What happens to your photos
A person reads your photos — the owner, writes the estimate himself, not a form and not an app. The images are matched against your VIN so the parts list fits your exact trim and paint code, the damaged components are identified, availability is checked, and the whole thing is set out as line items: parts, labour operations, refinish time, materials. That is the same structure an insurance company uses, so you can hold the two documents side by side and see exactly where they differ.
The estimate is free whether or not the car ever reaches the shop, and nothing about it obligates you. Plenty of people use ours purely to sanity-check what an adjuster wrote, or to decide whether a claim is worth opening at all — both are fair uses, and we would rather write a straight number for someone comparing shops than win a job by guessing low. If the damage lands close to your deductible, we say so plainly, because filing a claim to recover a couple hundred dollars is rarely a good trade.
The photos that make an estimate accurate
Daylight wins every time — an underground condo garage is the single worst place in Toronto to photograph car damage, and a dry panel reads far better than a wet one. Three angles carry most of the load: the whole damaged corner with about half the vehicle in frame, a straight-on close-up from half a metre away, and a wide shot of the entire car showing stance and panel gaps. Gaps that have crept open are frequently the first clue an impact travelled past the panel that shows it.
Two more shots sharpen the parts list: the VIN plate in the driver’s door jamb and the paint code label beside it. Those turn a generic write-up into one built for your specific vehicle. If the car might not be drivable, add a straight-on photo of the wheels — that usually answers the tow question by itself. Fluid pooling underneath, a wheel leaning at an angle it was never designed to reach, or a hood that refuses to latch are the details that change our answer from "drive it in" to "leave it where it is and call us".
- Full corner shot — the damage with half the vehicle in frame
- Close-up — about half a metre back, straight on, in daylight
- Wide shot — the whole car, showing stance and panel gaps
- VIN plate and paint code label from the driver’s door jamb
- Wheels straight on if the car may not be drivable
What a photo estimate can and cannot promise
It is an honest number for visible damage, with the uncertainty marked out loud. No camera sees a cracked reinforcement, a shifted radiator support, or a broken sensor bracket behind a cover that still holds its shape. On anything beyond a parking-lot scuff, expect the number to move once the corner comes apart — how far depends on the hit. A square, low-speed tap usually stays close to the estimate; an angled strike into a corner, the kind a snowbank hides a curb inside, rarely does.
That movement is not a bait and switch — it is the physics of hidden damage, and the difference between shops is whether you hear about it before or after. Everything teardown uncovers is photographed, priced, and approved by you and your insurance company before the work happens. No call from us ever starts with the extra work already done. And if the revised number changes your mind about the path — repair it, claim it, or live with it for now — that choice is still entirely yours at that point.
