Can it be? A decent panel beater!
I’ve experienced a few nightmarish dealings with accident-damaged cars in my time. So when a friend’s Opel Corsa Sport was taken out by a drunken bakkie driver in Hout Bay (who fled the scene but was caught many kilometres away by quick re-acting police), I thought this would be a similar headache. I said I hoped the insurance would write the car off, but they decided to repair it because the value of the vehicle was about R80 000.
“Prepare yourself for trouble, I said”.
The insurer, Auto and General said to take it to Smith and Santos CC in Lansdown. What followed was surprising. Could this be one of only a few tame panel beaters still in captivity? A courtesy car was organised, followed by a detailed and very reasonable quote of R28 205, considering the work involved. Some of the parts prices were surprising low in cost and this was not (as I have experienced personally) because second hand parts were used. In my case the panel beater spent ages locating the worst, oldest pieces of scrap metal that could just be passed off as a useable part.
In the Corsa’s case, the car was only about three years old, so all parts were purchased new. Here are some examples excluding VAT: bonnet – R1 147, foglamp – R378, radiator R769,50. The most expensive item was the front axle beam at R4 111,27.
Of course it took longer than estimated to complete the job, but the next surprise was the quality of the paint finish. It really was superb and I battled to spot the tell-tale signs of overspray on the rubber strips or fragments of dust in the paint. They forgot to respray the driver’s door as promised but took the car back and the car now looks as good as new.
So there you have it – my faith has been partly restored! And a thumbs up to Auto and General for choosing a decent panel beater – not the shady sharks that some other large insurance houses team up with! Better not mention any names in case I end up getting sued for defamation.