My insurance company are proposing that I have a repair carried out at their preferred body shop and use all genuine parts.

They didn't offer any alternative, but I've since been told that I can ask for it to go anywhere reasonable - including the main dealer.

The place they recommend seems OK - and I have absolutely no idea how good my local dealer would be - I do know that main dealer does not automatically mean better. For all I know they may outsource it anyway.

I guess that if I go to the insurance recommend place, at least I can complain to my insurance if there are any problems - if I go somewhere else, then I'm on my own.

My inclination is just to accept their proposal - what do you think ?

Do you have a garage you trust? If so I'd use them.

I vaguely remember a conversation with a main dealer and if it's repair rather than replacement work they'll simply outsource.

A slight diversion but my personal experience of using the insurers' preferred repairer (spoiler - utter ):

I got rear ended in the 110 (and shunted into a BMW in front) and they had to replace the front bumper, number plate, rear mud flap, fog light lens and straighten the plate holding the towing electrics. When my sister picked up the car for me they'd replaced the mud flap, number plate and bumper so it went straight back. After 2 more weeks they'd done the remaining jobs.

For what I could source for £100 or so and 30 minutes work they charged the chap who wrote off his Ford hitting me £800+VAT. Now you can see why insurance premiums are so high. What really took the biscuit was when I replaced the front bumper with a winch one at a later date they'd sheared one of the bolts and stuffed it back into the cross member (bending it slightly) so they could fit the bumper without having to extract the bolt. Took me 5h with a pair of pliers, file and grinder to get that thing out. Ed

I had a shocking experience with an insurance "approved" repairer. A BMW was delivered back to my wife after a front end prang with the steering wheel out of line.

She made a note on the delivery paperwork and took a copy. After driving it 10 or so miles the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and the car shut down. It turns out that they hadn't repaired damage to the steering. When the vehicle was returned to then a BMW dealer (original repairer couldn't reset fault lights) the insurance company were insistent that we had to complete a second claim as the repair centre had completed the repair to their exacting standard, and we had damaged it!

We challenged it with the delivery note and the delivery driver said he knew nothing about it and they had road tested it and it was perfect. It took seven days of arguing until somebody looked at our copy of the delivery note before they authorised the repair at BMW.

Always main dealer for me

Definitely a main dealer with their own body shop. Anyone who outsources the work is best avoided and that includes insurance companies. In their terms the word approved can be substituted with the word cheapest.

Thanks - going with main dealer

The insurance company accepted it without any fuss - but it was not mentioned as an option at any stage - hopefully will get a better courtesy car than a Nissan Micra too