Insurers Prefered Body Shops - or mine...

[Ca11um]

Last week my car was hit by another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle was very apologetic and was accepted full responsibility. Both my insurance and the other drivers insurance company wanted quotes from their preferred repair shops. Both repair companies have since said it’s repairable and please book the car in even though the car is old and not worth a great deal.

I called my insurance company to see if I was obliged to use either body shop and it appears it’s my choice. But… my insurer strongly advised me to use the other drivers body shop. Does anyone know why this might be?

Up until now I had wanted to use my insurers body shop as I thought if there were any problems with the repair my insurer would give me better backing to get things sorted (and they wanted to replace door skins rather than just pulling dents out and re-spraying). Could there be problems with my insurer recovering costs if I don’t take my car to the other insurers preferred body shop?