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6 Tips for Getting Towed

What to Do When You Need a Tow in Wichita or Andover

There you are, on Kellogg, and suddenly your car breaks down. Maybe you’re driving up Andover Rd. when a pothole as big as the Wichita ditch brings your vehicle to a complete stop. Or perhaps you’re returning to your car from shopping at Towne East Mall only to discover your vehicle just won’t start.

It’s just about inevitable that at some point in your life, some problem or another will leave you stranded. Fortunately, this is exactly what a tow service is meant for. But if you’ve never had a need to call a towing company before, you may be unsure of how it all works.

1. What to Do First When You Need a Tow

The first thing you need to do will sound easy, but it is sometimes more difficult than you’d expect.

Having your car break down can be very stressful, especially if it happens in the middle of night or in the middle of a freezing Wichita winter. You may think the first step is to call a tow truck driver. Nope. The first step is to know the phone number of a tow truck driver.

When you suddenly find yourself stranded and stressed out, finding a towing company that can service you right away – and one that is reliable – may be difficult at this exact moment. The good news is that this often stressful first step to getting towed can be alleviated by something you can do right now. It’ll only take you a couple of minutes. Find a towing company and put their number in your phone now.

Go ahead. Stop reading this blog post so you can do that. We’ll wait. Or we can speed up the process by recommending a Wichita & Andover towing service that thousands have relied upon for decades. Ours!

If you are like thousands of people across Wichita, Andover and south central Kansas, you’ve relied upon the team at Collision Center of Andover for your vehicle work. Did you know our Andover auto body shop also offer a towing service? Your search to finding a reliable local towing company can stop right now with us! The number to get a tow 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to areas across Wichita, Andover, and surrounding communities is (316) 719-2100.

2. Safety Comes First

Does it seem wrong that this is the second item on the list? If you’ve already prepared for the possibility of a potential car break-down with putting a towing service company in your contacts, then this becomes the very first thing you do when a break-down occurs.

Make sure you are in a safe place. If your vehicle is on the road, get out of your vehicle and wait on the shoulder or curb. If your vehicle is stopped in the road and posing a danger, you should call 911 so the Wichita or Andover Police Department can come out and ensure your vehicle isn’t a danger on the road. While you wait for officer assistance, put yourself in a spot that’s off the road and a bit to the rear of your vehicle to stay safe from a potential accident.

3. Call a Wichita-area Towing Company

Now that you’ve ensured your own personal safety, call for a tow. You will need to provide them with where you are located. If you can’t be sure of your exact location, provide the main cross streets you are near and which direction you are from that intersection. If you have a smart phone with a mapping app, open that to see where you are.

4. Take Out the Items You Need (and/or Value)

Now you need to get ready for the tow truck driver. Gather up the items you need such as your purse or your wallet. Grab your phone, perhaps also your car charger. If it’s winter, be sure to get your coat, hat, gloves, or whatever you need to stay warm. If it’s summer, hopefully you have a water bottle or something to drink in your car.

You probably don’t know how long you will go without your car that’s suddenly broken down. So if there are any items you’ll need in the next couple of days that is in your vehicle (maybe that library book that’s due back soon), be sure to gather those items up.

Do you keep anything valuable in your vehicle? Maybe some emergency cash in your glove box? A rosary on your rear-view mirror? If you can gather those items, do it. It’s not worth worrying about anything you deem valuable. Plus, this might precisely be the time when you need that extra cash and rosary.

WARNING: If you are in a position where you can’t wait inside your vehicle safely, you may want to avoid this step altogether. It’s not worth risking your life to save your wallet.

5. Take photos

In many vehicle break-down situations, this may not be needed. For example, there is probably no reason to get pictures of your dead car in the mall parking lot (unless that’s the sort of thing you want to Snapchat).

When should you take photos? If you believe someone else is to blame for your break-down, you will want photos to help prove your case. Hit a giant pothole on North Oliver? It’s possible the City of Wichita is liable for not repairing the pothole earlier and may cover the repair expense. So take photos of that massive street hole.

Another reason to take photos is for the repairs you will need. By sending those photos to local repair shops, you may be able to get estimates allowing you to shop around. We at Collision Center of Andover provide these estimates and offer a way for you to upload photos of your damaged vehicle to get a repair quote quickly.

6. Know Where You are Going

After dealing with a break-down and waiting for a tow, you are probably ready to just be home. But, unfortunately, you’ve got some arrangements to make.

What needs to happen to your car? And where is that? The tow truck driver is going to need to know where you want to tow it. Perhaps you have an auto repair shop in town you trust. If not, then you’ve got a limited time to determine where you want to go.

While you may know that Collision Center of Andover handles auto body repair, we also can handle more general vehicle repairs to get your car or truck back up and running. If you call our towing service, they can take you to our shop. However, it’s not required. Our towing service will take you to any vehicle repair shop of your choosing in Wichita or Andover.

Get Trusted Towing Service from Collision Center of Andover

We have you covered! Collision Center of Andover provides towing services to anyone in Butler Counter and the greater Wichita and Andover areas. Our towing service will bring you right into our shop or to any destination or shop of your choice. Call for a tow at (316) 719-2100. We are available 24 hours a day!

Overcharging a Car Battery

Photo of beagle puppy with his head out of a moving vehicle

When Will My Car be Ready? 9 Things that Can Slow Down Repairs

From Estimate to Fixed: Factors determining how long your car will be in the shop

NOTE: Due to current supply-chain shortages, some supplies and parts face an unusually long delay. In some severe cases, it can take several months to procure the necessary parts. Check with our team to learn if current supply problems could affect your vehicle repair.

Having been the premiere auto body shop for Andover and Wichita since 2006, Collision Center of Andover are experts at putting your damaged car back to the way it was. Not only do our experienced car technicians know how to get the job done, we know how long this process can be expected to take AND all the factors that cause delays in getting your vehicle fixed as soon as possible.

The 1 question our customers ask the most: When will my car be ready?

When people need us to get their vehicle back in perfect condition, there really is just one question we get asked more than any other. You want to know when your car will be done. After all, it can be quite an inconvenience to not have your own personal vehicle. You probably know exactly where things are in your car: your umbrella, your ice scraper, your cup of change for a Spangles mudslide. We definitely understand your rush to get your car back and deal with as little auto repair time as possible. And so, we make every effort we can and anticipate every hurdle to get you back in your car or truck as soon as possible. In the meantime, while your vehicle is with us, we can arrange for you to have a rental. We are a concessionaire shop for Enterprise and have their vehicles on site for you to rent. We will make sure to have a vehicle here for you and will arrange the insurance billing at your request.

So, what’s the answer? When will we get your vehicle done?

We wish we could give you an exact answer. But the fact is, we can’t. And believe us, we really, really wish we could. The simple fact is we just don’t know. It almost pains us to tell you that. With a team of car guys with decades of experience fixing cars day in and day out (heck, Jeff alone has nearly 30 years’ experience!), you would think we would be the local auto body shop to know this answer.

There is a good reason why we can’t predict with 100% accuracy how long it will take for us to repair your car. Actually, there are 9 reasons. And many of those reasons are outside the control of our technicians and repair shop, at least until we learn how to control mother nature.

9 Factors that Determine Auto Repair Time

First, what time of year is it?
Is it a nice spring day, or is it the day after central Kansas’ first ice storm of the winter season? If our area’s first mix of ice and sleet covered roads from Andover to Goddard, there are likely hundreds (or more) of other people across the Wichita area who are taking their car or truck to the repair shop at the same time as you. While we want to get to work on your car right away, you may be waiting in line… at ANY repair shop across the area.

Who is your insurance?
Depending on your answer, this could be the most substantial delay to work getting done. We have great experience in the entire process, and that includes working with insurance companies to avoid delays. But the truth is, each insurance company operates differently. While Collision Center technicians can get started without any delay when certain insurance companies are involved, other insurance companies may require an extensive approval process, taking days or every several weeks! While we can’t control how long some insurance companies will take to allow us to get your car repair started, you can trust Collision Center of Andover to do what it takes to help insurance companies expedite their process whenever we can.

Is there more damage hiding?
Once we get the insurance approval, we can get straight to work on repairing your vehicle. That often starts with us tearing down your vehicle. This is where new issues can arise. It’s very possible that while we are getting a closer look inside your vehicle, we will find additional damage that wasn’t visible until AFTER we took it apart. If that happens, we will work quick to handle any new orders for parts or any further coordination with the insurance company.

Does your vehicle need to go to the dealership?
There are times when a repair job will require work to be done by the dealership. This may be because of insurance requirements or warranty specifications. In any case, taking your car to a dealership means the repair is temporarily out of our hands. Just as we effort to expedite work with insurance companies, we are quick to work closely with your dealership to avoid any unnecessary delays. Once they can get their part of the work done, we are ready to take over.

What’s the weather like in other parts of the country?
Even if Kansas isn’t currently dealing with bad weather, a storm in our neighboring states could still affect how long it will take your car to get done. Fortunately, many parts are available here in the Wichita area. But sometimes parts needed for repairs come from outside Kansas, such as from Denver, Oklahoma or Texas. Usually when we need to order parts, we can have them on hand in a day. But as we’ve seen happen, roads like I-70 are prone to be shut down during and after a big snow storm and can delay how soon your parts get to us.

What type of car do you have? Is it uncommon?
If you’re driving a foreign car or some other less common vehicle, we may need to order parts that could take a while to get delivered to us. But if you drive a Ford, Chevy, Honda or other common vehicle on our roads, delays for parts are usually minimal, if at all. Also, if your car is rather old (more than 10 years), it may require parts that aren’t as common and quick to receive. And having a vehicle that isn’t being manufactured anymore (like an Oldsmobile or Saturn) could also mean a delay in getting your car’s parts.

How high-tech is your car?
The more technology your vehicle has, the more there is for us to fix. Nowadays, there are some cars with sensors everywhere. So that little dent on your bumper that used to be a quick fix to smooth out, now comes with the complication of us needing to address all the technology that has been installed into that bumper.

Let’s talk weather again: Has it been raining?
If it has, and your vehicle’s repair job is going to require painting, that could add time. Paint dries slowly in humid conditions. Although we are so close to being done at this point, it is possible rainy conditions mean one more day of waiting for you.

And lastly – it’s the little things.
Because we are going to make sure that your car is put back to the way it was before the accident, we take care of all the details. From the air bag light to the trim pieces – for every little issue that could be broken or affected by the wreck, we check it and we fix it.

Bottom line, for us at Collision Center of Andover, it’s about getting your car back in shape AND it’s about getting you back on the road in your car as soon as possible. Know that we will work quickly to repair your vehicle and know that you can trust we won’t cut any corners. We even offer a lifetime guarantee of the work we do.

When can we Guarantee a Delivery Date?

While we may not be able to give you an exact answer when you first bring your vehicle in for repairs, after the vehicle is inspected and parts are sourced, we can give you a delivery date. We will contact you immediately after repairs are done and our quality inspection is complete. Preference of being contacted by phone, email or text communication can be requested when you drop off your vehicle.

We Have a Habit of Delivering on Time

We pride ourselves on excellent customer service, and that is why you will see on Google that we are filled with 5-star reviews! In fact, many of those glowing reviews thank us for doing excellent work in the time we estimated it would take. Here are just a sample of recent reviews from Collision Center of Andover customers extremely satisfied with their wait time and repair work.

We hope you call on us for your next repair. We are just a few minutes’ drive outside of Wichita on Andover road. Call us at (316) 733-9310.

deer in grass. Fall is the time to be alert for possible deer collisions.

Oh deer! What happens AFTER I hit a deer?

What To Do After a Deer Accident

It can happen in an instant. You see a blur, an object suddenly ahead of you on the road. There’s no time to avoid it. You’ve hit a deer. And now your vehicle has probably suffered damage from hitting a deer. It happens to more than a million of us every year in the U.S.

Here in the Wichita area, we see a lot of vehicles come in to Collision Center of Andover damaged by a deer accident. While there’s not much you can do to prevent it, there are some basic steps every driver needs to know to do if this startling situation happens to them.

What’s the cost?

The average collision with a deer ends up costing each driver on average about $3000 – $4000. But some collisions can end up costing as much as $10,000 or higher.

When am I at the greatest risk for hitting a deer?

Watch out especially on your way to the pumpkin patch or out to Thanksgiving dinner. In Kansas, during the fall and early winter is when you face your biggest risk for hitting a deer. Dawn and dusk are the two times of day when deer are most active and most likely to run out on the road.

After I hit a deer, what do I do?

Pull your vehicle off to the side of the road or other safe place. Be sure it’s at enough of a distance from other drivers. Chances are this accident happened at dawn or dusk, when the light isn’t great to see everything around you.
Call the police. If the collision resulted in injury or damage to your vehicle or other property, you may need to fill out an official report. This report may be helpful for your insurance claim.
Get out your cell phone’s camera. While now is not the time for a selfie, it is definitely the time to take photos. Be sure to get plenty:
1. Damage to your vehicle
2. Damage to any other property
3. The roadway and your surroundings
4. Injuries you or your passengers sustained
Be sure you’re watching the road and your surroundings so that you are staying safe while you are taking these photos.

Is the animal still alive? Steer clear of it. An injured and frightened deer could cause you damage with its legs and hooves.
Take a pause before pulling back out on the road. Your car might not actually be safe to drive. Look for broken lights, leaking fluid, tire damage or other safety hazards. If anything seems off making it not safe to drive, call us for a tow. The Collision Center of Andover provides 24/7 quick, full-service towing to Wichita and Andover, towing any passenger vehicle to any destination or the shop of your choice. Call (316) 719-2100.
Contact your auto insurance agent so they can start work immediately on your claim. Deer collision claims are usually covered under comprehensive insurance, not collision. Or to make things easier, when you call our shop just ask for Insurance Claims Assistance and we’ll work to help handle the process.

Animal collisions of any kind are unfortunate. The key to minimizing the damage is to follow the basic steps for your vehicle and others around you to make sure you aren’t put into any more danger. The best things you can do in advance is to check your insurance and see if you’re properly covered if you were to hit a deer. Also be sure to have a trusted repair shop ready to call if an accident happens to you. Better yet, find a repair shop that also will handle your towing!

Collision Center of Andover offers high-quality, reliable repair and towing service. Check out our before-and-after examples to see how we can completely fix your dented car from a deer collision or other accident. From full-line collision repair, paintless dent repair to mechanical repairs and more, count on the auto repair experts to get your vehicle running and back in shape.

Vehicle Fires. Ask Collision Center of Andover for collision repair services.

Top 5 Common Causes of Vehicle Fires

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), vehicle fires account for about 20 percent of all reported fires. In fact, a vehicle fire is said to happen every 96 seconds in the United States. These fires can cause significant property damage so you’ll have to have your vehicle checked by a body shop. Serious or fatal injuries can also arise from fires so it’s essential you are aware of the top common causes of vehicle fires. The more you understand how these fires form, the more likely you will be able to prevent them and stay safe.

Design Flaw
There has been a lot of coverage in the news regarding vehicle design flaws as many of them can lead to unexpected fire. When the auto manufacturers become aware of such design flaws, they typically issue a recall so all owners can be notified of the possible danger and get the vehicle fixed (for free). If you receive a notice or hear about a possible recall, it’s important you act immediately and contact your local dealer for assistance.
Electrical System Failures
Your electrical system is one of the most common causes of vehicle fires. A standard car battery’s charging cycles can cause hydrogen gas to build up on the engine bay and the electrical current of the battery can produce sparks along with faulty or loose wiring. This can quickly ignite any dripped fluid or leaked vapors. And since your vehicle’s electrical wiring runs throughout the entire body, it creates a substantial danger.
Overheating Engine
While your vehicle’s engine isn’t likely to overheat enough to catch fire on its own, it can be hot enough to make the vehicle’s oil and coolant rise to dangerous temperatures. When this happens, these internal fluids spread throughout the engine bay and onto the exhaust system. This is where they can dangerously ignite and spread.
Spilled Fluids
The typical vehicle has numerous flammable fluids under the hood from gasoline or diesel fuel, transmission fluid, engine oil, brake fluid, power steering fluid and engine coolant. If anything happens to any of their lines, hoses or reservoirs, any of them could catch fire when the car is on and they are circulating. When you combine an accident or a failed part with one of these instances, your chance for fire increases.
Accident
While most vehicles have crumple zones which help the sheet metal absorb the impact of a crash, an intense blow can still spark a fire. Leaking fluids combined with heat create ideal conditions for a fire. If you are in an accident, you may not realize what is leaking under the hood, so it’s a good idea to always move away from an accident quickly.

Remember, it’s important you keep up on your vehicle’s regular maintenance, because if you don’t, you run the risk of not being aware of certain issues harboring under the hood. If you don’t fix faulty wiring, broken parts or leaky seals, for example, your vehicle is more susceptible to an incident that can spark a fire.

If you need any work done, or existing damage repaired, contact the Collision Center of Andover, your full service auto body shop, at (316) 733-9310, and we will get you back on the road. Check out our Before and After Collision photos to see how we get vehicles back to their original shape!

photo credit: FontFont via photopin cc