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Letter to the Editor

Oregon Collision Repair Shops Rate Auto Insurers’ Performance

That was the finding of a new survey of businesses that interact with auto insurers on behalf of vehicle-owners every day: Oregon collision repair shops.

“Collision repair shops on a daily basis see how various insurance companies take care of Oregon drivers after an accident, so we felt it was worthwhile to ask how they rate the various insurers,” said Barbara Crest, executive director for the Northwest Automotive Trades Association (NATA), which conducted the survey of Oregon shops. “We believe their views will be helpful to insurance companies and to consumers.”

Nearly 700 collision repair shops throughout the state received the survey, which asked them to grade the Top 21 auto insurers in the state in terms of as to how well that company’s “policies, attitude, and payment practices ensure quality repairs and customer service for Oregon motorists.”

The association conducted a similar survey in 2004, allowing for some comparisons of how shops’ views of insurers have changed.

Crest pointed to a number of items of interest in the findings of the latest survey:

• Although State Farm remains the only insurer to receive an overall grade of A-, three Northwest insurers – North Pacific, Oregon Mutual and Mutual of Enumclaw – were once again the only other three to receive above-average grades of B or B-.
• Four companies received below-average overall grades of D+ or lower. These companies were Farmers, GEICO, Progressive, and Safeco.
• The other 13 auto insurers on the survey – including Hartford, Liberty Mutual, USAA, American Family, and Nationwide – received overall grades of between C+ and C-.
• Allstate showed the most improvement from the 2004 survey in which it was ranked 19th with a grade of D+. This year, Allstate received a grade of C and moved up to be tied for 14th.
• Progressive became the first insurer in the survey to receive a D-, replacing Farmers Insurance at the bottom of the ranking.
• In most cases, the grades given a particular insurer from shops involved in that insurer’s direct repair program (DRP) were higher than those given by shops that are not part of that DRP. This was particularly true with GEICO, USAA, Unitrin, and California Casualty, whose DRP shops gave them grades of B or better while non-DRP shops gave these same insurers grades of C+ or lower. But even Farmers’ “Circle of Dependabilty” shops gave that insurer relatively low scores, and Nationwide’s “Blue Ribbon” shops actually gave the company lower grades than shops not on the program.
• Safeco showed the largest decline in grade and ranking compared to 2004, when it was about in the middle of the pack with a grade of “C”. This year, shops gave Safeco a grade of D+, dropping it to the 18th spot in the rankings.

“Collision repairers say the insurers receiving the highest grades – which includes both larger and smaller insurance companies – do the best job of taking care of Oregon drivers after an accident,” Crest said. “We hope consumers will take these ratings into account when choosing an auto insurer, and that insurers who received lower grades will work to improve their performance.”

More than 100 shops from 47 Oregon communities responded to the survey. These shops had an average of ten employees and have combined total sales of an estimated $113 million.

NATA, based in Portland, is a not-for-profit trade association serving more than 600 Northwest member businesses including automotive and collision repair shops, automotive parts suppliers, and automotive recyclers.

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