So my car needs to go in for repairs, and insurance is proposing a few shops around the are that are “certified”. So far its Collision Experts at Clifton/Schenectady, Denoyer Collision Center, Cole’s and and H&V.
Are any of these any good?
idk about any of those shops but elmos autobody does good work, lazares body shop was good but idk if they’re open anymore now that the business has been sold.
H/v is a good shop I used to work there part time . Varton the owner is a great dude
Collision Experts sucks. They couldn’t match the paint on my brothers truck and got over spray all over my mom’s old car.
Denooyer fixed my brother’s girlfriend’s car and did a decent job. My other brother’s girlfriend just had her car fixed by H&V but I haven’t seen it since it was fixed.
wouldn’t trust elmos. By buddy has his fender and front bumper painted there last year on his wrx and it stands out like a sore thumb. You can for sure tell those panels were painted, it’s not even close. Car is alpine white too, which I never thought was a hard color.
That’s how my brother’s truck looked after Collision Experts did it and the truck was only a year or so old at the time. Looked like shit.
No idea how they are now and the owner blew his brains out last year.
Thanks guys!
Which H&V is it, are they all the same owner? I’ll need to specify with the insurance co since googling finds a location in Troy, Colonie and Albany.
In ny you have the right to choose any repair shop to do the work if you didn’t know that. Auto cosmetics on 146 in Altamont does great work.
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Is that Eric’s place? I thought he was calling it 2020 autowerks
Nah they’ve been there forever guys name is rob. It’s across the street from the fair ground entrance. He’s done work for my family in the past and it’s all come out amazing. I got hit in my dad’s old 2000 outback pretty good back in 2002 and my brother still drives the car today and all the work is still perfect.
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troy and colinie old goodyear tire" on central is the h&v places owned and ran by same owner man . paintworks does a good job also
Old Auto Zone
Autobody is the biggest hit or miss work there is. The best painters have gotten poorly mixed paint and its nothing they can do about it. Some cars have dozens of variances in the paint code. I have shot cars with the camera and had it mixed to that and they still were way off. And there are “bad days” like everything in life, shit happens we are all human. Elmos has repaired my fathers work fleet, personaly cars, family and friends cars, probably put 30+ cars through them (before we started CRC ofcouse). Probably the best people to work with, work is great, no issues for us. Verns in amsterdam has been around for ever, I know them personally grew up with his kids. People swear by them. The dicked my subaru over a long time ago really bad, yet people have had show car work done by them too. H&V took 2 months to fix a 1/4 hit on a guys 2011 jeep at work here, filled the inside of the car with bondo dust to the point he turned the fan on and got a face full, didnt blend the rear hatch when it says blend adjacent on the est, runs and dirts not denibbed out. Horrific job. But I also know people who have had flawless work done by them.
Moral of the story, talk with a few places, ask how the work is done, what their process’ are, etc. feel them out. Ask them what they do if the car is done unsatisfactory to you and GIVE THEM WHAT YOU THINK QUALIFIES AS UNSATISFACTORY! Then pick one and get the work done.
For people who care about their car and its more than “just a grocery getter”… finding a body shop that makes you happy is like picking a doctor to deliver your child.
DO NOT go to paintworx. They were the ones that caused $2500 in damage to my fastback in a week.
There is only 1 bodyshop that I trust from personal experience and that’s Harts Collision in East Greenbush. Not to say that any shop others have mentioned is not good, but i’ve taken a lot to Hart’s and always been 100% satisfied. I’ll admit it, i’m hard to please. I always recommend Harts to people because their prices are great and the work is top notch. I didn’t mention them before only because they seem a little far from where you were looking to get your car fixed.
coles collision on central ave… they have gieco right in house to deal with all the issues and they do pretty awesome work… i thought your car was totaled oleg?
Yep car’s been totaled. But I’m taking notes for future reference, thanks guys!
things to keep in mind when dealing with “preferred repair shops” for your insurance company. Pay attention to your est. Make sure if the car should get new parts it gets new parts, if its eligible for new OEM parts (irc its 2-3 years of age or newer oem replacement parts are mandatory, no aftermarket allowed) it gets written as such. Blends adjacent panels are often skipped to save the shop and insurance co a buck. Lots of ways they “work with the shop”. Think about it, the insurance company wants to save money on the repair, and the body shop wants to make the most profit they can. They negotiate together on the repairs. Body shops make MORE on fixing a fender than replacing it because they get more time to do the body work than they would just shooting it and replacing it. That’s just one simple way they will play the game to take advantage of you. There is a good reason Coles has hundreds of gieco cars there, because they make more profit and gieco saves more money by working together to save a buck here and there. I had a gieco lady tell me that I could straighten out the MK4 chrome rub strips that were mangled on the car instead of replacing them with new, because they are $300-450 a piece OEM only avail. That’s just one personal example I dealt with, Eric did the majority of the body work at CRC and that’s what he does now under his shop name… he has seen a mind blowing amount of games played by the “preferred body shop” nonsense.
One thing about insurance “certified” shops is that they are “guaranteeing” their work for the lifetime of the vehicle through the ins co, with the shop having to make any additional repairs/corrections for free to fix the original damage if not done right.
What that means in practice though I have no idea.
It probably means you can get a potential half assed job done have issues with it down the line go through the hassle of getting it fixed again (most likely with an annoying amount of legwork like having to prove the issues arose from the shops work etc… To get the warranty approved) and have your car outta commission longer.
Or you can find a great shop that will do great work and fix it correctly once and not have to worry.
I feel like Chris Farley giving the “I could stick my head up a bulls ass…” Speech from Tommy Boy.
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