by Chasidy Rae Sisk In December 2013, State Farm expe- rienced a dramatic reduction in the number of shops participating in Se- lect Service (their direct repair pro- gram) in the Fort Wayne, IN, area due to the implementa- tion of Part- sTrader. Of the 22 local shops partici- pating in the DRP, 14 (over 60%) opted out of the program, though some of these shops had been on the program for decades. Several shop owners and managers were willing to discuss their reasons for being removed from the Select Service. Todd Bonecutter, General Man- ager at Glenbrook Collision at 100 W. Coliseum Blvd in Ft. Wayne, said he opposes PartsTrader as a mandated tool. “We don’t like being told where we can buy our parts or being pre- vented from buying parts from our usual vendors. This is just a stepping stone for the insurers to dictate other things in the collision industry. They by Chasidy Rae Sisk This January added another new me- teorological term to collective vocab- ulary even though the phenomenon it describes has been known since 1853. January 2014 started off with a frigid slow-moving cyclone known as a polar vortex that wrought havoc throughout the midwest and eastern parts of the country with record- breaking low temperatures and icy winds. Worse news perhaps is that the polar vortex will get stronger and move farther south later in January, causing cold to intensify in the Mid- west and East and drought to build in California and the West. Impact from the another surge of very cold air may include the already familiar risks from below-zero temperatures including life-threatening conditions and frost- Shops Weather All Kinds of Winter Weather Disruptions but More Polar Vortex Coming? 14 Fort Wayne, IN, Shops Opt Out of State Farm’s Select Service Citing PartsTrader See More Polar Vortex?, Page 10 See Shops Opt Out, Page 12 If you’ve been paying the least bit of attention to legal issues in the collision repair industry over the past decade, you probably know of Erica Eversman, an OH-based attorney and consumer advocate who specializes in understanding collision repairers’ issues and their impact on consumer safety. A noted authority and frequent speaker on the topics of diminished value, DRP networks and the influence insurers attempt to exert over repairers, Eversman serves as a consultant to the industry, assisting repairers to analyze pro- posed regulations and laws affecting collision repair. In addition to creating “AutoMuse”, an award-winning blog, she is chief counsel for Vehicle Information Services, Inc. and the founder of the Auto- motive Education and Policy Institute, a non-profit organization geared towards educating consumers. Though Eversman is obvi- ously busy playing so many roles, she took time from her hectic schedule to talk to Autobody News readers about some of the major concerns plaguing the collision repair industry today. As a consumer advocate, Eversman stresses that consumer education is vital; “first and foremost, consumers are the people in charge of their vehicles, but if they don’t have the proper informa- tion, they can’t stand up for themselves. They are the only ones who can effect meaningful change because it is their vehicles and their contract with the insurance company.” Furthermore, collision repairers must comply with consumer protection laws, so they are the ones at risk of noncompliance when insurer interference promotes a situation where repairers are asked to do as the insurer requests, which is always focused on cost and saving money rather than on providing a quality repair. The shop can only do so much, and if the consumer doesn’t help, they are es- sentially saying that the repair is good enough, even if it’s not ac- tually safe. continued on page 20 INTERVIEW by Chasidy Rae Sisk Todd Bonecutter Projections for Late January ERICA EVERSMAN Industry Observations from Collision Attorney Great Lakes Edition Illinois Indiana Michigan Ohio Wisconsin YEARS www.autobodynews.com 32 32 32 Presorted Standard US Postage PAID San Bernardino, CA Permit #2244 P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018 Change Service Requested VOL. 3 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 2014
Transcript
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
In December 2013, State Farm expe-rienced a dramatic reduction in thenumber of shops participating in Se-lect Service (their direct repair pro-gram) in the Fort Wayne, IN, area due
to the implementa-tion of Part-sTrader. Of the 22local shops partici-pating in the DRP,14 (over 60%)opted out of theprogram, thoughsome of these
shops had been on the program fordecades. Several shop owners andmanagers were willing to discuss theirreasons for being removed from theSelect Service.
Todd Bonecutter, General Man-ager at Glenbrook Collision at 100 W.Coliseum Blvd in Ft. Wayne, said heopposes PartsTrader as a mandatedtool. “We don’t like being told wherewe can buy our parts or being pre-vented from buying parts from ourusual vendors. This is just a steppingstone for the insurers to dictate otherthings in the collision industry. They
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
This January added another new me-teorological term to collective vocab-ulary even though the phenomenon itdescribes has been known since 1853.January 2014 started off with a frigidslow-moving cyclone known as apolar vortex that wrought havocthroughout the midwest and easternparts of the country with record-breaking low temperatures and icywinds.
Worse news perhaps is that thepolar vortex will get stronger andmove farther south later in January,causing cold to intensify in the Mid-
west and East and drought to build inCalifornia and the West. Impact fromthe another surge of very cold air mayinclude the already familiar risks frombelow-zero temperatures includinglife-threatening conditions and frost-
Shops Weather All Kinds of Winter WeatherDisruptions but More Polar Vortex Coming?
14 Fort Wayne, IN, Shops Opt Out of StateFarm’s Select Service Citing PartsTrader
See More Polar Vortex?, Page 10
See Shops Opt Out, Page 12
If you’ve been paying the least bit of attention to legal issues in thecollision repair industry over the past decade, you probably know ofErica Eversman, an OH-based attorney and consumer advocatewho specializes in understanding collision repairers’ issues andtheir impact on consumer safety. A noted authority and frequentspeaker on the topics of diminished value, DRP networks and theinfluence insurers attempt to exert over repairers, Eversman servesas a consultant to the industry, assisting repairers to analyze pro-posed regulations and laws affecting collision repair. In addition tocreating “AutoMuse”, an award-winning blog, she is chief counselfor Vehicle Information Services, Inc. and the founder of the Auto-motive Education and Policy Institute, a non-profit organizationgeared towards educating consumers. Though Eversman is obvi-ously busy playing so many roles, she took time from her hecticschedule to talk to Autobody News readers about some of the majorconcerns plaguing the collision repair industry today.
As a consumer advocate, Eversman stresses that consumereducation is vital; “first and foremost, consumers are the people incharge of their vehicles, but if they don’t have the proper informa-tion, they can’t stand up for themselves. They are the only oneswho can effect meaningful change because it is their vehicles andtheir contract with the insurance company.”
Furthermore, collision repairers must comply with consumerprotection laws, so they are the ones at risk of noncompliance wheninsurer interference promotes a situation where repairers are askedto do as the insurer requests, which is always focused on cost andsaving money rather than on providing a quality repair. The shopcan only do so much, and if the consumer doesn’t help, they are es-sentially saying that the repair is good enough, even if it’s not ac-tually safe.
continued on page 20INTERVIEW by Chasidy Rae Sisk
Todd Bonecutter
Projections for Late January
ERICAEVERSMAN
Industry Observations fromCollision Attorney
Great LakesEdition
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LKQ Corporation confirmed that acomplaint has been filed against itby Chrysler Group LLC in the U.S.District Court in the Eastern Districtof Michigan. The lawsuit contendsthat certain aftermarket parts LKQsells infringe Chrysler design patentsrelating to the Dodge RAM pickuptruck. LKQ says it believes that thelawsuit is without merit and will de-fend it vigorously, “Moreover, theparts we sell that allegedly relate tothese design patents represent an im-material amount of our revenue.They represent less than one-tenth ofone percent (0.001) of our estimated2013 total revenue and less than one-half of one-tenth of one percent(0.0005) of our estimated total rev-enue for all the years since the firstpatent was granted (2009 through2013).”
LKQ says it has forged mutu-ally-beneficial business relationshipswith other auto manufacturers andcites its license arrangement withFord, in place since 2009.
The license arrangements allowthe company to sell aftermarket partscovered by certain patents in ex-change for a license fee.
LKQ Responds to ChryslerDesign Patents Suit
Chrysler has filed a patent infringe-ment action against LKQ and Key-stone Automotive, saying thecompanies are producing and/orselling parts that infringe on 10 of itspatented designs, specifically relatedto the Dodge RAM brand. Chryslernoted that LKQ's regulatory filingshave the company stating that one ofthe risks of manufacturing aftermar-ket parts is patent infringement. Thefiling, which was made with federalcourt in Detroit, MI, Jan. 17, hasChrysler looking for a ban on theparts that infringe on the patents anddamages “adequate to compensateChrysler for the infringement, in-cluding the infringers’ profits,Chrysler’s lost profits, and/or no lessthan a reasonable royalty... Damagesalone will not be a sufficient remedyunder the law, and Chrysler has beenand will continue to be irreparablyharmed by Defendants’ infringe-ment of the Ram Design Patents.Only a permanent injunction againstDefendants will be adequate.” Thesuit seeks attorneys fees, a jury trial,and an award tripling the damagesfound at trial.
LKQ has responded (next story.)
Chrysler Files Suit AgainstLKQ on RAM Design Patents
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MN Media Reports Increased Body Shop TrafficFreezing rain and low temperaturesturned Northland roadways into askating rink causing many accidents.
According to Duluth Police, 56crashes happened Sunday, Jan. 12between 9:30 AM and 3:30 PM fromicy roads.
“A lot of cars were going side-ways down the hills, ya know, noth-ing real heavy as far as hits go,” saidSteve Nelson, owner of Twin PortsCollision Repair.
Local auto body repair shopworkers say although these types ofslippery road conditions causeheadaches for many, they boost re-pair shop business.
“I do make my living on otherpeoples' misfortune, but everythingis going good, we're getting as manycars as we can done so it's a greatyear,” said Nelson.
A great year for repair shops...but for drivers, slippery roads onlycreate headaches.
“I've been trying to get it into aauto body shop and they're all verybusy,” said Baker, Some shops arefully booked through the next month,because of accidents like these.
“I was skidding on the freeway,just trying to get up to freewayspeed, and hit some black ice andcollided with another vehicle,” saidBaker.
For Baker, the collision meansa dent in her pocket financially, andunanticipated time and energy spentsearching for a way to fix her vehi-cle.
“Most of them are just smallerjobs. When it was real cold thebumpers would just shatter, so we'redoing a lot of that, too,” said Nelson.
Local repair shop workers urgeeveryone in the Northland to driveslowly during these slippery times.
Although there were 56 crashesin a six hour time span in DuluthSunday, none were fatal.
Of the 56, 34 were off-road ve-hicle crashes, while statewide off-road crash statistics were 111.
Winter weather travel advisories havelifted and shops are seeing increasedtraffic in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
For Kelley Auto Group Collision,technicians have just begun to receivethese vehicles, according to NathanNix, manager of body shops at 500 E.State Blvd. and at 633 Avenue ofAutos in the 14/69 Auto Mall in Ft.Wayne.
Since the company services dri-vable and nondrivable vehicles, tech-nicians have worked hard to getdrivable vehicles finished in order tobegin work on the nondrivable vehi-cles.
“The question is, how soon canwe get to them without giving some-one an expectation that’s too great?”Nix asked.
Besides dealing with insurancecompanies, Nix said nondrivable carstake time to move into the shop fromthe lot.
“We use state of the art equip-ment to move the vehicle inside with-out creating additional damage,” Nixsaid. “We dissect the damaged parts ofthe car thoroughly. This shortens therepair time and ultimately provides abetter service to the customer.”
With tow services two days be-hind schedule, both locations will con-
tinue to receive vehicles steadily theremainder of this week. Nix said tech-nicians were working overtime andweekends.
Nix also said Hertz and Enter-prise, two car rental agencies withwhich Kelley works, are pulling carsfrom other cities that are not affectedby the snowstorm to help customers inneed.
Mark Muntzinger, owner ofMark’s Body Shop, also reported anincrease in business that he expects tolast the next few weeks.
“We’re here to serve the commu-nity to get them back on the road,”Muntzinger said. “We smooth out thebad situation.”
People who have had troublestarting their cars have also floodedGouty Service Center Inc. with calls.Owner Ron Katt said he was backedup about 8–10 hours because wreckercompanies were backed up.
The lag time body shops were ex-periencing in receiving vehicles is di-rectly related to towing services thatare experiencing heavy call volumefrom distressed drivers and police.
Blue Eagle Towing’s operationsmanager said the company usually re-ceives 60 calls in a 24-hour period, butwas receiving 80 to 100 calls by noon.
The company, which serviceslight-duty (cars) and heavy-duty(trucks) vehicles, has especially seenan increase in heavy-duty calls—fromfive to 10 calls a day to almost 150calls a day.
Dan Parker, who owns ParkerService Inc., Kelley Wrecker, Hinsey’sWrecker Service, Dan’s Towing andAllen County Towing, has doubledbusiness because of the latest snow-storm.
The 24-hour towing service,which averages 250–300 tows a day,now is towing 500–600 vehicles daily,according to Dan Parker, third-genera-tion owner of Parker Service Inc.
“The first two days we were get-ting 100 calls an hour,” Parker said.“Now we’re scheduling for Friday.”
Among the five towing services,Parker said, 80 employees using 55trucks are doing their best to jump startand pull out stuck cars, tow vehiclesand assist disabled semis.
“This is the busiest we’ve seen itin 20 years,” Parker said, adding thattow services are usually busy for abouta day or so after a snowstorm – but notfour days.
“So far everybody’s been prettyunderstanding,” Parker said. “We’reworking through it as fast as we can.”
Body Shops and Towing Backed Up During Snowstorms in IndianaABRA Auto Body & Glass an-nounced the acquisition of X2 Colli-sion in Southern Illinois, just outsideSt. Louis, MO. Terms of the dealwere not disclosed.
ABRA’s portfolio now includes132 company-owned locations and48 independently-owned franchisesfor a total of 180 collision repair cen-ters in 17 states. “This deal is anotherimportant step for us and strengthensour position as an industry leader,”said Duane Rouse, ABRA’s presi-dent and chief executive officer.“This acquisition builds on our in-creasing success in the region andhelps meet the demand of our cus-tomers and business partners. This isan exciting time for the company andthe next chapter in ABRA’s aggres-sive growth strategy.” The newABRA location is at 2727 MaryvilleRoad in Maryville, IL, and will servethe Metro East, surrounding com-munities, and the city of St. Louis,MO. X2 employees will joinABRA’s staff and continue servicinglong-time customers in the area. “Formany years our repair center hasbeen a trusted part of the commu-nity,” said Scott Jennings, owner ofX2 Collision.
ABRA Acquires X2 Collisionin Southern Illinois
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On Tuesday, December 10, a juryverdict was returned for $200,000against State Farm Insurance Com-pany and in favor of a man who hadbeen employed by State Farm for 25years (Dennis L. Brady v. State FarmMutual Automobile Insurance Com-pany, Hamilton County CircuitCourt).
The plaintiff’s attorney, MikeStephenson, said his client, a formerIndiana Mr. Basketball (1964), wassatisfied with the outcome.
“Unfortunately, although thecase took only two days to try, it wasat significant expense to the plaintiff,who had been willing to settle for areasonable amount,” Stephensonsaid.
According to the complaint,Stephenson’s client was in a car ac-cident in 2007 and thereafter madean underinsured motorist claimunder his policy; he requested thatState Farm, his insurer as well as hisemployer, allow him to arbitrate thematter and not be required to takethe matter to a jury.
“This request was denied,”Stephenson said, “and so we filed acivil case and let a jury decide thedamages.”
Former State Farm EmployeeWins $200K Judgment
Bill Wright, an auto dealer and phi-lanthropist in Kalamazoo, MI, diedsuddenly in Fort Myers, FL, onDec. 28. He was 55. A family mem-ber, quoted by local news, said thecause of death was believed to beheart failure.
Wright sold his stake in theSeelye-Wright Automotive Groupin October, of which he had been apartner since 1989. The group ownsand operates six dealerships inwestern Michigan and has sinceshortened its name to the SeelyeAutomotive Group. He was knownin western Michigan for his slogan“Yes We Can,” which he would useto end every commercial and em-blazoned billboards in the area.
He also founded the Wright forKids foundation, which raisesmoney to help abused and neglectedchildren in the Kalamazoo area.
His business partner, MikeSeelye , says in a statement, “Obvi-ously I have a long history withhim. We have worked together andbeen partners for 30-plus years. Soit’s shocking to me and a sad situa-tion. It’s hard to believe that a guywho was as big as life as him isdead.”
Bill Wright, MI Dealer andPhilanthropist, Dies at 55
Structural work on a $45 milliontransportation-training center willbegin soon at Chicago’s Olive Har-vey College. Chicago Mayor RahmEmanuel joined City Colleges Chan-cellor Cheryl Hyman to breakground on the $45 million project.The Transportation, Distribution andLogistics Center will be at Olive-Har-vey College and will be the first of itskind in Illinois. It is designed to pre-pare students for more than 100,000jobs expected in the Chicago areaover the next decade. The construc-tion project itself will create 150 jobs.The center will have space for train-ing students in automotive technol-ogy and training, collision repair,diesel engine technology and aviationmechanics. It will also have an areafor supply chain management, in-cluding a warehouse and simulationlabs; and taxi, truck driver and forklifttraining. Gov. Pat Quinn announcedthat $4.6 million from the IllinoisJobs Now! capital program for struc-tural work. The building should becompleted by fall 2015. The center isbeing funded by $31 million in statefunds, $13 million from the City Col-leges of Chicago and $1 million fromthe Illinois Community College.
Starting Jan. 1, motorists can talkand drive only if they use a hands-free device to conduct cellphoneconversations in Illinois. That willdramatically change the day-to-dayroutine for millions of Illinoisans, orforce them to shop around for yetanother high-tech device for the car.
The uniform ban supplementsthe state’s current ban on textingand replaces assorted local laws oncellphone use that vary from townto town, including Chicago, wherea cellphone ban has been in placesince 2006.
Violators face fines starting at$75, and repeat offenses bring thepossibility of a suspended license.
State Sen. John Mulroe, aChicago Democrat who sponsoredthe law, said witnessing several near-accidents during trips to Springfieldconvinced him that “hands on thewheel and eyes on the road are theway to go.” While he says the lawwon’t eliminate distractions, he hopesit’ll cut down on accidents.
New Cellphone Law RequiresHands-Free Device in Illinois
Transportation-Training CtrBegins $45M Project
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 7
Gov. Rick Snyder has approvedMichigan to join California, Floridaand Nevada in allowing self-drivingvehicle research on the state’s streetsand highways. Snyder has signedlegislation allowing the testing ofautomated or self-driving vehicleson Michigan’s roads, but that does-n’t mean state residents will see carswith empty drivers’ seats anytimesoon.
The laws, approved by the stateLegislature, allow carmakers, autosuppliers and developers like Googleto test automated vehicles. But theythey require a human to be in the dri-ver’s seat at all times to monitor per-formance and take control if necessary.
At least one auto supplier—Continental Corp—which has facili-ties in Auburn Hills and the Sault Ste.Marie area, had considered movingsome autonomous vehicle testing toNevada, according to state Sen. MikeKowall, R-White Lake, who intro-duced the legislation in the state Sen-ate. Nevada has permitted testing ofautonomous cars on state roads since2012. California and Florida alsoallow testing.
Test cars will carry an “M” li-cense plate to identify them.
MI Gov Snyder OKs SelfDriving Vehicles on Roads I-CAR® CEO & President, John Van
Alstyne, addressed I-CAR’s leadinginitiatives for 2014 and reviewed2013 milestones during a speech atthe Collision Industry Conference(CIC) meeting in Palm Springs onJan. 16.
The 2014 initiatives highlightedby Van Alstyne will have a signifi-cant impact on the industry and willdeliver on I-CAR’s commitment toeducation, knowledge and collision-repair solutions. Van Alstyne honedin on enhancements to I-CAR’s in-dustry-recognized Welding Training& Certification™ program and theRepairability Technical Support ini-tiative in 2014.
Van Alstyne stated, “Today, asthe major provider of welding train-ing to the collision repair industry, I-CAR estimates that at leasttwo-thirds of technicians who weldlack formal welding training.” Headded, “I-CAR has beefed up itswelding programs and significantlyreduced pricing to encourage repair-ers to more broadly invest in thetraining that makes perhaps thebiggest difference in complete, safeand quality repairs for the ultimatebenefit of the consumer. To effec-tively navigate the vehicle technol-
ogy tsunami our industry is facing,repairers today need technicians thatare trained and certified with up-to-date welding skills in order to per-form the complex structural repairsthat are now required.”
Major insurers, such as StateFarm, and OEMs, including GM,have already committed to partner-ing with I-CAR in 2014, encourag-ing or requiring their networks toparticipate in I-CAR’s WeldingTraining & Certification.
Van Alstyne also provided an up-date on the Repairability TechnicalSupport initiative. Van Alstyne shareddetails on the launch of the dedicated“technical knowledge” website, up-coming plans and key milestones thathave been achieved. This initiativelaunched in 2013 and is designed toprovide technical repair knowledge,address gaps in repair procedures andenhance industry technical communi-cation with OEMs.
“I-CAR thanks the industry forits support in 2013. Through yourcommitment, I-CAR is well posi-tioned to deliver on its vision in2014 and beyond,” explained VanAlstyne.
Key 2013 accomplishments thatVan Alstyne shared were the mile-
stone $200,000 donation to the Col-lision Repair Education Foundationon behalf of the industry, no priceincreases for the third consecutiveyear, the introduction of GoldClass™ program enhancements, a$2.6 million investment in a newlearning content management sys-tem (LCMS), the expansion of net-work partner programs and newProfessional Development Pro-gram™ training.
Van Alstyne further renewed I-CAR’s commitment to hold all pric-ing flat again in 2014, except theWelding reductions mentioned. Healso announced that an estimated$165,000 donation will be made byI-CAR to the Collision Repair Edu-cation Foundation in 2014, repre-senting $1 for every class theindustry took with I-CAR in 2013.
I-CAR President Van Alstyne Talks Welding and Training at CIC
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On November 27, 2013, MichaelBradshaw, VP of Operations at K&MCollision in Hickory, NC, filed sixshortpay lawsuits on his customers’behalf. Of the six cases filed, threewere against GEICO, two wereagainst Nationwide, and one was filedagainst Allstate, with amounts rangingfrom $680.95 to $5749.64. Some ofthe claims included in the lawsuitswere Breach of Contract, Bad Faith,and Unfair/Deceptive Trade Practices.K&M Collision is being representedby attorney William E. Morgan ofMorgan Law PLLC in Hickory, NC.
According to Bradshaw, “Theseclaims stem from the insurers’ contin-ual refusal to pay for factory correctrepairs according to manufacturer re-pair specifications and guidelines. Notall insurers are bad; what we’re find-ing is that many of these companiesare doing the right thing and payingfor manufacturer correct repairs; how-ever, there is a select group of insur-ance companies that show completedisregard for manufacturer specifiedrepairs, procedures and safety checkson a consistent basis. Unfortunately,those insurers put us in the position ofeither performing the operations forfree, making the customer responsiblefor the additional costs or resorting tolegal action.”
While the six shortpay casesBradshaw is currently pursuing en-compass a little bit of everything, “themost consistent problem is the failureto recognize and reimburse customersfor manufacturer recommended re-pairs and safety checks.” This is par-ticularly the case when only a fewshops are performing the operation asit leaves the insurance company unin-terested in the manufacturer’s docu-mentation showing the need for therepair, and they will refuse to pay forsomething which other shops don’tcharge, even though the absence of thecharge is due to the fact that it is notbeing done. Bradshaw fears that theseinsurers are “basing their repair stan-dards on sub-standard repairs beingperformed.”
An example of this is seen witha BMW recently brought to the shop.Because the manufacturer’s facilityis only 45 minutes away from K&MCollision, Bradshaw toured the facil-ity and learned about a procedurethey use to correct any imperfections
in the paint; however, Nationwiderefused to pay the shop to performthis procedure, though manufacturerguidelines indicate it is required andshould be billed separately withoutbeing included in the paint time. Theinsurer insisted they have to do whatthe market dictates, and becausemost shops don’t perform this re-quirement, K&M Collision cannotperform it either (or at least theywon’t be paid if they do).
K&M Collision has been in busi-ness since 1991, and though Brad-shaw did not begin working thereofficially until 2006, he has alwaysbeen around this family-owned andoperated business. Despite their deci-sion to refrain from participating inany DRPs, the shop repairs a high vol-ume of vehicles, grossing just over 1.3million this past year.
When questioned about the im-portance of pursuing shortpay law-suits, Bradshaw explains, “in order tomaintain our 12 manufacturer certifi-cations, pay employees, and make aprofit, it’s really a necessity; either wedo it, or we don’t make money. Theshortpay amounts are usually ourprofit margins on these jobs.”
Though Bradshaw just won ashortpay lawsuit against Nationwidethis past summer, he has not seen anyimprovements in their behavior sincethe victory; “they seem to change theway they handle claims, in terms ofwhat they will and won’t pay, everyfew months.” He also notes the odd-ity of how Nationwide handles ap-praisals; they usually send at leasttwo people to the shop, one of whomis generally a supervisor, and theseindividuals will engage in a review oftheir findings before making a deci-sion about what they’ll pay. It is notuncommon for Nationwide represen-tatives to be at the shop for fourhours or more to process just oneclaim.
Additionally, Bradshaw recentlyran into a case where Nationwide didnot believe certain repairs were nec-essary, and even after K&M Collisionproved the necessity by performingmeasurements and providing this evi-dence, the insurer only paid for a por-tion of the repair.
In contrast, Bradshaw notes thathe is seeing some improvements fromsome other insurers. For example, hefiled a claim against one insurer for re-fusing to pay his labor rates because
they claimed the rates were too high.Since the lawsuit was filed, this sameinsurer has not contested four newclaims that were processed withhigher labor rates than the first casewhich caused K&M Collision to lodgethe complaint.
Though Bradshaw believes thatthe majority of insurance companiesare changing their behavior due to therecent influx in shortpay cases beingpursued, for some insurers “this is theway it is and the way it’s going to be.Some of these insurers fear payingone shop more than the others be-cause they have the mistaken beliefthat it’s necessary to pay all shops thesame.”
This is especially untrue as it per-tains to shops that are certified by raremanufacturers, such as Porsche whichonly has around 50 certified shops inthe nation, making it logical that theseshops should receive increased com-pensation when performing the moredifficult repairs that these cars call for.Bradshaw believes there will be“fewer cases being filed in the futuredue to a combination of factors.”
“As always, our main concern is
that our customer’s vehicles are re-paired safely, as close as humanlypossible to their pre-accident condi-tion. The costs involved in havingthe proper equipment, training, facil-ities and staff to repair today’s vehi-cles continues to escalate. But thereimbursement rates have movedvery little in the past several years. Ithink the problem is many times aninsurer is attempting to base pay-ment on the lowest cost in the marketand not the cost of proper repairs inthe market. Based on our conversa-tions with other shop owners aroundthe country, this is a situation I be-lieve is occurring nationwide. I re-main hopeful that someday theseactions will no longer be necessaryas all insurers will choose to do rightby their customers.”
Bradshaw is fairly confident andoptimistic about the outcome of thesepending lawsuits. “We put a lot of re-search into this, and we believe thesecases will be decided in our favor.”Trial dates for these six lawsuits havenot yet been set, but they are expectedto occur sometime during the first halfof this year.
8 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
K&M Collision of NC Files 6 Shortpay Cases
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 9
bite. The new invasion of frigid airwill produce lake-effect snow down-wind of areas of open water. Whilemuch of Lake Erie has frozen over,most of the other Great Lakes are stillopen. Some areas immediately down-wind of Lake Erie may get colder witha late January outbreak (compared tothe last) as a result.
Beginning on Thursday, January2nd, the polar vortex spewed snowand freezing rains throughout thecountry until about Tuesday, January7th. Over two dozen states from theMidwest to the Northeast and even theSoutheast were impacted by this coldfront, so it’s no surprise that this un-usual event also affected many busi-nesses nationwide, including collisionrepair facilities.
Tiger’s Body Shop in Chicagofortunately did not suffer many ill ef-fects, according to Greg Yonan, amember of the family that owns thefacility. “It was really cold, andthough there may have been an in-crease in accidents related to the icyroad conditions, we haven’t seen the
effects yet. Monday, Jan. 6, was socold that we had several appointmentcancellations because people didn’twant to leave their homes.”
Though their equipment workedfine since the inside of their shop waswell-heated, the water coming in fromthe street froze, and they had to waitfor the city to come out and solve thatproblem. Overall, though, Yonannotes that it has been business asusual.
Mike Hartman, owner of Hart-man Auto Body Inc. in Waterloo IN,noted some effects from the weatherbecause “when a major storm is fore-cast in advance, people heed the warn-ing and stay off the streets. It alsoimpacted volumes quite a bit. We havehad a couple of cancellations eachweek for the last three weeks becausecustomers do not want to get out in thesnow or extremely cold tempera-tures.”
In terms of operations, Hartmanexperienced several cold-related tech-nical difficulties; “our paint booth quitworking when it was -18 degreesFahrenheit and -40 degrees Fahrenheiton the wind chill. I had to go on top ofthe roof, which had 12 inches of snowon it, to reset the main computer mod-
ule. What a trip! It’s also harder towrite a very accurate estimate whencustomers bring their car in and it iscovered with snow, ice and salt. Wewould really like to have the vehiclefor half a day so we could wash it andlet it thaw out.”
Debbie Ross, Office Manager atRoute 1 Auto Body in Fairfield, CT,their shop was lucky enough that theunprecedented low temperatures did-n’t really have a negative impact ontheir business or their equipment. “Wehave been able to service all of ourcustomers. Other than wearing morelayers of clothes, we have beenlucky… We did have a few new cus-tomers whose collisions were a resultof sliding on black ice but not many. Ithink that because the worst weatherwas on a weekend, there were lesspeople on the road because they didn’thave to be.”
For Don Mallon Chevrolet inNorwich, CT, the Polar Vortex gener-ated more business, according to Col-lision Manager, Dawn Barden. “Ithas actually brought us more business,more front and rear bumper coverscracking upon a minor impact, insteadof flexing. One of the customers saidthat a shopping carriage rolled into her
front cover, and it left a hole in it .They are breaking like ice or glassshattering… I do not think that it hasaffected our business in a negativeway here in the collision center; how-ever, in our service department, it hasdefinitely slowed them down; peopledo not want to drive out in the colderweather unless they have to!”
Don Mallon Chevrolet did suffersome technical inconveniences due tothe weather, though. “Our paint boothsprinkler heads froze and broke, leak-ing in the booth and making us twodays behind on paint after repairswere made. My painter says that it istaking more time for the bake cyclenow, and we have added an additionalheater in the paint mix room as wehave water-based paint which is at agreater risk of freezing now with thelow temperatures. The heater in ouroffice has not been able to keep upwith the colder weather either, plusmy customers’ cars are having issueswith the lift gates freezing because thegate shocks grease probably froze,”Barden said.
Craig Camacho, Marketing Di-rector at Keenan Auto Body Inc. inClifton Heights, PA, notes that theirvolumes have increased by 25%
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across the board. “Claim volume hasincreased in our entire servicing foot-print, directly related to the recent lowtemps, snow and ice… Our toolingand machinery was not affected onebit, but our locations were hindered bythe snowfall and the need for snowplows and salt.”
Though Keenan Auto Body ex-perienced some delays due to theirtechnicians being unable to work, Ca-macho looks upon this dilemma gra-ciously. “As they say, family first.Many of our employees and techswere home taking care of their owndriveways and walkways, ensuringtheir families’ safety and the safety ofothers as their primary focus. Our cus-tomers were made aware by our staffsthat, due to the low temperatures,heavy snowfall and ice developing,there may be delays in completingtheir vehicles on time.”
Rich Tornetta, Marketing Com-munications Manager of eight Colli-sionMax Auto Body and Glass Centersin PA and NJ, notes quite a few issuescaused by the Polar Vortex. “Cus-tomers sometimes would not show upfor their scheduled estimate appoint-ments or repairs. This could be due tocars not starting, being buried in snow
or the roads not being adequatelyplowed and salted for safe travel. Theweather has delayed our technicianswho’ve had issues making it in towork on time due to unsafe drivingconditions, cars not starting or beingplowed in by passing trucks. We’dspend time digging out vehicles to berepaired and then gaining access to theparts in the storage facilities which arecommonly located outdoors. Somemornings were spent plowing andshoveling outside bays to get cars in.Once the vehicles got into the shop,we’d sometimes use heat guns and/orair hoses to melt and remove the re-maining snow/ice. The time spentcleaning the storage facilities is timenot spent repairing vehicles, so thishad a negative effect on production.”
Tornetta said that CollisionMaxhad to postpone valet delivery of ve-hicles to their customers because ofthe unsafe driving conditions, andthere were also delays with parts de-liveries which, in turn, caused delaysin repairs. He adds, “below freezingtemperatures made mobile auto glassrepair and replacement difficult forour technicians both due to unsafetravel conditions and because theirfingers would get numb within min-
utes of being outside.” There werealso some technical difficulties as “thespray booth and older equipment tendto fail during cold streaks becausethey’ve been working overtime,” Tor-netta explains.
On the positive side, Tornetta notesthat “collision workflow is up about15% compared to what we normallyrun. Our glass business saw a spike involume as well, due to the extremelylow temperatures which caused manywindshields with small chips to crack.In some instances, increased non-dri-vable volume has caused extendedscheduling on drivable repairs.”
As we move further south, we seeless impact from the cold weather. Ac-cording to Assistant Manager WaltLink, at Nalley Collision in Doraville,GA, suffered few effects caused bythe abnormally cold weather. A fewemployees were delayed due to thesnow, but the cold weather did not im-pact volumes or cause any problemswith equipment.
“We had a bit of ice in the park-ing lot, but we didn’t have an issue.”Link is uncertain whether volumeswere affected as business seems to bepicking up as usual after the holidays,with numbers appearing to be consis-
tent with last year.Alysia Hanks, Office Manager
of Lakeway Collision in Mandeville,LA, states “the weather didn’t reallyaffect us in anyway, except that ourguys hate working in the cold, so pro-duction slowed down a lot!”
The Polar Vortex is a regular cir-culation of strong winds surroundingthe Arctic Pole, but normally, thesewinds keep the coldest air trapped inthe Arctic regions of the NorthernHemisphere. Occasionally the vortexcan become distorted, permitting thissuper cold air to travel further south.Though it is inconvenient and cer-tainly unpleasant, the Polar Vortex ofearly January 2014 seems to have hadlittle long-lasting impact on mostshops’ operations.
However, meteorologists say theduring the third and fourth weeks ofJanuary, more changes will take place.The high amplitude pattern is forecastto get more extreme.pattern will grad-ually change the current mixture ofPacific and Arctic air in the CanadaPrairies and the North Central U.S. toall Arctic air. The air will get signifi-cantly colder over the Canada Prairiesand the much of the eastern half of thenation as a result.
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 11
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starts with parts, but it’s only a matterof time before they move on to paintsand other materials.”
Jeff Rice, Estimator at KoesterBody Shop at 6818 SR 930 East, alsoin Ft. Wayne, agrees that the changesto the Select Service program are abad thing which is why his shop optedout when use of PartsTrader becamemandated. He also notes that sincebeing removed from the program,there have been big delays in gettingState Farm to get out to the shop tolook at new jobs.
The owner of Dan T. Gratz BodyShop, Dan Gratz, said PartsTrader is“just another way of keeping us underState Farm’s thumb and having themdictate how we run our businesses.They are looking for a way to makemore money off the little guy, the col-lision shops… Insurer interference isgetting worse and worse. If we don’ttake a stand now, when will we? StateFarm needs to learn that there areshops who will take a stand for theright thing.”
Since the removal of these shops,State Farm has been using small,sometimes uncertified, shopsthat don’t have the propertraining and equipment, ac-cording to Gratz who seesthis as a “lawsuit waiting tohappen… State Farm doesn’tseem to realize that they arerunning shops out of busi-ness by doing things like im-plementing PartsTraderwhich reduces our profits. If we can’tmake money, we will have to closeour doors. Who is going to repair carsthen?”
Eric Knipscheer, owner ofKnipscheer Collision Center at 747 WSuperior St in Fort Wayne, opted outof the Select Service because Part-sTrader did not offer parts from anylocal suppliers. He prefers buying lo-cally for the benefit of his local econ-
omy and “really doesn’t appreciatesomeone telling [him] where to buyhis parts.”
All four of these shops currentlyparticipate in four to six total DRPs,and the consensus seems to be that theSelect Service program wasn’t partic-ularly problematic until the use ofPartsTrader was enforced. All of thesegentlemen agreed that they’d be will-ing to renegotiate their DRP contractswith State Farm if the insurer ceasedto mandate the use of PartsTrader.
When asked about the advicethey’d give to shops on the SelectService in areas where PartsTrader isnot yet mandated, everyone agreedthat whether a shop should remain onthe program after PartsTrader is im-plemented is a personal decision eachshop must make. Bonecutter suggeststhat “you understand the ins and outsof the program so you can evaluateyour options and make an educateddecision in the best interests of yourbusiness.”
Gratz believes that shops shouldalso consider contacting some of theshops in Fort Wayne that opted out tolearn more about the program andwhy they made the decision to with-draw from the Select Service. Knip-scheer cautions that if PartsTrader isnot resisted, “other insurers will adoptsimilar programs if we allow it, andshops will lose the freedom to choosetheir suppliers and to make a profit.”
Mike Hartman, former presi-dent of the Indiana Auto Body Asso-ciation (IABA), is also paying closeattention to this situation. ThoughHartman Auto Body still participatesin Select Service since he is located inan outlying rural area where Part-
sTrader is not yet mandated, once thischanges, he will “probably bail out.My sign says Hartman Auto Body, notState Farm Auto Body! I’m not will-ing to be forced to use PartsTrader be-cause I see no benefit to it whatsoever,especially if there are no local vendorson the system.”
From his conversations withsome of the shops that chose to optout, Hartman has found “the shops are
not opposed to using parts procure-ment systems, but they are opposed tohaving it shoved down their throats.Owners don’t like someone coming inand telling them how to run theirshops.”
Another problem cited is thatsince parts vendors in Fort Wayne arenot participating in PartsTrader, shops
have to order parts from outside theirarea, from suppliers they don’t haverelationships with. This negatively im-pacts the shops’ cycle times as they’reforced to wait to receive their parts,and this affects their scorecard withState Farm.
One Fort Wayne dealership optedout of Select Service because the pro-gram forbade them from purchasingparts from their own parts department
since it wasn’t on PartsTrader, andthey didn’t like the loss of control inchoosing their parts, particularly inbeing unable to supply their own bodyshop.
Yet another criticism of Part-sTrader is that it cuts the collision re-pair facility out of the parts profit. InNew Zealand, the parts procurement
program has progressed and expandedto include paints and materials also,and Hartman fears this happening inthe U.S. because “you can’t sustainyour business on labor rates alone.”
Hartman also notes that the shopsthat opted out are seeing State Farmtake longer to write estimates, some-times taking as long as a week to evenvisit the shop. Because of this, long-time customers are being steered to
12 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Continued from Cover
Shops Opt Out
Todd Bonecutter (center) with Glenbrook Collision Staff
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 13
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shops on the Select Service where es-timates are being written immediately.In one such instance, a shop waitedeight days for an appraiser to comeout to view a claim; meanwhile, sev-eral appraisers from State Farm vis-ited the shop for supplements, yet theyrefused to write an estimate on thenew job, according to Hartman.
Though State Farm is making itdifficult on the shops that opted out,Hartman believes these shops aredoing a fabulous job with explainingthe reasons for the delays and educat-ing consumers on their right tochoose. Customers have been prettyunderstanding, and some evendropped State Farm because theywere displeased with how the insureris treating the shops and their cus-tomers.
The 14 shops, many of themlarger facilities and dealerships, whichopted out of Select Service weredoing approximately 80% of StateFarm’s business in Fort Wayne beforePartsTrader was mandated. The shopsthat remain are struggling to keep upwith the increase in volumes whileState Farm presumably seeks newshops in the Fort Wayne area to joinSelect Service.
IABA continues to monitor thesituation closely. In October, Missis-sippi’s John Mosely and Lloyd Bushattended IABA’s meeting to discussPartsTrader, and this topic will cer-tainly be pursued at the association’snext meeting. Members of IABA in-clude shops that opted out, as well asthose who stayed on Select Service.
Hartman thinks “it’s really coolto see so many Fort Wayne shopssticking together. This is a really com-petitive area, and it’s amazing to seethese shops supporting one another.I’ve never seen such solidarity.”
State Farm’s has issued the fol-lowing response: “Repairers whowant to leave our Select Service pro-gram can inform State Farm and re-move themselves. We are aware thatsome repairers in the Ft. Wayne areahave recently done that. Our priorityis to continue to meet the needs of ourcustomers in the Ft. Wayne area, andwe continue to do all we can to dothat.”
14 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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State Farm Insurance is getting out ofCanada. The Bloomington-based in-surance giant is selling its Canadianunit to Desjardins Group, Canada’slargest credit union. State Farm, Des-jardins and its French partner CreditMutuel, will invest $1.5 billion in thecombined business. State Farm isnow the fourth largest auto insurer inCanada, though it’s business islargely concentrated in threeprovinces. The new business to berun by Desjardins under the StateFarm brand for some years would be-come the second largest Canadianproperty and casualty insurer with alarger geographical reach. The dealis expected to close in January of2015. At that point, State Farm’s1,700 Canadian workers and 500Agents would work for Desjardins.State Farm Chairman Ed Rust saysthe agreement allows future cooper-ative ventures in Canada. Rust toldCanadian workers in a letter that theregulatory and political response tothe great recession and the com-pany’s US-centric approach limitsState Farm’s ability to respond andadapt to changing Canadian markets.Rust calls the decision to sell “diffi-cult” but good for the new operation.
State Farm to Exit CanadianMarket, Credit Union Buying
After several delays, the Obama ad-ministration is reviewing a revisedrule that could push automakers toinstall backup cameras in more oftheir cars and trucks. The reworkedregulation, submitted to the WhiteHouse on Dec. 25, would set newrear visibility standards for light ve-hicles sold in the United States, ac-cording to a White House databasethat tracks the rulemaking process.
The standards are aimed atkeeping children from being runover and killed by vehicles movingin reverse. Automakers might de-cide to install backup cameras in allof their models. The standards mayalso allow automakers to comply bymaking less costly changes, for ex-ample, by redesigning a car’s mir-rors to reduce the odds that a childbehind the rear bumper will go un-detected.
The administration intends torelease the final rule by January2015. But that’s not soon enough tosatisfy auto safety advocates. Con-sumers Union filed a lawsuit in Sep-tember with the goal of compellingthe Obama administration to makethem a standard feature across theU.S. fleet.
NHTSA Moves Ahead onBackup Camera Legislation
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A host of body shops has alleged inMississippi federal court that a groupof insurance providers, includingState Farm Mutual Automobile In-surance Co. and GEICO General In-surance Co., of conspiring tomanipulate car repair costs in orderto reduce their payments.
The complaint was filed in theU.S. District Court for the SouthernDistrict of Mississippi, Northern Di-vision-Jackson. Defendants namedincluded: State Farm; Progressive;Allstate; Nationwide; GEICO;United Services Automobile Associ-ation; USAA; Safeco; Shelter Mu-tual Insurance Co.; Direct GeneralInsurance Company of Mississippi;Mississippi Farm Bureau; and Shel-ter General Insurance Co.
The repair shops are representedby John Arthur Eaves Jr. of JohnArthur Eaves Attorneys At Law inJackson, MS.
The suit named 16 separate in-surance firms as defendants, but re-peatedly alleges that State Farmlargely orchestrated the scheme,which the body shops said involvesthe artificial suppression labor, re-
pair and material costs and the en-actment of harsh punitive measuresagainst noncooperating repairproviders.
One of the main cogs of the al-leged scheme is the abuse of directrepair program agreements underwhich the body shops agree to cer-tain price concessions in favor ofpreferential treatment from the in-surers, according to the complaint.
“The concessions demanded bythe individual in exchange for re-maining on the direct repair programwere not balanced by the purportedbenefits,” the suit alleged. “The de-fendants, particularly State Farm,have utilized these agreements toexert control over plaintiffs' busi-nesses in a variety of manners, wellbeyond that of an ordinary businessagreement.”
“The entire collision repair in-dustry is caught between a rock anda hard place," said Eaves. “On onehand, they're trying to maintain thesafety and quality of repairs for thecustomers in a time when the manu-facturers are trying to develop moresophisticated, more fuel efficient and
safer cars, but yet the insurance in-dustry is trying to force them to cutcorners on their repairs. So Missis-sippi repairers have felt like theyhave been backed into a corner, andnow they have to start to reclaimsome of these costs and send a mes-sage to the insurance industry."
Eaves said the complaint is cur-rently being modified for use inseven other states. Meanwhile, 22other states are preparing to join thefight. While his law firm is leadingthe effort, it's also partnering with“talented” attorneys in each statewho have experience in asbestos, to-bacco and natural disaster litigation.
“We're looking to go to all 50states," Eaves said. “What we needis a few committed shops in each ofthe 50 states that are willing to takethe industry back and join us."
Collectively, insurers named inthe suit control nearly 70 percent ofthe automobile insurance business inMississippi, a dominant positionthey have used to create a verticalconspiracy in violation of the Sher-man Act, the complaint said.
The suit accuses State Farm and
the other companies of employingvarious tactics to artificially set ratesfor repairs, labor and parts used inthe restoration of vehicles damagedin accidents, such as refusing tocompensate shops for replacementparts when repair is possible thoughstrongly not recommended based onthe shop's opinion.
Insurers have also routinely en-gaged in the practice of “steering”in order to punish noncompliantshops, the suit said, elaborating thatinsurers will urge customers not toseek repairs from a certain shop be-cause quality or customer service is-sues have cropped up.
Used/recycled parts are alsomentioned in discussing the insurersgoing against the repairers’ expertopinions and therefore “compromis-ing the safety of both the driver andpassengers as well as other membersof the traveling public.”
Another count in the complaintreferences “quantum meruit,” a con-cept that states that a party is not al-lowed to enrich itself at the expenseof another.
Insurance Companies Manipulate Repair Costs Says Shop-Sponsored Complaint in Mississippi
See Insurers Sued, Page 27
16 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Question: What is the major differ-ence between the two Honda Accordsfor repairers?Answer: The 2013 “A” Pillar rein-forcement, “B” pillar reinforcementand Rocker panel reinforcement areconstructed of one of the higheststrengths steels seen in passenger cars.They have an 1500 MPa steel rating.Question: What does Honda saywhen these parts are damaged from aside impact?Answer:—Plenty
First and Foremost—Honda states“No body repairs should be at-tempted without first referring to theappropriate body repair manual forcomplete information”. I find itamazing how many collision repairshops in this country will repair/re-place structural components ontoday’s vehicles without having theappropriate procedures when the ve-hicle is estimated and repaired. I alsofind in appalling that many insuranceadjusters will estimate a vehicle with-out having repair data before writingtheir estimate. Furthermore, why dobody shops have to prove that theyneed a certain procedure for a OEMstated position, when they shouldhave this information as well. Just theother day, A shop owner called mefor information to justify why theshop could not use heat on repairinga 2010 Toyota Tacoma frame thatwas damaged in the rear. Moreover, Ifeel that there should be a charge onthe estimate for data retrieval. It costme $300.00 for a one year subscrip-tion to the Honda web site and I don’thave a shop or write estimates any-more. (Sorry for getting off the sub-ject, but I needed to get it off mychest.)
Use of Heat for body straighten-ing and repairs. What does Hondasay? “When you are doing bodystraightening and repair procedures:DO NOT apply heat to any body partduring straightening. This may com-promise the internal structure andstrength of high strength steel parts.Moreover, any part that has heat ap-plied to it during straightening MUSTbe replaced with new parts. Ignoringthese instructions, may significantlyreduce occupant protection in anysubsequent collision.”
Let’s look at what Honda saysabout sectioning. “Because of bodystructure improvements for collisionsafety and rigidity, the materials, steelthickness and internal reinforcementshave become very specific. Followthese guidelines to avoid an unsafe re-pair: avoid sectioning (cut and joint)except for outer panels and floor pan-els unless a specific procedure is pro-vided in the body manual (As I statedpreviously, how do you repair todays
vehicles without having the repairdata) and relace body structural com-ponents as assemblies that match thereplacement parts configuration.Honda dedicates 3 pages in their guidelines for replacement and welding, butI will address this later on in the arti-cle.
Honda states in their body repairnews about seats with airbags “ dam-aged front seat covers should be re-placed and not repaired. Furthermore,Do not install non-factory seat covers,because they may alter the airbags in-tended deployment.”
Honda also states “NEVER at-tempt to modify, splice or repairairbag system wiring. If airbag systemwiring is damaged, replace the wiringharness(es).
What does Honda say about theirTire Pressure Monitoring System(TPMS). “TPMS calibration must bestarted every time you: Adjust thepressure in one or more tires; Rotate
the tires; Replace one or more tires;Replace or update the VSA-modula-tor control unit. A couple of otheritems that should be noted when esti-mating and repairing a 2013 HondaAccord.
Honda now sells replaceableheadlamp brackets that get broken inan accident. It should noted that theyonly work if the following criteria ismet: No damage to the headlamp as-sembly and sealing of the headlamplens and housing is maintained.
Some models may be equippedwith one or more of the followingsystems the require aiming aftercollision repairs (special tools arerequired to complete the aimingprocedures).
Lane Watch—Lane Watch uses acamera and center dash display forblind spot detection. The camera mustbe aimed if the following operationsare performed in the repair process:The camera is removed or replaced,
18 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Toby Chess is an I-CAR program instructor, Training specialist, and former salvage yard operator.Toby is universally known in the collision industry for his work with first responders and advocacyfor body shops and consumers. He can be reached at [email protected]
Honda’s Repair Instructions Need to Be Read and Followed
2012 Honda Accord
2013 Honda Accord
4-door Models1 Front Inner Upper Pillar
2 Center Pillar Upper Stiffener
3 Side Sill Stiffener
4 Inside Sill Reinforcement
1,500 MPa (HOT STAMP) STEELLOCATIONS1,500 MPa steel stronger than ordinarysteel, so it can help protect vehicle occu-pangts while reducing overall vehicleweight to improve fuel efficiency. Thenumbered parts in the diagrams beloware constructed of 1,500 MPa steel:
Door mirror is removed and/or re-placed, door panel is removed or re-placed or the door is repaired. Itshould be noted that DTC will not bedisplayed on the dash, but will bestored in the control module.
Forward Warning: The cameramust be re-aimed if the FWC cameraunit is removed or replaced. If thewindshield is removed or replaced, theunit must be re-aimed. Note a dashlight will illuminate if the system is in-operative.
Adaptive Cruise Control(ACC). The millimeter wave radar ofthe ACC must be re-aimed if the radarunit is removed or replaced. If dam-age occurs in the unit’s mounting area,the system needs to be re-aimed. Amalfunction of the unit will be dis-played in the multi-unit dash. Let’slook at welding and repairing the 1500MPa steel on the Honda Accord.
Honda states when repairing andwelding 1500 MPa steel parts as fol-lows:
● NEVER attempt to straightendamaged 1500 MPa steel
● 1500 MPa steel parts MUST bereplaced at factory seams usingsqueeze type resistance spot welds
● MIG weld braze joints should
be used ONLY in locations that cannot be reached with STRS welders.
● To maintain adequate weld ten-sile strength, always set the spotwelder to specifications in the bodyrepair manual.
● NEVER perform MAG (akaMIG) welding on 1500 MPa steelparts
● MIG brazed joint locations arespecified in the body repair manual
● A single or double hole MIDbraze may be specified in the body re-pair manual depending on tensilestrength of the parts being joined.
● A pulsed MID welder MUSTbe used. You can convert most MIGwelders to weld bronze silicon, butyou have better heat management andcontrol with a pulsed welder. More onthis a little later on in the article.
● Parts made of Ultra HighStrength Steel (UHSS) must be in-stalled as complete part. No section-ing allowed. FAILURE TO USE THEPROPER EQUIPMENT OR FOL-LOW THE PROPER PROCEDURESCAN RESULT IN AN UNSAFE RE-PAIR.
Honda specifications for repair-ing and welding steels with 590 to 980MPa ratings: Parts made of High
Strength Steel (590-980 MPa) must beinstalled as a complete part. No sec-tioning is allowed unless a procedureis provided in the body repair manual.Plug welds using a MIG welder maybe done joining body parts with 590-980 MPa steel ratings. MAG (MIG)butt welding may be done only steelparts with a tensile strength of 590MPa and lower. You will need to printout the diagram showing the locationsof the different strengths of steel fromthe Honda web site.
Here is what Honda specifies forwelding 1500 MPa steel on the2013/2014 Honda Accord. You willneed to go to the web site for pictureson the welding procedures.
2014 Accord
1500 MPa Parts WeldingSpecifications______________________________High-Strength Steel (1500 MPa) PartsWelding SpecificationsThe high-strength steel (1500 MPa) ma-terial is used for the front pillar area, theroof side area, the center pillar area, andthe side sill area of the vehicles.
Parts replacement for the rein-forcement and/or the stiffener may be
required depending on the damage tothe side panel. Take notice that spotwelding conditions for welding the re-placement parts differ from the normalwelding conditions. MIG brazing mustbe used where spot welding cannot bedone. NEVER perform MAG welding.
MIG brazing welding methodTo ensure adequate joint strength, use apulsed MIG welder with specified wireand the following brazing technique.This will create a capillary action in orderto liquefy the solder so that it can pene-trate into the upper and lower plates:
• Begin brazing about 5mm (0.20in)before the holes(s).• Move the torch across the hole in azigzag pattern as you close theholes(s).• Continue the brazing operation about10mm (0.39 in) past the hole(s).
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According to Eversman, con-sumers possess the power in relationto shops and insurers, so they must de-mand what they are entitled to or theinsurance companies will steer themto low-cost shops that may not be per-forming quality repairs. These con-
cerns should be highlighted because“if consumers had any idea thatthey’re driving potentially dangerousvehicles due to insurer interference,they would be appalled, but they haveno clue what’s going on.”
Actually, insurers have no role inthe repair process whatsoever; theyare only supposed to sign the checkpaying for the repairs, but they’ve be-come involved because the closertheir involvement, the more controlthey can exert, allowing them to avoiddispersing full payment on repairs.Rather than arguing labor rates andshortchanging repairers, Eversman be-lieves insurers should “take a stepback, consider what they are askingshops to do, and reevaluate whethertheir requests are fair.”
When insurers refuse to compen-sate for the full repair cost, shops areforced to pursue shortpay cases, butEversman admits, “litigation is notpleasant. You may get what you’re en-titled to at the end of the day, but youhave to trudge through mud to getthere.”
Recently, there has been a signif-icant rise in the number of shortpaylawsuits being pursued in the courts,but this is not a novel or recent expe-rience. Eversman believes that “colli-sion repairers have had enoughinterference in their businesses from athird party entity who doesn’t performrepairs or accept liability. They aretired of being shortchanged on pay-ments, so they are turning to the courtsfor attention, but no one is excited togo to court.”
There are benefits to this recentinflux, though. Not only do these law-suits send a message to the insuranceindustry, they also serve to createawareness of these issues amongst re-pairers, attorneys and consumers na-tionwide, raising public scrutiny and
helping to alter insurers’ behavior. Ad-ditionally, it “sheds light on how muchyou can trust insurance company adsthat promise to take care of you butdon’t explain how they intend to doso,” Eversman explains.
Eversman hopes these shortpaycases will cause insurance companiesto reevaluate their attitudes. Thoughcollision repairers can’t control in-surer’s behavior, this type of litigation
provides them with an opportunity tobe fairly compensated for their workwhich, in turn, allows them to acquirethe training necessary to branch out toother vehicles.
Still, this concern is detrimentalto consumers, and it should be re-solved by the Departments of Insur-ance who insist this only involvescollision repair shops and insurancecompanies due to their failure to un-derstand that most of these shops thatare being shortchanged are non-DRPfacilities that have no contracts withor obligations to the insurance com-panies. Eversman is “appalled it hascome to this because the Departmentsof Insurance are not doing their job
which is to protect the consumerssince insurance companies are notproperly and fairly paying theseclaims.”
Another example of insurer inter-ference in the collision repair industryis seen in State Farm’s mandate forshops on their Select program to usePartsTrader. Eversman insists, “any-thing which is imposed on collisionrepairers from an outside entity is in-herently a bad thing. There are otherparts procurement systems that shopsuse, but it is their decision. I find themandate to use PartsTrader troubling,and I’m also troubled by the applica-tion as recent disclosures have indi-cated estimates coming back withalterations to labor rates which havenothing to do with parts! This is notwhat PartsTrader was intended to do,as represented by State Farm and Part-sTrader.”
The state of OH specifically has
a state statute prohibiting repairersfrom installing salvage parts on a ve-hicle unless those parts were removedby an Ohio licensed salvage dealer.Eversman fears that the mandate re-quiring the use of parts procurementsystems, especially PartsTrader, willlead repairers to violate these types ofstatues, creating a dangerous situationwhich could potentially lead to con-sumer protection-related lawsuits.
Eversman feels that these issuescould be rectified easily; “State Farmshould withdraw their mandate re-quiring the use of PartsTrader. Then,PartsTrader would be like other partsprocurement systems, and it wouldhave to compete on its own merits, al-lowing repairers to have more powerin choosing parts, ensuring those partscome from a legitimate source, andadhering to the law.”
Eversman sees the PARTS Act as“an absolute example of the extremesto which any industry will go to getwhat it wants without considerationfor other industries. The patent lawsfocus on rewarding companies thatspend money and produce or designsomething unique, protecting them fora designated period of time. Aftermar-ket parts manufacturers and insurersare trying to obtain an exemption forimitation crash parts from the applica-tion of the patent laws, but if Con-
gress really wants to do somethinggood for the consumers, they shouldfocus on evaluating patents on med-ication; that would be far more bene-ficial than exempting imitation parts!”
An interesting side of this pro-posed legislation is the fact that, fordecades, the insurance and aftermar-ket parts industries have claimed thatthe imitation parts are “purely cos-metic” and have nothing to do withhow the vehicle performs in a colli-sion; however, because the parts automakers seek to protect are cos-metic—the standard for design patenteligibility—imitation crash parts man-ufacturers are now arguing that theirparts do have a meaningful function inthe car’s performance.
Eversman says “this is a terribleidea! We have patent laws for a rea-son, and since imitation parts manu-facturers haven’t demonstrated asignificant need to change this, we
may as well do away with patents [ifthe PARTS Act is passed] since it un-dermines the entire patent system.”
Though Eversman admits that shehas not been very involved with andis not particularly informed on theRight to Repair, she wants collisionrepairers to be able to make a livingdoing what they’re good at. On theflip side, she has significant concernswith the increasing technology and so-phistication of vehicles, as well as theuse of alternate metals and compositeparts, and she believes the industry israpidly approaching a point where noteveryone has the necessary skills andequipment to safely repair all vehicles.
Because Eversman also wantsconsumers’ vehicles to be repairedsafely, she can see the value of re-stricting this information to those whohave received the proper training, yetsince she also sees value in permittingany repairer access to this informationin order to repair all vehicles, heropinion is split between these twoconflicting interests.
Additionally, there are manyother challenges facing the collisionrepair industry. For starters, the indus-try is in a continuous state of flux, par-tially because of the changing natureof the vehicles themselves and alsodue to the significant presence of con-solidators and multi-shop operators(MSOs). Many MSOs are activelybuying other shops, leaving independ-ent shops feeling that they can’t com-pete and providing an escape route forshop owners who are exasperated withthe current state of the industry.
Of course, the still impoverishedstate of the economy comes with itsown set of problems which also nega-tively impact repairers. Finally, thefact that people are driving less andwinters have been milder in recentyears leading to fewer accidents alsoaffects some shops’ business. Overall,Eversman believes there is “a conflu-ence of things impacting repairers thatthey don’t have much control over.”
Fortunately, there are some pre-emptive measures that shops can taketo protect themselves from some ofthese problems.
Stay tuned to Autobody News fora future series on key documentationthat every shop should consider utiliz-ing.
Continued from Cover
Erica Eversman
“There is a confluence of things impacting repairersthat they don’t have much control over.”
“Anything that is imposed on collision repairersfrom an outside entity is inherently a bad thing.”
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 21
conditions are maintained: the speci-fied current, conductivity time, weldingpressure, holding time, and shutdowntime recommended for spot welder.Follow the spot welder manufacturer'sinstructions.
MIG brazing specifications
• MIG brazing machine with pulsecontroller• Wire: CuSi3• Shielding gas: Argon gas (100%)
NOTE:• For details about correct brazingcurrent and voltage, refer to the equip-ment manufacturer’s recommenda-tions.• MIG welding/brazing: Metal inert gaswelding or brazing where 100% Argon(Ar) shielding gas is used. Argon isinert and does not react with themolten weld pool or brazing operation.
Brazing hole sizeFor joining, or brazing of stiffener(340 and 980 MPa) and the high-strength steel (1500 MPa) parts: Drilltwo holes φ8 mm (0.31 in) in about 10mm (0.39 in) pitch.
For joining, or brazing of outerpanel (270 MPa) and the high-strengthsteel (1500 MPa) parts: Drill one holeφ8 mm (0.31 in) at the outer panel.
As I previously mentioned, let’s talkwelding machines.
I purchased a Prospot SP5 after test-ing it at the SEMA show.
This is the 5 in one welder. Youcan MIG Steel, MIG Weld Braze,MIG aluminum, TIG steel and arc
weld all in one machine. It is a 220volt single phase machine that ispulsed. It is a very user friendly andthe welds that are produced are amaz-ing. This machine is overkill for thebody shop. Prospot has the same ma-chine, but with 2 guns (steel, alu-minum or MIG braze—your choice).It is about 25 percent cheaper and I
would highly recommend this unit.You can go to Prospot.com and clickon the SP welder for a video demon-stration of this welder. Now to the ac-tual replacement of the center pillarand rocker reinforcement.
22 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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This diagram is taken from the 2013/2014 Honda Body Repair Manual. It is located in the GeneralDescription under Roof and Side Panel 4 Door Construction
This legend is also found on the same page as the diagram. Note that part number 6 isconstructed of 3 different metal strengths
You will note that there are 3 spot welds (590 steel)welded to reinforcement on the inside of thevehicle along with 4 spot welds
Center Pillar Stiffener Completea: Upper Stiffener [1.8 (0.071)] 1500 —
b: Lower Stiffener [1.8 (0.071)] 590 —
c: Center Pillar Reinforcement [1.8 (0.071)] 980
Continued from Page 19
Hey Toby!
Welding SymbolsPlate spot welding
Plate spot welding
Plate spot welding
MAG plug welding
MAG welding
MIG brazing
L= Welding length unit: mm (in)( ) and ( )*: The number of welds
You will note that the upper and lower out sec-tions of the reinforcement are MIG weld braze
11. From the passenger’s compartment, weld thecenter inner pillar (A) and the roof side rail (B)
You will note that there are 3 spot welds (590steel)welded to reinforcement on the inside ofthe vehicle along with 4 spot welds
1. When replacing the center pillar lower stiff-ener (A) only, weld it to the center pillar rein-forcement (B) and the center pillar upperstiffener (C).( )*: Welding positions with 590 MPa or higherparts. Confirm the plug welding specifications.(■)*: Welding positions with the center pillarupper stiffener (1500 MPa parts). Confirm thespot welding and the MIG brazing specifications
by Chasidy Sisk
The Washington Metropolitan AutoBody Association (WMABA) re-cently distributed invitations for theirupcoming Lobby Day in Annapolis,MD. The event will take place onWednesday, January 22nd from 8:30-10:30am at the Calvert House locatedat 58 State Circle, Annapolis MD21401.
WMABA’s Lobby Day willbegin with attendees joining theirMaryland legislators for breakfast,followed by a presentation given byWMABA Executive Director and theassociation lobbyist representativesfrom Alexander & Cleaver. Attendeeswill learn about the 2014 proposedparts legislation for the current leg-islative session which began on Janu-ary 7th.
This legislation is WMABA’s2014 Parts Bill which focuses on aid-ing shops interested in keeping thesame vendors and on providing thebest parts to customers. In addition todiscussing the specifics of the bill,WMABA will also explain how re-pairers and vendors can participate in
the legislative process.Those who register at least a
week before the event will also havethe opportunity to schedule a personalmeeting with their legislator.
“It is very important that repair-ers be involved with their personallegislator and the legislative process,even if they do not actively supportparticular legislation,” states JordanHendler, Executive Director ofWMABA. “You want them to knowyou as the expert when it comes toanything relating to automotive is-sues. Then, they come to you for ad-vice on proposed legislation versus uschasing them down on something thatcould have been easily avoided. It re-ally is rewarding to be active withthose who represent you and yourbusiness’ interests at the capital.”
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www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 23
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AAIA Releases 67 page 2013 Digital Collision RepairTrends Report with Analysis of Whole IndustryThe Automotive Aftermarket Indus-try Association (AAIA) has releasedthe 2013 Digital Collision RepairTrends report, an online 67-page de-scriptive analysis of data compiledfrom primary AAIA research, federalgovernment and independent re-search data sources. The report high-lights the size and scope of the U.S.collision industry, including thepaint, body and equipment (PBE) af-termarket, with a brief analysis of theCanadian collision industry. It alsoincludes analyses of factors influ-encing the collision industry, auto-motive collision insurance coverageand the Direct Repair Program(DRP).
According to this year’s report,collision repair-related sales by af-termarket repair shops grew 2.3 per-cent in 2012 to $39.7 billion. Thisgrowth was driven by several factorssuch as increased number of regis-tered vehicles, increased road con-gestion causing a higher frequencyof accidents per year and the in-creased collision repair cost per ve-
hicle. Powered by Nxtbook MediaLLC™, this digital publication re-tains both the traditional design andhigh quality content of AAIA re-ports. This online production pro-vides added value with many newfunctional enhancements. Users can:● Download Excel-based files,charts, tables and graphs that can becopied and pasted for presentations.● Turn pages with the click of amouse.● View pages in a variety of sizesand formats.● Quickly locate what you are look-ing for through a “word search” fea-ture.● Save material for future referencethrough the “bookmarks” feature.● Print the entire publication.
Copies of the new 2013 DigitalCollision Repair Trends report arenow available—cost is $125 forAAIA members and $250 for non-members. To order, visit www.after-market.org and click “MarketIntelligence,” or call AAIA marketintelligence at 301-654-6664.
When you’re running a busy shop,it’s necessary to have many systemsand procedures more or less on auto-matic. There’s no time to addressevery situation newly every time.Lean processes and procedures havebeen carefully thought out so ifeveryone adheres to the system, theshop runs smoothly.
Nevertheless, periodically it’snecessary to re-evaluate any system orprocedure that’s been used for a longtime. I, for example, tend to invest individend-bearing securities that I cancount on generating consistent incomefor the long haul. But from time-to-time I have to weed out the poor pro-ducers and replace them with betterproducers or perhaps just purchasemore of the good producers. An astuteshop owner or manager should do thesame thing with marketing proce-dures.
Sadly many shops fail to accu-rately track the effectiveness of pro-motional ads, mailings, e-mails,website hits and events. At one timethis was understandable. We didn’thave tools like hit counters or e-mailsreceived reports or 800 number calls.But even tools like these don’t reallytell us whether any of these promo-tional responses turned into real jobs.Our only reliable statistic is the cus-tomer’s report about what sent him orher to the shop. Without those num-bers the shop owner or manager hasno real idea what marketing actions todrop and which ones to double up, torefine or replace.
Even with customers’ informa-tion about who sent them, it’s still notalways possible to know how to rein-force the sources that sent business tothe shop. Some insurance companyreferrals will specify the customer’sagent but sometimes the agent is manymiles away so that it’s not practical tomarket to thse remote agents. If mostof the jobs come to the shop referredby one insurance company, how se-cure is it to bet the survival of the shopon one source that could cripple theshop if it stops sending work? Oneagain, the investment metaphor ap-plies. How secure is it to put most ofyour investment money into purchas-ing or holding just one stock, bond orother security? It’s well known that acertain amount of diversity is neces-sary to protect oneself against possi-ble market turndowns.
Another factor that must be con-sidered in a re-evaluaton is the cost ofeach marketing action. Some promo-tional actions are hard to track but costso little it may be worth keeping themin motion. But if a marketing move iscostly, it’s definitely worthwhile totake a close look at how much profitthat action is creating. One shopowner I knew well kept a DRP with alow-profit, cut-rate insurance com-pany that he knew barely made him aprofit on each job. But when he wasable to get a contract with a much bet-ter paying DRP, he dropped the otherone like a rock!
I’ve found that some shop own-ers don’t really know the true cost of
referral arrangements with insurancecompanies, dealerships and other re-ferral sources. If the labor and partsdiscount is calculated per job, andgive-aways factored in, like lot dam-age, totals storage and more, the realcosts of some of those relationshipsmay be much more than they seem tobe at a glance. Like the automatic pro-duction procedure, a shop owner mayhave gotten so comfortable with a re-lationship, he or she may not realizeit’s time to re-evaluate that relation-ship and perhaps consider looking fora new one -- or re-negotiating theprofitability of that long-term situa-tion.
Finally, our world has changedsignificantly with the proliferation ofsmart phones and tablets. New appsfor these pop up daily now, and thereis an expectation that every businesscan provide instant electronic infor-mation. Printed paper phone booksand many publications are now rarely
read or used. Resources spent in thisdirection may be totally wasted. Whileit can be costly to seek out a goodprovider for social media promotionand possibly even a smart phone app,it would be wise to face up to that costnow or be left behind in the dust. Andeven this marketing effort and costmight not be necessary if a shop’s pri-mary customer base is unlikely to seekout or respond to this electronic kindof marketing.
The location, age, environmentand occupations of a shop’s customerscould be such that the shop could getaway with another year of limitedstate-of-the-art electronic marketing.But the young people becoming adultstoday are totally conversant withsmart phones, social media and more.If a shop plans to be in business pastthis year, there’s no getting aweayfrom the need to embrace these newtechnologies and put the marketingdollars in that direction.
24 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
The followingdealerships areeager to serveyour needs.Call your localSubaru collisionparts specialisttoday!
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]. See Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin
Mobileye, a Dutch private companyand a leader in camera-based advanceddriver assistance systems (ADAS)technologies for the automotive indus-try and Accel Telecom Ltd., a leadingprovider of cellular based connectedcar solutions, have announced the inte-gration of Mobileye’s Collision avoid-ance system with Accel’s VOYAGERconnected car smartphone. The inte-grated solution allows remote monitor-ing of Mobileye alerts transmitted viathe VOYAGER 3G cellular connec-tion, which is ideal for fleet managers,insurance companies and families thatwant to receive real time updates on
their driver’s behavior on the road.Isaac Litman, Mobileye CEO
commented: “[This] is an elegant so-lution that allows both the driver anda third party to receive Mobileye’s lifesaving alerts in real time which is areal need for fleet managers, busi-nesses, families and more. We arehappy to partner with Accel on thisexciting offering and believe it willenhance the Mobileye experience.”
Marc Seelenfreund, Accel CEOsaid, “the integrated VOYAGER–Mobileye solution will add an addi-tional layer of driver safety via remotemonitoring of Mobileye alerts.”
Mobileye Integrates with Accel Connected Car Technology
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 25
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CIC chair George Avery welcomedthe CIC body before inviting JohnVan Alstyne, president and CEO ofI-CAR, to present the organization’sinitiatives for the coming year (seeI-CAR story this issue) FollowingVan Alstyne was a presentation byguest speaker Scott Sorrell, CEO ofSales Adrenaline. Sorrell discussedhow to find your value as a businessand how to keep reselling that valueto customers. The afternoon was fo-cused on reviewing each CIC com-mittee—definitions, insurer/repairerrelations, parts and material, dataprivacy, education and training,human resources, governmental,marketing, and technical—and theirplans for the coming year. Notablechanges to the committees includedputting the definitions committee onhiatus, and the appointing of RandyHanson, auto director at Allstate, asthe new chair of the insurer/repairerrelations committee. Hanson willreplace Rick Tuuri. Discussion alsooccured on the data privacy com-mittee on vehicle information tech-nology.
CIC in Brief, More Next Issue
The Collision Industry Conference’sOE Roundtable Committee an-nounced the launch of crashrepair-info.com, a consumer education site,during the first day of the January2014 Collision Industry Conference(CIC) planning meeting in PalmSprings, CA. The site is aimed atproviding consumers with informa-tion that can help them navigate theprocess of getting their vehicles re-paired following a collision. GaryLedoux, assistant national managerof wholesale parts marketing atHonda and a member of the OERoundtable Committee, said the siteis meant to help vehicle ownersmake informed decisions about thecollision repair of their vehicle. Thesite includes OE position statements,collision repair basics, what to do incase of an accident, and links to otherOE sites. Ledoux said the committeerecommends all repairers use the siteas a resource and direct customers tothe site, as is applicable.
CIC Roundtable LaunchesConsumer Website for OEMs
Ford Rep Paul Massie on Repairing the 2015 F-150Paul Massie, powertrain and collisionproduct marketing manager for Ford,spoke at the Collision Industry Confer-ence (CIC) held Jan. 16–17 in PalmSprings, CA. He sought to reassure re-pairers concerned about the forthcom-ing newly engineered 2015 F-150which goes on sale later this year.
“We designed the vehicle so it can beeasily repaired and accessible so the cus-tomer can go where they want to get it re-paired,” said Massie. Massie said there willbe no restrictions on what kind of shopscan repair the vehicle. Ford will not requirea shop to have a separate clean room how-ever, it will recommend the use of curtainsto separate aluminum from steel work andspecific equipment to handle the repairs.The total investment for a shop that is start-ing from ground zero with aluminum re-pair can be as high as $50,000. (AutobodyNews’ next issue will detail a shop’s outlayon clean room setup.)
“That’s if you have absolutely noaluminum equipment,” Massie said.“So if you’re already in the aluminumbusiness and already have the equip-ment and can separate aluminum fromsteel, you’re probably a long way to-wards having the equipment you need.”
Genuine Ford collision repair partswill be available to all shops. All partssold will include instructions on how to
properly install them.Ford will begin its education on
the 2015 F-150 and aluminum repair atthe AASP/NJ Northeast Show March21–23 at the Meadowlands Expo Centerin Secaucus, NJ. A cutaway of the vehi-cle will be featured so repairers can seeall of its structural components. Engi-neers will be present to talk about thevehicle, and I-CAR training developedwith Ford will be available.
Ford is also offering to do a pres-entation on the 2015 F-150 at the nextCIC April 9–10 in Portland, OR, al-though details are not firmed up yet. In-formation will also be available atNACE in July and SEMA in October.
“The goal is to make high-strength,military-grade aluminum alloy collisionrepair mainstream,” said Massie. “Wewant it to be as mainstream as it alreadyis for steel.”
Elsewhere Ford has said it put thenew model through rigorous tests, in-cluding cross-country hauls throughdesert valleys and over high-altitudemountain passes and in climates of 20 de-grees below zero and 120 degrees above.
A disguised F-150 even raced inthe Baja 1000, where it earned the dis-tinction of completing the 883-mile racewhile some other purpose-built race ve-hicles could not.
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It’s easy as a shop owner to get socaught up in day-to-day operations thatit can be a challenge to follow just thenews directly affecting collision re-pairers.
But there’s plenty of insurance-re-lated news that shops also shouldknow about, because it can help themeducate their customers, market theirbusiness, and maybe even alter howthey vote or shop for insurance them-selves.
Insurer pushes for more alternativepartsAs of this year, The Hartford is nowrequiring its direct repair shops to use“any appropriate alternative part whenit is available” regardless of the age ormileage of the vehicle being repaired.
A memo from Bethany Siddall,director of auto claims for The Hart-ford, tells shops the new policy is sub-ject to state law, and that any salvageparts still must be of the same modelyear or newer than the vehicle beingrepaired. But unless prohibited by statelaw, the new mandate means availablenon-OEM parts must be used even oncurrent model year vehicles.
“Keep in mind that each claimshould be handled on an individualbasis and any variance from this stan-dard should be clearly documented inthe claim file,” Siddall’s memo states.
State Farm encouraging weldingtraining, certification. When I-CARannounced a new lower pricing struc-ture for its welding qualification test-ing (now called Welding Training andCertification) early this year, it also an-nounced that State Farm negotiated adiscount for its Select Service shops aswell. The announced continues StateFarm’s track record of encouraging butnot mandating certain training require-ments on its direct repair shops.
“We believe welding proficiencybenefits State Farm policyholders byproviding quality repairs to policy-holder vehicles,” Russ Hoffbauer, di-rector of property and casualty claimsfor State Farm, said. “While partici-pating in the I-CAR Welding Trainingand Certification is not mandatory forSelect Service repairers, we anticipatethat repairers will be eager to take ad-vantage of this unique opportunity.”
Tardy insurance regulation reportissued by the feds. Nearly two yearsafter it was due, a new report releasedby the Federal Insurance Office in De-cember concludes more federal regu-lation of some aspects of insurance isneeded. Rather than debating federal-vs. state-oversight of insurance, the re-port suggests a hybrid approach, withfederal involvement where beneficialin an otherwise state-based system.
Most of the federal regulationsuggested in the report deals withmortgage insurance and internationalinsurance issues, but it also calls foroversight of personal lines in terms ofpractices related to risk-profilinggroups and individuals based on per-sonal information.
Insurer groups were generallypleased with the report’s support formore consistent state-based regulationof the industry but were more skepticalof its call for more federal involvement.
State insurance regulator group in up-heaval
At the same timewhen increasedfederal oversightof the insuranceindustry is beingproposed, the asso-ciation of state in-surance regulatorsappears to be hav-
ing internal conflicts. Connecticut In-surance Commissioner Tom Leonardiis calling for an outside firm to con-duct a corporate-governance review ofthe National Association of InsuranceCommissioners (NAIC), questioningwhat he sees as poor decisions by thegroup’s executive committee and whathe called NAIC’s “imperial presi-dency.”
Leonardi cited as one example thedecision by last year’s president,Kevin McCarty of Florida, “to givethe Federal Insurance Office one of theNAIC’s three seats on the InternationalAssociation of Insurance SupervisorsExecutive Committee.” He was alsocritical of some insurance commis-sioners’ decision to turn down an invi-tation to meet with President Obama.
“This could be so bad that itmight be the pivotal point we later rec-
ognize that doomed state-based regu-lation. Talk about a self-inflictedwound,” Washington CommissionerMike Kreidler is quoted in the letter.
Leonardi said “cronyism” and the“undue influence of two former [un-named] commissioners,” is undermin-
ing the NAIC andgives fodder tothose who question“whether we are upto the task of regu-lating the largestinsurance marketin the world.”Other state insur-
ance commissioners have raised simi-lar concerns but believe the NAICneeds to attempt to address the issuesinternally before seeking the outside re-view that Leonardi wants.
State enacts new deductible rules.Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett inDecember signed a new law that al-lows insurers to offer zero-deductible
auto policies? Previous state law re-quired a deductible of at least $100.The legislation also drops the currentmandate that policyholders selecting adeductible below $500 acknowledge inwriting that they recognize that “alower deductible means a higher pre-mium.”
Insurer offers telematics as a way forparents to track teen driversEsurance says parents in 39 states whohave installed its DriveSafe telematicsdevice on their vehicle can now pairthe device with their teenage driver’scell phone to limit (on some phonebrands) texting or other use of thephone while the car is in motion. Thesystem also allows parents to monitora teen’s driving behaviors includingroutes taken, speeding, hard braking ordriving past curfew.
Esurance says the information isnot shared with the insurer nor is itused to determine premiums.
26 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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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].
Tom Corbett
Tom Leonardi
Insurance exec a big, big winnerIra Curry, a 56-year-old vice presi-dent for property-casualty in the At-lanta office of Aspen Insurance, wasone of two winners in December’sMega Millions $636 million jackpot.An Aspen spokesman said Curry hadtaken a leave from the company “todisappear with family for a while.”Curry took the lump-sum cash option,walking away with about $120 mil-lion after taxes.
Insurer to offer policies in anotherstatePennsylvania-based Erie InsuranceGroup will expand into Kentucky, its13th state, by early next year. Erie isthe 15th largest personal auto insurerin the country, although nearly half ofits premiums are from insureds in itshome state.
Idea of city-owned insurer debatedAn editorial in the Detroit News urgedMayor-elect Michael Duggan to drophis idea of starting a city-owned autoinsurance company.
Duggan first raised the idea last fallwhile campaigning to become Detroit’snext mayor. Detroit residents by some es-timates have the highest auto insurance
rates of any city in the country, leadingsome residents to use suburban addresseswhen buying auto insurance. Duggansaid his own auto insurance rates doubledwhen he moved from nearby Livonia towithin the city limits of Detroit.
The newspaper says Dugganshould not take on such a risky en-
deavor but shouldinstead focus onefforts to curtailauto thefts and tolobby the state forreform of the no-fault system. Oneclaim in the edito-rial surely caught
the eye of collision repairers.“If Duggan believes he can lower
premiums by taking the profit out ofinsurance, he’s in for an awakening,”the editorial states. “There is no profitin auto insurance, (Peter) Kuhnmuench(executive director of the Insurance In-stitute of Michigan), says.”
John Yoswick is also the editor ofthe weekly CRASH Network (for afree 4-week trial subscription, visitwww.CrashNetwork.com). He can becontacted by email at:[email protected].
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 27
THESE DEALERS are GENUINE WHOLESALE PARTS SPECIALISTS.
“These statements have beenmade about certain plaintiffs withoutany attempt to ascertain the truththereof,” the suit said. “Not onlythat, some of the ills recited whichimplicitly criticize the shops arewholly attributable to the insurer it-self.”
“Plaintiffs have performed valu-able services and expended materialresources with the reasonable expec-tation of payment/compensation forthose services and materials. This istheir business,” the complaint reads.“Performing said services and ex-pending material resources benefit-ted Defendants and Defendants’insured/claimants for whom Defen-dants are required to provide pay-ment for repairs.”
The complaint added that sev-eral of the plaintiffs attempted toraise these issues with insurance in-dustry representatives at a meetingheld in April.
At the meeting, the insurers saidthat repairs and subsequent pay-ments should be consistent with the
estimates prepared through the com-panies' database software. But thesuit said that little has changed since,with State Farm and the other defen-dants continuing to refuse to makefull payments for necessary repairs.
The suit seeks treble damagesand injunctive relief, along with anyother relief the court deems proper.
Among the other insurersnamed in the suit are ProgressiveGulf Insurance Co., Allstate Insur-ance Co. and Nationwide PropertyAnd Casualty Insurance Co.
An attorney for the repair com-panies and a representative for StateFarm did not immediately respond torequests for comment.
Counsel information for the in-surance companies was not immedi-ately available for comment.
The case is Capitol Body Shop,Inc. et al v. Lewis et al., case num-ber 3:14-cv-00012, in the U.S. Dis-trict Court for the Southern Districtof Mississippi.
Continued from Page 15
Insurers Sued
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I tell marketing people at body shopsall the time that if you pay attention toGoogle and stay on top of its periodicalgorithm updates, you’ll be wayahead of the game. It may not soundthat important, but when you thinkabout the fact that every website in theworld is affected by Google in oneway or another, you can see that thosewho know how to use it right will ob-viously have a distinct advantage overtheir competition.
Google’s incarnations (or re-leases) come with little or no warningand every time Google updates itself,it’s an attention-getter for anyone whoworks with the Internet. Named afteranimals (first there was Penguin andthen there was Panda) these updatesrevolve around the fact that Googlewants to reward sites that offer valuewhile penalizing those that containspam and irrelevant content. Thenewest update is called Hummingbirdand it’s been buzzing in every web-master’s ears since it was releasednearly six months ago.
This summer, Google explainedtheir newest update in a simple para-graph: “Hummingbird is paying moreattention to each word in a query, en-suring that the whole query—thewhole sentence or conversation ormeaning—is taken into account, ratherthan particular words. The goal is thatpages matching the meaning do better,rather than pages matching just a fewwords.”
Some people will always try tobeat the system and fool Google with“black-hat” tactics, but in the endthey’re like the IRS. You may getaway with using text that you’re “bor-rowing” from other sites for a whileand do other shady things to rankhighly in local searches, but in theend, the party’s over. And Google isnot like the American justice sys-tem—no one is innocent until provenguilty and they could care less aboutreasonable doubt.
But, do not fear—if you hire a re-spectable webmaster with a goodtrack record that performs honest SEOrelevant to your business and adheringto Google’s rules, you’ll be fine on-line. One company that’s been doingexceptional work for both mechanical
and collision businesses online is RingRing Marketing in San Jose, CA.Their motto is “We Make Your PhoneRing” and they specialize in workingwith small to medium-size companies.Welton Hong, the COO at Ring RingMarketing offered us some valuabletips on how body shops can useGoogle effectively in this new Hum-mingbird environment. “To optimizean auto body shop website for GoogleHummingbird, consider adding morereal-world, question-specific queriesinto your site content,” Hong said.“This could be in the form of blogposts, FAQs and more.”
In the end, Google still valuesand respects original content andquality links over anything else. Anytime you’re going to post somethingon your web site or blog, ask your-self this—is it of real value to mycustomers? Make certain that you’recreating content that is relevant toyour audience and then integrate itinto all of your social media. In-crease your exposure and build yourbrand by positioning yourself as anexpert in collision and getting theword out through to the local media,including radio, TV, print and the In-ternet. And post different types ofcontent to enhance your SEO andcreate more opportunities to engageyour audience—especially video, ac-cording to Hong.
“Add more relevant video con-tent to your site,” he said. “It's muchharder for Google to generate this sortof content in response to inquiries, sothis type of material will be insulated,at least for now, from the negative ef-fects of Hummingbird.”Other Google-related things to con-sider this year:● Ride the Google+ Train: Googlerewards companies that use theirproducts and this is one of their lead-ing products. Too many body shopsset up Google+ accounts in 2013 anddid nothing else. Tell your marketingpeople that you want to use Google+more and devise a plan.
● Going Mobile: The Internet isgoing more mobile every day, so geton the ball and be a part of it. Googlewants you to make your site optimized
for mobile users to attract mobile vis-itors. Right now, half of all Americans(and every 13-year-old girl out there)own smartphones and one-third owntablets. The number is going to growat an explosive rate, so get mobile ofget lost. “Make sure your site is asmobile-friendly as possible,” Hongexplained. “Hummingbird is designedfor mobile users. Mobile visitors arequickly outnumbering desktop visi-tors. You must focus your effortshere.”
● Some Appetizing Google Apps:I use Google Docs every day, becauseit enables me to share documents eas-ily with others, via my desktop, lap-top or smartphone. It saves time,because users can check in wheneverand wherever. Also consider Evernote(a great note-taking app) and ofcourse, Gmail and Dropbox. Googletweaked and improved both of theseapplications in 2013, making them
easier to use and full of new func-tionality.
Whether working on a vehicle orcoordinating your marketing efforts,it’s all about having the best toolsavailable and knowing how to usethem. Google has literally 50-plusbusiness tools to make you more ef-fective and profitable in 2014 and be-yond. So tap into the Google universeand learn which ones are best-suitedfor you.
But, most importantly, learn theHummingbird update and discover itsnuances and capabilities. MakeGoogle a bigger part of your market-ing plan this year and plug away atcreating a significant presence there.Because Google is here to stay and theshops that use it correctly will reaphuge benefits over time. Be patientand stick to your plan and pretty soonyou‘ll hear the phone ringing, fol-lowed by those wonderful words, “Wefound you on Google!”
28 FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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How to Improve Your Success with Google in 2014
with Ed Attanasio
Social Media for Shops
Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].
www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 29
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Hyundai and Kia saw their com-bined global sales rise 6 percent to6.9 million vehicles from Januaryto November 2013 from a year ear-lier. The companies said that theyare on track to sell more than 7.5million vehicles globally this year,higher than their earlier target of7.41 million vehicles. Hyundai andKia rank fifth in global vehiclesales, and expect a tough year in2014 as Japanese and European au-tomakers are seen acceleratingcompetition and the United Statesand Chinese markets slow. In theUS, Hyundai’s sales are up 2 per-cent this year through Novemberwhile volume has declined 3 per-cent at Kia in an overall market thathas expanded 8 percent. Solid salesgains in emerging markets likeChina and Brazil outweighed slow-ing sales in the United States andSouth Korea where Hyundai andKia have underperformed rivalspartly due to aging models. Lastyear, Hyundai and Kia sold a com-bined 7.1 million vehicles.
Hyundai, Kia Expect to Top2013 Global Vehicle Sales
CCC Information Services Inc.(CCC) announced on Jan. 7 the ac-quisition of Auto Injury Solutions,Inc. (AIS), formerly a division of Hu-mana Inc. The transaction brings to-gether CCC with AIS, the onlynational, full-service provider of autoinjury medical review solutions.“We’re thrilled to welcome MattElges and his team to the CCC family.The acquisition of AIS is an impor-tant step in the continued execution ofour strategy to expand into adjacentsegments in order to better service theauto claims market,” said Githesh Ra-mamurthy, Chairman and CEO ofCCC. “Together, our platform will beable to leverage proven technology,advanced data analytics and world-class customer service to provide cus-tomers with an array of solutions.”
Elges said, “The combination ofCCC and AIS represents a strongstrategic fit that will enable us to ex-pand our reach and leverage our col-lective strengths in developinginnovative new solutions for our cus-tomers.
CCC Acquires Auto InjurySolutions Inc.
The National Automotive ServiceTask Force (NASTF) reported thatthe Chrysler Group LLC is register-ing diagnostic software and tools inboth dealerships and aftermarketshops to ensure authenticity whenservicing customer’s vehicles.NASTF was made aware of thisfrom Chrysler in response to a ques-tion NASTF had asked on this topic.License registration has been in useby many OEMs for some time, butin the near future, unregisteredChrysler tools will not operate.Soon, the wiTECH software willshow a warning to users whose de-vices do not hold a valid registra-tion. Registration of the Chryslertool is free, assuming the user haspaid the yearly license fee. AChrysler spokesperson told NASTFthat approximately 80– 90% ofknown users have already registeredtheir device. Later in 2014, Chryslerwill no longer allow unregisteredusers to operate their wiTECHs. Theother affected group will be users ofclones of the wiTECH VCI.
Chrysler Seeks Registrationof Diagnostic Software
Sales of vehicles able to drive them-selves will account for about 9 per-cent of global auto sales in abouttwo decades, according to a forecastpublished this month by auto indus-try consultant IHS Automotive. Thestudy focused on autonomous cars,which can drive with “no attentionneeded by the driver,” IHS analystEgil Juliussen said. Such cars arenot currently available for sale, butIHS predicts they will be availablearound 2025. IHS expects globalsales of self-driving cars in 2025 tobe 230,000—less than 1 percent ofthe 115 million cars expected to besold that year. But by 2035, sales ofself-driving cars will reach 11.8 mil-lion, or 9 percent of the 129 millionglobal auto sales expected that year,Juliussen said. Most of those saleswill be in well-established auto mar-kets such as the United States, west-ern Europe and Japan. The pace ofgrowth for self-driving cars will ex-ceed that of electric cars, whichhave been hobbled by the high costof batteries, Juliussen said.
Study Estimates 9% of Carswill be Self-Driving by 2035
As of January 1, 2014, thirteenstates will raise the minimumwage for workers. In Arizona($7.90 per hour), Colorado [pdf]($8.00 per hour), Connecticut[pdf] ($8.70 per hour), Florida[pdf] ($7.93 per hour), Missouri($7.50 per hour), Montana ($7.90per hour), New Jersey ($8.25 perhour), New York ($8.00 per hour),Ohio ($7.95 per hour), Oregon[pdf] ($9.10 per hour), Rhode Is-land ($8.00 per hour), Vermont[pdf] ($8.73 per hour), and Wash-ington ($9.32 per hour), workerswill see an increase. All employ-ers in these states need to displayupdated posters with the new stateminimum wage as required bystate law. Additionally, Califor-nia’s minimum wage will increaseto $9.00 per hour on July 1, 2014.The Federal minimum wage re-mains unchanged at $7.25 perhour. However, if your workersare in a state that has a minimumwage above the Federal rate, youmust pay workers the higher rate.
14 States to Increase theMinimum Wage in 2014
North American car and truck pro-duction reached an estimated 16.6million units in 2013, up 4 percent.That would mark the first timesince 2005 that production sur-passed 16 million units. Mexicanplants are expected to have pro-duced a record number of vehiclesin 2013, an estimated 3,071,000units, topping 2012’s record of3,020,404.
Several manufacturers’ NorthAmerican totals are expected tosurpass records set in 2012. Honda,Hyundai-Kia, Nissan and Toyotaall had record producing years in2013, but BMW, Subaru, Volkswa-gen and AutoAlliance—the Ford-Mazda joint venture—producedfewer units in 2013 than in 2012.
While Canada built over 2.4million vehicles in 2012, that num-ber is expected to drop to 1.8 mil-lion by 2020. Since 2010, automakers have invested $42 billion inmanufacturing. The biggest de-clines in Canada are expected tocome at GM and Chrysler.
North American Car & TruckProduction Hits 16.6M Units
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OSHA Implements New Internet Resources to EncourageSafer Practices: Toolkit Options and PEL TablesOn October 24, 2013, the Occupa-tional Safety and Health Adminis-tration (OSHA) initiated two newinternet resources to assist employ-ers in better protecting their em-ployees from exposure to hazardouschemicals.
These initiatives do not createnew mandatory standards, but ratherprovide employers with resourcesthat OSHA hopes will encouragecompanies to voluntarily adopt saferpolicies regarding hazardous chem-icals. According to OSHA, thesenew resources are needed becausemany of its standards are out-of-dateand fail to adequately protect work-ers from exposure to hazardouschemicals.
One of the new internet re-sources is a toolkit that identifiessafer chemicals that can be used inplace of more hazardous chemicals.This toolkit can be found at:http://www.osha.gov/dsg/safer_chemicals/index.html.
OSHA also created AnnotatedPermissible Exposure Limit tables
(annotated PEL tables), which listmore stringent exposure limits forchemicals. The annotated PEL tablescan be found at:http://www.osha.gov/dsg/annotated-pels/index.html.
Compliance with the exposurelimits contained in the annotatedPEL tables is voluntary, thoughrecommended by OSHA. DavidMichaels, assistant secretary oflabor for occupational safety andhealth, stated that he hopes em-ployers will adopt these new PELtables. He explained, “I advise em-ployers, who want to ensure thattheir workplaces are safe, to utilizethe occupational exposure limits onthese annotated tables, since sim-ply complying with OSHA’s anti-quated PELs will not guaranteethat workers will be safe.”
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Studies and data suggest that driversneed to pay more attention to the taskof driving to avoid accidents. Ac-cording to a recent study, simplybeing “lost in thought” amounted to62 percent of the distractions listed asa cause of a fatal automobile acci-dent. The report indicates thatroughly 10 percent of fatal traffic ac-cidents involve at least one driverwho is distracted. This amounts toabout 6,500 people killed each year.Cellphone usage of all types placedsecond at about 12 percent in thestudy. This includes both talking onthe phone as well as texting and dial-ing. Using other devices, such as nav-igation tools, was ranked as being afactor in two percent of fatal acci-dents as was adjusting the climatecontrol or audio systems. Other majorfactors include being distracted by thescenery or people outside the vehicle,which accounted for seven percent ofaccidents, and conversing with pas-sengers, which was listed in five per-cent of accidents. More minor causesinclude consuming foods or liquids,adjusting car controls, smoking, mov-ing pets and even swatting insects.These factors were found in abouttwo percent of the incidents.
Daydreaming Tops List ofCrash-Causing Distractions
Beware Hole-in-One Golf Insurance ScamsAutobody Associations planninggolf events with hole in one prizesneed to watch out for potentialphony insurance scams. A Con-necticut man pleaded guilty inWashington state to two counts ofselling insurance without a licenseand one count of first-degree theftafter insuring golf tournamenthole-in-one prizes and failing topay.
Kevin Kolenda, 55, of Nor-walk, Conn., could spend up to threemonths in jail when sentenced. Hemust also pay up to $35,000 in resti-tution. Kolenda started his businessin 1995 under the name Golf Mar-keting. It went through several namechanges, including Golf MarketingWorldwide, Golf Marketing Inc.,Hole-in-Won.com and its currentname, Hole-in-Won.com World-wide. He has a satellite office inRye, NY.
Kolenda has been accusedseveral times of insurance tourna-ments and failing to pay hole-in-one winners in several states,including Montana, Ohio, Georgia,California, New York, Hawaii, Ala-bama, Massachusetts, Florida, Con-necticut and North Carolina.
Ford’s Best Selling F-150 Gets Lighter and TougherIn what many industry analysts con-sider a risky move for Ford, and oth-ers consider a transformative moment,the company is rolling the dice on thepickup line, America’s best-sellingtruck for 37 years and its best-sellingvehicle for 32.
The 2015 F-150 will be substan-tially lighter due to extensive use of alu-minum and more high strength steels.Aluminum alloys are used throughoutthe F-150 body for the first time, as thetruck slims down by up to 700 pounds.
The lighter body then allows othercomponents such as fuel tanks, brakesand powertrains to also shrink, all whilemaintaining or improving driving per-formance and fuel economy, accordingto companies involved, including Alcoaand Novelis Inc.
“This is already the most signifi-cant debut at the auto show,” said JoeLangley, a production analyst for re-searcher IHS Automotive. “Especiallysince Ford will be taking such a biggamble.”
Ford engineers increased the use ofhigh-strength 70,000-psi steel—from 23percent to 77 percent of the frame—toimprove stiffness and durability whilereducing weight. The new frame is up to60 pounds lighter than the current frame.“The frame is the backbone of the
truck, and we delivered a frame that isstronger and more capable than be-fore,” said John Caris, F-150 leadframe engineer. “Our frame team de-veloped exclusive, industry-first engi-neering techniques to create a truckfoundation that is lighter without sacri-ficing toughness. This F-150 frame isthe toughest we have ever built.”
Ford engineers also increased theuse of advanced materials in the F-150 body.
“Our objective was to find mate-rials that allowed us to design the truckto be as tough or tougher than the cur-rent model, yet could help it be hun-dreds of pounds lighter for bettercapability and fuel economy,” said PeteFriedman of Ford manufacturing re-search. “Out of all the materials wetested, we carefully selected only cer-tain grades of aluminum that met ourhigh performance standards in all of ourtests, while allowing us to trim hun-dreds of pounds from the truck.”
The reduced weight of the high-strength, military-grade, aluminum al-loys enables the F-150 to tow and haulmore than ever while also improvingacceleration, braking and handling per-formance. Also, aluminum alloys willnot rust and are resistant to corrosion,helping enhance vehicle life.
Other Lightweights at the Detroit Auto ShowThe redesigned 2015 Ford F-150 andthe 2015 BMW M3 and M4 lead the“lightweight” movement at the 2014Detroit Auto Show.
The push for better fuel economyis helping to drive the movement to-ward lighter weight vehicles. Con-sumer demand for more content, suchas infotainment systems, leather seatsand larger wheels, adds more weight tothe car. Automakers are then underpressure to cut weight elsewherethroughout the body of a vehicle inorder to improve fuel efficiency. Thisnew diet requires new materials such asaluminum, magnesium and carbonfiber, as every pound counts.
The estimated 700 lb weight lossin Ford’s best-selling truck helps thevehicle to “tow more, haul more, ac-celerate quicker and stop shorter,”while “contributing to efficiency,” Fordsaid on Monday. The EPA has not yetpublished fuel economy numbers onthe 2015 F-150.
BMW said its 2015 BMW M4Coupe has a curb weight of around3,300 pounds, “thanks to the rigorousapplication of intelligent lightweightdesign measures.” This reflects aweight savings of around 176 poundsover a comparably equipped previousmodel, according to the automaker.
The weight was reduced throughthe increased use of lightweight mate-rials, such as carbon-fiber-reinforcedplastic and aluminum on a number ofchassis and body components. The2015 BMW M3 and M4 feature a car-bon roof.
Another car in the BMW lineupalso puts the emphasis on light weight.The electric 2014 BMW i3 features abody made of carbon fiber. The au-tomaker says this super-light vehiclegets more miles on a charge than itscompetitors.
An all-aluminum body and chas-sis let Land Rover shave about 800pounds off the 2014 Range RoverSport.
The 2014 Chevrolet CorvetteStingray, which debuted at the 2013Detroit Auto Show, features light-weight materials, including an alu-minum frame, carbon-fiber hood anda removable roof panel on coupes.
Edmunds.com said: As this trendpicks up speed, “lightweight” is be-coming a major marketing point, agood thing for car shoppers concernedabout fuel economy.
