It’s been nearly a decade since a group of private equity investors made a huge discovery that was going to be their next significant investment. That discovery was: auto body shops.
Insurance companies pay for the repairs, so that would eliminate any cash flow issues. Customers would always need collision repair. So, these investment firms struck a deal between three of the largest auto body shops that had locations across several different regions. The only thing left to do was go on a spending spree. The investors would approach soon-to-be out of business body shop owners to acquire their shops. This would be done in a method known as “consolidation.”
Last year in 2018, two of the largest consolidated created a high production body shop chain with over 1,000 different locations across the country. Insurance companies saw this as an opportunity to save money on repairs by sending more cars to these body shop chains. Everyone would be benefitted, except for the customers. Why? We’re here to explain the difference between high production body shops and family-run body shops like Rocco’s Collision Center.
The Reality
Car repair is an extremely stressful time, and your insurance company knows this. They want you to get your car back as soon as possible with spending as little as they need to. Insurance companies will put the pressure on the body shop to perform faster repairs, which typically will mean that corners will be cut in the process to save time and money. No matter what your insurance company may tell you, your car needs to have its unique repair plan. No technician should get “straight to work” without having a drawn-out plan on what to do. Unfortunately, many technicians still do this, especially those working at body shop chains.
No More Personalized Attention
Taking your car to one of these body shop chains is like taking your car to be repaired at a Walmart. High production body shops lack in providing their customers with personalized attention and treat you more like a number in line than anything else. The technicians at these shops will hardly ever create a repair plan for your car and will approach a repair from “experience” than anything else. However, this is also how they save time, neglecting your safety in the process. They’ll do the same repair for every vehicle that comes into their shop, never paying attention to what each car requires in the repair process.
Faster Doesn’t Always Mean Better.
As we mentioned above, insurance companies will push these national body shop chains to perform faster repairs at a set budget because they are under a contract with them. Typically, these body shops will earn a reputation for sloppy repairs and incorrectness of the overall process because of technicians cutting corners to save time. Faster doesn’t always mean better in collision repair. If this happens, the body shop chains would have to buy back cars because of the horribly done repairs. Whatever vehicle they “repaired” would then be considered a total economic loss, which is a complete inconvenience in and of itself. This happens when the cost to repair the vehicle exceeds the overall value of the car. We wish we could say this only happens on rare occasions, but it happens more than you think.
Whatever Happened To Quality?
Thankfully, not all body shops are created equally. There are a few auto body shops that know how to perform a repair the right way. We may have many different locations here at Rocco’s Collision Center, but we never take any shortcuts in the repair process.
We are a family-owned and operated business, and our customers are our top priority. At Rocco’s, you aren’t a number in line, but a person who’s safety is our responsibility. We will create individualized repair plans for every car and follow through on those plans to guarantee your vehicle is repaired the way it should be.
Where In New Jersey Can I Take My Car To Be Repaired The Right Way?
We at Rocco’s Collison Centers know that you have many choices when looking for a car repair shop, especially in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey areas.
The problem with high production body shops isn’t just here in Pennsylvania and New Jersey but across the country. We are writing about this because we feel you deserve the highest quality repair out there for your car. No substitutions. No short cuts. Only the best.
We aim to show you why we are the best out there, which is why we are dedicated to giving you the best repair possible for your car!
We have six different locations across Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. We invite you to see for yourself why Rocco’s is the best out there! Feel free to give us a call at anytime at (888)-9-ROCCOS. Or to schedule an appointment or to call any of our locations directly, click here.
We look forward to hearing from you!
