HARTFORD, Conn. -- Car repairs authorized by insurance companies that try to control where the car should be repaired may not even be safe, the attorney general said Thursday.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said some of the car repair shops insurers send car owners to may not be licensed by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, and the repairs are done cheaply and could put you in danger.

A bill introduced last year to stop insurance companies from controlling where customers get their car repaired, a practice called steering, didn't make it out of the House. It may be brought back this session.

Lyn Moreau had a real problem when she went to get her car fixed.

"Since September, I have had to fight a battle with Progressive to get my car repaired properly," she said.

Moreau said Progressive Insurance sent her to one of their repair shops, called a concierge center, after an accident in the fall.

She was told the car was fixed, but within days, things started falling apart and the steering wheel was shaking. She took the car to an independent auto body shop, where she was told the car wasn't safe because some of the parts had been repaired, but not according to standards, and some repairs were overlooked.

"Safety can be an issue when quality is sacrificed, when corners are cut in the name of cost-cutting," Blumenthal said.

Moreau called the attorney general's office, which said Moreau's problem highlights something that has been going one for years, something lawmakers need to fix.

"If there is a message sent the message is this: Your car, your choice. That's the law," said North Haven Sen. Len Fasano, R-District 34.

Moreau said she wouldn't have known her car wasn't safe unless she took it somewhere else.

"If I was in another accident, I am sure there were parts that were not properly lined up with the frame," she said.