Auto Body Shop People - How long does a car usually take to repair after an accident

My family owned and ran a body shop for 70 years. If the shop is relatively busy, typically 4-6 weeks but if parts are on back order, the shop is at the mercy of the supplier. A year is outrageous, surely there are special circumstances in your case.

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going on a year

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this seems excessive. Sounds like it would have been better to be totaled.

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A month is stretch.

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and if you're lucky like i was, the night before you pick it up, someone will steal the converter and the clock starts over.

I witnessed a year of a multi year claim when I sat out of college for a year to choose a new major (enrolled in Petroleum Engineering and oil crashed start of the 2nd quarter).

The vehicle and customer were unique though. A Penthouse Magazine writer/model with a DeLorean. She brought it in for service and the dealership driver backed it into a brick wall. Stainless steel body cannot be bondo’d smooth and they were already out of production.

Don’t know how it eventually came out but it was years in the legal system long.

No. I purchased another one.

I’m sure it’s the insurance company dragging their feet as well. Just frustrated

We need more info.

The only reason it would be a year would be for a parts shortage. Manufacturers are required to have parts available for 10 years after the model year. However, you sometimes see issues on very new cars or specialty vehicles where there are parts issues.

The last couple of years a bunch of manufacturers have had stuff on national back order. It’s caused some excessive delays.

You need to find out what part is on back order. Most times they can have your car completely ready (other than the back ordered part) and return it to you ok working condition. You can then return to the shop and have the part that was back ordered repaired once the part comes in - I’m actually surprised that your insurance company hasn’t told you this.

I know some people are saying it should be totaled. Your carrier totals vehicles based on cost of repair, not simply because it takes a long time for parts to come in. If you are going through the other (at fault) carrier they may make a business decision to total the vehicle instead of continuing to pay for rental. However, some carriers will say that a national back order is outside of their control and you are SOL.

It’s also been a year. They can probably find an LKQ part for you by now. You might have to have them rerun their estimate and check instead of them just waiting on the original parts supplier they located.

It took nearly 3 months to repair relatively minor damage to my Acura because one of the pieces needed was coming from overseas.

It's not the work that takes long, it's getting the parts. A lot of parts are on serious back order.

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Why did you even wait this long?

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Exactly. Its mind blowing.