Accident Exchange extends partnership Eastern Western Motor Group

Accident Exchange has extended its partnership with the Eastern Western Motor Group of dealers and accident repair centres in Scotland.

Midlands-based Accident Exchange has been Eastern Western’s exclusive onward mobility service provider since 2007 and has renewed the contract for a further two years.

The 26-site Eastern Western network of outlets spans from Newcastle across the border in England to Dundee in the North, representing brands including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and Lexus.

Eastern Western general manager Peter O’Malley said: “The main challenge our business faces today is the fact that insurers are increasingly looking to get cars repaired as cheaply as possible. That doesn’t lie well when you are working with performance and prestige vehicles.

“Our customers rightly demand a high standard of repair and, as the manufacturer-approved repairers, we are the only ones who have invested in the right training, tools and materials to return an accident-damaged vehicle back to factory build levels.

“But the excesses and admin fees that customers are now being charged by insurers can make it difficult for them to have the repair carried out by us.”

Accident Exchange recently revealed that more than a million cars could be on the UK’s roads with accident damage mistaken by their owners for purely cosmetic scrapes.

The role played by Accident Exchange in bringing damaged cars into the Group also safeguards against potentially dangerous repairs carried out by workshops approved by insurers but not the manufacturer, according to O’Malley.

“With 90% of the cars we sell coming back to us as customers trade up, it’s important to us to know that, if a used car has been in an accident, we’ve been the ones to repair it and therefore it is safe,” he said.

“We tend to think of it not as accident repair work, but rather preparing the car for its second accident.”

Liz Fisher, director of sales development at Accident Exchange, said: “Eastern Western understands the role played by onward mobility in the retention of customers and the knock-on improvement of manufacturer satisfaction indexes.

“Above all, it sees the importance of protecting the future value and safeguarding the integrity of its vehicle car parc.”