1. Approved shops are in cahoots with the insurers. Auto insurers like State Farm and others contract with providers to repair vehicles for a pre-negotiated rate (think of it as managed care for sick cars). This encourages auto body shops to cut corners. Some practices, such as requiring low hourly rates and making the shop pick up the rental car tab if a repair takes too long, could tempt shops to cut corners quite a bit — by, say, neglecting to align the wheels or using plastic filler in a dent rather than replacing the sheet metal.

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