What's up with those guys (and gals too) who offer autobody repair on the spot for considerably less money than a real body shop? What is it that they do (or more aptly, DON'T do) that make it possible for them offer such low prices? It seems a little too good to be true to me.

 

Well depending on where you go you could be getting a good deal or could be getting shotty work done.
A lot of smaller shops can do beat pricing because they have no overhead (less employees, no payment on building, cheaper suppliers etc.)

Now if you get into places like Maco they can generally be to good to be true, not saying that about quality (sometimes) but more about how they advertise. They will tell you 300 for a paint job which is true but thats 300 to just spray the car in single stage paint ( no clear coat) no body work and minimal sanding. After you get there they can then try and talk you into base coat clear coat painting and body work ( which is roughly 40 an hour) they just put those numbers up to get you to there facility, kinda like a car lot.

My father has a shop and 9 times out of 10 he can paint a car for hundreds less than most shops just because we have almost no overhead.

The best thing to do is find some people who have had there cars done by a place and ask them what there thoughts on how the place was and look there car over.

 

Also with the mobile auto body and painting the good part of it is legit, always research them before using them though. I did mobile touch up and auto body for about 2 years in Michigan. This works for them but its kinda risky if they dont have a shop or bay to paint in, and its the same as I said before with the overhead.

But the reason they can keep cost down is because they mainly handle car lots, so there looking at doing an average of 5-10 cars per lot and 2-3 lots a day, point being they can make a lot of money with out the use of a lot of materials.