That’s a great question – what’s the difference between the two? Well, it all starts with understanding the names. An “auto body” shop is about fixing up your car’s actual body. That includes things like doors and bumpers. An auto repair shop is a little different.
Auto Repair Shops Do the Hard Stuff
In a lot of ways an auto repair shop has the tougher job. An auto repair shop like All Around Auto Repair has trained technicians who know how to repair engines, transmissions, brakes, and air conditioning. Indeed, All Around Auto Repair does all of these things.
In addition, All Around Auto Repair an help you figure out what’s going wrong with your vehicle by putting your car through a vigorous inspection using diagnostic tools that a body repair shop might not have.
All Around Auto Repair can replace parts, rotate your tires, provide scheduled maintenance, and even do oil changes. That’s a whole lot more stuff, in other words, than your basic auto body shop does.
Outside Versus Inside of Your Vehicle
Auto body shops are sometimes called collision centers because most of what they do deals with repairing the body of your vehicle. Those guys repair dents, restore paint, and replace bumpers.
The thing to understand is that auto body shops fix fixes the stuff outside of your vehicle and an auto repair shop like All Around Auto Repair repairs all of the really complicated stuff under the hood.
That said, if you get into a fender bender or more serious accident and your vehicle comes out the worse for the experience, then you should absolutely take your vehicle in to an auto body shop.
That’s because an auto body shop work work on the sheet metal and glass that make up the exterior of your vehicle. Dents, scratches, broken windows, or bumpers that have fallen on hard times are all within an auto body shop’s ability to repair.
Engine Work? Think Auto Repair Shop
If you need scheduled maintenance, used car inspections, oil changes, or more serious work on your engine, though, you need an auto repair shop.
An auto repair shop can fix all kinds of failing components under the hood, and clue you in to the problem in the first place. Think about it – an engine can get pretty hot. All that heat can wear down parts.
Going in to an auto repair shop and getting regular maintenance is the way to go because you can get your immediate problems resolved (e.g., worn out brakes that need new pads) and see if any systems under the hood are in danger of failing soon.
The auto experts, for instance, recommend getting your oil changed every few thousand miles because fresh oil does a better job of lubricating your engine and absorbing heat. Both functions are critically important to getting the best engine performance, optimizing gas mileage, and keeping your parts going for longer.
When your car’s engine doesn’t have fresh oil the parts can generate too much heat. Heat is the kiss of death for engines because too much heat leads to less efficient performance and a premature breakdown of individual parts.
Come In To All Around Auto Repair
Another way to think about going and getting scheduled maintenance from qualified technicians at an auto repair shop is this – you’re saving tons of money in the future by spending a small amount of money today for that oil change.
Why’s that? Periodic oil changes and scheduled maintenance done by an auto repair shop ensures that your vehicle and its engine stay on the road longer.
