Which Panel Beaters provide the best service to their customers in South Africa? And which are most likely to be recommended for fixing the car right the first time, fixing the car on time, who is the most professionalism and who rates best for friendliness?
Fixing your vehicle, especially following a crash, is rarely an enjoyable experience; whether it’s a scratch and dent patch-up, hail damage or a more serious accident your car is undoubtedly one of your biggest assets and having it repaired can place a huge burden on your budget.
Choosing the correct one
For the past 15 years Lightstone Consumer has been measuring customer satisfaction for the premier motor body repairers in South Africa.
READ: ‘This is daylight robbery!’ readers share their SA mechanic stories
The organisation said: “We process over 40 000 vehicle repair records every month; that’s 40 000 owners going through a challenging difficult time. It’s the panel beater’s job to get the job done, get it done right the first time and on time. Being professional, courteous and friendly to deliver a satisfied customer.
“Until recently of the biggest challenges in ranking any product or service is that the data used to construct the ratings can be quite variable in terms of sample sizes.
“One product may only have been reviewed by a handful of customers, where another product may already have thousands of reviews. Intuitively, as well as statistically, the rating obtained from the sample with the higher number of reviews is more trustworthy than the sample with only a handful of customers.”
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“This problem has been successfully addressed by making use of Bayesian statistical methods and multilevel models and is today used by leading businesses such as Amazon and Google for their product and service review ratings, IMDb for their Top Movie rankings, Microsoft for their TrueSkill video game player rankings and Glicko chess player ratings.”
Image: iStock
Lightstone Consumer has applied these methods to the data gathered, over many years to more that 700 panel beaters in SA.
This results in ratings and rankings across multiple dimensions that are accurate stable and trustworthy. These ratings and rankings will be updated every three months. So who are the best panel beaters in SA right now?
Most likely to “Fix the Car Right the First Time”: List by Lightstone Consumer
Top 5 in Gauteng
1.T & J Panelbeaters
2.International Panelbeaters
3.Park Panelbeaters
4.Tava Panelbeaters
5.Hylton Woodhead Panelbeaters
Top 5 in Western Cape
1.CBS Body Works
2.Smith and Santos Woodstock
3.Burnco Panel
4.Brighton Body & Spray
5.Ryans Autobody Repairs
Top 5 in Eastern Cape
1.Auto Trust Body Repairs
2.Bruno’s Panelbeaters
3.Humansdorp Dent Removers
4.Techno Dent
5.Dunet Motors
Top 5 in KZN
1.Palace Panel and Paints
2.Carman Panelbeaters
3.Shalom Auto Body Repair
4.Margate Panelbeaters & Refinishers
5.Brian Day Panel Beaters Pty Ltd
Top 5 in OFS
1.Triomf Panelbeaters Bloemfontein
2.Technicolour Sprayshop
3.Olympic Panelbeaters
4.Kroon Paneelkloppers
5.TC Panelbeaters
Most likely to “Fix the Car on Time”
Top 5 in OFS
1.Kroon Paneelkloppers
2.OFS Smart Repair
3.Triomf Panelbeaters Bloemfontein
4.Technicolour Sprayshop
5.Olympic Panelbeaters
Top 5 in Eastern Cape
1.Auto Trust Body Repairs
2.Denys Edwardes
3.Brothers Automotive
4.Bruno’s Panelbeaters
5.Premier Bodyworks
Top 5 in KZN
1.Margate Panelbeaters & Refinishers
2.Harveys of Durban
3.SMG Umhlanga ARC
4.Classic Panel Beaters
5.Giorgio Express Auto Body Repairs
Top 5 in OFS
1.TC Panelbeaters
2.Auto Body Worx
3.OFS Smart Repair
4.Technicolour Sprayshop
5.Olympic Panelbeaters
Overall Best on the Lightstone Scorecard
Top 5 in Gauteng
Park Panelbeaters
T & J Panelbeaters
Cranbourne Panelbeaters
Designer Dent
Freds Auto Body cc
Top 5 in Western Cape
Brighton Body & Spray
CBS Body Works
WesKaap Bakwerke
Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles Cape Town
Burnco Panel
Top 5 in Eastern Cape
Auto Trust Body Repairs
Humansdorp Dent Removers
Autotech Paneelkloppers
Denys Edwardes
Brothers Automotive
Top 5 in KZN
Harveys of Durban
Classic Panel Beaters
Margate Panelbeaters & Refinishers
SMG Umhlanga ARC
Palace Panel and Paints
Top 5 in OFS
Technicolour Sprayshop
Triomf Panelbeaters Bloemfontein
OFS Smart Repair
Kroon Paneelkloppers
TC Panelbeaters