What to gather before you file
A claim is only as good as what goes into it, so slow down for two minutes before you call. Photograph both vehicles before anything moves, get the other driver’s plate and insurance details from their pink slip, note the exact intersection — Keele and Sheppard, the 401 collectors westbound, wherever it happened — and collect witness numbers while people are still standing there. If the damage looks like it could pass $5,000 combined, or anyone was hurt, the collision also gets reported at a Collision Reporting Centre.
Many Aviva policies are sold through brokers, and your broker is a fine first call for coverage questions, but the claim itself is worked by the claims department and the adjuster assigned to your file. Name your repair shop while you are filing. Collision Auto Center is an independent business with no partnership, endorsement, or network relationship with Aviva — the name appears on this page only to explain how a claim with that insurance company tends to run.
A photo estimate is a starting number, not the repair
Most claims now open with an estimate written from photographs you upload. That is a reasonable way to get a file moving, and it is genuinely accurate for what a camera can see. What a camera cannot see is the energy absorber, the reinforcement bar, the broken sensor bracket, and the radiator support sitting behind a bumper cover that still looks whole. GTA collisions — the stop-and-go rear-end on the DVP, the pothole hit that pushed a control arm — hide most of their cost behind plastic.
So we take the damaged area apart before finalizing anything and photograph what is underneath. That teardown becomes the repair plan: line-item parts and operations with images an adjuster can review without leaving a desk. Structural damage is measured against factory specification, and the colour is read off your vehicle rather than taken from the paint code alone, because a code describes a car on the day it left the plant, not after years of Ontario sun and winter.
- Photo estimate treated as an opening number, never a final one
- Damaged area disassembled and photographed before the estimate is set
- Hidden parts and operations documented with images and part numbers
- Structural damage measured against factory specification
- Refinish blended into adjacent panels and warranted for life
Asking for OEM parts
No Ontario law forces original-equipment parts onto an estimate. Insurance companies may write for parts of like kind and quality, which can mean aftermarket or recycled components. You are allowed to request OEM and pay the difference where the policy will not cover it — and on anything structural or sensor-bearing, we write OEM part numbers first with the reasoning attached and argue the case with documentation.
Where an aftermarket panel genuinely fits and performs, we will tell you that too, with both prices in front of you. The point is not a slogan about parts; it is that the decision should be made with the part’s job in mind. A cosmetic trim piece and a bumper reinforcement are not the same conversation, and a repair file that explains the difference is the one adjusters approve.
Rentals and timelines
If you were not at fault, a rental is typically covered through the claim; if you carry OPCF 20 loss-of-use coverage on your own policy, it applies regardless of fault. We arrange the timing so the rental starts when the car actually enters the shop, not while it sits waiting for parts — that stretch of coverage matters more than most people expect, especially in winter when parts cross the border slowly.
You get a written estimate, a start date, and a realistic finish window before work begins, and a call before either changes. If a supplement adds time, you hear it from us the day we file it, not from a delay you discover at pick-up. That is the practical difference of dealing with one person who owns the file rather than a queue.
