Anyone Work For Toyota?

[ToyotaAuris]

Hi, I'm looking to sell my car soon and want to know how much Toyota will charge to touch up on 2-3 very small stone chips which are hard to even see, very small. The size of the chips is slightly smaller than the letter 'o'. I just want it to look good for sale but my nearest Toyota body work dealer is about 30-40 miles away. If anyone could tell me how much they would roughly charge it would help. Also if anyone has used any other companies to fix small stone chips please tell me roughly how much they charge and if it is done to good standard and doesent stand out. Thanks

[FROSTYBALLS]

As far as I'm aware, Toyota dealers who offer SMART repairs for stone chips or similar don't offer 'invisible' repairs as such. For repairs which are less visible, perhaps one of the third party SMART repairers (eg Chipsaway) may be the better choice, but costs may well be higher,

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[Miseryguts]

I used my Toyota dealer for a "smart" repair about 12 months ago.

A stone flew and hit the hatch door just beneath the Auris Badge (don't ask how) as I was parked in a lay-by answering the phone on the way to the dealer so sort out a problem.

When I got there I bumped into the salesman who sold me the car.

I showed him the big stone chip and slight dent,he called there smart repair guy over (who was on site at the time) to take a look.

"No problem" he said.

He did a perfect repair all for the princely sum of £50.

Maybe it was a bit expensive but it was a far better result than I could have achieved with a pot of touch up paint.

If you are just touching up your car for sale you can get what look like wax crayons this fill in the stone chip damage on a temporary basis.

I have one or two stone chips on my bonnet and the crayon works well, I have a black car,I cannot vouch for them on any other colour.

They give them away with "colour magic' car polish.

Hope this helps.

[ToyotaAuris]

when looking from far away can you see that it has been repaired? Even when close, does it look alot like its been repaired or just a little.

[bigblock]

I always do small stone chips with 'CHIPEX' paint touch up. Check out the chipex website and you can see demos of how it's done. You can't make a mistake with chipex as you just wipe off the paint and start again. I can get a near perfect job every time and the dealers have never spotted what I have touched up when I go for a valuation. I never need to worry about minor stone chips anymore.

[Miseryguts]

when looking from far away can you see that it has been repaired? Even when close, does it look alot like its been repaired or just a little.

I am really fussy and I could see no trace of a repair.

Of course I can't answer for all dealerships.

[Whitewagon]

A lot of dealerships don't have their own body/paint shop and use local specialists who carry out the repairs to Toyota standards (supposedly). It may be worth checking with the dealer to see who they use and go directly to them as you won't then be paying the dealers cut.

[Parts-King]

A lot of dealers (not just Toyota) are moving away from having their own Bodyshops due to the vast expenditure of running it with relatively poor returns on investment. Most insurance companies pay around £25 per hour, and all insurance approved Bodyshops have to run to PAS125 (Kitemark) standards. These very high standards mean your Bodyshop has to be full all year round, otherwise it will be loss making. Smart repairs on the other hand can be run with one man and a van, and very good (small) repairs can be offered with a much lower cost base, comparable with the Chipsaway companies. This is why you see accident repairs sublet to an independant bodyshop. In order for that Bodyshop to be Toyota approved, they will have to undertake work to those PAS125 standards. It is great to see these very high standards being operated,

Kingo