Serving Excelsior · about 18.5 mi from the shop
Auto body shop serving Excelsior, MN
Excelsior is eighteen and a half miles from us, on the far side of the river and most of Hennepin County. Shops sit closer to Water Street than we do, so this page is about the cases where the drive south is actually the right call.
5.0 110+ Google reviews · read them- Drive time
- about 24–31 min
- The route
- Hwy 7 east to US 169 south, over the river to Hwy 13
Why Excelsior drivers make the trip
Worth the drive, once — then it’s your shop
Half of what we repair for Excelsior falls between Memorial Day and Labor Day, because that is when the village fills up. Parking on Water Street turns over all evening, the ground near the Commons runs full on a warm night, and a good share of the traffic is towing something longer than the vehicle pulling it. The damage that comes out of that is slow and unglamorous — creased quarters, bumper corners scraped on a trailer tongue, doors caught by the wind against the car in the next stall. Our value is not proximity, which we plainly do not have. It is an estimate written by the owner after the panel comes off, and a finish with no expiry date on it.
Around Excelsior: Water Street · The Commons · Excelsior Bay · Lake Minnetonka’s south shore
Your insurance can’t choose your shop — Minnesota Statute § 72A.201 puts that choice with you. Here’s how that works.
Water Street in July
A lakeside village of this size absorbs summer volume by parking cars anywhere one will fit. Stalls along Water Street turn over all evening, the ground near the Commons fills for markets and concerts, and drivers who do not know the town are reversing into a street where somebody is always walking behind them. The result is contact at two or three miles an hour, repeatedly, from June through September — mirrors, corners, door edges, and the occasional trailer fender that swung wider than the driver expected it to.
Boat traffic contributes its own catalog. A tongue jack meeting a tailgate. A hitch ball against a bumper cover on a launch approach steeper than it looked from the road. Straps and gear dragged over a painted edge until the clear coat gives up and starts lifting at the door opening. None of that is a collision in the insurance sense and most of it never becomes a claim, which is precisely why an honest written number matters before anybody decides what to do about it.
Repairing a panel, replacing a panel, and telling you which
The decision that shapes most estimates is whether a damaged panel gets straightened or swapped, and there is no single right answer. Straightening preserves the factory seam sealer, the corrosion coatings, and the original alignment, and on a shallow crease it is genuinely the better repair. Past a certain depth, or once the metal has stretched or the damage crosses a body line, straightening turns into a way of producing something that looks acceptable under shop lights and reveals itself in daylight six months later.
What you should expect from any shop is a plain account of which side of that line your damage falls on and why. Here the person making the call is the owner, and he makes it with the panel exposed rather than from a photograph on a screen. If replacement is warranted we fit an original manufacturer part. If your insurance company’s estimate specifies something else, the objection goes in writing on your behalf and the choice stays yours. What we will not do is quietly take the cheaper path and hand the car back hoping the difference never shows.
Half an hour each way, spent once
The route runs east on Highway 7, south on US 169 through Eden Prairie, across the Minnesota River, then east on Highway 13 — twenty-four to thirty-one minutes, longer whenever 169 is being worked on. That is a real errand in both directions, and for a car that drives there is no honest way to make it shorter. There is a way to make it happen only once, and it is to do the estimating before the vehicle moves an inch.
Photographs by text are enough to produce a written estimate within a day at no cost. Parts get ordered against it, so the car arrives to a bay that is ready rather than to a queue. A rental, where the claim includes one, is timed to meet you at drop-off. And if what happened to the vehicle makes a thirty-minute drive unwise, the tow is arranged from our end and the only trip you make is the one to collect it.
Excelsior questions
Questions from Excelsior drivers
Straight answers before you commit to anything — and a human on the phone when you want one.
Is it worth driving to Savage from Excelsior?
Sometimes, and not always. For a scraped bumper in a solid color, a shop nearer the lake will serve you fine and we will say so when the photographs arrive. For structural damage, a difficult finish, or a repair that needs redoing properly, our customers from the lake towns think the half hour is worth spending.
Summer is your busy season too. Can you still take the car?
Summer is busier than winter, but the schedule is ours to manage and photographs sent early get you into it early. Tell us what happened and when you need the vehicle back, and you will get an honest answer about timing rather than an optimistic one.
Do you fit original manufacturer parts?
That is the default here. If a panel or bumper needs replacing, an OEM part goes on unless you instruct us otherwise. When your insurance company’s estimate calls for an alternative, we explain what it means for fit and finish and put the request in writing so the decision stays with you.
Live from Google
Every review. Unfiltered.
Pulled straight from our Google profile as they come in — names, dates, and customers’ own photos included.
Get started
Send photos now,
get a number today.
Three photos from the parking lot are enough to start: one full corner of the vehicle, one close-up of the damage, one wide shot. A written estimate comes back within 24 hours — or book a time to bring the car in, or have us call you.
- Response
- Within 24 hours
- Cost
- Free, no obligation
- Prefer to talk?
- (651) 460-9996
Photo estimates cover what a camera can see. If teardown reveals hidden damage, we document it with photos and clear it with you (and your insurance) before any extra work.
Been in an accident?
We’ll take it
from here.
Mon–Sat · 9 AM–11 PM · Sundays by appointment · 8080 W 125th St, Unit G, Savage