Absolutely. We are an I.C.B.C. Express Valet Shop. We are fully accredited and in good standing with I.C.B.C.

We are more than happy to work with almost all insurance companies. We routinely work with out-of-province insurers as well as the local companies. In almost all instances we can work directly with the insurance company to gain the necessary approvals and directly bill them. We know that getting your car repaired after an accident can be difficult so we try to handle as many of the details for you as we can. We are always happy when customers tell us it much less painful than they were expecting.

In British Columbia you have the right to take your car to where you want it repaired. It is always important to remember that. Some insurance companies can be quite insistent that they choose the repair shop rather than you. There are various reasons why they do this, but the bottom line is that you and the insurance company have a different set of interests when it comes to getting your car repaired. You want a good quality repair, handled in a timely manner, with a friendly face and a minimum amount of hassle. The insurance company's interest is to keep the cost of the repair down. We are more than happy to work with all insurance companies to keep the costs down so long as it does not impair our ability to take care of our customer.

So what about the guarantee? In our humble opinion this is nonsense. Insurance companies do not guarantee repairs - shops do. If you have a problem with a collision repair done through your insurance and you call your insurance company to complain, they will always refer you to the shop for resolution. That is why you want to go to a shop that you are comfortable dealing with. There have been many occasions where we have worked with customers to correct problems resulting from repairs done at the shop the insurance company "preferred". Invariably in these cases the insurance company keeps sending the customer back to the original shop until the customer gets fed up and decides to seek out a shop (such as ours) that understands that the customer is the boss, not the insurance company.

Yes, we have a small courtesy car fleet. If you are getting your vehicle fixed under an insurance claim you may be entitled to a rental vehicle as well. We will check your policy for purchased loss of use. We can make all arranges for a rental car if you have that coverage. Our goal is to make your repair as hassle free as possible.

You need to provide a valid drivers license and a major credit card. We do not charge anything to your card unless you: damage the car, or leave us with parking ticket, etc. We accept Visa and MasterCard. We will accept Debit cards for payment but not for deposits. Your insurance policy should hold current collision and comprehensive coverage so that our courtesy car is protected while you are driving it, as your policy transfers over to our car. You must also be at least 19 years of age. No smoking or pets are permitted in the courtesy cars.

On many occasions customers will have the repairs done to their vehicle soon after the accident. Quite often the other party involved in the accident may not have contacted the insurance company yet. On some occasions they are very reluctant to do so. If this happens you may need to pay your deductible, and be reimbursed later after liability has been resolved. Once the other party has reported or if they never do report the insurance company will determine fault from the information available to them. At this time they will refund your deductible directly to you.

Absolutely! We guarantee our work for as long as you own the vehicle.

Prancing Horse Autobody guarantees that all body and paint repairs to the vehicle have been completed to generally acceptable industry standards. We ensure that the finished product is free from defects in workmanship and materials, unless caused by or resulting from unreasonable use, maintenance, or care of the vehicle, or from rust arising from normal aging. The guarantee is valid from the date of issue, for as long as the vehicle remains in the continuous possession of the registered owner at the time of the original repairs.

We work for you and it is ultimately your call what goes on your car. If it is not an insurance claim whatever you want and are willing to pay for we will do. Of course this question usually comes up only on insurance claims. The insurance company does not have the right to tell you or us what parts to use. However (and this is a big 'however') they do have a right to say what they will pay for. At our shop you always have the option of using Original Equipment (OE) parts if you are willing to pay the difference. If you want to take advantage of this option please let us know since in most cases the customer simply accepts what the insurance company will pay for. Keep in mind that many insurance companies can sell you a policy that requires the use of OE parts on insurance repairs (an example being ICBC's APV286 coverage).

Usually what happens is that when we write an estimate for an insurance company we need to use the cheapest part available. In other words the insurance company will pay for OE parts if they are the cheapest or if that is all that is available. Does that mean you have to accept some aftermarket bumper that doesn't fit? Absolutely not. All insurance companies promise to return your car to pre-accident condition. Obviously if your bumper fit before the accident, it hasn't been restored to pre-accident condition if it leaves with one that doesn't fit. Unfortunately there is a lot of disparity among the shops on this point. The easiest and most profitable thing for a shop to do is simply install the part and call it 'good enough'. At Prancing Horse that is not what we do. If an aftermarket part is available we bring it in. If it fits and is equivalent to the OE part we use it -- why not? We all like to save money. However if it is not equivalent then we can go back to the insurance company, show why the part is not equivalent and they will authorize use of an OE. It is more work for us, it unfortunately slows down the repair, but we think it is the right thing to do. We take our pledge to return your car to pre-accident condition seriously.

There are a variety of sources for the parts we use to repair your car. The most obvious is Original Equipment or OE parts. As a general rule these are the parts that you will get from the dealer. They may be manufactured by a third party, but it is the same parts that the manufacturer used when the car was build.

If a part is a new part that is not an Original Equipment part then it is called aftermarket. Aftermarket parts are simply parts made by someone other than the manufacturer. Some aftermarket parts are quite good; some not so much. That is the primary issue with aftermarket parts: there is not the uniformity and quality that the car manufacturer supplies for OE parts. The repair shop, unfortunately, needs to supply more of the quality control function with aftermarket parts. That makes it doubly important to choose your shop carefully and select a shop that not only can do a quality repair but also has the quality standard to go the extra mile to ensure that all aftermarket parts are equivalent replacement parts.

In addition to new parts, we may also use previously used parts to repair your car. These parts will fall into one of two categories: salvage or re-manufactured. Salvage parts come from the auto recyclers who remove them from their stock of wrecked vehicles. If the recycler does a good job then he provides an undamaged part equivalent to the part that needs to be replaced on your vehicle. Obviously there is an additional quality control requirement to ensure that the part is either undamaged or can easily be repaired to good quality at the recycler's expense.

The final category of parts is re-manufactured. Re-manufactured parts are ones that have been used, damaged and then repaired. The most common type of re-manufactured parts are plastic bumper covers. Everyday shops remove damaged bumper covers. If there is only modest damage we will repair the bumper, repaint it and put it back on your car. If a cover is more severely damaged than we can handle, it still may be repairable using specialized equipment and techniques. There are a number of companies that pick up these damaged bumpers from the shops, repair them, and then sell them as are-manufactured cover. If the re-manufacturer does a good job we have a perfectly good bumper for a lower price. Again this obviously puts additional quality control requirement on the shop to ensure that that the part has been repaired satisfactorily.

Part selection and inspection are a critical part of doing a quality repair on your vehicle. At Prancing Horse you can count on us to do the extra work to ensure that whatever kind of part that is used it is a quality part. The bottom line is that if it is not a quality part it doesn't make it onto your vehicle.

No. We use a minimum of filler (or bondo) and for many repairs we use no filler at all. However, for many other repairs no shop can do the repair without using filler. Even if all damaged parts are replaced filler may be required. For example, replacing a quarter panel will typically require cutting out the damaged quarter and welding in the replacement. This will still require some filler at the welded seam. It is true that that mark of a poor repair is the liberal use of filler. A good craftsmen -- and ours are craftsmen are some of the best in the business -- use the minimum amount required for the specific repair.

If you have Road Star coverage you are entitled to a rental vehicle comparable to yours. However there are some instances where we may recommend that you do not use a rental car. A couple of common situations arise fairly frequently

If you are involved in an accident that is your fault and that will require lengthy repairs you may well exceed your Road Star coverage limits. Road Star has an absolute coverage limit of $500 (Road side plus $750). Particularly if you chose an expensive rental vehicle you can easily exceed those limits. For example if you are in a $100 per day rental than you have coverage for only 5 days. If the repairs to your vehicle take a 20 days to complete then you will either be on the hook for three quarters of the final rental bill or you will need to give up your rental one quarter of the way through the repair. What we would recommend in this situation is that you use ATS coverage rather than Road Star coverage. ATS coverage is always available to you under an ICBC claim. The downside of ATS coverage is that it provides only ' a fleet vehicle ' i.e. basic transportation only. The upside is that ATS does not have maximum dollar limit; it lasts for the duration of the repair. Under ICBC rules you are entitled to use only one type of coverage and you need to make a choice at the beginning of the repairs. We find that for most people unlimited time in a simple vehicle is a better choice for them than having a nicer car for only part of the repair.

The other common situation where the rental becomes important is when your vehicle is close to becoming a total loss. ICBC includes the cost of your rental coverage as part of your repair. So, if we have a $5000 limit on fixing your car, and we're at $4500 worth of damage, that only leaves us with $500 for rental coverage. If you're in a $80/day rental, and we need, for example 7 days to fix your vehicle, that will make your car a total loss - in other words, a write off. In these situations, we recommend that you use ATS coverage, as that is a fixed amount regardless of repair time.