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Do You Need a Post Repair Inspection?

Have you ever picked up your vehicle after getting it repaired or serviced, and something just felt “off”? It happens more than you might imagine. And when it does happen, you might consider looking into a post repair inspection.

What is a Post Repair Inspection?

On the surface – a post repair inspection is exactly what it sounds like.  It’s an inspection that is performed by an independent, qualified professional that takes place after your vehicle has been repaired.

There are collision centers that offer post repair inspection as an ancillary service offering, and there are stand-alone businesses that specialize in these inspections.  The best advice we can offer is to choose an inspector that you feel you can trust. We recommend choosing someone that performs several of these inspections every month.

Why Would You Need a Post Repair Inspection?

As mentioned at the top of this article, no one knows your car better than you do.  And if it feels “off” in any way after a shop has repaired it – you are likely to be the first to know. In many cases, body shops and their technicians end up cutting corners to save them the time and expense of performing a proper repair. When this happens, YOU are the one who loses  and your safety very well may be in jeopardy. When in doubt – have someone else check it out.

How Much Does It Cost?

A visual-only post repair inspection may cost you nothing at all. An unbiased expert can often just look at the repair of your vehicle and assess whether or not it was performed well. But in some cases, there may be hidden (or worse: covered-up) damage that won’t be apparent without doing a little pulling back of the layers.  In such cases, inspections often range from about $450-700.  

In our experience, when someone suspects that they need a more in-depth post repair inspection, they often recover many times the amount of the cost of inspection.

What if an Inspection Finds Problems?

In many cases, you are able to take the results of the inspection back to the shop that performed your repair and insist that they make the necessary corrections.  Of course, some shops and their technicians don’t want to hear that they’ve been caught cutting corners, so you can expect a little resistance in some situations.

Typically, the independent inspector may be able to help you with next steps. The insurance company will likely be notified – and if the shop who performed the original repair is one of their direct repair partners, they may insist upon either correcting the issues – or they may just end up totaling the vehicle.

There are obviously far too many variables to assess what your specific vehicle needs will be in the course of this article.  But if you have any questions, or would like us to take a look at a vehicle you just aren’t sure about – please feel free to contact us directly.  It’s always our pleasure to help any way possible.