Autobody News September 2011 Northeast Edition

by Anthony J. Mamo, Jr., Attorney

When I first met Greg Coccaro, theowner of North State Custom inBedford Hills, New York, I was im-mediately struck by his passion forhis business, his customers and his

industry. But it was his frustrationwith the inequities inherent in hischosen field that truly captured myattention. I listened as Greg ex-plained to me what a DRP was, howhis labor rate was determined bySee North State v. Progressive, Page 20

North State v. Progressive—What the NY SupremeCourt’s Recent Decision Might Mean for Your Business

Greg Coccaro

Autobody News Congratulates the Collision Industry’sMost Influential Women of 2011, Thanks to AkzoNobel

Anthony J. Mamo

Russell Thrall III Mike Condon

Doug Craig George Avery

We were thrilled to have our Barbara Davies, General Manager and co-owner of Autobody News, selected as one of the five most influential womenin the collision industry in 2011. We know what she does and how hard sheworks. Pictured with Barbara (l to r, right photo) are Sharon Mazanec,Jennifer Justice-Hayley, Susanna Gotsch and Michelle Rolls.

With NACE and CARS in Orlandoa little over a month away ...

See NACE Crowds, Page 38

we wanted to know more about the keynotespeaker, social media guru Chris Brogan...

Ford Releases video show-ing differential performancebetween OE and A/M parts.Questions whether airbagswould deploy correctly.

See Ford and ABPA, Page 49

ABPA counters with theirown video demonstrationshowing neglible differ-ences in airbag deploy-ment at low & high speedcollisions.See Ford and ABPA, Page 49

Toby Chess clarifies the origin of the parts discussed inhis CIC presentation this July. He says repairers shouldpost images of parts, whether A/M or OE, that don’t fitcorrectly on a blog site.

See Hey Toby Column, Page 56

See John Yoswick Column, Page 40The Debate about Industry Standards at CIC

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Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Erica SchroederContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio, Dan EspersenJanet Chaney, Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Tom McGee, David Brown, Rich Evans,Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Kristy NavarroArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and adjacent metro areas,Autobody News is a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Permission to reproducein any form the material published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from thepublisher. ©2011 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsBox 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018; (800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

Amato Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Autoland Scientech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . 48BASF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7BK Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29BMW Audi of Turnersville. . . . . . . . . . . 24BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 55Burdick Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18CARS Cooperative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Central Avenue Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . 25Chief Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Circle BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Cramer Motors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14DuPont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . 49Franklin Sussex Automall . . . . . . . . . . 16Fred Beans Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Fuccillo Auto Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-35Garmat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Global Finishing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . 9Global PDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34GM Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . . . . 47Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 45Jaguar Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 59Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 56Koeppel VW-Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Lazare Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Lexus Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 53Lynnes Subaru. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Manhattan Automobile Company . 22-23Mattei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Maxon Mazda-Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 43Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts Center. 28Mercedes-Benz Wholesale PartsDealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Metric Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 21NACE / CARS Registration . . . . . . . . . 32Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealers . 62NRD Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Nucar Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 53PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2PreFab Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Prince & Portnoi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Safety Regulations Strategies . . . . . . . 31SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 33SEMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Scion Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 58Security Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep . . . . . . . 8Stadel Volvo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Subaru Wholesale Parts DealersDE, NJ, PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-13

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . 51Thompson Organization . . . . . . . . . . . 11Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 59VIM Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . 50Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 52

Inde

xofAdvertisers

REGIONAL2000 Honda Civic Most Stolen Car inNew York State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

AASP-PA 4th Annual Sporting Clay ShootComing in Sept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chiropractors Among 11 Booked in NJInsurance Fraud Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Gary Lawson, Body Shop Owner inWashington DC, Passes Away . . . . . . . . . . 4

Husband of NY Driver Who Killed 8 SuesOver Signage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

New Auto Insurance Regulations Hope to ProvideSome Relief to NJ Drivers, Consumers . . . . 4

NY Considers “Crash Tax” for Accident Victims . 10NY’s Suffolk County to Install MedianBarriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

NY–IN False Theft Scam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9PA Coroner Charged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Pennsylvania Collision Trade Guild to HostCCRE Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Right to Repair Will Go Before MA Voterson the 2012 Statewide Ballot . . . . . . . . . . . 8

State Farm Moving 500 N.J. Jobs . . . . . . . . . . 6Study Supports Notion that GreenTechnology Boosts Job Growth . . . . . . . . . 6

Syracuse Shop Wins Motion in ‘Assignmentof Proceeds’ Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Trenton, NJ, Chief of Staff is Charged withLeaving Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Work Comp IL Law Linked to State Trooper . . . 9

COLUMNISTSAttanasio, GFS - Trial by Fire: IndianapolisBody Shop Turns a Potential Tragedyinto a Win-Win with a State-of-the-ArtGFS Paint Booth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Attanasio, Mattei - Brown Auto BodyAppreciates Mattei’s Rotary VaneCompressor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Attanasio, PPG - Pennsylvania Body ShopOutshines with PPG’s Aquabase® PlusWaterborne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Attanasio - How to Fix Your DamagedOnline Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Chess - Confusion over Certified Parts at CIC . . . 56Espersen - Estimators – The Front Linein the Battle for Profitability . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Evans - This Year’s Entry for the SEMAPinewood Derby 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Franklin - Long or Short Ad—Which is Best? . . . 45Insurance Insider - Ridiculous DRPRequirements? Guess Why They’reAsking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Sisk - Brian’s Auto Body, Mount Holly,NJ—Dealership Converted to Shop . . . . . 24

Sisk - NACE/CARS Receiving RenewedEnthusiasm from East Coast Shops . . . . . 57

Weaver - Is It ‘Change Is a Good Thing’ or‘It’s Good That Things Change’?. . . . . . . . 37

Williams - Acura of Westchester . . . . . . . . . 51Yoswick - CIC, Consultant, Seeking Viewson Industry Repair Standards . . . . . . . . . . 40

Zurada - Tips for Negotiating a CommercialLease For Your Body Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

NATIONAL3,400 Tickets/Month: Houston Red Light Cams . 9AkzoNobel Presents ‘11 FIT SustainabilityAwards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Arizona Has Stolen Road Grates Problem . . . . 9ASRW Expands its Town Hall Event toInclude Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

ASRW Partners with Muscle Car Networkof Florida at Expo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

BASF to Return to NACE Expo for FirstTime Since 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

BK Listings: Marketing AutomotiveBusinesses Through Innovative Listings . . . 29

Boyd Group Founder Sells Part ofOwnership Stake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chevy Volt Sales Slow to Grow, NissanLeaf Worse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Chrysler Recalls Up To 370,000 ‘08 Minivans. 36CollisionLink Represents ‘Inevitable Change’Says Major Parts Dealer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

CREF and CCC Name Five StudentScholarship Winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

CREF Announces New Board of TrusteesMembers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Domestics More Popular Among AutoThieves Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Makes $11,000Donation to CREF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Europeans Less Distracted When Drivingthan U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Ford Minivans Not Subject to Recall,Infrequent Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Ford Partners Azure on F-Series Plug inHybrids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Ford Releases Another Crash Test VideoComparing OEM to Aftermarket CrashParts, ABPA Responds with its ownCrash Test Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Ford to Recall 1.22 M Trucks, Fuel Tank Straps . 36GMHas No Recall on its Tahoe and Yukon SUVs. 36GM Recalls Over 16K Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36GM Tops Toyota as World’s Largest Automaker. 43Google’s Self Driving Prototype Involved inThree-Car Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Handling People, Including InsuranceAdjusters, Means Negotiating Effectively. . 50

High Tech Devices Make Cars More Theft-Prone . 50Honda Recalls 2.5 Million Vehicles forSoftware Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Honda to Build Mexican Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Honda to Recall 1.5M CRVs, Elements, Accords. 36How Shop Owners Can Take Advantageof Salvage Auctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

I-CAR Board of Directors Welcomes NewBoard Member, James Roach, AmericanHonda Motor Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

I-CAR Offers New Course on ElectronicsDamage Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Kelly Blue Book Reports Lowest Cost ofOwnership for 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Lincoln Electric Acquires Torchmate Parent . . . 36LKQ Corporation Reports 23% Increased2nd Qtr, Record Reveue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Mercedes’ Plan to Become World’s TopPremium Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Mitchell Releases Industry Trends Reportfor Q3 of 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Mitsubishi Back to Profitability . . . . . . . . . . . 50My Take On the I-CAR Training Issue . . . . . . 54NACE/CARS Program Expected to DrawLarger Crowds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Nevada, 1st State to Issue Robo-Car Licenses . 18NHTSA Investigates BMW for PotentialRollaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

North State v. Progressive—What the NYSupreme Court’s Recent Decision MightMean for Your Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Pipe Bomb Disarmed at Salt Lake City, UT,Auto Auction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Repairer-Driven Education at SEMA GetsSupport from PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

SCRS Conducts Survey of 17 Insurers onAftermarket Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Toyota-Tesla RAV4 Electric to be Built inOntario, Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Truck Driver Behavior Trackable w/New Tech . 36Use of Black Boxes in Vehicles IncreasedOver the Last Decade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Vehicle Safety Bill With Data CollectionRelevant to Repairers Introduced inU.S. Senate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Contents


Gary Wayne Lawson passed awaypeacefully at his home, surroundedby family, in Purcellville, Virginia onJuly 27, 2011.

Gary owned Circle Auto Body inWashington DC since the late 1970’sand was highly respected throughoutthe collision repair industry. He wasalso a distinguished member of theWashington Metropolitan Auto BodyAssociation.

Gary was a devoted family manand is survived by a large family. In ad-dition to his wife of 45 years, LindaLinhoss Lawson, he is survived by hismother “Dot”; a daughter, Gina Law-son Burns and her husband, Terry; asister, Judy Lawson and her husband,George Dellyssee; two brother-in-laws, Kenneth Linhoss and his wife,Judy and Charles Linhoss; and threegrandchildren, Trevor Wayne Burns,Kylie Renee Jenkins and TannerMichael Burns. A daughter, StaceyMichelle Lawson preceded him indeath. Family gathered for visitation onMonday, August 1, 2011 at the Enders& Shirley Funeral Home in Berryville,VA. Memorial contributions may bemade to the Wounded Warrior Project,PO Box 758516, Topeka, KS 66675-8516. To send condolences online,please visit www.endersandshirley.com.

Gary Lawson, Body Shop Ownerin Washington DC, Passes Away

The AASP-PA’s Central PA chapterwill hold the group’s 4thAnnual Sport-ing Clay Shoot on September 17, 2011.

Registration begins at 8:30amwith a shotgun start time of 10:00am,ending at 2:00pm. The event will beheld at the Central Penn SportingClays Club, 75 Quarry Rd Wellsville,PA 17365.

The shoot will include a roundof 50 clay birds. Form a team orcome as an individual to join in onthis outdoor event. A catered lunchand awards will follow the shoot.

Sponsorships are available.New at shooting clay? No prob-

lem. New shooters will be paired upwith experienced shooters.

Eye wear and ear protection isrequired for this event.

If you have any questions,please do not hesitate to contact Jen-nifer 717-303-6166 or at the office717-564-8400.

Golf carts are available. Shoot-ing instructors and loaner guns arealso available.

AASP-PA 4th Annual SportingClay Shoot Coming in Sept

New Jersey made massive change tothe regulations for the personal injuryelement of auto insurance this month,with the intention of keeping rate in-creases under control, according toLive Insurance News.

The primary changes have to dowith the ways in which a doctor willbe permitted to bill for the treatmentsprovided, and will recreate the way inwhich a claim that has been deniedcan be appealed.

While New Jersey has main-tained its status among the morecostly states in which to buy car in-surance, its residents are paying lowerpremiums following former GovernorJames McGreevey’s changes, whichwere enacted in 2003 in order to en-courage competition.

However, more recently, rateshave been climbing upward oncemore and officials are blaming per-sonal injury expenses.

According to the Department ofBanking and Insurance in New Jersey,in 2010, 97% of all rate increaseswere a direct result in an alarming in-crease in the personal injury claimsbeing paid out.

It also stated that $1.23 was

being spent by insurers for benefitsfor every dollar that they made forpersonal injury premiums.

State regulators are hoping thatthese new rules will help to slow orstop these escalating premiums.

According to Thomas Consi-dine, the insurance commissioner forthe state, too many loopholes are per-mitting doctors to bill for a greateramount than the listed rate.

He explained that a small per-centage of the doctors in the state had“found ways to abuse and take ad-vantage of the system, and reallyhave an unfair and inequitable way ofdrawing down New Jersey’s coveragedollars”.

New Auto Insurance Regulations Hope to ProvideSome Relief to New Jersey Drivers, Consumers

The New York Insurance Associationhas noted that the 2000 Honda Civicis again the most frequently stolenvehicle in New York State, accordingto Insurance Journal.

The Hot Wheels 2011 study re-leased by the National InsuranceCrime Bureau (NICB) examines datareported to the National Crime Infor-mation Center (NCIC) and determinesthe vehicle make, model, and modelyear most reported stolen in 2010.

The study found that the 2000Honda Civic topped the list of the mostfrequently stolen vehicles in New YorkState for the fourth year in a row.

In 2010, the most stolen vehiclesin New York State were:1. 2000 Honda Civic2. 1994 Honda Accord3. 1991Toyota Camry4. 1996 Nissan Maxima5. 2000 Dodge Caravan6. 2005 Nissan Altima7. 2009 Toyota Corolla8. 2009 Ford Econoline E3509. 2002 Ford Explorer10. 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee

“Auto theft continues to decline inNew York State,” Ellen Melchionni,president of NYIA stated. “But driversstill need to take prudent steps to pre-vent their vehicle from being stolen.”

2000 Honda Civic Most StolenCar in New York State

The Pennsylvania Collision TradeGuild will host their first fall collisionindustry seminar in October. TheCoalition for Collision Repair Excel-lence (CCRE) will be held on FridayOctober 7th and Saturday October8th at the Hilton Airport Hotel inPhiladelphia.

The CCRE will focus on thelegal aspects of running a collisionbusiness. Speakers will include attor-neys Erica Eversman and JohnParese and they will explain theproper use of authorization to repairand repair contracts, blueprinting anddamage analysis, eliminating supple-ments, job costing profit includingprofit on paint and materials, finalbilling and collections, and assign-ment of proceeds.

Email the CCRE office at [email protected] for more informa-tion or visit www.theccre.com orwww.pctg.org.

The cost of the event is $495.99per person. After Sept 15 the cost is$595.99. Cost includes breakfast andlunch both days.

For accomodations please con-tact the Hilton at 215-365-4150 ext.33.

Pennsylvania Collision TradeGuild to Host CCRE Meeting

Honda Motor Co. will invest around$800 million to build an auto plant inthe Mexican state of Jalisco, the com-pany said August 12, according to theDetroit News.

The plant will produce subcom-pact vehicles for NorthAmerican mar-kets starting in 2014. The plant willemploy 3,200 workers at its full annualcapacity of 200,000 units, Honda said.

Honda to Build Mexican Plant


State Farm will drastically reduce thesize of its operations center in Parsip-pany over the next two years, movingabout 500 New Jersey jobs to NewYork and Pennsylvania to cut costs andimprove efficiency, the company saidJuly 26 according toNorthJersey.com.

Most of the Parsippany office’sfunctions will be consolidated into itstwo other Northeast operations centers,in upstate Ballston Spa, NY and Con-cordville, PA. Some of the Parsippanyemployees will be offered jobs in thoselocations, the company said

The Christie administration was“proactive” in trying to persuade StateFarm to keep the jobs in New Jersey,but the insurer’s decision was final,company spokesman Doug Nadeausaid. Employees were notified July 24,he said. A bodily injury claims officeand a sales training office will remain inParsippany, but it is unclear how manywill be employed there. The Parsippanycenter currently employs about 700.

“State Farm hopes to retain thelargest amount of employees possible,”Nadeau said. Employees who do notwant to relocate will be offered sever-ance packages, he said.

A satellite office in Farmingdale,NJ, that employs a dozen people also isslated for closing and a claims office inMelville, NY will be consolidated intoone in Lakeville, NY. The changes, ex-

pected to be completed by September2013, are to “better serve customers andachieve business goals through increasedefficiency, reduced expenses and estab-lishment of more consistent operations,”Nadeau said.

State Farm, which has more thanone million policies in force in New Jer-sey, last year had a leading share of thestate’s home insurance market by premi-ums, and ranked fourth in automobilepremiums, according to the state Depart-ment of Banking and Insurance. The in-surer, which said in May it was closingtwo dozen field offices in Illinois, Indianaand Michigan, expects to continue to dis-tribute policies and serve customers inNew Jersey through more than 200 in-dependent contractor sales agencies.

State Farm had threatened about adecade ago to exit the auto insurancebusi-ness in New Jersey, complaining that strictregulation made it too hard to make aprofit. But it later backed away from thatstance, and the regulations were relaxedin 2003 by former Governor McGreevey.

The coming move will be “seam-less” to customers, he said. “We haveevery intention of continuing to do avigorous business in New Jersey andgrowing our market share. Nothingnegative about New Jersey, the NewJersey insurance market, or the NewJersey economy that should be inferredfrom the decision.”

State Farm Moving 500 N.J. Jobs

Study Supports Notion that Green Technology Boosts Job GrowthMore than 155,000 American autoworkers already are making compo-nents for cleaner, more fuel-efficientvehicles, and that number could growsignificantly as the United States con-tinues to embrace new generations offuel efficient cars and trucks, accord-ing to a new study produced by theNatural Resources Defense Council,the National Wildlife Federation andthe UAW.

While these groups clearly havea vested interest in environmental is-sues, the report, Supplying Ingenuity:U.S. Suppliers of Clean, Fuel-EfficientVehicle Technologies, provides evi-dence of a strong link between fuel-ef-ficient vehicles and economic vitality.

“The reality is that cleaner vehi-cles have already led to more jobs,”said Peter Lehner, executive directorof the Natural Resources DefenseCouncil. “Our report shows howstrong fuel efficiency standards haveemployed people nationwide, sostronger standards will certainly meaneven more job growth in the future.”

According to the report, 43 statesand the District of Columbia now arehome to the 300-plus manufacturersthat develop and supply key compo-nents for advanced internal combustion

engines and vehicles, hybrid power-trains and plug-in electric vehicles.

“This report shows that moststates have facilities that produce clean-vehicle technologies,” said UAW VicePresident Cindy Estrada, who directsthe union’s Competitive Shop/Indepen-dents, Parts and Suppliers Department.“The employment benefits flowingfrom increases to vehicle fuel efficiencywill be widespread.”

The report lists the top 15 statesemploying the highest number of au-toworkers in clean, efficient tech-nologies: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana,North Carolina, Kentucky, Pennsyl-vania, Texas, Alabama, California,South Carolina, Tennessee, NewYork, Illinois, Virginia, and Arizona.

“This report demonstrates howstrong fuel efficiency standards forcars and trucks sustain local jobs. Theyalso safeguard wildlife, and protectAmerica’s public health,” said JimLyon, the National Wildlife Federa-tion. “It’s critical that Congress stopsputting these gains at risk by grand-standing against the Clean Air Act andother landmark laws that Americansacross the nation rely on.” For a copyof the report, see: www.nrdc.org/trans-portation/autosuppliers

New Jersey law enforcement offi-cials have charged 11 people inwhat prosecutors say was a schemeto recruit accident victims as pa-tients for chiropractors who thenfalsely billed insurance compa-nies. Among those arrested arethree chiropractors: 51-year-oldScott Greenberg of FranklinTownship, Somerset County; 39-year-old Christopher Montana ofChester, Morris County; and 39-year-old Fernando Barrese ofWashington Township, BergenCounty.

Abel Tirado, 36, of Allentown,was charged as one of the four run-ners for Greenberg, the attorney gen-eral’s office says. He faces charges ofconspiracy, money laundering, healthcare claims fraud, and criminal use ofrunners.

Prosecutors said the three paidso-called “runners” a fee for everyaccident patient they recruited totheir practices. Several of the allegedrunners also have been charged.Greenberg owns a New Brunswickchiropractic center. Montana andBarrese own chiropractic centers inElizabeth, Newark and Jersey City.

Chiropractors Among 11 Bookedin NJ Insurance Fraud Scheme

Trenton, NJ, Chief of Staff isCharged with Leaving SceneTrenton’s former chief of staff, PaulSigmund IV, who resigned afterbeing arrested on heroin charges, wasissued several motor vehicle citationsAug. 9 alleging he left the scene of aminor traffic accident in Lawrence,police said. Sigmund, who was ar-rested in May for possession of 10bags of heroin, is accused of rear-end-ing a vehicle driven by PriyankaMathur, 38, of Plainsboro, police said.

“(Sigmund) got out and said thathe would take care of the damagesand not to call the police,” said Lt.Charles Edgar with the LawrenceTownship Police Department. “Shetook his information and went insidethe store to get some assistance andwhen she came out, he was gone andhis vehicle was gone.”

Sigmund was driving a 2004Nissan Pathfinder with a Californiaregistration that expired earlier thisyear, Edgar said. The driver’s licensehe provided to Mathur was a validCalifornia license, Edgar said.

Sigmund was issued five cita-tions including summonses for care-less driving and leaving the scene ofan accident. Lt. Edgar said additionalcharges could be filed.

In response to more than 50,000 let-ters from consumers who support theRight to Repair legislation, the Rightto Repair coalition announced August3 it has submitted language to theMassachusetts Attorney General’s of-fice for approval as a 2012 ballotquestion.

The coalition is still aggres-sively pursuing passage of its origi-nal legislation but the deadline thisweek for ballot submissions comesat the same time as the continuedlegislative push.

“As the original sponsor of theRight to Repair legislation, I intend topush as hard as I can to show my fel-low elected officials that the currentlegislation is the best way during thesechallenging economic times to pro-vide cost savings and convenience forfinancially-strapped car repair con-sumers,” said State Rep. GarrettBradley (D-Hingham). “But, with thedeadline coming this week to submitballot questions for 2012, the coalitionis doing the right thing for motoringconsumers by keeping that optionopen,” Bradley said.

Consumers across the state visit-ing local mechanics or neighborhoodparts stores have been filling out sup-port letters and sending them in totheir state legislators.

While the possible 2012 ballotquestion would achieve the same goalof allowing consumers to have theircars completely serviced whereverthey choose without being forced togo to one of the carmaker dealerships,one option filed with the AttorneyGeneral includes language differentfrom the current legislation.

The ballot language would re-quire new car dealerships to provideall the necessary non-proprietary re-pair information directly to con-sumers at the time of purchase of anew vehicle. This would put choiceand convenience directly into con-sumers’ hands.

“Whether it is our original lan-guage requiring the car makers to sellthe repair information to the local, in-dependent mechanic or whether it is a2012 ballot question to have the carmanufacturers provide the data di-rectly to consumers, this is one break

in this tough economy that consumersneed,” said Art Kinsman, spokesmanfor the Right to Repair coalition.

There is precedent for states re-quiring the automakers to be respon-sive to local needs. California, forexample, has passed legislation overthe years requiring certain pollutioncontrol equipment for cars sold in itsstate.The current Right to Repair leg-islation would require auto manufac-turers to sell to local, neighborhoodindependent technicians the diagnos-tic and safety information needed torepair customers’ cars. Currently, onlysome information is shared, limitingconsumer choice and making businessdifficult for neighborhood shops.

The bill is now awaiting a vote inthe Joint Committee on ConsumerProtection and Professional Licen-sure. In the interim, consumers arepicking up postcards at their local re-pair shops and parts stores in an effortto rally behind the bill.

In addition to individual con-sumers, several organizations repre-senting consumers and car ownerssupport the bill as well. These include:

AAA Southern New England, TheMassachusetts Independent AutoDealers Association, New EnglandTire and Service Association, Retail-ers Association of Massachusetts,Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC,American Car Care Centers, more than1,000 Independent Repairers, Massa-chusetts Insurance Federation, Auto-motive Aftermarket IndustryAssociation, The Coalition for AutoRepair Equality, Midas InternationalCorporation, Firestone, ConsumerElectronics Association, Massachu-setts Locksmiths Association, Auto-motive Oil Change Association,RetireSafe, AutoZone, NAPA, AlliedAuto Parts, LKQ, Meineke, Pronto,Carquest, Valvoline Instant OilChange, American Military Society,Consumer League for Economic AutoRepair, Advance Auto Parts, EngineRepower Council, Automotive Ware-house Distributors Association, Auto-motive Recyclers Association, TireIndustry Association, Service StationDealers of America and Allied Trades,Massachusetts Motorcycle Associa-tion, Auto Recyclers of Massachusetts.

Right to Repair Will Go Before MA Voters on the 2012 Statewide Ballot



NY’s Suffolk County toInstall Median BarriersSuffolk County is installing steel cablebarriers on two of its highway mediansin an effort to prevent crossovercrashes, which have killed seven since2002. Barriers are being erected on theLI Expressway and Sunrise Highwayon 11 miles of each roadway. On theLIE from exits 64 to 70 and on theSunrise from exits 53 to 59. The stateDOT says work on the LIE will becompleted this fall and on the Sunriseby the end of the year. By 2015, thebarriers will extend into Riverhead onthe LIE and into Southampton on theSunrise.

Work Comp Illinois LawLinked to State TrooperIllinois state employees injured whilecommitting crimes no longer will be ableto get workers’ compensation under anew law signed by Gov. PatQuinn. Thelaw stems from a 2007 wreck involvingformer Illinois State Trooper MattMitchell, who was driving more than100 mph and using his cell phone whenhis cruiser crossed the median andslammed into a car. The two Collinsvillesisters in that car were killed. Mitchelllater pleaded guilty to reckless homicideand was sentenced to 30 months of pro-bation. His claim for workers’ compen-sation for his injuries was denied.

PA Coroner ChargedPennsylvania state police have chargedLackawanna County’s deputy coronerwith arson, alleging he tried to pay$40,000 to an undercover trooper to burna building he owned in a bid to collect in-surance money. The Times-Tribune inScranton reported on its website thatJoseph A. Swoboda was charged withone felony count each of arson, solicita-tion to commit arson and arson for insur-ance purposes. He’s also facing a count ofreckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.Swoboda was taken into custody onAug.5 and put in the county prison in lieu of$50,000 bond.

NY–IN False Theft ScamA sophisticated car-theft ring that spe-cialized in bringing luxury vehiclesfrom New York to Indianapolis has beenbroken up with the arrest of seven peo-ple, authorities saidAug. 9. Two Brook-lyn men have been arrested withwarrants out for two others thought tobe involved. Indiana State Police said 10vehicles valued at a total of $500,000 to$600,000 were stolen from New York,transported to Indiana and sold to mem-bers of the car-theft ring (with newVINs) at discounted prices. The sevenarrested have been charged with autotheft, insurance fraud and forgery.

Houston police have issued nearly 3,400citations to red-light runners since thecameras were turned back on July 24.The figures were released by the com-pany that operates the intersection cam-eras, Arizona-based American TrafficSolutions. U.S. District Judge LynnHughes on July 22 ruled that Houstonmay not appeal his June decision inval-idating the 2010 election when voterssaid the cameras should be turned off.Astudy, releasedAug. 1, found that red-light accidents fell 25 percent at hun-dreds of the state’s intersections aftertraffic cameras were installed.

Thieves have been stealing metalgrates and leaving drains wide openaround Tucson. It’s dangerous becausepeople can fall into open drains.KOLD-TV reports 25 went missing inTucson and 86 disappeared fromMarana. Tucson police say they ar-rested two people last week on twocounts of theft and three counts of traf-ficking in stolen property. A scrapmetal yard reported receiving gratesfrom the pair. The Public Works direc-tor for Marana says stealing grates hascost the town more than $20,000, andall have been replaced.

The husband of a woman whose wrong-way driving killed 8 on the Taconic park-way in 2009 is blaming insufficientsignage for the crash.Daniel Schuler fileda lawsuit against the state on behalf of adaughter who was killed and a son whosurvived, saying the “appropriate lanes oftravel” were unmarked. Investigatorsfound that his wife, Diane Schuler, wasvery drunk and high when she drove pastdo-not-enter signs and into an SUV carry-ing three from Yonkers. Schuler also suedhis brother-in-law, the owner of the mini-van, whose daughters died in the crash.

CDC has compared several Europeancountries’ drivers with those in the U.S.based on their texting and cell phoneusage. Overall, 25% of drivers in theU.S. report cell phone use “regularly” or“fairly often” while driving, includingnearly 40% of drivers ages 18–29. Euro-pean drivers who report using the cellphone “regularly” or “fairly often” whiledriving range from 21% in the Nether-lands to 3% in the UK. Europeans whotext while driving is higher among driv-ers aged 18–29 than other age groups—from 13% in Portugal to 3% in the UK.

3,400 Tickets in a Month:Houston Red Light Cams

Arizona Has Stolen RoadGrates Problem

Europeans Less DistractedWhen Driving than U.S.

Husband of NY Driver WhoKilled 8 Sues Over Signage

“Crash taxes,” or accident responsefees, are sweeping the nation. Cities in27 states have adopted them in oneform or another, including Dallas,Texas; Buffalo, New York; Toledo,Ohio; and New Haven, Connecticut.

But not every state has beeneager to bill those involved in motorvehicle accidents for the services ofresponding firefighters and policeofficers. According to Property Ca-sualty Insurers Association of Amer-ica, 13 states, including neighboringPennsylvania, have outlawed acci-dent fees, preventing their munici-palities from billing those injured inmotor vehicle accidents for fire andpolice department services. NewYork may be the 14th state to bancrash taxes.

Earlier this year, New York CityMayor Michael Bloomberg proposedthat drivers be assessed an accident re-sponse fee when the New York FireDepartment (NYFD) responds to anaccident or car fire. The proposal ba-sically meant that if the NYFD re-sponded to:• A vehicle fire or car accident with in-

juries, then drivers would receive abill for $490.• A fire without injuries, those in-volved would receive a bill for $415.- An accident without injuries, mo-torists would be assessed a crash taxof $365.

The thought behind charging ac-cident fees was to shift the burdenfrom having taxes cover the cost ofthe NYFD’s services to having thepeople responsible for car accidentspay for those services.

Insurance industry representa-tives and city council members areagainst the accident response fees,seeing them as a form of double taxa-tion. The president of the New YorkInsurance Association noted that“New Yorkers pay taxes expressly de-signed to cover municipal servicesand would then be charged again foraccident responses.” Furthermore, an-other insurance industry spokesmanpoints out, it is not the cities that arecoming up with these ideas — ven-dors who collect the bills (for a per-centage) are the ones pitching the ideato municipalities.

Many cities, including New YorkCity, grab onto the idea because theyare facing funding shortages. The 2012fiscal year starts July 1, and NYC isfacing a $2.4 billion deficit. The NYFDhas been asked to slash $58 millionfrom its annual costs. The hope is, ofcourse, that accident response feeswould help make up this difference.

Consumers assessed fees usuallytry to pass them onto their auto insur-ance companies, but the insurers oftenrefuse to pay them—leaving motoriststo foot the bill themselves or litigateover the matter. And even when insur-ers do pay them, they pass the expenseright back to their policyholders by in-creasing auto insurance premiums.

Several cities that have tried toimplement fees for responding to ac-cidents are quickly finding them to bea bad idea. Oceanside, California, re-cently decided to eliminate its crashtax after discovering that not only hasit been very difficult to actually col-lect the fees, but it was also impactingtourism, as the fees there are assessedonly against nonresidents, so touriststry to avoid passing through the city.

Firefighters in municipalities thathave adopted the fees are also findingfrustration with the idea, as they haveto spend more time on the accidentscene, gathering information so thatthey know where to send the bill.

Given the New York City Coun-cil’s opposition to the crash tax,Mayor Bloomberg has backed off theproposal, according to Property Casu-alty 360. In fact, the New York StateLegislature now has a bill before it—Bill S2277—that would add a sectionto New York’s Vehicle and TrafficLaw prohibiting municipalities fromimposing accident response fees.

It should be noted that the newlaw, if passed, would likely not affectthe current ability of local govern-ments in New York to charge mo-torists involved in accidents forambulance services, cleanup of haz-ardous chemicals or damage to mu-nicipal property.

Visit www.colwell-law.com formore information.

Article provided by Colwell, Colwell& Petroccione, LLP

New York Considers “Crash Tax” for Accident Victims


Mitchell International released theirthird quarter Industry Trends Reportthis month; the report focused on gasprices and their affect on car-buyingand car value trends. This issue alsodiscusses how volatile and sustainedhigh fuel prices are impacting insur-ance claims beyond a reduction inmiles driven.

Vice president of industry rela-tions for Mitchell International GregHorn talks about the role gas pricesplay in resale values of vehicles fromfuel-efficient to so-called gas guz-zlers.

“Fuel efficient vehicles tend torise more quickly and reliably in valueduring periods of high gas prices thangas guzzlers, which fall in value,”Horn said in the report.

The insurance and collision re-pair industries need the accuracy ofa true market survey method forvaluing a total loss because con-stantly fluctuating fuel prices movetoo fast, with too great an impact, forslower traditional ‘book value’ valu-ations to accurately reflect the trueactual cash value of total loss vehi-cles.”

Other valuable points of interestin the current issue of Mitchell’s ITRinclude:

Mitchell’s Q2-2011 data reflectan initial average gross Collision ap-praisal value of $2,761-$90 less thanthis same period last year. However,applying the indicated developmentfactor of 9% suggests a final Q2-2011 average gross collision ap-praisal value of $3,008. The averageActual Cash Value (ACV) of vehi-cles appraised for Collision lossesduring Q2-2011 was $13,705-an in-crease of $500 over the same periodlast year.

In Q2-2011, the average grossappraisal value for Comprehensivecoverage estimates processed throughMitchell servers was $2,854-com-pared to $2,625 in Q2-2010. Applyingthe prescribed development factor of1% for this data set produces an in-crease in the adjusted value to $2,883-reflecting the strong storm seasonwith many hail claims.

For more information aboutMitchell, visit www.mitchell.com.

To view the entire report pleasevisit www.autobodynews.com.

Mitchell Releases Industry Trends Report for Q3 of 2011


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Malibu 2011

ASRW Partners with MuscleCar Network of Florida at ExpoASRW announced a new partnershipfor 2011 with the Muscle Car Networkof Florida. The Muscle Car Networkplans to display approximately 80 ve-hicles on the ASRW show floor atASRW, during the expo. The displayincludes rare, exotic and hot rod vehi-cles, which belong to members of thenetwork. Additionally, the Muscle CarNetwork plans to make a donation to alocal automotive charity Saturday,Oct. 8, to further education and train-ing for the next generation of automo-tive service and repair professionals.

“Our audience has a true passionfor automobiles, and we know they’llappreciate this collection of vehicles.We’re pleased to be partnered withthis group, and to have something newand exciting to offer at the show thisyear,” said Ron Pyle, ASA president.“We’re grateful for the opportunity togive back to the local Orlando-areacommunity, in appreciation of ourtime there.”

“This is a win-win for everyoneinvolved. We’re excited for the oppor-tunity to show off our ‘pride and joy’to the industry professionals who at-tend ASRW,” says J.R. Goodman,Muscle Car Network director.

CREF and CCC Name FiveStudent Scholarship WinnersThe Collision Repair Education Foun-dation and CCC Information Servicesnamed five exceptional students aswinners of the CCC Michael SalvatoreMemorial Student Repair TechnicianScholarship, renamed to honor thememory of longtime CCC team mem-ber Michael Salvatore. The CCCMichael Salvatore Memorial StudentRepair Technician Scholarship awardsscholarships to students currently en-rolled at eligible technical schoolsthroughout the country. The award re-cipients use the scholarship funds toreduce the balances on tuition loans orto reimburse tuition costs that accu-mulated during their education. Eachstudent will receive a scholarshipaward in the amount of $5,000. The2011 winners are:● Manuel Aguilar, UTI (Sacramento,CA)● Nabil Assad, Pennsylvania Collegeof Technology (Williamsport, PA)● Isaac Hostetter, Pennsylvania Col-lege of Technology (Williamsport, PA)● Ian Hilner, Pennsylvania College ofTechnology (Williamsport, PA)● Michael Releford, Sowela Techni-cal Community College (LakeCharles, LA.)

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Makes$11,000 Donation to CREFEnterprise Rent-A-Car is the first rentalcar brand to receive the Collision RepairEducation Foundation’s Industry Lead-ership Circle donor designation throughits $11,000 donation to the organizationin 2011. This donation will support an-nual student scholarships, school grants,and the recently created Ultimate Colli-sion Education Makeover grant.

“Our partnership with the collisionrepair industry has been a key to oursuccess over the years,” said BruceClifton, vice president-insurance re-placement for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.“We are happy to assist the efforts of theCollision Repair Education Foundationto identify and develop the next gener-ation of industry leaders.”

Collision Repair Education Foun-dation Executive Director ScottKruger added, “Thanks to EnterpriseRent-A-Car for supporting the CollisionRepair Education Foundation and join-ing our efforts in supporting collisionrepair school programs and their stu-dents.

“The Industry Leadership Circleincludes a wide cross-section of the en-tire collision repair inter-industry andwe are pleased to have Enterprise as thefirst rental car company in the Circle.”

Domestics More PopularAmong Auto Thieves NowFor the first time since 2002, NICBdiscovered thieves preferred domesticnameplates over foreign brands, as in-dicated by the list of the 10 most stolenvehicles in the U.S. Among the top 10,Ford took three spots, Dodge held twoand Chevrolet held one, while the re-maining four were held by Honda,Toyota and Acura. However, the topthree positions continue to be held byHonda and Toyota models, a trend thatNICB said has been consistent since2000. According to an examination ofvehicle theft data submitted by law en-forcement to the National Crime In-formation Center in 2010, the moststolen vehicles in the nation were—1994 Honda Accord—1995 HondaCivic—1991 Toyota Camry—1999Chevrolet Pickup (Full Size)—1997Ford F150 Series/Pickup—2004Dodge Ram—2000 Dodge Caravan—1994 Acura Integra—2002 Ford Ex-plorer—1999 Ford Taurus. NICB sayscertain older cars and trucks are popu-lar with thieves because of the value oftheir parts — but many are not insuredagainst theft. Whereas newer, more ex-pensive and insured vehicles are oftenstolen to be resold intact with counter-feit VINs or shipped out of the country.


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Kelley Blue Book has reported the topthree luxury and top three non-luxurybrands with the lowest average TotalCost of Ownership for the initial five-year ownership period for 2011.Based on Kelley Blue Book’s analy-sis, Audi, Lexus and Cadillac (respec-tively) top all luxury brands, whileKia, Hyundai and Honda (respec-tively) dominate among all non-lux-ury brands for lowest average totalownership costs.

Total Cost of Ownership is devel-oped using Residual Values to calculatedepreciation costs. Depreciation playsthe largest role in Total Cost of Owner-ship, followed by the cost of fuel duringthe ownership period. Kelley BlueBook calculates total ownership costsfor new vehicles by applying a sophis-ticated valuation methodology alongwith critical financial data from third-party providers.

“The average vehicle typicallymaintains about 30 percent of its origi-nal MSRP after five years of ownership,whereas a handful of vehicles maintainmore than 45 percent after the sametime period,” said Eric Ibara, director ofresidual value consulting for KelleyBlue Book. “The new Total Cost ofOwnership data on kbb.com is based on

Kelley Blue Book Residual Values,which are used by banks and manufac-turers nationwide.”

At the brand level, Audi and Lexuscurrently have the lowest depreciationand best fuel economy among luxurybrands, giving them an advantage inlow cost of ownership at the luxurylevel. In addition, Audi, Lexus andCadillac all offer models that carry alower MSRP compared to other luxurybrands. Combined with their entry-levelvehicles, these brands stand out amongtheir competitors for having low overallownership cost. Audi’s Total Cost ofOwnership success is primarily drivenby the A3 2.0T and A4 2.0T sedan mod-els. Both edge out competitors withtheir minimal depreciation and stellarfuel economy.

For non-luxury brands, Kia andHyundai have a number of successfulredesigns, greatly improved quality andcompetitive pricing, which sets themapart from other non-luxury brands interms of cost of ownership. Key Kiamodels contributing to the brand’s lowTotal Cost of Ownership include theRio, Optima and Forte. Additionally,Honda continues to be a reliable choicewith strong fuel economy and customerloyalty.

Kelly Blue Book Reports Lowest Cost of Ownership for 2011SCRS Conducts Survey of 17 Insurers on Aftermarket PartsThe Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS) is conducting a sur-vey of 13 major insurance companiesto determine their use of aftermarketreplacement parts.

The survey was sent to Allstate,American Family, Farmers, GEICO,Liberty Mutual, Mercury Insurance,Met Life Auto and Home, Nation-wide, Progressive, State Farm, TheHartford, Travelers and USAA, ac-cording to Aaron Schulenburg, ex-ecutive director of SCRS. He said thesurvey was “an effort to bring furthertransparency to our understanding ofcarrier’s approaches to use of after-market replacement parts.”

The survey was motivated byinput from SCRS members and on-going discussions stemming from af-termarket replacement parts,Schulenburg said.

“We are finding that members indifferent parts of the country are sub-mitting conflicting reports about thepolicies of some major national in-surance companies. In other words,we are hearing that in some casesfield level practices may vary fromofficial corporate policy on parts use.In some cases, an insurer may have apolicy for use of only certified parts,

but when a certified part is unavail-able, the shop is instructed to simplyselect a non-certified part by the fieldadjuster,” Schulenburg said.

“It is also possible that, in thosecases, some shops may assume that anon-certified part is what the carrierwants them to do, and may not realizethat the insurer would prefer an OEMreplacement part if the only availablealternative is a non-certified part,” hecontinued.

“Knowing what specific corpo-rate policies exist, provides for a bet-ter, more transparent, understandingof the approach taken in settling a ve-hicle owners claim. “In the interest oftransparency, and with an issue as im-portant as aftermarket parts in struc-tural repair, the SCRS board ofdirectors felt that it would be worthour efforts to conduct this study, andshare the results with the industry.”

To see the insurer survey, searchall or part of this heading at Autobo-dynews.com.

www.autobodynews.com


SHOP & PRODUCTSHOP & PRODUCTSHOWCASESHOWCASE

Proactive body shops that are em-bracing the inexorable change to wa-terborne paint in states where thelaws are looming, but not yet a real-ity, are anticipating an advantageover their feet-dragging competitorsover the next few years. One ofthese forward thinking shops is OldForge Collision Centers, a 20-year-old company with two locations inPennsylvania that repair an averageof nearly 200 vehicles monthly.

Old Forge’s General Manager,Bob Scarpello, 54, is a 30-year vet-eran of the collision industry and aformer painter. Three decades ago,his first job out of tech school was asa painter’s helper and by continuallylearning and improving his skills,Scarpello eventually progressed upthe ladder into upper management.One of the first things Scarpello didwhen he was hired at Old Forge,was to take a long, serious look atconverting both of his locations towaterborne paint, he told AutobodyNews.

“We were one of the first bodyshops in Pennsylvania to go with wa-terborne paint. When I came here in2003, after reading everything Icould get my hands on about water-borne painting systems, I realizedthat it would eventually be cominghere. I mean, Europe has been usingit for decades, and so what are wewaiting for?”

Before he could pursue thechangeover, Scarpello had to per-suade the owners. “Our owners,Peter Watson and Larry Schoppert,were environmentally consciousguys already, which made it easier.It didn’t really take much coaxing onmy behalf to get them on board. Imet with them and told them, ‘this isthe way things are going and prettysoon we will have to do it anyway. Itold them that the conversion willbenefit us in two ways. First, we’llget recognition around Pennsylva-nia for being a waterborne earlyadopter. Several local newspapershave published articles about ourconversion process, so that wasgreat. Second, we’re providing asafer environment for our crew andfor the planet. It’s all positive stuffand from day one it’s been a greatjourney. I can’t complain about anyaspect of it.”

Scarpello met with several paintcompanies and decided to go withPPG and their Nexa Autocolor™Aquabase® Plus waterborne prod-uct. “I wanted to be a step ahead ofeveryone else, so we met with PPG

to discuss their waterborne prod-ucts. I had used PPG solvent-basedpaint extensively at other shopswhere I worked before, so I knewthat their quality was outstandingand the service was always excel-lent. So, we took two months tostrategize the changeover and hashout the details.

“My biggest concern was howthe painters would react when theyhave to start using waterborne afterusing the solvent for so many years.But I didn’t need to worry so much.PPG made the switch as smooth asbutter. They took all of my paintersto their school in Baltimore and afterone day there my paint crew cameback and reassured me about theproduct. They were especially happywith the color matches and theblending aspect of the Aquabase®

Plus. They were literally blown away,even my lead painter, Dave Miller.Now, we don’t have to spend timetaking spray outs and tinting themfor 45 minutes to get a color match.The color matching qualities ofAquabase® Plus is a lot better thanwhat we encountered with the sol-vent.”

The conversion took place in2008, aided by Old Forge’s jobberBill Flannery and his crew. “We hadto reorganize our paint departmentin several ways. The drying sys-tem, of course, was considerablydifferent with the waterborne. Theold solvent system we were usingwas based on heat and now it pri-marily involves air flow. We had torevamp our paint booth and install

several air movers in there to getthe air flow suitable for the water-borne. But my painters love it andthey will never go back to solvent,guaranteed. Once they adapted tothe PPG waterborne, they weresaying ‘Why did we ever use sol-vent?’”

Have any of Old Forge’s localcompetitors made the switch to wa-terborne? Some have, but Scarpellois baffled that other body shops arereluctant to make the move to water-borne. “The only switch involves thebasecoat, because the sealers andprimers and top coats are still sol-vent. So, it’s not like everything haschanged. One piece of the puzzle isnow different, but it’s so easy that Ican’t believe when I hear that othershops are fighting the change.”

“Some are in the process of con-verting, but we were definitely thefirst in this region,” Scarpello ob-served. “A lot of them are getting onboard with it, but I know that many ofthem are waiting until the last minuteto change, and we didn’t want to waituntil the final hour. As a result, we gotmore attention from PPG and myjobber, because back then we werethe only ones doing it. In the next fewyears, there will be a rush to thesewaterborne systems and body shopswill be competing for their attention.A lot of shops around here will bestruggling and shuffling to get itdone, and we will already be usingthe waterborne for five years bythen.” If you’re an educated con-sumer, who would you take your ve-hicle to?

Old Forge Collision Center’s General ManagerBob Scarpello has taken his operation into thewaterborne age by adopting the PPGAquabase® Plus system

Old Forge Collision CenterLocation: Two locations in Lansdaleand Chalfont, PA

Telephone: 215-368-3100www.oldforgecollisioncc.com

Company At A Glance...

Type: Collision Repair

Facility Employees: 25

In Business Since: 1981

DRP Programs: 12 (Lansdale)

and 8 (Chalfont)

Number of Locations: Two

Combined Production Space:32,700 square feet (combined)

PPG Automotive RefinishCompany Contact: Cindy PiazzaPhone: (440) 572-2800email: [email protected]: www.ppgrefinish.com

Old Forge Collision’s Dave Miller painting a car with PPG’s waterborne Aquabase® Plus

Pennsylvania Body Shop Outshines withPPG’s Aquabase® Plus Waterborne

Old Forge Collision Center’s Lead Painter DaveMiller appreciates the spot-on colors he getswith the Aquabase® Plus system

by Ed Attanasio


MON-FRI: 7:00 - 6:00SAT: 8:00 - 3:00

604 old liverpool rd.liverpool, ny 13088

PPAAARRTRTSSS DDEDEDEPPTTTT.PARTS DEPT.

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Google has been developing auto-mated cars that drive themselves, pro-ducing enough evidence to Nevada’sState legislature to create a licence es-pecially for self-driving cars (see ad-jacent story). Since then, itstechnology has been legally drivinghundreds of thousands of miles in Cal-ifornia, however mishaps have oc-cured. Google’s Prius project carrear-ended another Prius just outsideof Google’s Mountain View head-quarters in California.

Google released a statement onthe incident highlighting that safety istheir first priority. They also claim thatthe self-driving car was being drivenby a person at the time, which is whyit resulted in an accident. In fact, atotal of three cars were involved, twoPriuses (Prii) and a Honda Accord.

Google’s driving cars use a com-plex combination of laser and imagingsystems to help identify potential haz-ards.

Google Spokesman Jay Nanacar-row pointed out to NBC Bay AreaNews that since Google’s self-drivingprototypes hit the road last year, “thecars have traveled 160,000 miles au-tonomously without incident.”

Nevada Becomes First State toIssue Robo-Car LicensesNevada is on course to become thefirst state to approve robo-cars on theroad. The state passed a bill that au-thorizes the Department of Motor Ve-hicles to begin drafting rules for“autonomous vehicles” like the onesthat Google is building and testing inCalifornia.

Nevada residents won’t havetheir roads taken over by robotic carsovernight. The legislation is only apreliminary move.

The bill goes into effect onMarch 1, 2012, and gives officials thego-ahead to work out car certificationstandards, insurance guidelines andother rules that would apply to ro-botic cars. The DMV also will markout areas of the state where the carscan be tested. According to the bill,these rules would apply to cars thatuse sensors, global positioning sys-tems and artificial intelligence todrive “without the active interventionof a human operator.” Google startedtesting the “automated cars” last yearand logged 140,000 test miles in theBay Area (with engineers in the frontseat). Google’s cars are designed tonavigate traffic using Google’s mas-sive data centers.

Google’s Self Driving PrototypeInvolved in Three-Car Collision

Mercedes’ Plan to BecomeWorld’s Top Premium BrandDaimler CEO Dieter Zetsche has saidthe company’s Mercedes-Benz brandwill challenge rival German premiumbrands BMW and Audi for the positionas the world’s best-selling and mostprofitable luxury carmaker.

In a rallying call to employeees,Zetsche confessed that Mercedes isbeing outpaced by rivals, but said:“Our competitors’ success should pro-vide us with additional motivation.”

Zetsche issued the challenge in aletter to Daimler employees, writing:“Some of our competitors are nowgrowing faster and more profitablythan we are. Granted, those are justsnapshots in time and should not beoverestimated. After all, many of ourbest new products are yet to come.”

Zetsche adds: “In the long run wecan’t be content to be in a ‘solid sec-ond’ or even ‘third’ place: We areDaimler – we should be far ahead ofthe pack! And if that requires some-thing that we don’t currently have, thenwe’ll identify and develop it.”

Zetsche ends the letter by saying:“Enjoy your summer and refill yourtanks. Because in the second half ofthis year we’re going to continue toplay some hard offense!”

Toyota-Tesla RAV4 Electric to beBuilt in Ontario, CanadaToyota and Tesla Motors confirmedAugust 5 that their jointly-developedRAV4 electric vehicle will be built atToyota Motor Manufacturing Canada,Inc. in Woodstock, Ontario beginningin 2012.

“The Tesla-Toyota joint devel-opment team has agreed that buildingthe vehicle at the Woodstock plant onthe same line as the gasoline-poweredRAV4, will streamline and simplifythe production process and guaranteethe highest level of quality control,”said Ray Tanguay, TMMC Chairman,who hosted Canadian officials at theplant today and thanked them for theirsupport. “This is a great example ofToyota’s determination to collaboratewith companies with leading edgetechnology.” As previously an-nounced, Toyota will pay Tesla ap-proximately $100 million to supplythe electric powertrain, which in-cludes the battery, motor, gear boxand power electronics for the RAV4EV. Tesla will build the electric pow-ertrains at its production facility inPalo Alto, California and then shipthem to TMMC for final assemblyinto the vehicle. The RAV4 EV willbe sold at U.S. Toyota dealers.


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someone other than himself and whatthe practice of “steering” had done tohis and other businesses like his. Hav-ing spent nearly 20 years litigating forand against insurance companies, Iwas aware of the power an insurancecompany can exert. However as Gregexplained to me the realities of thecollision repair industry, I was admit-tedly shocked by what I heard.

The Case of North State v. ProgressiveInsuranceIn 2007, as attorney for North StateCustom, I commenced a lawsuitagainst Progressive Insurance allegingthat Progressive engaged in deceptivebusiness practices and interferencewith North State’s business and cus-tomers. The case has survived twomotions to dismiss, two appeals and aseparate action brought by Progres-sive against North State resulting intwo separate jury trials. (For a sum-mary of the Progressive v. North Statesaga see autobodynews.com, CocarroCase Takes a Wide Turn...). While thecase against Progressive has not yetbeen resolved and in fact we expect ajury trial to be held sometime nextyear, a recent court ruling in the mat-ter has significant impact for the in-dustry as a whole.

I. Backround: The State of the Law inNew YorkIn New York, as in most states, the in-surance industry has been able tolobby state legislatures to enact“toothless” insurance laws that claimto regulate the insurance industrywithout actually doing so. As a result,most insurance companies believe,and rightfully so, that they can exploitthe law with impunity and bully in-sured’s into having their cars repairedby captive and tightly controlled re-pair shops. Fortunately, most states in-cluding New York, also have littleknown but effective consumer protec-tion laws designed to protect con-sumers from improper corporatebehavior.

New York’s “toothless” insurancestatute is called Insurance Law Sec-tion 2610, known as the “anti-steeringlaw.” It states that not only do con-sumers have an absolute right to select

the repair shop of their choice, but thatan insurance company may not rec-ommend a repair shop without a con-sumer request to do so. Of course,nowhere does this “anti-steering law”provide for a remedy to a consumerwhen the statute is violated. Rather,the law gives the power to raise a vio-lation only to the Attorney General orthe Department of Insurance, and notthe consumer or his chosen repairshop. New York’s Consumer Protec-tion Law can be found within thestate’s General Business Law andspecifically at section 349. The lawwas originally enacted to protect con-sumers from unscrupulous businesspractices but has been expanded to in-clude any consumer oriented conductthat is materially misleading whichcauses harm to a party.

Thus, it is here, where the inter-ests of large corporations overlaps

with the interests of small businesses,that the legal battle between insurersand independent repair shops is takingshape.

II. Progressive’s motion to dismissIn our lawsuit we alleged that Pro-gressive, as one of the largest auto-mobile insurance companies in thecountry, used intimidation, threats,disparaging statements and directlies about North State in order toforce North State’s customers andothers similarly situated into usingProgressive’s network of direct re-pair shops and that these actionscaused harm to North State. In otherwords, that Progressive purposefullyand improperly misled and deceivedcustomers about both North State

and its own repair shops for theireconomic gain and to North Stateseconomic detriment.

At the close of the discoveryphase in the case, Progressive moved

the court for a dismissal. It did so bymaking two divergent but significantarguments.

First, Progressive argued that itsactions in connection with the way it“offered” its Direct Repair Programwas not misleading or deceptive.

Second, Progressive argued thateven if the way it offered its direct re-pair program was misleading and de-ceptive, New York’s Insurance Lawdid not allow a consumer or a repairshop such as North State to bring suchan action.

Thus the court was forced tomake three separate but intertwineddecisions:

First, did Progressive act improp-erly?

Second, if they did act improp-erly, were those actions of the kindcontemplated by the Consumer Pro-tection Law?

And third, if Progressive actedimproperly and those improper ac-tions violated the consumer protectionlaw, did the fact that those actions alsoviolate the Insurance Law matter?

As explained below, the courtdisagreed with each of Progressive’sarguments and denied Progressive’smotion to dismiss. (Dennis Artese,Esq., of the firm of Anderson, Kill &Olick, authored the legal papers sub-mitted on behalf of North State andthe decision issued by the court couldnot have been possible without the im-mense effort and dedication of Mr.Artese and the Anderson, Kill & Olickfirm.)

III. Did Progressive act improperly inviolation of the Consumer ProtectionLaw?In response to this question, NorthState submitted evidence obtainedfrom its customers that Progressive

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See North State v. Progressive, Page 26

Continued from Cover

North State v. Progressive

... a federal court found that actions such as dis-paraging statements, intentionally declaring vehi-cles a total loss, and steering were deceptivepractices ...

... the insurance industry has been able to lobbystate legislators to enact “toothless” insurance lawsthat claim to regulate the insurance industry with-out actually doing so...

Walking up to Brian’s Auto Body inMount Holly, NJ, the first thing thatcaught my attention was the picturesof cars, wrecked and restored, on thefront windows. As I learned from shopmanager Tom Riches, the shop oftenchanges these before-and-after pic-tures which are also displayed inside

the lobby as well as in a booklet andon their website. Brian’s customersseem to like seeing their vehicle dis-played at the shop. These photos un-derscore the motto of Brian’s AutoBody: employees should ask them-

selves if they would be happy with therepairs if it were their own vehicle.According to owner Brian Katz,“providing quick and high-quality re-pairs is the reason we’re still here.”

Brian’s Auto Body employs thir-teen auto body specialists. Their work-force is highly trained and professional,

and they attempt to keep theirworkspace clean, functional,and attractive.

The shop is around 12,000square feet in size, with eightrepair bays in the front whilethe dry booths, prep deck andstorage for completed vehiclesare all found in the back of theshop. They use two Car-O-

Liner vision liner frame racks, an ACmachine, MIG welders, a prep deckand a tint system for painting.

Brian’s maintains certificationsthrough ASE, I-Car, Honda, Subaruand Toyota/Lexus. The shop is fully

licensed and insured, and they offer alifetime guarantee on all repairs com-pleted. Each vehicle goes through aquality check before being released tothe customer.

The shop averages about eighty toone hundred repairs each month, andall of their revenue comes from body

work in some form. They sublet tow-ing and paintless dent repair work. Inaddition to collision repair, Brian’sdoes suspension repair, unibody/fullframe repair and AC service for bothforeign and domestic vehicles.

Brian’s participates in fourteen di-rect repair programs, and they are al-ways willing to work with all insurancecompanies from start to finish in orderto aid their customers, beginning withcontacting the insurance company aftera customer brings their police report tothe shop. Tom Riches, claims their cus-

tomer-oriented business is whatdistinguishes them. By accom-modating customers and help-ing them through the process ofrepairing their vehicle, the shopis able to not only acquire cus-tomers but to retain them andkeep them coming back fortheir auto repair needs. Tom hasbeen with Brian’s Auto Body

since it was opened and has watchedthe business grow.

Brian’s has been in business fortwenty-seven years, and they havecompleted over 36,000 repairs sinceopening. Brian Katz was the manager


Brian’s Auto Body, Mount Holly, NJ—Dealership Converted to Shopwith Chasidy Rae Sisk

Shop Showcase Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware, whowrites on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family of NASCAR fans.She can be contacted at [email protected].

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of a car dealership and three bodyshops through the dealership, butwhen the owner of the dealership wentout of business, Brian purchased anabandoned car dealership on NJ Route38 and opened his own auto body

shop in April 1984. When he openedthe shop, Brian was only the secondcompany in Southern NJ to install abake booth. They currently utilize two

down-draft Saima spray booths.Since their inception, Brian’s

Auto Body strives to stay up to datewith insurance requirements and mod-ern equipment, giving them an edgeover other local shops.

The shop converted to water-borne paints in September 2010; sincerumors abound that New Jersey willrequire all auto body shops to convert

in 2012. Their painters are trained andcertified in AkzoNobel Sikkens wa-terborne as Sikkens by AkzoNobel isthe paint that Brian’s Auto Body uses.

Brian’s Auto Body wants to stayahead of the curve. They are quitecontent with the new waterbornepaints recycling system which allowsthem to cut down on the waste theirshop emits.

When it comes to charitable contri-butions,Brian’sAuto Body only sponsorvolunteer efforts, focusing on funds thatbenefit children. Of the many organiza-tions to which he donates money, someof the more notable organizations areAmerican Vets, American Cancer Soci-ety, American Legion, Children’s Can-cer Assistance Network, Habitat forHumanity, Make a Wish Foundation ofNJ, US Fund for UNICEF, BoyScouts, and VFW. Brian Katz also be-longs to the Mount Holly Rotary cluband is a member of the BurlingtonCounty Chamber of Commerce.

Brian’s Auto Body, Inc.1549 Route 38Lumberton, NJ 08048609-261-1800www.briansautobody.com


Boyd Group Founder Sells Partof Ownership StakeBoyd Group Income Fund has an-nounced that Terry Smith, executivechairman of the Boyd Group, has sold300,000 units of his ownership positionin the fund. After the sale Smith holdsapproximately 463,000 units and ex-changeable Class A shares of the BoydGroup. After the transaction, the man-agement team continues to own in ex-cess of 15 percent of Boyd.

Smith said, “I am tremendouslyhappy with what Boyd has achievedsince I founded the company in 1990,”said Smith. “Starting with a single re-pair center in Winnipeg, Boyd has nowbecome the largest collision repair op-erator in North America with 164 loca-tions covering 13 U.S. states and fourCanadian provinces. Although manymilestones for the fund have beenreached, significant growth and oppor-tunities lie ahead. As I prepare myselffor eventual retirement, I have taken astep to prudently diversify my financesby reducing concentration in any oneasset. I have no current plans to reducemy equity position in Boyd any further.I am extremely confident with our ex-isting management team and how thecompany is positioned for continuedgrowth and success.”

Brian’s team (from l to r): Kevin, Kenny, Mario, Steve, Dave, Paul, Jerry, Bill, Tom, Brian and Victor


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StadelVOLVOwe know what drives you.

used deceptive and misleading tac-tics in order to bully consumers intohaving their cars repaired at its DRPshops. This evidence included testi-mony from North State customerschronicling the lies and misrepre-sentations made by Progressive’semployees about North State. NorthState also relied upon similar caseswhere Insurance Companies hadbeen found guilty of violating NewYork’s Consumer Protection Lawsas well as on the decision in the mat-ter entitled MVB Collision v. All-state, where a Federal Court foundthat actions such as disparagingstatements, intentionally declaringvehicles a total loss and “steering”were deceptive practices as contem-plated by the Consumer ProtectionStatute. (Here a special thank youand expression of appreciation mustgo out to the owners of Mid-IslandCollision in Long Island, New York,as well as to their Counsel, for ob-taining this extremely important de-cision.)

After viewing the evidence sub-mitted by both sides, the court held:“North State has submitted evidencethat Progressive employees madedisparaging, untrue statements to itsinsured’s concerning North State, inconnection with the DRP, that causedPlaintiff to lose customers and thatsuch evidence of misrepresentations,made in connection with its DRP, anestablished program involving bil-lions of dollars and thousands ofconsumer-insured’s was sufficient toviolate the consumer protectionstatute”.

Thus having dispensed with thequestion of whether Progressive’s actscould be deemed deceptive and mis-

leading in violation of the ConsumerProtection Law, and answering thatquestion with a resounding ‘YES,’ thecourt turned to the question of

whether North State had a right tomake such a claim at all.

IV. Are North State’s claims barred bythe Insurance Law?As stated above, Progressive pre-dictably relied upon the argument thatNorth State’s consumer protection ac-tion was simply a veiled “steering”claim which was barred by NewYork’s Insurance Law. This argumenthas been made by insurance compa-nies in nearly every jurisdiction (seethe California “Hughes v. Progres-sive” case at www.autobodynews.com) and in fact Progressive had beensuccessful in making this same argu-ment in New York in another matter

involving MVB Collision. (See MVBCollision v. Progressive, NassauCounty, New York).

After viewing all of the evidence

submitted in this case however, thecourt disagreed with Progressive andheld that because an insurer’s misrep-resentations to its insured’s as part ofa broad DRP is enough to violate theconsumer protection laws, the fact thatthose misrepresentations also violatethe Insurance Law does not stop thecollision repairer from being allowedto bring an action against the insur-ance company.

The court again looked to theMVB Collision v. Allstate case forguidance when it wrote: “With respectto the argument that the plaintiff’scause of action was really a disguisedsteering claim, the Allstate Court held:Here, by contrast, there is evidence ofa free-standing claim of deceptive-ness’ that simply happens to overlap’with a claim under the Insurance Law.The alleged scheme to dissuade All-state insured’s from going to Mid Is-land involved not only steering butalso, inter alia, alleged defamatorycomments. Thus, because plaintiff’s §349 claim merely happens to overlap’with provisions of New York Insur-ance Law, it is not an improper at-tempt to circumvent the lack of a

Continued from Page 20


See North State v. Progressive, Page 28

... you as a business now have the means to stop im-proper steering as soon as you become aware of thepractice... Now that precedents are being set, attor-neys in your state will be much more willing to bringan action on your behalf...



Dana Cooper, the owner of BrownAuto Body, a busy, modest-size shoplocated in southwest Iowa, has beenin the collision industry for more thanthree decades. Cooper knows thevalue of reliable equipment and he’sconvinced there’s no more importantneed in a shop than having a reliableair compressor. Not only is it criticalfor his painting needs but he de-pends on it for air tools needed tomaintain his cycle times. That’s whyCooper was so pleased when hisKeystone rep introduced him to Mat-tei compressors for the first time latelast year.

“With a machine like an air com-pressor, I want to be able to buy itand never worry about it ever again.We’re fixing 30-40 cars per monthhere, and it’s just another thing Idon’t want to have to think about.We’ve had this Mattei unit for aboutseven months now, and they’ve beenvery good about keeping us on theright maintenance schedule. I knowthis is important. If my air compres-sor goes down, we’re dead in thewater. Almost everything from buffersto paint guns depends on air. It wouldbe like trying to fix vehicles withoutpaint or techs—that’s how importantit is to have a good air compressorthat won’t quit or need service all thetime.”

Darrin Cook, General Managerfor Keystone Automotive Indus-tries Inc. in Omaha, Nebraska hasworked for Keystone for more than22 years, so he’s seen (and heard)his share of air compressors of allbrands, sizes and styles. It’s notjust a lot of hot air when Cook en-thusiastically lauds the quality andperformance of Mattei’s rotaryvane compressors.

“We’ve been marketing the Mat-tei compressors for more than ayear now and they’re super quiet,while using less energy and pro-ducing more air,” Cook said. “TheseMattei units are smaller than theother brands we’ve sold before, sothey also take up less space. Price-wise, they’re also in the ballpark.You’re getting a quality product, soyou might be spending a little morewith these Mattei compressors, butin the long run these machines willlast you longer. In the past, thecompressors I encountered workedhard but wore down pretty quickly.These rotary vane compressorsfrom Mattei don’t work as hard, sothey last longer, and they put outmore air. They say ‘Get your lastcompressor, get a Mattei’ and after

working with them for a while now, Ibelieve it.”

Mattei’s machines have been inuse worldwide for industrial and au-tomotive applications for almost acentury. The company was foundedby Enea Mattei, an Italian engineer,when he became fascinated by thethen relatively minor compressedair industry in 1919. After 15 yearsof research and innovation, Matteiinvented the world’s first portableair compressor and, after embrac-ing a series of technological ad-vances, Mattei became one of theleaders in compressed air world-wide. The company solidified theirrole as a pioneer in the industry.Mattei started manufacturing rotaryvane compressors in 1958, andhave gained popularity with bodyshops within the last decade be-cause they’re efficient, durable andmaybe most importantly—quiet.

Cooper started out as a techand later purchased Brown AutoBody after he had been working for20 years, he explained. “The origi-nal owner, Pete Brown, wanted toget out, so I bought the shop andtook it over in 2000. Owning andrunning a shop has been a ton ofwork, but we’ve been staying busy,even during the recession and av-erage $2,000–$3,000 per repairwithout any DRPs. I’ve got twotechs and an office manager work-ing part-time, so it’s a lean opera-tion. We serve Atlantic, Iowa(6,800 population) and some ofsurrounding areas, competing withabout three other shops in thisarea.”

Cooper has been pleasantly sur-prised with his compressor, partiallybecause of the fact that he wasn’t fa-miliar with Mattei until Darrin Cook atKeystone introduced him to the com-pany and its line of rotary vane com-pressors.

“Darrin gave me Mattei’s litera-ture and we researched them on-line to find out a little more. Ataround the same time, one of myfriends purchased an American-made compressor, and I realizedthat it was a lot noisier and doesn’tput out quite as much cfm as myMattei does.”

After doing his homework,Cooper made the move to Matteiand he hasn’t had any regrets.“We bought Mattei’s 11 kilowattunit,” he said. “We tested it bysandblasting a car and it per-formed really well. It gained psithe whole time and we didn’t haveto stop to interrupt the job. Andit’s so quiet! That’s a big plus. Ican now stand right next to itwhile it’s running and still actuallytalk on the phone. Our old com-pressor was in our paint mixingroom. It was so loud in there wehad to scream to have a conver-sation—it was terrible. It wasstarting to leak oil and was begin-ning to worry about it, so we pur-chased it just in time. They comewith a 10-year warranty and de-signed for 100,000 hours of use,although many go way past that,from what we’ve heard.” Cooperis looking forward to not hearing,or not hearing about, his Matteicompressor for a good long time.

The shop’s old air compressor was loud andstarting to leak oil, so Owner Dana Copperresearched Mattei and made the move to thecompany’s rotary vane compressors

Brown Body ShopLocation: Atlantic, IA

Telephone: 712-243-4610www.brownautobody.com



Facility Employees: Three


DRP Programs: Zero

Number of Locations: One

Combined Production Space:4,000 square feet

Mattei Compressors, Inc.Phone: (410) 521-7020email: [email protected]: www.matteicomp.com

It’s a small yet talented crew at Brown Auto Body, consisting of (from left) Owner Dana Cooper,Tech Doug Towne and Tech Dan Schriver

Brown Auto Body Appreciates Mattei’s RotaryVane Compressor

Brown Auto Body in Atlantic, Iowa fixes30–40 cars per month without any DRPs

by Ed Attanasio

private right of action under the In-surance Law.”

II. What does it all mean?So what does the North State case,MVB v. Allstate and Hughes v. Pro-gressive mean for the collision repairindustry today?

First, the cases show that indi-vidual repair shops and the industryas a whole now have a means to com-bat the illegal steering practices solong a staple of the insurance indus-try. By asserting your rights as a con-sumer under your state’s consumerprotection laws, you as a businessnow have the means to stop impropersteering as soon as you become awareof the practice. While lawsuits can beexpensive, the costs of a suit pale incomparison to the amount of businessthat a shop loses at the hands of ille-gal steering. Further, now that theprecedents are being set, attorneys inyour state will be much more willingto bring an action on your behalfwhich should bring litigation costs

down as well.Second, but perhaps even more

critical is the fact that as a result ofthese and other lawsuits, there arenow a growing number of legalprecedents that are establishing ex-

actly what constitutes improper, de-ceptive and illegal steering activitiesin the insurer-collision repairer rela-tionship. For example, the court in theNorth State case took great pains todefine what it considered “improperconduct” to be and looked to the ear-lier MVB Collision case for help incrafting its definition. The practice iscalled “setting and defining prece-dent” and it is the way in which ourlaws and our society develop overtime. Thus, cases like North State v.Progressive and MVB Collision v.Allstate are actually helping to definewhat it is an insurance company canand cannot do when interacting with a

collision repair business and the im-portance of these and other cases likethem cannot be overstated.

In the end, the conflict betweenthe independent repairer and the in-surance industry will of course con-

tinue. However, the legal precedentsnow set by North State v. Progressiveand other matters are working towardestablishing the legal and practicalboundaries within which an insurancecompany may conduct itself.

Anthony J. Mamo is an attorneypracticing in Westchester County NewYork. He specializes in litigation onbehalf of individuals and small busi-nesses particularly in the collision re-pair industry. He has been involvedwith the representation of North StateCustom since 2005. He may be con-tacted by email at Mamolawfirm.comor by phone at (914) 631-5050.


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Syracuse Shop Wins Motion in‘Assignment of Proceeds’ CaseA Syracuse (NY) City Court judge hasdenied a motion by Nationwide Insur-ance seeking dismissal of an “assign-ment of proceeds” case broughtagainst the insurer by Nick Orso’sBody Shop. The shop sued on behalfof two customers for repair costs notpaid for by Nationwide, which arguedthat the customers’ policies prohibitedthem from assigning claimed losses toanother party without the insurer’sprior permission. Judge Rory McMa-hon, citing a decision in a similar caselast fall also involving Nick Orso’sBody Shop, ruled that anti-assignmentclauses are valid for assignments priorto a loss and claim (when that couldimpact the insurer’s exposure) but notafter. Orso’s attorney argued success-fully that Nationwide has no interest inpreventing a post-loss assignment ofproceeds “other than an insurer’s de-sire to make it as cumbersome as pos-sible for the insured to obtain what isowed under the insurance contract.”The judge, however, did not find thatNationwide’s motion for dismissal ofthe case was brought in bad faith, andhe therefore denied the shop’s requestto have its court and attorney costspaid for by the insurer.



... there are now a growing number of legal prece-dents that are establishing exactly what constitutesimproper, deceptive and illegal steering activities inthe insurer-collision repairer relationship...

BK Listings, an internet marketingcompany that provides industry-spe-cific listings to businesses in the auto-motive industry, has expanded itsservices to include everything auto-motive. BK Listings was founded inearly 2010 and is headquartered inDearborn, MI.

The company started with 3 em-ployees; a web designer, a program-mer, and Owner and Founder BradleyBrennan.

Brennan started BK Listings tooffer industry specific and content rich

profiles to busi-nesses in the auto-motive industryand to offer cus-tomers an easierway to find the bestshops in their area.BK Listings fo-cuses exclusivelyon the automotive

service industry—their motto is “any-thing and everything automotive.”

“You could never include thetype of information you can with uson a Google or Yellow Page ad.

They’re too general and don’t let yourcustomers see what they need to see,”said Brennan.

BK Listings allows automotivebusinesses to list the industry-specificinformation customers searching for

this type of busi-ness want to see,such as which in-surance compa-nies the shop has aDirect Repair rela-tionship with anda complete list ofservices providedthat distinguish the

shop from the competition.All of this information is search-

able by users on BK Listings, so if ashop offers a certain service that peo-ple in their area want, customers willbe able to search for that service andfind that shop with ease.

Customers can create a free loginwith BK Listings that will allow themto upload information about whatneeds to be repaired on their vehicle.

This information then becomesavailable to shops with advanced pro-

files and they can bid on these jobs, al-lowing the customer to make an in-formed decision when choosing ashop and allowing the shop to find ad-ditional work in their area.

“This addition to the site is rela-

tively new but we are really excitedabout its potential,” said Brennan.

Customers can also submit infor-mation about a job they had done at ashop as well as shop reviews.

BK Listings has expanded since


Email all inquiries to:

Visit Our Website:www.bklistings.com

[email protected]

We offer basic and advanced profiles • Include your shop in prospective customers’ search resultsIndustry-specific advanced profiles that are fully customizable!

www.bklistings.com • [email protected]

BK Listings-“Advanced” Pro!le• Additional services you provide such as

loaners, detailing, alignments, part sales, etc.• Certifications• Average turnaround time• Promotions• Normal and special business hours• Extra space for unique features• Ability to view and bid on jobs

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A mock listing was created for Autobody News

Alyssa Koslowsky,Marketer

Gavin Crawford,Web Designer

their founding to include listings forautomotive service businesses beyondjust collision repair shops, like me-chanical, customization, and wheel &tire. They have also increased theirstaff; expanding to include three pro-grammers, a graphic designer, a writer,and a marketer.

“We are currently building a sec-tion for buying and selling automo-biles to help offer another marketingsolution to our dealership friends, andwe plan on facilitating automotivepart sales in the future,” said Brennan.

BK Listings offers two types ofprofiles, basic and advanced. Theydiffer in the amount of informationprovided about the business and theway they are searched by users.

BK Listings has over 30,000body shops listed with basic profiles.Advanced profiles, once set up, willalways come before basic profiles insearch results and will always displaymore information, so shops fortunateenough to be one of few signed upwith advanced profiles in their areawill enjoy increased visibility in allsearches by local users.

“We have decades of experiencein the collision industry and know ex-

actly what shops are looking for; weknow what customers want and weknow how to bring business in. Ourgoal is to provide a service that allowsthe best shops to find the customers

they need to survive and succeed,”said Brennan, “The collision industryis just now beginning to aggressivelypursue internet marketing; we want tobe at the forefront of that movement.We have the best interests of the shops

in mind, and we believe together wecan improve the industry as a whole.”

John Germain, owner of E & FAuto in Melvindale, Michigan, has hada listing on BK Listings for a short pe-

riod of time but has already seen a pos-itive response from the listing.

“It is easy to use and makes ourcompany more visible. We alreadyhad a website in place but the addi-tional traffic helps with our online

marketing,” said Germain.BK Listings is currently running

a promotional deal for their members;if a member refers another shop to signup, BK Listings will send the membera check for $100. All members have todo is tell a friend to sign their shop up,if they stay on for at least 3 months,BK Listings will send the check. Thereis no limit on the amount of shopsmembers can refer for this deal. Shopsshould email BK Listings notifyingthem of the referral (see below).

“We have done our best to pull inevery shop in America, but throughthe process there is the chance wemissed a couple,” said Brennan. “It isvery easy to add your shop if youdon’t already have a basic profilelisted, you can submit a request on thewebsite or email us directly and wewill add it for you.”

Questions can be directed [email protected] or [email protected].

“I want to develop a personal re-lationship with every shop that is in-terested; we can only succeed byworking together,” said Brennan.

Please visit www.bklistings.comfor more information.


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For 2011, ASRW has expanded theTown Hall concept at theNACE/CARS show to look at the im-pact of health care reform included inthe new Patient Protection and Af-fordable Care Act (derisively referredto by some as “Obamacare.”) and anoutlook for changes in health carelaws in the future. Industry expertswill review the new law's impact onindependent automotive repair busi-nesses and possible changes in healthcare laws. Attendees will have anopportunity to ask pertinent questionsof health care experts.

Repairer-Driven Education atSEMA Gets Support from PPGFor the second consecutive year, PPGAutomotive Refinish has demon-strated support of collision industryeducation programs through their in-volvement with the Society of Colli-sion Repair Specialists (SCRS) hostedRepairer Driven Education (RDE) se-ries during the SEMA Show in LasVegas. PPG will contribute coursecontent with a program led by JimBerkey and Mark Mueller entitledLoad Leveling - The hidden enablerfor shop performance.

“All of us at PPG are excitedabout helping promote education tothe collision repair community withSCRS this fall,” said John Parran, di-rector, marketing, PPG AutomotiveRefinish. “Education is a key part ofthe value-added services we deliver toour customer base, and it is an honorto be a part of the growing and uniqueopportunity SCRS has put togetherwith RDE. Last year we saw greatvalue for the industry from our in-volvement, and it was an easy deci-sion to continue our support in 2011.”PPG will also co-host the much antic-ipated Afterburner evening event withSCRS on November 3rd. Visitwww.semashow.com/specialevents.

ASRW Expands its Town HallEvent to Include Health Care

ASRW announced that BASF has re-turned to the show floor at the upcom-ing 2011 event for the first time since2008. “NACE is the premier event forthe collision repair industry and we un-derstand how important it is to repre-sent the BASF brand among this coreaudience who uses BASF products,”said Chuck Soeder, VP, BASF Auto-motive Refinish. “We look forward tosupporting the industry this October.”BASF will be at booth N1413.

BASF to Return to NACE Expofor First Time Since 2008

Honda Recalls 2.5 Million Vehicles for Software IssuesHonda Motor Co. said August 5 itwill recall 2.49 million cars, smallSUVs and minivans worldwide, in-cluding its popular Accord sedan, torepair a software problem that coulddamage the automatic transmission,according to Automotive News.

The recall includes 1.5 millionvehicles in the United States, 760,000in China and 135,142 in Canada, theautomaker said in a statement.

Globally, the recall affects four-cylinder Accord sedans for the modelyears 2005 to 2010.

In the United States and Canada,the recall also includes the CR-Vcrossover for the model years 2007 to2010 as well as the small SUV Ele-ment from 2005 to 2008.

Without updating the software,the automatic transmission in thesevehicles could be damaged if thedriver quickly shifts between gears.

That might cause the engine tostall or make it difficult to put the carinto park. The company has said itdisagreed with the influential U.S.consumer advocate’s assessment.

Chris Martin, Honda spokesmanat the company’s U.S. headquarters inCalifornia, saidAugust 5 the recall wasnot a sign of deeper difficulties.

Martin said the current recallwas the result of “extremely unusualcircumstances. The far majority ofour consumers would never really en-counter this. It’s software program-ing. It’s not a weakness in thetransmission per se.”

No injuries or deaths have beenreported from this problem, Martinsaid.

Honda said the problems mightarise if the transmission were quicklyshifted between the reverse, neutraland drive positions. A driver might dothis in an attempt to dislodge a vehi-cle in mud or snow.

The automatic transmission sec-ondary shaft bearing could be dam-aged in this scenario.

An update to transmission con-trol module software will ease thetransition between gears and reducethe possibility of damage.

Honda will begin informing U.S.consumers at the end of August.

It did not disclose expected costof the recall.

The software update will takeabout a half-hour, but customers mayhave to leave their cars at Hondadealerships for a longer period, Mar-tin said.


For the first time in 7 YEARS, the world’s collision event is headed east!Join the automotive service & repair industry at the only event that is specifically designed and created for YOU. As the flagship

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U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.V.,chairman of the Senate CommerceCommittee, and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., have introduced a bill in the Sen-ate titled the Motor Vehicle andHighway Safety Improvement Act of2011. The bill touches on several issuesrelevant to the collision industry, in-cluding broadening the authority of thesecretary of transportation to:● Conduct motor vehicle safety re-search, development, and testing pro-grams and activities, including new andemerging technologies that impact ormay impact motor vehicle safety,● Collect and analyze all types of motorvehicle and highway safety data and re-lated information to determine the rela-tionship between motor vehicle ormotor vehicle equipment performancecharacteristics.

The legislation requires that theU.S. DOT conduct a study of crash datacollection and report, after one year, toa Senate Committee and to the HouseCommittee on the quality of data col-lected through the National AutomotiveSampling System, including the Spe-cial Crash Investigations Program. Theadministrator of NHTSA will then con-duct a comprehensive review of thedata elements collected from each crash

to determine if additional data shouldbe collected. This review will includeinput from interested parties, includingsuppliers, automakers, safety advo-cates, the medical community and re-search organizations.

Another section, titled “NHTSAElectronics, Software and EngineeringExpertise,” discusses efforts to furtherexplore green methods, including acouncil to research the inclusion ofemerging lightweight plastic and com-posite technologies in motor vehicles toincrease fuel efficiency, lower emis-sions, meet fuel economy standards,and enhance passenger motor vehiclesafety through continued use of the ad-ministration’s Plastic and CompositeIntensive Vehicle Safety Roadmap.

Finally, the bill requires that “Ve-hicle Event Data Recorders” include in-formation regarding vehicle datarecorders and privacy provisions spec-ifications. Beginning with model year2015, new passenger motor vehiclessold in the United States are to beequipped with a vehicle event datarecorder. The language includes thatany data in an event data recorder, re-gardless of when the passenger motorvehicle in which it is installed wasmanufactured, is the property of the

owner or lessee of the passenger motorvehicle in which the data recorder is in-stalled. It also states that data recordedor transmitted by such a data recordermay not be retrieved by a person otherthan the owner or lessee of the motorvehicle unless:● a court authorizes retrieval of the in-formation in furtherance of a legal pro-ceeding,● the owner or lessee consents to the re-trieval of the information for any pur-pose, including the purpose ofdiagnosing, servicing or repairing themotor vehicle,● the information is retrieved pursuantto an investigation or inspection au-thorized under section 30166 of title 49,United States Code, and the personallyidentifiable information of the owner,lessee or driver of the vehicle and thevehicle identification number is not dis-closed in connection with the retrievedinformation,● or the information is retrieved for thepurpose of determining the need for, orfacilitating, emergency medical re-sponse in response to a motor vehiclecrash.

To view the full text of this bill,visit ASA’s legislative website atwww.TakingTheHill.com.

Vehicle Safety Bill With Data Collection Relevant to Repairers Introduced in U.S. Senate

The Collision Repair Education Foun-dation announced the appointment ofthree new members to the Board ofTrustees which include: Tim Adel-mann, ABRA Autobody & Glass;Scott Kohl, SAFECO Insurance; andRandy Starnes, State Farm InsuranceCompanies. Through the guidance,support, and direction of the Board ofTrustees, the Collision Repair Educa-tion Foundation is able to continue itssupport of secondary and post-sec-ondary collision students, their schoolprograms, and instructors. The Educa-tion Foundation is pleased to have thefollowing representatives on the Ex-ecutive Committee:Chair: Doug Webb, CSi CompleteVice Chair: Chris Northup, GD andCSecretary: Tim O’Day, Gerber Colli-sion & GlassTreasurer: Terry Fortner, LKQ Cor-porationMember-At-Large: GeralynnKottschade, Jerry’s Body ShopMember-At-Large: Bill Daly, AllstateMember-At-Large: JosephAllen,CCC Information Services Inc.Immediate Past Chair: Chris Evans,State Farm Insurance Companies

CREFAnnounces New Board ofTrustees Members


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I-CAR Offers New Course on Electronics Damage AnalysisI-CAR has premiered several onlinetraining programs in 2011, includingits newest course, Basic ElectronicsDamage Analysis (DAM13e).

By taking this course, individu-als will learn how to effectively com-municate at every level of the damageanalysis process, identify the basic re-quirements for a circuit and how cir-cuit values are measured, as well aswhat other parts of a circuit are de-signed to do. This course provides anunderstanding of how electrical sys-tems are designed to work and whatcan be done when these systems aredamaged. Information on how to rec-ognize collision damage to wiring,the possibilities for repair, and thetools and steps required when trou-bleshooting an electrical circuit prob-lem are also covered in this course.

Joyce Kasmer, I-CAR Directorof Business Development said, “Un-derstanding how to effectively com-municate throughout the entire repairprocess lends to more accurate dam-age assessments, which can result inreduced cycle times and higher cus-tomer satisfaction. This online coursewill be beneficial to collision repairprofessionals who are interested inlearning about specific procedures re-

lated to electronics damage analysisand how to effectively interact withvehicle owners, repair facilities, andinsurance companies.”

This course meets I-CAR® Pro-Level™ or annual training require-ments for the Estimator and AutoPhysical Damage Appraiser roles andsatisfies the Basic Electrical knowl-edge area within the I-CAR® Profes-sional Development Program™.Once an online training course hasbegun, an individual has thirty daysto complete the course and can re-ac-cess it an unlimited number of timesuntil it has been completed. Aftercompletion of the course, the individ-ual will have access to course materi-als for reference by logging in to theiraccount.

Information and registration forthis course can be found on the I-CAR website (www.i-car.com) or bycontacting I-CAR Customer Care at800-422-7872.

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!

Ford Partners Azure on F-Series Plug in HybridsFord and Canadian-based Azure Dy-namics plan to convert the largest of itsF-Series models into plug-in hybrids,starting with the F-550 and later addingthe F-450 and F-350 models. The truckswould operate in electric-only mode atlow speeds while also reducing fuelconsumption at higher speeds in hybridmode. Anticipated range on batterypower, overall fuel efficiency and pric-ing details have not been released. Mar-keting is aimed at commercial fleetbuyers sensitive to the rise in fuel prices.

Ford Will Recall 1.22 MTrucks, Fuel Tank StrapsFord told the National Highway TrafficSafetyAdministration itwill recall1.22mil-lion trucks toreplacefuel tankstrapssubjecttocorrosion.Therecall includes theseunits:—Ford F-150 from 1997 through 2004—Ford F-250 with GVW of less than8,500 pounds from 1997 through 1999—Lincoln Blackwood from 2002 and2003 model years.

NHTSA said the trucks were man-ufactured from June 20, 1995 throughAug. 4, 2004. The flaw could causedropped fuel tanks and fire hazards.

Lincoln Electric AcquiresTorchmate ParentLincoln Electric Holdings, announcedAug. 12 that it has acquired substan-tially all of the assets of Applied Ro-botics, Inc., a leading manufacturer ofCNC cutting tables and accessories inNorth America. Applied Robotics,known in the welding industry by itsbrand name, Torchmate, has head-quarters and manufacturing facilitiesbased in Reno, NV. Torchmate(www.torchmate.com) offers a wideselection of CNC plasma and oxyfuelcutting tables to medium-sized fabri-cators.

GM Recalls Over 16K CarsGM said Aug. 12 it is recalling 16,198Chevrolet Impala and Buick LaCrossecars in the United States and Canada toaddress sensor and power steering prob-lems. There are 11,905 2012 Impalas re-called to check the power steering hose.The hose, if misrouted, could be dam-aged and spray fluid onto hot engine partsto create a potential for a fire. GM alsosaid it is recalling 4,293 2012 LaCrossesto reprogram the electronic brake controlmodule because an incorrect calibrationmay cause the electronic stability systemto improperly detect a sensor malfunctionand fail to illuminate a warning light.

Chrysler Recalls Up To370,000 2008 MinivansChrysler is recalling nearly 370,0002008 Grand Voyager, Town and Coun-try and Dodge Grand Caravan vehiclesfor a possible heating and air condition-ing problem that could inadvertentlytrigger the air bag, the second related re-call in nine months. NHTSA said con-densation from the heating and airconditioner could leak onto a sensormodule. This could lead to activation ofa warning light and inadvertent deploy-ment of the air bag. There was a recalllast November to replace a heating andcooling drain tube in those model vehi-cles to eliminate potential condensation.

U.S. safety regulators have opened an in-vestigation into about 120,000 BMW 7-series cars regarding shifting into parknot engaging, with roll away. NHTSAsaid it has opened a preliminary probe ofthe BMW cars from 2002–2008 after re-ceiving a complaint that a 2006 modelrolled away after the consumer parkedand exited the vehicle. Reports involvingsimilarly equipped cars also describingroll-away incidents were submitted byBMW. A BMW spokesman said the au-tomaker is cooperating with the NHTSAand is not aware of any reports of acci-dents or injuries related to the issue.

NHTSA Investigates BMWfor Potential Rollaways

Advances in transportation research areincreasing interest in putting cameras andsensors in and on work trucks. Scientistsare using a strategy that combines tightlycontrolled simulator driving, closely mon-itored runs on closed tracks and scrutinyof working truckers on revenue runs tohelp researchers translate observationsabout driver behavior. With simulators, acomputer vision system can tell where adriver is looking.Adriver’s eye position isone of the most readily quantifiable fac-tors in truck-safety as a computer can nowdetermine a driver’s level of fatigue.

Truck Driver Behavior NowTrackable with New Tech

A NTHSA team cleared GM from theneed to bring back more than 266,0002007 Chevy Tahoes and GMC Yukons.The concern was chrome plating on in-terior door handles that could peel orseparate from the plastic base material.De-lamination could result in a sharpedge and pose a risk of laceration.”Theresultant population group had a total of746 complaint reports with 309 injuryincidents and 43,619 unique VIN regularwarranty claims over a combined451,745 vehicle population,” NHTSAsaid in a report.

GM Has No Recall on itsTahoe and Yukon SUVs

American Honda is bringing back approx-imately 1.5 million vehicles to update thesoftware that controls the automatic trans-mission. Included are 4-cylinder Accordsfrom 2005 through 2010, the CR-V from

2007 through 2010, and the Element 2005through 2008. Honda believes the auto-matic transmission secondary shaft bear-ing can be damaged if the transmission isquickly shifted.

NHTSA previously said the FordFreestar and Mercury Monterey from2004 through 2007 might have defec-tive automatic transmission controlmodules, but now says “below defecttrend.” Tests found 200 potential prob-

lems out of population of 125,865, fora failure rate of 0.16 percent. The con-cern was water running down onto thecowling under the hood and drippingonto the PCM, causing a stall and thetransmission to shift badly.

Honda to Recall 1.5M CRVs, Elements, AccordsFord Minivans Not Subject to Recall, Infrequent Issue


with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox This is a new story by Scott “Gonzo” Weaver as posted on his website, www.gonzostoolbox.com.

Gonzo has been serving the Tulsa area at Superior Auto Electric for over 27 years. See his book“Hey Look! I Found The Loose Nut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age. Thebook is available at amazon.com. Contact Gonzo at [email protected].

A body shop dropped off a 2005 Nis-san Titan XE for a trailer light prob-lem. It was hit in the rear and hadfolded the bumper under the body.

This particular body shop I haveknown for years, and they pride them-selves on doing a top notch repair onevery vehicle that they are associatedwith. This truck was being a problemthough. All the systems were workingexcept for the trailer turn signal lights.To be thorough, they went backthrough each and every part that theyhad replaced or disturbed. They foundnothing, not a thing—2 days ofchecking it out led to a dead end.

That’s where I came into the pic-ture. As always, the first thing I wantto see is the wiring diagram. Youknow, I’ve always said change is agood thing, this time, I should re-phrase that to—it’s a good thing that“things change”—and I hope thisdoes real soon, because, this was

about the stupidest thing I’ve everseen.

It’s not the first time I have ranacross trailer lights going throughcomputer systems but it’s the firsttime I ran across only the trailer turnsignals running thru the BCM (bodycontrol module) not the trailer parklights, not trailer brakes—nope, justthe turn signals. Right there on theprint, plain as day, R-trailer turn andL-trailer turn, oh please—what wereyou dudes thinking? (Referring to theengineers) What was the reasoningbehind this?

I checked the rear wiring and allthe circuits involved along the under-side of the truck, all of which were inimpeccable condition. I couldn’t helpbut stare at that BCM on the wiringdiagram. I said to myself, “You meanto tell me I’m going to have to changean expensive BCM just for trailerlights? Come on, guys.” (Engineers)

The BCM is attached to bracketsjust above the gas pedal. Once I man-aged to get into position to see theBCM, I moved the wire harness out ofthe way to get a better look at it. All ofwhich looked great. Another glance atthe print showed that pin 51 and 52were the trailer turn signal wires, oneyellow/black and the other green/black.Using a test light I checked the leadsoutput signal directly at the BCM con-nector. I was so glad to see the test lightflashing with the turn signals, what arelief! At least it’s not the BCM, it’swiring in between the BCM and therear connector.

Another long stare at the printwith my head under the dash, allwedged in between the driver’s seatand my feet dangling out the door,one hand holding the wiring harnessout of the way, flash light by my rightear, the test light and the wiring dia-gram all getting cramped in what lit-

tle space that’s provided; but I stillcouldn’t see the problem. Since I al-ready checked the wiring running intothe truck and the signal was comingout of the BCM I had to be close, realclose. I was starting to understandwhy the body shop spent two dayslooking for the problem and couldn’tfind it.

I knew what I had to do—starthand tracing the two leads again fromstart to finish—one-more-time. Atthis point anything would be betterthan spending another minute “sar-dined” in this truck.

As I moved my arm out of theway and was about to slide out fromunder the dash I noticed right whereI had my hand holding the harnessout of the way were two small in linefuse holders, almost opaque in colorright on the green/black and the yel-low/black wires leading away from

Is It ‘Change Is a Good Thing’ or ‘It’s Good That Things Change’?

See Change, Page 38

The keynote speaker for NACE’sOpening General Session will be So-cial Media Guru Chris Brogan. Bro-gan will headline the Opening GeneralSession at ASRW 2011, Thurs., Oct.6, from 8:30 A.M.–10 A.M.

Brogan is a noted author andjournalist; he is the New York Timesbestselling co-author of Trust Agents,and a featured monthly columnist atEntrepreneur Magazine. Brogan’s

blog, chrisbro-gan.com, is also inthe Top 5 of theAdvertising AgePower 150. Bro-gan is a marketingconsultant and fre-quent speakerabout social media

marketing who educates businessesand organizations on how social soft-ware aligns with their strategies. He isthe president and CEO of HumanBusiness Works, an education andcommunity company.

Brogan’s keynote presentationwill focus on small business solutions,sales, lead generation and specificstrategies—all as they relate to the useand implementation of social media.

“We carefully selected Chris Bro-gan this year and feel his presentationwill be a highlight of ASRW,” statedRon Pyle, ASA president. “Attendeescan expect an entertaining and engag-ing presentation and also to walkaway with ideas and solutions theycan easily implement as soon as theyget home.”

“Technology and the advent ofsocial media in particular havechanged the way we all do business,

so we feel Chris Brogan is not only atimely choice for this year’s keynotepresentation, but an extremely rele-vant one,” said Harry Hall, DuPontNorth America Sales Manager—Re-finish. “Brogan has become a leaderin his field through his innate use oftechnology and connecting it to busi-ness, which parallels DuPont Per-formance Coatings’ philosophy ofinnovation as a leader in the collisionrepair industry.”

BASF Back as ExhibitorBASF has also committed to a pres-ence at the NACE show for the firsttime since 2008. “NACE is the pre-mier event for the collision repair in-dustry and we understand howimportant it is to represent the BASFbrand among this core audience whouses BASF products,” said ChuckSoeder, vice president, BASF Auto-motive Refinish. “We look forward tosupporting the industry by exhibitingat ASRW this October.” BASF can befound in booth N1413 at the ASRWExpo.

BASF’s Felicia Funchess willalso be leading two sessions entitled,“Creating a Positive Work Environ-ment” and “Leading Change,”throughout the week’s industry edu-cation sessions.

The shows’ sessions will cover abroad range of subjects including

management tipsand tricks, techni-cal information,legal and HR ad-vice, and women’sprofessional de-velopment.

Eric Schmitz with KPA, an expertcompliance company on safety, envi-ronmental, and human resources (HR),will lead a session titled “What to DoWhen an Inspector Knocks on YourDoor.” KPA’s environmental, healthand safety services help to reduce acci-dents and associated costs while ensur-ing companies are in compliance withEPA and OSHA regulations.

Autobody News columnist TomMcGee with ALLDATA will lead an

information sess-sion titled “StopGuessing and StartKnowing.”

Personal devel-opment speakerand lifestyle guruRichard Flint willalso be speaking

again this year. He will lead sessionsentitled “The Power of Change” and“Wanted: Leaders That Lead!” Hisleadership session will touch on theTop 6 roadblocks that prevent leadersfrom being successful and how to re-move them, how to interpret the rede-finition of Leader, Leadership and

Company, how to break down the 6Secret “must haves” for being an ef-fective leader, examining the 5 supportbeams that connect Leaders to theirpeople, and identifying the mind-blowing insights into working with the3 personality types leaders are con-fronted with daily.

Cory King with the law firm ofFine, Boggs & Perkins LLP, who hasspoken at several California AutobodyAssociation meetings over the years,will lead legal advice sessions entitled“Survival Skills for Today’s Em-ployer: HR Best Practices” and “Sur-vival Skills for Today’s Employer:Compliance with Wage/Hour Laws.”

The events, which have consis-tently tracked ahead of last year’sexpos, are expected to draw in largercrowds than usual thanks to this year’snew east coast location.

Tickets for the Opening GeneralSession are included in the purchaseof a Super Pass or may be purchasedonline for $35 after the early-birddeadline of Aug. 9.

For more information about theexpos please visit www.naceexpo.com.

the BCM.AHA! THERE IT IS! Two in line

10 amp fuses to the trailer lights,Wowser!!! Fixed, done, works per-fectly. The prints did not show anyfuses in the circuits, it only showedthe wiring leading from end to end.Unbelievable, no wonder the bodyshop couldn’t find the problem. I evenmissed it until I moved my hand outof the way and knew the correct wirecolors. It’s not the sort of thing I’d ex-pect to find—factory fuse holders in-line with the BCM—but there they

were, you can be guaranteed that Imade a note about this one. I won’tforget next time.

It doesn’t help that the printswere wrong, and it doesn’t help thatthe manufacturer ran the trailer turnsignals leads thru the BCM, so I guessI can officially change my status from“change is a good thing” to “goodthing it changes” now do me a favorthere engineers; Change it!


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Change

NACE/CARS Program Expected to Draw Larger Crowds

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Sometimes a negative, even tragic,event can lead to a positive outcome.When a serious fire hit Collision So-lutions in Indianapolis, IN, and de-stroyed its paint booth, managementtook the opportunity to make lemon-ade from lemons. The fire offeredthe owners a chance to rearrangethe shop’s layout and take the leapinto the world of waterborne. Insteadof being paralyzed by the devasta-tion, the shop bought a new cutting-edge ECO Expert paint booth fromGlobal Finishing Solutions (GFS)and converted one of their locationsto waterborne paint before any re-strictions mandated it. As a result,Collision Solutions was soon turningout amazing paint jobs and theircrew quickly became fully comfort-able with waterborne and the numer-ous benefits offered by their newGFS paint booth.

“We took a couple of the prepstations and replaced all of the oldequipment with GFS equipment afterlooking at several companies. Wewent with GFS based on what peo-ple out there in the industry weretelling us about the company and itstrack record.

Owner Aaron Clark, 40, is a sec-ond generation body shop ownerwhose parents operated a shopmore than three decades ago. “Istarted working in our family’s shopwhen I was 16 and worked my wayup from porter to technician,” Clarktold Autobody News. “In 1994, mypartner and I opened our own shopin friendly competition with my par-ents’ company. It was a very suc-cessful operation that eventuallygrew into a two-location business inthe Indianapolis area.”

In 1998, Clark sold his interest inthe two shops and returned to workat his parent’s shop. By workingharder and smarter, Clark startingadding new locations. “We’ve grownand currently have five stores inMetro Indianapolis with 75 employ-ees. We fix 500--600 vehicles everymonth.” Today, Collision Solutions isan $11-$12 million business main-taining several DRPs. Clark is thecurrent Chairman of the Society ofCollision Repair Specialists (SCRS),and has served the organization onits Board of Directors for the past fiveyears.

Clark’s relationship with GFS–which bills itself as “the world’s lead-ing provider of technologicallyadvanced capital equipment solu-tions for the finishing industry” —started almost immediately after the

fire that nearly devastated the busi-ness. “We were in the process ofchanging over to waterborne any-way, so it was important for us to geta paint booth that was going to treatus well while using the waterbornefinishes and that’s why we went withthe GFS ECO Expert booth,” Clarksaid. “We put the four corner towerblowers in it and installed a doubleprep deck adjacent to the paintbooth. We took the opportunity tomove the booth to a better locationand connect it to a mix room and in-stalled additional overhead doors inthe building to create a better flowthrough our paint department. Eventhough it was definitely a tragedywhen our old paint booth caught fire,we have used it to get better equip-ment and improve our operationoverall.”

Clark says he wants to be able tobuy a paint booth and then forgetabout it for a very long time. “wewould like to enjoy 30 years of serv-ice out of this type of equipment andexpect to see that from this GFSbooth. We’re very excited to be work-ing with GFS. This is our first GFSpiece of equipment and by using itside-by- side with the other equip-ment we’re still using at our other lo-cations, we can see that it performsbetter than the other equipmentwe’ve had. No question about it. Wewanted a paint booth with all of thelatest technology that’s currentlyavailable and the ECO Expert is ex-actly that. Everything is computer-ized and has all the features we werelooking for.”

The process of installing theECO Expert booth was painlessand the power savings are consid-erable, Clark said. “Our rep, DonPutney of Indiana Booth Associ-ates, installed it completely in Oc-tober of 2009. Price-wise, GFSwas very competitive, but we weremore focused on all of the otherthings we were getting from thecompany. We were interested inthe Variable Speed Drive (VSD)motors and the digital panel andthe corner blowers we installed aretotally controlled by the digitalpanel. Also, a big plus is that thebooth pulls less electricity. We’veseen an overall drop in our electri-cal bills, because the VSD motorspull less juice.”

The GFS ECO Expert has beenthe real instrument in getting Colli-sion Solutions up and running withwaterborne. “We have never sprayedwith solvent in that booth. We con-verted the first day we got the ECOExpert and we’re happy we did,”says Clark. “We’re not in an areawhere we have to use it by law, butwe have five stores and since wewere installing this new paint booth,we decided to spray waterborne toconduct my own internal testing.We’re still using solvent primarily atmy other four stores, but by lookingat the profitability and the perform-ance, we will be converting anotherstore at some point, definitely. It’s abetter and safer product and if it’sbeing used at the OE level (for newvehicles), so it should be used by thecollision industry.”

Aaron Clark is a second-generation shopowner and the Chairman of the Society ofCollision Repair Specialists (SCRS)

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Collision Solutions has grown into a $11-12million business with five stores in MetroIndianapolis that repair 500-600 vehiclesevery month

by Ed Attanasio

The skittishness among some in theindustry about how formalized repairstandards may be developed or imple-mented was evident during discussionat the most recent Collision IndustryConference (CIC).

At the meeting, the CIC-formedRepair Standards Advisory Commit-tee offered an update on its work, in-cluding the hiring of a consultant tobuild a business case for the develop-ment and implementation of formal-ized standards.

Russell Thrall III, publisher ofCollisionWeek and a past CIC chair-man who now co-chairs the advisorycommittee, said the goal of the con-sultant’s work is to present a report byNovember about what consensus ex-ists within the industry about stan-dards and a possible new organizationto oversee the development and im-plementation of standards.

Thrall said that as of mid-July,

the committee had raised $26,600 ofthe $60,000 it needs in sponsorshipsfor the consultant’s work and the de-velopment of an industry forum on thetopic in November. More than 50 per-cent of the 21 sponsors to date are col-lision repair businesses, 38 percent aresuppliers and less than 5 percent areinsurers.

Mike Condon, whose consultingfirm has been hired by the committee,said he has conducted about 10 of the40 interviews—about half with re-pairers and half with those in othersegments of the industry—that he an-ticipates doing to prepare the reportfor the committee. That report, hesaid, will examine if there is supportfor the idea of a standard-setting body,and if so, how that body could bestructured and funded. As part of theresearch, Condon also will examinestandard-setting entities in other in-dustries and in the collision repair in-

dustry in other countries.He said he is also looking at what

various segments of the industry viewas “deal-breakers” in the concept.

“We want to flesh those out so wedon’t go down a path that ultimatelywill not work,” Condon said.

Speaking for the Society of Col-lision Repair Specialists (SCRS) andthe Alliance of Automotive ServiceProviders (AASP), Aaron Schulen-burg of SCRS said the two groups“believe standards are both necessaryand a good thing,” but have concernsabout the approach the CIC commit-tee is taking.

“Our members believe there arestandards that exist today,” Schulen-burg said. “They view the (automaker)recommendations and procedures asthe standard. That standard is not fol-lowed every day because while that’sthe overwhelming view of repairers,not every industry segment recognizes

that or agrees with that statement. Andsome of those other industry segmentsand participants who don’t necessar-ily support that as the standard are in-volved in this activity and committee,and that is cause for concern.”

Thrall said those opinions arepart of what Condon’s research is de-signed to capture, and that the associ-ations’ volunteer leadership areamong those slated for interviews.

While some CIC participants atthe July meeting in Salt Lake City,Utah, raised questions or concernsabout the consultant’s researchprocess or the questions being askedin interviews, Rollie Benjamin, CEOof ABRA Auto Body & Glass, calledthat “micromanaging the process.”

“I trust Russell, I trust Mike. Ithink they will do a good job,” Ben-jamin said. “I think they’ll come outwith the information we need to makea good decision on whether we move


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CIC, Consultant, Seeking Views on Industry Repair Standards

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in thefamily and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).Contact him by email at [email protected].

forward or not. Let’s let these guys dotheir job.”

Scott Biggs of Assured Perform-ance Network, who also is part of theleadership of the committee, said heunderstands that the standards issuemay be “threatening to so many dif-ferent organizations because it is suchan enormous issue.” But he said thosewith concerns should understand thatopposing viewpoints are held andbeing voiced even among those lead-ing the effort.

“There isn’t even general con-sensus within the executive commit-tee,” Biggs said. “I can tell you that’swhat Mike’s charter is: to see whatpeople’s opinions are.”

Dale Delmege, another formerCIC chairman who has been asked bythe committee to help raise the addi-tional $33,000 needed for the project,urged repairers to donate $100 per fa-cility (insurers and vendor sponsors arealso being sought) for the effort.Delmege said he sees the consultant’swork has having no bias toward shops,insurers or automakers. He also said hisresearch of the repair standards pro-gram in the United Kingdom indicatesit has been positive for the industry.

“They transformed their indus-try—about an hour and 15 minutes be-fore regulators ‘helped them’ do so,”Delmege said. “Those people overthere are pretty happy about wherethey got to.”

State Farm and Others offer updatesIn other news and discussion at CICin Salt Lake City:

● George Avery of State Farmsaid the insurer is continuing to workon an electronic parts ordering systemit will require its Select Service shopsto use. “The repairer will continue tohave a choice on who they buy partsfrom, and they will have control overwhich parts they buy, regardless of theprice,” Avery said. “We are not inter-ested in purchasing parts. What we’reinterested in is helping the industrysmooth out the process. We believe inquality, efficiency and competitiveprice. As you know, we have a score-card that we use to evaluate perform-ance across the board in those threecategories. So that’s why we think therepairer is the best person to make thechoice on parts.”

● Doug Craig, collision repairmanager for Chrysler, said Chrysler,

Ford and some other automakers areworking to “commonize where wecan” some of their “approaches to dif-ferent repairs.” He said Chrysler alsowill be moving away from “recom-mendations” to instead offer muchmore specific “requirements on whatprocess, procedure and/or compo-nents... should be used in a repair.”

● The National Auto Body Coun-cil said because 20 percent of all col-lision and mechanical repairtechnicians are Hispanic, it will soonbe release a Spanish glossary of colli-sion industry terms. The glossary,which will be downloadable andsearchable, was funded in part by agrant from AASP.

● The CIC Insurer-Repairer Re-lations Committee released a draft ofwhat the committee is compiling as el-ements of the “most beneficial andproductive repairer-insurer relation-ships.” Those elements—11 of themin the current draft, some of whichapply to non-direct repair programshops as well – include an explicitoutline of the key performance indi-cators (KPIs) used to measure shopperformance; consistency betweencorporate and field employees regard-

ing the selection and retention of DRPshops; an unbiased dispute resolutionprocess with a designated point ofcontact to resolve issues “free of thefear or reprisal’: communication to theconsumer about the relationship be-tween insurer and shop; and a stream-lined electronic communicationprocess between repairer and shop.

● I-CAR’s Jeff Peevy said 11percent of shops in the United Statehave achieved the “Gold Class Pro-fessionals” designation, and another20 percent are involved in some levelof consistent technician training. But69 percent of shops, he said, have noconsistent training for technicians “yetthey claim to do collision repairs.” Heurged more insurers to require theirDRP shops to maintain the Gold Classdesignation. “If you do not requiretraining of those shops that are doingrepairs for you, you need to considerthe rapid changes (in vehicle designand materials),” Peevy said. “You can-not properly repair a new car acciden-tally any more. You just can’t do it.”


In a previous column, I offered someof my thoughts on the decision of theSociety of Collision Repair Specialists(SCRS) to make the Farmers Insur-ance “Circle of Dependability” (COD)agreement public, and to questionsome of the requirements of that directrepair program agreement.

In doing so, SCRS said that “theindustry is often disadvantaged by re-striction of communication from par-ticipants of these program.”

I am little confused as to wherethe disadvantage lies? Okay, I am veryconfused. Explain to me the disadvan-tage. What would the advantage be ifthere were no restrictions? Shopsshould be deciding what is best fortheir individual business. That deci-sion shouldn’t be predicated uponwhether or not your competitor thinksit’s a good idea to participate. WhileSCRS makes a lot of good points intheir press release, this is one it needs

to reconsider. Go ahead and publishall of the major insurance carriers di-rect repair program agreements andsee what it changes. Would it reallyimprove the industry or help shops?

That said, here are a few more ofmy thoughts—some of which maysurprise you—from an insurer’s per-

spective on the COD agreement andSCRS’s concerns about it.

The agreement states that Farmershas the right to inspect a shop’s booksto validate and audit files to ensureproper payment and compliance withthe program requirements. Why insur-ers continue to infuse themselves intothe body shop’s business in this way isbeyond me. It’s wrong and they haveno business inspecting your books.

If SCRS wants to take a stand onan issue, this is an easy one. But asso-ciation’s comments on this section ofthe agreement have me wondering,“Where’s the beef?” If you are goingto call someone out, take a stand. Leadthe way. Insurers will continue to askand demand more until shops say ‘no.’

And here’s a news flash: If youaren’t following the guidelines, insur-ers don’t need to look at your books tofind out. They have other ways of ob-taining the same information. If you

are committing fraud, they aren’tgoing to casually walk into your shopand ask to inspect the books. Theywill probably have their legal teamsubpoenaing your records. There’s noneed for this clause, and it just showsthey will continue to make demandsuntil the industry says, “Enough.”

The COD agreement also saysparticipating shops will conduct back-ground checks on all employees andnot employ convicted felons. SCRS isdead-on with its assessment: This is themost ridiculous clause I’ve ever read.Doesn’t everyone know that statisticsshow that nine out of 10 convictedfelons prefer to work for a body shop?

Just joking! Please don’t sendany (more) hate mail.

But seriously, the audacity ofFarmers to prohibit shops from hav-ing a convicted felon on staff is trou-bling from many perspectives. I’m notadvocating the hiring of mass-mur-


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Ridiculous DRP Requirements? Guess Why They’re Askingwith The Insurance Insider

Inside Insurance The Insider is a corporate-level executive with a Top 10 auto insurerin the U.S.. Got a comment or question you’d like to see him addressin a future column? Email him at [email protected]

derers or anything of the sort, but thefact is in some states you could be aconvicted felon simply as a result of aDUI judgment. This isn’t a valid rea-son to not be considered for a job at aprofessional collision repair facility.

Of course a shop should be con-cerned and do its due diligence beforehiring anyone who has been convictedof a felony. But Farmers should re-move this clause from the agreementunless of course they would like tosubject their staff to the same scrutiny.In fact, how do you know it isn’t a con-victed felon from Farmers inspectingyour books? What if that person hap-pens to be an unscrupulous individualwho just hasn’t been caught yet? Youcould potentially have a convicted-but-rehabilitated Farmers staff member re-move you from the COD programbecause you have a similar ex-con onstaff. How’s that for irony?

I’ve seen just as many thieveswearing white-collar shirts as thosewearing blue-collar shirts. Insurershave no business telling you who youcan or can’t hire. Shops should bejudged on the product and service theydeliver, and not based on arbitrary andunjustified requirements.

All that said, I hope you aren’tmissing the overarching theme of myview of Farmers’ (or any insurer’s)DRP requirements: Quit whining. Quitsaying it’s not fair. It’s like raisingkids. Even the best kids will continueto misbehave until there is a conse-quence for their actions. You canthreaten to ground them, tell them it’stheir last chance, or insinuate a goodold-fashioned butt-whuppin’ is a-comin,’ but if you don’t followthrough, the antics will continue.

Until the insurers hear ‘no,’ theywill only continue to ask for more,whether that more is “reasonable” or not.

This column reflects solely theopinion of The Insider who wishes toremain anonymous. Got a comment orquestion you’d like to see him addressin a future column? Email him [email protected].

Or, leave a comment on the arti-cle in the Insider’s column section atautobodynews.com.

To see the FarmersCODagreementreferenced in the column, go to www.au-tobodynews.com and search “FarmersCOD.”The SCRSpress release about theagreement can also be found there.Search “SCRS Farmers agreement.”


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GM Tops Toyota to be World’sLargest Automaker, AgainGeneral Motors Co. outsold ToyotaMotor Corp. globally in the first sixmonths to become the world’s largestautomaker after the record Marchearthquake disrupted production inJapan, according to Bloomberg News.

GM sales rose 8.9 percent to4.536 million units in the half-yearended June 30, the Detroit-based au-tomaker said in a statement August 4.That compares with 4.13 million unitsat second-ranked Volkswagen AG and3.71 million units for Toyota, includingits luxury Lexus marque and affiliatesDaihatsu Motor Co. and Hino MotorsLtd., according to statements by thecompanies. Output at the Toyota City,Japan-based automaker slumped 23percent to 3.37 million units in the half-year after the company halted produc-tion following the magnitude-9 temblorand tsunami in March. Toyota expectsto enter a production recovery phase inSeptember, one month earlier than pre-viously announced, it said Aug. 2.

“Even if Toyota recovers produc-tion, it will take another few moremonths for sales to actually recover”as it takes time to deliver vehicles todealers, said Takeshi Miyao, an ana-lyst at consulting company Carnoramain Tokyo.

AkzoNobel Presents 2011FIT Sustainability AwardsAkzoNobel Automotive & Aero-space Coatings Americas for thesecond year presented the collisionrepair industries “FIT” Sustainabil-ity Award.

The by-invitation-only awardsceremony was conducted in SaltLake City, Utah at the Grand Amer-ica Hotel before an audience of ap-proximately 100 key collisionindustry dignitaries.

Receiving the 2011 award willbeMark’s Auto Body Ltd. of BritishColumbia, Canada, Moody’s Colli-sion Centers Gorham, Maine andLafontaine Automotive Group inHighland, Michigan.

The “FIT” Award centers onthe use of three key attributes:Focus, Innovation and Talent. It isthe industry’s first recognition forvisionary organizations that are in-corporating business practiceswhich meet the needs of the presentwithout compromising the needs ofthe future.

Mike Shesterkin Director ofSustainability and New BusinessInnovations for AkzoNobel said,“Our 2011 nominees visiblydemonstrate the marathon nature ofcreating sustainable businesses.”

In an article in July’s Autobody NewsI wrote about Yelp and how shopshave objected to the way this reviewsite seems to perpetuate negative re-views on shops unless they’re mem-bers of the premium (paid) userprogram. If you missed it see www.au-tobodynews.com and search: Yelp.The question for many shops in thissituation is: what can I do about it?

Okay, let’s assume your nameand the reputation of your shop hasbeen thrown under the bus and nowyou want to fight back. Maybe it’s abad review on Yelp, or maybe a dis-gruntled former employee has trashedyou on the Web and posted a collec-tion of half-truths coupled with someoutright lies. Or, maybe one of “thosecustomers” that is never be happy isposting negative things online aboutyou and they are beginning to get no-ticed and starting to affect your busi-ness.

Okay, it looks bad and it can bevery frustrating, but don’t panic—there are some strategies you can useto defend yourself online and clean upyour damaged reputation in theprocess.

To get started, you can initiallydo some things on your own that candistance you from the snarky onlinecomments or bad reviews about youand your business. If you have anyeven rudimentary computer skills, youcan help yourself considerably bymaking the right moves. The basicrule here is always take the high road.Don’t’ respond directly to anything ina negative or combative fashion. Ifyou jump in the mud with your onlineaccusers, than all you’re really doingis adding credibility to their claims.

Focus on disseminating positiveinformation about your shop and get iton as many websites as you possiblycan. Put them on your Facebook pageand other social media sites, such asLinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster,and Netlog, to name some of many.Join as many as you can and maintainthem, inviting customers and friends tojoin. Eventually, your involvement inthese sites will start appearing insearch results, and pretty soon, you’llnotice that the bad reviews will beginto migrate down the list.

If you really want to get proactivein defending your company online,you can take it a step further and startyour own blog. Blogs are popular, be-cause they’re simple and posting sto-ries and photos on there is a snap,even for the cyber-challenged. Youcan link your blog to your website andit will also provide a wide range ofSEO advantages over your haters.

For example, BlogSpot(blogspot.com) is a very popular blog-ging site. It’s easy-to-use and ab-solutely free. Posting stories on yourblog doesn’t require a lot of time andeven with just casual computer skillsyou can start and maintain a blogwithin a short time.

Now, of course, you might beasking yourself—how do I find thetime to do these things online? You’reprobably already working 50 hours aweek—fixing cars, dealing with cus-tomers, insurance companies, vendorsand employees is your priority everyweek, so how can you do it all?

Some body shops call upon afront office employee to assume therole of the company’s IT person. But,if you don’t have anybody currentlyon your staff like that, you’ll need tohire a company or an individual to as-sist you in salvaging your reputationonline and defending you in the fu-ture.

Some body shops have hiredpublic relations firms to perform theseduties. If you can afford them, it’s asage move. Bruce Miles is a publicrelations specialist who has workedfor companies such as Cisco Systems,Apple Computer and a wide range ofstartups in Silicon Valley. He offeredme some tips for how to position yourshop in a good light and reap acco-lades that can offset any bad reviewsor negative content about you and/oryour business online.

“Start a list of all the things youdo well and leverage those items,”Miles said. “Collect testimonials fromyour satisfied customers and get theirpermission to use them. If you’re notcurrently helping the community thatyou’re doing business in, start gettinginvolved. It’s a win-win, because itwill help your business and attractmore customers. Too many small

companies don’t see the big pictureand concentrate solely on profit, pay-roll and the bottom line. Those thingsare obviously crucial, but establishinga solid reputation especially in yourarea is paramount.”

Press releases distributed to thelocal media is one way to get the wordout about all of the great things you’redoing, Miles explained. “Hire a PRperson and have them generate onepress release every couple months.Any positive news is good news andlocal community papers love to runupbeat stories, because most of theheadline news out there is grim, as weknow. Maybe you’re mentoring localstudents who want to get into collisionrepair? Maybe you fixed a rare,unique vehicle? Or maybe held a din-ner for the local Little League teamyou’re sponsoring? Good public rela-tions specialists will find the storyideas for you, and by using their con-

tacts with the local media, you’ll startseeing your name in print and onlinein a positive vein.”

If you have a really negative per-ception on the Web you may need togo further. For many body shops, agood solution is hiring a companycalled Reputation.com (formerly Rep-utationDefender.) Located in Red-wood City, California, the companysells online reputation management(ORM) and Internet privacy to com-panies and individuals worldwide.ReputationDefender was founded sixyears ago to help parents in shieldingtheir children from damaging theirreputations via embarrassing postingson social media websites, but Reputa-tion.com has shifted its businessmodel to defending adults online aswell and continually monitoring webcontent about their clients. Whendamaging content is found, the com-


How to Fix Your Damaged Online Reputationwith Ed Attanasio

Social Media for Shops Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

See Damaged Reputation, Page 47

If you’ve ever received a long sales let-ter, you may have wondered why it wasfour or more pages long—and whowould expect you to read it all? In thedays before the Internet, e-mail andTwitter, snail-mail marketing often in-cluded these long sales letters. At thattime, statistics proved that recipientswho read these long letters were oftenthe ones who bought the product. Mywife’s ex-husband was an ad copy-writer who made a nice living fromwriting long ad copy, but no more.Today we’ve entered the era of theshort message. Twitter is a prime ex-ample. Ad copy must be 140 charactersor less. Most advertisers no longer be-lieve people will read long copy. Theassumption is most people have a veryshort attention span and a messagemust be fast, brief and dramatic to cap-ture viewer interest and attention.

Institutional advertising mightlead a shop owner to think all an ad has

to do is have an attention grabbingimage displaying the company nameand product. Nothing could be fartherfrom the truth. National corporateproducts have large advertising budg-ets and often simply try to keep theproduct name in front of the public eye.A gigantic billboard may have a hugephoto of an attractive person drinkingthat company’s beverage and the com-pany name might be so small youcould miss it if you didn’t look closely.The thinking behind this is that repeti-tive viewings will encourage sales ofthe product. Unless you have very deeppockets, don’t even think about adver-tising like this. But one aspect of thiskind of ad is very accurate: Repetitiveviewing can result in a prospect tryingor buying the product. The question is:what is the best media to use to conveythat brief, repetitive message?

A good start is to think aboutwhere you can put a brief message so

that it will be seen over and over. Oneobvious place is a lighted windowsign if you have a window that can beseen from a street or road. If not, theentrance to your driveway may fronton a road or street where you can putup a changeable sign. A hotel near methat has entertainment and a loungehas a high, lighted sign that can beseen from the freeway. The sign al-ways has a joke or a humorous quoteplus an invite to their lounge. Whentraffic backs up, it’s inevitable thatmost drivers will read the sign, out ofboredom if nothing else. A changingmessage is the key to getting reader-ship. If you have a website or Face-book page or even a Twitter account,these are obvious places to run a con-tinuously changing message. Even acheap, weekly-changing classified adcan be effective. And of course, if youcan afford it, radio and TV are idealfor this kind of advertising.

Most ad sites are not very adapt-able to a changing message. Benchads, bus ads, print ads, flyers and busi-ness cards generally contain long-termmessages. Nevertheless, the brief,easy to read and understand messageis still a good choice. This oftencomes out in the form of a slogan. Agood rule of thumb is to challenge thereader with an apparent contradiction:“Can cheap auto body repair also behigh quality? Call us to find out!”“Can the dent or damage on your carbe fixed while you wait? Call us tofind out!” If someone is reading ashort ad, time, speed and cost are sureto be high priorities for him or her.Your tougher job is selling them oncoming in once they call.

It’s also important to not forgetthat a picture is often worth a thousandwords. But even if you have the spacefor a picture, choosing the right one


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Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for fifty years. He has writtennumerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many businesses.He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected] Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin

Long or Short Ad—Which is Best?

See Long or Short, Page 47


by Ed Attanasio

Back when Galpin Motors’ Parts Man-ager Butch Lemen was 12 years old,he worked with his father in the aircraftparts industry, some time before the ad-vent of personal computers. Computersare now indispensible in parts depart-ments and body shops worldwide. But,although many body shops have em-

braced the software and the Internetmethods, there are still a ton of shopsout there that are reluctant to acceptwhat Lemen calls, “the inevitable.”

Lemen is a strong advocate forCollisionLink, the Internet-based elec-tronic parts ordering system designedby OEConnection for OEM partsdealerships and body shops. By usingthe system, shops can save time andmoney while including more originalfactory parts in their repairs. Colli-sionLink’s price comparison feature iscurrently used by shops of all sizes,from little independent facilities allthe way to large chains.

Lemen manages a multi-milliondollar wholesale parts operation atGalpin Motors in North Hills, Calif.With 75 employees in his departmentand selling parts for the 10 brandsthey represent (Ford, Lincoln, Subaru,Mazda, Honda, Volvo, Jaguar, Aston-Martin, Lotus and Spyker), Lemenvalues the time-saving aspect associ-ated with using CollisionLink.

“CollisionLink makes us moreefficient and can save time for theshops that participate,” Lemen ex-plained. “It frees up the shops’ time,because they don’t have to makephone calls searching for a part and/orwaiting for a response. All of the cor-respondence through CollisionLink ishandled via e-mails, and our parts

people will call once we receive theorder. It’s a streamlined process andallows shops to go on with the othermultiple tasks that happen every dayin your average body shop.”

Lemen says he has seen Collision-Linkwork time after time in helping himto get orders and assist shops in gettingOE parts on more repairs without pay-ing more than the aftermarket. “It’s a

conduit for electronic parts ordering, butmany body shops are still in the habit ofordering parts over the phone or viaFAX. We can assist the body shops byproviding parts with better fit and finishwhile delivering the parts quickly andimproving cycle times.”

Lemen recognized the importanceof this system more than a year agowhen Galpin starting offering it, butnow he wants his shop customers to

see the light as well. “We’ve been anadvocate for CollisionLink for awhilenow and we do have customers whouse it and like it and we’re trying to getmore shops up and running with it ona daily basis, so that we can put somemore OE parts into their hands. Wehave roughly 30 shops currentlysigned up withCollisionLink, and theytend to be shops that are computer-

savvy and already using the Internet asa tool to improve their business. Thecomputer age isn’t the future anymore,we’re right in the middle of it, and still,many of my customers don’t evenhave computers in their shops yet.”

Once his shop customers take theleap of faith and embrace CollisionLink,it quickly becomes a daily part of theirlives, Lemen reasons. But, getting themto take that first step can be difficult.“It’s getting people to accept a change,it’s just that simple. Change comesalong no matter what, but the old days ofgoing through catalogs and writingdown part numbers is tedious and nolonger efficient. Now, if you went intothese forward-thinking shops and toldthem they had to go back to using thosebooks, they might beat you up. Theywere reluctant a few years back, butnow they can’t do business without thecomputers and systems like Collision-Link. It’s just a matter of accepting thechange and seeing a new way of doingthings, in order to make their shopsmore efficient and profitable.”

Using CollisionLink is easy andmost people can be proficient at itwithin just several days, Lemen said.“The majority of the body shop man-agement systems out there right nowcontain all the parts pricing already.When the insurance company tells theshop ‘you need to use this aftermarketpart to save money,’ that’s when Colli-sionLink steps in. Once their estimateis approved by the insurance company,they send it to us electronically and wecall it the “1-2-3 Go,” because it’s justthree steps, push a button and it’s done.

Getting good at using it is a mat-ter of repetition, just like anythingelse. To make it easier, I’ll send one ofour reps to the shop and he’ll gothrough the training, both on-site andover the phone, with CollisionLink’sstaff. It normally takes 15–30 minutesto learn the system and how to use it.”

Once his customer sends him theinvoice, Lemen and his staff can gothrough it and identify the parts tomake certain they are correct for therepair. “Once I get the order, I simplyopen the file, import the file and pushone button and everything else hap-pens automatically. Once we’ve de-termined that it’s accurate, we can callthe body shop and discuss the pricingor other options, for example.”

If Galpin can meet or beat the af-termarket, it can obviously benefitboth his operation and the body shop

involved, he said. “We can beat the af-termarket prices in many cases. We’regoing up against the aftermarket andthe used parts industry as well. For ex-ample, we received an estimate earliertoday and within less than two hours, itwas processed. We were able to meetor beat the aftermarket on 14 parts onthe invoice and the shop bought themall. Our overall conversion rate forJune was 71%, so, that’s significant.”

One of Galpin’s customers usingCollisionLink is Autoworld Collisionin Valencia, California, a 14-year-oldshop owned by Maurice Starrantino.“We’ve been using CollisionLink forat least a year, and it’s been a Godsend.By using it, we’re able to provide ourcustomers with OE parts where wecouldn’t before. These manufacturerswant to incorporate factory parts in ourrepairs, and this is the best way to do it.On some items such as hoods, fenders,bumpers and many sheet metal parts,Galpin can match or beat the aftermar-ket parts a majority of the time, de-pending on the brand and the repair.CollisionLink is easy-to-use and now apart of our daily operations, so we def-initely rely on it and value it.”

CollisionLink software operateson PCs from Windows XP on up andis completely free to body shops. Itcan only be used to order OEM parts.

It can be used with all of the lead-ing systems already being used bymost body shops, including MitchellUltraMate Advanced Estimating Sys-tem, CCC One Total Repair Platform,CCC Pathways Estimating Solutionand Audatex. If a shop has anothersystem, CollisionLink’s reps can helpthem to get it set up.

Galpin Motors15505 Roscoe Blvd.North Hills, California 91343(800) 256-6219www.galpin.com

CollisionLink Represents ‘Inevitable Change’ Says Major Parts Dealer

From left, Galpin Motors Sales Rep Joe Jotikasthira; Sales Rep Gerardo Sanchez;Warehouse Manager Tom Thompson; Ford Motor Co. Rep Anne Tran-Malone;Assistant Warehouse Manager Istvan Gerlei; Wholesale Parts Manager ButchLemen and Sales Rep Javier Gonzalez receive yet another award for hitting topnumbers year after year

By utilizing CollisionLink, Galpin’s customerscan incorporate more factory parts into theirestimates without paying more than theaftermarket

Owner Maurice Starrantino (left) and AssistantManager Jesse Elizondo at Autoworld Collisionin Valencia are using CollisionLink with greatsuccess to identify and purchase OE parts andget them into more of their repairs

can be a difficult task. It’s generallybest to just illustrate the message insome way. An image suggestingspeed, like a race track pit crew, couldwork. Or just an illustration of a clockwith wings. Shop owners like to showa picture of their shop, but this is un-likely to motivate a prospect to comein for repairs. And this raises the mostimportant aspect of the message. It ab-solutely has to motivate the prospectto respond. There MUST be a demandfor action: “Call us to find out!”“Come in for a free estimate.” “Comefind out how cheap we can be!”

As good as repetitive short adsmay be, there’s nothing like a greatrepetitive slogan. “You’re in goodhands with Allstate,” has been aroundforever. Even if you totally disagreewith the slogan, you know that mostpeople recognize it. That’s the kind ofrecognition you want to build with aslogan about your shop. Brief butpowerful may seem like a contradic-tion in terms, but if you can create it, itcan do great things for your business.

pany tries to get it removed from theoffending websites through methodslike contacting the site owners and re-questing that they remove the contentin question.

In 2006, Susan Crawford, a cy-berlaw specialist on the faculty ofCardozo Law School in NYC, saysthat when contacted in that fashion,“Most people will take materialsdown just to avoid the hassle of deal-ing with possible litigation.”

Reputation.com also leveragesthe positive approach, by writing 200-300 word articles praising their clientsand posting them throughout the Web.By building a reservoir of positivefeedback out there in cyberspace andcontinually acting as a watchdog,Reputation.com can help you to offsetbad press or disparaging reviews thatyou’ve received and keep the goodword coming, so that you’re readywhen and if it happens again.

“Be prepared” is the Boy Scoutmotto, but we can’t all be EagleScouts all the time, so when disparag-

ing things appear about you and/oryour business online, the worst thingyou can do is ignore the situation. Ifnegatives are out there and you knowit, you’ll never know who’s not com-ing to your shop because they’ve seena bad review. Silence is deafening andpeople will readily form “guilty untilfound innocent” opinions unless yourespond. But keep it positive, buildgood will by doing things that benefityour community and hire an expert ora company to defend you online ifyou’ve really been maligned.

Had success in turning your on-line reputation around? Contact me [email protected] and let me know howyou did it. I’ll pass that along to shopswho may find themselves in the samesituation.


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Damaged Reputation

At Brasher’s Salt Lake Auto Auc-tion on Aug. 19, a pipe bomb wasapparently discovered in a car thattechnicians were preparing for sale,according to news reports. Thank-fully, police were able to detonatethe bomb and everyone was safe.

As of Aug. 20, authorities hadnot yet determined how or why itended up there or who placed it.

“Our bomb techs respondedand inspected that device,” SaltLake City detective Lisa Pascadlosaid in one of the reports. “(They)determined that it was indeed an ex-plosive device. They rendered itsafe.”

She added: “Obviously we willwant to definitely investigate wherethat car came from and how therecame to be a pipe bomb in the vehi-cle.”

Lt. Isaac Atencio said in an-other report: “Nobody knows how itgot there.”

Apparently, a robot was used todeactivate the device, witnessessaid.

Pipe Bomb Disarmedat Salt Lake City, UT,Auto Auction


Long or Short

by Vinnie Mitz,President, Copart, Inc.

Although used car dealers and insur-ance companies are the types of cor-porations that seemingly benefit themost from the salvage auction indus-try, auto body shops are less obviousbut equal beneficiaries. If properly uti-lized, salvage auctions can help bodyshops to supplement their existingbusiness by increasing their repair vol-umes and facilitating access to parts.

Fixing the Fixed CostsAuto body shop owners have much ofthe same fixed-business costs as anyother operation. The cost of land orrent, utilities, payroll and upkeep alladd to an auto body shop’s overhead.That means that whether a shop re-pairs 10 cars or 50, the basic fixed costof doing business will generally be thesame.

By utilizing salvage auctions,body shops have the opportunity tobetter utilize their fixed-cost base.

One way to use the auctions is tobuy repairable cars to fill in workslots. A lot of the cars that are writtenoff as a total loss are actually re-pairable. Body shops can buy thesedamaged cars through a salvage auc-tion, then repair and resell them for anadded revenue stream. Or, if a shopneeds multiple parts from a car, it canbuy the car, strip it of the parts itneeds, and then resell the remainder ofthe car.

Going VirtualTop tier salvage auctions utilize onlinetechnologies that allow bidders to par-ticipate in virtual salvage auctionsfrom the convenience of their home oroffice. Vehicle searching, previewingand bidding can all be accessed via aclick of the mouse. Since the Internethas a global reach, it can vastly in-crease the size of an auto body shop’sbusiness universe.

Locating Hard-to-Find PartsShops can also buy vehicles for parts.Shops often fit used or recycled partswhen making repairs to automobiles.They usually source them from a localor regional dismantler, but if they needa large number of used parts, it maybe prudent to acquire an entire vehi-cle, use the parts required and then re-sell the rest. This method is oftenhelpful in non-insured repair jobs.

If a shop is working on a rare orexotic car with hard-to-find usedparts, sourcing from a salvage pool isan option. If the shop can’t find a parton its own, a salvage pool can informthe shop about recent sales of thesame rare car. The shop can then trackdown the dismantler who bought thecar and buy the part directly.

An advantage to using virtual sal-vage auctions for body shops is the in-creased reach it offers when acquiring

cars or car parts.Because the auc-tions are onlineand available toanyone in theworld, shop own-ers are not limitedto the cars or partsin their generalvicinity. Addition-

ally, the auctions don’t require biddersto be physically present, which willsave the shop owner countless hoursof boredom and drudgery, as well astravel costs.

A Level Playing FieldVirtual salvage auctions help mitigatethe shadier aspects of auto auctions,such as collusion or intimidation. Col-lusion can occur when multiple bid-ders conspire to fix the auction. Itcheats other bidders out of a fair auc-tion, and keeps cars from being soldat their optimum price.

However, with the virtual auc-tion, buyers simply enter their bidsinto a computer, rather than gothrough an auctioneer or auction man-ager, who may handle multiple com-peting bids simultaneously. Byeliminating the human element in thispart of the process, virtual salvageauctions create a fair auction for allbidders.

Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!To participate in an online salvageauction, here are the three steps:

Step 1: Search and PreviewBidders from around the world canquickly search through all current ve-hicle inventories online to find ex-actly what they want through avariety of online search tools. Eachvehicle has digital images and de-tailed condition information, allowingthe bidders to fully preview the vehi-cles before deciding whether to bid.Bidders can also search for vehicles

in their general vicinity and previewthem onsite to evaluate the conditionfirst hand.

Step 2: Preliminary BiddingOnce a bidder has found the vehiclethey are interested in pursuing, theycan enter preliminary bids online or atbidding kiosks where vehicles arestored prior to the live sale.

Preliminary bidding is where bid-ders enter the maximum price thatthey are willing to pay for a vehicle.The system will then bid incremen-tally for the bidder up to their maxi-mum bid, even during the virtualauction.

Step 3: Live SaleAfter the auction organizer receivesthe vehicle seller’s transferable title,the car is slated for a virtual sale. Po-tential bidders continue to compete inthe preliminary bidding process up toone hour before the start of the Inter-net-only virtual sale. When the virtualsale starts, digital images of the car ortruck for sale are displayed along withthe current highest bid from the pre-

liminary bidding period. When bid-ding on the vehicle stops, a count-down is initiated. If no one bids duringthe countdown, the vehicle is sold tothe highest bidder.

Now that you have the basicsdown for participating in a virtual sal-vage auction, use it to your businessadvantage. Happy bidding!

About Copart, Inc.Copart sells more than one millionvehicles each year at more than 140facilities throughout the UnitedStates, Canada, and the UnitedKingdom, through its two-stageVB2 internet technology. Copartsells vehicles for a variety of con-signors including finance compa-nies, banks, dealers, fleets, rental carcompanies and the insurance indus-try. Copart’s success has earned it aplace on Forbes “200 Best SmallCompanies” list nine years in a row.Copart was also featured on the tel-evision show, World’s Best as “TheWorld’s Best Remarketing Com-pany.” For more information, seewww.copart.com.


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How Shop Owners Can Take Advantage of Salvage Auctions

Vinnie Mitz,Copart President

Ford released their second compara-tive tests of Genuine Ford structuralsteel collision parts versus aftermarketcounterparts on their Youtube accounton August 8.

The video is described as show-ing a “parts comparison performanceof genuine Ford parts vs. aftermaketcollision parts using computer aidedsimulation tests, crash sled tests, andactual vehicle crash tests data. In allcases, genuine Ford parts perform asdesigned. Aftermarket parts perform-ance leads to questions of doubt con-cerning proper air bag deployment.”

The video is hosted by Ford Re-pairability Engineer Larry Coan. Coanalso describes Ford’s own version of the“sawzall test,” which they recreated fol-lowing its publicity since last year’sCIC meeting, where a Sawzall is usedto cut into aftermarket and OEMbumper beams. The test has been du-plicated numerous times and depicts thedifference in difficulty between cuttingthrough an OEM bumper beam versusan aftermarket bumper beam.

The test has been called into ques-tion by several aftermarket parts advo-cates, the groups call the test“unscientific” and question whether itprovides a true measure of how a partwill perform in a crash, however the in-tent is not to show whether cutting asupport member more easily means itwill fail, but rather that the materials aredifferent. In the video Coan states thatFord’s saw test yielded similar results toothers depicted over the past year. (Seealso Toby Chess’ column this issue.)

Ford’s comparative tests weredone with 05–09 Mustang and 08-09Focus Bumper Beams, 06–08 F-150bumper brackets and 04–07 F-150 ra-diator supports, and 05–09 Mustangbumper absorbers and isolators. Initialcomparisons showed that part con-struction and weight were noticeablydifferent between OEM and aftermar-ket parts.

Crash simulations between partsalso showed a large difference be-tween impact reactions. Repair costsfollowing such crashes also revealed

a difference between damage sus-tained from crashes where OEM andaftermarket parts were used.

ABPA Responds with Own VideoThe Automotive Body Parts Associa-tion (ABPA) responded to Ford’svideo by releasing their own videoand press release detailing some oftheir own crash test results. Accordingto the group, the video of their crashtests illustrates the safety and qualityof aftermarket auto parts. The video,which is available on the ABPA web-site at www.autobpa.com, showcasesactual high- and low-speed crash tests.

According to the ABPA, side-by-side video taken during a high-speedcrash test illustrates the simultaneousairbag deployment (down to the mil-lisecond) for two 2006 Toyota Corol-las, one outfitted with an aftermarketbumper reinforcement bar and theother a car company equivalent.

The group uses this set of crashtests to claim that false assertionswere made “by some car companies

that airbag timing is affected by usingcomparable aftermarket components.”

The ABPA goes on to say that,“the high-speed crash data also showsthe aftermarket- and the car company-equipped cars both delivering occu-pant safety well within the federalsafety standards, with the car outfittedwith non-branded car company partsactually delivering slightly better oc-cupant protection as measured across11 key injury criteria.”

“In low-speed crash tests pre-sented in the video, an aftermarketbumper reinforcement bar outper-forms an equivalent car-companybranded part, effectively absorbingimpact without deployment of airbagswhile sustaining less damage that re-sults in a $200 lower repair estimate.”

“Time and again the aftermarketindustry has demonstrated the safetyand quality of its products, yet somecar companies seem determined tocounter scientific facts with fear-mon-gering,” said Co-Chair of the ABPA

Ford Releases Another Crash Test Video Comparing OEM to AftermarketCrash Parts, ABPA Responds with its own Crash Test Video


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by Bob Spitz—Management Success

I was talking with a fairly new shopowner the other day about the state ofhis business and the challenges of get-ting a new business off the ground.During the talk the subject of insur-ance adjusters came up.

This particular owner, like manyin the business, has a passion for hisart. He is a master painter and doesbeautiful work. Like many new oper-ators, he has some body techs but he isstill the one who does the painting. Hehas goals. He wants his shop to be thebest collision shop in his market and Ihave no doubt that with his drive hemight make it. The reason I say mightis due to the fact that he is currentlystuck working in the back and tryingto run the business which includeswriting his own estimates.

He is experiencing his first caseof true stress and it is starting to man-ifest itself in the way he handles peo-ple. He looks at adjusters as an enemywho is there to drive him crazy andwhittle down his profits to the pointwhere he is not making any money.

I asked him if he provides a spacefor the adjuster to work while the ad-juster is in his shop. His reply was in-stantaneous and filled withantagonism. “Why should I do that?He is not here to help me!” I knew im-mediately that he was looking at theadjuster as an adversary and not a po-tential ally.

I was not trying to find fault withhim. He is a well trained and experi-enced painter with a lot of knowledgeand talent in that area. His problem isthat, he is not trained in the fine art ofhandling people, which as an owner ismore important than his skills as apainter. As a result he is trying to han-

dle the wrong problem in his business.Mishandling adjusters will not im-prove his bottom line!

I got him to calm down and takea look at what an adjuster does. Howthe adjuster plays the fine balancingact between the insurance companyand the shop which has the customer’sinterests as the priority. I got him toalso look at that fact that he needs theadjusters’ help in accomplishing hisgoals and yelling at people and beingbelligerent is probably not the bestway to win someone over.

I agreed with him that adjustersare not all sweethearts. Some are areal problem. They can be difficultand unreasonable. Maybe they just gotchewed out by the owner of the lastshop they were in. It doesn’t matter.You need this person to help you getwhat you need. Maybe just offeringthem a bottle of water and a place tosit down for a moment to talk aboutanything other than the business athand would help. Not all of them areout to get you. In fact if he would putdown his sword and shield he mightfind the majority of them are just try-ing to do a difficult job the best waythey know how.

Interacting effectively with peo-ple is not only a skill; it is an art formthat has to be mastered by anyone try-ing to run a business. There are manythings to know about business. Un-derstanding personal relationships andknowing how to negotiate is amongthe top items on the list.

Very few people are born withthese skills, they have to be learned.

I asked him “What if you had thesame ability in dealing with adjustersthat you have in dealing with the cars?Where would you be?” He stoppeddead in his tracks.

I continued, “You are a talentedpainter who only knows how to do thejob one-way, the right way. You’rebeing upset with the adjuster is be-cause you feel he is trying to get youto do the job in a lesser way—a waythat will not satisfy you or the cus-tomer. You do not have the skill to getthe adjuster to see it your way. Thisleaves you with limited choices ofshort-cutting, or accepting what isbeing offered which reduces yourprofit. Neither one of these is accept-able, nor should they be. You aregoing to do it the right way regard-less.”

“Two things need to happen hereand happen quickly or you will burnout and never achieve your goals. Thefirst is you have got to learn how to re-cruit, hire and train the right people sothat you can get back out of the paintbooth and run your business. You arekilling yourself trying to do both. Youcan get short fused when you have tostop what you are doing to handle theinsurance adjusters. Don’t start theconversation with the adjuster with anegative attitude.

“The second thing is you have tolearn is how to deal with people andnegotiate in order to get what it is youneed to do the job right and put moneyin your pocket.” His shoulders saggedand he said to me, “Where do westart?”

I am happy to report that this par-ticular shop owner did not blow up hisbusiness and is now in a much bettercondition. He smiles more. He is wellon the way to achieving his goals.

Collision shop owners are in thepeople handling business. If you arenot achieving your goals, feeling fedup and frustrated, give ManagementSuccess a call—we can help.

Management Success!, is a companythat specializes in training and con-sulting the independent automotive re-pair shop owner. Bob tours thecountry as an educational speakerand writes numerous columns. Addi-tional articles on management can beread online at www.managementsuc-cess.com

©2011 Management Success! AllRights Reserved.

Handling People, Including Insurance Adjusters, Means Negotiating Effectively


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High Tech Devices MakeCars More Theft-ProneTwo researchers demonstrated at ahackers conference that they couldnot only unlock a Subaru Outback butstart up its engine using only an An-droid smartphone and some creativeprogramming. They used a techniquecalled “war texting” to intercept thepassword used by the car they hi-jacked, although that is not supposedto be possible. The concern is that carthieves will trade up for keyboardsand smartphones, gaining entry to thenewest models that haven’t beenproperly programmed to preventhackers from gaining access.

Mitsubishi returns to profit with $55million in quarterly net income. Mit-subishi returned to profit in the threemonths ended June 30, aided by sell-ing more vehicles in North America,Europe and Asia. The automakerposted net income of 4.3 billion yen($55.5 million) in the three monthsended June 30, compared with a lossof 11.8 billion yen a year earlier, it saidin a statement. The automaker raisedits half-year profit to break even, froma loss of 10 billion yen announced onJune 13. The automaker expects its re-tail sales in the six months to Sept. 30to be at 518,000 units, up 8,000 unitsfrom its earlier forecast.

Mitsubishi Back to Profitability

The last time I wrote about a dealer-ship it was a California multi-linedealer near Sacramento. This time it isa single franchise dealer in the metroNew York area. You would think thatthey had nothing in common, but youwould be mistaken. Both dealers aresuccessful, and both have the samewinning philosophy; customer serv-ice.

Acura of Westchester is trulyunique. They are an example of theword “commitment”. Since 1986,they have taken good care of their cus-tomers, and their customers know it.The dealership is not on Main Street -you have to know where it is in orderto find it. Apparently, once found theyare never forgotten. In 2010, theywere number one in the nation forAcura new car sales.

This dealer is an example of thebenefits of stability. Customers see thesame people, year after year. They be-come friends; confident that they will

always have the very best service.Their service manager has been therefor 17 years, and there has only beenone GM in the history of the store! AsI said, this dealer is unique.

The parts department follows thesame pattern. Jake Dildine is the partsmanager, and he has been there for 18years. His commitment to customerservice is amazing. Over and over, hestressed loyalty, relationship, attitude,pride, and dedication, but never price.His crew is just as dedicated; they allpitch in to answer four direct tele-phone lines; keeping three delivery

trucks going full time. In response toincreasing business, this dealer is openseven days a week!

“Fast paced” is the description ofthis parts department, something I un-derstand is normal in this area. Usu-ally, this results in a belief that nogrowth is possible, all resources arealready at maximum. Jake is proofthat there is always room for im-provement, always room for anothercustomer. You can always find a wayto improve your operation.

Acura supports Jake, deliveringdaily orders and implementing the“Collision Select” program, allowingJake to compete on pricing with after-market and used parts suppliers. Yes,price is still an issue with some shops;forced by cut-rate insurance policiesto use the cheapest parts available.These insurance companies willinglyforce some shops to accept parts thatvoid their customer’s warranties.Other shops, some in their second

generation, are strong enough to resistthese pressures and insist on qualityrepairs. The strong partnership be-tween Jake and these shops - alwaysputting their customer first - con-tributes to their mutual success.

There are over 20 million peoplein the area, and the pressure on thebody shops and dealers after a hailstorm is unbelievable. Jake and hiscrew take inclement weather in stride,always answering the phone with asmile and a welcoming attitude. Thereare five other Acura dealers within 20miles, offering some competition, butAcura of Westchester is obviously thebest choice.

I am proud to include Acura ofWestchester in my list of DistinctiveDealerships.

Larry Williams is a former partsmanager and consultant with nationalawards and over 30 years of experiencein creating profitable departments. Hecan be reached at [email protected].


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Acura of Westchester

with Kathy Steck-FlynnAutobody CSI

with Dan EspersenALL OEM Information

with Tom McGeeALL OEM Information

with J.R. CarlsonConsumer Callout

Automaker Actions and Announcementswith Jeremy Hayhurst

Autobody Techwith Jeremy Hayhurst

Parts Profileswith Larry Williams

Automaker Actions and Announcementswith Janet Chaney

I-CAR Tech

Amaradio Explains CRAwith Lee Amaradio Jr.

Consumer Callout

The Right Causewith Mike Causey

with Ed AttanasioShop Showcase

Say What?!

Larry Williams is an innovative parts manager with national awards and over 30years of experience in creating and managing profitable departments. He canbe reached for consultation at [email protected]

New car in the shop – front end lookslike it ran into a tree. It did! So, what’sit going to take to get it back on theroad? Well, it starts with you, the esti-mator. As an estimator, you need ex-perience, good judgment, diplomaticskills and accurate information.

As far as experience, judgmentand diplomacy go, you either havethem or you don’t. I can’t really helpyou there. But, when it comes to in-formation, that’s a differentstory. Today, every model yearbrings innovations: Materialstechnology, electronic systems,finishes, vehicle drivetrains,steering and suspension… thelist goes on.

Can you develop a repairplan just by looking? How aboutan educated guess, or callingyour friend who worked on oneof these vehicles once? Sorry,the old ways just don’t workanymore!

Information is the keyBut not just any information. Youneed manufacturer’s information. OEprocedures and guidelines are ab-solutely required to efficiently andeffectively repair today’s vehicles.You need it to write a repair plan.Your Parts Manager may need it toorder the correct parts the first time.And of course your technicians needOE information to make accurate re-pairs in the shortest amount of timepossible.

Back to the car in the shopYou start to build your repair plan. Asan experienced estimator, you proba-bly have a good sense of how deep thedamage goes. But what about thatframe rail? Can you section it? (Fig-

ure A). Are you sure? Can you tellwhat kind of steel is used in each lo-cation? Those are just a couple of fac-tors that will make a difference in theestimate… and in the ultimate prof-

itability of the job. Of course, profit isnot the only concern. Your primarymission is to deliver a vehicle that issafe to drive. That’s really the bottomline, isn’t it?

Here are some of the questionsyou may have to wrestle with:• How do you determine the typesof construction materials?• Is the part you are repairing madefrom high-strength steel? Ultra high-

strength steel? Dual phase steel? Highstrength low alloy steel? (Figure B.1).• How do you know for sure if themanufacturer says it is safe to sectiona particular component?• Do you follow the insurance es-timator’s procedures about where tosection? If you don’t comply with theestimator’s recommendation, who isliable for damage in the event of a fu-ture accident?• Do you have all the informationyou need for a safe, reliable – yet effi-cient – repair, including electronic sys-tem reset or reprogramming procedures?• Will your estimate comply withyour shop’s DRP agreements if youparticipate in such a program?• Does your technician have theprecautions he or she needs to worksafely. What are the special safetyconcerns for hybrid vehicles? Withhybrids, the safety of the technicianAND the vehicle needs extra atten-tion. (Figure C).• Will the shop make money on thejob?

OE information is the gold standard forcollision repairWhen developing a repair plan, OErepair information helps you:• Increase estimate accuracy for

collision and mechanical repairs• Identify proper repair proceduresto reduce supplements• Provide required documentationto customers and insurers• Increase sales and consumer con-fidence with a professional explana-tion of necessary repairs

• Manage costly vehicle returns

Here is an excerpt of an OE repairarticle for a 2011 Buick® Regal®A-Pillar – Front Hinge PillarBody Sectioning (Upper)Always refer to ALLDATA® for safety


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Estimators – The Front Line in the Battle for Profitability

See Battle for Profitability, Page 58

FIGURE C: Precautionary Statements for a 2011 Toyota® Prius®

CAUTION:Pressing the power switch with the brake pedal depressed causes the system toenter the READY-on state. This is very dangerous because high voltage may beapplied to the inspection area.

NOTICE:When the cable is disconnected from the negative (-) battery terminal, initialize thefollowing system(s) after the cable is reconnected: Advanced Parking GuidanceSystem.

NOTICE:A short circuit to ground may occur if the AMD terminal is disconnected before thecable is disconnected from the negative (-) terminal of the auxiliary battery. If a shortcircuit to ground occurs, it can result in an open circuit in a fusible link or fuse.








Automaker Actions and Announcementswith Janet Chaney


I-CAR Tech

I-CAR Tech



Consumer Callout

Consumer Callout





Say What?!

Say What?!

Dan Espersen is ALLDATA® CollisionSM Program Manager. Dan is a Gold PinMember of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) and holds an AA Degree inAutomotive Technology. He has 17 years of experience in the collision industryand 17 years of experience in the automotive industry.and Jeff Webster

I-CAR, the Inter-Industry Conferenceon Auto Collision Repair announcedAugust 9 that James Roach of Amer-ican Honda Motor Company hasjoined the I-CAR International Boardof Directors as a Board Member.

James Roach has been part ofthe collision inter-industry for overthirty years and has been employedby American Honda Motor Com-pany since 1978. Currently, Mr.Roach is Senior Vice President –Parts and Service Division of Amer-ican Honda Motor Company. Hemanages a workforce exceeding2,000 employees which are geo-graphically placed throughout 18 lo-cations in the United States. Roachoversees the areas of automobilecustomer service, parts and acces-sories marketing, service marketing,

parts inventory procurement and dis-tribution, technical operations, andthe improvement of Lifetime OwnerLoyalty and CSI for both Honda andAcura automobile customers. He isalso responsible for the distributionof service parts and accessories formotorcycle, power equipment, andmarine products.

Roach has successfully inte-grated four previously separate busi-ness divisions into one. Throughidentifying gaps in communicationprocesses, developing countermea-sure plans, and introducing strategiccommunications channels to definedaudiences, employees of the Parts andService Division are more engagedand productivity is higher.

Elise Quadrozzi, Chair of the I-CAR International Board of Directors

stated, “Alongside his extensive ex-perience at American Honda MotorCompany, including operational,training, and marketing experience,Jim’s broad knowledge-base andproven leadership in the collisioninter-industry will truly be of value inhis role on the I-CAR InternationalBoard of Directors.”

The Board of Directors sets theoverall strategic direction for the or-ganization and assists in obtaining re-sources in support of the I-CARMission. The Board of Directors iscomprised of representatives fromeach of the following six industry seg-ments—collision repair; insurance;equipment, tools, and supplies; edu-cation, training, and research; vehiclemanufacturers; and related industryservices.

Legislation and Regulation Commit-tee Eileen Sottile. “OEs cannot cred-ibly argue that only their branded parts

can provide safety, especially when itcomes to components that play a verysmall role in crash energy manage-ment. If car company safety systemscannot handle a wide range of realworld crash conditions and materialdifferences in minor replacement parts

then they are not robustly engineeredand as such are a significant threat tothe consumers.”

“Rather than relentlessly smear-ing our industry in an attempt to gaina competitive business advantage onreplacement parts, our biggest corpo-

rate critics would do well to focus onreducing their own recalls and deliv-ering high-quality, robustly engi-neered products for the motoringpublic.”

Ford’s crash test video can beviewed at www.autobodynews.com.


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Ford ABPA

I-CAR Board of Directors Welcomes New Board Member, James Roach, American Honda Motor Company Chevy Volt Sales Slow toGrow, Nissan Leaf WorseChevrolet has sold only about 3,200Volt plug-in hybrids through the endof July. A survey of Volts on the mar-ket found 116 available nationwide. Anew CNW marketing study suggeststhat potential Volt buyers are losing in-terest. Volt’s $41,000 sticker price isthe big problem although it qualifiesfor $7500 tax credit. The 2012 pricefor Volt will drop to $39,995. GM of-ficials remain convinced Volt willmeet their sales expectations whichare projected to grow to 40,000 in2012. The Nissan Leaf trails behindwith only 1,044 units sold.

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by Charles Bryant,Executive Director, AASP/NJ

There is no doubt that ongoing train-ing in the collision industry is a mustin order to keep the technicians up todate on proper methods of repair andsafety related issues. The questionsare Why isn’t the cost of such trainingbeing considered by the insurance in-

dustry when deter-mining the laborrates that they arewilling to pay forrepairs? and Whyisn’t I-CAR push-ing or at least sup-porting this? Saferepairs equal fewer

future claims, both in property dam-age and personal injury, especially onthe type of vehicles on the roadstoday. Rather than taking the highroad and take the cost of training intoconsideration, the insurance industryappears to be taking the low road byattempting to force shops to maintainI-CAR Gold Class Status in order toget on or stay on Direct Repair Pro-

grams without any consideration forthe associated cost.

I-CAR too appears to be takingthe position that insurer’s should sim-ply force collision shops to maintainI-CAR Gold status, rather than at-tempting to take steps to help maketraining more affordable for shops.

Back in March, I-CAR represen-tatives, including the new I-CARCEO, John VanAlstyne met with nu-merous representatives from variousautomotive trade associations frommultiple North East States where anoffer was proposed to I-CAR for theassociations to get behind I-CAR andencourage their members to participatein I-CAR Training, including taking onthe task of assisting with setting up andadvertising training meetings in returnfor a discount for the members of theparticipating associations. I-CAR wassupposed to consider the proposal andget back to the parties that participatedin the meeting. To date and to myknowledge, the representatives of I-CAR, including Mr. VanAlstyne, havenot responded back even to say “nothank you.” This is not the first time

that this proposal has been on the tableand not the first time that I-CAR hasfailed to follow through.

What makes things even worse isthat I-CAR appears to be accepting in-surance industry representatives as theacknowledged experts over the colli-sion industry people that are actuallyrepairing the vehicles. The fact is thatsimply taking I-CAR classes doesn’tmake anyone an expert. To back upthis statement one only need to go tocourt on an automotive related insur-ance claim issue in dispute and watchthe process of qualifying the expertsthat are going to testify in the courtproceedings. Usually the first questionthat is asked of the person being of-fered as an expert is how many vehi-cles have you ever repaired in yourlifetime? Most of the time when an in-surance appraiser is the party beingpresented as the expert, the answer is“none.” Or, that they have never actu-ally repaired an automobile—as op-posed to the average auto body shopowner who almost always grew up re-pairing automobiles. Naturally, thebody shop is the only one that can be

fully qualified as an expert on anyjudgment call issue such as a repair orreplace issue. The appraiser’s testi-mony is usually limited to issues suchas the price for parts listed in the esti-mating program along with the hoursto perform the operation listed in thebooks or program. In other words, thetestimony of the appraiser without anyhands on experience in repairing au-tomobiles is usually limited to the costof the repairs rather than the propermethod of repair.

Ultimately, the industry will getthe training necessary to make the re-pairs on the complicated vehicles onthe roads today. Unfortunately, it maynot come from I-CAR, which wouldbe a shame. Obviously, the trainingissue revolves around the associatedcost. If the insurance industry is goingto require specific training, includingthe level of training, they should alsoconsider the related cost, either by in-creasing the labor rates to assist withcost or create or support programs tohelp lower cost such as the programoffered by the trade associations ref-


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My Take On the I-CAR Training Issue

Charles Bryant

See I-CAR Training, Page 59

Signing a commercial lease is one ofthe biggest, if not the biggest, finan-cial commitment your auto body re-pair business will make. Commercialleases are easy to commit to, full oftraps for the unwary, and very hard toget out of without significant pain andexpense. When you consider that acommercial auto body lease (five yearlease at a rental rate of $5,000) is a$300,000 commitment, it really paysto develop a basic understanding ofcommercial leases and to learn how toavoid common pitfalls.

Commercial leases are binding:A commercial lease is a specific typeof contract. In a commercial lease, theowner (landlord) of a building or landgrants your body auto body repairbusiness (tenant) the exclusive right touse some or all of the building or landin exchange for monthly payments ofrent. Commercial leases can be oral,

though almost always the terms arespelled out in a very long written con-tract. Many commercial leases usepre-printed forms that are then furthermodified in the landlord’s favor by thelandlord’s lawyer through an adden-dum attached to the back of the lease.Commercial leases can be enforced incourt and the landlord almost alwayshas the advantage in a lawsuit becausethe contractual language favors him.

Understand the lease and bargain:Your job is to understand the unfavor-able terms and then bargain as hard aspossible to improve them. Even ifyou don’t completely succeed in elim-inating unfavorable terms, you willknow what you are agreeing to and bebetter prepared to fulfill the responsi-bilities that you are undertaking.

Consider what may go wrong:Think like a lawyer. This means trying

to figure out the different ways inwhich you and the landlord may endup in a dispute. Then negotiate the po-tential disputes with the landlord be-fore signing the lease so that the twoof you can figure out how to allocateresponsibility in the written lease. It isalways better to negotiate a resolutionof potential problems before signingthe lease rather than signing the leaseand then fighting in court over unclearor unfavorable provisions.

If it isn’t in writing, it doesn’t exist:When you bargain, never rely on oralpromises made to you by the landlordbefore or after the lease is signed.Most written leases have an entireparagraph devoted to disclaiming (i.e.denying) the existence of any oralagreement outside of the written termsof the lease and stating that any mod-ification to the lease must be made inwriting. If the landlord promises youimprovements to the building you arethinking about leasing, get the land-lord to describe in detailed writingwhat improvements will be made,when they will be made, and that thelandlord will pay for them. You canalso attach drawings to the lease thatillustrate the improvements to havefurther clarity. If the landlord objectsto putting any promises in writing orwaters down the promises once theyare written down there is an over-whelming chance that you will not getwhat the landlord promised orally.

Rent isn’t the only lease obligation:Many business owners bargain hardover the rent and then happily signany rental agreement given to them bythe landlord thinking that they got agreat deal. This is understandable.

The written lease contract is usu-ally difficult for a business person todigest because it is very lengthy, con-tains small type, and is commonlypacked with legal terms that are hardto decipher. When you are signing thelease, it is hard to image that there willever be any dispute between you andthe landlord. The tenant may be ex-cited about the new premises, the land-lord is on his or her best behavior, andall the fine print in the lease seems ir-relevant. Many business owners dis-

cover that the fine print in the lease ob-ligates them not only to pay monthlyrent but to also pay significant prop-erty taxes as well as maintenance andutility expenses on top of the rent.

Do your homework:Most landlords will not guarantee thatthe rented premises are suitable for thetype of business you are planning torun. The lease may permit you to run“an auto body repair business” ormore broadly a “car repair business”but not other businesses. However,this is not a guarantee that the city orcounty will permit you to run an autobody or any auto repair business in therented location. You must check cityand county records to determinewhether the landlord has received anynotices or warnings related to theproperty and talk to the zoning offi-cials. An auto body repair use thatwas permitted 20 years ago may nolonger be permitted today. Prior bodyrepair shops at the premises may havebeen granted an exception (been“grandfathered in”) and this exceptionmay not extend to you. Do not as-sume anything and whenever possiblemake the lease contingent on yourbusiness obtaining a use permit foryour auto body repair business.

You may be taking the premises“as is”: Most of the time the ownerwill give you the rented premises “asis” meaning that they are not makingany guarantees or warranting aboutthe condition of the premises. Otherleases may provide for a very limitedwarranty meaning that the landlordwill fix certain problems but only ifthey are reported within 30 or 60 daysfrom the beginning of the lease. Mostauto body repair businesses may notlook like palaces but the structuralcondition of the leased premises doesmatter. Have a good contractor inspectthe premises you want to rent beforecommitting to the lease and either getthe landlord to commit in writing to fixitems at the landlord’s expense oragree to fix the items yourself but askfor a rent credit. Common problemsinclude cracking foundation, damagedwalls, leaking roof, non-functioningHVAC, and lack of compliance with


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Tips for Negotiating a Commercial Lease For Your Body Shop

See Commercial Leases, Page 60

with David BrownShop Showcase

with Attorney Martin ZuradaBody Shop Law Martin Zurada is a San Francisco-based attorney who regularly

advises and litigates on behalf of California’s auto body repairbusinesses. Contact him at: [email protected]

This July I did a presentation at theCollision Industry Conference (CIC)in Salt Lake City on the need for OEMdata prior to estimating and repairingtoday’s cars. I also included some ad-ditional discussion and presented ex-amples of bumper reinforcements. Ireceived a letter from a CAPAspokesperson stating that my demon-stration “caused members of the colli-sion repair industry to believe,mistakenly, that the part used in yourdemonstration was CAPA-certified.”I think that it is important that I givereaders an accurate account of whatreally happened. I want to make thisclear. I am not against the use of qual-ity aftermarket parts in the collisionrepair process, but I am very muchagainst being told to use substandardparts and then assuming all of therisks for their use.

A couple of months ago, a shopin the Midwest received an estimatefrom a major insurance companycalling for a certified front bumperreinforcement for a 2008 HyundaiSonata. The shop had ordered fromthe A/M supplier a certified front-bumper reinforcement, but they re-ceived a non certified front bumperreinforcement. The shop’s tech didthe right thing—he compared thedamaged OE part to the A/M partand showed it to the owner. The wasa considerable weight difference be-tween the two parts. He ordered anOE part and sent the A/M part to me.

I purchased a new part and com-pared them. I found that A/M wasnot like, kind and quality. About thesame time, I received a bumper rein-forcement made by Diamond Stan-dard for a 2003 to 2008 ToyotaCorolla that was certified by NSF.

Again, I compared the two. Thiswas an OE part and it was extremelydifficult to distinguish between thetwo parts. I thought that it was nec-essary to ship both sets of bumpersreinforcements to the CIC audience,so I sent all four parts to Salt LakeCity. While I was boxing up theparts, I had an A/M reinforcementsitting outside for the past year (Ilive in LA and we do not get muchrain) and I decided to throw it away.I cut it in half and what I saw turned

my stomach. The entire inside of thereinforcement was filled with rust. Iincluded this part in my demonstra-tion.

In my presentation, I never men-tioned CAPA or NSF, but a memberof the audience stated that the frontbumper from Diamond Standard wascertified and I corrected my state-ment. I also thanked the AutomotiveBody Parts Association (ABPA) forthe effort in making sure that the partsthey sell can be traced. I think that isimportant for you to see what I pre-sented so you can understand why Imade this subject matter part of mypresentation.

Let’s look at the Diamond Standardand OE front bumper reinforcements.

I proceeded to take a piece ofmetal out of both parts to check themetal strength with a metal analyzerfrom Europe (Bor-On).

The Diamond Standard part hada reading of 36.1 which translate toUltra High Strength Steel.

The reading of the OE part was48.1 which translates to Ultra HighStrength Steel. Both parts were ultrahigh strength steel, but the OE parthad a higher strength. Also the OE hada series of ribs stamped into back sidewhereas the A/M did not. I put bothparts on a table at the CIC meetingand asked the audience to look at themand select the OE part. About half ofthe people misidentified the A/M partas the OE. A shop owner, who sits ofthe CAPA technical committee, toldme that the OE part was not an origi-

nal equipment part, but a replacementpart and I should not be calling it anOE part (the only OE part comes onthe car).

The letter I received from CAPAstates the “CAPA has yet to see any re-inforcement bars or bumper parts thatmeet CAPA certification standards.”A representative from a OE manufac-turer stated that the OE high strengthwas probably needed to pass the fed-

eral safety crash standards. Let’s lookat the A/M reinforcement with therust.

The part had some sort of finishon the inside end of the rail, but baresteel on the rest of the inside of therail. I asked a CIC participant “whatdoes rust do to the part?” His re-sponse was that the part was weak-

ened. You don’t have to be anengineer to understand that if thestrength of the steel has deteriorted, it


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Tech Notes

National News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

Regional News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

with Jeremy HayhurstPublisher’s Page

with Karyn HendricksShop Showcase

with David M. BrownShop Showcase

Shop Showcasewith Jeremy Hayhurst

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

California Autobody Associationwith David McClune

Collision Repair Association of CA.with Richard Steffen

Insurers Excel at Steeringwith Richard Steffen

Year in Quoteswith John Yoswick

Transition Planningwith John Yoswick

Mainstream Media

My Turnwith Joe Momber

Toby Chess is an I-CAR program instructor, Welding specialist, and former salvage yardoperator. Toby is universally known in the collision industry for his charitable works,worthy causes, and magic tricks. He can be reached at [email protected]

Confusion over Certified Parts at CIC

See Certified Parts Confusion, Page 59

For the first time since 2003, theNACE expo will be held somewhereother than Las Vegas. From October5-8, 2011, NACE will take place at theOrange County Convention Center inOrlando, FL. As of July, attendee reg-istration for 2011 surpassed double theregistration of 2010, a fact largely at-tributed to the new east-coast location.

Kathleen Moyer of Rex’s BodyShop and Garage Inc. in Vincennes, INis very excited that NACE is being heldin a new location in 2011 and hopesthey continue alternating locations.

Luckily, this is what NACE hasannounced they intend to do, rotatingthe expo to different locations aroundthe country in upcoming years inorder to attract new attendees.

Though he and his wife attendNACE every other year, Shawn H.Moody of Moody’s Collision Centersin Maine is also happy for the changeof scenery, pointing out that Orlando

is a more family-friendly environmentthan Las Vegas, and therefore morelikely to attract attendees who can cor-relate the trip to the expo with a fam-ily vacation to Florida. His absencefrom NACE in the past has often beendue to the distance between Maineand Las Vegas, and he likes the ideaof toggling the location between theeast and west coasts.

Mike Morgan of Mike’s Paintand Body in Crawfordville, FL alsoapproves of the new location. He lastattended NACE in 2003 with his son,but in prior years, he took his em-ployees and their families when theexpo was held closer to home, such asOrlando, New Orleans and Atlanta,because it “was a great morale boosterfor the shop.” Now, he hopes SEMAwill follow NACE’s example of alter-nating locations.

Shawn H. Moody also findsSEMA fascinating to attend when it

runs concurrently with NACE, buthe feels NACE has made a wise de-cision by not competing with SEMAbecause “we need to keep our in-dustry focused”. He is currentlycompleting his newest facility andneeds to “tool up”. He is particularlyanticipating the exhibits about framemachines, CCC, measuring and re-sistance welders.

Kathleen Moyer also prefers theseparation of the two events, and sheis eager to see the new products in theindustry, particularly in the computerline, as she likes to keep her shop thor-oughly stocked and up-to-date withthe newest and most effective tech-nology.

Audra Fordin of Great BearAuto in Flushing, NY will be attend-ing NACE for the first time this Octo-ber. She is excited to see what newtechnology is available or will be soonto “make the auto body shop run moresmoothly with less footprint on the en-vironment and to work on an autobody program with the Girl Scouts ofAmerica”.

When discussing what NACEcould do to attract new attendees,Shawn H. Moody believes NACEhas made two critical decisions that,if continued, will have a positive ef-fect on attendance: “having NACEthe first week of October is perfecttiming…November is too late” aswell as no longer competing withSEMA. He does suggest “if you re-ally want to restore attendance, youneed to lower exhibitor costs andalso bring the paint manufacturersback.”

Mike Morgan contributes “thereshould be a national discussion onhow to fairly set labor rates by some

independent entity agreed upon byall”.

Overall, most auto body shopowners that do not plan to attend citedistance and cost as a reason, as wellas the implicit cost of time away fromtheir business. Domenico Nigro ofNigro’s Auto Body in Philadelphia, PAstates “I think NACE would be a won-derful and worthwhile trip for mybody shop business. Unfortunately, Ijust cannot get away from my shop forthat length of time, nor do I have any-one that I can spare. This pains me be-cause I know how helpful NACEcould be.”

The NACE expo is a portion ofAutomotive Service and Repair Week(ASRW) which includes the Interna-tional Autobody Congress and Expo-sition (NACE) and the Congress ofAutomotive Repair and Service(CARS). ASRW is widely consideredthe industry’s leading event. In 2011,it will include over eighty educationalsessions as well as exhibits showcas-ing products, services and on-floorcompetitions. The ASA Marketplacewill showcase current car technology.Participants in NACE include BASF,DuPont and many other well-knownbrands.

Kathleen Moyer plans to attendthe expo with two employees in 2011.She has been in the auto body industryfor 37 years and has attended NACEevery year since the expo began.

Moyer finds NACE extremelyeducational and claims “I’m going totry to attend as many years as I can.”Shawn H. Moody’s opinion is “We’rein the Collision Repair business so forus, the choice is clear, and it’s NACE.The educational component of NACEalone make it worth attending.”

NACE/CARS Receiving Renewed Enthusiasm from East Coast Shops


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with Rick WhiteShop Management

with Stefan GesterkampPaint Management

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Mainstream Media

Automakers’ Actions and Analysisby Autobody News Staff

Shop Showcaseby Autobody News Staff

with Ed AttanasioShop and Product Showcase

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Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who works in a variety of fields and subjects, but grew up in a family of NASCARfans. She can be contacted at [email protected].

LKQ Corporation reported a 23 per-cent increase in second quarter in-come to $46.7 million on recordrevenue of $759.7 million, a 29 per-cent increase over the second quarter2010.

“All of the operating groups per-formed well during the quarter,”stated Robert Wagman, President andCo-Chief Executive Officer of LKQCorporation. “Alternative parts usage

continues to grow, our fill rates are athistorical highs, and we continue tosee strong insurance support,” Wag-man said.

LKQ Corporation Reports 23% Increased 2nd Qtr, Record Reveue


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procedures, identification of materialtypes, recommended refinish materi-als, removal and installation proce-dures. Always refer to the vehiclemanufacturer for questions relating toapplicable or non-applicable war-ranty repair information.

Removal ProcedureWarning: Sectioning should be per-formed only in the recommendedareas. Failure to do so may compro-mise the structural integrity of thevehicle and cause personal injury ifthe vehicle is in a collision.

The body side outer panels areavailable in one-piece side frames.You can perform any one of these re-placement procedures separately or inany combination, depending upon theextent of damage to the vehicle. Sec-tioning must take place in specifiedareas only. Stay away from the doorand window opening radius areas.Perform sectioning only in straightareas of the openings.

1. Disable the SIR system.2. Disconnect the negative battery cable3. Remove all related panels and com-ponents.4. Repair as much of the damagedarea as possible.5. Remove the sealers and anti-corro-sion materials from the repair area, asnecessary.Note: Sectioning can be done any-where in the straight area along therocker panel.6. On the “A” Pillar Measure down100 mm from the door wiring conduithole lower edge (1). Mark this cut lo-cation on the front hinge pillar (2).Mark a cut location in the straight areaon the rocker panel (3) (Figure 1).7. Cut the front hinge pillar body

where sectioning is to be performed(1) (Figure 2).8. Locate and mark all the necessary fac-

tory welds of the front hinge pillar body.Note: Record the number and loca-

tion of welds for installation of theservice assembly.9. Drill out all factory welds (1) (Figure 3).10. Remove the damaged front hingepillar body.

Installation Procedure

1. Cut the replacement hinge pillar incorresponding locations to fit the vehi-cle (1) (Figure 4). The panel should betrimmed to allow a gap 1 1/2 the metalthickness at the sectioning location.2. Create a 50 mm (2 in) backing platefrom the unused portion of the service

part for the “A” pillar area.3. Create a 100 mm (4 in) backingplate from the unused portion of theservice part for the rocker area.4. Trim the backing plates as neces-sary to fit behind the panel at the sec-tioning joint.5. Drill 8 mm (5/16 in) plug weldholes along the sectioning area in theservice part, and at the locations notedfrom the original panel.6. Prepare all mating surfaces as necessary.7. Apply 3MTM Weld-Thru CoatingP/N 05916 or equivalent to all matingsurfaces.

8. Fit the backing plates halfway intothe sectioning joints, 25 mm (1 in) atthe “A pillar” area and 50 mm (2 in) atthe rocker panel areas. Clamp theplates in place, and plug weld to thesection joint.9. Position the outer front pillar to thevehicle using 3-dimensional measur-ing equipment (1) (Figure 5). Clampthe pillar in place.

10. Plug weld accordingly (1) (Figure 6).11. Stitch weld the butt weld locations(2) (Figure 6).12. To create a solid weld with mini-mum heat distortion, make a 25 mm(1 in) stitch weld along the seam withgaps of 25 mm (1 in). Go back andcomplete the stitch weld.13. Clean and prepare all of thewelded surfaces.14. Apply the sealers and anti-corrosion

materials to the repair area, as necessary.15. Paint the repaired area.16. Install all of the related panels andcomponents.17. Connect the negative battery cable.18. Enable the SIR system.

NOTE: This repair/service procedureis excerpted from information pub-lished by the vehicle manufacturer, andintended for the purpose of promotingOE collision repair information totrained, professional technicians withthe knowledge, tools and equipment todo the job properly and safely. Beforeattempting the repair described, refer tothe complete article in ALLDATA Col-lision S3500. It is recommended thatthis procedure not be performed by“do-it-yourselfers.”


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Battle for Profitability

erenced above. If I-CAR wants their

training to be the accepted training,they need to work with the trade asso-ciations that work hard educate, assistand speak for their members. If the

cost of I-CAR training could be re-duced as the result of the increase involume through trade association par-ticipation, it would be a win, win for

all. Once again, I encourage I-CAR toconsider and act on the opportunity re-cently offered by the numerous tradeassociations referenced above.

will perform in different way. Thestrength category of this steel washigh strength-low alloy (slightlyhigher in strength than mild steel),where as the OE part was ultra highstrength steel.

Let’s look at the A/M HyundaiSonata Reinforcement.

The OE part is on the top andA/M is on the bottom. I asked anotherCIC participant to feel the weight dif-ference, which was considerable, andshe picked the OE because it washeavier. I compared the thickness of

both parts and you can see that therewas a significant difference.

My question to everyone is this—If the OEMs can make a part that willmeet safety standards with a lesserstrength material, don’t you think thatthey would? As the strength of thesteel increases, so does the cost. Yoube the judge.

I have a few more questions—Why do repairers have to be the betatesters for these substandard parts?Are the repairers being compensatedfor their time and expense in testingthese parts? Are repairers being pe-nalized for greater cycle times for in-stalling the parts, taking off the parts,sending the parts back and orderingdifferent parts?

I have been told by a number ofshops that a particular national insurerwill not allow a shop to substitute anOE part for the aftermarket part eventhough the OE has priced matched theaftermarket price. WHY? What canrepairers do?

Next month, you will be able topost on Facebook-type blog any af-termarket or OE parts that do not fit,have poor quality or are not of like,kind, and quality. You are probablyalready taking pictures of these

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ADA (lack of handicapped access).These issues can be very pricy to fix.

You may have to fix everything:Most commercial leases place the bur-den of fixing the premises mostly orentirely on the tenant. You may be ob-ligated to fix all problems with thepremises if the landlord does not pro-vide a warranty or the warranty ex-pires, and the lease makes fixing allproblems at the premises your respon-sibility. Read the commercial leasecarefully to determine whether thelandlord is taking any responsibilityfor repairs and whether or not these re-sponsibilities expire shortly after thelease begins. Negotiate so that thelandlord agrees to fix any problems

with the roof, walls, foundation, andthe parking lot throughout the dura-tion of the lease.

Get a shorter lease with options:Try to avoid signing a long term leaseunless you are absolutely sure that youcan get the same length of lease with ashorter initial term followed by severaloptions. A 10 year lease is not as goodas a 5 year lease with an option for an-other 5 year extension or a 3 year leasewith two 3 year extensions. Optionsgive you flexibility because near the endof the term you can choose to either ex-ercise the option or to let the lease ex-pire and move to another location.

Use CPI index for rent increases:If possible don’t tie the annual rentalincreases to a fixed percentage per yearunless the fixed annual rent increase isless than 3% per year. A low initial rent

may grow significantly over time if therental increases each year outpace in-flation. It is advisable to tie the rentalincreases to the local Consumer PriceIndex that tracks the actual inflation inyour area. This means that the rent willtrack inflation and therefore remainconstant in today’s dollars.

Good attorneys are useful:A good attorney, like a good doctor orcar mechanic, can be your best friend.It is always advisable to consult an at-torney before signing any significantcontract and this is especially true for acommercial lease. Anyone who hasgone to court over a written contract willconfirm the old saying that “An ounceof prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

No matter how hard you negoti-ate you may still sign a commerciallease that favors the landlord. How-ever, given today’s poor economy and

high vacancy rates, you owe it to your-self to get the best deal possible notjust on the rent but on the entire lease.

Martin Zurada regularly advises andlitigates on behalf of California autobody repair businesses.

Please contact him at:Zurada Law Group785 Market Street, 16th FloorSan Francisco, CA 94103(415) 637-8483www.SFLawyer360.comm.zurada@sflawyer 360.com

Please remember — this article onlyprovides general legal information butnot legal advice. You should consult alawyer who will provide you withlegal advice by applying the specificlaws in your state to your specific fac-tual circumstances.


Commercial Leases

Though event data recorders (EDR)have been around since the 1970s, thenumber of vehicles equipped with thedevices, also known as black boxes,has increased over the last decade.

While data recorded on an EDRcan greatly enhance an auto accidentinvestigation and subsequent liabilitydetermination, privacy, data retrieval,and even spoliation issues still need tobe addressed, according to W. ScottPalmer, president and chief executiveofficer of Injury Sciences LLC in SanAntonio, TX.

The National Highway TrafficSafety Administration (NHTSA) re-ported that as of 2008, 65-90 percentof the vehicles manufactured todayhave EDRs. Despite this, the data isnot consistently available to third par-ties. According to Palmer, the Boschtechnology crash data retrieval unit isone that offers consumers this optionbecause the unit can plug into a varietyof makes and modules.

“For example, the Bosch unit candownload data from GMs, Fords,Chryslers, and Toyotas. There areother manufacturers that have EDRsbut the data is not available to thirdparties yet. Those manufacturers areable to use their own special tools toplug into the vehicle and download thedata,” said Palmer, who has 20 yearsof experience in the forensic evalua-tion of auto accidents.

In 2006, NHTSA started requiringthat 2013 vehicle models equippedwith black boxes must capture the

same data in the same format. In addi-tion, NHTSA mandated the availabil-ity of a commercial tool to access thedata.

Palmer said that while the loca-tion of EDRs varies by manufacturer;in most cars, the EDR is located underthe driver’s seat and is wired to vari-ous other parts of the vehicle, like theair bag. That’s because the primarypurpose of the EDR is to trigger theairbag in the event of accident.

Type of Data RecordedThe type of data recorded also variesby manufacturer and even by model.As a result, NHTSA mandates that allvehicles that capture and record datamust have minimal data sets recordedand available to third parties.

“That really applies to all 2013model year vehicles, but since you canget a 2013 model year late in…the pre-ceding year, that’s when the law goesinto effect,” said Palmer.

The Insurance Institute for High-way Safety (IIHS) lists the data re-quired to be recorded by EDRs as of2013. The list includes:●Change in forward crash speed●Maximum change in forward crashspeed●Time from beginning of crash atwhich the maximum change in for-ward crash speed occurs●Vehicle speed prior to impact●Percentage of engine throttle, per-centage full (how far the acceleratorpedal was pressed)

●Whether or not brake was applied●Ignition cycle (number of power cy-cles applied to the EDR) at the time ofthe crash●Ignition cycle (number of power cy-cles applied to the EDR) when theEDR data were downloaded●Whether or not driver was usingsafety belt●Whether or not frontal airbag warn-ing lamp was on●Driver frontal airbag deployment:time to deploy for a single stageairbag, or time to first stage deploy-ment for a multistage airbag●Right front passenger frontal airbagdeployment: time to deploy for a sin-gle stage airbag, or time to first stagedeployment for a multistage airbag●Number of crash events●Time between first two crash events,if applicable●Whether or not the EDR completedrecording

“Now, the misnomer is that theseevent data recorders are tracking driv-ing behaviors and patterns,” saidPalmer. “That couldn’t be further fromthe truth. What these technologies arecapturing is accident-related data.”

There are two ways to access thedata. One is a plug-in port, which is astandard connecting plug that’s typi-cally located under the steering wheelof the vehicle. “If the vehicle post-ac-cident has power you can downloadthe data by plugging into that port,”Palmer said. “If the vehicle does nothave power, you have to directly plug

into the event data recorder itself, usu-ally.”

The EDR does not need to be inthe vehicle in order to download theinformation.

Privacy IssuesGiven the number of vehicles on theroad already equipped with EDRs,there is a good chance that at least oneof the vehicles involved in an accidentwill have recorded accident data.

“In a two car collision there’s al-most a certainty that one of the vehi-cles is going to have downloadabledata,” said Palmer. “Given the laws ofphysics, if you know the kind of infor-mation that we’ve talked about that’sdownloaded from one vehicle, you cancalculate a lot of the similar informa-tion for the other vehicle.”

With any collection of personalinformation comes a privacy concern.That’s where state government hasstepped in and enacted proceduralguidelines for extracting the data.Thirteen states—Arkansas, California,Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, NorthDakota, New Hampshire, Nevada,New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia,and Washington – have already en-acted legislation that requires obtain-ing the vehicle owner’s permission inorder to download the data.

Palmer advises that an auto car-rier should be concerned with two pri-mary issues relating to data collectedby EDRs: the applicable state legisla-

Use of Black Boxes in Vehicles Increased Over the Last Decade

See Black Boxes, Page 62

Some readers will remember that lastyear I built a Pinewood Derby modelcar, raced it at SEMA, and took sec-ond place. I told myself last year thatthis year I was going to really staywithin the traditional Pinewood Derbybuild using a single block of wood. A‘Celebrity Pinewood Derby’ build iswhat they were calling it. It’s all about

having fun and auctioning off the carsto benefit Childhelp and Victory Junc-tion Gang Camp. I’m all about chari-ties and fundraising and whatever Ican do to give back.

This year I decided to get creativeand came up with a pretty cool design.There are rules in Pinewood Derbyracing and building and so “maximumweight limit of this car cannot exceed24 ounces, overall length shall not ex-ceed 8˝ , overall width of the car shallnot exceed 2.75˝ including wheels.The car must have approximately 3/8˝

clearance underneath the body of thecar, the car must have 4 wheels, allcars must display at least one HRIAdecal on the car.”

The organizers provide a basicpinewood car kit including a block ofwood, 4 wheels, and two axles. “Theonly required component is a piece ofthe wood block which must be visibleon the car. You are not required to useany wheels or axles provided. Anymaterials may be used for the body ofyour car.” So that’s cool, but for me,for a Pinewood derby build, I want tostay traditional and use a hand tool tocarve it out. To me that’s the fun ofbuilding a pinewood derby car.

Last year I lost by like one inch,so I’ve got this crazy idea that I’mgoing to bring. I’m sure I’m going toraise a lot of commotion on “no, youcan’t do this, or can’t do that” but Ijust read the rules and I don’t see any-thing about this. It says no rules (ex-cept the following), so I’ve got thisidea where I’m going to have a pair ofheadlights that extend out. So thewhole idea behind that is when I’m upbehind the starting gate, the post isgoing to come up in the middle of thecar and I’m already going to have a 6inch lead.

So I’m going to use the oldschool way of building this, I’m goingto bring this car all the way up to 24ounces, as it is laid out in the rules. Sowhat I’m doing is carving out thebasic silhouette of the body, and thenI’m going to buy myself some leadweight, and with this car I’m going tomake it more of a flat, roadster style.

You know, kind of create my ownbody and have fun with it, utilize thatcomplete piece of wood.

Obviously the piece of wood it-self doesn’t weigh 24 oz. so I’m goingto add lead underneath the car. I carvedit out and melt the lead into it and getit to where I’m at about 23 ounces,leaving about an ounce for the paint,additional hardware, and wheels. I’mgoing come as close to that 24 oz. as Ican. If I go over 24 ounces I can al-ways drill some weight out. For thecapsule I’m going to take half of adeep sea fishing weight cut in half.

I sanded it down and used a08115 body panel adhesive, whichsticks to wood, plastic, metal, alu-minum, lead, anything. It has a 24-hour dry period, but you can accelerateit with a heat gun. For my headlights,I’m going to use a manual antennaethat collapses (and extends). I foundone with a nice little round knob on itthat looks like a chrome headlight.

I’ve got everything carved out,I’ve got my antennaes ready to go, I’mgoing to go back to the 08115 3Mpanel bond and I’m going to gluethose antennaes in. I run that panelbond around the lead so it fills in someof the gaps. Then I sand it with 80 grit,and give it a good 3 or 4 coats of mypreferred PCL Primer. I let it dry, thenguide coat it, sand it with some 150grit, re-guide coat it, and hit it with400 grit dry. I don’t want any mois-ture to get into the wood. Then sealerand base. The PCL Primer I’m usingis the 901 Poly Prime High Build andI’m shooting that with a SATA spray


This Year’s Entry for the SEMA Pinewood Derby 2011

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

Rich Evans is the owner of Huntington Beach Bodyworks and an award winning painter andfabricator. He offers workshops in repair and customization at his facility to share his uniquetalents. For contacts and design samples visit www.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com

Specially crafted, uniquely designed pinewoodcars, built by a talented class of hot rodders,are featured in the HRIA Builders Challengerace held on July 29 in Long Beach, CA. Thesecreations will be on display at the SEMA Showbefore being placed on eBay for auction.


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gun with a 1.9 tip. I’m also using a 3MRespirator, I’m not putting on the fullpaint suit because I’m only paintingan 8 inch by 2 inch piece of wood.

So, what am I going to do for thewheels? I’ve located some .0937 x .1875

x .0937 stainless steel precision bearings.Now I’ve got to hunt down wheels andI’m running out of time because I’mgoing out of town. I find a washer thatthis bearing will fit into. I want a biggerwheel so it doesn’t have to turn as muchto get moving. I’m using a washer sothere’s less drag when the car’s goingdown the track. The less contact with thetrack, the less drag you’re going to have.(Think train wheel.)

I use the 08115 Panel Bond andglue the bearing in, gluing two wash-ers together. Next year I’ll spend a lit-

tle more time on the wheels, but rightnow I’ve got to finish and make sure Ihave a car to race. So after gluing allthe washers together and the bearingsin. I’m using a stainless steel rod cutup to make axles about the size of a

nail. I’m need spacers to keep thewheels away from the body so I’mgoing to use heat-shrink tubing. Onthe very end I use a Staples’ push pinfor a hubcap because they’re chrome.I’m going to glue those in also withthe 08115 3M panel bond, and let thatdry. Then I’ll have the wheels ready toput on after I’ve completed my paint.

After sealing it, I put a black baseon it, I’ve got a my Rich Evans logofor brand awareness. It also gives thecar a finished look. I’m just going withblack, I’m not doing any two-tone or

any heavy graphics. Plain and simple,the car looks cool, it’s coming out theway I want it to. The best features on itare the headlights and the stainlesssteel washers, just like a poor boybuild, but, we’ll see how it performs.

The day of the race I’m going tobe in Canada so I’m sending a buddydown there to race it. Now I knowsome people will say “oh, you can’t dothat, (with the headlights)” but whenthere are “no rules, except...” You haveto push the limits to come up with anew design for anything. So, this yearthe Rich Evans entry is going to do it.Next year it might be in the rule booksthat you can’t, but this year I’m goingto innovate. I guarantee next year, ifit’s not ruled out, other people will bedoing it too. My design philosophy isto pay attention, learn something new,try to better yourself at what you do.Just have fun at what you’re doing.That’s what I do. It doesn’t matter ifit’s a small or big project. I’m alwaystaking on a design challenge. I hon-estly think I’ve never worked a day inmy life. I’m just having fun.

Mine and other design creationswill be on display at the HRIA boothduring the 2011 SEMA Show, No-

vember 1–4, in Las Vegas, beforebeing placed on eBay for public auc-tion. All of the proceeds from the auc-tion will go to the Childhelp andVictory Junction Camp children’scharities.

So what can be better? Guys lookinto this, bid on the cars, help thesecharities out, and we’ll have another ar-ticle for you next year on this. Hope-fully next year... This year I was out ofthe country to go build a car in five daysin Canada. So I was just glad to be ableto get this in for a good cause and alsotake a little time away from real carsand have fun with the Pinewood Derby.Thanks to all my sponsors, I can’t buildcars without you: 3M, SATA Guns,HRIA Pinewood builders, and everyother builder out there that took time totake this challenge on, thank you.

Visit me at Richevansdesigns.com also like my Facebook page RichEvans Designs if you want to followmy week to week projects. Also visitHuntingtonBeachBodyWorks.com andwatch for my new wheels coming out.

UPDATE: Rich’s car took 2ndplace in the HRIA Builder’s Challengeon July 29. First place went to StreetVizions.


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2011 Juke

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tion and the development of data col-lection procedures.

Spoliation AspectThe data recorded by an EDR may bedefinitive enough to establish liabilityin an auto accident claims investiga-tion. If not, Palmer said it will lead theclaims adjuster to ask more specificquestions while investigating the claim.

One caveat is that during theclaims process, damaged vehicles getrepaired. Sometimes those repairs re-sult in the replacement of the EDR. Adiscarded EDR isn’t the only spolia-tion concern. The data containedwithin an EDR is only temporarilystored, based on the number of timesthe ignition key is turned on and off.

Permission is not needed to save aunit, rather permission is needed toread it. Thus, insurers should thinkabout the type of claim scenarios thatwould justify collection and preserva-tion of an EDR, according to Palmer.

Despite privacy, data retrieval andspoliation issues—the data captured byan EDR will alter current auto accidentclaims investigation practice.


Black Boxes

Autobody News September 2011 Northeast Edition

Documents

Transcript of Autobody News September 2011 Northeast Edition