Auto Bodyshop Promise - Sound Too Good to be True?

Body shop has basically found a loophole of insurance companies and their "aftermarket parts after xx years old" bit. Instead of worrying about making profit on parts they just invoice the parts at aftermarket cost (likely using the highest aftermarket prices for comparison) and then charge out the wazoo for labour lol. There's probably some limit for the labour cost as well, sure, but they'll just invoice for both parts they never used and labour they never did. The whole body shop insurance repairs thing is a real racket--sometimes they jack up the cost by several thousand dollars of pure profit.

By giving you genuine parts they keep you happy/quiet, while they take the insurance company to the cleaners. Sounds funny but when you think about how rampant this kind of thing is in the industry, you realise it's just another reason insurance rates are so high in cities.

I had some accident repair done on a Ford where the body shop quoted after market parts.
But when I picked up the car afterthe repairs, the owned told me that he was able to get OEM Ford parts for the after-market price, so I actually got OEM parts for items that were replaced.

Kyle12345 wrote: ↑ Hey guys,

My car got into an accident, looks like a bumper and headlight needs to be replaced. It is a Honda Civic about 5 years old. I will be going through insurance.

I took it to 3 body shops including 1 of my insurance approved shops. My insurance is saying they will only cover after market parts.

2 of the shops said they can only use after market parts for insurance claims but one of them is saying that they are some kinda authorized Honda shop and they can get the after market parts price matched by Honda for the same OEM parts.

Obviously I prefer OEM parts to be used but the problem is that I’m not a car enthusiast so I would not be able to tell if this shop was being honest after the fact.

Just wondering if anyone knows, is this a thing about price matching or are they just lying to get the business? I’ve never heard of this.

Thanks.

Check your insurance contract. They only owe you aftermarket parts that meet OEM specs.

Went to battle with Sonnet / Economical recently for a not at fault accident. The body shop told me that Lexus Canada would match the price of aftermarket parts to ensure only OEM parts were used.

Have your body shop check and perhaps Honda will match the price of aftermarket parts for you.

Does it really matter? Some after market parts are perfect match, you will not be able to tell the difference. The car is 5 years old, run of the mill not handmade piece, don't stress too much. Claim is claim, it stays on the car's record oem parts or not. Glad that you are ok, some weird fatal accidents lately, like that flying into the wall car by Pearson airport today with 2 dead

Kiraly wrote: ↑ Sure, Honda maintains a list of body shops that it partners with that use genuine Honda parts. https://www.honda.ca/en/service-parts/collision-repair#
As for whether this shop will be more expensive than others, does it matter? Your insurance is paying. You don't have to go to the shop that your insurance wants you to go to. You can go anywhere.

Oh no I’m not worried about the cost, it’s a not at fault claim and it’s not a shop that the dealership wants me to go to.

What I want is OEM parts used for the repair. Most the shops I’ve been to flat out said no to OEM parts for insurance claims as they won’t allow it.

But there was 1 shop that said they have the ability to price match the after market part prices with Honda for OEM Honda parts. I’ve never heard of such a thing and it sounded sketch since the other shops I’ve been to flat out said no. So I came here to ask since there’s usually some ppl in the know.

Seems like that link just shows the Honda dealerships? I went to one of those and they said they will use aftermarket/used parts too lol.

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑ Body shop has basically found a loophole of insurance companies and their "aftermarket parts after xx years old" bit. Instead of worrying about making profit on parts they just invoice the parts at aftermarket cost (likely using the highest aftermarket prices for comparison) and then charge out the wazoo for labour lol. There's probably some limit for the labour cost as well, sure, but they'll just invoice for both parts they never used and labour they never did. The whole body shop insurance repairs thing is a real racket--sometimes they jack up the cost by several thousand dollars of pure profit.

By giving you genuine parts they keep you happy/quiet, while they take the insurance company to the cleaners. Sounds funny but when you think about how rampant this kind of thing is in the industry, you realise it's just another reason insurance rates are so high in cities.

Ahh I see. Maybe that’s what they’re doing. Glad to hear it’s a thing I guess.

krs wrote: ↑ I had some accident repair done on a Ford where the body shop quoted after market parts.
But when I picked up the car afterthe repairs, the owned told me that he was able to get OEM Ford parts for the after-market price, so I actually got OEM parts for items that were replaced.

Interesting, thanks. I think they try to source after market/used parts if they can and if not they have to end up using OEM so maybe that was the case.

engineered wrote: ↑ Check your insurance contract. They only owe you aftermarket parts that meet OEM specs.

Yupp that’s what they said and I get that. It’s just that this shop is offering OEM parts for the same price as aftermarket/used parts by price matching.

Wasn’t sure if it’s a thing so thought I’d ask so that if their just lying to her business I could just avoid them.

notunknown wrote: ↑ Went to battle with Sonnet / Economical recently for a not at fault accident. The body shop told me that Lexus Canada would match the price of aftermarket parts to ensure only OEM parts were used.

Have your body shop check and perhaps Honda will match the price of aftermarket parts for you.

This is exactly what this body shop said. Guess it is a thing then!

I guess I’ll just take their word for it as I’ll probably never be able to tell...

Tommy74 wrote: ↑ Does it really matter? Some after market parts are perfect match, you will not be able to tell the difference. The car is 5 years old, run of the mill not handmade piece, don't stress too much. Claim is claim, it stays on the car's record oem parts or not. Glad that you are ok, some weird fatal accidents lately, like that flying into the wall car by Pearson airport today with 2 dead

Hey, thanks. Yah I guess your right. It’s just that it’s a shop that’s offering after market/used parts vs. another shop that’s offering OEM when other shops said it’s not possible.

So just double checking cause it sounds like I have a choice and if thats the case I’d rather go with OEM.

I’d be more concerned with quality of the paint finish at the end. Seen too many repair jobs with horrible colour matching, orange peel, etc.

There is a fair bit of either misleading or flat out wrong information in this thread.

To answer the main question yes there are shops that will charge the same amount for an OEM part as an aftermarket part. If the body shop is owned by a Chev dealer they would rather have the shop use a part from their parts department make only 1$ of profit on the part but have all $200 come back to their dealership than have the body shop make $50 profit on an after market part but see the other $150 for the part go to the Napa store down the street. Happens all the time.

The insurance company only cares how many $ they pay (unless of course there are safety regulations that require an OEM part they have to follow the regulations)

What that means is that if they write an estimate for $2000 of parts using aftermarket parts they don’t care if it’s aftermarket or OEM as long as it’s $2000 and the shop legitimately plays $2000 for the parts. That also means that while you CAN have your car repaired and where you want the insurance company only needs to pay $2000 no matter where you take it. If it’s $2k with aftermarket parts and you take it to a shop and they put OEM parts on and give you a bill for $3k guess who is paying that extra $1k ….it won’t the insurance company.

(note there are some provinces where you can buy a xtra insurance that ensurers OEM under defined circumstances so as always read your policy)

Most dealers (not just Honda) are able to price match aftermarket or used body parts using programs like Collisionlink or Autopartsbridge. The manufactures give the dealers a rebate on certain collision parts to compensate for the lower prices.