'd swear I had a hot wheels crack-up on my hands. The dent on the hood was gone, and he had thrown in repainting the hood for super cheap since they were doing the other work. The final bill ended up being right near the estimate. I was so pleased in my first dealings with Compact Cars!
I highly recommend these guys. This shop isn't exactly in walking distance for me, but a firm handshake and great value are unbeatable. Compact Cars rocks. read more
