Areas We Cover: Drive Times to Our Rumney Body Shop

Where is Cardiff Accident Repair

The workshop is at Unit 4, Wentloog Buildings, Wentloog Road, Rumney, Cardiff CF3 1TH. It sits in a small yard of industrial units on Wentloog Road, in the east of the city, a few minutes from the A48 Eastern Avenue and the Llanrumney and St Mellons junctions. Ali Hindal runs the workshop, which has six work bays and an on-site spray booth.

Leave the A48 at the Rumney turn and follow Wentloog Road. The units sit back from the road behind a yard entrance, so watch for the turning rather than the buildings. There is space to leave a car in the yard while you talk to us, and no parking charges. If you are coming for the first time and would rather not guess, ring from the road and we will walk you in.

We are one workshop rather than a chain with a drop off point, which matters more than it sounds. The person who quotes your car is the person who repairs it, and you can meet the owner before you leave the keys.

How long does it take to get here from my town

These are typical off peak drive times for a car that is safe to drive. Add fifteen to twenty minutes in either direction at school run and rush hour, particularly on the A48 and around the Gabalfa interchange.

Drivers from Newport and Caerphilly often expect a Cardiff body shop to be on the far side of the city. Rumney is on the eastern edge, so the journey from both is shorter than the journey to most of Cardiff’s other workshops. What we do once the car is here is set out under collision repair.

Which Cardiff postcodes and districts do we cover

Cars come to the workshop from across Cardiff and the surrounding towns. The postcodes below cover most of what walks through the door, though there is no boundary on the work: if you can get the car here, or we can get it recovered, we can repair it.

• CF3, so Rumney, Llanrumney, St Mellons, Old St Mellons, Trowbridge
• CF23, so Cyncoed, Pentwyn, Llanedeyrn, Pontprennau, Lisvane
• CF24, so Roath, Adamsdown, Splott, Cathays
• CF10 and CF11, so the city centre, Bay, Grangetown and Riverside
• CF14, so Heath, Llanishen, Birchgrove, Thornhill
• CF5, so Ely, Canton, Fairwater, Llandaff
• CF64 Penarth and Dinas Powys, CF62 and CF63 Barry and the Vale
• CF83 Caerphilly, and NP10, NP19 and NP20 Newport

A postcode missing from that list is not a no. It means nobody from your street has needed us yet.

Getting here from each direction

From Newport and the east

Take the M4 west and leave at junction 28 for the A48 towards Cardiff. Stay on the A48 through St Mellons and take the Rumney turn, then follow Wentloog Road. It is about 10 miles from Newport city centre and the run is almost all dual carriageway, so it is one of the quickest journeys to any body shop in Cardiff. Drivers from Bettws, Rogerstone and Duffryn usually find the M4 quicker than the old Newport Road, even with the junction 28 roundabout.

From Caerphilly and the north

Come down the A469 through Caerphilly mountain or take the A470 and cut across on the A48 at the eastern end. Both meet the A48, and from there it is the Rumney turn. The mountain road is shorter in miles and slower in minutes, especially with a damaged car that you would rather not push. If the car is drivable but not happy, use the A470 and A48 instead.

From Penarth, Barry and the Vale

The A4232 link road is the route that avoids the city centre completely. Join it at Penarth or from the A4050 out of Barry, follow it north and east around the city, then join the A48 heading east and leave at Rumney. It is about 8 miles from Penarth and 14 from Barry, and the whole journey stays on fast roads.

From north and west Cardiff

From Llanishen, Heath, Thornhill and Lisvane, the A48 eastbound from the Pentwyn junction is the simple route. From Llandaff, Canton and Ely, either the A48 across the north of the city or Newport Road through the middle works; the A48 is longer in distance and usually shorter in time.

If the car fails on the A48 or the M4

Get off the carriageway before you do anything else. On the A48 there are laybys and junction slip roads at regular intervals; on the M4 use the hard shoulder only if you cannot reach the next exit, get out on the passenger side and wait up the bank behind the barrier, not in the car.

Your first call is to your breakdown provider or the insurer handling the claim, because recovery you have already paid for beats recovery you arrange twice. Then ring us with the registration and what has happened, so the workshop knows the car is coming and can plan around it. If the incident involved another vehicle, exchange details at the scene before the cars are moved: our step by step guide to what to do after a car accident covers the order to do it in.

Which towns have their own page, and why

Six towns have a page of their own, because what changes from town to town is the journey, the roads and the authority you claim from when the surface caused the damage. The repair itself happens in one building in Rumney wherever you set off from.

A page for every town describing the same service with the place name swapped would tell a driver nothing new, and these do not do that. Each one covers what is specific to that direction.

• Newport: motorway and A48 impact damage, recovery from the M4, and claiming across a county boundary.
• Barry: what salt air does to paint and alloys, and why a cheap touch in fails on the coast.
• Penarth: parked damage on narrow streets, mirror and door edge work, and private or unadopted roads.
• Caerphilly: the mountain road, animal strikes on the lanes, and underbody checks after a verge hit.
• Pontypridd: why A470 damage is not a council claim, and what a dual carriageway shunt hides.
• Bridgend: an honest answer on when the drive is worth making and when it is not.

Everywhere else is covered by this page. If your town is not on that list it does not mean we will not take the work, it means the journey is the only thing that changes and the table above already answers it.

What if my car is not driveable

Ring before you move it. A car is not safe to drive when the steering or lights are affected, when a wheel or suspension arm is damaged, when there is fluid on the road, or when a panel is rubbing a tyre. Driving it to save a recovery fee is how a repairable car becomes a bigger job.

1. Call 07400 454839 and tell us where the car is and what is damaged.
2. Check your own cover first. Many policies and breakdown memberships already include recovery to a garage of your choice, which makes the move free to you.
3. If they do not, we can arrange collection, from home, from work or from the roadside.
4. The car stays here while it is assessed and, on a claim, while the insurer authorises the work.

Recovery from the scene of an accident is different from recovery from a driveway, and the insurer handling the claim often pays for the first. Say which situation you are in when you ring, because it changes who pays.

Can I get a quote without driving over

Yes, and for cosmetic damage it saves you a journey. Send photographs and we will price the work before the car moves. Paint work is the easiest to judge from photographs, and what it covers is set out on paint and spray repairs.

1. One wide photograph of the whole panel, taken in daylight, straight on.
2. Two close photographs of the damage itself, one straight on and one from an angle so the depth shows.
3. One photograph of the car as a whole, so we can see the colour and the model.
4. The registration, which tells us the exact paint on the car.

Impact damage gets a range rather than a firm figure until the panel is off, for the reasons set out in the bodywork repair price guide. Cosmetic damage can usually be quoted firm from photographs alone.

What happens on the day you bring the car in

A first visit takes about twenty minutes. You arrive, we look at the car with you rather than taking it away and coming back with a number, and you leave with either a written figure or a clear explanation of what has to come off before anyone can give you one.

Bring three things if you have them: the registration document or at least the registration number, your insurance details if you are claiming, and any photographs you took at the scene. Photographs taken before the cars were moved are worth more than anything else you can hand us, because they show the direction the impact came from, which tells us where to look for damage behind the panels.

Take your belongings out of the car if it is staying, including anything in the boot and the glovebox, and leave us one key. If you are waiting for an insurer to authorise the work, the car can stay in the yard in the meantime rather than sitting on your drive with a wing hanging off.

When is the workshop open

Saturday is the busiest day for quotes, so ring ahead if you want the car looked at properly rather than glanced at. Drop offs outside those hours can be arranged by agreement, and cars left with us are kept in the yard behind the units rather than on the road.

Send the photographs first when you are not sure whether the car needs to come in at all. Half the jobs we quote never need a second visit before booking in, and the rest of the work we do is listed under all bodywork services.

Ring before you set off, whatever town you are in, and we will tell you whether the car needs to come in at all. Call 07400 454839 or use the contact form.