Before you file, get the number
There is one step worth taking first: find out what the repair actually costs. Send three photos — the damaged corner, a close-up, and a wide shot of the car — and a free written estimate comes back fast. Small single-panel damage that lands near your deductible is often better paid out of pocket, and knowing the real number before you open a claim keeps that decision yours. Minor scrapes from a condo garage pillar are a classic example of damage worth pricing first.
When a claim is the right move, file it through the claims line or online with the date, the exact location, the other driver’s details, and your photos ready. Many TD Insurance policies come through employer, university, or association group plans; the claim runs the same way, and so does your right to pick the shop. Collision Auto Center has no business relationship with TD Insurance of any kind — the name is here because it is what people search when they want to know how the claim will actually go.
The shop is yours to pick
Ontario puts the choice of repair shop with the vehicle owner. An insurance company can recommend a preferred facility — and a recommendation is often framed as the convenient default, with faster scheduling and less paperwork — but it cannot require one, and it cannot pay less because you chose your own. Some of the convenience is real. None of it is mandatory.
The guarantee attached to a network repair is written by the participating shop, not by the insurance company. Ours is a lifetime warranty on paint and refinish work, plus a parts-and-installation warranty on replacements, from an owner-run shop in the Keele and Sheppard area. Compare the two on their merits rather than on which one was mentioned first, and then say where the car is going.
Deductibles, fault, and what actually gets paid
Fault decides which coverage responds. Not at fault, in whole or in part, and your own policy pays the not-at-fault share under DCPD — with no deductible on that share in the standard setup. At fault, and your collision coverage pays, minus your collision deductible. Partial fault splits the bill between the two. Hail, vandalism, and glass run through comprehensive with its own deductible; Ontario has no special zero-deductible glass rule, so a windshield claim is worth the same math as a dent claim.
Be skeptical of any shop offering to make a deductible disappear. That money comes from somewhere — either from billing the insurance company for work not performed, which can implicate you, or from corners quietly cut on your car. What we do instead is tell you honestly when paying out of pocket beats filing, and give you a written number either way.
- Free written estimate from photos before you decide to file
- Honest advice when the damage sits too close to the deductible
- DCPD share handled with no deductible when you are not at fault
- Supplements filed with photographs and part numbers attached
- Lifetime warranty on all paint and refinish work
How the repair runs here
The damaged area comes apart before the estimate is finalized, and everything behind it is photographed. That is how a repair plan ends up built on what is broken rather than on what is visible from the parking lot. When an impact reached the structure, the vehicle is measured against manufacturer specification, and those readings go into your file alongside the teardown photos.
Then the ordinary craft: panels repaired or replaced, sensors transferred and function-checked, colour read off your paint and verified on a sprayed test card before anything is applied, refinish blended into the panels alongside. The car is inspected, road tested, and cleaned before you get it back — and you walk around it with the owner before the keys change hands.
