BMW repair garage - scratches etc

[DizzyN]

Hi all,

Unfortunately my BMW 128 fell victim to the storm
today and was quite badly scraped and damaged by a piece of flying flat roof from our neighbour’s house. I’ll be asking my insurer to pursue this, however, not having had to make use of any good bodywork repairers, I’m stumped as to what garages may a) be good at this kind of repair and b) might be approved by insurers. I ideally would like alternative options to investigate other than that which has been suggested by my insurer (not the best reviews). Therefore, just looking for recommendations really. Ideally within the northwest London area as a courtesy car will not be available. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I have checked on Google, however, the number of “do it all garages” is a bit overwhelming!

Image of the damage below

[cossy400]

If you are going to get your insurance to pursue it then you ve no need to look for a garage to fix it?

An d surely you have courtesy car on your policy?

[DizzyN]

cossy400 said:

If you are going to get your insurance to pursue it then you ve no need to look for a garage to fix it?

An d surely you have courtesy car on your policy?

Pretty confident when a claim is by storm damage and then a “fault” claim, no courtesy car is provided. As any issue surrounding liability has yet to be pursued or investigated, I’m not massively confident in my insurers position in pursuing the third party. I’ve not actually looked into this piece admittedly as my main concern is the repair.

Appreciate that my insurer has offered a repair garage but given the breadth of knowledge on here, figured someone might have first hand recommendations of garages they’ve used. As mentioned, the garage offered doesn’t have the best reviews and I want to make this as smooth and hassle free as possible.

[wax lyrical]

You should insist on a BMW approved body shop. The insurer will moan, but should allow that.

[un1eash]

wax lyrical said:

You should insist on a BMW approved body shop. The insurer will moan, but should allow that.

Insurers definition of BMW approved is very broad. They wanted to send my car first to a Drive Vauxhall garage then a massive repair centre. I demanded it went my local Sytner BMW which they were going to charge another £250 excess as it wasn't on their approved list of repairers.
Ended up putting in a complaint and they waivered the extra £250 as it was going to take over a month to get my car repaired where as Sytner fixed it in 3 days from contacting them for a quote.

[DizzyN]

un1eash said:

wax lyrical said:

You should insist on a BMW approved body shop. The insurer will moan, but should allow that.

Insurers definition of BMW approved is very broad. They wanted to send my car first to a Drive Vauxhall garage then a massive repair centre. I demanded it went my local Sytner BMW which they were going to charge another £250 excess as it wasn't on their approved list of repairers.
Ended up putting in a complaint and they waivered the extra £250 as it was going to take over a month to get my car repaired where as Sytner fixed it in 3 days from contacting them for a quote.

I’d ideally like it to go to Sytner, as unfortunately the supplying dealer (Arnold Clark) have their BMW garages in Scotland from what I can tell. What was the basis of your argument, if you don’t mind me asking?

[un1eash]

DizzyN said:

I’d ideally like it to go to Sytner, as unfortunately the supplying dealer (Arnold Clark) have their BMW garages in Scotland from what I can tell. What was the basis of your argument, if you don’t mind me asking?

It was more the fact they couldn't get my car repaired in a timely matter. My car was damaged just before Christmas, the earliest their garage could get it booked in was late Jan and I argued this wasn't acceptable and I could get it repaired in days. Lesson learnt about the excess as I assumed you could just pick your own repairer.