Pre and Post Repair Scanning: What Fifteen Manufacturers Actually Require

Short answer: of the fifteen manufacturers who publish a scanning position, twelve require both a pre-repair and a post-repair scan in their own words and three only recommend one. The disagreement that costs you money is not whether to scan. It is when, and only two of the fifteen define it.

By Anthony Braswell for Quorum Industries LLC, The Autobody Directory · Updated 2026-08-23 · How this was written, and what the machine may not do

How this page was produced: Researched, drafted and checked with AI assistance under human direction and signed off by the named author, with the tables on this page built from a register by a script. How this site is written

The obvious assumption is that a position statement settles the argument. It does not, and the reason is in the second table below. Thirteen of the fifteen say the trigger is a vehicle "involved in a collision" and then stop. That phrase does the whole job of deciding whether a scan is owed on a bumper scuff, and only Ford and Lincoln say what it means. Everyone else leaves the threshold to the people setting the scope of the repair. We have not measured how that ambiguity gets resolved in practice, and this page does not claim to know.

These are manufacturer positions, not law. Nothing on this page says an insurer has to pay for anything. What it says is what each manufacturer published, in their words, and on what date.

Who requires it and who does not

Fifteen manufacturers publish a scanning position in the OEM1Stop library, covering 27 brands between them. Twelve require both scans in their own words. Three recommend. Every cell below is the document's own language, and the quote that carries it is in the section after next.

Two brands of one company give different answers. Hyundai requires. Genesis, the same corporate group, recommends, and its document asks rather than instructs: it "requests the collision industry follow the above recommendations". Genesis's statement is from April 2023 and Hyundai's from June 2025. If you work on both, you are working to two standards.

The three that recommend are not saying the same thing as each other, either. Kia's language is the most emphatic on the page while still not being a requirement: scanning "should not be considered an option, but rather as an essential task". Mercedes-Benz calls a pre-repair scan "highly recommended" and then, in the same document, says a full Xentry scan is required for named events, including any collision regardless of the appearance of damage and any windshield replacement where driver-assist sensors sit in the glass. We have not upgraded either of them to "required", because they do not say it, and the register's own rule forbids it.

When, with what, and by whom

Requiring a scan is not the same as agreeing on when it is owed, or on what ends the job. Only two of the fifteen say what counts as a collision; the rest say "involved in a collision" and stop, which leaves the threshold to the people setting the scope of the repair. Six set a model-year floor, and two of those split the answer by model year rather than applying one rule to the fleet. And five of the fifteen say what a finished post-repair scan has to show: a manufacturer can require a post-scan and never state the result that ends the job.

Which tool, and whose hands

Twelve of the fifteen name a tool. Eight go further and disclaim the alternatives in their own words, which is a subscription and an interface per marque before anybody has scanned anything. Four name a tool without disclaiming the others (Ford, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo), which is a different thing and worth knowing: Ford and Lincoln name their software and then accept any J2534-compliant interface. One goes further still and restricts who may hold it.

Among the fifteen position statements compared here, Ford and Lincoln are the only ones that define what counts as a collision: a collision is "damage beyond minor outer-panel cosmetic distortion". That is a sentence somebody can be held to. Nothing comparable appears in the other thirteen documents.

Volvo goes the other way and removes the threshold entirely. Pre-repair scanning "is required prior to performing ANY and ALL work on the vehicle". Not damage above a line, not a model year: any work.

Rivian is the outlier that matters most to an independent shop, and not because of the tool. Rivian "requires that all scans and calibrations are performed by Rivian Certified Technicians". Every other manufacturer here tells you which tool to use. Rivian tells you who may hold it.

The tool clauses are a cost, not a footnote. Twelve of the fifteen name one: i-HDS, CONSULT, Xentry, wiTECH, RiDE, IDS and FDRS, VIDA, a genuine Mazda tool, Subaru's own, GM's own. Eight go further than naming a preference: GM "does not recommend the use of other scan tools and cannot guarantee or endorse their accuracy", and Subaru "does not test or validate other diagnostic scan tools or interfaces in the market". A subscription and an interface per marque is the real shape of the requirement. Ford and Lincoln are the exception worth knowing: they name their software and then accept any J2534-compliant interface, which is the only place in this set where generic hardware is allowed in terms.

And the dates are not all the same kind of date. Ten documents state a day. Five state only a month, and two of those state nothing at all, so the date shown is the one OEM1Stop gave the file. The "In their own words" section says which is which on every row. Kia is the row where the two disagree by years: the text reads "As of June 2018" and the library files it as 5-4-21, and we have not established which is current.

What this page is not saying

We are not saying an insurer must pay for a scan. A position statement is a manufacturer's published view of how its vehicles should be repaired. Whether it is owed on a given claim is a question about the policy, the estimate and your state's claims-conduct rules, and none of those are on this page. Our unfair claims settlement practices survey is where the state-law side lives.

We are not saying the twelve requirements are equivalent. They differ on the trigger, the model years, the tool and in one case on who may hold the tool. Two documents can both say "required" and mean materially different work. That is the entire reason for the second table rather than one column saying yes.

We are not claiming a recommendation is worthless or a requirement is enforceable. Neither follows. What a manufacturer publishes is evidence of what the manufacturer considers a proper repair. What weight that carries is a question for somebody with a licence to answer it, and this page does not answer it.

We are not reproducing the documents. Each statement is its author's copyright. What is on this page is the position each takes, a short quote showing the coding is theirs rather than ours, and a link. If a row matters to a file you are working, open the document.

In their own words

One short quote per manufacturer, enough to show the coding above is theirs and not ours, with a link to the document. Read the document, not this page, before you rely on it in a file.

American Honda Motor Co., 2025-07 (the document gives a month, no day), on Acura, Honda. The document

It is the position of American Honda that all vehicles* involved in a collision must have the following minimum diagnostic scans, inspections, and/or calibrations done to avoid improper repair

A post-repair diagnostic scan to confirm that no DTCs remain.

American Honda does not test other scan tools or remote diagnostic services and cannot comment on their capabilities or accuracy.

Honda puts it higher than a preference: i-HDS is "the only way to accurately determine the post-collision status" of its control systems, and the Denso DST-i is "the only factory-approved VCI device". The document also warns that tools marketed as "OEM Compatible or OEM-C" have no history of being tested by Honda.

Version 6, issued July 2025, and at 12,179 characters the longest scanning document in the library. It sets out a preliminary scan during the estimate phase and a post-repair scan to confirm no codes remain. The document gives a month and no day.

FCA US LLC (Stellantis), 2025-12-01, on Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram. The document

Safety and security related systems such as anti-lock brakes, supplemental restraint systems (SRS) (airbags), occupant restraint controller (ORC), seat belts, active head restraints, forward facing camera and radar, blind spot monitoring and other automated electronic driver assistance systems MUST be tested for fault codes (DTCs)

Use of the Mopar wiTECH vehicle diagnostic tester (scan tool) is necessary before and after collision repair.

Scoped to named safety and security systems rather than to the whole vehicle. The document also requires confirming that every airbag squib was used during a deployment event before removing deployed airbags.

Ford Motor Company, 2025-10-01, on Ford. The document

all Ford Motor Company vehicles (model year 1996 and newer) involved in a collision (defined as damage beyond minor outer-panel cosmetic distortion) are required to undergo both pre-repair and post-repair diagnostic scans

Software: IDS (1996-2018 vehicles) FDRS (2018-onwards) Hardware: VCMII, VCM3, or J2534-compliant interface

The only manufacturer here that names its software and then accepts a GENERIC interface. Everyone else who names a tool disclaims the alternatives.

Ford and Lincoln are the only manufacturers in this topic that define what counts as a collision. Everyone else says "involved in a collision" and leaves the threshold to the reader. The filename disagrees with the document: OEM1Stop files it as 9-30-25 and the document is headed October 1, 2025. The document date is the one recorded here.

Ford Motor Company, 2025-10-01, on Lincoln. The document

all Lincoln vehicles (model year 1996 and newer) involved in a collision (defined as damage beyond minor outer-panel cosmetic distortion) are required to undergo both pre-repair and post-repair diagnostic scans

Software: IDS (1996-2018 vehicles) FDRS (2018-onwards) Hardware: VCMII, VCM3, or J2534-compliant interface

The only manufacturer here that names its software and then accepts a GENERIC interface. Everyone else who names a tool disclaims the alternatives.

The Ford statement reissued under the Lincoln letterhead, same date and same threshold. The filename disagrees with the document here too, and again the document date is what is recorded.

General Motors, 2026-03-09, on Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn. The document

all vehicles being assessed for collision damage repairs must be tested (Pre Scan) for Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) during the repair estimation to identify the required repairs

the vehicle must be retested (Post Scan) after all repairs are complete to verify that the faults have been repaired, and new faults have not been introduced during repairs

GM does not recommend the use of other scan tools and cannot guarantee or endorse their accuracy.

No model-year floor and no damage threshold: the trigger is any vehicle being assessed for collision damage repairs. The document also ties parts and procedure to warranty coverage.

Genesis Motor America, 2023-04-17, on Genesis. The document

Genesis Motor America recommends conducting a pre-repair scan as appropriate to ensure safe and accurate repairs and that all vehicles receive a post-repair scan

a post-repair scan to ensure all systems and components are functioning, calibrated and communicating properly with no diagnostic trouble codes present

The split inside one corporate group. Hyundai requires; Genesis, same group, recommends, and frames the ask as a request rather than an instruction: it "requests the collision industry follow the above recommendations". Its document is two years older than Hyundai's.

Hyundai Motor America, 2025-06-03, on Hyundai. The document

Hyundai Motor America requires a pre-repair scan to ensure safe and accurate repairs and also a post-repair scan to ensure all systems and components are functioning, calibrated, and communicating properly with NO diagnostic trouble codes present.

a post-repair scan to ensure all systems and components are functioning, calibrated, and communicating properly with NO diagnostic trouble codes present

Read from the page image. The PDF is a scan and every text extractor returned 122 characters of letterhead, so this row was blank until 2026-08-23.

Infiniti Americas, 2025-11-01, on Infiniti. The document

all 2008 and newer INFINITI vehicles require a pre- and post-repair diagnostic scan

INFINITI does not test or validate other diagnostic scan tools in the market, including altered or modified CONSULT software, or expressed capabilities thereof.

Nissan and Infiniti both name CONSULT and both disclaim the alternatives. Infiniti goes one step further in its wording and disclaims altered or modified CONSULT software too.

The Nissan statement under the Infiniti letterhead, same date and same model-year split.

Kia America, 2018-06 (the document gives a month, no day), on Kia. The document

The scanning procedure should not be considered an option, but rather as an essential task both during the pre-repair collision estimating phase and after the repairs are completed.

Emphatic but not a requirement, and the coding rule says we do not upgrade it. Kia says scanning is not optional and calls it essential; nowhere in the document does it say requires or must. The dates disagree by three years: the text reads "As of June 2018" and OEM1Stop files it as 5-4-21. Which is current was not established.

Mazda North American Operations, 2025-10-31, on Mazda. The document

Mazda North American Operations requires both pre- and post-repair scans to ensure vehicles are safely and accurately restored to proper working condition.

A post-repair scan is required to confirm that all systems are operating correctly, properly calibrated, and free of DTCs after repairs are completed.

it is essential that any vehicle involved in a collision undergo both a pre- repair and post-repair diagnostic scan with a genuine Mazda scan tool

Mercedes-Benz USA, 2017-01 (the document gives a month, no day), taken from the filename because the document carries no date, on Mercedes-Benz. The document.pdf)

As of model year 1996 (OBDII), vehicles involved in a collision repair should have these systems evaluated using an up-to-date Xentry Kit diagnostics computer: - Pre-repair scanning and diagnosis of the vehicle is highly recommended.

As of model year 1996 (OBDII), vehicles involved in a collision repair should have these systems evaluated using an up-to-date Xentry Kit diagnostics computer

Mercedes names Xentry inside a recommendation and the document nowhere says other tools are untested or unacceptable. Marked as named but not disclaimed, on the same rule that keeps the scanning coding at recommended.

Highly recommended is not required and this register does not upgrade it. The same document does say a full Xentry diagnostic scan is required in named situations, including any collision regardless of the appearance of damage and windshield replacement on vehicles with driver-assist sensors in the glass, which is recorded in its own field rather than folded into the coding. No date appears in the document text; the date here is the one OEM1Stop gives the file.

Nissan North America, 2025-11-01, on Nissan. The document

all 2008 and newer Nissan vehicles require a pre- and post- repair diagnostic scan

Nissan North America requires the use of the CONSULT diagnostic scan tool with the most up-to-date software installed.

Nissan and Infiniti issue the same position under two letterheads on the same date.

A split by model year, and the only one in the topic: required from 2008, recommended for 2007 and older.

Rivian Automotive, 2026-04-28, on Rivian. The document

a pre-repair and post-repair scan of the vehicle using the Rivian Diagnostic Engine (RiDE) is required

a pre-repair and post-repair scan of the vehicle using the Rivian Diagnostic Engine (RiDE) is required

Rivian requires that all scans and calibrations are performed by Rivian Certified Technicians.

Rivian does not disclaim other tools in a separate sentence. It does not need to: the requirement itself names RiDE, which excludes the alternatives more directly than a disclaimer would.

The only manufacturer in this topic that restricts who may perform the scan, not just which tool. Read from the page image: the PDF extracts 4,723 characters in which four fifths of the tokens are single letters, so it counted as machine-readable and could not be read by anything.

Subaru of America, 2020-08 (the document gives a month, no day), on Subaru. The document

For Subaru vehicles from model year 2004 and forward involved in a collision, Subaru collision repair procedure requires that pre-repair scanning be performed.

Subaru does not test or validate other diagnostic scan tools or interfaces in the market and therefore cannot comment on their capabilities or accuracy.

The oldest current scanning position in the library. The document gives a month and no day; the day in the filename is not the document's.

Volvo Car USA, 2024-10 (the document gives a month, no day), taken from the filename because the document carries no date, on Volvo. The document

Pre-repair scanning, a crucial step that demands your technical expertise, is required prior to performing ANY and ALL work on the vehicle.

When Vehicle is being connected to VIDA for diagnostics or software download, a battery maintainer must be connected to ensure 12V battery remains charged.

Volvo names VIDA in passing rather than requiring it in terms, which is why this row is not marked exclusive.

The broadest trigger in the topic: not damage above a threshold, but before any and all work. Post-repair scanning is "required for any work performed on the vehicle". No date appears in the document text; the date here is the one OEM1Stop gives the file.

What we could not read, and what we had to render to read

Ten documents in the wider library could not be read by any text extractor, and two of them are on this page. Hyundai's scanning statement is a scan: every extractor returned 122 characters of letterhead. Rivian's is worse in a way that is easy to miss, because it is not a scan at all: it extracts several thousand characters in which more than four fifths of the tokens are single letters, so it counted as machine readable for a day and could not be read by anything. Both were rendered to page images and read by hand, and both rows here say so.

We have not read the manufacturer's underlying repair procedures. A position statement is not a procedure. Where a document points to a service-information system for the actual steps, we have not gone through that door, and for most of these manufacturers going through it needs a paid subscription.

Four Rivian documents on other topics are rendered and unread. They are named here rather than left out of a count.

The Ford and Lincoln filenames disagree with the documents. OEM1Stop files both as 9-30-25 and both documents are headed October 1, 2025. We record the document's date and note the filename's.

Sources

Every document was fetched from the manufacturer or from the OEM1Stop library and its sha256 recorded.

• The OEM1Stop position statement library, read 2026-08-22, 109 distinct documents across eleven topics. Fifteen of them are the scanning statements compared here.
• The fifteen scanning documents themselves, read 2026-08-22 and 2026-08-23. Every one is linked in the section above. Fourteen are hosted by OEM1Stop; General Motors' is hosted by GM at gmparts.com.
• The two unreadable ones, rendered to page images and read 2026-08-23: Hyundai and Rivian.
• 17 U.S.C. s 102(b), s 103(b) and s 107, read 2026-08-23 at uscode.house.gov, and US Copyright Office Circulars 14 and 33, read the same day at copyright.gov. These are why this page states requirements and quotes briefly rather than reproducing documents. Copyright never reaches "any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation".

Every claim above is generated from data/oem/scanning-positions.json, which records for each document the coding, the quote carrying it, the date and the link. The build refuses if a row coded "required" carries a quote that only recommends, or the reverse.

Related

• Aftermarket, salvage and recycled parts: what seventeen manufacturer position statements say
• Can a damaged wheel be repaired? What sixteen manufacturers say
• Salvage and recycled parts: what fifteen manufacturer entries actually say
• Salvage airbags: what twelve manufacturer entries say, and what two say about the law
• Unfair claims settlement practices, state by state

Corrections

• 2026-08-23. Five of the fifteen document links on the first build of this register were typed from what the filenames looked like they should be, and all five were wrong, including General Motors', whose statement is not in the OEM1Stop library at all but on gmparts.com. Caught by a cross-check against our own corpus, not by a reader. Every link is now copied from the corpus and the register refuses a link that does not appear there.
• 2026-08-23, second pass. The tool column said "not stated" for Ford, Lincoln, Honda and Volvo and all four documents name a tool. Ford and Lincoln name IDS and FDRS and then accept any J2534-compliant interface; Honda names i-HDS and the Denso DST-i and the document says they are the only ones; Volvo names VIDA. The column was under-read, not empty, and reading it properly changed the count from eight to twelve.
• 2026-08-23, second pass. Five rows carried a day of the month that no document states, taken from the filename and shown as the document's own date. Subaru, Kia and Honda state a month; Volvo and Mercedes-Benz state nothing. The register now records the precision and the source, and the page shows both. Inventing precision is the same class of error as inventing a fact.
• 2026-08-23, second pass. One sentence said the threshold is left "to whoever is holding the estimate, which in practice means whoever is paying". The first half is what the documents show. The second half is a claim about how claims actually resolve, which we have not measured. Removed, and replaced with what we do know.
• 2026-08-23. The corpus recorded five documents as unreadable when there were ten. The flag it used meant "text came out", not "the text is usable", and all five Rivian documents extract character by character. Corrected before this page shipped, which is why the Rivian row exists at all.

General consumer information: not legal, insurance, or financial advice. Requirements, coverage, and practices vary by state, policy, and manufacturer.

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