by Chasidy Rae Sisk On Tuesday, August 26, attorney John Arthur Eaves and shop owner Bill Fowler, of Bill Fowler’s Body- works in Southaven MS, appeared on the Drake and Zeke Show, a popular early morning radio talk show in the Memphis, TN area. The reason for their guest appearance was to explain the MDL lawsuit to consumers and educate them on their rights during the collision repair process in hopes of raising awareness about this im- portant issue impacting collision re- pair facilities across the country. To begin, the radio hosts summa- rized the lawsuit they planned to dis- cuss. In January 2014, Eaves filed a complaint against insurers on behalf of 21 collision repair shops. Though the lawsuit began in MS, it has spread and continues to gain traction so that it is now a national lawsuit, involving six states, which will be tried by a sin- gle judge in FL. Multiple insurers have been implicated in the complaint as the habit of insurer steering is an in- dustry-wide problem. Fowler pointed out that steering has become so pervasive in the indus- See Memphis Radio, Page 26 by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor Last month we reported on the final closing of the purchase of Holmes Body Shop’s seven locations by Cooks Collision Centers. The Holmes acqui- sition was initiated in May 2012 and concluded with the seventh Holmes location closing in September of this year, after our last issue went to press. With 35 locations in CA, Cooks is the largest independently owned and op- erated collision repair organization in the state. But Holmes is not even the latest medium-sized MSO to be acquired by larger consolidators in California. In September, Service King Collision Repair Centers acquired Marco’s Col- lision Centers, also a medium-sized MSO having seven locations in Southern California. Shortly there- after Service King reached an agree- ment to acquire Car West Auto Body, an MSO with seven shops in Northern California. Is there some kind of ‘rule of sev- ens’ at play here? More seriously, we wanted to know what forces were driving the acquisition of small to mid-size MSOs and why they seem more attractive than individual shops for acquisition. Nearly 20 years ago David Roberts, the co-founder and former Chairman of the Board for Caliber Collision Centers, wrote an article predicting the future of consolidations in the collision repair industry. It was entitled Shop Consolidation: Is it In- evitable? Undoubtedly, Roberts an- See MSO Consolidations, Page 6 Recent MSO Consolidations in CA Heat Up Industry Pro Spot is Ford’s Rotunda Supplier of the Year California-based Pro Spot is very proud to be awarded the supplier of the year award by the Ford Motor Company Ro- tunda Program. Pro Spot was approved by Ford to supply aluminum repair equipment to the Collision Repair Pro- gram for repairs on the new 2015 Ford F-150 all-aluminum body truck. The Ford Rotunda Dealer Equipment Pro- gram is a national program endorsed by Ford Motor Co. to their dealer base, selling service and body shop repair equipment. The approved equipment in- cluded: the SP Pulse MIG welders— the most sold Ford-required MIG welders in North America, the Alu- minum Dent Repair Stations, Fume Ex- tractors, and the SPR Riveter; all of which contributed to the winning of the Supplier of the Year award. “We would like to thank Team Pro Spot for all of their hard work and all of our customers that have supported us in purchasing our aluminum repair products. This means a lot to our team at Pro Spot,” said Ron Olsson, Pro Spot President. “I’m overwhelmed and very honored to win this award from Ford. We have been working very hard and appreciate the trust in our equipment and of course, the overwhelming amount of orders we have received for the aluminum pro- gram.” The 2015 F-150 is revolutionizing the repair industry by mainstreaming alu- minum repair. With the hard work by Ford Motor Company in designing a re- pairability-focused, all-aluminum body F-150, shops across the country are get- ting prepared to repair the top selling ve- hicle. Pro Spot is proud to be recognized as a supplier of quality aluminum repair equipment to the Collision Repair Pro- gram and the 2015 Ford F-150 truck. Pro Spot looks forward to continuing to de- sign innovative equipment for shops and technicians to repair vehicles back to OE standards. (l to r) Mike Berardi (Ford Director of Serv- ice Engineering Operations), Ashley Olsson (Pro Spot Director of Communications), Ron Olsson (Pro Spot Founder & President) and Steve DeAngelis (Ford Manager of Techni- cal Support Operations). Photo Credit: Ash- ley Olsson Attorney John Arthur Eaves and Shop Owner Bill Fowler Appear on Memphis Radio to Discuss MDL Suit by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor Sixty-five collision repair shop own- ers recently traveled to Washington D.C. to educate Congress about the struggle body shops face to protect consumers when providing a complete and safe repair. The majority of them were part of a Nationwide Anti-Trust Multi-District Litigation filed earlier this year against multiple insurance companies in several states. (See other cover story this page.) After more than 150 meetings with representatives and senators over a three-day period, the result was an outpouring of support for an industry faced with the challenge of insurance companies dictating how they run Congress Expresses Support of Repair Industry in Response to Owners’ Trip to Washington D.C. See Congress Support, Page 38 Matt Parker with House Speaker John Boehner Presorted Standard US Postage PAID San Bernardino, CA Permit #2244 P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018 Change Service Requested Northeastern Edition New York Delaware New Jersey Pennsylvania Maryland Connecticut Rhode Island Massachusetts www.autobodynews.com YEARS 33 33 ww.autobodynews.com ww VOL. 4 ISSUE 8 NOVEMBER 2014
Transcript
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
On Tuesday, August 26, attorneyJohn Arthur Eaves and shop ownerBill Fowler, of Bill Fowler’s Body-works in Southaven MS, appeared onthe Drake and Zeke Show, a popularearly morning radio talk show in theMemphis, TN area. The reason fortheir guest appearance was to explainthe MDL lawsuit to consumers andeducate them on their rights duringthe collision repair process in hopesof raising awareness about this im-portant issue impacting collision re-pair facilities across the country.
To begin, the radio hosts summa-rized the lawsuit they planned to dis-cuss. In January 2014, Eaves filed acomplaint against insurers on behalfof 21 collision repair shops. Thoughthe lawsuit began in MS, it has spreadand continues to gain traction so thatit is now a national lawsuit, involvingsix states, which will be tried by a sin-gle judge in FL. Multiple insurershave been implicated in the complaintas the habit of insurer steering is an in-dustry-wide problem.
Fowler pointed out that steeringhas become so pervasive in the indus-
See Memphis Radio, Page 26
by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor
Last month we reported on the finalclosing of the purchase of HolmesBody Shop’s seven locations by CooksCollision Centers. The Holmes acqui-sition was initiated in May 2012 andconcluded with the seventh Holmeslocation closing in September of thisyear, after our last issue went to press.With 35 locations in CA, Cooks is thelargest independently owned and op-erated collision repair organization inthe state.
But Holmes is not even the latestmedium-sized MSO to be acquired bylarger consolidators in California. InSeptember, Service King CollisionRepair Centers acquired Marco’s Col-lision Centers, also a medium-sizedMSO having seven locations in
Southern California. Shortly there-after Service King reached an agree-ment to acquire Car West Auto Body,an MSO with seven shops in NorthernCalifornia.
Is there some kind of ‘rule of sev-ens’ at play here? More seriously, wewanted to know what forces weredriving the acquisition of small tomid-size MSOs and why they seemmore attractive than individual shopsfor acquisition.
Nearly 20 years ago DavidRoberts, the co-founder and formerChairman of the Board for CaliberCollision Centers, wrote an articlepredicting the future of consolidationsin the collision repair industry. It wasentitled Shop Consolidation: Is it In-evitable? Undoubtedly, Roberts an-
See MSO Consolidations, Page 6
Recent MSO Consolidations in CA Heat Up Industry
Pro Spot is Ford’s Rotunda Supplier of the YearCalifornia-based Pro Spot is very proudto be awarded the supplier of the yearaward by the Ford Motor Company Ro-tunda Program. Pro Spot was approvedby Ford to supply aluminum repairequipment to the Collision Repair Pro-gram for repairs on the new 2015 FordF-150 all-aluminum body truck. TheFord Rotunda Dealer Equipment Pro-gram is a national program endorsed byFord Motor Co. to their dealer base,selling service and body shop repairequipment. The approved equipment in-cluded: the SP Pulse MIG welders—the most sold Ford-required MIGwelders in North America, the Alu-minum Dent Repair Stations, Fume Ex-tractors, and the SPR Riveter; all ofwhich contributed to the winning of theSupplier of the Year award. “We wouldlike to thank Team Pro Spot for all oftheir hard work and all of our customersthat have supported us in purchasingour aluminum repair products. Thismeans a lot to our team at Pro Spot,”said Ron Olsson, Pro Spot President.“I’m overwhelmed and very honored towin this award from Ford. We havebeen working very hard and appreciatethe trust in our equipment and of course,the overwhelming amount of orders wehave received for the aluminum pro-gram.”
The 2015 F-150 is revolutionizingthe repair industry by mainstreaming alu-minum repair. With the hard work byFord Motor Company in designing a re-pairability-focused, all-aluminum bodyF-150, shops across the country are get-ting prepared to repair the top selling ve-hicle. Pro Spot is proud to be recognizedas a supplier of quality aluminum repairequipment to the Collision Repair Pro-gram and the 2015 Ford F-150 truck. ProSpot looks forward to continuing to de-sign innovative equipment for shops andtechnicians to repair vehicles back to OEstandards.
(l to r) Mike Berardi (Ford Director of Serv-ice Engineering Operations), Ashley Olsson(Pro Spot Director of Communications), RonOlsson (Pro Spot Founder & President) andSteve DeAngelis (Ford Manager of Techni-cal Support Operations). Photo Credit: Ash-ley Olsson
Attorney John Arthur Eaves and Shop Owner Bill FowlerAppear on Memphis Radio to Discuss MDL Suit
by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor
Sixty-five collision repair shop own-ers recently traveled to WashingtonD.C. to educate Congress about thestruggle body shops face to protectconsumers when providing a completeand safe repair. The majority of themwere part of a Nationwide Anti-TrustMulti-District Litigation filed earlierthis year against multiple insurancecompanies in several states. (See othercover story this page.)
After more than 150 meetingswith representatives and senators overa three-day period, the result was anoutpouring of support for an industry
faced with the challenge of insurancecompanies dictating how they run
Congress Expresses Support of Repair Industry inResponse to Owners’ Trip to Washington D.C.
See Congress Support, Page 38
Matt Parker with House Speaker John Boehner
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VOL. 4 ISSUE 8NOVEMBER 2014
2 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Stacey PhillipsOnline Editor: Victoria AntonelliContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, David Brown,John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess,Ed Attanasio, Chasidy Sisk, David LuehrAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman,Bill Doyle, Norman Morano (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia
World Steel Dynamics Predicts Short Gainsfor Aluminum Before High-StrengthSteels Take Over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 3
Autobody News is pleased to introduce Norman Morano who joined ourteam in October as an Advertising Sales Manager. Norm has been a SalesDirector for 13 years handling Hammer & Dolly, New Jersey Automotive,New England Automotive, AASP-News/MN and Wisconsin AutomotiveNews. He has also sold exhibitor space for the past four years at theNortheast Automotive Trade Show. Norm graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982 with
a BS degree in Environmental Studies. After college he travelled extensivelybefore attending Law School at Rutgers University School of Law. He was
admitted to the bar in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and has kept his NJ bar license active. Born andraised in Nutley, NJ, Norm has also lived in Orono, ME, Berkeley, CA, and Sydney, Australia. Beforeconcentrating on automotive advertising he had his own sign company building his sales contactsthroughout NY, NJ, PA, CT and DE. When he isn't working, Norm enjoys biking, yoga, surfing, motor-cycling, movies, pizza and the New York Times. He has been a resident of the Jersey Shore for the past26 years. Contact Norm to discuss your advertising needs at [email protected].
New Talent Joins the Autobody News Sales Staff
Norman Morano is Our Newest Regional Sales Manager
Contact Norm at: [email protected] to discuss your advertising needs.
In terms of dollars spent on automo-tive replacement parts through onlinepurchasing, or e-tailing, three cate-gories represent half of the dollar vol-ume in 2013, according to E-Tailingin the Automotive Aftermarket fromthe Auto Care Association.
The top three product categoriesare braking systems (primarily padsand shoes); ignition and engine (fuelpumps, alternators, ignition coils, etc.);
and glass, mirrors and lamps.The E-Tailing in the Automo-
tive Aftermarket digital study ana-lyzes the online retail market forsales of aftermarket parts, and servesas the foundation for the Auto CareAssociation to provide a unified esti-mate of online sales within the after-market.
For pricing and more informa-tion, visit www.autocare.org/etailing.
Three Types of Parts Account for 50% of Sales Online
4 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Minivan Destroys NJ Body Shop’s Sign and Antique CarA minivan crashed into CARS AutoBody in Bloomsbury, NJ, on October11, totaling a 1950 DeSoto for saleand the company sign. Video surveil-lance showed the minivan airbornebefore making impact.
“Dan Wyant Jr., whose taxi-dermy shop is nearby, said the carhad been his father’s ‘pride and joy,’but Dan Wyant Sr. died last yearand no one in the family sharedDad’s passion for the car, which hadbeen his retirement project. So inAugust it was parked in front ofCARS Auto Body and offered forsale,” according to reports by RickEpstein, nj.com.
Despite the asking price of$13,500, Doug North of CARS AutoBody had trouble selling the DeSotobecause Wyant insisted that it go to a“good home,” according to Epstein.The now destroyed vehicle was well-
known in the community—the grandmarshal drove it in the centennial pa-rade in 2005 and its likeness wasetched on Wyant’s gravestone.
Wyant stated that he had beenplanning to garage the vehicle at theend of the month, according to Epstein.
The 1950 DeSoto and the body shop signafter being impacted by the flying minivan.Photo Credit: Rick Epstein
NJ Active Vet Given CollisionMax AwardWilliam Willingham, a U.S. AirForce non-commissioned officer stillon active duty after 18 years, recentlyreceived CollisionMax’s Metal ofHonor Award. As a result, Collision-Max of Sicklerville, NJ will repair hisblack 2006 Ford F-150 pickup truckfree of charge.
A resident of Lindenwold, NJ,Willingham, 37, was born and raisedin Kenton County, Kentucky, and en-listed in 1996, a year after he graduatedfrom high school.
“I was wondering what to do withmy life, and I talked it over with my fa-ther, who was in the Army for 20 yearsand served in the Desert Storm cam-paign” in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991. “Iwas thinking about a military career,and he said he thought the Air Forcewould be the way to go.”
Willingham served both overseasand in the United States, but can’t talkabout his service because it involvesclassified operations. He serves at abase in NJ and uses his truck to makea daily 80-mile commute to work.
“The military has been great tome,” he said. “It has given me skillsthat I can use in a lot of different wayswhen I retire” in two more years.
Married and the father of six chil-dren, Willingham said the right front
and side of his truck were badly dam-aged early last year when he acciden-tally sideswiped a telephone pole aftera very long day of work.
“Since it was my fault, I wasgoing to have to pay the deductible,and my insurance premium wouldprobably go up, neither of which Icould afford.” He didn’t make a claimand waited to put enough money to-gether to get the truck repaired.
“With a family my size, a militarysalary doesn’t go very far, so this Metalof Honor Award is going to come invery handy.” He nominated himselfafter learning about the award on Face-book. “I’d completely forgotten aboutthat, so it came as a real surprise whenI found out I’d won.”
Willingham owns two show cars,a 1926 Model T Ford hot rod and asporty 2005 Dodge Ram SRT 10pickup truck. He is a member of a carclub, Endless Pleazures, which con-ducts charity drives for breast cancerand autism research, and collects toysand books for children.
Ironically, the day after his Fordwent in for repairs he was rear-endeddriving the Dodge to work. “It was theother driver’s fault, so I’m filing aclaim and am going to have the truckfixed at the same CollisionMax shop.”
Boston Business Journal CorporateCitizenship Summit awarded RayCiccolo’s Village Automotive Groupas one of Massachusetts’ Top Char-itable Contributors of 2014.
In order to be eligible for theannual nomination, Greater Bostoncompanies must donate a minimumof $100,000 to local non-profitsthroughout the year.
Village Automotive Group,comprised of nine dealerships in-cluding Hyundai Village of Dan-vers and Volvo Village of Danvers,exceeded that number, donating$375,000 to Massachusetts-basedcharitable organizations, accordingto danvers.wickedlocal.com.
President and CEO Ray Cic-colo donated $50,000 to severalcharities, in honor of his 50th an-niversary of business.
Village Automotive Group,owned by Ciccolo, is comprised ofnine dealerships throughout metro-politan Boston. The flagship store,Boston Volvo Village, is one of thenation’s preeminent Volvo dealers,with the largest sales volume inNew England, as well as the largestVolvo Service & Parts Departmentsin America.
MA Automotive Group Listedas Top Charitable Contributor
NY Shop Proposes AdditionApproval was given by The Catta-raugus County Industrial Develop-ment Agency (IDA) Board ofDirectors on Sept. 16 to a $600,000expansion of Mallery’s Auto Bodyin Olean, NY. Owner John Malleryis planning a 25-foot by 100-footaddition to his shop. He also plansto renovate the exterior of the build-ing, purchase new equipment andadd five full-time employees. Theapplication to the IDA seeks a$100,000 sales tax exemption, amortgage recording tax exemptionand a commercial/new constructionpayment in lieu of taxes (P.I.L.O.T.)agreement worth about $50,000over 10 years, according to reportsby Rick Miller of Olean TimesHerald.
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swered, “the answer is ‘yes.’ “Fast forward to the present time
Roberts told Autobody News, “In thelast 24 months nearly $3 billion ofsales volume in the collision repair in-dustry has changed ownership, whichis 10 percent of the entire industry.”
Roberts is currently the ManagingDirector and Automotive ServicesGroup team leader for FOCUS Invest-ment Banking. He said there are severalreasons for this sudden acceleration, in-cluding the availability of acquisitioncapital and the number of MSOs look-ing to sell. “There are more than 44MSOs with $20 million or more in rev-enues with another 110 between $10and $20 million.”
“Consolidators are looking to getbigger and achieve more scale, whichhas rewards for the acquirers as wellas for insurers and consumers,” saidRoberts, whose company has officesin Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Wash-ington D.C.
“Large insurers have increasinglyrewarded the best performing consol-idators and large MSOs with morevolume. Cars are repaired faster, withless hassle, and more predictable costsand quality.”
We asked Lillian Maimone, for-mer CEO and co-founder of Marco’sCollision Centers, for her perspectiveon the industry. She was excitedabout her upcoming retirement, say-ing, “Marco and I have nothing to doand all day to do it, and we like it that
way. It’s a wonder-ful sense of free-dom and peace ofmind.”
“Seeing thetrends in the newcars and the newequipment that wasnecessary to repair
these cars, I saw ourselves having avery difficult time competing againstthe consolidators. We knew it wouldcost my company hundreds of thou-sands of dollars in new equipment andtraining,”
While running Marco’s, whichwas established in 1972, Maimonesaid her primary function was ensur-ing the company was ready andgeared for the future. “My focus wason dealing with possible threats andopportunities,” she said.
In order to stay informed about
trends in the industry, Maimone regu-larly attended conferences, talked toindustry leaders and listened closelyto what others were saying in forumssuch as the Mitchell webinars, for ex-ample.
“I went to Pepperdine’s businessschool [and used those skills in ana-lyzing the industry.] I spent a lot of mytime looking at what is happening inthe industry and how it was affectingmy company,” she said. Eventuallyshe and husband Marco decided they“didn’t want to be in the game any-more.”
When employees asked why theysold, she explained, “We were the pow-erhouse in our area. We were the bigfish in the little pond.” With the changesin the industry and larger MSOs com-ing in, she said they realized how in-creasingly difficult it would be tocompete.
For example, the benefits theygained as a midsize DRP over theyears were no comparison to the gainsmade by the national DRP programs.She invited her employees to considerthe buying opportunities with the na-tional DRP accounts, rather than localones. “I figured whatever percentage
6 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Continued from Cover
MSO Consolidations
Lillian Maimone
See MSO Consolidations, Page 13
Autobody News asked Vincent Romans,the founding partner of The RomansGroup, to comment on the recent MSOconsolidations. Romans has over 30years of consulting and operating experi-ence with domestic and global enter-prises. The Romans Group LLC,established in 1996, provides business,market, financial, and strategic develop-ment advisory services to the propertyand casualty auto physical damage in-surance, automotive services, propertyrestoration, and related supply chain seg-ments.
Why are we seeing an increase inthe number of consolidators acquiringMSOs and do you think this trend willcontinue? We are at the early stage ofconsolidation, contraction, convergenceand constructive transformation in the col-lision repair industry. Within this industryconstruct, private equity has stepped up itsinterest in acquiring MSO consolidators.This interest is backed by unprecedentedprivate equity and strategic buyer cashseeking investment opportunities in theMSO model which today provides strongcash flow, growth through both organicand acquisition growth and shorter terminvestment cycles that ultimately drivehigher valuations.
How will it affect the collision re-pair industry? We will continue to see
large multiple location operators (MLOs)be acquired by the four MSO consolida-tors. The still fragmented industry willcontinue to contract to a more normal-ized number of required collision repair-ers throughout the United States over thenext decade. Today, three collision repairsegments, ?$20M, ?$10-20M and thefranchise multiple location, MLO, opera-tors represent 24% of the US collision re-pair market. I expect this market sharefor these three segments to grow overthe next three years. Additionally, weshould shortly see the first MSO with an-nual revenue of $1.0B. Through Septem-ber YTD 2014 we have seen $650.0M inannual revenue transferred through multi-ple location transaction acquisitionsamong the four MSO consolidators.
What are the relevissues facingthe collision industry today? There arenumerous trends and prevailing condi-tions that offer both risk and opportunityfor repairers today. No one trend or pre-vailing condition has the impact that theconfluence of these prevailing trends andconditions have. It is when one under-stands that these individual prevailingconditions are part of a confluence ofmany individual dynamic prevailingtrends and conditions, that you start torealize the order of magnitude and the ex-ponential impact they have and will con-
tinue to have on the new world order ofcollision repair within the broader autophysical damage ecosystem. We willcontinue to see how one company'stransformation is another's disruption,while one company's innovation is an-other's disintermediation. Some of theshort and long term conditions include,but are not limited to changing macro-economic influences, globalization, con-solidation causing industry structuralchanges, telematics and the movementto an integrated electronic claimsprocess model, accident avoidance tech-nology associated with semi-au-tonomous and eventually autonomousvehicles (VEHBOTS), private equity andstrategic buyers, predictive analytics,down turn in accident frequency, MSOperformance contracts, hybrid claimsmanagement models, insurers embrac-ing the MSO model, trained technicianshortage, parts procurement, repair seg-mentation, urbanization and others toonumerous to mention here.
How does an independent shop fitin the picture? Independent high per-formance, brand recognized shops willcontinue to provide solid alternatives tothe large MSO model especially with in-surance companies that embrace theirown customized repair models and prefer
See MSO Consolidations, Page 13
Vincent Romans of MSO Specialists The Romans Group on Consolidation
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 7
8 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Women’s Industry Network (WIN)has announced that the 2015 Educa-tional Conference is scheduled totake place in Baltimore, MD fromMonday, May 4th through Wednes-day, May 6, 2015.
“After heading West for the2013 and 2014 Conferences, ourmembers had expressed the desire tovisit the Eastern US for 2015,” ex-plained Jessica Rob of AkzoNobeland Co-Chair of the ConferencePlanning Committee. “Baltimore isthe perfect answer to that request,combining accessibility with com-merce, culture and historical charm.”
Overlooking Baltimore’s InnerHarbor, the Baltimore WaterfrontMarriott has been selected as the lo-cation of this year’s event. “Thehotel’s state of the art conference fa-cilities will provide the perfect homefor WIN,” declared Yolanda San-dor of BASF and Co-Chair withRob.
In addition to the professionaldevelopment programming, the Edu-cational Conference will once againfeature the Most Influential Womenawards as part of the celebratory galadinner as well as the Annual Schol-
arship Walk fundraiser. Programspecifics will be published as theybecome available.
“The 2015 WIN EducationalConference marks the 10th year ofsuccessful collaborations amongWIN volunteers, members andsponsors. Our goal is always to pro-vide the WIN membership and thecollision industry a highly profes-sional educational experience cen-tered on professional networking,advancing business acumen andgrowing collision connections,”stated Denise Caspersen of Na-tional Autobody Parts Warehouse,Inc., who also serves as WIN’sChair. “It’s exciting to see the plansunderway by WIN member volun-teers to deliver quality conferencecontent, honor the Most InfluentialWomen in the industry, and connectWIN members.”
Women’s Industry Network 2015 EducationalConference Announced
The Auto Care Association has re-leased the 2014 Digital CollisionRepair Trends report, an online 70-page analysis of data compiled fromprimary Auto Care Association re-search, federal government and in-dependent research data sources.The report highlights the size andscope of the U.S. collision industry,including the paint, body and equip-ment (PBE) segment, with a briefanalysis of the Canadian collisionindustry. It also includes analyses offactors influencing the collision in-dustry, automotive collision insur-ance coverage and the Direct RepairProgram (DRP).
According to this year’s report,collision repair-related sales by in-dustry repair shops dropped slightly(0.2 percent) in 2013 to $40.1 bil-lion from $40.2 billion in 2012. De-spite the drop in sales, the industry,since 2009, has managed a sus-tained growth at an annual rate of2.2 percent, with most of the growthcoming from the high-priced post-collision repair parts.
Powered by Nxtbook MediaLLC™, this digital publication re-tains both the traditional design and
high quality content of Auto CareAssociation reports. This onlineproduction provides added valuewith many new functional enhance-ments. 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 2014 Digi-tal Collision Repair Trends reportare now available at $125 for AutoCare Association members and$250 for non-members. The reportcan be ordered by calling memberservices at 301-654-6664 or [email protected]
Auto Care Association Releases 2014 DigitalCollision Repair Trends Report
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A recent decision by the Syracuse, NYmayor regarding proposed legislationfor the payment of delinquent city taxeswill affect local body shops and otherbusinesses in the area.
The legislation, sponsored by Syra-cuse Common Councilor Kathleen Joy,would have allowed any property ownerwho is facing foreclosure due to backtaxes, a long-term repayment plan calleda tax trust. In April, Syracuse MayorStephanie Miner changed city policy toallow tax trusts for only owner-occupiedresidential properties.
Two days after a public hearing onthe subject, the mayor vetoed Joy’s pro-posed legislation on September 25. “Theadministration’s policy to limit tax trustsis already working, and changing it is amistake,” Miner said in a news release.
According to the release, earlierthis year the Miner administration dis-covered landlords were asking Coun-cilors to hold votes foreclosing on theirtax delinquent properties to give themtime to flip the properties to obtain morefavorable repayment terms. This is thereason Miner said the tax trusts werelimited exclusively to homeowners.
Joy said the mayor’s policy is“discriminatory” and if any person or
business meets the criteria they shouldbe entitled to a tax trust. “It will be adramatic decision against small busi-nesses,” she said.
“Businesses like auto repair andauto body shops, they’re probablysomewhat vulnerable to market de-mand, weather conditions, and if theyget behind in their taxes through nofault of their own, they should have theability to pay back their taxes,” saidJoy. “We should have the ability towork with them to keep them open.”
By participating in a tax trust, prop-erty owners have to come up with thecurrent year’s tax, a 10 percent downpayment and then are charged 12 percentinterest over the time they are delinquentup to five years. “It’s not a gift by anymeans,” said Joy. “It’s a last resort forproperty owners who want to keep theirproperty.”
One of these is Sam Vigliotti, theowner of Sam’s Auto Body & ServiceCenter. Vigliotti, who owns four shopsin the Syracuse area, has operated hisbusiness for nearly 50 years. Accordingto a recent article written by TimKnauss, a reporter for The Post-Standardand syracuse.com, Vigliotti tried to re-solve a $40,000 delinquent tax bill by en-tering into a tax trust for one of his shops.
In his article, Knauss wrote that
city officials will not grant Vigliotti atax trust due to the mayor’s new policy.“We were greatly affected by the econ-omy, and I had a partnership break up.There are a lot of different circum-stances for different people,” Vigliottiwas quoted as saying in the article,adding that sometimes business ownersneed tax trusts to overcome setbacks.
Joy needs six out of nine votes onthe common council, which is the leg-islative branch of city government, tooverride the mayor’s veto. She alreadyhas five. As the chairperson of finance,taxation & assessment, part of her job is toget tax revenues into city coffers to makeinfrastructure improvements. “Of coursewe want as many tax dollars as possible,”said Joy, who estimated that the City ofSyracuse is $12 million in debt. “I calcu-late that this maneuver on the mayor’spart will short the city by $400,000.”
Knauss wrote in his article that ap-proximately 75 percent of tax trusts gointo default, according to city officials.In response, Joy said that even if thisnumber is accurate, the business own-ers have already paid the current year’staxes, 10 percent down and 12 percenton a monthly basis until they becamedelinquent. “I’d rather take that moneyand give them a chance, then writingthem off from the outset,” she said.
Also, she said there’s quite an in-centive for business owners to paythose taxes on time, to keep the taxtrust current and not be in default.
“Sometimes people get into finan-cial circumstances that are beyond theircontrol,” said Joy. “Rather than wrestleaway a commercial property from some-one let’s work with them and get themoney in. It’s a win-win situation frommy perspective.”
Mayor Miner’s office declined tocomment when asked by AutobodyNews how the recent veto will affectlocal businesses.
When Autobody News went toprint, Joy did not have enough votes tooverride the mayor’s veto. She saidthat she hopes to revisit the idea of taxtrusts with an alternative that both ad-dresses the mayor’s concerns aboutabsentee landlords flipping their prop-erties while allowing businesses andother owners to pay their back taxes.
Common Councilor Kathleen Joycan be reached by phone (315) 448-8466or Email: [email protected]
More information about TimKnauss’s articles on this subject can befound on: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/09/miner_vetoes_syracuse_councils_effort_to_allow_tax_trusts_for_landlords.html
Proposed Legislation Benefiting Businesses Vetoed by Syracuse, NY, Mayor
On Friday, September 26, the WesternChapter of AASP-MA held their An-nual Clambake at the Polish-Ameri-can Club in Feeding Hills. Featuringgreat food, raffle prizes and a funevening of networking, it’s no surprisethat the clambake was a sold-out eventwith over 240 attendees in the 250-person capacity hall!
Attendees began their evening byenjoying a dinner of clam chowder,steamed clams and a complete bar-beque chicken dinner. A raffle was heldwith the chance to win one of over 100prizes, donated by the many companiesthat sponsored the event. Prizes in-cluded various gift cards, tools, clothes,sporting goods and more. The GrandPrize, once again donated by Chris Di-Marzio of Linder’s, Inc., was an iPadwith a Bluetooth Keyboard. The firstprizes offered were an iPad, donated byLKQ, and a 40” RCA LED television,donated by Auto Craft Sales, a Divisionof BAPS Auto Paints & Supply.
The Western Chapter of AASP-MA is grateful to all of their sponsorsfor their support, calling them “the bestvendors in the country.” There were 16gold sponsors for the event, includingAmherst Oakham Auto Recycling,Astro Automotive, Auto Body Suppliesand Paint, AkzoNobel, Axalta, BaldHill Dodge Chrysler Jeep & Kia,Balise Wholesale Parts Express, En-terprise Rent-A-Car, Hoffman, LKQ,Long Automotive Group, PPG, SARAT
Ford Lincoln, Sherwin-Williams Auto-motive, Transtar Autobody Technolo-gies, and West Springfield Auto Parts.Each gold sponsor presented checks tothe event planning committee.
The silver sponsors for the Clam-bake were Artioli Chrysler Dodge, AutoCraft Sales, a Division of BAPS AutoPaints & Supply, Jim Busiere of CCC-
IS, Empire Auto Parts andMarcotte Ford, while CentralChevrolet, Lia Honda of En-field, Mirka Abrasives andTasca Automotive all supportAASP-MA’s Western Chapteras bronze sponsors. AASP-MAreceives a lot of support fromtheir local vendors and encour-ages their members to patron-ize these companies wheneverpossible.
A highlight of the eveningfor the shop owners in atten-dance was a drawing for someprizes ranging from live I-CAR classes to a Dell Tablet,donated by Busiere of CCC-IS, to Celtics tickets, donatedby Autopart International.Statewide Director Don
Cushing of Bald Hill Dodge ChryslerJeep & KIA was quite popular allevening as he drew names to announcethe winners of each prize.
During the 2014 Clambake,AASP-MA’s Western Chapter alsoraised funds by selling beer ticketsand through their 50/25/25 cash rafflewith 50% of the proceeds going to theassociation and the remainder beingdivided between two winners.
Of course, any association eventis about more than good food andprizes; the real draw is the opportunityit provides for an evening of network-ing with industry peers.
Joann Nalewanski, a member ofthe association’s Western Chapter,notes, “since MA has the lowest laborrate in the country, it’s tough out there;it’s nice to get together and share asense of camaraderie. There’s really asense of family in our Western Chap-ter; it’s just a great group of people!For example, Mike Beal was the pres-ident of our chapter for 20 years, andthough he retired in 2013, he joinedthe planning committee again this
year. On Friday morning he was in thehospital, was discharged at noon andat the clambake by 5pm. Everyone istruly committed to the association andits goals.”
This year’s committee consisted ofDan Lamontagne, acting chapter pres-ident; Mike Beal, past president of theWestern Chapter; the chapter’s treas-urer, Mike Boucher; Gary Cloutier,
current Secretary state-wide; State Di-rectors Peter Langone and Ed Nale-wanski; the chapter’s past vicepresident, Andre Marcoux; Don Ver-mette, past president of the Western
Chapter; and Paul Zollner ofWest Springfield Auto Parts.Though nine people is a lot foran event planning committee,the Western Chapter wouldlove to see different membersgetting involved with eventplanning.
On Saturday, November 15,AASP-MA will hold their 7thAnnual Private Casino Night atGillette Stadium in Foxboro,MA. The event, sponsored byEnterprise Rent-A-Car, willfeature gaming and prizes as
well as a stadium tour. The cost formembers is $100 without the tour whilenon-members pay $225; the tour is anadditional $25. More information isavailable on www.aaspma.org.
AASP-MA Holds Annual Clambake
10 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family ofNASCAR fans. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Back row (l to r): Jack Perna (PPG), Don Cushing (Bald HillDodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Kia), Eddie Ravetto (Hoffman AutoGroup), Scott MacDonald (West Springfield Auto Parts),Jack Tyner (Balise), Gordy Palley (Amherst Oakham), KatDemers (Enterprise Rent-A-Car), Tom Harkins (EnterpriseRent-A-Car), Rick Casey (LKQ/Keystone), Al Montalbano(Long Automotive). Front row (left to right): Hank Odierna(ABSAP), Mark Edmonds (Transtar Autobody Technolo-gies), Jeremy Ostrout (AkzoNobel), Rob Lagasse (Sherwin-Williams Automotive), Mike Campbell (Axalta), JimLoomis (Sarat Ford.) Photo by Joel Gausten, courtesy ofNew England Automotive Report
Grand Prize winner Tony Bordoni (BodyWorks Unlimited),who won an Apple iPad and Bluetooth keyboard courtesyof Linder’s, Inc. Photo by Joel Gausten, courtesy of NewEngland Automotive Report
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 11
12 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Erik Hohenberger, a 44-year-oldU.S. Army veteran, is the latest win-ner of CollisionMax’sMetal of HonorAward, the company announced onSeptember 19. As a result, Collision-Max of Blackwood, NJ will repair hissilver 2006 BMW 325i sedan free ofcharge.
A resident of Blackwood, Ho-henberger enlisted a year after hegraduated from Sterling High Schoolin Stratford, NJ in 1989, during thelead up to the first Gulf War. “I hadjust received my certification as aheating and air conditioning techni-cian, but Army service was a kind oftradition in my family, and I wantedto do something to help my countrydefend itself,” he said.
Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait inAugust 1990, and Hohenberg had or-ders to ship out for combat duty there.“But just before we were going toleave, my orders were changed. In-stead, I was sent to South Korea,where the Army had a supply baseshipping equipment to the Gulf. I wasa little disappointed, but in the Armyyou follow orders.”
In South Korea, Hohenbergerwas a mechanic assigned to repairingArmy vehicles, from HUMVs andtrucks to tanks. He also participated
in training exercises along the NorthKorean border. After a year there, hewas transferred to an army logisticsbase in Kansas, and was dischargedfrom active duty in 1992 as a corpo-ral. He continued to serve in the Armyreserves until 1998. “I loved theArmy,” he said. “It taught me leader-ship and responsibility, and it was likeone big family.”
When he enlisted, Hohenbergerwas following in his father’s foot-steps. “My father was born and raisedin Munich, Germany, and livedthrough World War II there,” he re-counted. “He was a chef, and in thelate 1940s he came to America. In the1950s, he enlisted in the U.S. Army,because it was a way for him to be-come a U.S. citizen.” Ironically, hisfather was assigned to the same basein Germany where Elvis Presley wasserving his military duty. “He tells mestories about Elvis, but I don’t reallyknow if they’re true,” he said.
Now a mechanic with an equip-ment rental company in Runnemede,NJ, Hohenberger said he misses theArmy. “I’m trying to get a civilian jobat Fort Dix or McGuire Air Forcebase, just so I can be part of the mili-tary again.” Meanwhile, he said his17-year-old daughter, now a high
school senior, has entered the ArmyReserve’s early enlistment program.“She wants a career in healthcare, andbelieves she’ll get the training andsupport for education with the Army’shelp,” he explained.
When Hohenberger bought hisBMW – “my dream car” – three yearsago, it had 78,000 miles and was inbad shape, both mechanically andcosmetically. He said he has spent allof his spare cash fixing the engine,and making the power windows andsun roof work, “but the body is still inbad shape” with a dented hood,scrapes and dings, and bad paint allover.
“I was ecstatic when I heard Iwon the award,” he said. “I drive pastCollisionMax every day, back andforth to work. I want to keep this carfor many years, and it’s great to knowthat it’s going to look as good as itdrives.”
Through the project, now in itssecond year, CollisionMax gives awayauto body repairs to US military veter-ans, one per month for each location inthe Delaware Valley. The company se-lects the winners from nominations itreceived from the public on the pro-ject’s web site, http://www.metalofhonorproject.com.
NJ Army Veteran Won CollisionMax’s Metal of Honor Award
The Long Island Auto Body Repair-men's Association presented the 6thAnnual Recycled Rides Give-A-Wayat the Veterans of Foreign Wars(VFW) Hall, in Centereach, N.Y. onSept. 20. The VFW Suffolk CountyN.Y. Council located veterans whoneed reliable transportation. The carswere donated by a variety of insurancecompanies and individuals, includingGEICO, State Farm, Gary Sirico, Bi-County Auto Body and Allstate.
The following Long Island bodyshops helped repair and refurbish theveteran's future vehicles: The CollisionCenters of Patchogue, The CollisionCenters of Riverhead, The CollisionCenters of Babylon, Bi-County AutoBody in Smithtown, Master Collisionin Rockville Center, Burnside AutoBody in Inwood, Matt’s One Stop AutoBody in Sound Beach, and the BOCESof Nassau School.
The following vendors donatedparts and supplies: Mid Island Hyundai,Apple Discount Center, Peconic AutoWreckers, Smithtown Nissan, Keystoneof Syosset, Apple Honda, Middle Coun-try Auto Wreckers, Dickson BrothersGlass, Elite Towing, Albert KemperleAuto Body Paint, King of Dings,Phoenix Auto Wreckersand Auto Extras.
Long Island, NY, VeteransGifted with 10 Vehicles
of claims would drop as a result ofthat is enough to make me know thatwe will be in trouble,” she said.
“My employees are better off thisway,” said Maimone. “Several havebeen given a promotion and better op-portunities. I couldn’t give them that.”
Shortly after acquiring Marco’s,Service King reached an agreementto acquire Car West Auto Body, anMSO with seven shops in NorthernCalifornia. With these additions aswell as the 62 Sterling Collision Cen-ters the company acquired earlier thisyear in April, Service King now has191 shops in 20 states, including 18in CA.
Service King, based in Dallasand founded nearly 40 years ago, toldAutobody News that, due to companypolicy, they weren’t able to commentfurther until their acquisition of Car-west was finalized.
However, Service King releasedthe following statement: “Our recentSterling Autobody acquisition andMarco’s Collision Centers acquisitionserve as a platform for our growth in
the California market,” Chris Abra-ham, the CEO of Service King, said inthe press release. “The addition of CarWest and their 360 teammates will give
us an even greaterfootprint in theheart of SiliconValley. We are ex-cited to have theteam on board andlook forward to de-livering the Serv-ice King standardof exceptional cus-
tomer service and high quality repairsin these communities.”
“People are selling because of manydifferent reasons,” said Farzam Af-shar, CEO of VeriFacts Automotive, awell-respected training company thatdescribes itself as the industry’s only“independent onsite quality verifica-tion service and in-shop technician as-sessment provider.”
One reason, Afshar said, “is thatthey able to get a very high rate of re-turn on their investment. In addition,business owners increasingly need tocompete with consolidators in theirbackyard while vehicles are becomingmore complex.
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Continued from Page 6
MSO Consolidations
to have non-MSO providers in the mar-ket or a mix of MSO consolidators andlocal market independents. Additionally,specialty repairers who perform anynumber of niche market or high value re-pair alternatives will have a place in thefuture collision repair industry. Some ofthese models might include varioustypes of repair segmentation; e.g. alu-minum or other new material/technol-ogy, fleet, small hit expedited repair,paintless dent repair, cosmollision, eth-nic market, and car auction repair. AsMSO consolidators gain in the breadthand depth of their reach and coverage ismarkets around the country, insurers willlook to balance their local market net-works with strong performing and rec-ognized branded independent operators.The balance of power will be normalizedas long as the independent’s metricsand service offering are comparable tothe MSO consolidator.
What is the benefit/challenge ofbeing an MSO vs. a single-locationshop when forming a relationship withinsurance companies? MSO consolida-tors and many non-consolidator MSOshave the personnel, sales and marketingstructure and budget to frequently call
on insurance company corporate deci-sion makers as well as multi-level con-tacts regionally and nationally. Theyparticipate on insurance company advi-sory or review boards which bringsthem to the table for input, old businessand new concept discussions, and col-laboration on current and future busi-ness process and performance models.They develop multi-level personal rela-tionships that help when issues need tobe resolved quickly. However, if servicedeteriorates somewhere in the countryfor a larger MSO it could have ramifica-tions across their national for muti-re-gional network. The MSOs offer insurersbroader multiple market coverage thansmaller MSOs and independents. How-ever, local market MSOs and independ-ents can and do market and that theyprovide that laser focus local marketperformance. Many independents andlocal market MSOs market and then per-form in their niche as your local marketrepairer with local market reputation.MSO consolidators are also offeringself-manager and co-managed capabili-ties for customized and new DRP mod-els, quality assurance and self- auditprocess and procedures, call centers,single point of contact, all of whichhelps reduce costs for the insurer whilepositioning the MSO consolidator forbusiness that the independent operatormay find more difficult to secure.
Continued from Page 6
MSO Consolidations
Farzam Afsharfile photo
See MSO Consolidations, Page 35
14 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
On September 23, General Motorsannounced that the flagship brandwill be a separate business unit. In ad-dition, the new Cadillac organizationwill expand to New York in 2015.
GM believes that creating a newCadillac business unit enables it topursue growing opportunities in theluxury automotive market with morefocus and clarity.
“With the relentless upwardrepositioning of successive new-gen-eration Cadillac products, the nextlogical step is to provide Cadillacmore freedom to cultivate the brandin pursuit of further global growth,”said GM President Dan Ammann.
“Cadillac’s mission is to rein-state the brand to a pre-eminent po-sition among global luxury brands, abold challenge requiring a distinctand focused new organization,” Am-mann said. “More than a division orbrand, Cadillac is becoming a centerof excellence for our company.”
Johan de Nysschen, who joinedCadillac as its new president in Au-gust, will be responsible for thebrand’s overall operational perform-ance.
The expansion plan into NewYork City includes a multipurposebrand and event space in conjunction
with modern loft offices located inthe heart of the city.
While the majority of functionswith oversight and responsibility forboth global and U.S. operations willbe located at the new global head-quarters, there will be no change totechnical product development teamslocated in Michigan, nor does theplan impact manufacturing or assem-bly operations.
Cadillac management is review-ing options for which specific staffwill be based in New York and whichwill remain in current locations inthe Detroit-area or elsewhere.
Cadillac has operations in morethan 40 countries. The brand’s ongo-ing growth has been driven by an ex-panded product portfolio, leading to28 percent global growth in 2013and an increase of about 10 percentin 2014.
Cadillac sales in China havegrown 64 percent year to date.
General Motors Will Move Cadillac Headquarters to NY
Car-O-Liner® announced that Metro-politan Car-O-Liner has relocated andexpanded its facility in New Jersey.The new location includes office andwarehouse space, as well as an ex-panded training center in Mahwah, lo-cated 30 miles north of New York City.
“The new Class A location al-lows us to nearly double our space to9,200 square feet, including an up-dated classroom and hands-on train-ing lab for our popular collision repairclasses,” said Dave Demarest, Jr.,Vice-President of Metropolitan Car-O-Liner.
“Metropolitan Car-O-Liner isone of the highest volume distributorsin North America and this expansionto a new facility proves the commit-ment to world-class service and train-ing Dave and his team offer to ourindustry,” said Doug Bortz, NationalSales Manager of Car-O-Liner. “Weare proud of their accomplishmentsand dedication as we look forward toour continued partnership.”
This year, Metropolitan Car-O-Liner celebrated its 35th year sell-ing Car-O-Liner products to shopsthroughout New Jersey, Connecti-cut, eastern Pennsylvania, and east-ern New York.
Metropolitan Car-O-Liner Relocates to NJ & Expands
During the recent Automechanika2014 show in Germany, Car-O-Linerreceived the Automechanika Innova-tion Award for their new measuringsoftware, Vision2. During the five-dayshow new, innovative products thatwill speed up the collision repairprocess and increase workshop prof-its were presented.
“We are very proud to receivethis prestigious award honoring ourleadership in state-of-the-art measur-ing software for the vehicle collisionrepair market,” says Jonas Gunnars-son, VP and Business Unit Manager.“I would like to thank our employeesfor their dedication to the pursuit ofquality and excellence at Car-O-Liner.”
New products demonstratedwere their PointX Diagnostic Meas-uring Tool, CTR7, the new semi-au-tomatic mid-range spot welder andimprovements and accessories fortheir Speed alignment system.Other products shown were the Car-O-Tronic measuring system drivenby Vision2 software, Car-O-LinerSMART Repair, Aluminum RepairSolutions, EcDesign WorkshopPlanning, Workshop Solutions andTraining.
AMI Accepting Applicationsfor Cosette/Westerlund Award The U.S. National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) saidin a statement reported by Reuters onOct. 22 that the number of vehiclesfrom 10 automakers covered by re-calls this year and in 2013 is now 7.8million, up 28 percent from the 6.1million announced on Tuesday. TheNHTSA said the new number cor-rected the vehicle list provided in priorsafety bulletins this week, addingsome vehicles and excluding othersfrom previous bulletins. The NHTSAhas urged owners of certain Toyota,Honda , Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Mit-subishi, Subaru, Chrysler, Ford andGeneral Motors vehicles to replace in-stalled airbags as soon as possible.
In the expanded bulletin, Hondaaccounts for almost 5.1 million of thevehicles, Toyota 877,000 vehicles,Nissan almost 695,000 vehicles,BMW nearly 628,000 vehicles andChrysler more than 371,000 vehicles.
A top Toyota Motor Corp execu-tive said in Tokyo that the Japaneseautomaker had no plans to abandonTakata despite the supplier’s struggles.
“Toyota’s not one to just dump asupplier,” Steve St. Angelo, Toyota’shead of Latin American operationsand the former chief quality officer inNorth America, told reporters. “Have
we ever eliminated a supplier? Yes.But it’s really, really tough. We willexhaust every opportunity to help thatsupplier first.”
NHTSA is investigating whetherTakata air bag inflators made between2000 and 2007 were improperlysealed. Bags inflating with too muchforce could potentially spray metalshrapnel at occupants. They have beenlinked to four deaths and resulted inseveral lawsuits.
The probe has focused on infla-tors recovered from cars being re-called for repairs in hot, humid placeslike Florida.
Takata is cooperating with thatinvestigation along with 10 automak-ers. More than 16 million vehiclesglobally have been recalled because ofdefective Takata air bags since 2008.
Meanwhile, anyone visitingNHTSA’s website at www.safercar.gov on Wednesday to determinewhether their vehicle was part of theTakata-related recalls instead re-ceived a network error message.NHTSA officials they were trying todetermine the issue and consumerscan also contact dealers or go onlinewith automakers and use their vehi-cle identification number to deter-mine recall status.
Feds Announce 7.8M Vehicles Recalled Due to Airbags
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by Chasidy Rae Sisk
The Midstate Chapter of the AASP-MA (Alliance Of Automotive ServiceProviders) held their annual BBQ onFriday, September 5 at the HudsonElks in Hudson, MA.
The event featured food fromFirefly’s BBQ as well as entertain-ment, games and raffle prizes for bothadults and children.
“The BBQ went really well,” ac-cording to Molly Brodeur, Presidentof the Midstate Chapter and Vice Pres-ident of AASP-MA Statewide. “Theevent has evolved a bit over the pastfew years as we’ve made it less of aparty event and more family-friendlyso that it’s a fun evening for everyone.”
More than160 individuals at-tended the BBQ for an evening of net-working and the chance at a widevariety of raffle prizes ranging fromshop-related gifts to spa days andweekend getaways.
All children in attendance re-ceived free raffle tickets for chances atthe children’s prizes, and they werealso able to learn about rescue animalsduring a presentation by Animal Ad-ventures.
The Midstate Chapter of AASP-MA raised $5,000 which will fund
their Tool Grant for local vo-tech stu-dents pursuing a career in the collisionrepair industry.
Beginning mid-winter, localschools will be able to apply for thegrant, and the association will awardthe funds to a local school whoseteachers will decide the best ways touse the funds for their collision repairprogram.
Brodeur believes the associa-tion’s efforts are important because oftheir “focus on training the youth thatwill hopefully matriculate into our in-dustry. The increasing age of techni-cians makes it important to develop aconnection with these students so theyfeel connected to the industry and seethere’s an opportunity for a viable ca-reer because we are in desperate needof young technicians.
Another benefit of the BBQ andsimilar social events is that it pro-vides a forum for collision repair in-dustry professionals to enjoy a funnight out, away from the shop, to net-work and socialize with their peers.This sort of collaboration is also animperative component of the benefitsthat industry associations offer theirmembers.”
Brodeur was very pleased withthe amount of participation the event
generated and with how the BBQ haschanged over the past several years. She is also grateful to the many spon-sors who contributed to making theevent so successful. “We enjoy atremendous amount of vendor sup-port; the event wouldn’t work withoutour wonderful sponsors.”
Raffle donors included ImperialCars, Bernardi, J & R Auto Body Sup-ply, Wellesley Volkswagen, LindersAuto Parts, Boston Bumper, SherwinWilliams, Hertz, NAPA Hudson, NAPAMarlborough, BASF, Don KennettPaint Supply, and the Worcester Sharks,while CPRAX Marketing and RelcoProducts contributed as Direct GrantDonors.
The venue was sponsored byLong Automotive, with dinner anddessert being sponsored by Bald Hill,Long Automotive and Balise. Impe-rial Cars sponsored the children’smeal, Marlborough Nissan spon-sored children’s entertainment, andthe children’s raffle was sponsoredby FinishMaster.
Wagner Motors donated to thelive auction, and AASP-MA’s WesternChapter was the general raffle spon-sor. For more information, contactAASP-MA 617-574-0741 or visit theirwebsite: www.aaspma.org
AASP-MA Midstate Chapter BBQ 2014A Derry, NH, body shop is a total lossafter a massive fire broke out on Sep-tember 15. The Union Leader reportedthat the blaze started around 8 p.m. atSportwagen Body Shop, located at 35Maple Street, and flames could be seenshooting from the building. It is be-lieved that no one was inside; however,local firefighters were unable to get inupon arrival. One residence across thestreet was evacuated, but they were ableto return to their home when the firewas under control, according to reportsby Marc Fortier, necn.com. The causeof the fire is not yet known.
Massive NH Fire Destroys Shop
A body shop owner in Queens, NY,has been charged with tax fraud afterallegedly under-reporting $2 millionin repair work, according tonewyork.cbslocal.com. Fifty-oneyear old Victor Izquierdo faces up to15 years in prison if convicted.Izquierdo only reported 1.2 million ofthe alleged 3.2 million he collectedfrom insurance companies like Pro-gressive and Geico, according to thecriminal report. His next court date isNovember 14, said the story innewyork.cbslocal.com.
Queens, NY Auto Body ShopOwner Charged With Tax Fraud
by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor
When the City of Attleboro recently cel-ebrated their 100th anniversary with aparade, one of the highlights of the daywas the 1975 police cruiser restored thispast summer by two local auto bodybusinesses in MA.
The Attleboro Police Depart-ment initiated the restoration projectin 2011, shortly after Sgt. RonaldGoyette joined the force. Attleboro’sPolice Chief Kyle Heagney asked if
he could help restore a police cruiserto be used for city parades and com-munity events. Goyette, the formerautomotive shop teacher at AttleboroHigh School, began to search for a
vehicle but said it was challenging tofind just the right one. “We ended uprunning into all kinds of obstacles,”he said.
Finally, as luck would have it, in2013 his mother-in-law mentioned thatshe found an interesting old car hemight want to take a look at. She had noidea her son-in-law had been searchingfor a car and when he went to see it, hefound it was exactly what he had beenlooking for all along, a 1975 DodgeCoronet.
Goyette said it was in im-maculate shape for its age.“Unlike most Chryslers ofthat era, it didn’t have anyunderbody rot.” Using fundsfrom forfeited drug seizures,the police department pur-chased the car during thefirst part of 2014. The policechief asked Goyette if itcould be ready by September6. “Time became our biggestobstacle because once we lo-cated it the chief wanted itdone in time for the 100th
anniversary parade celebration.”The first step was to strip it
down. In addition to having chromeaccessories not used on police cars in1975, the prior owner had additional
add-ons such as fender skirts. GregMcGovern of Better Automotive, afriend of Goyette’s who was experi-enced in Chrysler restoration, locatedparts for the vehicle and worked on itfor a couple of weeks. Then the carwas taken to Charlie Soufy at Chaz’sAutobody, who is contracted by theAttleboro Police to work on their ve-
hicles.The owner of the small shop in
Attleboro said he has a good relation-ship with the police department and hewanted to show his support for thecommunity where he grew up. Soufyhas gained some new customers afterhelping out with this project and saidhis motto is, “Without my customers, I
wouldn’t have a job.”Soufy said their biggest chal-
lenge was the time frame. “When westarted to take some of the paint offthere was a little more work than weanticipated so my guys kicked intohigh gear,” he said. “Andy Higgin-botham ‘Panda’ and Ken Langill‘Dust Monkey’ stayed late to get the
job done.”Goyette said Soufy spent
a lot of time getting thepaint color just right. “SinceDuPont didn’t list an exactnumber for the paint the cityused on their cruisers, Char-lie mixed it by eye,” he said.“He kept adding until he gotit exactly the way it shouldbe.”
David Viera, the policedepartment’s in-house me-chanic, also helped out withthe car. It is currently being
stored at the police department duringthe winter so they can do some addi-tional touch ups and interior work.
“I think it’s unbelievable in thisday and age you would find peoplewho are ready, willing and able to do-nate their time, services and skill forthe police department, for the commu-nity,” said Goyette.
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 17
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Cruising Through Attleboro, MA in Restored Police Car for 100th Anniversary
The police cruiser will be used during parades andcelebrations in Attleboro. Photo courtesy of Officer Hale.
The 1975 Dodge Coronet before restoration. Photo courtesySgt. Goyette.
18 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
by David Linton, The Sun Chronicle
The suspect in a vicious beating of a towyard owner in Sept. is a former ArmyRanger who blamed his post-traumaticstress for the incident, according to courttestimony.
Douglas Allen, 58, suffered somekind of mental distress when he repeat-edly punched the owner of SeekonkAuto Body on Tuesday in a dispute overa bill for his car, his lawyer, ColleenTynan said.
The incident, which sent ownerThomas Clark and a responding policeofficer to a hospital was not premedi-tated, Tynan said in a plea against hold-ing Allen without bail following adangerousness hearing in Taunton Dis-trict Court.
“There’s obviously somethinggoing on,” Tynan said. The New Bed-ford defense lawyer said her client wasan Army veteran and union laborer whohad no prior criminal record. She saidhe was remorseful about the attack onClark, but maintains he did not assaultthe police officers. Clark was called intocourt for the hearing so the judge couldsee the marks still visible on his facefrom the attack, but he did not testify.
Allen, of East Providence, at-tacked Clark after he went to get his car,which was impounded at the tow yard.The car was towed last month afterAllen was stopped, allegedly for driv-ing without a license, police said.
The bill was initially $1,300, but
Clark agreed to settle for $600 before hewas assaulted in front of several wit-nesses, Seekonk police Lt. DavidDyson testified. Dyson, the first officeron the scene, testified Allen refused po-lice commands and had to be hit with aTaser three times before police wereable to subdue him.
Dyson said Allen was wearing aheavy sweatshirt, which might haveprevented the metal electrical probesfrom working effectively. “This is myPTSD,” Dyson quoted Allen as sayingat one point, among other “ramblings,”some of which Dyson said he could notunderstand.
“He told me his chest was made oftitanium,” Dyson testified. Dyson saidthat when he arrived at the scene on In-dustrial Court, Allen refused to stop, andthreatened to kill him.
Police later talked to Clark, whoseface was bloodied, and was traumatizedby the assault. “He was in fear for hislife. He thought that he was going todie,” Dyson testified.
Contrary to prior reports, five cell-phone videos police obtained did notcapture the assault on Clark. Dyson tes-tified the videos only showed the policestruggle with Allen. At the conclusionof the hearing, Judge Gregory Phillipsordered Allen held in jail without bailunder the state’s dangerousness law.Allen pleaded innocent to attemptedmurder, assault and battery and as-sault and battery on a police officer.The case was continued to Oct. 8.
Assault on Seekonk, MA Tow Yard Operator
Several departments battled a fireon September 15 at a body shopin Ramsey, NJ, just off Route 17north.
Traffic was backed up formore than a mile in the northboundlane, according to reports by Ab-bott Koloff, northjersey.com.
The blaze began at MeinkeCar Care Center around 7 pm andwas under control in about anhour.
A portion of a connected one-story garage and the exterior of thetwo floor repair shop were dam-aged.
The interior was not reached,according to Ramsey Deputy FireChief Louis Warnet.
One firefighter injured hisshoulder, and was transported tothe hospital.
A Meineke employee wasinside the building when the firestarted, but was able to get out-side by the time firefighters wereon the scene, according to Koloff.
NJ Body Shop Damaged byThree-Alarm Fire
Preston Automotive Joins Fight Against Breast CancerBreast cancer is a deadly disease. Itis the most common cancer amongwomen worldwide, as well as thesecond leading cause of death forwomen. One in eight women willbe diagnosed with it in their life-time.
In order to help combat breastcancer, Preston Automotive Group(PAG) announced United for a Cureduring the whole month of October.
All the Preston Maryland andDelaware Dealerships donated $50to the American Cancer Society foreach new or pre-owned vehicle soldduring the month of October.
Along with the donations, eachof the locations for Ford, Hyundai,Lincoln, Mazda, and Nissan, for thefirst time ever, will be giving awaya Pink Frog with every vehicle tohelp spread Breast Cancer Aware-ness.
Each auto body shop PAG inPreston, Cambridge, and Snow Hillalso pledged to donate to the Amer-ican Cancer Society. Each shop do-nated 2% of all service done duringBreast Cancer Awareness Month.
“I am happy that our bodyshops can help donate to this specialcause,” says Brian Grimm, BodyShop Director of PAG, “Many peo-
ple that do business with us havebeen affected by this disease and wewant to give back.”
The American Cancer Society(ACS) is the largest, voluntary-basedhealth organization in the UnitedStates.
Thanks to the ACS and dona-tors like Dave Wilson Sr., millionsof women are surviving breast can-cer today.
“I am honored to help bringawareness and donate to the Amer-ican Cancer Society. Breast Cancerhas not only personally touched myown family, but also my friends andPreston Automotive Group familyas well,” says Wilson, President ofthe Preston Automotive Group.
There are also other events tak-ing place throughout the month atPreston Automotive to support thefight against breast cancer.
The Paint the Plex Pink eventwas scheduled to take place on Octo-ber 24. At this event there wasfood,kid’s activities, a donation ceremony,and of course the “Drive to Inspire”Pink Truck.
The truck is covered in pinkgraphics as well as signatures toshow support for the fight againstbreast cancer.
CollisionMax continues to reachout to help U.S. military veterans.This time it was through its orga-nizational support of a job searchskills workshop held on Tuesday,September 16, sponsored by theLower Bucks County, PA, Cham-ber of Commerce.
The workshop, the second ofits kind held at the chamber’s of-fices in Fairless Hills, PA, invitedveterans to engage in mock job in-terviews with Bucks County em-ployers, sit in a seminar offeringinterview and resume tips, and re-ceive critiques of their resumes.
CollisionMax is one of severalmember companies who are activemembers of the chamber’s Veter-ans Support Project.
Companies that sent repre-sentatives to interview and coachveterans at this week’s workshopincluded Sam’s Club, SesamePlace, Lower Bucks Hospital, Pa-triot Connections, and WorkforceOpportunity Services.
CollisionMax Supports PAVeterans in Job Search
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 19
One of the biggest complaints I hearfrom shops is that it is so hard to getpeople to change their habits and con-form to a new way of doing things.Unfortunately, failing to implement apermanent change initiative has be-come the norm at most collision repairshops these days. Some of this resist-
ance we bring on ourselves by what Ilike to call the “Flavor of the Month.”I am sure most of you can relate to thisscenario when the boss returns fromNACE or some great seminar and allof a sudden he wants to fix everythingovernight! These changes rarely takepermanent hold in the organizationand the more changes managementtries to implement, the bigger the joke
it becomes to the staff. Sad, but sotrue!
There are many reasons that peo-ple are resistant to change, but I amsurprised at how often it is the owneror manager himself that is the realproblem! The art of communicatingand understanding what make your
people tick are of utmost importancethese days. The old “iron-fisted” man-agement style of yester-year rarelyworks these days.
How are you going to get yourstaff to buy-into change initiatives andconsistently perform the vital steps re-quired with new processes such asBlueprinting, and other lean concepts?Many great books have been written
on the subject of change, and I recom-mend you read them and learn asmuch as you can to better understandthe behaviors and intrinsic values ofyou and your team. In addition to youdoing some studies of your own, Ihope you will find these 3 tips helpfulto your change efforts.
ConvenienceOne of the biggest reasonspeople don’t follow the stepsis because the steps are toohard to perform. Call themlazy, call them whatever youwant, but the reality of it isthat if you give someone atask that is critical to successand the task is too difficult, itis human nature that it likelywon’t get done consistently ifat all. Let me give you an ex-ample. Let’s say that at yourbody shop, you have discov-ered that checking the re-
placement parts for correctness (mir-ror matching) is CRITICAL to yoursuccess. So if you remove the oldparts from the car and throw them intoa big messy pile in the corner, do youreally think the parts guy is going todig through that heap to find the partshe needs to mirror match vs. the newreplacements? Probably not going tohappen, right? You must make critical
20 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
with David LuehrLean Operations
David Luehr is the owner of Elite Body Shop Solutions, LLC, a collision business consultingfirm based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a 30 year veteran of the collision repair industry.David is an expert in Body Shop Operations and specializes in Lean, and Theory ofConstraints methods. Email him at [email protected]
Lean Implementation Strategies
Would you expect your parts person to dig through thismess to perform a mirror match?
“One of the biggest reasons people don’tfollow the steps is because the steps are
too hard to perform”
to success tasks as easy as you possi-bly can if you want them to get done.Convenience also means keeping
tools, information, and anything elsethat would be needed to perform acritical task close and easily accessi-ble. Things not getting done are oftennot a work ethic problem as much as itis a spatial or procedural problem.
SpaceIf you were trying to shed a few
pounds and decided that you need toquit eating donuts, do you think itwould be better to have the box of
donuts that your rental car providerjust gifted sitting on your desk, orwould it be better to place the deli-cious box of devilish delight as faraway as possible? My point is to setup your shop space to help drive thevital behaviors to succeed. A classicexample of this is when it comes toBlueprinting. One of the vital behav-
iors of Blueprinting, in my opinion, isto have your estimating computer outwith you at the damaged car. Can thishappen at your shop, or are your esti-mators still writing everything downon a piece of paper and then walkingthis back to their office to enter aquestionably accurate supplement intothe estimating system? If this isn’t badenough, I still see many shops that letthe technician write the supplement ona piece of paper and then put it on theestimator’s desk to key in. What kindof behavior does this spatial arrange-ment encourage? Think about it!
Make it UnavoidableMake it difficult for people to do thewrong thing. Can you think of anytasks critical or otherwise that arebeing successfully performed at yourshop consistently? What is differentabout those tasks that you can learnfrom and apply to your new initiativesand critical tasks? The act of moving avehicle into the technician’s stallmakes it pretty unavoidable that it willget seen and worked on by the techni-cian. Making a task unavoidable isquite often a visual thing, and some-thing that has to get done before it cango to the next step. Consider the use
of visual quality control in betweendepartments to eliminate defects, andmake it hard to screw up!
Outcomes• Recommended readingo Leading Change – Kottero Influencer – Patterson, Grenny,Maxfield, McMillan, Switzer• Make critical tasks conveniento Tasks that specifically lead toyour company’s success like Blueprintsteps, parts mirror matching, customercommunication, etc. must be made tobe EASY!• Setup office and shop spaces to in-fluence vital behaviorso Is communication a problem?Consider how your office is set up.o How far do people have to walkto get parts, information, etc?• Make critical tasks unavoidableo Think visualo Make it hard for people to screwup!
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 21
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Richard Rawlings loves fast cars,pretty women and having a good timeall the time, so it was a no-brainerwhen the Fast N’ Loud star opened hisown bar about a year ago, followed bythe purchase of a concert venue in Oc-tober.
The Gas Monkey Garage brand isspreading throughout the country andnow, Rawlings has headquarters wherehe can combine food, music, libationsand cars.
In conjunction with Rawlingsand Dodge, Charger, Challenger andViper owners are about to get theshow of a lifetime in Dallas on Nov.1. The dealers will convene at GasMonkey Live to attend a concert fea-turing Mötley Crüe, while dining onGas Monkey Burgers, Bock BatteredChick Fried Steak, 3-Cheese TruffledMac and Red Chile Grits. It’s a one-of-a-kind highly exclusive event opento Dodge owners looking to have anamazing time while showing off theirvehicles to fellow gear-heads.
Head of Dodge Marketing &Communications, Mark Malmstead,is excited about the upcoming concertand the chance to partner with Rawl-ings and Mötley Crüe for this un-precedented event.
“We’re big fans of Fast N’ Loudand we met with Richard Rawlingsand The Discovery Channel at theSEMA show last year and started dis-cussing the idea of working together.We talked about an in-show place-ment, which has yet to air and Richardhas done some dealer commercials forus. The relationship has just continuedto evolve from there. We love the wayRichard Rawlings operates, becausehis show is a little different than
what’s out there and he has an edge.As we sat down with him and got toknow him better, we decided to domore with Richard. So, he appearedfor us at the Woodward Dream Cruisein metro Detroit recently and every-one went crazy.”
Rawlings and his show couldn’tbe any hotter. Discovery Channel cur-rently airs Fast N’ Loud in 80 coun-tries worldwide. The reality TV starhas also opened another Gas MonkeyBar N’ Grill in the international termi-nal of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. If theGas Monkey restaurants continue todo well, Rawlings says he wants toopen “15 or 20 more.” He and histeam are currently scouting for loca-tion No. 3, which will likely be out of
the area, but still in Texas.How did the band, the man and
the brand all come together for thisone-of-a-kind event?
“Dodge is currently sponsoringMötley Crüe’s Farewell Tour,” Malm-stead said. “Last month, Richard pur-chased Gas Monkey Live, a musicvenue that was formerly owned bycountry star Toby Keith. So, Richardasked us, ‘Can you get Mötley Crüe toplay at my new place?’ He was pretty
insistent, so Tim Kuniskis (Dodgeand SRT brand CEO) made it happen,basically to get Rawlings to stop ask-ing.”
Dodge was pleasantly surprisedwhen it all came together, Malmsteadsaid. “If we can get Mötley Crüe toplay at a bar, which they normallydon’t do and celebrate our 100th an-niversary with a big owner party at GasMonkey Live, we thought wow. Itstarted out as a crazy idea and now it’shappening. The band was a little reluc-tant at first and they had to move a fewdates around, but then they finally saidyes.”
Cars, cars, cars will be an integralpart of the evening and many of themwill get as much attention as MötleyCrüe, according to Malmstead. “We’rehoping for 2,000 people and 1,000 cars,both vintage and late model DodgeChallengers, Chargers and Vipers. Peo-ple can get thrill rides in a Dodge Viperdrift car and a Dodge Challenger SRT
Hellcat that night as well. We’re goingto provide show parking that night, be-cause the event is foremost a car show.You must own one of these vehicles toattend and you have to send in a photoof it, but the event is free for owners.”
Mötley Crüe has been rockingthe world for 33 years, and is stillgoing strong. Rock stars Vince Neal,Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and MickMars are all car crazy rockers. Earlierthis year the video for Mötley Crüe’sclassic “Kickstart My Heart” was re-released with new Dodge scenesadded. The video for country musicstar’s Justin Moore’s version of theballad “Home Sweet Home” (from theNashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Möt-ley Crüe album) also showcases a2015 Dodge Challenger Scat Packparked outside the club. For DodgeChallenger, Charger and Viper ownerswho want more information about theevent, visit:www.dodgerocksgasmonkey.com.
22 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
with Ed Attanasio
Media and Publicity for Shops
Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].
Gas Monkey Garage and Dodge Recruit Mötley Crüe to Rock Dallas
Mötley Crüe will be performing at a Dodgeowner-only event which is part concert andpart car show on Gas Monkey Live on Nov. 1in Dallas
The Gas Garage Bar & Grill will be THE place to be for Dodge Challenger, Charger and Viper ownerswho can get themselves and their vehicles to Dallas for the concert and car show, which alsocelebrates Dodge’s 100th anniversary
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 23
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Acting Attorney General John J. Hoff-man announced the indictment of threemen who operate a private auto inspec-tion business in Paterson on October 9for fraudulently using data simulators togenerate false results for vehicle emis-sions inspections. The men allegedlytook payments from customers in returnfor using the electronic devices to gen-erate passing results for vehicles thathad failed emissions inspections, whichrely on data from onboard diagnosticsystems. One customer of the businessalso was indicted. The Division ofCriminal Justice Specialized Crime Bu-reau obtained a state grand jury indict-ment charging these individuals withconspiracy (2nd degree), computer theft(2nd degree), tampering with publicrecords (3rd degree), and two counts ofviolation of the Air Pollution ControlAct (3rd degree:● Christopher Alcantara, 29, of Pater-son, owner of Five Stars● Auto Inspection, which is located at34 1st Avenue in Paterson;● Mariano Alcantara, 52, of Clifton,(an uncle of Christopher Alcantara);● Lewis Alcantara-Sosa, 22, of Pater-son, (cousin of Christopher andnephew of Mariano); and● Gary Davis, 62, of Rochelle Park,who allegedly knowingly paid the other
defendants to obtain passing emissionsresults for limousines he drove byfraudulently using the data simulators.
“These defendants allegedly prof-ited at the expense of all of us by fraud-ulently allowing customers to neglecttheir vehicles and pump unlawful lev-els of toxic emissions into the air thatwe breathe,” said Acting AG Hoffman.“This was a crime against our health aswell as our environment.”
“We will continue to work withthe MVC and DEP to safeguard the in-tegrity of the state’s motor vehicle in-spection program,” said Director ElieHonig of the Division of Criminal Jus-tice. “As in this case, we will aggres-sively prosecute dishonest operatorswho cheat the system and threaten thepublic’s health.”
“The state’s stringent emissionstesting program is designed to enableus to get the offending ‘polluters’ off ofour roadways and into repair shops,”said Motor Vehicle Commission Chair-man and Chief Administrator RaymondP. Martinez. “These repair shops aremeant to be the solution – not the prob-lem – to keeping countless tons of pol-lutants out of our air.”
“Governor Christie and I arecommitted to protecting the quality ofour air and enforcing the laws and reg-
ulations that protect the health of ourresidents and our environment,” DEPCommissioner Bob Martin said. “Thistype of behavior is not acceptable.”
It is alleged that, on numerous oc-casions during the past year, the de-fendants temporarily installed OBDsimulators in place of the data linkconnector in vehicles that had failedemissions inspections in order to gen-erate false data that enabled the vehi-cles to pass inspection. The defendantsallegedly charged between $80 and$150 in return for using an OBD sim-ulator to enable the customer’s vehicleto pass the emissions inspection. It isalleged that they frequently installedthe OBD simulator at Five Stars AutoInspection, which is a PIF, but thentook the vehicle to central inspectionfacilities, particularly the Lodi CIF.They also used the Paramus CIF. Dur-ing the course of the investigation, in-vestigators conducted surveillance ofthe defendants and Five Stars Auto In-spection. In addition, they allegedlyarranged for the defendants to installOBD simulators in two undercover ve-hicles so that they would pass inspec-tion. On Jan. 15, 2013, investigatorsexecuted a search warrant at Five StarsAuto Inspection, where they seized ev-idence including six OBD simulators
and records. Christopher and MarianoAlcantara were arrested that day andlodged in jail with bail set at $50,000for each. Lewis Alcantara-Sosa wascharged by summons and released.
Davis was employed as a limou-sine driver and was responsible formaintaining the limos that he drove.He allegedly paid the Alcantaras tofraudulently obtain passing results forseveral limousines.
NJ Auto Inspection Shop Indicted for Falsifying Emission Test Results
Four-Alarm Fire in NJ ThreatensAuto Body ShopThe fire started in a vacant downtowncommercial building in Passaic, NJon Oct. 13, and spread to Auto Body777 before firefighters contained theflames. An explosion in the buildingcaused part of the roof to collapse, andthe building’s owner, who met fire-fighters as they arrived, was treatedfor minor burns at St. Joseph’s Re-gional Medical Center in Paterson, ac-cording to reports by Todd South,northjersey.com.
It took almost six hours to getthe fire under control. The cause isbeing determined, but the owner ofthe building is believed to have beendoing work on the water heater andheating unit, according to South.
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 25
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After taking a break for the summer,the Auto Body Association of Con-necticut (ABAC) gathered on Tues-day, September 9 to begin the fallseason with their Quarterly Member-ship Meeting.
The Country House Restaurant inFoxon was filled with associationmembers, prospective members andguests who gathered for an evening ofindustry education and networking.
ABAC President Tony Ferraiolopresented the meeting agenda and ex-pressed gratitude to the meeting’s spon-sor, Richard Chevrolet, and co-sponsors,Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Paint World andZephirblue LLC – ZB Negotiations.
Ferraiolo also thanked the sup-porting advertisers for ABAC news aswell as the association’s yearly corpo-rate sponsors.
The evening’s presentationsbegan with Kevin Linsky from Enter-prise Rent-A-Car. He discussed thecompany’s ARMS program, a websiteapplication that allows collision repairfacilities to communicate electroni-cally with Enterprise’s rental branch.The program is designed to benefitcollision repair facilities by directlysending repair status updates to Enter-
prise, allowing the shop to enter vehi-cle status information at their conven-ience, reducing or eliminating theneed for multiple status requests viaphone or fax, and by ensuring that cor-rect and consistent information is re-layed to the insurance companies.
Because the ARMS program isweb-based, it relies solely on internetaccess and does not require additionalsoftware to utilize it. Enterprise repre-sentatives will train collision repairshops at no cost, and interested facili-ties should contact their local Enter-prise office for more information.
The next presenter was JohnWalczuk, Director of ZB Negotiations,who provided attendees with a brief in-troduction to his company and whatthey do.
As a total loss vehicle settlementnegotiator, Walczuk and his companyuse their knowledge of and experiencewith the collision repair industry tonegotiate for fair market valuation set-tlements for total loss vehicles. WithWalczuk acting as representative, ZBNegotiations will negotiate directlywith the insurance company on theirclient’s behalf; however, this serviceis offered on a contingency basis only.
Then, CCRE President TonyLombardozzi discussed the many law-
suits currently underway across the na-tion in his typical no-holds-barred man-ner that has made him an interesting andwelcome addition to industry events formany years.
Lombardozzi was followed byJohn Parese, Legal Counsel forABAC, who covered a plethora of top-ics, including video/phone estimating,safety concerns, underpayments, viola-tion of insurance laws and more.
The meeting concluded with themain presentation, led by the follow-ing representatives from GeneralMotors: Jeff Shaw, GM WholesaleSpecialist; Tom Seagrave, Whole-sale Specialist; Patricia Lukes, DMWholesale Parts; and Jim Mickle,GM Parts Training.
All attendees received a disc con-taining the presentation and other in-formation designed to aid the collisionrepair facility, such as GM PatentBody Parts information and PositionStatements.
Shaw began the presentation by
describing several of GM’s currentprograms, specifically Bump theCompetition, Collision Link and thenew Body Part Patent.
Mickle then took center stage todiscuss a wide variety of topics per-taining to collision repair information.The GM presentation was made possi-ble through the efforts of Ron Vernick,Parts Manager at Richard Chevrolet.
The ABAC is grateful to the pre-senters and attendees who took timeto attend their meeting, and Ferraiolohopes “the education received will ul-timately help you moving forward inyour business.”
Next up, the ABAC eagerlyawaits the final appeal in The Hartfordclass action lawsuit, originally filed 14years ago, which was schedule to beheard in October by the ConnecticutSupreme Court. Stay tuned to Auto-body News to learn how it all plays out!
For more information, contactABAC 203-269-2842 or visit theirwebsite: www.abaconn.com
Auto Body Association of Connecticut Regroups for Fall 2014
try that insurance companies often at-tempt to take control at the accidentscene, moving the damaged vehicleagainst the consumer’s wishes and try-ing to coerce the vehicle owner to agreeto having the repair completed at oneof their DRP shops. Although the con-sumer has the right to choose wheretheir vehicle is repaired and it couldeasily be argued that the insurers aretaking advantage of their customers, itis easier and cheaper for insurancecompanies when they get their way, asthey often do in these situations.
When questioned about why insur-ers are so adamant about steering de-spite the possibility of being sued, Eavesnoted that insurers profit greatly by thispractice as the benefits to them out-weigh the risk; this is the reason hispending lawsuit and other lawsuits arenecessary. Fowler reminded listenersthat this is a battle the collision repair in-dustry has been fighting for 25 years,but it has come to a point where qualityrepair shops will go out of business ifnothing is done to “rectify this travesty.”
Moving on to the topic of after-market and OEM parts, Fowler saidthat his opinion has changed. Previ-ously, he believed it should be the cus-tomer’s choice whether or not to useaftermarket parts, but because mostconsumers don’t understand the dif-ferences and implications of usingthese parts, he now feels that it is thecollision repair professional’s respon-sibility to educate the consumer. Hereiterated that “testing proves that af-termarket parts do not always performthe same as genuine OEM parts.”
In response to the radio hosts’ ques-tion about whether “imitation parts”have been implicated as the cause of anyaccidents, Eaves unambiguously statedthat the use of poor quality aftermarketparts has caused a multitude of accidentsacross the country. Unfortunately, fewpeople are aware of this concern becausethese settled cases included confidential-ity agreements to prevent them from be-coming public knowledge. Furthermore,as many parts, including windshields,tires and airbags, directly affect thesafety of the vehicle, investment in partsis more crucial than ever. According toEaves, YouTube features many videoson how aftermarket parts affect vehiclesafety, and documentaries are currentlybeing filmed on this issue as well.
Eaves is not optimistic that the
lawsuit will go to trial quickly, but he isprepared to fight this battle for quitesome time if necessary, noting “this isbigger than just a lawsuit; it’s a cam-paign!” Part of this campaign includesasking Congress to support legislationto restore the proper balance of powerbetween the insurance industry and thecollision repair industry. As precedentfor his request, Eaves cited the ConsentDecree, a similar situation in the 1960swhen insurance companies tried to dic-tate which parts could be used and howmuch they would pay for repairs. TheU.S. Department of Justice sued the in-surance industry, and the resulting rul-ing was that insurers cannot forcecollision repair facilities to compromisethe quality of their repairs. Thus, thebalance of power between these two in-dustries was restored if not enforced.Eaves said he hopes that his current ef-forts will yield the same results for themodern collision repair industry.
Directing his attention to whatconsumers can do to aid in this battle,Fowler reminded consumers that theyhave the right to choose the facility thatrepairs their vehicle, and he encouragedthem to act on this right by taking theircar to whichever shop they prefer. Hecautioned that it is a red flag if the in-surer insists on dictating where the ve-hicle is repaired, and this could indicatethat the insurer is engaging in other un-savory practices, such as mandatingwhich parts are used in the repair.
Though vehicle manufacturers pro-vide specific repair information to main-tain a vehicle’s safety, Fowler said he hasexperienced firsthand that some insurerswill demand used parts be installed, eventhough both he and the manufacturerwarned that such a practice could com-promise the vehicle’s safety. Despite in-surers’ tendency to use intimidating intheir interactions with both consumersand repair facilities, Fowler states, “thereare shops that try to do what’s right, butthey are vilified, disparaged and essen-tially squeezed out of business.”
Eaves agrees that it is imperativefor consumers to trust the facility re-pairing their vehicle as their lives arebeing placed in the hands of these pro-fessionals, and a poor quality repairjeopardizes the safety of the consumer,their family and anyone else on thehighway. The importance of finding atrustworthy repairer is so great thatFowler founded www.safecars.us, awebsite that promises to place the con-sumer’s safety above all else and plansto feature member shops who havecommitted to this goal.
Although Fowler believes thatsome insurance agents would like todo the right thing for their customers,the rules are passed down from the in-surance companies’ corporate offices,leaving the agents powerless to makechanges. Unfortunately, the insurersare the only ones to benefit, and thesepractices are actually performed to thedetriment of the collision repair facil-ities, the consumers and even lendinginstitutions as an improperly repairedvehicle is apt to create a situation ofdiminished value.
When radio hosts questionedwhy some insurance companies havedepartments that deal in diminishedvalues, Fowler notes, “they pay whenthey’re forced to pay, but they arenever going to voluntarily do the rightthing because it’s not profitable, andeverything they do is profit-driven.”In fact, he warns that diminished valuecan occur to such an extent that the ve-hicle should have been declared a totalloss because it is no longer safe to bedriven on the road! Luckily, dimin-ished value is an issue that consumersare becoming increasingly aware of,and Fowler encourages anyone withdoubts about the safety or integrity ofa repair to get a post-repair inspection.
His shop will gladly inspect repairsand provide objective assessments, aswill many shops across the nation. Asthe show ended, Fowler encouragedconsumers to stand up for their rights.Though he would like to believe thatthe insurers look out for their cus-tomers’ best interests, his observationsindicate that they are only concernedwith profits. “This war has been goingon for a long time, mostly behind theconsumers’ backs, but it affects every-one because if a car is unsafely re-paired and out of control, it isdangerous to everyone on the high-way. The U.S. public needs to be con-cerned with this issue… You neverknow what battles you can win untilyou fight them. Doing nothing onlyensures you will lose.”
To access to the radio broadcast, goto http://www.iaba.info/Documents/Newsletters/Issues/2014/10%20October/Full%20Stories/Article%207.html (link is at the bottom of the page).
26 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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20 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 1994)Recently I read an article that was criti-cal of industry leaders who had nottaken a stand against DRPs. It broughtto mind a discussion I once had with (amember) who said there are things as-sociations can do that make some mem-bers happy, but that don’t meananything. He called it “feel good stuff.”
For association leaders to de-nounce all DRPs when half or more oftheir membership participate in directrepair programs would be nothing morethan “feel good stuff.” It feels good tothose who are not DRP shops, but whatabout those member shops who chose togo DRP?
It’s very easy to criticize associa-tions that have a neutral position onDRPs, but what would happen if theycame out against them? The best any as-sociation can do is to rally against theabuses where they exist; to support leg-islation that protects a consumer’s right
to choose the repair facility; and to dowhat it can to advise its members onhow to determine if DRPs are a wisebusiness decision for them. There are anumber of individuals, some of themleaders, who continue to yell aboutDRPs without offering any real solu-tions. But regardless of what they havesaid, it’s the collision repair profession-als who have voted by making the busi-ness decision whether to participate inthese programs. All the yelling in theworld won’t eliminate DRPs. Those ofyou who can’t accept that reality cankeep yelling, or your can roll up yoursleeves and go to work on the 65 per-
cent of businessthat will never beDRP. Learn how tobetter market yourbusiness and sellcollision repairs.Bury the DRP bo-geyman and get towork. It’s in your
best interest.– From an editorial by John Loftus,
then the executive director of the Soci-ety of Collision Repair Specialists(SCRS), published in Collision Expert.Loftus retired from SCRS in 2000.
15 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 1999)Mike Melfi said the Coalition for Col-lision Repair Equality (CCRE) wasfounded about three years ago as an or-ganization to help like-minded shopsowners around the country “take backcontrol” of their businesses and reduceinsurer influence over the industry. Itwas incorporated as a for-profit com-pany so that it would never have to di-vulge a list of its members (which theorganization refers to as “sponsors” or“clients”). About 80 people – includingabout a dozen attorneys – attended thegroup’s recent meeting in Phoenix.
“These attorneys are just now real-izing that there’s money to be made in
property damage litigation,” said AnnSpink, a Louisiana shop owner and vicepresident of CCRE. “We believe thatlegislation and education is part of theanswer but litigation is the bottom line.The reason CCRE exists is to try to puttogether the documentation and the ex-pert witnesses to help these attorneysunderstand how to litigate for us. Andbecause they’re class action attorneys,we don’t have to pay them, just help ed-ucate them.”
Shop owner Melfi told CCRE par-ticipants he had predicted the first non-OEM parts lawsuit “victory” would taketwo years. “It took three years,” he ad-mitted. “But now I have another predic-tion. If steering continues, one day onthe 6 o’clock news, you’re going to seean executive of an insurance companyin handcuffs being put in a federal mar-shal’s car being charged with federalracketeering.”
– As reported in Parts & People.The non-OEM parts lawsuit victory
28 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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DRPs 20 years ago, Early CCRE, ADP Revises Labor Times
with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot
—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a bodyshop in the family and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988.He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription,visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contact him by email at [email protected].
John Loftus
Melfi referred to was the $1.1 billionjudgment against State Farm in 1999,which the Illinois Supreme Court over-turned in 2005. A class action lawsuitfiled in Illinois earlier this year allegesthat seven of the Top 10 insurers violatefederal racketeering laws by illegallyconspiring to use their direct repair pro-grams and other means to enforce “anartificial market value for collision re-pairs.”
10 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 2004)A widespread and significant drop inADP refinish labor times discovered inrecent weeks will be corrected in ADP’sNovember CD update release, whichthe company says has been sent to ADPcustomers.
“The operational issues with the re-finish times in the October CD are re-vised in the November CD,” ScottJenkins, senior director of “EstimatingSolutions” for ADP said. “The Novem-ber CD is consistent with the SeptemberCD. If the user did not load the OctoberCD, they were not impacted. We are in-structing our customers to load the No-vember CD immediately upon receipt.”
The October CD included manydecreased refinish labor times of 10 per-
cent or more. Refinish times for 2000-2004 Ford Taurus hood, for example,dropped from 3.9 on the SeptemberADP CD to 3.4 on the October CD.Times for a 1999-2004 Pontiac GrandAm fender dropped from 2.4 to 1.9, andthe front door time for a 1999-2004Chevy Cavalier dropped from 3.1 to 2.8.Although some have looked for somesort of intent behind the widespread re-ductions, ADP, while avoiding using theterm “mistake,” maintains that the prob-lem was an “operational issue,” not anattempt to shave labor times.
“Some of our clients have experi-enced an operational issue regarding re-finish labor on hoods, doors, fenders,roofs, decklid/tailgates and back doors,”Peggy Adams, operations manager forclient services for ADP, wrote in anemail response to questions about theOctober CD. “All new estimates createdwith the November CD reflect the up-dated refinish labor. We apologize to ourclients for any inconvenience we mayhave caused.”
The issue has resulted in a flurry ofemail activity between shops and indus-try organizations since it came to lightin early November. Part of the concernwas fueled by the fact that various ADPpersonnel were giving conflicting - or,
at a minimum, ambiguous - responsesto questions about the labor timechanges. An ADP tech support em-ployee, for example, told one ADP shopcustomer in the Pacific Northwest thatthe revised times were based on “newtime studies” ADP had done.
– As reported in Autobody News.Prior to shops accessing the estimatingdatabase information over the Internet,the system providers sent monthly up-dates to the data to shops on compactdiscs. ADP’s Claims Services Group(including its estimating system) wasacquired by Audatex (now AudaEx-plore) in 2006.
5 years ago in the collision repairindustry (November 2009)In the transcript of a small claims appealtrial involving two of customers of G &C Auto Body of Santa Rosa, Calif., Cal-ifornia Superior Court Judge JamesBertoli took State Farm to task for itsrate survey process and arguments re-garding reasonable repair costs.
Shop owner Gene Crozat’s cus-tomers had won after filing small claimscourt cases against State Farm insuredswhen the insurer refused to pay all of G& C’s charges. The insurer appealedboth cases, and the court heard the two
appeals together over two days. Bertolisaid State Farm could use whatevermethod it specified in the insurance con-tract to determine a reasonable price infirst-party claims, even if they deter-mined that price, “by reading chickenentrails, and consulting with the threewitches from MacBeth (which is) justabout as accurate as the survey itself is.I think that survey from a statisticalstandpoint would get a first-year collegestudent a flunking grade.”
But in a third-party case, the judgesaid, a reasonable charge “implies arange of charges” and “no particularcharge can be said to be the only rea-sonable charge.” He said State Farm didnot try to establish that G & C’s rate wasunreasonable, and it appears to fallwithin a reasonable range of prices.
“Quite frankly with regard to thethird-party claims, this Court does notbelieve they should have been litigated,”Bertoli said in finding for Crozat’s cus-tomers. “I think the answer is clear, andI quite frankly see it as an effort on be-half of the insurer to try and suppress theprice charged by someone outside oftheir range.”
– As reported in CRASH Network(www.CrashNetwork.com), November16, 2009.
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 29
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In a world where we are constantlybombarded by texts, tweets, status up-dates, and emails, it’s no surprise thatmany people read fewer books andseem to have some form of ADD. Ayoung person recently told me withpride that he hasn’t read a book sincehigh school.
“I like pictures,” he said.So, on a planet where almost
everyone has a short attention span,how do we communicate effectivelywith the masses? The answer for someis through video—short, sweet and tothe point. Several body shops have ex-perienced great success by workingwith the same video production/mar-keting company and the videos they’reproducing are creating a buzz through-out the collision industry nationwide.
Absolute Perfection Media (APMedia) in Sykesville, MD, is the com-pany producing these attention-gettingvideos for body shops. They’re thehottest new video production companyserving the collision industry and shopsare clamoring to work with them. Pres-ident Lee Emmons is now workingwith more and more shops owners whohave seen his past productions forMark’s Body Shop in Baltimore City,MD, and K & M Collision in Hickory,NC. The appeal stems from their direct,no-nonsense approach. Emmons haslearned the collision industry along theway, he said, and now he’s known asthe “body shop video guy.”
“The power of video and YouTubehas become apparent and now collisionshops want to tell their stories using thisformat,” Emmons said. “These shopsare willing to take on the insurance com-panies and this is the way they’re doingit. We’re also producing videos to edu-cate their customers about things likecertifications and the use of OE parts.These shops have learned that thesevideos are highly effective and very af-fordable and we can turn them out ratherquickly. Once a shop does a few of thesevideos and sees the response, they wantto do more. I’m traveling to K & M nextweek to produce a series of videos abouttheir manufacturers’ OE certifications.Some of the videos I’ve produced forbody shops have gone viral and gaineda lot of national attention, so we’re get-ting new collision clients all the time.”
The Vice President of Operationsat K & M Collision, Michael Brad-shaw, has produced a series of videoswith AP Media and posts them all onhis YouTube Channel.
“We have approximately 10 onthere right now and maybe five morein production. We take an educational
approach to many of the consumer-re-lated issues in this industry, includingtitles such as, Has Your Car Been Re-paired Safely (Watch this case and staysafe after an accident)?; Do You Qual-ify for Diminished Value? (The Insur-ance Company May Owe you Money);An Epidemic of Unsafe Collision Re-pairs; Post Repair Inspections; What isSteering?; Who Guarantees Repairs?;and An Open Letter to the North Car-olina Attorney General.
Short videos with a succinct mes-sage have proven to be highly effec-tive, Bradshaw explained, although insome situations longer, in-depth videosalso work well.
“We were doing longer videos atfirst, mostly 4–6 minutes in length, butnow we’re trimming them down to twominutes and our most recent ones arecoming in at 90 seconds. When we’redealing with certain subjects, the longervideos work just fine, but we also pro-duce shorter ones to convey the mes-sage quickly and present the topic in away that the viewer can absorb easily.”
If you’re getting your car fixedby K & M Collision, you’ve probablyseen one or more of the shop’s videos.
“We loop all of them together andshow them on a monitor in our receptionarea at the shop and we’ve gotten some
great feedback about them from our cus-tomers,” Bradshaw said. “Insurance ad-justors also tend to see them too!”
Mark Schaech, Jr., is the sec-ond-generation owner of Mark’s BodyShop in Baltimore City, MD. Hestarted working with Emmons at APMedia several years ago.
“We have now produced at leastfive videos with AP Media and they’rebeing seen by shops all over the coun-try,” Schaech explained. “We let shopsuse them, as long as they give us anoutbound link. These other owners arerealizing that these short videos are ef-fective, because they can easily conveythe information that we want to com-municate, because this is a very com-plex industry and the average persondoesn’t really know what’s going on.”
Schaech, 41, took over the busi-ness from his father in 2000 and backthen they had six DRPS. But, todaythey have none and some of theirvideos document why.
“The first one we did with APMedia was about a post repair inspec-tion video and it had immediate im-pact,” Schaech said. “A Mazda hadbeen repaired by another shop under aninsurance company’s DRP and it wascompletely hacked and butchered. It
30 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
with Ed Attanasio
Social Media for Shops
Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].
Body Shops are Tapping into the Persuasive Power of Video
Lee Emmons of AP Media shooting a video for K & M Collision in Hickory, NC, featuring theirreceptionist, Caitlin Adams See Power of Video, Page 35
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 31
32 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
For more collisioninfo, go to:collision.honda.comairbagaware.honda.comcrashrepairinfo.com
Some industry ob-servers estimatethat only about 20percent of vehiclesin collision repairshops are actuallybeing measured aspart of the repairprocess. Richard
Perry, who oversees training for ChiefAutomotive, believes that changes invehicle materials and structure mean
that at least four times that percentageshould be measured.
“If that vehicle is impacted, itshould be measured,” Perry said. “Weusually know what’s going to happenwith the damage; we just don’t knowthe extent of it, where all it’s gone,how far did it travel through the vehi-cle. You’ve got to be able to find it tofix it. So before the repair we need toanalyze what’s wrong to develop a re-pair plan. During repair, we need to
measure multiple points, and monitorthose during repair because as youstart to make repairs, more than onepoint is going to move at a time. Weneed to monitor all those points.”
Perry said in the past, techniciansmight gauge the extent of the damageby checking to see if the vehicle’sdoors open and close; if they did, theyfelt it was safe to presume the damagehad not extended beyond the passen-
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Industry Insightwith John Yoswick
John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon who has been writingabout the collision industry since 1988. He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Net-work (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contacthim by email at [email protected].
Energy Transfer in Today’s Vehicles Makes Measuring, Multi-Point Pulling More Important
If you still think of Chief Automotive as pri-marily a pulling equipment company, thinkagain. Mike Cranfill, vice president ofglobal collision and new business develop-ment for the Vehicle Services Group (whichincludes Chief Automotive) said changes inthe company’s revenue sources reflectchanges in the industry itself.
“I like to think we’re an informationcompany, because if you take the training,the measuring equipment and the data we
provide, almost half of our business isthere,” Cranfill said.
Vehicle Services Group (VSG) is itselfa segment of Dover Corporation, a globalproducer of equipment, systems and serv-ices in a variety of businesses. In additionto Chief, VSG brands include Rotary Liftand Elektron welders. It has about 1,200employees in the U.S., Germany and China.
Its measuring, pulling and weldingequipment sales each account for about
21 percent of its overall revenue, but itssingle biggest revenue source is the vehi-cle measuring data it sells directly to col-lision repairers and also to the estimatingsystem providers.
Does Chief collect data on the vehi-cles that shops are measuring with itsequipment?
“We do not collect it,” Bob Holland,VSG collision director for North America,said. “With our licensing agreement, we
have the right to collect it, but we do not.”Cranfill some companies, such as
those that offer vehicle history informa-tion, may seek that information, but Chiefdoesn’t share it because the informationtells only part of the story.
“The risk is: What does it mean?”Cranfill said. “Even if the data shows the carmeasurers to factory specs, can you guar-antee the repair was proper? Maybe youused heat when you’re not supposed to.”
Chief Automotive Sees Itself as Source of Information As Much As Equipment
See Energy transfer, Page 36
Richard Perry of Chief Automotive discussesthe value of multiple-point pulling during arecent demonstration in the shop at Chief’sheadquarters in Madison, Ind.
Richard Perry
“Fixing cars is become more andmore challenging than ever before,”said Afshar. “The vehicles are so dif-ferent now and they may look thesame outside but what’s inside is notthe same.” With the standards set bythe Insurance Institute for HighwaySafety (IIHS) and the Corporate Av-erage Fuel Economy, cars need to belighter but still pass safety require-ments.
Afshar said another challengefor those in collision repair is em-ploying proper technicians with theright mind set. Afshar, who sold hisMSO Sterling Automotive Group in1998, said technology is moving sorapidly that detailed knowledge,training and equipment is becomingeven more necessary for shops to besuccessful and he encourages tech-nicians to be open-minded and learnnew techniques that they’ve neverused before.
was a death trap and it eventually gottotaled and the driver got paid off. Ourvideo told the story and showed theevidence clearly, and that was why itworked so well. Since coming out, theMaryland Attorney General and theInsurance Commissioner has seen thevideo and body shops show it to theircustomers all the time. We get greatfeedback about it and it’s also helpingus to get higher rankings on Google.”
Currently, AP Media is produc-ing a series of four automotive certifi-cation videos for Mark’s Body Shop.
“K & M has done a few OE certi-fication videos and they’re powerful, tosay the least, so we’re doing the same,”Schaech said. “They did a Porsche cer-tification video and now they’re on topof all the search rankings as a result.We use video to inform and educateour customers, but enhanced SEO isalso a big part of it. Years ago, we spenta lot of money on cable advertising andthe response was weak, but thesevideos cost us less and they get us moreresponse. We’ll be making more all thetime, because we can new see they payfor themselves in the end.”
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 35
CALL FOR DETAILS!
PAINTING WITH NITROGEN...
Gua aantrr teed!
Continued from Page 30
Power of VideoContinued from Page 13
MSO Consolidations Update: Fire Destroyed Established PA Auto Body Shopby Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor
After a fire destroyed Jim Weiss AutoBody & Towing in East Stroudsburg,PA on August 22, friends are helpingwith a massive clean up effort so JimWeiss can rebuild the business he
started more than 30 years ago.“I’m thankful that the cleanup is
going well,” said Weiss. “A lot of myfriends who are retired are helpingeveryday. I have a lot of support rightnow and it means a lot to me.”
The Monroe County shopcaught fire around 4am on August 22.Trooper Jamie Sgarlat from thePennsylvania State Police said thefire originally initiated in a Jeep thathad been towed to the shop. “It was
left on a rollback near the side of thebuilding and the vehicle had been ina crash,” he said. The official causeof the fire is still undetermined, ac-cording to Sgarlat.
Weiss took some time off to dealwith insurance matters and is now
getting back to business.“We are doing what wecan,” he said. “It took 30years of work to getwhere I was and now it’slike starting again.” Atemporary office was setup out of a camper on siteand some of the neigh-boring shops are lettinghim use space in theirgarages for auto bodywork.
Weiss said his ownshop should be operational in ap-proximately two months. “Our busi-ness is all word of mouth,” he said.“We’ve done very well managing tokeep our doors open and managingduring a difficult economy. This is ahuge blow and we’re going to try andkeep our doors open and survive thissituation.”
Jim Weiss Auto Body & Towing canbe reached at 570-421-1225.
There were 13 cars lost in total, including a police car,high-end lines such as a Mustang and vintage vehicles
ger compartment. But vehicle manu-facturers have strengthened both thelower and upper structures of vehicles,further reducing the impact of visibledamage to the passenger compartment.
“I’ve seen some vehicles that hadstraight-on impacts at 50 mph, yet youcan open and close the doors like fac-tory,” Perry said. “The passenger com-partment does not react they way itused to. But that energy is still going
somewhere; something further back inthe vehicle has to give to absorb thatenergy. So that old way of thinking, ofnot measuring everything, results inoverlooking something. That’s why weneed to measure the entire vehicle eachtime.”
Perry believes eight measuringpoints is the minimum that should beused to ensure all the damage is located,
though the total number will depend onthe severity of the impact. Start withfour on the center structure of the vehi-cle, he suggests, then one on each of the
front and rear corners of the vehicle.When it comes to pulling, multi-
ple towers allow more precise move-ment, he said, given that damage canbe in three directions: lateral, verticaland length-wise.
“The more hook-ups you can puton at your initial pull, the more thatdamage is going to come out the wayit went in,” Perry said. “But you needto be monitoring it as you pull so youknow you’re going in the right direc-tion.”
Multiple pulling also reduces theamount of force used at any single point.
“If you put more combined forceon a vehicle but less at each location bydoing multiple simultaneous pullingwith equalized pressure, you can repaira lot of things that you couldn’t beforebecause you’re not going to rip and tearit,” he said. “You’re not going to dam-age and distort it because you’re not put-
ting as much pressure at each location.”Perry shared his measuring and
pulling concepts while working on anactual damaged vehicle during a re-cent demonstration in the shop atChief’s headquarters in Madison, IN.Among the features of the company’s“LaserLock” measuring system hepointed out was the dual monitors thatallow a technician to have both meas-uring information and OEM repair in-formation readily accessible.
“The OEMs used to sit on thesidelines because who knew betterabout repairs than anybody else? Thetechnician,” Perry said. “After all, he’dbeen doing it for 20 years, and thingshadn’t changed that much. But with themany changes to vehicles today, whoknows most about a vehicle now? TheOEMs. They designed it. They engi-neered it.”
That said, Perry believes anotheradvantage of using Chief measuringdata is that the company doesn’t justuse OEM build data but actually meas-ures vehicles off the tires and in clampsjust as is done in shops. That ensuresthe system offers more accurate, real-world measuring data, he said, becausesuch a set-up takes into account theslight sagging the front and rear of a
vehicle does when it is up in clamps.Perry said another key message
to technicians in his training is thatmeasuring is almost always the solu-tion to challenging repairs.
“If you can’t figure out what theproblem is, take more measurements,”Perry suggests. “You’ll find it eventu-ally. You’re just not measuring farenough. You’re not taking enoughpoints to identify all the damage.”
36 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Continued from Page 34
Energy transfer
Lee Daugherty, global data product managerfor Chief Automotive, points out the type ofmeasuring data available through the com-pany’s LaserLock system
Jerry Ralston explains the final assemblyprocesses that Chief frame equipment undergoesat the company’s Madison, Ind., headquarters
Bryan Brown demonstrated the newestElektron welder during a recent media tour ofChief Automotive’s headquarters. Elektron andChief are among the brands owned by VehicleServices Group, based in Madison, Ind.
‘iEstimator’ and ‘iTechnican’ Apps Now AvailableStartup My Business is a Wreck an-nounced on October 21 the launch oftwo first-of-its-kind mobile apps, the‘iTechnician’ app and the ‘iEstimator’app.
Both apps are free and availableon the App Store for iPhones, iPads &Google Android Devices.
The ‘iTechnican’ app will allowtechnicians to log, track and the statusof their flagged and/or unflaggedhours right from their smartphone.
iTechnician Features:● Log assigned repair order numbers● Record rate of flat rate● Track weekly or bi-weekly pay cycles● Track paid labor hours● Track unpaid labor hours● Calculate expected pay amount● Record a weekly or bi-weekly workhistory report
The ‘iEstimator’ app will allowCollision Estimators to improve theircustomer’s service experience andperform necessary daily duties right
from their smartphone.
iEstimator Features:● Log customer info and repair ordernumbers● Create a personal daily customer ar-rival calendar● Create a personal daily customerdeparture calendar● Customizable customer authoriza-tion form with signature and emailCapability● Vehicle no longer safe to drive no-tice form with signature and email ca-pability● Customer belongings left in vehicleinventory form● Existing AM and FM radio pre-setstations● Vehicle old damage check-in form● Maintenance upsell opportunitiesform● Tires depth gauge form● To do list● Capability to email all info above ina single report
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 37
their body shops.“We wanted to make the legisla-
tors aware of what the insurance com-panies are doing to the consumer,” saidMatt Parker, owner of Parker AutoBody in Louisiana who is part of thelawsuit. “The insurance industryshould not tell us how to repair cars.We’re the professionals here, not them.We have all the liability, they don’t,”he said.
Tony Passwater, Executive Di-rector of the Indiana Autobody Asso-ciation and President of AEIIConsulting Services, said that whatstarted as multi-district litigation inApril with just five states, includingMississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Indi-ana and Utah, and later by Louisiana,is now part of a much bigger action toregain control that he termed “TheMovement.”
He said, as part of “The Move-ment,” shop owners representing adozen states went to Capital Hill “…todiscuss the growing concerns for con-sumer safety, the mandating by insur-ers to require repair shops to useuntested and unsafe parts on vehicles,and the intimidation tactics the insur-ers use when a repairer refuses to doso.”
“Most [members of Congress]have had their car repaired and werevery empathetic and were already con-cerned about the issue, so we werevery encouraged by the response,” saidthe lead attorney John Arthur Eaves,Jr. of Eaves Law Firm in Jackson, MS.
Eaves said many were still notaware of the Robert Kennedy-era 1963Consent Decree and now is an excel-lent opportunity to ask them to helpenforce what is the official public pol-icy of the United States government.He said the body shops plan to visitWashington D.C. again in Novemberwhen congress comes back into ses-sion and the hope is that a bill will beintroduced at that time. “The law willreally be a codification of the policy ofthe United States that was set in 1963.”
It was that year that the U.S. De-partment of Justice, under the directionof Attorney General Robert Kennedy,investigated the concerns of the colli-sion repair industry and found 265 in-surance companies, and the threemajor trade associations that repre-sented insurers, were in violation ofthe Sherman Antitrust Act. An An-
titrust Consent Order was signed bythese companies on October 23, 1963,requiring that insurers must refrainfrom “fixing, establishing, maintainingor otherwise controlling the prices tobe paid for the appraisal of damage, orto be charged by independent or dealerfranchised automotive repair shops forthe repair of damage to automotive ve-hicles or for replacement parts or labor
in connection therewith, whether bycoercion, boycott or intimidation or bythe use of flat rate or parts manuals orotherwise.”
“If you look at the Consent De-cree and read it, it would look likesomebody from today wrote it becauseall the things they’ve been doing sincethe 40s they are continuing to do,” saidParker. “To be honest with you, every-thing they’re doing is against the law.”
Parker, who has been in the busi-ness for 30 years, said the Consent De-cree mandates that insurancecompanies are supposed to be in thebusiness of insurance, “not telling ushow to repair cars, not writing esti-mates, not telling people where to getglass put in their car. We’re the onlybusiness in the world that has to try tofigure out how to make a profit whenwe can’t even set our own rates.”
Eaves originally filed the lawsuitin April on behalf of more than twodozen body shops that claimed 16 in-surance companies manipulated laborrates and other charges and weren’tcompensated for their work.
The Mississippi lawyer said thelawsuit is largely based on antitrust is-sues that surface when insurance com-panies get involved with body shopsby telling them what labor rate theycan charge, what percentages they’renot going to pay for, and what partsthey have to put on a car. In the 1970’s,the labor rate was $16 and the me-chanical rate was $15. Currently,Eaves said the body shop rate acrossthe nation is usually half of the me-
chanical rate with no justification. Hesaid this is due to insurance companiesthat have artificially suppressed therate and is a clear violation of the Con-sent Decree.
Another main component of thelawsuit is against steering. “Moststates in the country say it is illegal forinsurance companies to purposely in-terfere in the business relationship of
the customer and the bodyshop,” said Eaves. How-ever, insurance companiesdo it regularly, telling cus-tomers they have to go totheir DRP body shops or se-lect service shops. “That’s abig part of our lawsuit andone of the things we think ispure violation of the properbalance between the two in-dustries,” said Eaves. “Byhaving the same practicesexposed by all body shopsin one litigation, the judge
can more clearly see that this is a pat-tern of practice,” said Eaves.
Eaves said that in addition tothese challenges faced by shop own-ers, the industry also has to adapt tonew technology. “Only the shops thatactually get paid for what they do will
have the resources necessary to investin all of this technology,” said Eaves.“That’s basically what the lawsuitcomponent is all about… making surethat people who do the work and do itright get paid for it so they can con-tinue to provide that service to theAmerican customer.”
The next court date is set for No-vember in Orlando, FL. “The allega-tions that are part of the multi-districtlitigation being heard in Florida are notin line with State Farm’s mission toserve the needs of its customers, andour long, proud history of achieve-ments in advancing vehicle safety,”said Dick Luedke, spokesperson forState Farm Insurance.
“A vibrant, profitable auto colli-sion repair industry is in the interest ofState Farm,” said Luedke. “At thesame time, we are advocates on behalfof our customers for reasonable repaircosts. We believe repairer profitabilityand quality auto repairs that are rea-sonably priced can both be achieved.
“Our customers choose wheretheir vehicles are going to be re-paired. We provide information aboutour Select Service program while atthe same time making it clear they can
38 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Continued from Cover
Congress Support
(l to r) Joe and Karen Enneking of Enneking Body Shop inIndiana, Congressman Luke Messer and Tony Passwater,Executive Director of the Indiana Autobody Association inWashington D.C.
See Congress Support, Page 43
Admittedly, the owner of a well-known 80-year-old body shop inChicago was guilty of texting in hisown vehicle himself for several yearsuntil he saw more than a few damagedcars in his shop caused by his cus-tomers’ lapses in attention while tex-ting. Rather than ignore what is nowan national epidemic that causes 1.6million accidents annually, Bob Got-tfred, the owner of Erie-LaSalle BodyShop, decided to start his own anti-texting campaign.
Erie-LaSalle Body Shop wasfounded in 1934 and over the years ithas become a neighborhood institu-tion in downtown Chicago. “We’re thelongest continuously owned auto bodyof its kind in Chicago and Illinois,”Gottfred explained. “We now have ahandful of third-generation customerscoming in here and it’s great to heartheir stories about when their grandfa-ther or even great grandfather broughthis car here decades before. Addition-
ally, we have expanded our servicearea by acquiring a 30-year body shopon the southwest side of Chicago.”
Gottfred, 64, had what he de-scribed as a “marginal interest” in carsas a kid, so his path to owning a bodyshop wasn’t part of his life plan, hesaid. “I grew up working here in theshop as a teenager and to be honest, Iwasn’t crazy about it. I had no inten-tion of taking over the shop, but whenI came home around Christmas time in1975, my stepfather told me he could-n’t do it anymore. His health wasn’tvery good so he said, ‘If you’re inter-ested -- hop in” or he was going to sellit. So, in January 1976 I started runningthe business full-time and then eventu-ally bought out my stepfather in 1995.”
Today, both of Gottfred’s sonswork with him at the shop and eventu-ally the business will belong to them –but not tomorrow, Gottfred said. “Jim(36) and Jay (34) could take over rightnow and do a great job, because they’velearned the business and they’re ready.They’re right at the hand-off point nowand I know it would be a seamless tran-
sition, but I’m not quite ready to retire.I currently work on customer acquisi-tion and foster the great relationshipswe have with the insurance companiesand agents, so it works well right now.Opening the new shop in a very differ-ent market has also been a challenge. Ilike to be the rainmaker around hereand take a lot of the administrative stuffoff my sons’ radar, so that they can con-centrate on the most important things,such as quality and customer service.”
New proposed anti-texting lawshave gained more momentum in thiscountry, most recently led by a docu-mentary called “From One Second tothe Next,” a cautionary tale about thedangers of texting while driving. Thefilm was funded by mobile providersAT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizonand has received major awards and ac-colades.
The genesis of Gottfred’s anti-tex-ting campaign began when he decided
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 39
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Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].
Chicago Body Shop’s Anti-Texting Campaign Catches Fire
See Anti-Texting Campaign, Page 47
Erie-LaSalle started getting involved in an anti-texting campaign after creating this fire hydrantto raise money for 51 Club, an organization thatraises money for families of firemen killed in theline of duty
By now most shop owners and man-agers have realized that when it comesto marketing, one size does not fit all.Franchises and multiple shop opera-tions that account for about 15 percentof the shops in the U.S. are in a posi-tion to approach marketing from an en-tirely different perspective from theindependent shop owner. But 72 per-cent of the shops are still independent,single-location shops and many ofthese shops market just to keep surviv-ing. The question then becomes, whatdo you mean by “grow?” Growth bycloning or opening other locations ismore of an operational strategy than amarketing proposition. Real growth foran independent shop is simply aboutgetting more vehicles in the door andenjoying more profit on every job.
Franchises and MSOs can affordto advertise just to build name recog-nition to try to drive business to anyshop in the group. But few independ-ents can afford to spend marketingdollars solely on building name recog-nition. A marketing plan has to differ-entiate a shop from the competitionand provide a strong reason to selectthat shop over all the others. A recentarticle in Inc. Magazine might suggestone way to do that. A software com-pany originally called “37 Signals”changed it’s operating philosophy andchanged its name to “Basecamp,” thename of a project management prod-uct that represented 87 percent of theirsales and 90% of their recent growth.
This reminded me of a strategicmove made by Colonel Harlan Sanders
when he was operating a small chain offast food operations with about 100items on the menu. He was having se-rious trouble trying to grow so he hireda consultant named David Thomas.The first thing Thomas did was cut themenu down to a handful of items andrenamed the franchise operation, “Ken-tucky Fried Chicken.” From there on,the growth was phenomenal. Now ob-viously most shops can’t eliminate anyof the steps needed to restore a vehicleback to pre-accident condition, but theycan always choose what they want toemphasize in their marketing. And thismay be the key to convincing the buy-ing public that this shop is the right onefor them.
If you decide to try this approachto marketing, the next question is“what to emphasize?” Paint specialtyshops like Maaco have already begunto capture some of the body work thatindependent shops rely on, but theykeep paint as their central focal point.While any shop is free to make refin-ishing quality their main marketingemphasis, there may be reasons tochoose a different emphasis. One bigadvantage an independent shop hasover franchises and MSOs is the veryfact of their uniqueness. While theseother shops may have a cookie-cuttersameness look, the independent shopowner can individuate any way he orshe chooses. I’ve seen a number ofshops that emphasize the family as-pect of their business. Photos of sev-eral generations of owners adorn thewalls, the website and any ads. The
emphasis, of course, is “we care morebecause for us it’s personal.”
Another key factor in marketingemphasis choice is shop location. Ashop in Silicon Valley or other high-tech region may thrive best with anemphasis on the technical aspects ofcollision repair. A contemporary focuson hybrids and exotic metal repairspecialties could communicate well inan area like this. In an entirely differ-ent direction, I ran across a shop inhorse country that emphasized a spe-cialty in working on horse trailers andlarger transport vehicles. In an agelike ours where big box stores havebecome the norm, a lot of peoplechoose to look for vendors who un-derstand their particular niche in life.Choosing which of these to focus onbrings us back to the question, do youwant to market to just survive, or doyou want to really grow?
Whatever you decide to empha-size in your marketing, to make it a
growth proposition calls for an allout effort. For example, a shop lo-cated in an area where campers andlarge SUVs are commonplace mightchoose to emphasize oversize framemachines and larger spray boothsable to accommodate them. To makethis a growth move, the shop wouldhave to display these capabilitiesmore prominently with colorful pho-tos and stories of exceptional jobs onthe website and literature. But theywould have to go beyond this to goout and be involved in trade shows,vehicle shows, club presentationsand more. Choosing an emphasisthat encompasses a lot of peopleopens up an entire horizon of oppor-tunities to get out and connect withprospective customers. Not everyshop owner is comfortable with thiskind of glad-handing, but if the realgrowth is out there to be gotten, it’sworth while hiring someone with theskill to go out and get it.
40 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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During the recent Automechanika2014 show in Germany, Car-O-Linerreceived the Automechanika Innova-tion Award for their new measuringsoftware, Vision2.
During the five-day show new,innovative products designed tospeed up the collision repair processand increase workshop profits werepresented.
“We are very proud to receivethis prestigious award honoring ourleadership in state-of-the-art meas-uring software for the vehicle colli-sion repair market,” said JonasGunnarsson, VP and Business Unit
Manager. “I would like to thank ouremployees for their dedication to thepursuit of quality and excellence atCar-O-Liner.”
New products demonstrated werethe PointX Diagnostic Measuring Tool,CTR7, the new semi-automatic mid-range spot welder and improvementsand accessories for their Speed align-ment system. Other products shownwere the Car-O-Tronic measuring sys-tem driven by Vision2 software, Car-O-Liner SMART Repair, AluminumRepair Solutions, EcDesign WorkshopPlanning, Workshop Solutions andTraining.
Car-O-Liner Receives Award for New Software, Vision 2
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 41
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Though Halloween is just around thecorner, witches, ghosts and vampiresaren’t the scariest things on the mindsof collision repair professionals acrossthe nation this October; what these ex-perts find terrifying is the amount ofundue influence the insurance indus-try, a third-party entity, exerts on theirrepair practices and their businesses asa whole. Given the number of lawsuitsthat have been filed against insurers in2014 alone, this isn’t anything new,but the collaboration of a group of in-dustry professionals in order to com-bat this issue has led to the creation ofSafeCars, an organization dedicated tothe premise that “every vehicle ownerdeserves a safe and complete repair.”
As such, SafeCars has organizeda series of meetings across the countryto engage other collision repair profes-sionals in the discussion to determinethe best way to combat insurer inter-ference in their industry. Ron Perretta,owner of Professionals Auto Body inAltoona, PA, and one of SafeCars’ or-ganizers, took time to explain theirgoals and what they have next on theagenda. “The purpose of these meet-ings is to discuss the issue of insurer in-terference in general, but it is alsoabout bringing shops together to an-swer any questions they have on thecurrent litigation.”
SafeCars hopes to explain the dif-ferences between several national law-suits that are currently pending. Thefirst is a class action lawsuit. The sec-ond, the complaint Attorney JohnEaves Jr filed against multiple insurerson behalf of 21 shops in January 2014,is the pending MDL litigation whichPerretta hopes shops will be inspired toparticipate in. Perretta and other mem-bers of SafeCars believe that the colli-sion repair industry has been badlysuppressed over the years. Some of theissues they hope to address are staticlabor rates, the improper use of proce-dure pages in estimating systems, theprevalence of insurer steering, and theoverall influence of the insurance in-dustry in collision repair businessesacross the country.
On September 20, SafeCars hosteda meeting at the Holiday Inn in FortWashington, PA, and Perretta says, “themeeting went extremely well. At this
point, PA has more people involvedwith this litigation than any other state.”
SafeCArs also held a meeting inSan Diego, CA on October 11, andthey have scheduled a meeting for Oc-tober 18 at the DoubleTree Hotel inLinthicum Heights, MD to run fromnoon until 4PM. Speakers for the MDmeeting include Perretta, AttorneyJohn Eaves Jr and Tony Passwater ofthe Indiana Auto Body Association.These are only a few of the meetingsthat SafeCars intends to hold aroundthe U.S. as they travel “up the EastCoast and down the West Coast to in-form industry professionals of theseissues and collaborate to find a solu-tion,” Perretta states, adding “these ef-forts are way past due.”
These free meetings are open tocollision repairers and OEM industryvendors. Pre-registration is required,and attendees must provide a businesscard and photo ID to verify their iden-tify as SafeCars has prohibited insur-ers from attending these meetings inorder to encourage honest dialogueamongst collision repairers and to pre-vent retaliation against attendees.
Explaining why this level of se-curity is necessary, Perretta shares, “Ireceived a phone call from a womanwho runs a shop and wants to attendour MD meeting, but she asked if anyinsurance people will be there becauseshe’s worried they’ll find out she wasthere getting information. It’s sadwhen collision repair professionals areso scared that you can’t go where youwant to go, be with the people youwant to be with, and talk about thethings you want to talk about… Thelast time people acted like this was be-fore Lincoln freed the slaves. This isAmerica, not the Mafia, yet it’s almostlike the insurance industry is theMafia offering their protection toshops but only if we do what they say.We all rely on insurers for business,but if we continue to be scared, ourbusinesses will just get worse. It’sridiculous for our industry to be at thispoint, but it’s exactly where the insur-ers want us.”
Ironically enough, Perretta sug-gests it was “actually a good thingwhen State Farm tried to jam Part-sTrader down people’s throats. It was
the straw that nearly broke the camel’sback, and it got a lot of shops up inarms, so State Farm kind of did us afavor by introducing PartsTrader.”
SafeCars has also released avideo on YouTube, featuring Perretta,to address the “pressing industry is-sues dramatically affecting you, yourtechnicians, your business, and thesafety of your customers.” He ex-plains how both the class action andMDL lawsuits will have a positive ef-fect on the industry and how businessis done in the near future. Claimingthat collision repair professionalsacross the country are faced with thesame issues, Perretta lists these con-cerns as follows: suppression of laborrates, steering, manipulation of data-bases, not using procedure pages asdesigned, refusals to pay for requiredprocedures, refusals to follow manu-facturer guidelines, pressure from in-surers to cut corners and use inferiorparts that could jeopardize consumers’
safety, intervention into collision re-pair businesses, interference withagreements shops have with their cus-tomers and their vendors, and insur-ers’ efforts to use intimidation to forceshops to comply with their demandslest they be blackballed and targeted.
In the imminent future, SafeCarsplans to host webinars and teleconfer-ences to explain the benefits to a wideraudience of collision repairers, but inthe meantime, Perretta encouragesanyone who is interested to contacthim so he can explain how you canhelp in more detail. In closing, Per-retta pleads, “Please don’t sit on thesidelines and do nothing! Help us takeback our industry so we’re able to fixvehicles properly and safely for ourcustomers.”
Perretta can be reached on his cellphone at 814-931-7669 or via email [email protected]. For more infor-mation on SafeCars, visit:www.safecars.us.
42 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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SafeCars Hosts Meetings Around the Country to Discuss Insurer Interference and National Lawsuits
with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations
Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family ofNASCAR fans. She can be contacted at [email protected].
select which shop will do the work,”he said.
Parker Auto Body was part ofState Farm’s Select ServiceDRP until earlier this year.Since the business owner leftthe program in April, he saidthey have steered a substan-tial amount of business awayfrom him. “Just in short paysalone I have over $150,000worth of claims they won’tpay,” he said. “Operationsthat we actually do the vehi-cles to make the vehicles safethat they won’t pay us to do.
“These shops need to stand up forwhat’s right and quit letting the insur-ance industry run their business forthem,” said Parker. “They are just ter-rified that the insurance companies aregoing to steer the work away.”
Parker acknowledges their con-cerns but said, “We’re just as busy nowas we were because we’re educatingconsumers.” He has found it beneficialto explain to consumers what the in-surance companies are doing. “They
need to take their businesses back andthey need to run their own businesses.”
When Autobody News went topress this month, an additional 25states were in the process of filing law-suits to meet an Oct. 31 deadline be-fore returning to court in November.
“What we want to achieve is numberone, that the safety and the quality ofrepairs for the American public is re-stored,” said Eaves. “The industry willnever be the same after this.”
When contacted by AutobodyNews, Allstate Insurance Companyand Progressive both said that due tocompany policy, they do not commenton pending litigation.
Stay tuned to Autobody News formore developments.
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 43
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(l to r) Tony Passwater, Executive Director of the Indiana Au-tobody Association; John Arthur Eaves, the lead attorney forthe case; and Karen and Joe Enneking from Enneking BodyShop in Indiana, during their trip to Washington D.C.
Continued from Page 38
Congress Support“Any kingdom divided against itselfis laid waste; and any city or housedivided against itself will not stand.”In this Biblical truth lies the powerbehind Ray Gunder’s passionatedrive—to unite the collision repairshops of America, according to Na-tional AutoBody Research.
In the past, the collision industryhas been fragmented and divided,making it vulnerable to the suppres-sion of labor rates. The NationwideGunder Surveys will serve to uniteshops as one national body to revealthe toll that the stagnation and sup-pression of labor and material rateshas taken on auto body shops acrossAmerica.
The surveys coupled with Na-tional AutoBody Research’s (NABR)Variable Rate System provide colli-sion repairers an opportunity to re-verse the past trends of seriouslydeficient levels of labor and materialrates. As a result, NABR has con-tracted with FL body shop ownerGunder to conduct a series of nation-wide real-time labor and material ratesurveys beginning Oct. 2014. The sur-veys will originate in the states ofFlorida and Georgia and shortly there-after extend to every state in America.
Nationwide Ray Gunder LaborRate Surveys Announced
The Valspar Automotive and Houseof Kolor teams are geared up forSEMA.The displays will includecelebrities, demonstrations and thelatest in automotive coating tech-nology.
Celebrities will be featured inthe House of Kolor/Valspar Auto-motive booth #23513 in CentralHall. Appearances include RichardRawlings, Aaron Kaufman andKC Mathieu from Gas MonkeyGarage, Gear Boxxx from SkinWars, Craig Fraser from Air Syn-dicate/Kal Koncepts, Mike Lavalleefrom Killer Paint and demonstra-tions from other popular custompainters.
Also featured will be theHouse of Kolor wall that featuresthe colors and effects of the newShimrin2 series. There will be ex-perts on hand to demonstrate themixing and versatility of this prod-uct line.
Valspar Automotive will havea satellite booth in the PBES sec-tion, North Hall #11066. This boothwill highlight the capabilities of thenew DeBeer Air Dry Clear Coatalong with the refinish systems ofDeBeer and Valspar Refinish.
SEMA Line-up for Valspar Automotive & House of Kolor
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Pull-A-Part, the award-winning fam-ily business serving the do-it-yourself,used auto parts market, earned four2014 environmental awards from theTennessee Chamber of Commerce &Industry. Based in Atlanta, Georgia,Pull-A-Part provides affordable usedauto parts to do-it-yourself consumers,while also providing high quality scrapmetal, fluids and plastics for recycling.
Pull-A-Part received the followingawards on Oct. 2: the 2014 Award forWater Quality; the 2014 Award for AirQuality; a Certificate of Recognition inSolid and Hazardous Waste Manage-ment; and a Certificate of Recognitionfor Environmental Excellence. Theseawards recognize businesses that havedemonstrated outstanding achievementtoward environmental protection andenhancement as well as proactive andinnovative energy projects.
Pull-A-Part was acknowledged forpreventing water and air pollution, re-ducing waste sent to landfills, conserv-ing resources, and overall environmentalexcellence at its locations in Knoxville,Memphis and Nashville. The companyearned its first Tennessee environmentalaward from the Tennessee Chamber ofCommerce & Industry in 2006.
By developing a unique operatingsystem based on customer service and
environmental responsibility, Pull-A-Part has transformed what was oncethought of as the junkyard into a sus-tainable recycling business. Since itsfounding in 1997, the company hasmade an exceptional commitment to re-source conservation, waste reductionand pollution prevention, earning ac-claim for outstanding corporate and en-vironmental citizenship from a numberof federal, state and local organizations.
“The management of end-of-lifevehicles in Tennessee directly affects airquality, water purity and the volume ofwaste in state landfills, and Pull-A-Part,at its three Tennessee locations, preventswater pollution, reduces waste sent tolandfills and conserves resources,” saidAmy G. Martin, Associate Vice Presi-dent, Environment & Energy TennesseeChamber of Commerce & Industry Ten-nessee Manufacturers Association. “Pull-A-Part sets the standard for handling andrecycling end-of-life vehicles because ofits intentional commitment to resourceconservation, waste reduction and pollu-tion prevention.”
Automobiles are the leading recy-cled product in the United States, andPull-A-Part developed an innovativereclamation and recycling process thatreduces the amount of waste from eachend-of-life car by 21 percent when
compared to typical shredded vehicles.In addition, since the beginning of
its operations in Tennessee, the companyhas recovered more than 40,000 mercuryswitches from old cars in Tennessee anddelivered them for recycling. This figurerepresents 54 percent of all mercuryswitches recovered in the state. Eachswitch, if not recycled, has the potential tocontaminate 132,000 gallons of waterabove the U.S. EPA drinking water stan-dard. Pull-A-Part’s mercury switch re-covery in Tennessee, alone, has preventedthe potential contamination of more than5.5 billion gallons of the state’s water -equivalent to a 170 acre lake, 100 feetdeep. As part of its process, Pull-A-Partalso saved approximately 200,000 tons ofCO2 equivalent in Tennessee.
“Pull-A-Part traces its roots to abusiness begun 106 years ago, when ourfamily member, Morris Cohen, beganbuying used appliances and scrap,cleaning them up and selling them ortheir components for a modest profit.Even then, our business was based onthe value of reclamation,” said saidRoss Kogon, President and CEO of thecompany. “Pull-A-Part is proving thatin the 21st century, environmental stew-ardship, customer service and financialsustainability are equal components of asuccessful business.”
Pull-A-Part Recognized for Multiple Environmental Achievements in TN
Brevard County, FL residents will beseeing new and improved car dealer-ships popping up around every cornerwithin the next few weeks to months.
Locals no longer have to traveloutside their county to find a Sub-aru dealership because of the newSubaru of Melbourne in West Mel-bourne that opened Oct. 18.
Kelly Ford, Rosner AutomotiveGroup and the Boniface Hiers Auto-motive Group in South Brevard areall making upgrades and additions.These grand openings and renova-tions at the end of the year are just intime for 2015 arrivals and 2014 sales.
On October 1, Indian Motorcy-cle of Melbourne opened in a formershowroom on the Rosner Chevroletproperty. New and old Indian motor-cycle models as well as pre-ownedcycles from other manufacturers willbe sold. The grand opening is plannedfor November.
In North Brevard, the Pat Fis-cher Nissan dealership in Titusvillejust started a long-term renovationproject that will involve an overhaulof both its used-car facility and itsnew-car facility, according to re-ports by Wayne T. Price and llanaKowarski, floridatoday.com.
Brevard, FL DealershipsRenovate and Expand Caliber Collision Centers announced
their expansion in Florida with theacquisition of AutoPride CollisionRepair Centers on Sept. 19.
AutoPride Collision has been anindustry leader for more than 15 yearsin FL and has six locations in South-western FL. Steve Grimshaw, CaliberCollision CEO announced, “Auto-Pride has consistently delivered un-paralleled customer satisfaction andindustry-leading operational consis-tency in Florida for many years. Weare very excited to add these newmembers to the Caliber family.”
“Our teammates have deliveredhigh quality service while givingback to the people and communitiesthey’ve served. We are pleased thatCaliber Collision will offer our asso-ciates a bright future, with continuedinvolvement in our local communi-ties,” said Joseph M. Formica, Jr.,President of AutoPride Collision.
Wth the addition of the six centers,Caliber will now operate 10 locations inFL. “Our acquisition of AutoPride Col-lision increases Caliber’s network to197 locations as we continue to growinto the collision repair provider ofchoice throughout the nine states that weserve,” said Mark Sanders, CaliberCollision Centers’ President and COO.
Caliber Acquires AutoPride
According to a new study from per-sonal finance website WalletHub.com,Florida ranks as the most energy effi-cient state when it comes to cars.
The study, conducted in light ofNational Energy Awareness Month,compiled data from the U.S. CensusBureau, the National Climatic DataCenter, the Energy Information Ad-ministration and the Federal HighwayAdministration to determine the “car-related energy efficiency for each of48 states,” according to reports byMatt Mauney, orlandosentinel.com.
Alaska, Hawaii, and the Districtof Columbia were excluded due to alimited amount of data. According toMauney, the rankings were deter-mined by comparing the annual vehi-cle miles driven in each state with theamount of gasoline (in gallons) con-sumed.
Southeastern states lead the U.S.in this category, with Florida in thenumber one spot, followed by NorthCarolina and Alabama. However, inother energy efficiency departments,Florida doesn’t do so hot. The Sun-shine State is ranked 17th for overallenergy efficiency, 37th for home en-ergy efficiency, and 27 out of 48 forleast energy expensive states.
SE Tops List of States WithMost Energy Efficient Cars
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 45
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Quest Donates $280,000 in Paint & Abrasives to CREFQuest Automotive Products (QAP) do-nated $280,000 in paint and abrasivesto high school and post-secondary col-lision school programs across thecountry through the Collision RepairEducation Foundation.
The products donated by QAPwill allow students the opportunity topractice their collision repair and re-finishing skills. QAP is committed tobringing awareness of the shortage oftechnicians within the collision in-dustry and acknowledge that manycollision school programs have budg-ets that are shrinking each year.
“QAP strongly believes in sup-porting the future professionals withinour industry and ensuring they obtainthe education that they deserve inorder to be successful in the automo-tive profession,” said David Brunori,President of Quest Automotive Prod-ucts.
“QAP has recently been in-volved with supporting the Colli-sion Repair Education Foundationthrough donating product and rais-ing money with its first Artists 4Education auction, held in the Ma-trix Automotive Finishes booth dur-ing SEMA last year, which raised$25,000 for the Education Founda-tion. We are proud to be working to-
gether with them again in 2014 withthe second annual auction at SEMAthis year (booth 10669).”
Collision Repair EducationFoundation Director of Develop-ment Brandon Eckenrode noted,“This product donation from QAPwill have a significant impact on thecollision school programs by pro-viding instructors with the neededmaterial in order to provide a qual-ity technical education for students.We look forward to working to-gether with QAP to raise additionalfunds through the second annualArtists 4 Education auction at SEMAthis year. I would also invite colli-sion industry businesses to followQAP’s lead in providing both prod-uct and monetary donations to theEducation Foundation so that we canwork towards ensuring that the grad-uating collision students are readyfor entry-level employment withinthe industry.”
Industry members interested inhelping high school and/or collegecollision school programs through theCollision Repair Education Founda-tion should contact Brandon Ecken-rode at:[email protected] or 847-463-5244.
The focus – improving the customerexperience.
Other takeaways focused on how thecustomer experience is impacted by:● Digital empowerment● Salvage trends● New valuation and identificationsolutions● Proposed regulations● Data and analytics
That was the main takeawayfrom insurance executives at Auda-Explore’s annual Total Loss Summiton September 24 in Boston, MA. Thatfocus is now enhanced by rapidly de-veloping technology, a prime topic ofdiscussion at the conference pre-sented by the US business unit of Sol-era Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SLH), aleading data-driven solution providerto insurance carriers, repairers, deal-erships, fleet owners and suppliers.
For example, AudaExplore un-veiled its Driver Experience Platformsolution focused on changing the wayconsumers are digitally empoweredthroughout the total loss process. Thenew total loss offering makes it eas-ier for insurance carriers to share crit-ical claim updates and details onvehicle inspections and market valua-tions.
“Technology is bringing tremen-dous change to the total loss space.Trends like big data, connected cars anddigitally-empowered consumers repre-sent both a threat and an opportunity forinsurers,” said Tanya Elkins, VicePresident of Valuation & IdentificationSolutions at AudaExplore. “Attendeesagreed that data and technology toolsare key to driving loyalty by providingtransparent, actionable and timely com-munications. With more than 25% oftotal loss claims ending in the loss of thecustomer to another carrier, these dif-ferentiators ultimately earn the cus-tomer’s business in real time.”
Other topics discussed includedsalvage trends, new valuation and iden-tification solutions, proposed regula-tions, data and analytics, and howtogether they are all impacting the cus-tomer experience. From there, attendeesdiscussed how insurance companies canmaintain customer loyalty in this newenvironment. Sessions included SalvageTrends, Technology and Economics,Ways to Disrupt with Customer Experi-ence, and Current State of Total Loss.
AudaExplore also unveiled “TheState of the Total Loss Customer Ex-perience” study, which found that cus-tomers are searching for simple andconvenient ways to understand and
manage the total loss claims process.Demonstrating the importance of
communication and transparency, thesurvey reported that two elements ofthe insurance claims process that con-sumers were not satisfied with includeprocesses taking too long and deci-sions that were not properly explained.In fact, there was a strong correlationbetween the satisfaction with the ex-planation of the valuation and claimsprocess and overall satisfaction andthe frequency of switching carriers.Forty-one percent of the people whoswitched carriers after reporting a badtotal loss experience said they werenot given an explanation of how thenumber was calculated.
“While technology may change,one thing remains the same: the impor-tance of the customer experience,” ex-plained Adam Vasquez, Senior VicePresident, Marketing, AudaExplore.“Customers who had access to opencommunication and a transparent valu-ation system reported being more sat-isfied throughout the total loss process.In order to thrive in this changing land-scape, carriers must continually im-prove their processes by investing innew technologies that leverage mobileand big data to meet the evolving needsof their customers.”
AudaExplore’s Annual Total Loss Summit Held in Boston, MABar’s Leakswill debut its One Seal™Stop Leak at AAPEX providing at-tendees with an opportunity to checkout the first additive specifically de-signed to stop engine, transmissionand power steering fluid leaks. OneSeal Stop Leak will be shown along-side the full line of Bar’s Leaks andRislone® chemical tools in the Bar’sProducts booth (#3616) at the event,held Nov. 4-6 at the Sands Expo Cen-ter in Las Vegas.
“We’ve been busy this summerdeveloping One Seal Stop Leak andare excited to introduce it at AAPEX,”says Clay Parks, Vice President ofDevelopment for Bar’s Leaks. “OneSeal Stop Leak offers maximum con-venience, since one bottle can fix threedifferent problems. At AAPEX, atten-dees can learn how it and other Bar’sLeaks and Rislone products can helptheir customers in the coming year.”
One Seal Stop Leak’s formula iscompatible with all engine, transmis-sion and power steering fluids, andworks in gasoline, diesel and turboengines. Bar’s Leaks will provide arefund by mail for any customer notsatisfied.
All Bar’s Leaks and Risloneproducts are made in the U.S.A.
Bar’s Leaks Debuts All-in-One Stop Leak at AAPEX
to participate in the Great Chicago FireHydrants Project, a public art exhibitionthat celebrates the heroism of Chicago’sfirefighters. This citywide public art in-stallation features oversized replicas ofChicago’s iconic standard fire hydrants,designed, painted, decorated and/ordressed by local artists, architects, andeven fashion and interior designers.These colorful sculptures are placedthroughout the city in tribute to thework and heroism of Chicago’s belovedfirefighters. At the conclusion of eachyear’s exhibition, the hydrants are gath-ered for a final exhibition before being
auctioned, with net proceeds benefitingcharities that support the families of firevictims and other fire safety programs
in the Windy City.As part of his company’s ongoing
philanthropy, Gottfred decided to par-ticipate in the project. “We purchaseda five-foot fire hydrant made out offiberglass for the project to decorate,”Gottfred explained. “We painted thewords ‘Texting & Driving, It Can Wait’on the fire hydrant and then decided totake the whole thing one step further.We had purchased a little Smart Car awhile back and we have our logo on theside of it. We use it to shuttle customersaround or pick up parts and we love it.We thought maybe we can use theSmart Car and the hydrant together toget our anti-texting message out there.We disassembled the front end of theSmart Car and parked it out front of our
shop and made it appear asthough the Smart Car had justbashed into the fire hydrant.We get 40,000 people drivingby our shop every day and sopretty quickly everyone wastalking about it.”
Then last October, Gottfreddecided to use Halloween asan opportunity to take his anti-
texting message to another level, hesaid. “We put a dummy in the frontseat of the Smart Car and deployed an
old airbag we had sitting around andstrapped it to the steering wheel. Later,I went out there and the local policeand fire department were out in frontof the shop. Someone had reported a
car accident with serious injuries, andafter we explained what was going on,we all laughed about it and they took afew photos. We left it there until theend of November and then the hydrantgot auctioned off, raising $500 for the51 Club. We bought it originally for
$1,500 and that money went to Club51 too, so we donated $2,000 total,which was nice.”
Once Gottfred got involved in hisanti-texting campaign, he stopped tex-ting altogether. “When people use theircell phones while driving, the bottomline is that they’re distracted,” he said.“I was doing it too, because you get atext message and your first reaction isto respond to it. But in the end it can re-ally wait. We get damaged cars in hereall the time and the customers willnever admit that they were texting whenit occurred, but I know many of theseaccidents are the result of texting.”
Gottfred teaches CE (ContinuingEducation) classes to insurance agentsand now he has created a class deal-ing with the topic of texting. “We dis-cuss how to insure teenage drivers andwhat can happen when they text,” hesaid. “I show some gruesome videosto get their attention and to raise theirconsciousness about texting.”
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 47
See these Hyundai dealers below for all your collision parts needs!See these Hyundai dealers below for all your collision parts needs!
Bob Gottfred (center) has been running Erie-LaSalle Body Shop since 1975 and soon hissons Jim (left) and Jay (right) will be takingover the reins
Erie-LaSalle Body Shop was founded in 1934 and over theyears its iconic neon sign has become a Chicago landmark
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At the SXSW Eco conference inAustin, TX, SolarCity® and Honda re-newed their partnership with a newfund expected to finance $50 millionin solar projects. The new commitmentwill make solar power more affordableand available to Honda and Acura cus-tomers and dealerships in the U.S. Thecompanies have completed or initiateda range of solar projects for homeown-ers, dealerships and corporate facilitiesthat total more than 12.5 MW of solargeneration capacity. The two compa-nies have already brought enough solarcapacity online to offset more than 400million pounds of CO2 over a 30-yearlifecycle. The $50 million fund is a fol-low-up to a $65 million fund the com-panies created in 2013.
The partnership, which is aimedat addressing air pollution and globalclimate change by reducing CO2 emis-sions and particulate emissions fromhome, business and transportation en-ergy use, covers the cost of solar equip-ment and installation and makes itpossible for many homeowners to payless for solar electricity than they payfor electricity from utilities, with in-surance, repairs and monitoring serv-ice included.
Envisioning a future in which per-sonal mobility products will be pow-
ered in large part by renewable energy,the two companies have begun imple-menting co-marketing programs thatspecifically encourage owners of eithersolar powered homes or plug-in elec-tric vehicles to adopt the complemen-tary product. The companies have alsocollaborated on advanced projects thatdemonstrate the full potential of dis-tributed renewables combined withplug-in electric vehicles, includingHonda Smart Home US. SolarCity(SCTY) installed the high-efficiencyand cost-effective solar system used inthis project.
SolarCity has developed a propri-etary system that has greatly simpli-fied the process by which homeownerscan go solar. From an initial phone callor Web consultation, SolarCity canquickly assess whether a homeowneris a good candidate for solar, and candesign a custom solar system to meet acustomer’s specific energy needs.Honda and Acura customers and deal-ers interested in solar can find more in-formation at:www.hondasolarcity.com.
“The first phase of this partnershiphas proven that Honda drivers have ahigh affinity for solar power, whileowners of solar-powered homes have ahigh affinity for Honda products,” said
Steven Center, Vice President of theEnvironmental Business DevelopmentOffice of American Honda Motor Co.,Inc. “As we look toward a future inwhich renewable energy will be an in-creasingly pervasive fuel source forpersonal mobility products, we are ex-cited about capitalizing on the techno-logical, environmental and marketopportunities available through part-nerships of this nature.”
“Our partnership with Honda iscreating local jobs and helping to ad-dress air pollution, water pollution andclimate change,” said SolarCity CEOLyndon Rive. “Honda’s commitmentis making a difference for the econ-omy and the environment.”
Based on its vision of “BlueSkies for our Children,” Honda isworking to advance technologies thataddress society’s environmental andenergy concerns through a diverselineup of products and technologies,including more fuel-efficient gasolineengines, natural gas, hybrids, plug-inhybrids, battery electric vehicles(BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles(FCEVs).
Honda is targeting a 30-percentreduction in CO2 emissions from itsU.S. automobile product lineup by2020, compared to 2000 levels. In pur-
suit of its vision for a zero-carbon fu-ture, the company is advancing elec-tromotive technologies in many forms,and will introduce an advanced newfuel cell electric car in 2015.
In keeping with its commitmentto produce vehicles with the lowestCO2 emissions at plants with thesmallest environmental footprint, thecompany is broadly addressing emis-sions, energy, water use and waste inall phases of its products life cycles.In the manufacturing realm, this in-cludes a 95 percent reduction in wastesent to landfills in North America.Honda is working to extend its “greenfactory” and “green purchasing” ini-tiatives to its more than 650 parts sup-pliers in North America and is alsopursuing more environmentally re-sponsible business practices among itsU.S. dealers through the company’s“Green Dealer” program.
Honda is also demonstrating itsvision for zero-carbon mobility andliving with the creation of the HondaSmart Home US, in Davis, California,which was opened in early 2014 andis capable of producing more energyon-site from renewable sources than itconsumes annually, including enoughenergy to power a Honda Fit EV fordaily commuting.
Honda and SolarCity Partnership Will Create $50 Million Fund for Solar Projects
Aleris announced on Sept. 24 that itwill invest $350 million to upgradecapabilities at its aluminum rollingmill in Lewisport, Kentucky. The in-vestment positions Aleris to meet an-ticipated significant growth in NorthAmerican automotive demand as theindustry pursues broader aluminumuse for the production of lighter, morefuel-efficient vehicles.
Aleris is currently a leading sup-plier to the European premium autoindustry, which has led the transitionto aluminum driven by tighter emis-sions standards.
“We have partnered with cus-tomers in the premium automotivesegment from our Duffel, Belgium fa-cility for years to develop and producesome of the most technically advancedlightweight aluminum solutions avail-able today,” Steve Demetriou, AlerisChairman and CEO said. “We are ex-cited to bring these capabilities to ourLewisport, KY facility to serve auto-motive customers in North America asthey shift toward significantly greateraluminum use.”
The company expects to beginconstruction on the project this fall,with a goal of shipping automotivebody sheet material to customers byearly 2017. When fully operational,
the new facility will allow for the pro-duction of 480 million pounds of alu-minum auto body sheet annually.
The company’s investment willinclude the addition of heat treatmentand finishing capabilities, including anew wide cold mill, two continuousannealing lines and an automotive in-novation center.
“The key to our success in Europehas been our strong partnership withcustomers on research and develop-ment,” Demetriou said. “We will takea similar approach with our customersin North America, ensuring they havethe aluminum innovation that meetstheir specific needs.”
A recent study of North Ameri-can light vehicle aluminum contentreleased by Ducker Worldwide, statedthat the use of aluminum sheet for ve-hicle bodies is expected to increase to4 billion pounds by 2025, from 200million pounds in 2012.
The properties of aluminum,which include its formability, recy-clability, and high strength-to-weightratio, make it an excellent solution forautomotive manufacturers as theywork to produce lighter vehicles thatwill meet more stringent fuel emis-sions in the United States.
Aleris has served the automotive
industry from its facility in Duffel formany years. Including Lewisport, thecompany has 11 rolled aluminum prod-ucts facilities in North America, themajority of which serve building andconstruction, truck-trailer, and metaldistribution customers. Upon comple-tion of the facility’s upgrade, Lewisportwill be the company’s first site in NorthAmerica that is equipped with alu-minum auto body sheet finishing capa-bilities.
Aleris is a privately held, globalleader in aluminum rolled productsand extrusions, aluminum recyclingand specification alloy production.The company serves a number of di-verse industries including aerospace,automotive, defense, building andconstruction, industrial, and commer-cial transportation. Headquartered inCleveland, Ohio, Aleris operates morethan 40 production facilities in NorthAmerica, Europe and Asia. For moreinformation, visit www.aleris.com.
Aleris to Add Aluminum Automotive Body Sheet Capabilities in North America
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The U.S. Department of Labor’s Oc-cupational Safety and Health Admin-istration announced it is launching anational dialogue with stakeholderson ways to prevent work-related ill-ness caused by exposure to hazardoussubstances. The first stage of this di-alogue is a request for information onthe management of hazardous chem-ical exposures in the workplace andstrategies for updating permissibleexposure limits.
OSHA’s PELs, which are regu-latory limits on the amount or con-centration of a substance in the air,are intended to protect workersagainst the adverse health effects ofexposure to hazardous substances.Ninety-five percent of OSHA’s cur-rent PELs, which cover fewer than500 chemicals, have not been up-dated since their adoption in 1971.The agency’s current PELs coveronly a small fraction of the tens ofthousands of chemicals used in com-merce, many of which are suspectedof being harmful. Substantial re-sources are required to issue new ex-posure limits or update existingworkplace exposure limits, as courtshave required complex analyses foreach proposed PEL.
Initiative to Prevent Exposureto Hazardous Chemicals
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 49
Collison repair industry editors gath-ered for an exclusive media briefinghosted by AkzoNobel Automotive &Aerospace Coatings (A&AC) NorthAmerica. The event was held in con-junction with the company’s 2014summer Acoat Selected® North Amer-ican Performance Group meeting, Sep-tember 17-19, at the Ritz-Carlton HotelPentagon City.
The primary theme of the briefingcentered on the need for the collisionrepair industry to no longer view sus-tainability as an option, but as a criticalimperative to “future proofing” the in-dustry’s long-term growth. Several keyinsights were presented for how the in-dustry can achieve sustainabilitythrough a “triple bottom line” approachthat results in greater efficiency, lowernegative environmental impact, andcooperative social engagement in thework place.
Guest speakers at the briefing in-cluded:· Dr. Manish Mehta, Director ofStrategic Projects & Sustainability atThe National Center for Manufactur-ing Science, who offered a 360° viewof what he calls “co-opetition.” Dr.Mehta provided meaningful recom-mendations for how the collision re-pair industry can leverage what other
industries are doing to achieve sus-tainability.· Mr. Rocco Neglia, Vice Presi-dent of Claims at Economical Insur-ance Group, shared his company’sjourney to building sustainability intotheir corporate strategy, and how theimplementation of effective, func-tion-specific processes into the workenvironment has improved the per-formance, professionalism and “teamvision” of their body shop network inCanada.
A featured highlight of the brief-ing was the debut of AkzoNobel’snew online sustainability assessmenttool specifically developed for help-ing body shop owners determine theirlevel of sustainability, benchmarkcurrent performance against othercollision repairers, and provide a pathfor boosting their competiveness inthe marketplace. A&AC’s Commer-cial Services Leader, Barry Rine-hart, demonstrated various featuresof the assessment tool and creativeways for how industry stakeholderscan utilize this innovative resource.
“The online sustainability as-sessment tool is the result of a uniquecollaborative effort with EconomicalInsurance Group of Canada, and is agreat example of how powerful col-
lective thinking and actions can be inbringing tangible solutions to colli-sion repair,” said Rinehart. “We arevery excited at the initial test feed-back we’ve received about the onlineassessment tool and look forward toseeing how it can be leveraged acrossthe industry in the U.S.”
The briefing concluded with arallying call by event facilitator, Ak-zoNobel North America Communica-tions Manager, Bill Orr, for collisionrepair professionals to pro-activelyjoin forces in advancing sustainableprinciples and practices that both en-sure a thriving industry long-term,and provide real-time solutions to theindustry’s most critical issues today.
In closing comments, Orr stated,“We were extremely pleased with thedepth of content presented by ourguest speakers and the enthusiasticparticipation of industry media. Afterleading the sustainability ‘charge’ formore than a decade through numer-ous sustainability-focused programs,AkzoNobel is clear on the fact that itwill take a coalition of commited in-dustry leaders to secure the future ofcollision repair.”
AkzoNobel Hosts Sustainability Media Briefing in Washington D.C. Ferrari Recall of 458 Italiaand Spider ModelsFerrari is recalling 3,000 458 Italiaand Spider models for trunk safetyissues. The new models' trunks willbe able to be opened from the in-side to decrease the possibility ofinjury. The previous cars lackedthis feature, and were found in vio-lation of federal safety mandates.Ferrari owners will be notified bythe company and will need to re-turn their car to the local dealer formodifications.
Chrysler Recall of SUVsChrysler Group is recalling an esti-mated 184,215 SUVs because a pos-sible short circuit in a part coulddisable airbags and seat belt preten-sioners. The same part was responsi-ble for a Sept. recall of more than850,000 Ford vehicles. Chrysler saidan electrical short circuit may occurin the occupant restraint control mod-ule in certain 2014 Dodge Durangoand Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs. Theautomaker said it is unaware of in-juries or accidents related to the issue.The recall covers 126,772 vehicles inthe U.S., 8,106 in Canada, 3,722 inMexico and 45,615 elsewhere.
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Lamborghini and IMSA Extend PartnershipAutomobili Lamborghini and the In-ternational Motor Sports Association(IMSA) have extended their partner-ship for the next four years, with theLamborghini Blancpain Super Tro-feo North America championshipbeing contested under IMSA sanc-tion through the 2018 season.
As part of the extended partner-ship, the 2015 Lamborghini BlancpainSuper Trofeo North America eventcalendar was unveiled. The schedulefeatures 10 rounds at five venues atsome of the most iconic, exciting cir-cuits in the United States. Races willtake place in conjunction with IMSA’stop sports car series, the most presti-gious in the U.S.
Lamborghini Blancpain SuperTrofeo North America competitors alsowill race in the World Final, which fea-tures top drivers and teams from thethree global Blancpain Super TrofeoSeries –Europe, Asia and North Amer-ica. The location of the 2015 WorldFinal will be announced in November.
Each Lamborghini BlancpainSuper Trofeo North America eventwill feature two rounds. The seasonwill open May 1–3 at Mazda Race-way Laguna Seca in Monterey, Cali-fornia. The next round will take placeJune 26–28 at Watkins Glen Interna-
tional in Watkins Glen, New York,followed by Aug. 21–23 at VirginiaInternational Raceway in Danville,Virginia.
The season will continue Sept.17–19 with the series’ first visit toCircuit of the Americas in Austin,Texas, with the next event Oct. 1–3during Petit Le Mans week at RoadAtlanta in Braselton, Georgia.
The Lamborghini BlancpainSuper Trofeo North America cham-pionship debuted in 2013, with driv-ers competing in the LamborghiniGallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeo car,powered by a 570-horsepower V10engine and featuring permanent four-wheel drive.
The series ran in conjunction withIMSA events starting with its secondseason in 2014 and enjoyed tremen-dous growth, with grid sizes increasing50 percent through the season.
Lamborghini also plans to ex-pand its racing program in NorthAmerica by participating in GT Day-tona (GTD) class sports car compe-tition with the Huracán GT3 startingin 2016.
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www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 51
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Inspirational teachers can be hard tocome by, but their impact lasts a lifetime.
Dan Snook, Department Coordi-nator of Collision Repair Tech at Cy-press College in CA, fulfilled that rolein the lives of former students Cuu-long and Jim Le.
“After graduation, our teacher/stu-dent relationship with Dan turned into afriendship, and eventually we becamelike family,” said Cuulong.
The three met on Snook’s first dayof teaching, which happened to be theLe brothers’ first day at Cypress.
“They were typical college kidswho weren’t sure what they wanted todo, but shared a love for cars,” said
Snook. “It took some prodding to findthat their interests were in the customend of the industry. After completing thenormal curriculum, the brothers wouldstay after and mix all these wild colorsand come up with unique paint designs.That is where they excelled.”
Cuulong and Jim opened BuddhaConcepts Design in 2008, but had beenreceiving attention since they startedworking out of their garage in 2005.Their unique custom fabrication paintingskills have landed their finished products
in Super Streetbike, Hotbikes,Baggers, Import Tuner, SuperStreet, Face Off, PerformanceBike Japan, and Street FighterUK magazines, a T-Mobilecommercial, Hawaii 5.0, andin three music videos withartists Chris Brown, CalvinHarris and Nero.
Seventy-percent of theshop’s profit has come frommotorcycle projects, but arecent partnership with aluxury wheel company has
brought their focus back to cars.“It’s nice to get noticed, but it’s not
about the money, it’s about doing whatwe love,” said Cuulong. “As long as weare making enough to support ourselvesand our families, we’re happy.”
Even with international notoriety,the Le brothers remain humble, credit-ing success to their former instructor,as well as Frederick B., renowned air-brush artist in Orange County.
“Dan is the reason we do what wedo; he taught us how to paint,” said Cu-ulong. “He has been a major contribu-
tor to our success, and without him ourdream wouldn’t be possible.”
That is why the Le brothers wereeager to give back when Smith’s girl-friend, Michelle, came to them with anidea for his 50th birthday.
Snook thought his Harley wasbeing detailed, when in reality, it wasat Buddha Concepts Design, receivingan over 50-hour-long makeover.
“The story kept changing, and theprocess was taking longer than usual,but I honestly didn’t think twice about
it at the time,” said Snook.Upon entering the birthday party,
Jim introduced Snook to his now burnt-orange Harley, varnished with paintingsof their beloved teacher, while Cuulongstood back to watch the reaction.
“He had tears in his eyes,” saidMichelle.
“I was floored and deeply touched,”said Snook. “It’s not a feeling you canput into words.”
Snook and the Le Brothers will beheading to Las Vegas for the 2014SEMA Show. This is Buddha ConceptsDesign’s fifth year of attendance. Theirfeatures for this November include afull-custom Lexus GS 350 for AirRexSuspension, a Lexus LS 460 for the airrunner’s booth, a Lexus LS 430 for R1Concepts and a Nissan 240sx for theVIP Modular Wheels.
“We are expecting a last minute ad-dition before the show, but we’d preferto not have a repeat of our first SEMAexperience,” said Cuulong. “We worked20 hour days, redesigning three cars insix weeks. I lost 35 pounds.”
Snook said he is proud of his for-mer students and all their hard work. Hestresses the importance of “success thatcan’t be weighed by a paycheck,” andthe need for more stories, like this one,that highlight industry achievements.
Collision Repair Instructor Inspires Students, Paves Way for SEMA
Dan Snook poses with his newly designed Harley.Photo Credit: Dan Snook & Cuulong Le
Close-up of the intricate designs by Cuulong andJim Le. Photo Credit: Dan Snook & Cuulong Le
52 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
SEMA: Sales of Auto Parts & Accessories Reach $33BSales of automotive specialty-equipmentproducts continue to climb, reaching $33billion in 2013. The number represents a6.7 percent increase over the previousyear and marks the fourth consecutiveyear of growth, according to the SEMAAnnual Market Study that is available atwww.sema.org/2014samr.
“The Specialty Equipment Marketproduced the highest growth since therecent recession,” said Chris Kersting,SEMA president and CEO. “There are anumber of factors that figure into thisupward trend.”
The special-equipment market in-cludes products that enhance a vehicle’sperformance, styling, comfort, conven-ience and safety. Among the factors driv-ing the industry’s growth are:● Street performance products ac-counted for 26% of sales. The renewedfocus on performance models by theOEMs has helped drive interest in thissegment. New models such as the ScionFR-S, redesigns like the 2015 Mustang,and high-performance packages such asthe Hellcat Challenger have inspired theindustry and consumer alike to aim forincreased performance.● There was a healthy upward tick forthe truck market. Sales of specialtyequipment for light trucks grew 8% in2013 to post the market’s best sales year
since 2007. New truck sales continue toclimb amid anticipation for major re-designs to several flagship pickups. Asthe SUV/CUV sector continues to grownine of the top 30 sellers in the US),crossover products present an opportu-nity to diversify and expand light-truckproduct offerings.● The 2014 SEMA Show is shaping upto be the biggest yet as industry opti-mism continues to build. New this yearis SEMA Ignited, a special consumerand media attraction on Friday nightafter the Show. SEMA Ignited mesheswith other consumer-facing associationprojects, all part of a long-term plan toenhance awareness of specialty prod-ucts.● The US economy continues to showpositive signs for industry growth, withgross domestic product rising and un-employment rates dropping. Forecastersare generally predicting sustained mod-erate growth for the US economy overthe next few years. Meanwhile, car buy-ers have shown renewed enthusiasm,pushing new-vehicle sales upward to-ward pre-recession levels.
The SEMA Annual Market Reportis conducted yearly to help SEMA-member companies understand the in-dustry and make informed businessdecisions.
PPG Waterborne Shop Conversions Exceed 10,000PPG Industries’ (NYSE:PPG) automo-tive refinish business has now convertedmore than 10,000 collision centers in theUnited States and Canada to its water-borne systems, with the majority of theseconversions taking place in National Ruleareas rather than in low-VOC (volatileorganic compound) compliant regions.
According to Tim Jones,PPG wa-terborne segment manager, more than10,000 collision centers in North Amer-ica are now using PPG waterborne prod-ucts, with more than 50 percent of theseshops in National Rule markets. Thismeans most PPG customers choose touse waterborne products and systemseven though they are not required to doso to meet low-VOC regulations. Theydo so voluntarily because they want toimprove their productivity, he said.
“Waterborne is not just a compliancesolution anymore,” Jones said. “More than10,000 PPG customers in the U.S. andCanada see the value in superior colormatching, excellent throughput and per-formance, consistent color mixes and otherkey qualities that our waterborne productsprovide. PPG has a long-standing com-mitment to the collision repair industry todeliver high-quality and time-saving prod-ucts. ENVIROBASE® High Performanceand AQUABASE® Plus products are eas-ier to blend and apply; our customers ap-
preciate this and see a real difference intheir shops’ productivity.”
Jones attributed the success ofPPG’s waterborne products to factorssuch as a highly-effective and easy CON-VERT WITH CONFIDENCE® transi-tion process and the service and supportcustomers receive from PPG and its best-in-class distributor partners. “Collisioncenters are converting to PPG’s water-borne with great results,” he said. “Shopsare finding the actual conversion to wa-terborne is simple. They’re also findingthat we support them and view their pro-ductivity as a measure of our mutual suc-cess.”
Envirobase High Performance andAquabase Plus products are now in theirthird generation. PPG introduced its wa-terborne technology to the internationalOEM (original equipment manufac-turer) market in 1986 and brought theworld's first commercialized refinishwaterborne basecoat to market in 1992.Since then, PPG has added new primersand clearcoats to the two brands andwill, according to Jones, continue to ex-pand the product lines’ offerings.
For more information about PPGand Envirobase High Performance andAquabase Plus waterborne products,call 800-647-6050 or visit www.ppgre-finish.com.
Omix-ADA to Give Away 2014 Jeep Wrangler at SEMAOmix-ADA, a manufacturer of Jeep,truck and off-road accessories, an-nounced on October 7 that it will useits Off Road Success Center (Booth#34000) at SEMA to give away afully-loaded Jeep.
Forty semifinalists will be se-lected over the course of November4-6, and the winner will drive awayin a brand-new, fully-equipped AnvilBlue 2014 Jeep Wrangler UnlimitedRubicon on the last day.
The winning Jeep will be outfit-ted with Rugged Ridge’s new Sum-mit restyling package, whichincludes the company’s XHD Modu-lar Bumper, grille inserts, and an up-
graded rear tire carrier, making it notonly look good but also ready totackle any off-road excursion, ac-cording to reports by Scott Rousseauof off-road.com.
Off Road Success Center Omix-ADA will also host several civil-ian Jeeps, including pre-WWIIprototypes to the modern day JKWrangler.
The Off Road Success Cen-ter will also exhibit a custom2015 four-door Jeep Wranglerbuilt for SEMA Cares; a com-mittee dedicated to supportingthe education of students pur-suing careers in the automotiveaftermarket. The SEMA CaresJeep is designed to raise aware-ness about the committee’scharitable efforts as it tours theUnited States. It will be outfit-
ted with one of Omix-ADA’s exclu-sive Rugged Ridge restylingpackages and later auctioned as partof SEMA Cares’ fundraising effortsin 2015, according to Rousseau.
Anvil Blue 2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubi-con. Photo Credit: www.offroad.com
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2015 Hyundai Genesis Preview Before SEMA DebutARK Performance is providing asneak preview of their upgrade pack-age for the 2015 Hyundai GenesisSedan which will be revealed in fullat SEMA.
Exterior advancements to the2015 Hyundai Genesis include anaerodynamic kit developed by InfiniteAuto Design, encompassing widerbumpers made from carbon fiber,beefier front & rear fenders, carbonfiber side skirts, rear trunk decklid,different headlights and exterior wel-come lighting.
Katzkin diamond door panelsand stitched seats make up the interior
changes.ARK installed a front strut rein-
forcement bar and front/rear stiffenedsway bars along with an AirREX airsuspension. Other changes include
beefier Brembo front &rear brakes, ARK knucklesand control arms as well ascustom lightweight forgedwheels wrapped around inNitto Tire NT05 summertires.
The most significantupgrades can be foundunder the hood where theV8 5.0-liter engine hasreceived a Rotrex super-charger, high-flow cattedtest pipe and downpipes.In addition, ARK in-stalled a performance in-take system, race-spec
driveshaft, GRiP exhaust and a car-bon fiber engine cover. All thesechanges have bumped output fromthe series 420 bhp (313 kW) to 550bhp (410 kW).
The 2015 Hyundai GenesisSedan by ARK Performance will berevealed on November 4 at SEMA.
The regional recall of millions ofU.S. vehicles with potentially de-fective airbags made by Japan’sTakata Corp. may expand to in-clude General Motors models, ac-cording to documents filed in Sept.with U.S. regulators.
More than 4.3 million carsproduced by automakers, in-cluding Honda Motor Co., Fiat’sChrysler Group and ToyotaMotor Corp., are affected by theregional recalls. They began inJune in certain high-humidityareas of the United States afterthe National Highway TrafficSafety Administration started in-vestigating reports of airbag ex-plosions in Florida and PuertoRico.
The regional recalls initiallyaffected nine automakers, but doc-uments filed by Takata for a Sept.meeting with NHTSA and the af-fected companies listed GM forthe first time as being potentiallyaffected. The Takata documents,posted online by NHTSA, said thenumber of vehicles produced bythe largest U.S. automaker was un-determined.
GM declined to comment.
Takata Airbag Recall MayInclude GM Vehicles
Mercedes-Benz USA and its dealersare spending about $30 millionover the next four years to train26,000 employees and immersethem in the brand’s culture.
Later this year, the first waveof employees will go through atwo-day program called the BrandImmersion Experience at the Mer-cedes-Benz factory in Vance, Ala-bama, near Tuscaloosa.
The investment includes a $6million revamp of the visitor cen-ter at the factory for classroomtraining, including digital interac-tive displays.
“We have been driving hardfor the last few years on the cus-tomer experience,” said GarethJoyce, vice president of customerservices at Mercedes-Benz USA.“It is not just about the product; it isall about the package and how youlook after the customers as well.
“This is just one of the build-ing blocks in our portfolio to drivethat program forward through ourdealer network.”
Mercedes Will Train 26,000in the Brand’s New Culture
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Daimler Chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche to Deliver KeynoteAddress at 2015 Consumer Electronics ShowThe Consumer Electronics Association(CEA)® announced on Oct. 6 that Dr.Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the boardof management of Daimler AG andHead of Mercedes-Benz Cars, will de-liver a 2015 International CES® keynoteaddress focused on the latest advances inautonomous vehicle technology. Ownedand produced by CEA, the 2015 CES,the global gathering place for all whothrive on the business of consumer tech-nologies, will run January 6-9, 2015 inLas Vegas, Nevada.
Dr. Zetsche will discuss au-tonomous vehicle technology and itsimpact on society, mobility and the en-vironment, as well as raise ideas andquestions for the future. In addition tohis insights on the future of Daimler In-telligence Drive, Dr. Zetsche’s 2015CES keynote will feature the world-debut of a new car concept. His addressis slated for Monday, January 5 at 8 pmat the Chelsea Theater in the Cosmo-politan.
“With a passion for technology in-novation, Dr. Zetsche has led Mer-cedes-Benz to a top perch in theautomobile industry, constantly re-in-venting technology offerings and per-fecting the driver experience,” saidGary Shapiro, president and CEO of
CEA. “Cars are becoming the ultimatemobile devices, and Mercedes-Benz’spresence at 2015 CES will definitelycreate synergy with other platforms andmobile technologies on the show floor.We welcome Dr. Zetsche to the 2015CES keynote stage and look forward tohearing his views on the future of au-tonomous driving.”
The automotive market remains adriving force behind the strength of theglobal consumer technology industry.The growth of new vehicle sales in2014 will propel factory-installed sys-tems to reach $11 billion in revenue, anincrease of 20 percent over the pastyear.
Dr. Zetsche served as a member ofthe Board of Management of DaimlerAG since December 1998 and as Chair-man of the Board of Management ofDaimler AG since January 2006. He isalso Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Di-vision. Since joining the research de-partment of then Daimler-Benz AG in1976, Dr. Zetsche has served the com-pany for more than three decades.
The 2015 CES will feature morethan 3,500 exhibitors unveiling the lat-est consumer technology products andservices. For more information on the2015 CES, visit CESweb.org.
World Steel Dynamics Predicts Short Gains for AluminumBefore High-Strength Steels Take OverWorld Steel Dynamics’ (WSD) reportAutoBody Warfare: Aluminum Attack,based on its independent consultationwith steel, aluminum and automotiveexperts, concluded that steel can easilydeliver the weight savings required tomeet federally-mandated fuel economytargets for most vehicles. The reportwas presented to steel executives Oct. 6at the worldsteel Annual Conference inMoscow.
“This timely analysis demon-strates the value of advanced high-strength steel designs in meeting theneeds of automakers while exposing thecost penalties of switching to alu-minum,” said Lawrence W. Ka-vanagh, President of the Steel MarketDevelopment Institute (SMDI), a busi-ness unit of the American Iron and SteelInstitute (AISI). “We are enthusiasticabout the findings, which confirm ourextensive research showing automakerscan meet their weight reduction goalswith advanced high-strength steels. Thereport’s conclusions, and forecast forsteel, are good news for customers andconsumers as they demonstrate that au-tomakers can and will continue to de-pend on the performance of steel andthe safety, fuel efficiency and sustain-ability it provides.”
Other key findings of the WSDstudy include:
● Advanced high-strength steels willoffer more than sufficient lightweight-ing opportunities to automotive compa-nies in the next decade, and from2021-2025, automotive designers willbe implementing an array of higher-strength steels;● Once engineers decide to redesignsteel-intensive vehicles from the groundup, they will implement sizable and rel-atively low-cost weight savings withadvanced high-strength steels, enablingcontinued supply of steel closures;● Advanced high-strength steels, evenif priced substantially higher than otherauto sheet, are quite attractive giventheir weight savings relative to alu-minum, and will rise to 23.7 milliontonnes in 2025, a 330 percent gain dis-placing mild steel and alternative mate-rials; and,● Automakers will not widely adoptaluminum or other alternative materialsduring their next round of design, andthe growth in aluminum sheet in cars,SUVs and light trucks will peak about2018.
A summary of the report can befound at www.autosteel.org.
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 55
Mike Miller Appointed National Director of CertifiedNetwork Development for Assured PerformanceAssured Performance announced theappointment of Mike Miller as Na-tional Director of Certified NetworkDevelopment. Mike will be develop-ing and managing Assured Perfor-mance’s national network of on-sitebusiness analysts, business coaches,and body shop Inspector-auditors.
Mike Miller has 27 years expe-rience serving the insurance and col-lision repair industries. His careerbegan in the insurance arena includ-ing helping to start up and manage adirect repair program. Mike thenmoved to the shop world becominga shop manager. Later, he became anI-CAR instructor and eventually Re-gional Manager and Zone Manager.For the past several years, Miller hasbeen I-CAR’s National Field SupportManager developing and managingthe I-CAR instructor network. Mikehas been instrumental in course de-velopment, network management,and effectively training more than450 part-time instructors and over2,000 volunteers. Mike was also inthe United States Army where he at-tained the rank of Captain.
Scott Biggs, CEO of AssuredPerformance said, “We are very proudto have Mike’s proven management
capabilities added to our team. He isexactly the kind of leader and techni-cal expert we need to refine and im-prove our business development andonsite inspection capabilities strength-ening our national Certified Repairnetwork of dealer and independently-owned body shops. He also providesa natural liaison with I-CAR, an or-ganization with which we workclosely.”
He said Miller’s proven abili-ties in managing large-scale net-works and providing instructortraining will be instrumental in help-ing deliver a series of business de-velopment and shop certificationservices to dealer and independ-ently-owned collision repair busi-nesses. The business developmentservices are essential for the shopsthat have or want to become part ofthe national shop network, officiallycertified and recognized by a grow-ing list of top automakers includingFord, Chrysler, Nissan, and GeneralMotors. The business analysts andon-site inspectors are key to helpingthe network shops perform at thehighest level of profitability and ef-ficiency while delivering an unpar-alleled level of customer service.
Toyota Produces Urban Utility Concept VehicleToyota revealed the Urban Utility con-cept vehicle—or U2—on September 10at a private panel discussion hosted byMake: magazine in San Francisco, CA.The car design reflects the growing needfor innovation in urban areas, which wasdiscovered through interviews withMaker Faire participants and internalToyota market research.
The Toyota U2 concept, developedby Toyota’s Calty Design Research inNewport Beach, CA, features a new,open architecture and purposeful materi-als. This vehicle sports a roof that can berolled back, a foldable tailgate that trans-forms into a ramp, and a customized in-terior.
The concept car made its first pub-lic appearance at World Maker Faire inNew York on Sept. 20 and 21.
“Toyota saw an opportunity for anew approach to an urban vehicle basedon increasing re-urbanization of ourcities and urban drivers’ desire for flex-ibility, fun and maneuverability,” saidKevin Hunter president of Calty, Toy-ota’s North American design studio.“Calty keeps a number of projects con-cealed while exploring ideas and prod-ucts. Revealing a project like the U2gives people a window into the constantinnovation that happens inside Toyotaand our Calty studios and one possible
future for urban mobility.”Bringing the concept to a Maker
community event allowed Toyota togain feedback from a key audience. “Asmore products are developed expresslyto appeal to Makers and their deep ap-preciation of design esthetic combinedwith open architecture and practical util-ity, we expect to see more trusted brandslike Toyota take an unconventional ap-proach to not only product developmentbut their marketing and launch strate-gies,” said Sherry Huss, VP and co-founder of Maker Faire. “Leveraging thegrowing Maker movement and Makers’broad sphere of influence can impact thesuccess of consumer brands and futureproducts.”
The Toyota U2 concept is a flexi-ble, functional gadget that owners cancustomize according to individual, on-the-go needs. The retractable utility barcan serve unique uses, such as holding adesk or grocery bag hooks. Side win-dows flip up for easy access from road-side.
It has a durable underbody andtool-like exterior with a customizableside panel. The box-like design at therear emphasizes the storage capabilities.Other highlights include roof panels thatretract, rear glass that can slide into thetailgate and a tailgate that folds down.
56 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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The Auto Glass Safety Council™’s(AGSC) Education Committee metOctober 7 during Auto Glass Week inBaltimore, MD to review its plan toupdate the exam technicians must taketo become AGSC accredited. JeffOlive, chair of the education commit-tee, opened the meeting with a discus-sion about whether the associationshould publish the questions.
Bob Beranek of Auto GlassConsultants, who chairs the AGSCAGRSS Standards Committee and is amember of the board of directors, pro-posed waiting until the AGSC has de-veloped 500 questions. The groupagreed. The exam will feature 70 ques-tions.
Members also discussed waystechnicians can challenge questionsthey might have an issue with. MitchBecker of Abra Auto Body & Glass,recommended adding a “challenge”option as a selection for each question.Once a technician completes the timedexam, he would have the opportunityto explain why he challenged a certainquestion. The test results would be onhold until the AGSC Education Com-mittee has a chance to address the chal-lenge. The committee membersvoted in support of this proposal.
Auto Glass Safety CouncilUpdating Certification Exam
Tesla Motors Inc. cut short a test-drive event in Iowa earlier this monthafter state regulators said the electric-vehicle maker was improperly actingas a dealer.
According to the Des MoinesRegister, Tesla began offering testdrives in its Model S on Sept. 9 at ahotel in West Des Moines. The com-pany canceled the third and final dayof its program at the request of theIowa Department of Transportation.
Paul Steier, director of the de-partment’s Bureau of Investigationand Identity Protection, told the DesMoines newspaper that state law re-quires auto dealers to be licensed.By offering test drives, Tesla wasacting as a dealer, Steier said. Steierdid not immediately return a callfrom Automotive News.
A Tesla spokeswoman told theRegister that the company did notbelieve the statute applied because itwas not selling cars, only providingtest drives. No other test-drive eventsare planned in Iowa, the paper re-ported. Tesla does not have a store inIowa.
Bruce Anderson, president ofthe Iowa Automobile Dealers Asso-ciation, said he notified state regula-tors about the test drives after he saw
Tesla promoting the event online.Test drives are a regulated activ-
ity in Iowa, Anderson said, accordingto a 1970 statute that requires anyoneengaged in the business of auto re-tailing to be licensed. The state wantsto make sure a retailer is insured andbonded, he said. “It’s really a cus-tomer protection issue,” Andersonsaid.
Of Tesla, “I’ll take them at theirword that they didn’t know” a licensewas needed to offer test drives,” An-derson said.
Tesla has tussled with dealersin a growing number of states overwhether its factory-owned stores vi-olate state laws on direct sales. Insome states recently, includingPennsylvania and New York, com-promises were reached, allowingTesla to operate factory stores butwith a cap on the number of loca-tions allowed.
Anderson said Iowa’s statuteprevents direct sales by a manufac-turer with narrow exceptions foruses such as minority dealer devel-opment.
Iowa Pulls Plug on Tesla Test DrivesU.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.),chairman of the House Small BusinessCommittee, introduced a bill to sim-plify the loan application process withthe Small Business Administration(SBA). Under the bill, the SBA wouldbe required to accept e-signatures andelectronic records for the certificationof all documents associated with themanagement of its financing programs.
Referencing this legislation,Graves said, “A lengthy and compli-cated loan application process is oftena great impediment for many smallbusinesses to secure the capital theyneed to get their products or servicesto market. The majority of the timespent during the SBA loan applica-tion process consists of lenders col-lecting required documentation andhaving to seek out the ink signaturesof borrowers. The Small BusinessLoan Simplification Act of 2014 willemploy widely used and proven e-signature and records technology toreform the SBA loan process. Thiswill likely cut the application processby an average of two to three days.”
See the full text of this bill at:http://smallbusiness.house.gov/uploadedfiles/small_business_loan_simplification_act_of_2014.pdf
New Legislation Introduced toSimplify Loan Applications
Toyota Motor Corp. is set to becomethe next global automaker to beginmaking the expensive shift fromsteel to aluminum for a high-volumevehicle, according to reports in Au-tomotive News.
The U.S.-built Camry, thecountry’s best-selling car, is slatedto get an aluminum hood in 2018,according to a source familiar withthe plans.
Toyota’s first foray into alu-minum closures in North Americawill come next year when the 2016Lexus RX 350 crossover, which ismade in Cambridge, Ontario, getsan aluminum hood and liftgate, thesource said.
The aluminum sheet for theCamry hood likely will comefrom a joint venture between Toy-ota Tsusho Corp., a trading com-pany affiliated with Toyota MotorCorp., and Kobe Steel to producemore aluminum sheet metal in theU.S.
Toyota will be among theventure’s first customers, severalsources confirmed. Production isexpected to begin in 2017 andramp up to full output at the be-ginning of 2018.
Toyota Moves to AluminumHood for Camry in 2018
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Ford Motor Co. is recalling850,050 2013 and 2014 vehiclesfor an electrical flaw that couldcause airbags and seat belt preten-sioners to malfunction in the eventof a crash, according to reports inAutomotive News.
The affected vehicles includethe 2013-14 Ford C-Max, Fusion,Escape and Lincoln MKZ. Fordsaid in a statement on Sept. 26 therestraints-control module in the ve-hicles could short circuit, causingthe airbag warning indicator to il-luminate.
This is the 12th recall of the2013 Escape, although a spokes-woman said in August that no sin-gle Escape has been involved in allthe recalls.
Flaws that other recalls on theEscape have addressed includefluid leaks that could cause an en-gine fire, doors that can open whilethe vehicle is moving and rolloverairbags that may not deploy quicklyenough.
Ford Recalls 850,000 Carsfor Airbag & Seat Belt Glitch
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 57
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Cadillac will begin offering advanced “in-telligent and connected” vehicle technolo-gies on certain 2017 vehicles, GeneralMotorsCEO Mary Barra said on Sept. 7during her address at the Intelligent Trans-port System (ITS) World Congress in De-troit. In about two years, a new 2017Cadillac vehicle will offer customers anadvanced driver assist technology calledSuper Cruise and the 2017 Cadillac CTSwill be enabled with vehicle-to-vehicle(V2V) communication technology.
Super Cruise, the working namefor GM’s automated driving technol-ogy, will offer customers a driving ex-perience that includes hands-off lanefollowing, braking and speed controlin certain highway driving conditions.The system is designed to increase thecomfort of an attentive driver on free-ways, both in bumper-to-bumper traf-fic and on long road trips.
Barra said the technology couldmitigate many collisions and improvetraffic congestion by sending and re-ceiving basic safety information such aslocation, speed and direction of travelbetween vehicles approaching eachother. It will warn drivers and can sup-plement active safety features, such asforward collision warning, already avail-able on many production cars.
Cadillac to Introduce NewTechnology on 2017 Models
For the last few years, Chevrolet hasused the annual State Fair of Texasin Dallas to preview its plans forSEMA, according to an article writ-ten by Mark Williams on pickup-trucks.com. This year, the focus ofthe state fair and SEMA is pickupconcept truck parts.
The Silverado “Toughnology”reminds customers that aluminum,the latest material-fad of the autowork, cannot compete with the high-strength of steel, which is locatedthroughout this pickup truck’s frame,cab, body and interior, which, GMhas always noted, is “much less costintensive than more exotic materi-als.”
This concept also showcasesGM accessories like unique grilleinserts, sidesteps, a hard tonneaucover, a carpeted bedliner, fender-flare accents and tinted headlights.A graphic package, including 20-inch wheels and tires, OnStar 4GLTE with Wi-Fi hotspot capability,a wireless charging mat and SiriEyes Free, is also included.Read the entire article:http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2014/09/chevrolet-debuts-a-pair-of-pickup-concept-trucks-for-sema.html
Chevrolet Debuts PickupConcept Trucks for SEMA
Roush-Modified 2015 Ford Mustang To Be Revealed at SEMAby Jason Udy
The Roush-tuned 2015 Ford Mus-tang, featuring body, interior, han-dling, and powertrain upgrades, willbe making its first appearance at the2014 SEMA show.
Roush 2015 Ford Mustangmodels feature a more prominentgrille and front fascia with splitterand grille, accompanied by new hood
vents and an available hood scoop,moving the fog lights to the center airintake. The doors now feature side,and the rear sports a deck lip spoilerand a redesigned fascia. This latestversion features quad exhaust tipspeeking out of the new rear diffuser.
Aerodynamics will improve thenew body pieces. A set of upgradedBrembo brakes peek out from behindthe new Roush 20-inch wheels withCooper RS3 tires. Two types of ad-justable coilover shocks are said tobe available, according to reports byJason Udy, motortrend.com.
Previous iterations of the RoushMustang came in Stage 1 (cosmetic)and Stage 2 (handling) kits for V-6 and
GT models, and Stage 3(performance) kits for theGT model only. With thenew 2015 Ford Mustang,Roush will offer RS forthe V-6 model, RS1 forthe Mustang EcoBoostmodel, RS2 for the GT,and an RS3 version thatadds a supercharger to theGT’s 5.0-liter V-8. Super-charged versions couldoffer more than one powerlevel with as much as 674hp possible, according to
reports by Jason Udy, motortrend.com.Roush is also expected to offer
many of the parts al a carte for own-ers who want to modify their vehiclesafter purchase. More details will berevealed at the SEMA show in No-vember.
Roush-modified 2015 Ford Mustang. Photo Credit:www.horsepowerkings.com
58 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Chevrolet Brings Back the Corvette Stingray in Time for SEMAThe SEMA Auto Show isn’t just anevent for established aftermarketcompanies to showcase their latest
creations. It’s also a chance for newplayers in the business to introducethemselves to the industry. This year,Revorix falls under the latter cate-gory, and it’s prepared a special pro-gram for the Chevrolet CorvetteStingray. The new aftermarket com-pany has just set up its business inAnaheim, California with the solepurpose of creating aftermarket
products that highlights a car’s“functional beauty.” Seeing as it’sstill a relative neophyte in the indus-try, you can’t fault Roverix from en-listing the help of Rowen Japan,considered as one of the best after-market car body specialists in Japan.
Together, the two companies cre-ated the Revorix Corvette Package,which features a comprehensive list ofnew aerodynamic components de-signed to give the Corvette Stingray asportier look and improved dynamics.There are no performance upgradesbut that’s not overly important whenyou’re a new entry to the market look-ing to make a name.
The important thing is to estab-lish yourself first, and one way to doso is to build a body kit that will catchpeoples’ attention, which is exactlywhat it has with the Revorix CorvettePackage. It’s a tough task catchingsome eyes at the SEMA Auto Show,but Revorix, with the help of RowenJapan, might have the kit to pull it off.
The 2015 Stingray
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Car-O-Liner has entered the social mediarealm, and is now offering a variety ofnews ways for consumers to connectwith the company. These channels in-clude Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+,Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinter-est. Car-O-Liner President Jeff Kern, saidhe is excited about the new social mediacommunications and anticipates theseactivities will benefit business relationsthrough technical knowledge sharing.“Our social media connection allows usto not only share our activities, but alsojoin the conversation through communi-cation with both our customers and theindustry,” he said. “It is important to lis-ten and be heard as we extend our reachthrough these interactive tools.”Follow Car-O-Liner at:
Alcoa Inc, the largest US aluminumproducer, forecast profit from auto andaerospace components will increase inthe Q4 as it sells a record amount of themetal to carmakers.
Alcoa, which is shifting its focusto manufacturing components and al-loys, said it would deliver a recordamount of aluminum sheet to au-tomakers this quarter as car and truckmanufacturers use more of the light-weight metal. Earnings in the com-pany’s rolled products segment, asupplier of aluminum sheets to car, air-plane and packaging manufacturers,will more than double from a year ear-lier.
Alcoa is benefiting from highercommercial-jet orders and a shift toaluminum components instead of steelamong automakers such asFord MotorCompany, which plans to make its F-150 pickup truck with aluminum bodypanels.
Mr Lloyd O’Carroll, a Rich-mond, Virginia based Analyst at North-coast Research Holdings LLC said that“Auto body sheet has a much highermargin than anything except aircraft. Ithink 2015 is going to get a pretty biglift of usage on the F-150 and of courseall of the margin benefit of that.”
Alcoa Forecasts Record AutoSheet Shipments Q4
I-CAR announced that two newcourses are now available to Refin-ish Technicians: Refinish Materialsand Application Blending (REF08e)and Color Theory, Mixing Toners,and Tinting (REF09). These courseshave replaced Color Theory, Appli-cation, Tinting, and Blending(REF03).
Josh McFarlin, I-CAR Direc-tor of Curriculum & Product Devel-opment stated, “Nearly all repairsrequire some level of refinishing andtypically, refinish work gets noticedfirst by the customer. Refinish Tech-nicians who take these courses willlearn how to correctly prepare andrefinish a vehicle to ensure properoverall appearance, which can helpimprove customer satisfaction andincrease productivity through bettercycle times and reduced rework.”
Refinish Materials and Applica-tion Blending (REF08e) is an inter-active online course, worth 2 credithours. It is complete with demon-strations on conventional blendingand reverse blending, as well as dis-cussions on using a blending additiveand a blending bed.
I-CAR Launches Two NewRefinish Courses
The Quotes Pros website has a ca-pability that allows users to researchfor collision insurance rates with itsopen tool at:http://quotespros.com/auto-insur-ance.html.
When comparing agencies inorder to find the top policies and low-est pricin, entry can be gained to theQuotesPros.com database by usingzip codes.
An instant quote is available toprepare once a provider is selectedwhile using the formatted databasefor collision providers in the U.S.
The rates details that the publichas access to using the open portalare tied to more than standard colli-sion type policies from agencies.
Collector, full coverage, high riskand state minimum protection plans canall be searched for in the location sys-tem once a provider has been selected.
The Quotes Pros company haspositioned its open tools on its home-page to make it faster for a person tointeract with an insurer without hav-ing to call companies by phone.
Quotes Pros Website OffersInsurance Rates Information
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www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 59
The Women’s Industry Network(WIN) is kicking-off their 2015Membership Drive. WIN member-ship is annual and based on a calen-dar year. Their goal is to reach 400members by 2015.
WIN is focused on engagingwomen in the collision repair indus-try through education, networkingand sharing of resources. This year’sdrive will include several outreachopportunities. A membership drivedrawing for new members, renewingmembers and referrals, and an addedgrand prize of one free 2015 WINEducation Conference RegistrationFee will all be part of the festivities.● NEW MEMBERS Drawing - forall new members who join beforeDecember 31st;● RENEWING MEMBERS Draw-ing - for all current & past memberswho renew before December 31st;● REFERRALS - for all new, cur-rent and past members who refer anew member who joins before De-cember 31st.All entries will be combined into asingle drawing for the grand prize,which does not include travel ex-penses. For more information, visit:http://thewomensindustrynetwork.ning.com/page/join-win-1.
WIN 2015 Membership Drive
Caliber Collision teamed up withTravelers to help a U.S. Army vet-eran get back on the road by provid-ing him with a newly refurbishedvehicle in September as part of its na-tionwide Recycled Rides program.
Conley joined the Army in1965 when he was 17 and served hissix-year enlistment as an intelligenceand security specialist. After leavingthe Army, he worked as a pilot forcorporations including General Mo-tors, federal contractors and state andlocal police SWAT units. His respon-sibilities ranged from flying VIPs injets to dealing with hostage and crisisnegotiation. About 10 years ago, hebegan to suffer from a series of med-ical conditions, including cancer andliver disease, which took a toll onhim both physically and financially.
“We hope this Recycled Ridesgift will help Richard out of his‘catch-22’ situation in which he is un-able to afford to purchase a car butwithout transportation, he is unableto find employment,” said RustyBarsanti, Caliber Collision’s VP ofOperations.
The company plans on giftingmore than 20 vehicles during 2014 tomilitary and first responders.
Car Donation Helps ArmyVeteran Get Back on the Road
Senate Subcommittee Looks Into Effectiveness of theNational Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationThe U.S Senate Committee on Com-merce, Science and Transportation’sSubcommittee on Consumer Protec-tion, Product Safety and Insurancerecently held a hearing titled, “Over-sight of and Policy Considerationsfor the National Highway TrafficSafety Administration.”
The purpose of this hearing wasto evaluate the efficiency of the Na-tional Highway Traffic Safety Admin-istration’s (NHTSA) highway andvehicle safety programs. The hearingwas the latest in a series of congres-sional reviews that stemmed fromNHTSA’s handling of General Motor’signition switch failures.
Deputy Administrator DavidFriedman served as NHTSA’s wit-ness. Other witnesses includedJoseph Comé from the U.S. Depart-ment of Transportation, JacquelineS. Gillan of the Advocates for High-way and Auto Safety, Kendell Pooleof the Governors Highway Safety As-sociation, and Robert Strassburgerof the Alliance of Automobile Manu-facturers.
During the hearing, subcom-mittee members from both politi-cal parties had sharp criticism forNHTSA. Sen. Claire McCaskill
(D-Mo.), subcommittee chairman,said: “Nobody on this subcommit-tee believes that there aren’t peo-ple [at the agency] trying to do theright thing … but it’s hard to sithere and listen to you …You wantto obfuscate responsibility ratherthan take responsibility.”
The remarks echoed the tone ofthe House Committee on Energy andCommerce Committee’s report re-leased earlier that same day, detailingNHTSA’s perceived shortcomings inregard to the GM ignition switch re-call.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.),committee chairman, said: “It istragic that the evidence was staringNHTSA in the face and the agencydidn’t identify the warnings.NHTSA exists not just to processwhat the company finds, but to digdeeper. They failed. We’ll keeplooking for answers, and keep work-ing toward solutions – whether itmeans changing our laws or press-ing for change at the companies thatfollow them and the agencies thatenforce them – but we know for surethat NHTSA was part of the problemand is going to have to be part of thesolution.”
On the evening of Tuesday, Septem-ber 16, the Louisiana Collision Indus-try Association (LaCIA) gathered in
Baton Rouge for their first meetingsince July. Speakers at the meeting in-cluded Billy Easterling of ERS, Inc.who presented on OSHA compliancerequirements and Attorney GeneralBuddy Caldwell who updated atten-dees on the status of the lawsuit he re-cently filed against State Farm regardingthe insurer’s steering practices.
The evening began with Easter-ling’s presentation on OSHA compli-ance. He handed out an informativepacket which contained a helpful check-list for shops to use as a guideline. Healso offered a free walkthrough to theshops present, and several shops signedup to have ERS, Inc. visit their facilitiesto ensure that they are not engaging inany OSHA violations that could resultin fines or employee injuries.
Easterling also distributed asafety and compliance alert contain-ing a list of shops scheduled to be vis-
ited and inspected by OSHA withinthe next three years. LaCIA will postthis list to their website for future use.
Next, Attorney General Caldwelland several members of his staff pro-vided an update on the status of theirlawsuit against State Farm. Caldwellinformed the group that State Farm isattempting to get their lawsuit consol-idated with the others currently inFederal Court, but Stacie deBlieux,Assistant Attorney General, believesthat they will be successful in their ef-forts to return the suit to the state ofLouisiana where it belongs.
The Attorney General’s office isstill in the discovery phase of gather-ing information and has promised toprovide the association with a list ofthe information needed to help themprepare for the case. They have alsoestablished an online complaint formfor shops to complete and submit; thisform can be found at: www.ag.state.la.us/InsuranceComplaints.aspx.
LaCIA’s next meeting has been
scheduled for Thursday, October 16 atthe Marriott in Metairie, and AlysiaHanks, Executive Director of LaCIA,
is excited to announce that renownedindustry speaker Mike Anderson willbe in attendance to present to atten-dees. Hanks has also tentativelyscheduled the last meeting of the yearfor Saturday, November 15 in the
Lafayette/Alexandria area, and sheemphasizes, “it is so important that allof our members attend this meeting so
we can discuss the board and agendafor next year.”
LaCIA985-277-9415www.la-cia.com
60 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family ofNASCAR fans. She can be contacted at [email protected].
LaCIA Holds September Member Meeting, Hosts AG Caldwell
Thanks to a new agreement betweenRandolph Community College (RCC)and Petty’s Garage in Asheboro, NCRichard Petty’s high performancespeed shop in Level Cross, five Ran-dolph Community College studentswere able to participate in a uniquejob-shadowing experience.
Petty’s Garage technicians spent aweek training three Automotive Sys-tems Technology students and two Col-lision Repair & Refinishing Technologystudents. RCC has been affiliated withthe Richard Petty brand since its state-
of-the-art automotive training center,named the Richard Petty EducationCenter, opened in 2009.
According to the RCC instruc-tors, Jacob Garner of Robbins, JacobBrown of Ramseur, Jake Flinchumof Seagrove, Justin Lackey of Trinity,and Israel Velazquez of Asheborowere selected based on interest, avail-ability, and grade point average.
Greg Steadman, shop foremanat Petty’s Garage, said the studentswork on whatever current jobs are inthe shop at the time of the internship.
Students Gain Practical Experience at NC Body Shop
www.autobodynews.com | NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 61
All The Genuine Lexus PartsYou Need For That TroubleFree Repair, And Lexus Finish!
These Dealers Below Are GenuineLexus Parts Distributors:
Axalta Coatings Systems announced onOct. 3 that its ProfitNet™ CollisionShop Management System is now in-terfaced with Dealertrack Technolo-gies Dealer Management System(DMS).
ProfitNet is a software programdesigned to measure and manage allaspects of the collision repair business.The program provides collision shopowners with access to information thatthey may need to help make decisionsregarding the productivity and prof-itability of their business.
The new interface, approved viaDealertrack’s Opentrack CertificationProgram, is an electronic bridge be-tween ProfitNet and the DMS to helpcar dealerships to streamline and cre-ate greater efficiencies in managingparts, labor, and production processeswithin their collision repair centers.
“Dealertrack is proud to partnerwith Axalta Coating Systems to createan interface with their ProfitNet offer-ing that is certified by our OpentrackCertification Program,” says SharonKitzman, Vice President and GeneralManager, DMS, Dealertrack.
The interface is designed to savehours of double-entry of data that isused by both systems.
Axalta Program ProvidesShop Owners With More Data
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and VanTuyl Group announced on October 2that they have entered into a defini-tive agreement in which BerkshireHathaway will acquire the Van TuylGroup, the nation’s largest privately-owned auto dealership group, rankingfifth among all U.S. auto dealershipgroups.
After becoming a part of the Berk-shire Hathaway family of businesses,the company will be known as Berk-shire Hathaway Automotive. The com-pany will continue to be led by LarryVan Tuyl, who will become Chairman,and Jeff Rachor, who will assume therole of CEO, as well as its experiencedsenior management team. Berkshire
Hathaway Automotive will be head-quartered in Dallas, Texas and continueto pursue its strategy of operational ex-cellence and disciplined acquisitiongrowth, which is the business modelthe company has pursued for the last 62years.
“The Van Tuyl Group fits per-fectly into Berkshire Hathaway fromboth a financial and cultural view-point. Larry Van Tuyl along with hisfather, Cecil, spent decades buildingoutstanding dealerships operated bylocal partners. In recent years, he hasshared management with Jeff Rachor,a seasoned auto retailer who will re-tain a financial interest in all dealer-ships. The Van Tuyl Group enjoys
excellent relations with the major automanufacturers and delivers unusuallyhigh volumes at its 78 locations. Thisis just the beginning for BerkshireHathaway Automotive,” said Berk-shire Hathaway’s Chairman and CEO,Warren Buffett.
“We are proud of all that has beenaccomplished with the support of ourdealer partners, our employees and themanufacturers that we represent. Weare very pleased to have one of theworld’s most respected companies,Berkshire Hathaway, assume owner-ship of our company with the commit-ment to preserving our unique culture,business model and philosophy,” saidVan Tuyl. “I cannot think of a better
steward to continue the legacy of whatmy father and I have built over the last62 years, and I am confident this trans-action will position the company on acourse of continued success.”
The transaction is expected to becompleted in the first quarter of 2015and is subject to obtaining approvalsfrom the major auto manufacturers aswell as certain customary closing con-ditions, including various regulatoryapprovals.
Stephens Inc. is serving as finan-cial advisor to Van Tuyl Group. DLAPiper is providing legal advice to VanTuyl Group, and Munger, Tolles &Olson LLP is providing legal advice toBerkshire Hathaway.
Berkshire Hathaway to Acquire Van Tuyl Group, Largest Privately-Owned Auto Dealership Group
CCC Information Services Inc. an-nounced the addition of the Aftermar-ket Auto Parts Alliance (Alliance) as asupplier to the CCC TRUE™ PartsNetwork on October 16.
The Alliance, which goes to mar-ket under a variety of store brands in-cluding Auto Value and Bumper toBumper, becomes a significant contrib-utor of mechanical parts and repair sup-plies to CCC TRUE Parts Network.
“Providing our customers with ac-
cess to the Alliance’s extensive offeringof repair parts and related supplies viatheir robust MyPlaceForParts™ net-work extends our footprint and providesour repair and insurance customers witheven greater choice and flexibility intheir parts options,” said David Boden,VP, CCC’s Parts Services Group.
“We look forward to workingwith the Alliance and integrating itsparts inventory with CCC TRUE PartsNetwork.”
“Collision repair shops have atremendous need for easy access to me-chanical repair parts and supplies,” saidJon Owens, Vice President of salesand market development for the Al-liance. “Streamlining that access wasthe purpose of our participating in theCCC TRUE Parts Network and wecould not be more delighted with theopportunity to bring our extensive in-ventory to CCC’s customers.”
CCC ONE® Workflow users will
now have access to the Alliance’s net-work of over 2,200 locations that stocknearly 2,000,000 repair parts and suppliesfor both import and domestic vehicles.
Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance Joins CC TRU Parts Network
Search:Autobody Newson Facebook
NITROHEAT announced on Octo-ber 20 that it will be launching a newproduct range of high performancecompressed air filters, dryers andheaters at SEMA. This new productrange incorporates NITROHEAT’Snew patent pending tablet and smartphone controlled heaters, the first ofits kind in the industry. This tech-nology allows users to remotelycontrol and monitor temperatures ofthe compressed air and nitrogenheaters used in the spray paintingprocess.
Clean dry air has always beena fundamental requirement for spraypainting as well as pneumatic toolusage. This technology from NI-TROHEAT will supply the cleanest,driest air possible for optimal bene-fits to compressed air requirementsand maximum return on investment.
Nitroheat’s proven technologyin the process of “Nitrogen on De-mand” has been widely used sinceinception. This additional technol-ogy opens up a broader market inthe painting and compressed air sec-tor.
The product can be seen at theSEMA expo in Las Vegas from Nov.4-7 at booth 11421.
NITROHEAT Launches NewProduct at SEMA
62 NOVEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Clean Sheets® Mixing Boards are used by thousands of repair shops to mix epoxies, body !ller, !berglass, plastics, gel, puttyand touch-up paint.•••••••••••••••••••••••• P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Prererererererererererererererererererererererererererererererereveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveventntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntnts s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s cocococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococostststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststlylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylyly r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r 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Millsboro Automart hosted a grandopening celebration Oct. 22, at thenew facility at 28362 DuPont Blvd.,Millsboro, De. Millsboro Automarthas long been a part of the PrestonAutomotive Group and first openedin Nov. 1987, according to reportsin stardem.com.
This past year, Preston Automo-tive President Dave Wilson Sr. de-cided to tear down the old buildingand build a whole new facility thatwould reflect the mission of thegroup. It is to provide a superiorworkplace for its associates so that asa team it can provide its customerswith a superior consumer experience,according to a news release fromPreston Automotive.
“We will express our love forevery customer daily, and create anexperience that will result in our cus-tomers choosing the Preston Auto-motive Group for all the services weprovide,” Wilson said in the release.
Now open to the public, the all-new used car and service facility ac-commodates more than 120 usedcars and trucks on the lot and fivenew service bays that are availablefor oil changes, tire rotations and allother car repairs or service.
Millsboro Automart HostsGrand Opening in DE
Father and Son Indicted in Counterfeit Scheme Out of Their MA Body ShopA father and son have been indictedin connection with running a counter-feit motor vehicle inspection stickerscheme out of their Dorchester, MAbody shop, Attorney General MarthaCoakley announced on September30.
Jose Sostre, age 61, of Avon,and his son, Tommy Sostre, age 28,of Brockton, were arraigned on Sep-tember 29 by a Suffolk County GrandJury.
Jose Sostre was accused of Coun-terfeiting Motor Vehicle InspectionStickers (4 counts), Uttering or Pub-lishing as True Counterfeit Motor Ve-hicle Inspection Stickers (4 counts),Conspiracy to Counterfeit Motor Ve-hicle Inspection Stickers, Conspiracyto Utter or Publishing as True Coun-terfeit Inspection Stickers, and Posses-sion of a Firearm without an FirearmsIdentification (FID) Card.
Tommy Sostre was indicted oncharges of Counterfeiting Motor Ve-hicle Inspection Stickers (20 counts),Uttering or Publishing as True Coun-terfeit Motor Vehicle InspectionStickers (20 counts), Conspiracy toCounterfeit Motor Vehicle InspectionStickers, and Conspiracy to Utter orPublishing as True Counterfeit In-spection Stickers.
Both defendants were arraigned inSuffolk Superior Court on October 20.
“We allege that these defendantscreated and issued counterfeit inspec-tion stickers to vehicles that otherwisewould not pass safety or emissions in-spections, violating laws intended tokeep our roads safe and our air clean,”AG Coakley said.
“This was an egregious phonysticker scam developed and painstak-ingly investigated by working collab-oratively with our sister agencies andour law enforcement partners,” saidMassDEP Commissioner DavidCash. “Together we are able to lever-age enforcement resources, hone inon suspected fraud and ferret out per-petrators so that consumers are pro-tected and everyone plays on a levelplaying field.”
In the spring of 2013, the AG’sOffice began an investigation afterthe matter was initially investigatedand referred by MassDEP and theMassachusetts Registry of Motor Ve-hicles (RMV).
Between Aug. 2013 and Oct.2013, Jose and Tommy Sostre al-legedly created and issued a largenumber of counterfeit inspection stick-ers at Tony’s Auto, which at the timewas a licensed motor vehicle inspec-
tion station in Dorchester owned byTommy.
Authorities allege that Jose andTommy created a large number ofcounterfeit inspection stickers byusing official inspection sticker stockon to which they cut and pasted vari-ous pieces of fraudulent information.They then allegedly affixed those“passing” counterfeit stickers on tonumerous vehicles that did not passsafety or emissions inspections, or onto vehicles that weren’t inspected atall. According to authorities, Jose andTommy would charge customers morefor these counterfeit passing inspec-tion stickers.
Investigators found physical evi-dence at Tony’s Auto that supportedthe charges. Investigators also discov-ered an illegal firearm allegedly be-longing to Jose, who did not have aFID card.
Tony’s Auto is not currently au-thorized to provide motor vehicle in-spections.
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