Jaguar Certified Repair

Atlanta's First Jaguar Factory Authorized Repair Center: Since 2004

So, what does all of this Factory Certification stuff mean to me?

It means everything!

It means that as long as your Jag/Land Rover/Range Rover vehicle is repaired by Barrow Body Shop you will not lose your factory warranty on the area repaired, nor your Certified Pre-Owned status; because Barrow Body Shop is a Jaguar Land Rover Factory Authorized Aluminum Repair Center. And we were one of the first in the nation, and the first in Atlanta to be awarded this prestigious certification: We’re truly an extension of the factory. A repair here, is like a repair at the factory. You might ask, “How is that possible?” Well, we used the same welders, tools, and materials as the factory. That’s why we’re called a factory repair center. Furthermore, we strictly adhere to the procedures outlined by the factory when we repair your Jaguar. Jaguar provides us with extremely detailed instructions on replacing every body part on your car.

Our culture isn't one of dismissing the factory procedures as guidelines. Others try to circumvent the program for the benefit of themselves, and the insurance companies, but we don’t! We strictly adhere to the procedures outlined by the factory. We don’t look for “work arounds” and we don’t try to “out-think” the engineers, or “short-cut” their procedures. As a matter of fact, when we first discussed becoming a factory repair center for Jaguar back in early 2003, it was clear that they were spending a lot of money on this program, and taking it extremely serious. We were told that deviating from the written factory repair procedures was grounds for dismissal. Jaguar considers that re-engineering the car, and it’s not tolerated. After spending nearly $500,000.00 for the factory training, along with an immense amount of the expense for special tools coupled with the south’s first quarantined aluminum repair center, we’re not about to break the rules.

Barrow Body Shop provides you with a genuine factory repair. We’re not the typical body shop. We are a factory repair center, and there’s a huge difference. We specialize in repairing your Jaguar/Land Rover vehicle using factory procedures specific to your automobile. We repair your specialized automobile slowly and deliberately, restoring it to it’s factory pre-accident condition. We take a great deal of pride in our work product, it’s outstanding, and far above the current industry standard.

We’ve repaired 1000‘s of Jaguars and 100‘s of Land Rover/ Range Rover automobiles. We are the experts. And as previously mentioned we strictly adhere to the factory procedures during the repair process. We do not ignore those procedures and cut corners to save time and money. We repair your car exactly the way the factory says to do so. And we do not allow any outside influences to pressure us into short-cuts in order to save time and money.

You see, your Jag is a specialty vehicle. It’s constructed of aluminum; it’s stronger, safer, and makes the car faster, and more nimble. Aluminum is different from steel. Its response to impact and subsequent repair is completely different from steel. So, the collision repair aspect of an aluminum car and a steel car are two separate worlds.

This becomes evident when a body shop tech who has not been trained by the factory further damages your Jag while trying to repair it. We see this often when performing corrective repairs for a customer who has been disenfranchised by someone who doesn't have their best interest at heart. An insurance company will steer a Jag owner into one of their “direct repair shops” and thats when the problems begin. In that scenario you are no longer the customer, the insurance company is the customer. The insurance company is the customer because they are sending cars to that body shop. The shop owner is going to ultimately bend to the will of the one providing him with a sales stream, and those direct referrals come from the insurance company. So if the car is suppose to receive a specific repair procedure and the insurance company doesn't agree to pay for that procedure, then it’s skipped, and the end result is an improper repair. And we’ve correct many of those repairs.

This is a serious problem, and raises an ethical question of ‘isn’t there a conflict of interest in this arrangement?” The person paying the bill (insurance company), directs the repair process via a Direct Repair Contract that is designed to contain costs. That contract is signed by the shop owner who agrees to adhere to said conditions in exchange for continued business steered into their shop by the insurance company. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who, and what, is the most important priority in this arrangement. It certainly isn’t you! You’re just a mark. That Direct Repair Facility isn’t going to bite the hand that feeds them. They’re going to stick to the repair routine outlined by the insurance company even if it’s not a correct factory repair. And that’s why we dissolved our DRP contracts 10 years ago. We found the insurance DRP contracts in direct conflict with the factory certified repair procedures, and since the factory engineers are the experts, we choose to follow their instructions.

But honestly, 15 to 20 years ago, the insurance DRP contracts were a great setup: They were all about customer service. Then greed set in and they became cost containment programs. And frankly, if a body shop is not well established and/or it’s work product isn’t good enough to maintain a steady stream of loyal customers, and/or they really aren’t concern about quality repairs, or if it’s a business start up, then DRP programs are great. But, in today’s world, you pretty much have to sear your conscience from concern about doing the right thing for the car. You have to buy into the idea that you’re going to save the insurance company money and make money for yourself. Even if it means repairing a part that should be replaced, or overlooking subtle hidden damages because it will slow down the repair, or gladly using generic or junkyard parts, even junkyard steering and suspension parts! All of this saves the insurance company money! Resistance to any one of those things slows down the repair and costs the insurance company more money, more money in repairs, and more money in rental charges. And resisting the directives of the insurance company could leave you without that steady stream of damaged cars they steer your way. Like we said, we stepped out of that world years ago, and we’ve never looked back.

Now, we deal with the insurance companies on a face to face basis. They send an appraiser to our repair center and we go over the car with them, after it’s been dis-assembled and opened up to hidden damages, making sure they understand what course of action we intend to take in repairing the car. Most of the time if they are familiar with us, and what we do, there’s no problem, but sometimes the “company man, or woman” who hasn’t had any experience walks in a tries to tell us how they are going to pay for the repair, basically trying to control the repair process, and that’s something we do not tolerant. and if they look at your Jag and say, “it’s just a car, like any other car” well, honestly, when we hear an insurance appraiser say those words, we politely ask them to leave the property and send someone who understands the difference between an aluminum repair and a steel repair. It rarely happens, but when it does, we don’t want them involved in any decisions regarding the repair of your car.

You see, it is a car, but it’s not, JUST a car! There is a difference, and the difference is significant. Aluminum responds to impact much different than steel. When aluminum bends it gets harder. When steel bends, it gets weaker (softer). So when a dent is straightened on an aluminum panel the straightening/repair process actually causes the aluminum to harden even more, it becomes brittle. This aspect of aluminum construction is excellent for impact absorb-ion; it actually does a better job of absorbing an impact while maintaining its strength. An impact to a steel car does absorb an impact, but the absorb-ion is not as active, it’s not as efficient as an impact to an aluminum car, because steel softens in an impact and aluminum hardens.

The real problem is how a body shop views your damaged aluminum car. They immediately strategize a repair process based on a steel repair. They will improperly straighten damaged panels as opposed to replace them; they will want to pull unibody structures as opposed to replace them, they will want to prep the aluminum surfaces for paint in the same manner as they prep a steel car. The factory has advised us that if a dent is as big as your hand, and deeper than the palm of your hand, then replace the panel; unless, the dent can be worked from the backside using special tools and dry heat. If bracing interferes with the repair, then replacement is in order. In the early days we ran into stiff resistance to this repair process from insurance companies. They didn’t understand the difference in aluminum and steel repairs, they were more concerned about saving money than paying for a proper repair. This attitude has changed significantly as more and more vehicles are being constructed with aluminum.

We’ve been repairing aluminum Jags for over 12 years, we’ve repaired 1000’s of them, from all over the southeast. In the beginning we were skeptical. We thought it was all overkill. We thought that all the goofy little tools we were required to buy was just a scam for the factory to make money. It didn’t take us long to realize that we were not the smart people. We quickly realized we were pretty darn ignorant, and somewhat arrogant. We were part of the body shop culture that said, “it’s just a car” but not anymore. We’re true believers in the correct repair process and procedures as directed by the factory, and we humbly yield to their instructions. We look forward to meeting you in person, and trust you will have a positive and pleasant experience in this difficult time of being inconvenienced.

In closing, we are blessed. So many of our customers become friends, who just drop by to say hello and look at cool cars! So many of them we’ve watched their kids grow up and marry, only to have their kids, and grand kids bang up cars, and we repair them. Customers will call and ask for advice on purchasing a new car, or need rock chips touched that we do for free, or get their car washed. We are always available to help! Even after the sale! you any way we can. We conduct our business under the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s an awesome moral value to not only live life, but conduct business. It’s worked for us for over 50 years, and we will continue to do so for generations. We look forward to meeting you.