So, through Hasting the car ended up at a not so local Nationwide Repair Centre.

Bumper respray, tailgate respray, new rear window and a new retracting luggage cover.

When I do a bit of investigation, Nationwide Repair Centres seem to get a bad rep, is this true?

And one more, I've never been in the situation of accepting a car back after spray work; what do I need to check?

Cheers.

I use the Nationwide Car Centre in Leicester for all my MOT's cars and bikes, never had anything other than Ist class service. Ie, they have always passed!

Of course, that is not at all like the problem you mention, but while waiting (2 hrs each time) never saw anyone complaining or saying they were less than satisfied.

They certainly seemed to do reasonable work on cars which had suffered from hail damage last year.

I suppose like all franchise type operations, it is down to luck on the actual branch you use.

Going into a bodyshop with a £300 budget for example and asking for some repairs you will get what you pay for.

Whereas with an insurance job I get the impression it's money no object just get the job done.

Someone reversed into the panel above the driver side rear wheel on my old vito a few years ago leaving a nasty crease in the panel.

I got a quote from a body shop recommended by Mercedes, just over three grand. For one panel.

The written quote had a list of all the parts and I say all as there was about 20 different bits located around and behind the panel they also wanted to replace.

I got a local panel beater to repair it for less than £400 as the above was going to take over three weeks and I needed it back on the road asap.

So going by the above, body shops will squeeze every last penny out of the insurance companies for these kind of repairs and as such I wouldn't accept anything less than the car looking as new.

Remember, it is YOUR insurance policy, you are entitled to take your car to whatever bodyshop you want, if there is a local place you know and trust then use them, just tell your insirance company who you are going to use, how the bill is settled would possibly be different to using the insurance 'approved' place!

Personally I have found the standard of repairs received on my own vehicles over the years from the insurance 'approved' places has generally been poor at best, its not a case of being 'anal' about it, its about them painting all that has been primed, expecting the orange peel effect to be minimal, expecting the engine mounts to of been fitted correctly etc etc etc

I have always found the insurance places are generally like a conveyor belt, get them in, get them quoted, quote for every possible part that might need doing, get it done, get it back out, quality control is not always what you want it to be.

Where as if you go to where you want to go, someone you know and trust, then use them, you pay for the policy, so you can have it repaired where you want. After using the insurance places in the past I got fed up with crap workmanship, so instead last time I sed a place I have used many times for touch ups etc and the car came back exactly as it shoud of done, good workmanship, perfect paint match, sanding marks etc were minimal, the painted areas compunded and polished to a good standard etc etc

Only once in 25 years of driving have I ever been happy with insurance repairs, and that was from the local Suzuki garage where the insurance sent it, they sent it out to a local Ford place and the job came back top notch, couldnt fault it.