Best quality parts, OEM or Aftermarket?

[CC19]

Hey everyone today I had to go to a Body shop and try to get another estimate on my 14 2SS Coupe. Im going through insurance and I have progressive and when I went to the body shop the guy told me that I might not be able to have the OEM parts put on my car because the insurance and the shop will have to decide what kind of parts to put on it. It’s my front Bumper and drivers front finder Liner that need to be replaced and the first shop gave me an actual estimate of how much it would cost before I got my estimate from my insurance. The only reason I went to this other shop is because the first one was charging to much because I went to Gmpartsdirect.com and the bumper was cheaper and OEM.
I’m trying to decide if I should just keep the check from my insurance and then fix my car without them so I can get the parts I want? I just feel that I should get to have some input on the parts that are being put on my car when I’m paying for a good chunk of it still, Thanks.

[ChibiBlackSheep]

All shops are going to mark up the cost of items, it's the price of business. You should be able to take your car to any shop that you want, and choose the way that you want it fixed. Have the shop talk to your insurance if you think insurance is trying to cheapen out, and then take a look at your policy again. If they deem is okay to use aftermarket in place of OEM, then you might have to take the hit. If your policy specifies that it must be fixed to OEM spec using OEM parts, then you fight on that.

I bet aftermarket is acceptable is written somewhere in your policy, and you might have to eat the difference.

[Black_SS10]

OEM. A lot of aftermarket doesn't fit properly without some finesse. I work and supply parts to a lot of body shops. They always choose OEM when they can. Sometimes it is out of their control. I would say 90% of my customers only use OEM. Also, it is getting harder to find aftermarket body parts for a lot of vehicles; aftermarket meaning OEM style/replica. A shop is always going to charge more for the parts compared to you getting them yourself.

[Tajefe Couple]

When someone ran a red light and did major damage to my Malibu a few years ago the shop only charged me around $300 extra for OEM parts. There was about 5K in front end damage so was a lot of parts. Car was 4 years old and policy only allowed for aftermarket after 3 years. Was sad because I searched over a year for a used low mileage optioned car that I wanted to use for work. You might find a shop that won't charge you much extra for OEM if they want the business.

[BluePhoenix]

Always OEM.