With the complexities of ADAS technologies that cars are built with today, repairing vehicles is not what it used to be. A wrong decision in the repair process could cause further damage to your car and increase the chance of you getting in an accident after leaving the repair shop.
One significant why there’s an increase in the average repair cost is due to longer labor time, which means an overall longer repair cycle time. For those of you who don’t know, cycle time refers to how long it takes for your car to be repaired as soon as it enters the shop to when it’s back in your hands. But what exactly does it mean when a body shop tells you there’s “additional damage”?
You might be thinking, How can my car be even more damaged than from the state it arrived at the body shop? Are the technicians just trying to get more money from me? What does this mean?
These are all really good questions to have, especially if you’ve been scammed before or it’s been a while since you’ve taken your car to be repaired. We answer all that and more below. Keep reading to find out the answers to those questions and more:
Additional Damage 101
It’s extremely uncommon that you’ll take your car to be repaired at a body shop and the estimate they give you is the total cost of the entire repair. The reason for this is the technicians have most likely not taken apart the car to provide a thorough and accurate assessment of the repair that needs to be done. They’ve only viewed the vehicle from the outside at this point.
Here’s an example to better describe what additional damage means: a doctor can diagnose you based on how you look, feel, symptoms, etc. But to provide you with a thorough diagnosis from inside your body, they’ll need X-Rays, an MRI, or other scans that get an inside look of what’s not working correctly. Sure, you can get better without all that. But, it could just be a bandaid for a more significant problem inside your body.
As soon as technicians take your car apart, they get an in-depth look inside the body of your vehicle. Much the same as X-Rays and MRIs provide doctors with an accurate diagnosis, technicians taking your car apart allows them to see any additional damage from an accident. This is where the repair plan is modified, the estimate goes up, the insurance company is notified, and you hear those two words.
Now that you know what additional damage is, the following are some factors that could play a role in a more extensive repair due to additional damage:
Insurance Company
If the auto body shop finds additional damage on your vehicle, they’ll notify you and your insurance company before they begin the repair. An insurance company might send an adjuster to the shop to approve what needs to happen. This can take a while, especially since an insurance company might be hesitant to pay more for additional repairs. You can always take your car to another body shop to get a second opinion. The choice is always yours. You aren’t obligated to go to the auto body shop that your insurance tells you to go to.
Additional Steps
Some part on a car may have a higher level of frequency on supplements, such as Front & Rear Suspension, Electrical, and Rear Body & Floor. If any of these parts were hit in an accident, then the additional steps would be from the recalibration that a technician would need to perform. These extra steps may not be included in typical database labor times, such as destructive weld testing and calibration.
Unique Repair Plan
Even if the same car is hit in the same spot, no car accident is ever the same. Repairers have to create an individual repair plan for each repair. It can be anywhere from 15 steps to 115 steps, depending on what is required. You may be given an initial estimate based on a repair plan when it’s at 20 steps and before the car is taken apart. But, as described above, it may not be until the technicians take apart your car before they see any additional steps that need to be added due to additional damage.
