Hi Guys,

last night I had a small collision and now my front bumper and the front fender (right hand side) are damaged (bumped). No mechanical damages and headlights work allright, luckily.

Any ideas where to have the repair done?

I guess Wyside is an option, but they tend to be QUITE pricey... Any reasons in your opinion to chose them? or do you have an alternative suggestion?

Thank you in advance for your advice!

not sure if they do bodywork but you could ask the guys at Unit 18

http://unit18.co.uk/

Hi Laura,

Sorry to hear this and glad you're OK.

I don't know about Wyside but my local main dealer does no bodywork repairs on site.

Instead, he sends the cars off to a local bodywork specialist. Probably same for most main dealers.

My dealer gave me the address of the specialist and I dealt with him direct.

I also obtained a quote from a local independent garage, who also sends cars off to a bodywork specialist.

Just £10 difference between the two quotes.

Hope this helps

not sure if they do bodywork but you could ask the guys at Unit 18 : )

There is a car bodywork repair business 2 doors along from them which they might be able to comment on.

Thank you guys!

I do go to Unit18 for service and similar, but I thought they do only mechanical and electrical stuff. I might give Ali a call and see what he suggests. Thank you also for the advice on the other garage: I definitely check a couple of options.

Wayside is generally good, but they charge almost 100 quids per hour of work, so they get quickly very expensive. Nevertheless, I am going to ask them how they woudl proceed and I'd have a benchmark.

Thank you again and take care!

Laura

Worth shopping around for a price... I have a big dent in the rear body panel above the bumper that i need to get fixed soon. First I took the car to the Skoda dealer, but they don't do bodywork - they gave me the address of their 3rd party body repair shop, which quoted me £650.

A second opinion from Bodytec.co.uk for the same work was under £400.

Both are supposed to do good work, so right off the bat that's £250 less.

Now the first shop said they use water-based paints which are not completely identical to the original Skoda ones, the second said they use OEM paint that is basically identical - showed me some of the cars in the shop at the time both halfway done and completely finished, and I really couldn't tell the difference in the repaired panels vs the original ones... but I wouldn't know if the paint argument is valid or not

Edited 8 November, 201213 yr by grafitti

just a short update:

I contacted 2 independent garages and the Wayside Skoda bodywork garage in Bletchley.

All 3 agree on new wing & repair of the bumper + painting.

The first independent place came up with 946- incl. VAT.

The second independent with 645- incl. VAT.

Wayside made me wait one week to email me a quote and came up with 860- exl VAT. To be fair: there is a small scratch on the border of headlight that only Wayside would be able to repair without exchanging the whole headlight so they are the only ones with this bit and they do offer a courtesy car included in the price. Which I would have probably needed, since they would need at least 4 days when the others are talking of no longer than 3.

I'll go for the cheapest one, since I saw that he would charge me 60 quids for the wing whereas the other independent one quoted 100- for it, and the more expensive one included straight away blending on the door, whereas the cheapest guy said he would do only if needed. Hopefully he does a good job now.

Laura

I hope all goes well with the repair.

£200+ sounds like a lot of money for a headlight... you can get one on ebay from a breakers yard for well under £50. Even the motorized ones are around £100

Hi know! I valued the courtesy car for 4 days about 100- and the repair of the headlight should be around 50-60 (according to their ad). That makes a plus value of about 160- but, after VAT, Wayside is over a grand!

What really shocked me was the first independent, that presented me with a quote of 946- without repairing the headlight and without courtesy car.

The one that is now working on my car had a very good rating on Bodytec.co.uk, so hopefully everything goes fine. I guess he'll get the wing from the scrapyard, but I am ok with it: it's cheaper and fit for purpose.

Final update: the car is repaired.

I took it to R&K Panelcraft in Bletchley (Eaton Water Industrial Estate). It costed 546- inc VAT, they did a superb job and took only 2 and half days. I was very happy, as you can imagine and I warmly recommend them.

That sounds a very good result for you, and a significant saving on the various quotes.

Yeah, I am really pleased and happy to put the issue behind me :-)