autobody news april 2011 western edition

Rich Evans Fronts Speed’s TV Hit Car Warriors

Car Warriors is the new hit TV showon Speed. It’s the fastest, most action-packed custom-car show in the chan-nel’s history. Each week, the pros, anAll-Star regular-cast team of eightrenowned car builders, six men andtwo women, is confronted by a shopteam of eight car builders, also prosbut not so well-known. In three sleep-deprived 24-hour days, each teammust take the same stripped down ve-hicle, which they see for the first timeon day one, and turn it into an auto-motive work of art. What ensues is amarathon of frenzied car constructionthat taxes each team member to his orher limits.

It’s a grueling, intense, 72-hour,no-holds-barred car customizingbuild-off, in which the challengers—ifthey win—drive off in both completedcustom vehicles.

But the All-Stars aren’t calledthat for nothing. In every episode theytry to school the challengers in hardknocks by bringing their talent, drive,and creativity to a new level.

Needless to say, it’s a deathmatch of egos, ideas, and energy, witha good amount of over-the-top divabehavior tempered by the occasionalhissy fit. And we’re not just talkingabout the guys here.

See CAR WARRIORS, Page 46

Japan’s Quake, Tsunami Roils US Auto Industry

f there was ever any doubt that theauto industry is now a completelyglobal enterprise, Japan’s devastatingquake, wave, and nuclear disaster isproving that no automaker can go italone. One week after the devastatingtsunami the situation is still criticaland most of Japan’s huge auto indus-try is teetering, costing the global in-dustry hundreds of millions of dollars.● On Thursday, March 17, AmericanHonda Motor Co. Executive VicePresident John Mendel sent a memoto U.S. Honda and Acura dealers say-ing the disaster in Japan will disruptdealer orders into May.● General Motors’ Shreveport, La,

factory, which builds the ChevroletColorado and GMC Canyon pickups,closed because it ran out of a Japan-ese part that it did not identify. GMsaid March 19 it is cutting unneces-sary spending companywide as it as-sesses the impact of production

See Auto Tsunami, Page 9

REGIONAL STORIES in this issue...SD CAA Chapter Discusses I-CAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 4AZ Senate Considers Texting Ban . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 4City Auto Body Moves to Larger Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 6CA and NV Bills Address Tire Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 8Pasadena-Foothills CAA Talks LKQ, SEMA, I-CAR . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 13East Bay CAA Meets With EEEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 14CAWA Holds Aftermarket Summit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 18911 Collision’s ‘66 Mustang For Local Charities . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 19

COLUMNS in this issue...Gonzo’s Toolbox—A Quick Diagnositic Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 29Franklin—Get on the Cosmetic Car Upgrade Bandwagon . . . . . .p. 26Hey Toby—Keeping Your Shop Clear of OSHA Violations . . . . . .p. 51Amaradio—Underqualified Repairers Hurt the Whole Industry . .p. 55Danalevich—Shop Strategies for Savings: Business Insurance .p. 49Yoswick—Repairers and Recyclers Improve Interactions . . . . . .p. 44Rich Evans—Remaking a 41 Chevy with an English Wheel . . . .p. 53Insurance Insider—DRPs and Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 50Espersen— Are You TSB Savvy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 22Sisk—AASP/NJ’s Northeast™ 2011 Trade Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 32

Car Warriors airs on Speed at 6pm PST on WednesdaysSee facebook.com/Car Warriors, facebook.com/Rich Evans Designsor facebook.com/Autobody News for more in links and photos

as Yen surges, prices likely to climb

Autobody News’ Custom Columnist Rich Evans (kneeling) and the red-shirted All Stars take on anew blue-shirted Challenger team every week in Speed’s new TV hit Car Warriors

Rich Evans’ Car Warriors Interview by Ed Attanasio

PAINT FOCUS ARTICLES in this issue...Major NJ Shop Switches to BASF Waterborne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 11BASF Sponsors Northeast™ 2011 Waterborne Panel . . . . . . . . .p. 47Drying Waterborne in the Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 34Paint Complaint Does Not Have to Mean an Unhappy Customer p. 38

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REGIONAL

911 Collision’s Retro-Mod ‘66 Mustang for

Tucson Charities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

AASP/NJ’s NORTHEAST 2011 Show Fills the

Aisles at the Meadowlands . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Amended AZ Anti-Steering Bill Passes

Caucus Vote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

AZ Senate Considering Bill to Ban Texting

While Driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Bills in California and Nevada Address Tire

Pressure Rules & Fines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

California/Nevada/Arizona Automotive

Wholesalers Assn. Holds Aftermarket

Summit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

California’s Median Auto Insurance Rate

Decreases 3% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

City Auto Body in Simi Valley, California,

Moves to Larger Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Dallas Repairer Donates to Local High Schools. 27

East Bay CAA Members Meet with

Representatives from Three EEEC Agencies . 14

Georgia Collision Industry Conducts Labor

Rates Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Nevada Drivers React to Proposed Car

Insurance Hike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Oklahoma House Committee Approves

Texting Ban . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Pasadena-Foothills CAA Meeting Talks LKQ,

SEMA, and I-CAR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Pennsylvania Auto Safety Report is an “F” . . 58

San Diego CAA Chapter Discusses I-CAR

Course Restructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Toyotetsu Texas Wins Toyota Suppliers Award. 37

Wade Ford Atlanta Chooses an Alternative

Diagnostic Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

COLUMNS

Amaradio - Underqualified Repairers Hurt

the Whole Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Attanasio, BASF - Switching to BASF

Waterborne for the Green Reasons . . . . . . 11

Chess - Make Sure Your Shop is Clear of

these Glaring OSHA Violations . . . . . . . . . 51

Danalevich - Business Liability Insurance:

Remember to Review Your Policy! . . . . . . 49

Espersen - Are You Technical Service

Bulletin Savvy?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Evans - Remaking a 1941 Chevy Deluxe

Back-End with an English Wheel . . . . . . . . 53

Franklin - Get on the Cosmetic Car Upgrade

Bandwagon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Insurance Insider - DRPs and Fear—Hope for

a Reduction in the Number of Shops. . . . . 50

Schroeder - Bates Custom and Collision – “A

Company With a Heart for Community” . . 42

Sisk - AASP/NJ’s Northeast™ 2011 Trade Show

—A Wealth of Information for Shops . . . . 32

Sisk - Keenan Autobody Cares about Cars,

Charity, and the Environment . . . . . . . . . . 24

Weaver - A Quick Diagnostic Can Seem too

Good to be True . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Yoswick - Effort to Develop Collision Repair

Standards Takes Another Step Forward. . . 40

Yoswick - Paint Complaint Does Not Have to

Mean Unhappy Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Yoswick - Recyclers, Repairers Look for Ways

to Improve Business Interactions . . . . . . . 44

NATIONAL

ABRA Auto Body & Glass Announces New VP

of Auto Glass Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

After Years of Debate, NCOIL Ends Aftermarket

Crash Parts Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Airbag Risk Prompts Recall of 144,000 Ford

Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

ASA Invites Collision Repairers to Washington

to ‘Take the Hill,’ May 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

ASA Opposes Proposed Ore. Right to

Repair Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

BMW Brands Plan Increased Use of

Carbon Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

CARSTAR Pres., Dan Bailey, to Return to

Own Franchise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Conn. Association Pivots on Total-Loss

Measure Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Groupon Succeeds in Helping Body Shops

Reach Out to New Local Customers . . . . . 23

IIHS: Big Rig Underride Guards Often Fail

in Crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Japan’s Quake, Tsunami Roils US

Auto Industry.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

LKQ Reports Record Financial Results

for 2010. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

New Version of ALLDATA Manage 4.9

Enhances Electronic Parts Ordering With

Additional Selection of Parts Suppliers . . . 28

NSF International Settles Spat with CAPA by

Dropping Suit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

PreFab Ads Introduces Three New TV Spots

for Body Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Quake Damage Stalls Japanese Auto Sales

in the U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Rich Evans Fronts Speed’s TV Hit

Car Warriors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Texas-based Service King Will Acquire another

MLO, Alamo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Contents

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

Serving California, Nevada and Arizona, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Per-mission to reproduce in any form the material publishedin Autobody News must be obtained in writing from thepublisher. ©2011 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsP.O. Box 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018(800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.comEmail: [email protected]

Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . .54Autoland Scientech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29Automotive ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18BASF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . .41British Motor Car Distributors . . . . . . . .19Buerge Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . . . . .17Carlsen Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42Chief Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58Crevier BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14Downtown Motors of LA

(Audi, VW, Porsche) . . . . . . . . . . . . .47Drew Hyundai-Volkswagen . . . . . . . . . .24DuPont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Elk Grove Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40Enterprise Rent-A-Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

AZ, CA, & NV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Galpin Motors . . . . . . . . . . .25, 30-31, 35Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . .48Harbor Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Honda/Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers .49Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . .50Insurance Auto Auctions . . . . . . . . . . .12Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . .39LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27Mattei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . .44Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .57MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .33Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealers .43Normandin Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . .18PartsCheck Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60Power Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . . . . . .7PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2PreFab Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Quality Stainless Products . . . . . . . . . . .6Rare Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4RBL Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Rely-On Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Replica Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51Riverside Metro VW-Honda-Hyundai-

Nissan-Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . .13Scorpion Coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Sherwin-Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15Sierra Chevrolet-Honda-Mazda-Subaru .36Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .45Timmons VW-Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . .54VIM Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers .52Volvo Crash Wholesale Dealers . . . . . .56Weatherford BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Inde

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Western


AZ Senate Considering Bill to Ban Texting While DrivingArizona motorists could soon losetheir ability to text, according to theEast Valley Tribune.

They would, however, still beable to call. In fact, they even couldwatch a movie on their cell phones,play video games and even run aspread sheet calculation while bar-relling down the road.

But that list of exceptions did notdiscourage Sen.AlMelvin, R-Tucson,from pushing ahead with his legisla-tion to ban driving while texting. Hesaid something is better than nothing.

“The sole motive of this bill is tosave lives,’’ said Melvin of SB 1538.Violators would be subject to a $50fine, with $150 added on if there wasan accident.

The idea drew derision from Sen.Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City.Aside from all the exceptions of whatdrivers still could do with theirphones, he said the measure is unen-

forceable because, absent a confes-sion, a police officer will not be ableto tell whether the device was beingused for texting or something else.

“To which the officer then says,‘Let me see your phone,’ to which theinformed citizen motorist says, ‘Letme see your warrant,’ ‘’ Gould said.

He said that’s why the city ofPhoenix, which already has such a ban,has had fewer than a dozen citations is-sued. But Melvin said that proves justhaving the law on the books is deter-ring motorists from texting.

Melvin did agree to create an ex-ception for motorists who find them-selves stalled in traffic jams.

“People could go ahead and textto their heart’s content,’’ he said. Butthey could not whip out their phones ifthe only reason the vehicle isn’t movingis because of a traffic light or stop sign.

The measure needs a roll-callvote before going to the House.

The San Diego chapter of the Califor-nia Autobody Association (CAA) heldtheir monthly meeting on March 15 atTom Ham’s Lighthouse in San Diego.

The San Diego chapter is encour-aging members to share different effi-ciency techniques with the group ateach meeting, which they call “Tipsfrom the Top.” This month PaulAmato, owner of Amato’s Auto Bodyin San Diego, spoke about some trickshe uses around the shop to makethings run a little more smoothly.

First Amato talked about thosevery particular customers everyone isfamiliar with. Amato said he puts a redstar sticker on the front and rear of a carwhen the owner is known to be veryparticular about their vehicle. This wayit is easy for everyone involved in thevehicle’s repair to anticipate the cus-tomer’s expectations and reaction.

Amato also recommended thatshops install an air dry system in theirpaint booths. “You cannot shoot waterwithout a [good] air supply system,”said Amato.

His final tip was to use blueprintdrawers that are long and shallow toseparate vehicle clips. At his shop hemakes the drawers community draw-

ers so all body tech-nicians are using thesame clips. He sepa-rates them by makeand color. This elim-inates a lot of dupli-cate spending onclips and makes theclips easier to find.

“When you thinkoutside the box,you’re going to make

more money,” said Amato.The night’s invited speaker was

Gene Lopez, Southwest RegionalManager for the Inter-Industry Con-ference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR).

Lopez, who recently won theCAA’s 2010 Darrell Mallot Award,spoke about I-CAR’s recent changes

in front of about30 attendees. I-CAR’s mission isto have everyonein the collision in-dustry have thenecessary knowl-edge and skills toachieve a completeand safe repair.

I-CAR recently restructured theircourses and the requirements to be ei-ther a Platiunum Individual or a GoldClass Shop.

Lopez said I-CAR has spent thelast 3 years getting feedback from theindustry about how I-CAR can bettermeet their requirements.

“It is important to take programsrelevant to your position,” said Lopez.

The new structure is also level-based, which helps to support continu-ous development. This way employees

and shop owners aren’t just taking anycourses to fill points needs, they aretaking courses directed for what theywill be doing every day on the job.

I-CAR has also revamped theirwebsite and their My I-CAR accountoptions so employers can keep better

track of their course progress.There are only about 4,000 I-

CAR Gold Class businesses nation-wide. Lopez says this distinction canhelp businesses stand out.

“Be someone different than yourcompetitors,” said Lopez.

The old course point standardsfor Gold Class businesses and Plat-

inum Individuals can stillapply until a business’s re-newal date in 2011.

“We will makeyour technicians more ef-ficient,” said Lopez.

He also mentionedthat I-CAR is discussingmaking the program avail-able to students at localcommunity colleges. Thatway students are comingout of college with the

type of training auto repair businessesare looking for.

For more information please visitwww.i-car.com. If you are interestedin learning more about I-CARcourses, please contact Gene Lopez [email protected].

San Diego CAA Chapter Discusses I-CAR Course Restructuring

The whole crew at Amato’s Auto Body in Sorrento Valley, Calif.

Gene Lopez


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City Auto Body in Simi Valley, CA,has been in business for 31 years. Un-like a lot of local businesses that aredownsizing, City Auto Body held anopen house for their new, larger loca-tion on March 15.

Owner Gary White decided tobuild his own shop on an adjacentproperty from the leased shop thebusiness is currently located in.

“The new building is about 25%larger than the current place,” said White.

The building cost about $2.5 mil-lion, including the property itself andthe building costs for the shop—butit’s an investment White anticipateswill pay off in the long run.

“We’re sort of a staple in Simi

Valley because we’ve been here solong, but news of the new buildingwill probably generate some new cus-tomers,” said White.

Although the business has not of-ficially moved into the new building

yet, the building is finished and anopen house was held on March 15.

White anticipates the businesswill move into the new building in thecoming weeks.

Although the business will not behiring any new staff to work in thenew location, they did purchase andupgrade some new equipment for thespace.

White said they put in a newGlobal heated semi-downdraft spraybooth, along with the old spray booththey will be moving from the currentlocation, and purchased some new ve-hicle lifts.

City Auto Body & Automotive2045 Easy WaySimi Valley CA 93065805-581-1671www.cityautobody.net.

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Amended AZ Anti-Steering Bill Passes Caucus VoteAn Arizona bill that could adapt thestate’s insurance code to include lan-guage about auto glass inspectionspassed the state Senate’s majority andminority caucuses March 1, and nowwill proceed to the committee of thewhole, and, after that, a third readingbefore the full state Senate, accordingto glassBYTES.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. JohnMcComish, contains several provi-sions related to the industry, includingone that would prohibit insurers andthird-party administrators (TPAs) fromcausing “a delay in the inspection of apolicyholder’s auto glass condition inthe handling of a policyholder’s claimregardless of which repair facility thepolicyholder chooses.”

Though the original bill con-tained a provision that would haveprohibited insurers and TPAS fromhaving a financial interest in auto glassreplacement companies, that provisionwas removed by the Banking and In-surance Committee, which voted topass the amended bill in February.

The committee also had voted toremove a provision in the bill thatwould have required that, in the caseof an auto glass inspection, “the in-spector must be a direct employee ofthe insurer or an independent party

who is unrelated and unaffiliated withany glass repair facility.”

The current language of the billallows TPAs to recommend a glass re-pair facility to a customer, but requireswhen doing so, that they “inform theperson of the right prescribed … tochoose any glass repair facility for therepair of the loss relating to motor ve-hicle glass at the same time as makingthe recommendation or providing in-formation.”

However, it prohibits independ-ent adjusters, auto damage appraisersor claims inspectors from making aglass shop recommendation.

Sen. McComish said that theamendments to the original bill word-ing came from work with both insur-ance company representatives andrepresentatives for Safelite.

“After talking with the insurancepeople as well as Safelite as well asthose representing the independent in-stallers, we decided to soften the billto provide a penalty for those that aresteering, as opposed to the originalbill, which would alter the businessmodel for someone like Safelite,” hesaid. “The revised version of theamendment provides penalties forthose that do the steering, but doesn’taffect Safelite’s business model.”

City Auto Body’s outside access to its newspray booth

The new City Auto Body is on an adjacent, albeit larger, lot from their current location

The newly purchased vehicle lifts

Bays at the new building await cars


A California state senator has intro-duced a bill to reduce the penaltiesauto repairers face if they don’t checkthe tire pressures on every vehiclethey service, according to Rubber &Plastics News. Exempt from the regu-lations are auto body and paint facili-ties, auto glass installers, auto partsdistributors, auto wreckers or disman-tlers.

The California Air ResourcesBoard issued its tire pressure ruleSept. 1, 2010, two days after the Cal-ifornia Office of Administrative Lawapproved it. The OAL had rejectedtwo previous versions of the regula-tion for not meeting the state’s stan-dards for clarity and necessity.

Promulgated expressly for green-house gas reduction, the CARB regu-lation requires an estimated 40,000auto service providers in California tocheck and if necessary adjust the pres-sure on the tires of every vehicle theyservice or repair up to 10,000 lbs.gross vehicle weight, except for mo-torcycles and off-road vehicles.

The regulation states that autoservice providers must use tire gauges

with an error range of no more than 2psi; have access to a tire inflation ref-erence document not more than threeyears old; note on invoices that tire in-flation was performed; and keepcopies of the invoices for at least threeyears to make available to CARB in-spectors upon request.

Tire pressure checks aren’t nec-essary if customers refuse the serviceor repairers deem the tires unsafe.However, invoices must note why thechecks weren’t performed.

According to a Frequently AskedQuestions section on the CARB web-site dated October 2010, auto repair-ers were expected to begin complyingwith the tire pressure regulation im-mediately, but staff was available tohelp implement the rule and answerquestions regarding compliance.

Garages also don’t have to waitfor tires to cool down after beingbrought in for service to perform tirechecks, the FAQ stated.

The regulation as currently writ-ten allows for fines of up to $1,000 perviolation, but SB 211—introducedFeb. 8 by Sen. Bill Emmerson, R-

Hemet—would limit penalties to nomore than $20 for the first violationand $50 for each subsequent violation.

This reduction would be a boonfor California tire dealers and auto re-pairers, according to Terry Leveille,legislative representative for the Cali-fornia Tire Dealers Association.

“This bill is more of a fine-tunethan a drastic change,” Leveille said.“We accept the rationale of fuel effi-ciency, but if there’s a problem wedon’t want any of our members goingto jail. It should be akin to a seat-beltlaw.”

Leveille said that, to his knowl-edge, no CTDA member has beencited for violating the tire pressurelaw. “I don’t even think any of ourmembers have been inspected yet,” hesaid.

Although CARB said it wouldhave its staff go to repair shops to ed-ucate them about the new rule, Lev-eille said he hadn’t heard of thathappening.

“They’re relying on organiza-tions like us to get the word out,” hesaid. “But Sam’s Auto Shop in Mon-

tebello, without professional affilia-tions, might not have been informed.”

No hearings have yet been sched-uled for SB 211, according to aspokeswoman for Sen. Emmerson.

Meanwhile, a Nevada state sena-tor has introduced his own bill to forcetire dealers and auto repairers to checkvehicle tire pressures, arguing for themeasure as a safety and energy-savingtool. Sen. Mike Schneider, D-LasVegas, introduced the tire pressurelegislation in the Nevada Senate.

SB 144 would require auto re-pairers to check and adjust the tirepressure on every vehicle they serviceor repair, or face losing their operat-ing registrations. The Nevada SenateCommittee on Transportation held ahearing on SB 144 Feb. 17, but tookno action on the bill.

According to a report from theLas Vegas Review-Journal, Sen.Schneider touted his bill as a necessityon both safety and environmentalgrounds, but other senators questionedwhether garage owners would be heldliable if a tire blew out and caused anaccident after being checked.

Bills in California and Nevada Address Tire Pressure Rules & Fines

disruptions from the earthquake andtsunami in Japan.● Toyota Motor Corp. and Subaru ofIndiana Automotive Inc. slowedNorth American production to rationtheir parts. Toyota’s initial freeze inproduction has been extended untilMarch 22. In an attempt to limit the fi-nancial losses that will come as a re-sult of the production freeze, Toyotaalso announced its decision to resumethe production of spare parts for vehi-cles already on the market beginningThursday, March 17.● Last week U.S. Customs directed allport operations to begin screening ar-riving Japanese sea and air cargo, in-cluding vehicles and auto parts, forradiation contamination.● At Sonic Automotive Inc., the na-tion’s third-largest dealership group,Jeff Dyke, executive vice president ofretail operations, said Sonic “is pre-pared to supplement our new-vehicleinventory with quality nearly newused vehicles should the manufactur-ing disruptions interrupt new vehicle

inventory supplies longer than cur-rently anticipated.”

Automotive News Writer LindsayChappell reports that as Japan’s escalat-ing disaster comes ashore in NorthAmer-ica, automakers, suppliers and dealers arepreparing for what could be unprece-dented shortages of parts and vehicles.● While Honda was the hardest hit ofOEMs in Japan, more than 80% ofHonda and Acura products sold in theU.S. are produced in NorthAmerica, andthe vast majority of automotive parts forHonda automobiles manufactured inNorthAmerica are sourced in the region.● Nissan Americas manufacturing op-erations plan to follow a normal pro-duction schedule for at least untilFriday, March 25. The supply chain isbeing continuously assessed. Nissansaid all North American manufactur-ing plants will continue to operate onschedule. It does not expect any short-term impact on sales or availability ofcars and trucks. In addition, the com-pany has a 50 days’ supply of vehiclestock in North America or already intransit from Japanese ports.● Autoliv Inc., the world’s biggestproducer of car safety products likeseatbelts and airbags, said production

had been halted at one of its threeJapanese plants, although all theplants were undamaged. Autoliv sup-plies Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi,Honda, and Mazda.● Mazda Motor Corporation previ-ously announced the suspension ofproduction at its Hiroshima and Hofuplants from the night shift on March14, until March 21.● Mark Fields of Ford said the com-pany was assessing production on aday-to-day basis.

That it was GM—rather than oneof the Japanese automakers, which de-pend on many parts from their homecountry—that succumbed first to theshortage shows how much the indus-try depends on far-flung suppliers. ButToyota and Honda have shut theirplants in Japan until next week as theytry to repair damaged facilities, assessthe state of their suppliers and deter-mine how to restart production safely.

“The modern auto industry hasnever faced a natural or humancalamity on the scale of today’s crisisin Japan,” Michael Robinet, the di-rector of global production forecastsfor the research firm IHS Automotive,wrote in a report.

G.M. said its assembly plant inShreveport, La., which makes a pairof compact pickup truck models,would be closed for at least a week,starting March 21.

The company said it would resumeoperations there as soon as possible, butgave no estimated date for doing so.

“Like all global automakers, wewill continue to follow the events inJapan closely to determine the businessimpact, working across the organizationto maximize flexibility, supply the mostcritical operations and effectively man-age cost,” G.M. said in a statement.

Production at Ford Motor has notbeen affected, but officials are still as-sessing the situation, Mark Fields, thepresident of Ford’s Americas division,said. “It’s literally an hour-by-hour,day-by-day type of thing that’s goingto unfold,” he told reporters at an eventto commemorate the start of produc-tion of the new Ford Focus compactcar near Detroit. “We have to first un-derstand what is the situation there,and then we’ll determine the appropri-ate actions that we need to take.”

So far, all auto plants in NorthAmerica have stayed open despite the


See Auto Tsunami, Page 25

Continued from Page 1

Auto Tsunami


SHOP & PRODUCTSHOP & PRODUCTSHOWCASESHOWCASE

As almost every body shop managerin this country knows, waterbornepaint is a proven commodity in thecollision repair industry and shopsoutside of California are gradually butdecidedly heading in that direction. Asfederal regulations and air qualitymanagement agencies apply pres-sure designed to nudge more statestowards lower VOCs, some bodyshops in parts of the country will un-doubtedly resist change, while otherswill embrace it for its wide range ofbenefits.

Some multiple shop operatorsdoing business in California havebeen able to leverage their experi-ence in California to adopt water-borne elsewhere across the country.For example, Sterling Autobody Cen-ters announced last year that theyhave implemented waterborne net-work-wide, but that is not yet thenorm. So it’s interesting that a largeNew Jersey collision facility went towaterborne recently not because thelaws mandated the conversion, butbecause they wanted to take the highroad in being green and helping boththeir employees and the environment.

They’re hoping that it will lead tomore business, additional DRPs andan enhanced overall reputationthroughout their communityKeith Hol-loway is the body shop manager atDCH Brunswick Toyota Collision Cen-ter in Brunswick, New Jersey, wherehe oversees the operation of a 43,000square foot collision center and su-pervises 35 employees as they fix230-250 vehicles per month, he said.

After DCH Brunswick Toyota Col-lision Center’s contract with anotherpaint company’s solvent product lastyear, BASF’s eco-friendly Onyx HDwaterborne basecoat system won outover several competing paint lines.

“We did some extensive researchand BASF’s Onyx HD waterbornebasecoat had the best performanceand overall value for us. We tookpaint proposals from five differentvendors, but BASF stood out be-cause in the end they offered the bestproduct and service package. Wewent with BASF because we thoughtthey would help us grow, and we alsolearned that the Onyx HD waterbornebasecoat system is compliant with theEPA regulations and the laws that arecoming out in 2011 and 2012. Thatwas definitely something we wantedto work toward, so that’s why wesigned with the company.”

Holloway values BASF’s supportand education. “We’ve been very im-pressed by their service and follow-

through. We’re still testing our water-borne and tweaking the way we’reusing it, and BASF has been by ourside every step of the way. The paintis good, there’s no doubt. But what’sreally pleased us the most is the sup-port they’ve provided, especially fromour BASF Business DevelopmentManager Kent Leonard and TomSmetanka, our jobber with CentralPaint in Trenton, New Jersey.”

It wasn’t an easy conversionfrom solvent to waterborne, Hollowayadmitted, but in the end it’s payingoff. “We’re still in the process to de-termine how compatible our produc-tion process is with the BASFwaterborne product, and so far it’sdoing a very good job for us. It didtake us 6-8 weeks to get our staff upto speed with this product, and ourpainters did have to go to BASF’straining center in Maryland so theycould get acclimated to the productand learn all of the do’s and don’t’sof working with it.”

Learning BASF’s waterborne sys-tem wasn’t a no-brainer, Hollowaysaid. “It’s quite a bit different and thepainters have to slow down to taketheir time with this waterborne. Thepaint is not as fast-acting as solvent,and I’m not going to tell you that it waseasy. BASF has a great product andthe process of applying it took us awhile to get up to speed, but we’renow running very efficiently with thewaterborne product.”

The federal requirements aregoing to get tougher in March, be-cause certain high VOC products willbe banned from use in body shopsnationwide, Holloway explained. Painttechnicians are going to have to get

more certifications for completing theproper courses to satisfy the federalmandates.

“Body shops nationwide will haveto go through EPA inspections toshow that what we’re sending out intothe air is not going to hurt the envi-ronment,” Holloway said. “Theprocess started one-and-a-half yearsago when the EPA started sendingout notices and informing shops thatthat things were going to start chang-ing this March, little by little.”The statelaws in New Jersey aren’t mandatingthe use of waterborne paint (yet), butHolloway is already reading the writ-ing, or painting in this case, on thewall.

“They’re not forcing shops to do ityet, but we want to be ahead of thegame when it goes into effect in 2012.We want to be an innovator in this in-dustry and be able to offer the publicand the insurance companies some-thing many shops can’t offer themright now, which is the benefits of wa-terborne paint. Going green and giv-ing something back to help the planet;those are things we want to be in-volved in.”

Has Holloway seen evidence thatconverting to BASF waterborne willeventually help the bottom line atDCH Brunswick, Toyota? “The wordis definitely out that we’re now offeringsomething different, which positionsus in a better light with consumers.We feature it in our advertising, butpeople in this area don’t really under-stand it completely yet. It’s about ed-ucating everyone about this product.Once they know the all the benefits ofwaterborne, it will gain momentumhere, I believe.”

The DCH Collision Center has reportedtop-notch color matching since they adoptedBASF’s ecofriendly Onyx HD waterbornebasecoat system

DCH Toyota BrunswickCollision CenterLocation: North Brunswick, NJ

Telephone: 888-512-7805www.dchbrunswicktoyota.com

Company At A Glance...

Type: Collision Repair

Facility Employees: 35

In Business Since: 2000

DRP Programs: Two

Number of Locations: One

Combined Production Space:43,000 square feet

BASFCompany Contact: David BrezStrategic Initiatives ManagerPhone: 951-315-1395 (Mobile)email: [email protected]: www.basfrefinish.com

Keith Holloway, the new body shop manager at DCH Collision Center in Brunswick, NJ, was onthe team that converted his shop to BASF’s eco-friendly Onyx HD waterborne basecoat system

Switching to BASF Waterborne for the GreenReasons

The DCH Collision Center paints 230-250vehicles during an average month

by Ed Attanasio


On March 21 NSF International dis-missed its lawsuit against the Certi-fied Automotive Parts Association(CAPA) and Executive Director, JackGillis, which was filed in response toCAPA and Gillis’ letter widely circu-lated on July 28, 2010. In the letterGillis criticized the Auto Body PartsAssociation (ABPA) for its decisionto support the parts certification planintroduced by NSF International.

In the agreement, CAPA andGillis agreed not to, either orally or inwriting, make false and defamatorystatements of fact about NSF.

NSF said it believes the recordhas been sufficiently cleared that con-tinued litigation would be a distrac-tion from NSF’s real work in testingand certifying aftermarket parts, andthus would not be in the best interestof the aftermarket parts industry orconsumers.

NSF said it agreed to dismiss itscase against CAPA and Gillis to focuson continuing to grow its business.

“There should be no doubt inanyone’s mind that NSF Internationalis fully committed to supporting theautomotive aftermarket parts indus-try,” said Bob Frayer of NSF Interna-tional.

ASA Opposes Proposed Ore.Right to Repair ActLegislation has been proposed in theOregon House of Representatives thatwould require manufacturers of motorvehicles to make tools, information,software and wireless capabilitiesavailable to owners, owners’ de-signees and vehicle repair shops. Thisalso includes any other means to acti-vate, code or program electronic con-trols, and modules used to diagnose,maintain or repair motor vehicles. Theproposed Motor Vehicle OwnersRight to Repair Act would rely on thestate court system to ensure independ-ent repairers have the information theyneed to repair their customers’ vehi-cles.

ASA opposes this legislation be-cause it says independent repairers al-ready have access to third-partyinformation providers as well as au-tomaker websites to obtain service in-formation. If concerns arise, repairershave the National Automotive Serv-ice Task Force (NASTF) available toaddress issues related to service in-formation, tools and training.

NASTF is a voluntary, coopera-tive effort among the automotiveservice industry, the equipment andtool industry and automotive manu-facturers.

Airbag Risk Prompts Recall of144,000 Ford VehiclesFord Motor Co said it would recallabout 144,000 F-150 models in theUnited States and Canada from the2005 and 2006 model years due to arisk that airbags could deploy becauseof a short circuit.

The automaker said a mistake inthe assembly of the trucks at its Nor-folk, Virginia plant could cause anairbag wire in the steering wheel toshort circuit.

Ford said that it received an un-specified number of complaints aboutthe airbag problem. In most cases,airbags had deployed just a few sec-onds after the trucks were started.

A response to NHTSA this weekfrom Ford said the automaker be-lieves, “the condition does not pres-ent an unreasonable risk to motorvehicle safety. However, to avoid aprotracted discussion with the agencyand to provide repair to those vehiclesmost likely to exhibit the condition,Ford is recalling those vehicles pro-duced at the Norfolk Assembly Plantfrom November 1, 2004, throughJune 30, 2005.”

Ford has now recalled more than1 million vehicles in the first twomonths of this year, more than the600,000 recalled for all of 2010.

BMW Group brands plan to makemuch greater use of lightweight butstrong carbon fiber, says Ian Robert-son, BMW’s global sales and market-ing boss.

“A carbon spaceframe meansless weight, and less weight meansless fuel consumption,” he said in aninterview at the Geneva auto show.

“Carbon fiber is something we’reinvesting in as a company,” he said.The BMW i3, previously known asthe Megacity Vehicle, has a shell thatuses carbon fiber. So does the i8.

“We learned a lot from our expe-rience with Formula One. Across thebrands, carbon fiber is going to be oneof the technologies of the future,which is why we’re investing in it,”Robertson said.

BMW owns part of a plant inWashington state that makes carbonfiber materials, including carbonfiber-reinforced plastic.

Separately, Rich Steinberg, man-ager of electric vehicle operations andstrategy for BMW of North America,said the plant has enough capacity forBMW’s foreseeable needs, but a lot ofdevelopment work is still needed tomake carbon fiber more practical andaffordable for mass-production cars.

NSF International Settles Spatwith CAPA by Dropping Suit

BMW Brands Plan IncreasedUse of Carbon Fiber


by Tom Franklin

The first meeting of the New Year forthe Pasadena/Foothill Chapter was heldas usual at the Brookside Country Clubin the Rose Bowl. The meeting wasCalled-to-Order by President LindaHolcomb. She mentioned briefly thatIPA Rule 1147 requiring costly no-NOx burners for shops is being re-vis-ited due to missing enforcementinformation from the agency.

She then announced the threespeakers for the meeting: PeterMacGillivary, SEMA VP, Events andCommunication;GeneLopez, WesternRegional I-CAR Director; and LKQDistrict Manager, Patrick Matthews,sponsor of the meeting.

A very in-depth presentation wasmade by LKQ Manager, PatrickMatthews. Matthews had a projectionscreen displaying LKQ’s new website.He covered almost everything on thescreen from new product access ele-ments to a new ordering, payment andreturns system.

There were some heated questionswhen several CAA members disputed

the quality and fit of aftermarket parts.Matthews offered to discuss these is-sues in person after the meeting.

Next, Peter MacGillivary,SEMA VP, took the podium andstarted with a colorful history of howSEMA became the SEMA of today,the largest trade show of its kind in theworld—and the largest gathering ofsmall businesses in the country.SEMA first began to come together in1963, but oddly, it was when toy man-ufacturers of the various mini-hot rodand related toy vehicles sought to con-solidate the many sticker types fromhot-rod groups around the countryinto one consolidated set of stickers.As technology grew more complex,the various groups saw a need for anumbrella organization.

The first organized SEMA Showtook place under the bleachers atDodger Stadium.Bob Peterson of Pe-terson Publications sponsored it. It wasa purely grass roots event. The showmoved around a bit to places like Ana-heim, until in 1977, it found a home inLas Vegas. Today there are over100,000 attendees and 200,000 ex-

hibitors, occupying more than 900,000square feet of convention space.

MacGillivary says the intent is tokeep it a mostly domestic, small busi-ness trade show. He says printers in

Las Vegas are kept busy churning outphony business licenses for con-sumers wanting to get in by showingthat they are a trade shop. This yearboth CIC and SCRS voted to meetwith SEMA, rather than NACE,which will be exhibiting in Florida in-stead of Las Vegas. Peter says he ex-pects a strong showing at SEMA bymembers of the collision industry.

The last speaker was GeneLopez, giving dollar-and-cents rea-sons why shops should invest in I-

CAR training now. Lopez showedhow spending a couple of hundreddollars on I-CAR EPA Rule 6-H com-pliance could prevent a $25,000 non-compliance fine. He noted that whileI-Car is legally a not-for-profit organ-ization, if it isn’t able to attract train-ing prospects, pay instructors andkeep growing, the organization could-n’t survive. That’s why there has beena complete restructuring of programs,systems of instruction, and compe-tency designations.

The revised I-Car is committed tosix new programs a year. A majorthrust is to eliminate redundancy andrandom access training. Gold-Classrequirements are now measured inteams, with Platinum members form-ing the basis for the team. If a Plat-inum member leaves, threatening themove up to Gold Class, Gene says hewill do everything in his power to getthe team back on course to makeGold-Class. Some shops, like Seid-ner’s in Southern California, use a re-bate system to help technicians paytheir I-Car fees. They are then for-

Pasadena-Foothills CAA Meeting Talks LKQ, SEMA, and I-CAR

See CAA Pasadena, Page 19


by Ed Attansio

The Economic & Employment En-forcement Coalition (EEEC)—a gov-ernment enforcement unit comprisedof investigators and inspectors from

several state agencies including EDD,Cal OSHA, the Labor Commissioner’sOffice and other agencies—was onhand to speak to the membership at theEast Bay California Autobody Associ-ation (CAA) membership on March 8in Dublin, Calif.

Of concern to many members inattendance was “how can body shopsavoid expensive fines levied on theirbusinesses by a wide range of govern-ment watchdog organizations?”

Seemingly simple things like notposting safety posters, minor errors onpayroll bookkeeping or forgetting tooffer your employees 15-minute breaksduring peak times can all lead to cita-tions which can seriously interrupt oreven halt operations at collision facili-ties throughout the state.

Deputy Labor CommissionerKevin O’Connor, OSHA SeniorSafety Engineer Eric Berg, and EDDJoint Enforcement Agent ArchanaMathur gave separate presentations tothe 70 East Bay CAA members onhand.

O’Connor opened the eveningmeeting by outlining EEEC’s primarypurpose and discussing how the Divi-sion of Labor Standards Enforcement,Cal OSHA, Employment DevelopmentDepartment (EDD) and the U.S. Wageand Hour Division (WHD), along withthe Bureau of Automotive Repair(BAR) and the State Board of Equal-ization (BOE) have been stepping uptheir efforts and performing more andmore unannounced inspections forcompliance within the collision indus-try, to collaborate for vigorous and tar-geted enforcement againstunscrupulous body shops statewide.O’Connor explained that body shops

will usually appear on the EEEC’s radarinitially when anonymous tips arecalled in to their offices or through sur-veillance efforts. In most cases, it’s aformer employee or an unhappy com-petitor who blows the whistle.

The first thing theEEEC will do whenperforming a sweep isto go through their stan-dard onsite protocol,which includes verify-ing compliance withstate and federal laws,employment tax lawsand health safety laws.Then the EEEC needsto validate appropriate

licenses, workers’compensation insur-ance coverage, time and payrollrecords, required postings, and other

labor or Industrial Welfare Commis-sion requirements. Everything has to be

in place and records must be properlyrecorded, or citations and fines will fol-low. Any body shop that has been in-

spected knows this drill all too well.The most common issues cited by

East Bay CAA Members Meet with Representatives from Three EEEC Agencies

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(l to r) EDD Agent Archana Mathur, OSHA Safety Engineer EricBerg and Deputy Labor Commissioner Kevin O’Connor

the Labor Commission found in bodyshops are workers’ compensation-re-lated infractions, as well as recordkeeping problems relating to wagesand hours, O’Connor said.

OSHA Senior SafetyEngineer Eric Berg thenspoke to the membersabout workplace safety. Headmitted that his organiza-tion’s rules and regulationsare many and complex(700 pages) and some arenot so easy to interpret, buthe also emphasisized thatOSHA is inspecting bodyshops for the purpose ofprotecting employees fromserious injuries and hazards that poten-tially exist in any collision facility.

The most common OSHA-relatedissues cited in body shops, in Berg’sexperience, include first-aid kits thataren’t present in shops or properly

stocked; improperly stored chemicalsand a whole host of spray booth safety

concerns, such as filters not gettingchanged at proper intervals and venti-lation problems.

The final speaker of the eveningwas EDD Joint Enforcement AgentArchana Mathur, who outlined severalemployee-related pitfalls that bodyshops encounter. These include mis-classifying employees (1099 vs. W2);under-reporting or non-reporting ofemployees’ wages and taxes and unre-ported cash compensation, she said.

The overall message from thethree government agency representa-tives was to be proactive in dealingwith problems now, so that they don’tlead to citations and fines when theEEEC may come knocking at yourdoor tomorrow or some time in the fu-ture.


Nevada Drivers React toProposed Car Insurance HikeDrivers could now face higher insur-ance rates thanks to a Carson Citylawmaker who was hurt in a carwreck, according to local stationKTNV.

Assembly Bill 120 could morethan double limits for auto liabilityand increase rates in some areas bynearly $300 per year.

Ironically, the bill’s sponsor, As-semblyman William Horne of LasVegas, didn’t have enough insuranceto cover his own injuries when hewas hit by a driver who only had lia-bility insurance.

Critics of his proposal say thiswill lead to higher rates, resulting inmore people not getting insurance atall. Others say it’s a price that mustbe paid.

At the Department of Motor Ve-hicles, Hannah Rogers is new intown and newly married. She sayshigher liability rates are somethingshe just can’t afford.

“I’m scrounging up all that I canjust to be able to drive to work.”

But Johneric Stensrud, whoworks at the DMV registering vehi-cles, supports higher liability limits.

“I drive an expensive car andI’ve been hit with people who arecompletely underinsured, and my in-surance company had to pay for it.”

But drivers who only have lia-bility insurance coverage aren’t theonly ones who could be affected byAssembly Bill 120.

It would more than double cur-rent payouts from $15,000 to $30,000and $30,000 to $100,000 based on thenumber of victims, and nearly triplepayouts for property damage.

An industry study says thiscould raise liability rates in Las Vegasalone by $120 to $290 per year basedon a driver’s age, address, and driv-ing record.

AAA spokesman MichaelGeeser told lawmakers in CarsonCity that the bill could lead to moredrivers without any insurance at all,or worse.

“If we’re going to raise the limiton the minimum, then that would inturn force insurance companies tohave to raise their rates if they’regoing to be paying more money out.”

“$15,000 might have been okay20 years ago but today you can barelyget a Hyundai for $15,000,” Stensrudcounters.

He’s got a point: Nevada’s lia-bility insurance limits haven’t beenraised since they were set in 1958.Horne says Nevada’s rates haven’tbeen changed in decades and don’treflect the higher costs of medicalcare. The bill is still being consideredby a transportation subcommittee.

(l to r) East Bay CAA President Lisa Daves, Secretary HellenPezzotti, area manager for Hertz, and Secretary Kathy Mello,owner of TGIF Body in Fremont, Calif.


PreFab Ads Introduces Three New TV Spots for Body ShopsPreFab Ads recently completed three more humorous auto bodyTV commercials, bringing the total spots they now have availablefor licensing by independent shops to 15.

In “Short Cut,” a young couple arguesover the accuracy of their GPS mo-ments before it directs them and theirSUV over a cliff. From the dash of thesmashed car, the GPS informs the un-

hurt but stunned couple that they have reached their destination.In “Young Picasso” a four-year old boypicks up a piece of metal in the drive-way and etches his master artwork intothe side of the family van with the fam-ily dog looking on. The boy then

proudly shows off his artwork to his stunned mother as she exitsthe house.

In “Modern Repair”—a fifteen secondspot—whimsical, vintage-crash footageof Model Ts is contrasted with thequality repair of modern body shop.All spots ask, “Need a body shop?” fol-

lowed with the logo of the sponsoring body shop.These new commercials have already made their debut in over

12 markets across the US, with more scheduled to start soon.

Writer/director Chuck Jessen, of Jessen Productions/San Francisco, cre-ated the PreFab Ads concept for body shops in the late 90s after making“Sledgehammer.” The spot shows a betrayed woman pounding a red Mustangconvertible with a sledgehammer only to realize, when her husband drives upin an identical Mustang, that she is trashing the wrong car. “Sledgehammer”won several advertising awards and was featured on the “World’s Funniest”TV commercials program (see photo below). Jessen licensed “Sledgeham-mer” to hundreds of collision repair shops nationwide, giving birth to the Pre-Fab Ads concept.

According to Jessen, PreFab Ads allows local body shops to run a profes-sional commercial, on an exclusive-by-territory basis, for a fee that is about1/35th of the actual production cost. Jessen feels the combination of high produc-tion values and good American-style humor helps break through the media clutterand build interest and awareness for local body shops in a category people mightotherwise be indifferent toward—at least, until they actually need collision repair.

According to Ann Davis from J&J Auto Body in Pocatello, ID, they havejust started running them but are already getting good response to both com-mercials. “The women especially love ‘Young Picasso.’ They think it’s cool.”

Andy Peters at Peters Body Shop in Fort Wayne, IN, has been runningPreFab Ads commercials for years and his community has developed an an-ticipation for the new ones, according to Peters. “We’re having a great re-sponse to the new commercials. People think they’re hilarious,” Peter’s said.

Mark Lamendsdorf from Star Body Works in Medford, OR, echoed thatfeeling saying that they’ve had great response from both commercials.

To view the 15 commercials offered by PreFab Ads, andget more information, log on to www.prefabads.com

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California’s Median Auto Insurance Rate Decreases 3%The median six-month auto insurancerate in California has decreased ap-proximately 3.1 percent over the past12 months to reach $809 according toInsWeb. Over the same 12-month pe-riod, the national median auto insur-ance rate has declined approximately5.6 percent to reach $675, accordingto Insurance Journal.

According to the online insur-ance comparison provider’s data, ahousehold that pays the Californiamedian rate of $809 and earns theCalifornia household median annualincome of $46,892 pays approxi-mately 3.4 percent of its gross incomefor car insurance.

The company’s car insurance af-fordability index indicates Californiais the 19th most expensive state inwhich to insure a vehicle. Currently,Minnesota is the most affordablestate with an affordability factor of2.2 percent, while Louisiana is themost expensive with a factor of 6.6percent.

Data reveals that men in Cali-fornia pay a median auto insurancerate that is approximately 7.7 per-cent higher than the rate paid bywomen.

Additionally, drivers in Califor-nia 19 years of age and younger pay amedian auto insurance rate that ismore than double the rates paid by

every other age segment except thoseages 20 to 24.

InsWeb also reported medianCalifornia auto insurance rates seg-mented by specific demographicgroups. These include:

Group, Median Six-Month Rate* Men $836* Women $772* Age Group: 19 and younger

$2,141* Age Group: 20 to 24 $1,154* Age Group: 25 to 29 $862* Age Group: 30 to 39 $768* Age Group: 40 to 49 $707* Age Group: 50 to 59 $654* Age Group: 60 to 74 $667* Age Group: 75 and older $675

To determine median auto insur-ance rates, InsWeb uses a proprietarysystem that tracks the rates of multi-ple insurance carriers in each state.Rates are based on actual customerprofiles that can include multiple driv-ers, multiple vehicles and other vari-ables.

Founded in 1995 and headquar-tered in Sacramento, California, In-sWeb’s primary properties include:- InsWeb.com- MedHealthInsurance.com- LocalInsuranceAgents.com- AgentInsider.com.


The Automotive Service Councils ofCalifornia (ASCCA) and the Califor-nia/Nevada/ArizonaAutomotive Whole-salers Association (CAWA) hosted theirsecond annual Automotive Aftermarket

Industry Summit on February 26 at theWestin Hotel in San Diego.

CAWA Past Chair Tim Gerrityand ASCCA President Dennis Montal-bano facilitated the event, which was atwo hour round-table style discussion ofissues the aftermarket industry is facing.

“It was very high energy, peoplewere frank and forthright in the dis-cussions,” said CAWA PresidentRod-ney Pierini. The meeting had verygood turnout with about 85 attendees.

Attendees represented all facetsof the aftermarket industry; parts storeowners, warehouse distributors, man-ufacturers, vendors and repair garageowners.

Issues discussed ranged fromtraining to warranties, products to sup-

plier expectations. The group also dis-cussed why the public does not knowthat the aftermarket industry is a trulygreen industry.

There is also a working group be-

tween the two hosting organizationsthat will continue to work throughoutthe year to improve the industry andcommunications through the industry.

The annual event will return nextFebruary; the first meeting was in2010 and was really an acquaintance

style meeting, whereas this year somereal dialogue was had, according toPierini.

“Attendees were able to evaluatethe meeting at the end and a lot of

them found it to be very valuable dia-logue,” said Pierini.

Armstrong & Associates andPreferred Insurance Co. sponsoredthe Summit Reception and Dinner.

More information can be found atwww.cawa.org or www.ascca.com.

California/Nevada/Arizona Automotive Wholesalers Assn. Holds Aftermarket Summit

Sponsors (l to r): Brad Davis, Armstrong & Associates,Mat Nabity andMartin Armstrong, Arm-strong & Associates, Jan Beaver, Preferred Employers Insurance Co., and Glen Dailey, Armstrong& Associates

(l to r)Mary Davis, NGK Spark Plugs, Borise Cota, Akebono Corp.,Michael Antonelli, VantageMarketing Global, Inc.,Max Niemann, Permatex, Greg Livingston, CARQUEST, and Ron Cannon,Charleston Auto Parts, discuss issues facing the industry

Tucson-based auto body repairer, 911Collision Centers, has just unveiledits 2011 fundraising vehicle, a beauti-fully restored and modified 1966 FordMustang.

The company is donating the ve-hicle as top prize in a raffle to benefitthe 911 Collision Centers CommunityFoundation’s 2011 beneficiaries—BigBrothers Big Sisters and the Cystic Fi-brosis Foundation.

The vehicle was purchased by thecompany and the retro-mod projectbecame a “labor of love” under the di-rection of Michael Mars, 911 Colli-sion Centers Tucson operationsmanager, and the team of technicianswho donated their time to thisfundraising project.

“This project was a huge under-taking and we are so proud of ourstaff’s efforts. The car came out justbeautiful. We will sell out these raffletickets pretty quickly so get ‘em whileyou can,” noted Mars.

“I have never worked for a bodyshop that gives back so much to thecommunity,” saidAudie Kirkpatrick,

project lead technician. “We’re proudto work at 911 Collision Centers andto be able to contribute our time to aproject that will help local kids in ourcommunity.”

The vehicle is equipped with a V-8 engine, automatic transmission, airconditioning, power steering, deluxePony interior, custom wheels, exhaust,stereo, and other options. DuPont Per-

formance Coatings donated the mate-rials.

Only 1500 raffle tickets for theMustang will be sold at $100 each. Inaddition to the Mustang, second place

prize is a vacationfor two in Maui atthe Hilton GrandWailea Resort, in-cluding airfare, andcar rental donatedby Hertz.

Third place is aVIP Jeff GordonNASCAR trip cour-tesy of DuPont Per-formance Coatings.Drawing for raffle

winners will takeplace May 6 at theFoundation’s an-nual charity golftournament, the

Make-A-Dent Golf Event.

Raffle tickets for the Mustangcan be purchased online at:www.911collision.com.

given 25%, then 50% and so on overa few years until the debt is cleared.This gives the tech an incentive tostay with the company and also to geta sense of pride in his or her technicalmastery.

So Gene says, “Why I-Car?”Best of all, it’s a market differentia-tor. It sets a shop apart from a com-petitor down the street and says,“This is a better trained, more effi-cient shop!” The fewer redos alonemake a Gold Class shop more prof-itable. And even if I-Car is called“not-for-profit,” new enrollees andperformance related developmentwill keep the organization financiallystrong and growing. And that willcontinue to keep it a strong asset forthe entire collision industry.


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The Auto Body Association of Con-necticut (ABAC) has gone from sup-porting a legislative measure tochange how total-loss settlements arecalculated in the state to “vehementlyopposing it,” according to the associ-ation’s legislative director Bill Ro-maniello, the owner of All ProCollision Repair in Plantsville, Con-necticut.

House Bill 5444 was originally in-troduced, and supported by the ABAC,to ban insurers from utilizing the pro-prietary total-loss valuation servicesdeveloped by the major estimating sys-tem providers, services that the ABACbelieves artificially suppress total lossvalues.

However, the latest version ofthe bill not only removes the ban, butalso removes the requirement to usethe NADA guidebook as a secondsource of vehicle values. Current lawallows insurers to use the total-lossvalues provided by companies likeCCC, Audatex and Mitchell, but alsorequires them to average those valueswith the values found in the NADAbook.

The ABAC supported version ofthe measure was seeking to restrict in-surers to use only the NADA guide-book, or similar “publicly available”automobile industry sources of vehiclevalues.

The latest version of the measurehowever, only says that the, “insurer

shall calculate the value of such vehi-cle for purposes of determining the set-tlement amount to be paid to theclaimant.” The version has removed allreferences to how an insurer should cal-culate those values, or what sourcesthey may or may not use, including thecurrent requirement to consult theNADA guides.

“If this version of the bill passes, itwill be like the wild west here in Con-necticut,” Romaniello said. “This ver-sion leaves too much room forinterpretation. Consumers will beforced to battle insurers without anyreference line.” Romaniello said the as-sociation believes it is essential that thelaw require the use of the NADAguides.

At a committee hearing in Feb-ruary 10, John Parese, legal counselfor the ABAC, told lawmakers,“Consumers, auto sale businesses,auto repairers, and municipal taxingauthorities all use and rely on theNADA for establishing vehicle val-ues. It is essentially the only sourcein the industry universally used andwidely recognized as reliable andfair.”

Romaniello said, “With thisbill, are they saying that the NADAbook isn’t good enough for insur-ers to use, but it’s OK for the con-sumer to be held to NADA valuesto use when calculating theirtaxes?”

Conn. Association Pivots on Total-Loss Measure BillInsurer competition and pressure to lowercosts is benefitting LKQ’s parts business.LKQ Corporation announced that in-come for the full year 2010 rose 31.4 per-cent to $167.1 million from $127.1million in the prior year. Revenue was arecord $2.47 billion compared with $2.05billion for the full year of 2009, an in-crease of 20.6 percent. The company re-ported full year organic revenue growthof 8.2 percent for its aftermarket, othernew and refurbished products business.On the recent conference call, LKQ’sPresident and Co-Chief Executive Offi-cerRobertWagman responded to ques-tions from financial analysts.

When asked to comment on broaderindustry trends and how they relate toLKQ’s recent success, Wagman said, “TheDRPs are getting stronger and stronger. Ijust saw a report that the percentage of col-lision repair going through DRP networkshas topped 35 percent, which doesn’t in-clude GEICO or Progressive, so it’s muchhigher than that actually.”

A Bank of America analyst askedhim to respond to the recent Ford re-ports on the inferiority of aftermarketand salvage parts.

“I think it’s old news being re-hashed here,” Wagman replied. “We takeit very seriously of course, their allega-tions. We’ve done multiple crash testing

on our parts, we continue to put new cer-tified parts into the system, which wethink is a benefit for everybody, andwe’ll continue to test our products.As faras used parts go, I think that’s a little bitof a stretch because we’re talking partsoff of cars that were on the road, I don’tthink you can get a better tested productthan one that’s been on the road before.

“There is still tremendous insur-ance company pressure to keep costsdown, “Wagman told another analyst,“They’re fighting for the same policy-holder [and] there aren’t more policy-holders necessarily becoming available,so it’s getting quite competitive. Wag-man also noted that the company’s fillrates are up in the remanufactured prod-uct lines such as headlamps, bumpersand wheels, a development that is con-tributing to the increased alternativeparts usage the company has been see-ing, up more than 200 basis points fromthe prior year, Wagman said.

JosephHolsten, Vice Chairman andCo-Chief Executive Officer of LKQ com-mented, “We continued to see increasedusage of alternative collision parts in2010, which has allowed us to grow de-spite challenging economic conditions...In 2010 we completed 20 acquisitions,”Holsten said, “I expect 2011 will be an-other busy year for acquisitions.”

LKQ Reports Record Financial Results for 2010

New crash tests and analysis by the In-surance Institute for Highway Safety(IIHS) demonstrate that underrideguards on tractor-trailers can fail in rel-atively low-speed crashes, with deadlyconsequences. NHTSA has estimatedthat about 423 people in passenger ve-hicles die each year when their vehiclesstrike the backs of large trucks. Morethan 5,000 passenger vehicle occupantsare injured.

The Institute is petitioning the fed-eral government to require stronger un-derride guards that will remain in placeduring a crash and to mandate guardsfor more large trucks and trailers.

Rear guards are the main counter-measure for reducing underride deathsand injuries when a passenger vehiclecrashes into the back of a tractor-trailer.In 2009, 70 percent of the 3,163 peoplewho died in all large truck crashes wereoccupants of cars or other passengervehicles. Underride makes death or se-rious injury more likely since the upperpart of the passenger vehicle’s occupantcompartment typically crushes as thetruck body intrudes into the vehiclesafety cage.

“Cars’front-end structures are de-signed to manage a tremendous amount

of crash energy in a way that minimizesinjuries for their occupants,” saysAdrian Lund, Institute president. “Hit-ting the back of a large truck is a gamechanger. You might be riding in a vehi-cle that earns top marks in frontal crashtests, but if the truck’s underride guardfails—or isn’t there at all—yourchances of walking away from even arelatively low-speed crash aren’t good.

“The Institute has studied the un-derride crash problem for more than 30years, including mid-1970s crash testsdemonstrating how then-current guardswere ineffective in preventing under-ride.

In the latest study the Institute an-alyzed case files from the Large TruckCrash Causation Study, a federal data-base of roughly 1,000 real-worldcrashes in 2001-03, to identify crashpatterns leading to rear underride ofheavy trucks and semi-trailers with andwithout guards.

Underride was a common outcomeof the 115 crashes involving a passen-ger vehicle striking the back of a heavytruck or semi-trailer. Only 22 percent ofthe crashes didn’t involve underride orhad only negligible underride, a findingin line with prior studies.

IIHS: Big Rig Underride Guards Often Fail in Crashes


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Only in the last few years have collisionrepair facilities had easy access to qual-ity industry repair information. Prior tothat, this very important tool was eithernot available or, if available, was cum-bersome and difficult to access.

If we were to wind back the clockfive years, the availability of criticalindustry repair information wouldhave looked something like this:● Limited availability through OEMsites, either pay or free● Available through printed manuals● Limited availability through on-line search and forums● Dealership sources● Limited or non-specific articlesavailable through industry createdweb sites● Trade magazines and publications, etc.

You get the point. The necessaryinformation has not always beenavailable or accessible. As vehiclesbecome more and more technologi-cally advanced and collision repairshave required the need for collision aswell as mechanical repair procedures,the availability of correct, consoli-dated and easy to access informationhas become critical in shops’ day-to-day operations.

Understanding this critical need,ALLDATA recognized and pioneeredaction, to provide the collision industrywith a comprehensive, easy to navi-gate, consolidated approach that pro-vided the shops a one-stop solution toaccess critical collision and mechani-cal procedures offered by the OEMs.

In the past few years othersjumped on-board as this demandproved to be a critical need in the shops.So now—more than ever before in thehistory of the collision industry—cor-rect, accurate, repairs that conform topublished standards may be required,documented and expected by con-sumers, insurance companies and cus-tomers, internal as well as external.

One of the bigger hurdles that hasdeveloped over the last few years inshops who have access to this infor-mation, is the ability to find or sourcethe information that is specific to theactual repair procedure. In otherwords, there is too much data avail-able to source, even though it is con-solidated and available.

This can certainly be a nice prob-lem to have, since information is nolonger the issue. However, findingeverything you really need that is crit-ical to getting the overall repair plandeveloped and to complete the overallrepair process can be time consumingin this world of all data being avail-able at the click of a mouse.

Do you know if your InformationProvider has a program that can pro-vide you all the information based ona single repair entry? It might be agood question to ask.

For example: You need to replacea sensor for a side air bag deploymenton a vehicle. You immediately go toyour program and look up the proce-dure, print it out and build it in to yourrepair plan.

Did you stop and think that theremay be a Technical Service Bulletinassociated with the sensor replace-ment? Or are there other associatedprocedures that tie into the sensor re-placement that you may need?

This is just an example of whatshops will encounter daily when ac-cessing repair information for repairplans. The goal is to provide or at leastunderstand other associated items thatcoincide with the process.

Here is an example of exactlywhat I am referring to. This article is atechnical service bulletin for a 2008Chevrolet Avalanche that should beconsidered when replacing a side im-pact air bag sensor.

TECHNICALBulletinNo.: 09-08-64-004Date: March 03, 2009Subject: Side Air Bag Function(Apply Foam to Door)Models: 2007-2008 Cadillac EscaladeModels2007-2008 Chevrolet Avalanche, Sub-urban, Tahoe2007-2008 GMC Yukon ModelsAttention: If the air bag has been de-ployed, contact a GM Engineer forfurther information prior to repairingthe vehicle.

ConditionIn some extremely rare cases, a cus-tomer may report that when the frontor rear side door is closed with ex-treme or unusual force, the side air

bag may deploy. In these cases, the en-gine must be running. If the air baghas been deployed, contact a GM En-gineer for further information prior torepairing the vehicle.

CorrectionImportant: Complete the side door re-pair steps below, then proceed to sideair bag replacement following SI.

1. Remove the side door trim andwater deflector.

2. Inspect all of the componentsin the door to make sure that they arefastened or routed properly beforeproceeding to step 3.

3. If you have not found anythingloose or misrouted inside the door, addadditional Fusor super flexible anti-flutter foam-fast set, Fusor P/N121/124, or 3M Automix P/N 8463.Run a continuous, thick bead (shownabove) the entire length between thedoor outer panel and the top edge of

inner safety beam. Make multiplepasses behind the side impact sensorportion of the beam as required to fillin any gaps.

4. Apply Fusor super flexibleanti-flutter foam-fast set, Fusor P/N121/124, or 3M Automix P/N 8463, ina continuous bead the entire length be-tween the beltline reinforcement andthe door outer panel.

5. Install the side door trim andwater deflector.

So, the question is this? Are youTSB savvy when creating your repairplans? Do you even look? And, if not,how much time and money are youwasting in tracking this informationdown the hard way by starting a pro-cedure not knowing that the OEM hasa TSB that explains that there is a pre-liminary procedure that could saveyou lots of work?It’s worth looking next time.


Are You Technical Service Bulletin Savvy?with Dan Espersen

ALL OEM Information Dan Espersen is ALLDATA® CollisionSM Program Manager. Dan is a Gold PinMember of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) and holds an AA Degree inAutomotive Technology. He has 35 years of experience in the collision industryand in the mechanical automotive industry.


Groupon, the ‘group coupon’ sitewhere businesses submit daily dealsfor Groupon to market to their largesubscriber base, has had lots of recentsuccess with body shop deals.

Groupon allows businesses tosubmit a coupon deal to their websitethen, if approved, the coupon goes upon the local branch of Groupon’s web-site. If the deal is bought by enoughpeople on that day, then the deal be-comes available to all; if not, no onegets the deal that day.

The body shop does not pay anyupfront costs to have a Groupon,rather the company takes a percentageof each coupon the body shop sells ontheir website.

“Our services have really ex-panded because of our popularity andattractiveness,” Chad Nason,Groupon’s Spokesperson told Auto-body News.

Body shops have found it prof-itable to use Groupon to market sortof general maintenance type servicesto customers. This way they get newcustomers in the door, show them thevalue of their services and hopefullycreate some repeat customers, saidNason.

Some of these body shops areseeing the oil and filter changecoupons as a step in the door for newcustomers and hopefully, their even-tual collision business. Getting cus-tomers in for general maintenance willhelp them to remember your name

when they do need collision workdone, said Nason.

“You’re looking at something (acollision) that people aren’t planningon, so it’s a little tougher [to market],”said Nason, but he maintains thatshops have found that using Grouponto advertise general maintenance canleave a lasting impression for future,unplanned work ahead.Nason also said that Groupon is be-coming a popular marketing tool be-cause local businesses can tap intoGroupon’s large subscriber base,which is broken down into region-spe-cific websites each with their owndeals.

Great Bear Auto Repair andAuto Body Shop in Flushing Queens,New York, ran a deal with Groupon inDecember of 2010. Owner AudraFordinwas admittedly skeptical aboutrunning the deal; she wanted to run adeal that wouldn’t overwhelm herbusiness and had a higher price point.

“It was awesome. They were awe-some; they walked me through it stepby step and helped me create a customdeal that would attract customers andbe realistic for my business,” Fordintold Autobody News.

The deal was for an oil change,tire rotation and charging systems

analysis. Audra said she was ex-tremely happy with the results and iseager to run another deal withGroupon, probably this spring. Shesaid that the customers who have re-deemed were allfirst time customersand she already hastheir repeat busi-ness.

“I will do itagain without adoubt, it brought innew customers andthey weren’t yourtypical coupon-cut-ters just trying to geta deal, they werepeople truly inter-ested in taking careof their cars,” saidFordin.

Glenville TerraceAuto Body inAllston, Massachussetts, ran a dealwith Groupon in June of 2010. OwnerBarry Hynes was also extremelypleased with the results of hisGroupon deal.

“It went really well, we were toldit was going to be busy and we didn’treally take it that seriously and boywere we sorry,” said Hynes, “We def-initely should have prepared for therush more.”

Hynes said that not only did itbring in new customers, but they be-came repeat customers and were ex-actly the clientele Hynes was lookingfor.

“The idea was to get new cus-tomers in, and it did just that. Thesewere the kind of customers we werelooking for ... ones that really takecare of their vehicles.”

Hynes said he would do another

Groupon again in the future if he wasnot so busy already. He did have oneword of caution for shops consideringusing Groupon in the future.

“I would advise any shop that’s

going to do it to really prepare for it.On the day the actual Groupon goeslive online have people ready to an-swer calls because people call in toask questions about the deal. Also beprepared for the rush the next daywhen people come in to use thecoupon—definitely schedule appoint-ments if you can.”

To learn more about running aGroupon for your business visit:www.GrouponWorks.com

Great Bear Auto Repair and AutoBody Shop164-16 Sanford AvenueFlushing, NY 11358718-762-6212

Glenville Terrace Auto Body10 Glenville TerraceAllston, MA 02134617-783-1515

Groupon Succeeds in Helping Body Shops Reach Out to New Local Customers

Great Bear Auto Repair in Queens saw a lot ofnew customers after their Groupon ran

Employees at Glenville Terrace Auto Body in MA were surprised athow much interest their Groupon generated

ASA’s “Taking The Hill” Day is youropportunity to govern by meeting withyour state legislators and representa-tives on Capitol Hill. Held on the finalday of ASA’s annual business meeting(May 9-11), ASA’s day on Capitol Hillgives automotive service professionalslike you a chance to talk specificallyabout the issues affecting your busi-ness.

“Taking the Hill” Day will addresskey issues facing collision repairerssuch as federal insurance reform; vehi-cle disclosure legislation and crashparts; and the EPA’s implementation ofthe automotive refinishing regulation.

Realizing there are many issues atstake, ASA is encouraging all membersto join us in Washington, D.C., May 11to seize the opportunity to make youropinions known on these issues. Themembers who participated in “Takingthe Hill” on behalf of collision repair-ers last year felt the experience wasvery effective and showed the valueand power in coming together as agroup of like-minded professionals toaffect the governing process.

Plan now to join your fellow ASAcollision members this year. Together,we can make a real impact on gover-nance matters relating to collision re-

pairers and small businesses.Online registration closes April 7.

So you are encouraged to sign up atwww.ASAshop.org/annual11/index.Inaddition to providing secure, conven-ient online registration, the event web-site also includes summarized agendasand hotel information. (And if youregister by March 31, you could WINFREE hotel nights at the Gaylord Na-tional during the event!)

ASA Invites Collision Repairers to Washington to ‘Take the Hill,’ May 11

Texas-based Service King CollisionRepair Centers has agreed to acquireAlamo Body and Paint, a multi-loca-tion operator in the San Antonio, Texasarea with eight large scale, high volumelocations. The addition of the AlamoBody and Paint locations will makeService King the largest independentlyand employee owned collision repairorganization in the U.S. with 42 loca-tions throughout the San Antonio, Dal-las, Ft. Worth, and Houston areas.

The transaction is expected to becompleted by May 1, 2011. Terms werenot disclosed.

Texas-based Service King WillAcquire another MLO, Alamo

Keenan Autobody is a multi-locationoperator comprised on eight shops inPennsylvania and one in Delawarewith a combined staff of 115 employ-ees. Keenan has three locations inClifton Heights, PA, in addition totheir corporate office.

Keenan East, the retail center inClifton Heights, is 8500 square feetand employs 17 workers. TheirWreck-O-Mended center spans13,000 square feet and 11 employeeswhile the Aluminum Repair Centercontains 3000 square feet. This center

is staffed from the other shops as theygenerally only work on 2 or 3 alu-minum repairs per month.

Keenan utilizes all of the latestequipment, such as the Car-O-LinerEvo-system and the latest inverter-type resistance spot welders. They are

factory authorized inBMW and certifiedby Mercedes. Addi-tionally, they areASE certified, I-cargold, as well as aCIC Class A facil-ity. All of Keenan’sshops are VeriFactsVQ shops and are in

compliance with Envirosafe. Keenanis affiliated with ASA, CIC, SCRA,NABC, Fix Auto and DuPont Per-formance Alliance. Keenan processesinsurance claims according to CMSstandards and they participate in up to21 direct repair programs at each

shop. Additionally, they offer a na-tional life-time guarantee, ensuringthey will take care of any problems inthe future no matter where the cus-tomer moves across the country.

Keenan’s operating procedure isunique because they utilize their own

10-step production process in whichthey define Administrative, Blueprint-ing, Parts Ordering/Sublet, MirrorBatch/Returns, Release to Production,Body Department, Paint Department,Reassembly, Detail and Final Quality

Check.According to Vice President,

Michael LeVasseur, Keenan’s successresults from their positive corporateculture and their involvement with theindustry and the community. Keenanis very involved with many locals

charities, such as acharity golf outingwhich they haveparticipated in for13 years. The pro-ceeds of this eventbenefit the Philadel-phia Ronald Mc-Donald House.Keenan has alsotaken part in the

Guest Chef program for the RonaldMcDonald House where Keenan em-ployees make food and serve it to thefamilies of children in St. Christo-pher’s Hospital, and during the holi-days they participate in the


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with Chasidy Rae SiskShop Showcase Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,

who works in a variety of fields and subjects, but grew up in a family of NASCARfans. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Keenan Autobody Cares about Cars, Charity, and the Environment

Keenan Corporate OfficeKeenan Wreck-O-Mended

troubles in Japan, although Toyotaand Subaru have canceled overtimeshifts to slow production and avoiddepleting part inventories.

In Japan, most plants remainclosed. Mitsubishi began bringingplants back up March 16, and twoNissan plants in Kyushu restarted op-erations on March 17, but Nissan wasuncertain whether it could keep themrunning for more than a few days.

Toyota has said its Japaneseplants would remain closed throughat least March 22.

Each lost workday for the car-makers in Japan costs them a total ofabout 37,000 vehicles, Mr. Robinetsaid. He estimated a total loss of morethan 285,000 vehicles, assuming mostplants can be restarted within a week.

Every automaker faces slightlydifferent circumstances. At Volvo, forexample, about 10 percent of the partscome from 33 Japanese suppliers,seven of which were in the catastro-phe area, including one on the edgeof the nuclear security zone.

adopt-a-family program to providegifts for these families.

In 2010, Keenan’s Middletownand Edgemont shops were involvedfor the first time with the First Re-sponder Extrication Event which ben-efits firefighters, police and EMTs.

During this event, professional train-ers instructed emergency serviceproviders on the proper ways to ex-tract people from cars in order toavoid explosives and ensure safetypractices. Keenan plans to participatein this event annually.

Keenan also participates in Recy-cled Rides by refurbishing a salvagedvehicle to like-new condition so that itcan be donated to a needy family. Theyalso provide totaled vehicles for use asexemplars on the effects of a DUI acci-

dent to display in front of local highschools during prom season. Keenancontributes to local charities, such asMADD, the Children’s Cancer Networkand Family Community Services ofDelaware County, and also sponsorsseveral local sports teams.

Because Keenanhires from within,they offer room foradvancement andcareer paths. Theyfocus on developingtheir employees’skills and are en-gaged with theirwork force in termsof education and

training. According to Craig Cama-cho, Keenan’s Marketing Director,they “enable employees to be theirbest, to do their best”. Keenan be-lieves that with strong leadership,their company is able to come to-gether and make a business.

Keenan East714 East Baltimore PikeClifton Heights, PA 19018(610) 622-0555www.keenanautobody.com


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We are authorized to sell Ford’s Recovered Original Equipment (ROE).

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FORD TAURUS ‘11

CARSTAR Pres., Dan Bailey, toReturn to Own FranchiseDan Bailey has chosen to step downfrom his role as president ofCARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts,the company recently announced. Aftermore than a decade with the companyand an additional 23 years spent oper-ating a family-owned chain of collisioncenters, Bailey plans to take a breakbefore returning to run his ownCARSTAR franchise. He will continueto serve on the Mitchell AdvisoryBoard, the CCC Advisory Board, as anational judge for Skills USA-VICA,and as a CIC participant. No replace-ment is planned for Bailey’s position,which he will leave in the comingmonths. Stacy Bartnik will assume fullresponsibility of franchise services.

CARSTAR new hires will allowCEO Dick Cross to handle Bailey’sother duties. Those hires are CecilJohnson, who will serve as franchisedevelopment executive, and BradRein, the new chief information offi-cer. They will help guide a number ofcorporate improvements being madeat CARSTAR, the company said. Ithas revamped its Business Group Pro-gram, restructured its franchise devel-opment process and plans to launch anew proprietary management systemin its stores later this year.

Keenan Clifton Heights shop


Auto Tsunami

This year many collision shop ownersand managers may be heading to LasVegas for the SEMA Show rather thanto Florida for NACE. But only a fewhave grasped what it means to jumpon the SEMA bandwagon.

In 1993, marketing authors AlRies and Jack Trout came out with abook entitled, “The 22 ImmutableLaws of Marketing.” Number one intheir book is “The Law of Leadership—It’s better to be first than it is to bebetter.” They note that Bert Hinklerwas the second person to fly the At-lantic solo. He did it faster thanCharles Lindbergh, consumed lessfuel and did it more efficiently, butonly Lindbergh did it first and got thefame.

In collision repair, there havebeen many firsts. Those shops that of-fered waterborne paint first got thejump on the later “me too” crowd.Now there is a new opportunity to be

first. In my area, there are only a cou-ple of shops offering “Cosmetic CarUpgrades,” but I predict after moreshop owners take a close look atSEMA, they will all jump on thishighly profitable bandwagon.

Learn From the DealershipsAs the profit per car sold has gradu-ally decreased, new car dealers havehad to get very creative in the waysthey can make a profit.

Most dealerships have a mer-chandise store where they sell everyimaginable accessory and restylingproduct. How profitable are thesestores?

I attended SEMA for the firsttime in 2004. I read that in 2003, salesof specialty parts rose to a record $29billion! From 2002 to 2003, the saleof vehicle body accessories increaseda billion dollars, from $7.3 billion, to$8.3 billion. Audio and entertainment

component sales increased from $3.4billion to $3.8 billion. Even wash andwax product sales increased by $200million.

Performance tires, custom wheelsand suspension and steering enhance-ment sales increased by nearly a bil-lion dollars, from $6.5 to $7.2 billion.We’re not just talking millions, here.We’re talking about BILLIONS! Thisis serious money! Retail sales of theseproducts increased more than twice asfast as the general economy.

Much of the growth came fromsales of parts and accessories for sportcompact cars, but there was also anexplosion in the sale of everythingfrom ten dollar vinyl flame decals to$3000 turbochargers.

Younger buyers are looking forflashy items like custom seat covers,but also performance upgrades. Notevery shop owner wants to get in-volved in engine work, but young buy-

ers are looking for nitrous oxide injec-tion systems and performance exhaustsystems to dramatically boost thehorsepower of their small car engines.

Nevertheless collision shops caneasily offer custom wheels and tires toadd uniqueness. Window tinting isbig, along with chrome runningboards. If the only time people arecoming to a body shop is when theyhave an accident, the shop owner ismissing out a very big piece of poten-tial business.

Change May Be HardWhat percentage of this revenue coulda shop owner capture with a bit of cre-ative marketing? And more impor-tantly, what would it do for his or hercollision repair business to get thesevehicle-savvy, eager buyers visitingthe shop?

I’ve found shop owners reluctantto make this change in identity.


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On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

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

They’ve relied on auto body repairand refinishing jobs as their only busi-ness for so many years, it’s difficult tostart thinking in a new direction. Butit’s becoming more and more neces-sary to do so.

Entering the merchandise mar-keting arena can be scary for a shopowner who’s never had to compete inthat area. Real advertising, distribut-ing coupons, and possibly even set-ting up shop at local swap meetswould be an entirely new set of tasksfor a shop owner. The upside of theactivity would be hundreds—and pos-sibly thousands—of new prospects in-formed of the existence of his or herbusiness. And bigger profits too!

Our culture has become moreand more a car culture. People spendan enormous amount of time in theirvehicles. With cell phones, stereo sys-tems, laptop computers and wirelessdevices they can operate in the car,

today’s drivers have mobile officesand recreation rooms they can take onthe road. And this doesn’t even takeinto account entertainment systemsfor kids.

This opens up a market for anendless array of products that could besold at a body shop just as easily as ata dealership or any other location.

The shop owner who wants tocontinue to be profitable well into thisnew century will have to broaden hisor her horizons. Bite the bullet. Put inan accessory and restyling counter.Train your desk people to learn thefamous waiter and waitress line:“And do we have room for somedessert?”

They need to start asking everycustomer, “Is there some accessorywe can sell you to enhance the poweror beauty of your car?” There are bil-lions being made by sellers of theseproducts. Why not be one of them?


[email protected] us!write us!write us!

Give us your opinion on matters affecting the industry.

Dallas Repairer Donates toLocal High SchoolsHerb’s Paint and Body, which runsseven shops in the Dallas area, re-cently donated three $250 checks tolocal high school programs.

Herb’s opened a new location inAllen, TX, in February of this yearand according to Body Shop Man-ager Alan Walne.

“We wanted to participated insomething that gives back to the localcommunity in kicking off our new lo-cation,” said Walne.

The checks went to Allen HighSchool’s After Prom Program, theLovejoy High School After Prom pro-gram and McKinney High School’sProject Graduation.

The shop also committed to do-nating 5 percent ($100 maximum) ofa customer’s repair cost to any of theprograms through June 1.

Customers have to present doc-umentation from the schools to re-deem the donation.

Herb’s Paint and Body is a fam-ily owned company founded in 1956.

For more information on the busi-ness, go to herbspaintandbody.com.

Oklahoma House CommitteeApproves Texting BanTexting would be banned in schoolzones and for motorists under the ageof 18 under legislation approved byan Oklahoma House committee, ac-cording to reports made by InsuranceJournal.

The measure by Rep. DannyMorgan of Prague was approved 9-7by the House Public Safety Commit-tee and sent to the full House for con-sideration.

Morgan says statistics show thatthe practice of using hand-held de-vices to compose and send text mes-sages is dangerous when done behindthe steering wheel of a moving car.

Law enforcement authorities sayit has led to numerous fatal crashes inthe state.

But some committee membersquestioned how police officers willenforce the measure.

Rep. Fred Jordan of Jenks sug-gested the measure is not needed be-cause laws already on the bookspermit officers to pull over vehiclesthat are weaving.


www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

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Automobiles today are sophisticatedand are controlled by a series of in-ternal computer systems, whichmeans the diagnostics require specificsoftware and hardware.

On top of that the basic serviceenvironments have not changed. Theyare still fraught with grime and po-tential hazards that could damage thediagnostic equipment. We now needdigital diagnostics equipment thatwill withstand these normal dailyservice bay environmental issues andtoday ruggedized notebook comput-ers fill that bill very well.

That is one of the reasons WadeFord of Atlanta, Georgia decided toswitch from PDAs to ruggedized lap-tops for diagnostic and reprogram-ming purposes.

Ford no longer supported thePDA application, so Wade needednew durable notebooks to connect to

the cars.“The reason we needed a rugged

notebook was because of the environ-ment they are used in—where thetechnicians are using them is an openenvironment. They really just need tobe able to be bumped around and notgo down,” said Dave Tackett, Con-troller of Wade Ford.

Initially, the only solution Fordprovided was Panasonic Toughbooks.Despite Toughbook’s excellent repu-tation, Wade Ford felt that the prod-uct was too pricey for them.

So Tackett researched alterna-tives online and talked to others in thefield before finding the Eagle ruggedseries from a 10-year old establishedprovider of rugged portable devicescalled Rugged Notebooks.com.

“I knew there had to be otherrugged notebooks out there besidesthe Toughbook. I had heard of Dell

having one, but again it was too ex-pensive. Rugged Notebooks’ Eaglepretty much fit the bill for what Ineeded. For the price of one Tough-book, I could get two Eagles!”

Of course ruggedness and pricewere important factors in WadeFord’s decision to choose an alterna-tive solution, but the ability to runFord’s proprietary software programwas also a primary concern.

With Rugged Notebooks Eagle,the technicians were able to easily in-stall the software, and Tackett simplymade sure it was connected to theirin-house system.

“We have to connect two vehi-cles through a Ford proprietary linkand all the diagnostics, all the repro-gramming, goes through that connec-tivity. So we had to have a laptop tomake the connection, but a regularlaptop wasn’t going to work because

the technician transfers data around.”Tackett said there are 4000 Ford

dealers in the U.S. and all using thesame application. He recommendsthat all of them consider switching tothe Eagle as a lower cost rugged so-lution.

“The price-point was the biggestdeal, and the fact that it was rugged.The only extra thing I purchased wasthe touch screens, which the techni-cians really seemed to like,” ex-plained Tackett. “They like thembecause the screens are quite a bit big-ger than they were on the Toughbooksthat Ford was suggesting.”

But here is the real bottom line.When asked how the Rugged Note-book Eagle laptops have improved hisefficiency, Tackett had this to say, “Ifwe don’t have them, we can’t dowork. That’s just about as simple as itgets.”

Wade Ford Atlanta Chooses an Alternative Diagnostic Solution

New Version of ALLDATA Manage 4.9 Enhances Electronic Parts OrderingWith Additional Selection of Parts SuppliersALLDATA LLC, the leading providerof vehicle manufacturers’ service andrepair information for professional re-pair shops, now integrates with Autoito make its online parts catalog avail-able to subscribers of ALLDATAManage 4.9, shop management soft-ware designed for owners and man-agers of independent repair shops.

The integration of Autoi andALLDATA Manage provides repairshops with online access to electronicparts ordering catalogs through

Autoi’s parts suppliers.Autoi offers ALLDATA Manage

subscribers additional options to effi-

ciently manage their businesses andsubmit parts orders online directlythrough its shop management software.

“Autoi’s electronic parts orderinginterface in ALLDATA Manage offerscustomers additional options when or-

dering parts online.The Autoi suppliernetwork enablessubscribers to effi-ciently manage day-to-day parts orderingthrough ALLDATA

Manage,” says Senior Product Mar-keting Manager, Diane Horne.

“ALLDATA is committed to pro-

viding shop management software tomeet the needs of its customers byproviding a selection of electronicparts catalogs. ALLDATA Manage 4.9and Autoi’s parts ordering interfaceimproves business efficiencies and or-dering accuracy, resulting in ALL-DATA’s customers’ ability to betterrun their business,” says Diane Horne.

For more information on ALL-DATA and ALLDATA Manage 4.9,visit www.alldata.com/manage or call800-697-2533.

ABRA Auto Body & Glass, basedin Minneapolis, announced thatJim Richardson has been namedVice President of ABRA Glass.Richardson will play an instrumen-tal role in meeting growth objec-

tives in the auto glass division.Richardson was most recently

employed with PPG Industries. Dur-ing his tenure with PPG he served asDirector of Sales, Director of AlliancePrograms and Business Development

and most recently, Segment Managerin their Architectural Coatings Divi-sion where he was responsible forstrategic planning, revenue contribu-tion and resource utilization manage-ment.

“Jim will fill a key strategic po-sition for ABRA. His depth of knowl-edge... and experience as a Six SigmaBlack Belt will be a positive contribu-tion,” said Scott Krohn, ABRA’s Ex-ecutive Vice President of Operations.

ABRA Auto Body & Glass Announces New VP of Auto Glass Division


Before my father passed away wespent several years under the hood ofcars working together at my shop. Hewas an old school repair guy. Alwayslooking out for the customer, andwanting to do that little bit extra forthem. You know, adjust that crookedlicense plate, grease the door hingesbefore they pulled away from theshop, that kind of thing.

I usually did the diagnostic work,and he would stick with the mechan-ical repairs. But most of the time hisfavorite thing to do was to entertainthe customer while I figured out theproblem.

The one thing that would givehim fits was the way a customerwould react after I diagnosed theproblem, especially if I diagnosed itquickly.

A quick diagnostic might be finefor some people, but others it was moreof a matter of pride that their “regular”mechanic hadn’t found it so quickly, or

that the customer themselves didn’tfind it so easily. It didn’t set well withthem.

I got the impression that a quickdiagnosis led to some sort of mistrustwith my abilities, or that I didn’t thor-oughly examine the problem to theirsatisfaction. A lot of times it had moreto do with the previous technician tak-ing so much time and not coming upwith an answer, so they think it can’t bethat simple.

Dad had his own answer for it. Hewas going to get one of those alu-minum foil fire suits, a couple of tallcurtains on moveable stands, a discoball, and some strobe lights. His ideawas to pull the car into this “special”diagnostic area turn on the strobe lightsand hang the disco ball over the car.Stick the suit on and make some com-ment like, “I’m going in…” and thenlet the light show begin. After a fewminutes, come out from behind the cur-tain wall, whip off the aluminum fire

suit hood and say something like,“Whoo that was a tough one.” Maybethen, these types of people would bemore likely to believe the results of aquick diagnosis.

We never tried it, but I think aboutdoing it from time to time. With the ad-vent of the scanners to read and showdetailed parameters diagnosing hastaken on a whole new approach.

A lot of problems are a matter offollowing the diagnostic tree correctlyto get to the source of the problem.(Codes don’t fix cars… codes are thestarting point) Sometimes it’s a quicktrip on the diagnostic ladder, and othertimes it’s quite lengthy. It really de-pends on the problem, of course.

Trying to be quick and on the righttrack with every diagnosis is whatmakes the money in the shop. Stallingthe results just for the sake of making itlook like it was an extensive search tofind the problem doesn’t make a lot ofsense to me.

Then on the other hand, I some-times believe this is one of the manyreasons why a doctor has you wait solong for his 10 minutes of time. Eventhough he may have walked into theexam room, looked at the chart, tooksome quick looks at you, and back outof the exam room in less than 10 min-utes, I’ll guarantee his bill isn’t goingto show a 10 minute charge on it. But,in my business, time is money… andmost customers are watching the clock.

Back in the days when my fatherand I worked together, he came acrossan old Bosch injector tester for theearly K and L injection systems. Theold tester was done for. Not only was itdated, it had several missing connec-tors and the information booklet didn’tcome with it.

I took it apart and rewired it as alarge volt meter, with a lighted buzzerattached to a separate set of wires. Wethen rigged up a swinging arm

A Quick Diagnostic Can Seem too Good to be Truewith Gonzo Weaver

Gonzo’s Toolbox This is a new story by Scott “Gonzo” Weaver as posted on his website,www.gonzostoolbox.com. See his book “Hey Look! I Found The LooseNut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age. The bookis available at amazon.com. Contact Gonzo at [email protected]

See Quick Diagnostic, Page 48


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I had the recent pleasure of attendingmy first Northeast 2011 Trade Show atthe Meadowlands Exposition Center inSecaucus, NJ, on Friday and Saturday,March 18–19, 2011. For the benefit ofthose who were unable to attend I’ll domy best to summarize some of the pre-sentations here, but all who are ableshould plan to attend next year. It’s avery worthwhile event and a greatvalue for collision repairers.

Waterborne Panel Sponsored by BASFWith pending regulations in theNortheast which will very likely man-date adopting waterborne paint tominimize VOCs, many shop ownershave questions about converting towaterborne systems. Many of thoseregulations will come from the Ozone

Transport Commission, a coalition ofeleven East Coast states and the Dis-trict of Columbia which advises theEPA on regional solutions to air pol-lution. The OTC has adopted a modelrule, which is based on the recentlyadopted Delaware rule. Delaware,which is a member of the OTC, has al-ready set the following allowableVOC content for various refinishproducts: Primer: 2.1 lbs./gal; Clearcoating: 2.1; Base coat: 3.5; Multi-color coat: 5.7; Sealer: 5.4; Single-stage coat: 2.8.

The American Coatings Associa-tion’s Automotive Refinish Coalitionhas urged the OTC to move forwardwith adoption of the Delaware rule,which is based on the California man-dates, for all its member states.

Anticipating this, BASF hosted apanel at Northeast to discuss water-borne paint and the cost of an effec-

tive transition to awaterborne paintsystem. Tom Ho-erner, StrategicInitiatives forBASF Refinish,hosted the panel,directing ques-tions to six indi-

viduals experienced with waterbornepaint: Tom Elder of Compact Kars,Inc.; Tom Smetanka, the GeneralManager of Central Paint; Tom Beck,owner of Future Care; Kevin Hundt,sales representative for BASF; LuigiZucchet of USI of North America,Inc.; and Bob Hickey, sales managerwith SL Marketing Specialists.

Hoerner began by asking gener-ally about today’s regulations forwater-based paint. Hundt respondedthat there are no specific regulations

in the northeast yet, or indeed any-where other than in California, Europeand Canada which are 100% regu-lated. Although discussions during thepast few years have yielded no exactdate, moving to waterborne has be-come a strategic focus and will bemandated eventually.

Asked about the advisability ofconverting to waterborne systemsearly, before any mandates, Hundtpointed out waterborne systems arebetter for the environment, and offermany benefits to shop, such as pro-

viding easier coverage due to heavierpigment loads and being safer, but notcompletely safe for employees.Smetanka suggested that getting one’sshop converted before any mandatesoccur might provide shop owners witha better chance to get help from job-bers and manufacturers and give moretime to understand and perfect usageof the product before the regulationsare passed.

Beck explained that the most im-portant need for a successful conver-sion is the support of one’s localjobber which is aided by convertingearly while jobbers have more time tospend with individual shops. Elder,Smetanka and Hundt all agreed thattraining and everyone in the shop buy-ing into the change are the most im-portant aspects when converting towaterborne. With regard to what im-provements are needed in equipment,Hickey stressed the importance of en-

suring an adequate clean air supplyand a shops compressors’ CFM beingable to handle the demands of theequipment, including the possibility ofextra hand-held blowers. Smetankacited the importance of keeping theshop clean to avoid dust being stirredby the increased velocity of the air, aswaterborne is more sensitive than sol-vent to airborne contamination.

Concerning the importance ofinvesting in extra air movement,Elder and Smetanka agreed that it isabsolutely essential to increase theamount of clean, dry air movementover that required by solvent flashingwhen using waterborne paints. Beckemphasized the consistency that ismade possible by robotic and stan-dardized equipment in factory envi-ronments. Hundt and Hickey agreedon the importance of adjusting tem-perature and air flow while monitor-ing humidity, and Zucchet cited the


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AASP/NJ’s Northeast™ 2011 Trade Show—A Wealth of Information for Shops

Tom Hoerner

Northeast™ 2011 Waterborne panel (l to r): Tom Elder, Tom Smetanka, Tom Beck, Kevin Hundt,Luigi Zucchet & Bob Hickey (see text for affiliations)

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,

who works in a variety of fields and subjects, but grew up in a family of NASCARfans. She can be contacted at [email protected].

the booth’s cleanliness as equal in im-portance to that of air flow and heat.

Hundt said that the education re-quired to convert to waterborne is min-imal, while Smetanka pointed out thatthe conversion is easier when switch-ing from solvent to waterborne whileusing the same manufacturer since theshop will not need to learn a new sys-tem. Elder contributed that he has seena decrease in the cost of his basecoatsince switching to waterborne becauseit requires less paint to cover the vehi-cle, again due to the higher pigmentloads of waterborne.

Elder and Smetanka praised theexcellent color matches that water-borne paint offers, and Hundt saidusing waterborne systems can be fasterthan solvents when done correctly. Inresponse to an internet question aboutthe effect of contaminants in the air,Hundt stressed the need for clean air.Fisheye-type blemishes are common ifoil droplet contamination, for example,gets into the air supply.

To make the conversion easier,Elder suggested total buy-in from allemployees since processes change abit and removing the solvent-basedsystem as soon as the waterborne sys-

tem is installed to avoid returning tothe original system when problemsarise. This is sometimes referred to as“Cold Turkey conversion” in Califor-nia. There shops that tried to graduallytransition from waterborne learned thatit delayed conversion because painterssometimes reverted to spraying solventwhen even minor problems arose.Hickey reiterated that proper educationis important, and Smetanka empha-sized the importance of making sureemployees do not fall back to oldhabits. In conclusion, Hundt offeredthat converting to waterborne may be alittle uncomfortable because it is achange, but it is not difficult in princi-ple to switch to a waterborne paintingsystem. Those that have done so do notregret the transition.

Requirements for Drying WaterborneHave you ever wondered about dryingwaterborne compared to solvent-basedpaints in our not-always warm andsunny climate? Do you have to have abalmy Southern California climate todry it successfully? The short answeris ‘no.’

Panelist Tom Beck, CEO of Fu-ture Care which manufactures spray

booths, led a seminar titledDrying Wa-terborne: What You Need to Know. Ex-plaining that drying water-based paintrequires evaporation of the waterwithin the substance, Beck investi-

gated how evapo-ration occurs underspecific conditions.By experimentingwith a wet towel ona clothesline, Beckdemonstrated thatthe velocity of airmovement is more

important than increased temperaturewhen attempting to dry waterbornequickly; however, his goal is to in-crease both the velocity of air move-ment and temperature, especially in thewintertime.

Because waterborne paints areslower to flash than solvent-basedpaints due to the heavier water content,it was imperative for manufacturers todetermine how to accelerate the speedof evaporation so as to avoid affectingflash-off time for shops using water-borne paints. The temperature andspeed of air coming through boothsmust therefore be increased.

Warm air is less dense than cold

air, allowing the air to absorb moisture.Unfortunately, cold air settles lower tothe ground since it is more dense, andthis leads to an ineffective method ofdrying paint when using a downdraftair flow which will push air down overthe car in a “tenting” effect, causingthe ends of the car to dry much fasteras more air is being pushed throughthese small spaces between the vehicleand the walls of the booth. The hotterair picks up water molecules from thepaint as it passes over the car.

Accelerated drying systems re-duced flash-off time by up to 50% forwaterborne paints, increasing produc-tivity and reducing energy costs. Beckclassifies systems that use compressedair, such as hand-held dryers, as stageone systems which consume a lot ofenergy. Stage two systems do not usecompressed air. Such systems includeceiling fans, booth pods and Jun-AirQADS. The problem with ceiling fans,according to Beck, is that they gener-ate static electricity and spread dust.

Booth pods take a large amount ofair in through the top and output itthrough a smaller space, but they donot increase the temperature and do noteliminate static electricity. Jun-Air’s


Tom Beck

Quick Accelerated Drying Systems(QADS) push air through a smalleropening and warm the air by redirect-ing the hot air from the plenumthrough vents that redistribute the hotair to the level where most of thepainting takes place.

Beck said the temperature willneed to be greatly increased in a sys-tem that forces air downward in orderto reach the goal of 140°F in bakemode, but since cold air molecules falland warm air molecules settle on topof them, the lower surfaces of the carwill still not reach the necessary tem-peratures for the paint to dry properly.This is critically important as the paintwill move if a clear coat is applies be-fore 100% of the water in the paint isevaporated.

The QADS, by bringing air fromthe plenum through ducts on the sideof the booth, allow all surface areas onthe vehicle to reach the necessary tem-perature to dry effectively. Addition-ally, the QADS contains a ionizationbar which neutralizes static electricitywithin the booth.

Finding an Integrated Balance betweenQuantity and Quality in your Shop Cul-

ture: If you don’t have time to do itright, when are you going to have timeto do it over?“Facility Verification and QualityProcesses: What It Means to You” wasthe title of the informative seminargiven by Mark Olson, well-knownquality control speaker and COO ofVeriFacts Automotive.

Olson began by defining a “quan-tity culture” as being one in whichshops focus on throughput, cycle timeand profits, assuming quality will take

care of itself. Butthis is a short-sighted strategy inmanaging produc-tivity in your shopunless you also in-corporate a bal-ance of “quality”said the VeriFactscofounder.

Olson believes the best culturefor auto body shops is in finding a bal-ance between quantity and quality. Aneffective shop culture needs standardsthat will hold people accountablewhile also empowering people to dothe right thing.

Olson reminded his audience of

the easily overlooked fact that if thejob is not done correctly, it does notmatter when it gets done. A bad jobdone soon is usually just a quickerway of getting to redo it. Constantlyasking technicians questions such as“how soon,” “how fast,” “how much,”or even “when?”, sends the subtlemessage that quantity or speed is moreimportant than quality. There needs tobe a shift to a mindset of commitmentto the process because it is everymember of a shop’s responsibility toprovide quality repair services to theircustomer.

Olson listed the components of apositive repair experience as follows:thorough damage assessment and cus-tomer communication, internal qual-ity control stage checks and peerinspections, and pre-delivery inspec-tion and estimate review.

Expanding on the concept ofthorough damage assessment and cus-tomer communication, it is importantto begin with complete and accurateestimate, said Olson, or the repairprocess becomes hurried and frantic atthe end of the process. Without suchan estimate, the probability of a come-back increases significantly.

Olson even specied that estima-tors should circle the car several timesfrom various distances to fully assessall damage on the car before writingdown a proper and complete first esti-mate. It is also very important to keepin communication with the customerso that shops can managed and exceedthe customers expectations. As such,estimators should walk the floor acouple times each day so that theyknow what is going on with the cus-tomer’s car in case the customer callsto enquire.

Olson repeatedly stressed thatquality control cannot be an after-thought. Everyone is responsible forthe vehicle throughout the entire re-pair process. Peer inspections help re-duce comebacks, and everyone shouldbe willing to point out something notdone correctly.

Olson reviewed VeriFacts’ Qual-ity Measurement Program criteria fora set up and measurement, the vehiclemust be secured in a level position andat least eight points (four in the mid-section, two in the front and two in therear) be measured. VeriFacts also sug-gests using a stage-check verificationin which the technician and a peer in-


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spector signs off at each step of the re-pair.

Concerning “pre-delivery proto-col,” which Olson defines as a dressrehearsal for delivery to the customer,it is important to perform a final post-repair inspection, review the estimate,and then do a final test drive beforepreparing the vehicle to be returned toits owner. Olson went on in a secondpresentation to amplify his and Veri-Facts’ ideas, delving into the area of“unknown unknowns.”

What You Don’t Know You Don’t KnowAt the risk of reminding readers aboutformer Defense Secretary DonaldRumsfeld’s infamous speech about“known knowns, unknown knowns,and known unknowns, not to mentionunknown unknowns...” oh, fugged-abowdit....

Most people have run into a situ-ation where they realized that they donot know something important abouttheir industry, but the situation is evenmore unfortunate when one realizesthey were unaware they were lackingthis information (this would be thedreaded Rumsfeldian “unknown un-known.”)Mark Olson, COO of Veri-

facts Automotive, also taught a semi-nar entitled “Repair Quality: WhatYou Don’t Know You Didn’t Know.”

Olson reminded attendees thatcustomers want their vehicles repairedcorrectly because their cars are im-portant to them. Explaining that whilesome shop owners provide servicebased on what they are paid to do bythe insurance company or customer,other shop owners always do what isright for their customers.

Stressing the importance of qual-ity collision repair and proper docu-mentation, Olson began his overviewof common repair problems and howthey are easily solved. He clarified hisstatement that it both “is” and “is not”about the money by noting out that abusiness cannot prosper if customersare continually dissatisfied.

For most auto body shop owners,according to Olson, these deficienciesresult from being unaware of whatthey do not know. Auto body workersmust know everything about a car atthe beginning of their work, and theymust adhere to the current regulationswhich change so frequently that evenquality shops may be unaware of theirerrors.

For example, most weld-throughprimers state on their label not to weldthrough, and they must be dabbed onalthough they come in a spray can.Luckily, they work well when usedcorrectly. If the weld-through primersare used to weld through, they tend tocause air bubbles, while dabbing theprimer onto the vehicle, instead ofspraying it, preserves the original e-coat.

When it comes to corrosion pro-tection, technicians must seam seal allwelded joints, even those not sealedby the manufacturer. They should alsouse epoxy under the seam sealers, andit is important to use corrosion pro-tection on all repair areas. Not prop-erly applying corrosion protectionbuilds failure into the repair as rustingwill begin as soon as water touches it.It is necessary for welders to practiceand destroy their welds and reinspectthe quality of their welding. A qualitycontrol process is recommended toprevent such errors.

An area where many shops haveproblems is documentation. All oper-ations must be documented, whetherthey are paid for or not. Shops mustadd non-charged items to the bill be-

cause, legally, it was not done if it isnot documented. Post repair marketvalue insurance claims can beavoided by maintaining proper docu-mentation, communicating with thecustomer and making proper repairs.Anything that is paid for but not com-pleted, improper documentation ofprocedures, and deviation from in-dustry repair standards are all consid-ered fraud; due to this, it is veryimportant to properly document files,

properly repairvehicles, correctlyinform customersof repairs, listen tothe customer andcontinually pursueeducation to stayup to date on pro-cedural changes.

Protecting Your Shop Assets and yourPeople from RiskAt the Northeast 2011 Trade Showon Saturday, March 19, JosephChiaravallo of Utica National In-surance presented a seminar entitledRisk Management for Collision andMechanical Shops. Defining riskmanagement as managing and pro-


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tecting assets from all types of risk,Chiaravallo informed his audiencethat the highest claim frequency andthe greatest percentage of insurancelosses occur in the automotive prop-erty-casualty line. The most frequentcauses of loss are theft, vandalism,burglary, wind damage and lightningand power surges.

Chiarvallo explained it is possibleto minimize property loss from bur-glary and theft by installing a securitysystem and good exterior lighting, aswell as making sure never to leave cashon site. Minimizing vandalism entailssimilar procedures, such as installingsecurity cameras and better exteriorlighting and keeping the customers’ve-hicles secured and locked within the fa-cility. To minimize loss caused bywind, shops can remove clutter whichcould become wind-driven projectilesand install proper door supports. Light-ning strikes can cause loss due to se-vere discharges or even just loss ofpower. Shops should install a lightningprotection system and establish emer-gency procedures for storm or poweroutages.

The fifth most frequent cause ofinsurance loss accidents in the shop

are due to damage to the customer’scar after being struck by equipment.This is often due to a technician’slack of experience in moving cus-tomer vehicles. Luckily, this is easilyremedied by providing the techni-cians with warnings and the neces-sary training.

Although the greatest frequencyof insurance claims occur in the auto-motive industry, the highest averagecost per claim occurs within theworker’s compensation line of busi-ness. The areas of worker’s compen-sation that produce loss mostfrequently are as follows: lifting,pulling and pushing, debris particlesin eyes, misuse of hand tools, slips,trips and falls, and all manner of ma-chinery mishaps.

To minimize injuries due to ma-terials handling, shops must empha-size training and safety. It should bestandard practice to talk with allstaff about the common causes of in-juries, observe the staff while theyperform daily tasks, establish workrules, identify hazardous conditions,and develop a checklist of condi-tions that need ongoing attention.Decreasing the risk of eye injuries

can be achieved by insisting on pro-tective equipment usage, talking tostaff about the common causes of in-juries, observing staff as they workto monitor safety compliance, andidentifying hazardous conditions inadvance.

Shops can reduce slips, trips andfalls by clearing walking surfacesand identifying hazardous condi-tions, and the dangers of hand toolinjuries can be diminished by ex-plaining the threat to employees, es-tablishing rules, and when injuriesdo occur, finding the cause and ef-fect and, of course, making the nec-essary changes.

The most common liabilityclaims are for property in the car, cus-tody and control, failure of work per-formed, injuries to the customers onthe premises, falls, and customers andworkers having contact with or beingstruck by objects.

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Toyotetsu Texas WinsToyota Suppliers AwardSan Antonio-based Toyotetsu TexasInc. received a Launch PerformanceAward from Toyota Motor Engineer-ing & Manufacturing North AmericaInc. during ceremonies March 15 rec-ognizing high-quality performanceby the company’s suppliers, accord-ing toMy San Antonio.

Toyotetsu was recognized forstamping and welding excellence onthe Tacoma pickup, which Toyotabegan producing in San Antonio lastyear.

Four additional suppliers re-ceived Launch Performance Awardsand several other suppliers were rec-ognized in different categories forexceeding the auto company’s ex-pectations.

“This event emphasizes our sup-pliers’ commitment to flexibility andcontinuous improvement, allowingToyota to focus on building safe andreliable products,” said Toyota MotorEngineering’s Purchasing Vice Pres-ident Robert Young during the com-pany’s annual supplier businessmeeting

Toyota said it spent nearly $25billion on parts, goods and services inNorth America last year.



Strategies for preventing customer dis-satisfaction—and dealing with it when ithappens

“The paint on the repaired panelsdoes not match the rest of the car. Theshop says it cannot be made to match.I find this impossible to believe.”

These words, an actual commentwritten by a customer of a U.S. shop,are not exactly what you’d like to seeon the comment cards or customer sat-isfaction indexing (CSI) reports youreceive. That’s why it seemed surpris-ing that the shop owner said he wasactually pleased when his CSIprovider faxed him a copy of the cus-tomer’s gripe.

“Yeah, of course, I always dreadfinding out that we blew it with a cus-tomer,” the shop owner, who askedthat his name not be used, admits.“But on the other hand, I’m not therein the shop all day, every day, any-more. I might not have known that thiswoman left so unhappy with us. Be-cause (our CSI provider) lets us knowright away about negative comments,I was able to call this lady and let herknow that I would be getting thistaken care of for her.”It wasn’t an easy or inexpensive fix.The shop owner said he personallypicked up the woman’s car andbrought it to the shop to be resprayed.“On paper, that job was a money-loser, no doubt about it,” he says. “Butthat woman has actually referred atleast two more jobs to us in the coupleof months since then. This is someonewho left here unhappy, ready to showanyone who’d listen what a lousyjob—at least in her mind—we haddone, but now she’s telling peoplehow great we are.”

This shop owner’s experiencepoints out that addressing an unhappycustomer’s concerns effectively can beevery bit as valuable as working toavoid having unhappy customers in thefirst place. Studies show that if you ad-dress a customer’s concern quickly, thatcustomer can become one of your mostloyal—even more loyal than someonewho left satisfied in the first place.

Here are some general guidelinesand tips for customer complaint reso-

lution based on interviews with shopowners.

Skip the excuses. It’s easy to fallinto a pattern of trying to explain awayproblems (“The parts weren’t avail-able,” “We didn’t know about that,”“Our technician missed that.”)

An explanation later is fine, but itshouldn’t be the starting point. Andthe explanation should never sounddefensive.

“One of my estimators agreed torefund $100 to a customer, but he didit with such a lousy attitude the cus-

tomer still left unhappy,” one shopowner said. “If you do something fora customer, do it willingly even if youdon’t think it’s owed. Don’t do it be-grudgingly. Do it with a smile on yourface and allow them to feel that you’redoing it because it’s the right thingyou do. Either way, you’re out the$100 today, but if you do it right,you’ll keep their business long-term.”Start with empathy. While an apologyis important, it’s critical that the cus-tomer also feels that you understandthe position they are in.

“I have my staff say somethinglike, ‘Oh, thank you for letting usknow about this,’” one shop ownersaid. “‘I’m sorry for the inconven-ience this is causing, but let’s see howwe can make this better for you.’”

Decide on a solution. Make asuggestion for a solution and ask,“Fair enough?” Or ask the customerwhat he feels is fair. In any case, makesure employees have the power tomake a decision quickly. One studyfound that 95 percent of complainingcustomers will return if their com-

plaint is resolved on the spot, but thispercentage plummets if the customerhas to wait or jump through anyhoops.

Assure them you’re changing.Let them know that not only will theirproblem be fixed, but that you are tak-ing action to see that similar situationsdon’t occur in the future.

“Customers like thinking they’vehelped you and future customers,” oneshop manager said.

Go beyond resolution. Create a“story” for the customer to tell by fix-

ing the problem in a memorable way.Make another concession they werenot expecting. Give or do somethingextra. The cost of giving somethingaway is usually much less than thecost of losing a customer’s futurebusiness and the business of all thosehe tells his story to.

One shop with three locations inIllinois actually has a budget line in itsannual expenses fund that office staffcan use “to soothe things over withcustomers.” A customer who brings acar back because of a problem may re-ceive a couple of movie passes or acoffee shop gift certificate they canuse at the near-by mall if the shop willneed the car for an hour or more.

“If we’ve really blown it, we’llsend them a restaurant gift certificate,particularly if it’s a repeat customer orone referred to us,” the shop ownersaid.

It’s important, too, to look fortrends in the complaints your shop re-ceives in order to make longer-termadjustments and corrections. Gettingto the root cause of problems isn’t al-ways easy. One technique that canhelp you get to the root of a problem isthe “five why’s;” you often have toask “why” at least five times to get tothe root of a failure.

Here’s an example:Why was Mrs. Jones not satisfied withour service?Because her car wasn’t ready until aday later than we promised.Why was her car delivered a day late?Because we were waiting for a part.Why wasn’t the part here?It didn’t get ordered until the car wasready to go.Why didn’t it get ordered sooner?Because we didn’t know until thenthat we actually had the wrong part.Why didn’t we know we had the wrongone?Because the technician didn’t check itwhen it arrived.

After five whys, you usuallybegin to see what needs to be fixed.This can be time-consuming, but CSIcan help you spot trends, allowing youto focus your attention on the areasthat seem to account for the mostcomplaints.

Paint Complaint Does Not Have to Mean Unhappy Customer

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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

12 principles for solving customercomplaints1. Apologize. Let them know that you’re sorry they’re unhappy.2. Remain positive. Don’t argue with them or sound defensive.3. Empathize with them. Let them know you understand how they feel.4. Listen. Don’t interrupt. Give them a chance to tell you everything.5. Ask questions. Confirm that you have a full understanding of theirneeds.6. Be an ambassador for your company. Let them know that you willpersonally handle this situation.7. Don’t blame others or pass the buck. Admit that you (or the com-pany) was wrong. Don’t dwell on causes or excuses.8. Respond immediately. Do whatever you can do to get the problemfixed as quickly as possible. Delays work against you.9. Try to establish or maintain some rapport with the customer.10. Use humor when possible. Making people laugh puts them atease.11. Agree on a solution. Make sure it is acceptable to them.12. Follow through. Make sure things get done how and when you saidthey would.


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A Collision Industry Conference(CIC) committee hopes by April tohave hired a consultant to help build abusiness case for a new organizationthat would oversee the developmentand implementation of formalized col-lision repair standards in the UnitedStates.

Russ Thrall, co-chairman of theRepair Standards Advisory Commit-tee, said at the CIC held in Secaucus,NJ in mid-March that several propos-als from consultants are now being re-viewed, and a decision is expected inApril. If funding for the position canbe raised, the consultant will be askedto issue a draft of the business case bythe end of September.

For a number of years, an all-volunteer CIC committee has dis-cussed and crafted some portions ofa possible standard, which would ad-dress training, equipment and evenrepair procedures. A draft of the stillin-process 100-page document canbe viewed online (www.repairstan-dards.com).

Thrall has said the consultant isneeded to work with the volunteercommittee to conduct the interviewsand research necessary to propose astructure and funding mechanism forthe organization that would use a for-mal process to create and implementthe standards. The consultant’s reportwould also outline the value suchstandards would offer various seg-ments of the industry, and how theperformance of the standards could bemeasured.

The committee is planning aforum to be held in conjunction withCIC’s November meeting in LasVegas that would present the consul-tant’s findings and recommendations.Thrall said the committee hopes to in-clude presentations and discussion atthat forum with representatives fromshops and insurers in the United King-dom where a formalized set of indus-try standards has been in place forseveral years.

As happens during many of thediscussions of proposed industry stan-dards, a number of participants at CICin Secaucus expressed questions orconcerns about the process or out-come.

Aaron Schulenburg of the Society ofCollision Repair Specialists, for ex-ample, asked whether the fund-raisingthat was planned was just to cover theexpense of the consultant’s research,or if would be establishing funding fora standards organization even beforethe need for and interest in such an ef-fort was established. He said his grouphad recently held a conference callwith about 18 of its affiliated state re-pairer associations.

“The perspective was pretty con-sistent from association to associa-tion,” Schulenburg said. “To behonest, there was a lot of skepticismover the value, the benefit, and theoverall impact (of formalized industrystandards) on the repair facilities thatthese association represent.”

Thrall and others on the commit-tee stressed that funding was onlybeing sought to determine whetherthere is an interest in and business casefor the development of a standard-set-ting and –implementing organization.

I-CAR offers updateAlso at the meeting, Bill Stage of I-CAR provided an update on the train-ing organization’s efforts to revamp itsofferings and recognition program. Hesaid that while the Gold Class Profes-sionals designation is currently basedon “points,” it will convert to be basedon “hours” of training next year.

Stage said there are currentlyabout 4,000 Gold Class facilities inthe United States, up by about 1,800since last July. That growth, he said,came in part because of Allstate’spush to ensure all shops in its directrepair program are Gold Class.

“There’s another insurance com-pany that is pretty close to going downthat path as well,” Stage said. “Andtwo OEMs at this time are close to an-nouncing a Gold Class initiative fortheir dealership shops.”

Starting in July, I-CAR will beginto allow experienced technicians to“test-out” of some of the more “basic”courses required for “Platinum Indi-vidual” status. He said I-CAR will an-nounce three new online classes inApril, as well as about one new onlineclass about each month after that. Hesaid that while four hours of online

training currently is more expensivethan one 4-hour live I-CAR class, anew pricing structure expected to rollout in January will have “a lot morerationality” in the pricing for the twotypes of training.

Other discussion at the meetingIn other news and discussion at CICin Secaucus:● Industry trainer Toby Chess pre-sented information on the need to re-calibrate the steering angle sensor thatis part of the electronic stability con-trol system on an increasing number ofnew vehicles. Such systems are stan-dard equipment on 85 percent of 2010new vehicles, and will be required onall new vehicles as of model year2012. The recalibration is an additionalprocedure that must be done after thevehicle alignment. “It’s an added step,and there’s also no more 2-wheelalignments with these systems. That

won’t work,” Chess said. He said eventhough no “trouble light” will be lit onthe dash and the vehicle may handleproperly under normal driving condi-tions even if the system is not cali-brated, the electronic stability controlfunction may not work properly in asubsequent “emergency maneuver.”● Deborah Craig, a compliance officerwith the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency, said that even though thedeadline has passed for shops to com-ply with new federal refinish and paintstripping regulations, any business thathas not complied should not avoiddoing so. “Some folks think if theyhang back and don’t submit the paper-work that somehow EPA isn’t going toknow about them,” Craig said. “Theydon’t want to shine a light on them-selves by submitting something late.Our recommendation is that you justmove forward as quickly as possibly

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You only get one chance at the first repair.Original Thought #78

Bates Custom and Collision has two lo-cations in Texas, one in Baytown andone in Channelview. Owners Lee andLeila Bates have centralized their busi-ness around going beyond providinggreat quality repairs and workmanshipto helping out the communities they arelocated in.

The Baytown location wasopened in 1990 and is about 12,000square-feet while the Channelview lo-cation opened in 2003 and is about9,300 square-feet. The business has 30employees total and grosses just over$4 million per year.

“What makes us unique is ourcommunity roots, our level of in-volvement in both communities,” saidCo-owner Leila Bates.

The Bates have been giving awaya refurbished vehicle in their Respon-sible Parenting Award and Benevo-lence Program ever since they opened.They have given away 20 cars over 20years through this program.

“This program really offers ouremployees a way to give back,” saidLeila. On these types of projectseveryone in the building, frompainters to body techs, is working to-gether after hours to give back to the

communities they work in.Bates also participates in a Com-

munity Giveback Program, which al-lows customers togive an optional 3%off the cost of their re-pairs to a local non-profit. Any non-profitcan enroll in the pro-gram with Bates forfree.

“The Commu-nity Giveback Pro-gram is new and ithelps us be able totouch more organiza-tions than before,”said Bates.

Programs likethis help to develop community part-nerships with organizations and it’s aneasy way for the organizations to dosome fundraising and to refer somebusiness back to Bates, said Leila.

Currently the giveback programincludes Betty’s Haven, ChristianWomen’s Job Corps, Friends of theWetlands Center, Relay for Life BayArea and Relay for Life North Channel.

Bates has also sponsored, andsome employees have volunteered in,other community organizations intheir 20 years of service. Leila andLee are familiar faces at a lot of thecommunity board meetings and Leilachaired the local Relay for Life com-mittee for 13 years.

“My husband and I are both fromBaytown and we just truly feel like

these are our friends, our neighbors,”Bates hosts Continuing Education sem-inars for insurers, staff and adjusters onthe weekends as well. The program isTexas Department of Insurance accred-ited.

The shop is also in a Direct Re-pair Program for four large nationalinsurers.

The Bates also make a point totrain their employees in programs like I-CAR,ASE, as well as tech training fromAkzoNobel and Sikkens. They haveused AkzoNobel paints in their shops

for 18 years. About AkzoNobel, theypraise the added value the companyprovides. “The value-added services,consulting and benchmarking reallymake them the best in the industry. It’stheir can of paint plus services,” saidLeila.

Bates also offers a LifetimeWarranty against defects in materialand workmanship completed at theirshops. As long as the same ownerowns the car, they can come in tofix defects on any repairs done atBates.

Bates Custom and Collision3219 North Main StreetBaytown, TX(281) 428-2209

15532 East FreewayChannelview, TX(281) 452-9100www.batescustomandcollision.com


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Bates Custom and Collision – “A Company With a Heart for Community”with Erica Schroeder

Shop Showcase Erica Schroeder is assistant editor at Autobody News in Carlsbad, CA. Sheloves to talk with owners about their shops and goings on in their areas.Contact her at [email protected], or 800-699-8251

Bates’ Channelview location’s 50s-diner theme

Responsible Parenting and Benevolence Award: Front (l to r): Alisha,Tyrese & Corey Stimage; Middle: Lori Tadlock, Tracy & Alexis Stim-age, Leila & Lee Bates; Back: Dave Dillon, Lucas Duran, Nuvia Sali-nas, Juan Ramirez, Benjamin Garcia, David Cuellar.

Staff from the Bates’ two locations gather at their Channelview location

The Property-Casualty Committee ofthe National Conference of InsuranceLegislators (NCOIL) has voted to rejectthe proposed Model Act for Motor Ve-hicle Crash Parts and Repair. By a voteof 11–7, the committee rejected the Actin its entirety following testimony at itsmeeting in Washington, D.C. on March6. NCOIL is a group of state lawmakerswho are leaders or members of com-mittees responsible for insurance legis-lation in their states. Model lawsadopted by the group serve as templatesfor state bills.

The proposal would have requiredinsurers to get consent from policy-holders before using aftermarket crashparts, mandate labeling of crash parts,and establish conditions for when in-surance companies could limit paymentto the cost of aftermarket crash parts.

Since July 2009, when NCOILfirst proposed an aftermarket crash partsbill, the debate has been “a solution insearch of a problem” say its critics.

Supporters, including numerousinsurance companies and aftermarket-oriented organizations, such as CAPAand ABPA, say the act was intended to

protect consumers filing auto bodydamage claims with insurers.

The source of the opposition, ledby The Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS), the Automotive Serv-iceAssociation (ASA) and supported bydozens of other automotive groups senta group letter of opposition to NCOILdays before the committee meeting, urg-ing the model act’s rejection.

The letter stated “This amendmentfalsely presumes that a certified partwill restore a vehicle to its pre-loss con-dition and falsely equates that part to anoriginal equipment manufacturer(OEM) part, since the pre-loss vehiclein almost all instances would haveOEM parts.”

The opposition reasoned thatmany states have statutes with languagesimilar to the proposed model act orthat actually go further in protecting therights of consumers, some of which in-clude consent clauses that give con-sumers the right to choose which partsare used by repairers to fix vehiclesafter a crash.

Action on the bill was postponedto consider an amendment by Rep.

BrianKennedy (RI) which was passedby one vote. The Kennedy amendmentproposed “that certified aftermarketcrash parts shall be presumed to be ca-pable of restoring a vehicle to its pre-loss condition.” This amendment wassupported by CAPA and State Farm.

JohnAshenfelter,Associate Gen-eral Counsel for State Farm, pointing tothe “monopolistic” practices of the car-makers, told the committee that that useof aftermarket parts can reduce policy-holder costs and could save approxi-mately $140 million per year. Rep.Barry Hyde of Arkansas, after doingsome quick calculations, suggested thatthe savings would amount to about$6.00 per year per State Farm policy.“Is all this really over only $6.00 perpolicyholder?” asked Hyde, who latervoted to reject the model.

Prior to the final vote, Rep. BarbByrum (MI), had agreed to withdrawher amendments to save further debateand bring the model to a vote. Byrum’samendments were supported by theSCRS and added language to hold in-surers liable for any aftermarket partsthey choose to specify.

“During the hearing in D.C., andin the days leading up to it, SCRS andour partners in opposition to the modelbecame increasingly convinced that wehad the necessary support from thecommittee members to put this issue torest once-and-for-all,” said SCRS Ex-ecutive Director Aaron Schulenburg.Once the additional amendments wereremoved from consideration, the com-mittee called for an up-and-down voteon the model which resulted in the voteto oppose, and the conclusion of severalyears spent discussing this topic withinNCOIL.

JackGillis, Executive Director forCAPA said he was pleased that, thoughthe model as a whole was ultimately re-jected, the certified parts amendmentwas passed.

The Property Casualty InsurersAssociation of America (PCI) issued astatement supporting the proposal’sdefeat. “We believe this model is un-necessary because almost every statehas laws already to deal with these is-sues,”Robert Passmore, PCI’s seniordirector of personal lines, said in astatement.


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Mel Hunke said he’d like to eliminatethe “wedge” between collision repair-ers and auto recyclers.

“We used to work together reallywell,” Hunke said of the two indus-tries. “But once insurers stopped pay-ing for clean-up or repair time onrecycled parts, they basically said,‘You two fight it out.’And we’ve beendoing it ever since. That’s the wedgethat was driven.”

Hunke, a former shop ownerwho now represents the Quality Re-placement Parts (QRP), a coalition ofauto recyclers in nine states, wasspeaking at the third “Recycled PartsRoundtable,” held in Las Vegas. Thegatherings, originally organized byQRP but now open to anyone, bringtogether representatives from all seg-ments of the industry to discuss andwork to resolve issues related to re-cycled parts.

“We need to blow out the wedgeand put our relationship, our corebusiness-to-business process, back to-gether in a way that benefits every-one,” Hunke said as he opened themost recent roundtable.

It was clear by the end of thehalf-day meeting that many of the twodozen participants – primarily ownersof shops and recycling yards – learnedthings that could help them eliminatethat wedge. Here are some of them.• Photos could help. A Texas shopowner at the meeting asked if recy-clers can make photos of the partsthey have available. Photos, he said,can help a shop confirm the color andcondition of the part. It also could helprecyclers with better quality (or moreaccurately described) parts competewith those selling lower-priced butlower-quality parts, because the shopcould see, for example, that the lower-priced part has rust along the bottomedge.

Several recyclers at the meetingpointed out that yards meeting the Au-tomotive Recyclers Association’s Cer-tified Automotive Recycler programtake as many as two dozen photos ofvehicles before dismantling. Althoughfew recyclers have photos of individ-ual parts available, these “Gold Seal”recyclers can provide those vehiclephotos upon request to the shop.

• Consider more part types. One po-tential win-win-win for recyclers, in-surers and repairers could result ifrecyclers helped make shops aware ofparts they are likely to need in a repairbut that are not typically purchasedfrom a recycler.

“If you buy a fender, hood andbumper from me, but you also needthe windshield washer jug and batterytray and all the other stuff recyclersare currently crushing, we can amor-tize our overhead and dismantlingcosts over more parts, and you can in-crease your alternative part usage andsave totals,” Hunke said.

A representative of one multi-shop operator at the meeting said hiscompany is working with recycledparts vendors on just such an effort sothe collision repair business can main-tain insurer-required levels of recycledparts usage without having to usestructural or other types of recycledparts it would prefer not to.• Understand and use part grading anddamage codes. Those at the meetingagreed that too few recyclers andshops recognize and understand thecodes that have been standardizedwithin the industry to grade recycledparts and identify the type and loca-tion of damage on those parts. Educa-tional and reference materials on thesedescription systems are available atthe “Standards & Codes” section ofthe ARA website (www.a-r-a.org).• Understand estimating issues relatedto recycled parts. Industry consultantand former shop owner Mike Ander-son said at the meeting that he serveson an Automotive Service Associationcommittee that recently updated the“not-included operations” chart it cre-ated for recycled parts (a similar chartis available for new parts as well). Thecharts summarize what operations arenot included in each of the “BigThree” estimating system times andthus may need to be added to an esti-mate when using such parts.• More data would help. Participantsat the Recycler Roundtable meetinghave agreed that some data collectioncould help shops and recyclers workbetter together – and perhaps help in-fluence insurer practices. Work hasbegun, for example, on a survey to

better understand the expectations ofshops, insurers and recycler in termsof recycled parts use to help each seg-ment better meet more of those ex-pectations. They survey is likely toask shops, for example, how valuablethe availability of photos of recycledparts would be.

One meeting participant also sug-gested that a statistical case study lookat whether insurers could benefit fromaccepting lower values for salvage if itincreased the availability, pricing anduse of recycled parts.

A study could also look at howinsurer-mandated use of particular re-cyclers or the “lowest-cost” part neg-atively impacts shop efficiency.• Spend some time at each other’sbusiness. Recyclers and shops at themeeting who had taken the time tovisit the recycling yard they purchasefrom—or the body shops they sellto—agreed it was time well-spent. It’s

a great way to see things that eachside in the transaction may be doingor not doing that negatively affectsthe other.

Ordering parts ahead of deter-mining if a vehicle is a total loss—orordering the same parts from multiplerecyclers to see which arrive first or inthe best condition—are examples ofshop practices that negatively affectrecyclers, those at the meeting dis-cussed. Recyclers’ dismantling prac-tices, or failure to accurately describepart conditions, cost shops time andmoney. Time spent at each other’sbusinesses can help shops and recy-clers work better together, those at themeeting agreed.• Understand the value of the GoldSeal designation. Recyclers at themeeting said shops could help them-selves and the industry by just askingthe recyclers they deal with, “Do youhave the Gold Seal designation?”

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Gold Seal is earned by recyclerswho meet the ARA’s Certified Auto-motive Recycler requirements andalso conduct ongoing customer satis-faction surveying. A description of theprogram requirements, and a list ofGold Seal recyclers nationwide, isavailable at the ARA website (www.a-r-a.org).

Among the benefits to a shop ofusing a Gold Seal recycler is that thoserecyclers are required to use the ARApart grading and damage codes. Everypart from these recyclers includes a

Gold Seal tag that includes a toll-freenumber a shop can use if a part arrivesnot as it was described.

“Last year alone, we kicked threeGold Seal recyclers off the Gold Sealprogram because they didn’t meet thecriteria,” a recycler who serves on theprogram’s oversight committee said atthe roundtable meeting. “There wascomplaints against them from shops,and we removed them.”

Many of the shops at the meetingacknowledged they needed to go backand ask the recyclers they work with

if they have the Gold Seal designa-tion.

Participants at the meeting alsoagreed that more needs to be done toidentify in the parts locating serviceswhich parts are from Gold Seal recy-clers.

The industry also needs to work,they agreed, to help insurers under-stand that just as “certified non-OEMparts” are better than non-certified,that there are cycle time and otherbenefits to be gained from using partsfrom Gold Seal recyclers.

Janet Chaney of Cave CreekBusiness Developer said the goal ofthe Recyclers Roundtable is to con-tinue such discussion between repair-ers and recyclers and to bring in othersegments of the industry as needed.

Chaney, who serves as the ad-ministrator of the roundtable, said thenext meeting is being planned forApril 16 in conjunction with theUnited Recyclers Group (URG) eventbeing held in Denver.

For more information, emailChaney at [email protected]

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Their creations are judged by a panelof top custom-car experts, includingthe famed “King of Kustomizers”George Barris, hot-rod craftsman andTV host Jimmy Shine and auto-elec-tronics wizard Mad Mike Martin.

Autobody News’ long-time Cus-tom Corner columnist,Rich Evans, isthe leader of the All Star build team.After completing nine straight weeksof taping as a participant in Car War-riors, Rich Evans gave us an insidelook at what it’s like on the set of thisone-hour reality show.

Q: Now that viewers have seen threeepisodes of Car Warriors, what areyou hearing from friends and fans?What does it take to create these phe-nomenal vehicles?

RE: The feedback we’re getting isthat people love it. Viewers seem tolike it because it shows them every-thing it takes to build a car. Trying toget a team together on the same page;working without sleep; your biggestenemy is the clock. You have to devisea process that will get the car donewithin 72 hours. If you want to dosomething on the build, you’d betterbe able to come up with a process tobeat that clock, because otherwise itdoesn’t matter. As the All-Star TeamLeader, the most weight is on myshoulders. I have to get everybody toagree and buy in for the entire build.Some people have to make compro-mises and they don’t like it. My mainjob is to have everyone on the teamfocused on their particular set ofskills. And in the end, we have tocome up with an original lookingproduct. So, that means the paint byitself is not going to win the deal at theend of the day, because the judges arelooking at the entire car. We knowgoing into each build that the bodymodifications, the interior, the audio

system and the mechanics of the vehi-cle are going to be a big part of theoverall final product—not just a good-looking paint job. It has to be a teameffort, because my attitude is if any-one else on our team isn’t making it,I’m going to step in there and get itdone, because I hate losing. Everyonehas a different approach, but we haveto figure out a way to work as a teamand it’s tough with that 72-hour clockhanging over you.

Q: Right now your record is threewins and one loss. After losing thefirst build-off (the1966 Mustang chal-lenge) you won the next three (the1999 Ford F-150, 1986 El Caminochallenges, and the 240Z build.) Tellus about the process of filming CarWarriors.RE: Each build starts on Tuesdayand ends on Friday. We just got donetaping nine weeks in a row. To put

together one hour show, they shoot380 hours of tape. It’s a large pro-duction on a huge set located on thegrounds of Ted Moser’s famous Pic-ture Car Warehouse in Northridge(Calif.). They have two cameras onthe challenger’s side; two camerason our side; one boom camera andone time lapse camera. And they alsoadd other handheld cameras ran-domly from time to time. Both teamshave their own producers on the setall the time, and sometimes they pullyou away from the build to do on-camera interviews. It’s always go,go, go! I was averaging 6-8 hours ofsleep on each build. On the ElCamino build, for example, I didn’teven get to sleep until around 45hours into it.

Q: I heard that you were workingat your shop (Huntington BeachBodyworks) close to 40 hours perweek while taping Car Warriors fornine straight weeks. Did you ever hitthe wall? How did you survive thiscrazy schedule?

RE: I guess I became immune to itafter the first episode. After that, I fellinto a type of a rhythm, plus I love towork. I’m used to doing long builds atmy shop, so I’m not afraid to work 18-20 hours in a row if I need to. I’vedone it for many years, so I think I’mbasically primed for those types ofconditions. I don’t really look at theclock when I’m working; I’m moreinto working toward getting the nextphase of the project done, like gettingthe vehicle into the paint booth, forexample.

Q: I noticed certain members ofyour All-Star Team standing aroundquite a bit and talking while others aredoing most of the work, is that whathappened?RE: Absolutely. I’m doing the major-ity of the bondo work and shaping,disassembling the cars and then put-ting them back together. When I’m

done with that, I’ll help the interiordepartment, and then I’ll go into thepaint department and do what I needto do. Scott (Owens) has asked me forhelp several times and I’ll do it everytime. I’ve been in business for 18years and I’ve never considered my-self the boss. I’m a team player butI’m also the team leader, so peopletake shots at me all day. I’m thepunching bag and I’ll take the shots,because I’m surely not here to makefriends. I’m here to do a job and tocompete. My favorite saying is ‘theproof is in the footage.’ Some guysgot really tired and started talkingabout quitting, but I’m not about that.I believe that if we put 100% into abuild and you keep going, you’ll get itdone.

One of the big problems in ourwork is time management. It’s askill and the only way to learn it isby doing it repeatedly. It’s learninghow to make deadlines. But some-one has to take the responsibilityand make the decisions; otherwisewe’re standing around looking silly.

I have a process that works for meand I’m bringing it to this show andto the team, and if anyone else wantsto be the team leader, they can juststep up and we’ll follow theirprocess.

Q: How much of this reality tele-vision is actually real, based on yourexperience with this show?RE: On Car Warriors, I can honestlytell you that reality television is 100%real and everything you’re seeing isexactly what’s happening. This showis as real as it gets and it depicts dailylife in a shop. The only differences arethe 72-hour deadline and the fact thatthere are cameras all over the place,but otherwise it’s 100% accurate.

Q: I’m going to toss out namesfor some of your All-Star Team mem-bers. Tell me the first thing that comesto mind about them.Ryan “Ryno” Templeton (paint, air-brush, pinstriping): He was on TrickMy Truck and he knows his paint.Ian Roussel (fabrication, engines,paint, interior): A genius and an amaz-ing fabricator. He’s from the seriesMonster Nation.Tommy “The Itch” Otis (pinstrip-ing): A pain in my ass. He’s becomethe comedy relief on the show, buthe’s a good pinstriper.Nicole Lyons (engines & mechanics):She’s a NHRA and NASCAR race

driver and she’sgot her own shop(Cole Muscle Carsin Sylmar, CA), soshe knows herstuff.Tina Sharpe (in-terior & uphol-stery): She’s donework for Gene

Winfield and the owner of AmesSharpe Design that does car interiors.Scott Owens (interior & car audio):He’s the best audio guy I’ve seen.Dave Cooke (engines & mechanics):He specializes in imported enginesand owns a performance shop inSouthern California calledWell Oiled.

And the judges: “Mad Mike”Martin: I may not agree with all of thejudges all the time, but they’re defi-nitely all impressive. He made hisname on Pimp My Ride. Mike has 25years experience and he’s an incredi-ble genius when it comes to electron-ics.George Barris: How can you argue

Continued from Front Page

CARWARRIORS

See CARWARRIORS, Page 55

On the premiere episode of Car Warriors, theAll-Star Team led by Rich Evans lost, evenwith this amazing ’66 Mustang build

This patriotic Ford F-150 truck build tookEvans’s 8-member crew to victory inepisode #2 of Car Warriors

The Car Warriors All-Star Team called this ’86El Camino “Freaky Tiki.” It was the winningvehicle on the third episode of Car Warriors

Nicole Lyons

Friday through Sunday, March 18–20,body shop owners and operators andtheir mechanical counterparts met at the34th annual Northeast™ 2011 show atthe Meadowlands. Northeast™ is the

region’s largest automotive repair showwith hundreds of booths on exhibit.

Organized by AASP/NJ, sup-ported by Thomas Greco Publishing,and boosted by official show sponsorBASF, the the show appeared well-at-tended and provided an active ex-hibitor hall along with some veryinformative presentations.

Jeff McDowell, AASP/NJ Presi-dent, said prior to the show, “Despite theeconomy, our attendance has been on therise over the last two years,” adding, “Weare confident that trend will continue.”

BASF’s sponsorship and the co-location of meetings of CIC, SCRS,NABC, and co-op Assured Perform-ance Network, reflects the heightened

significance of the show to repairersin the region as well as the national or-ganizations who chose to hold theirmeetings immediately prior or con-

currently with the show.Along with the latest in equipment

and technology, Northeast™ 2011 of-fered a full slate of educational and

training seminars ontopics including wa-terborne paint appli-cation and drying,estimating, steering,risk management forcollision & mechan-ical shops and tech-nical certificationcourses from I-CARin both Spanish andEnglish.One of the most

obvious enhance-ments this year was

a well-coordinated social marketingcampaign which was the second yearin which AASP/NJ used social mediato help promote the show. “Last year,we got a ton of positive feedback fromexhibitors and attendees who had heardabout the show either through Twitter,LinkedIn or our Facebook ‘Fan’page,”said McDowell. “These social mediatools definitely helped generate inter-est in the show last year, and I foreseethe response to be even greater thisyear as we up our efforts.” AASP/NJhas also created a YouTube page(www.youtube.com/AASPNJNORTH-EAST), where promotional videos be-fore and after the show are posted.

The weeklong schedule of na-tional automotive repair industry meet-ings,held for the first time during theshow kicked off on Wednesday, March16 with the Society of Collision RepairSpecialists (SCRS)’s Board Meetingand Awards Luncheon, held at theCrowne Plaza Meadowlands. Thurs-day, March 17, brought the CollisionIndustry Conference (CIC)’s quarterlymeeting and reception to the CrownePlaza leading up to the SCRS AnnualMeeting and Board Elections on Fri-day morning. The East Coast Resolu-tion Forum & Leadership Conferencewas held off later that day at Meadow-lands and the Assured PerformanceNetwork hosted a member shop meet-ing later in the afternoon.

“We are very excited and thrilledthat industry leaders from around thecountry are coming to our NORTH-EAST™ show and holding their meet-ings,” said McDowell. “Having the showat the Meadowlands has increased our ex-posure and influence locally and nation-ally and I think this is a reflection of that.”


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AASP/NJ’s NORTHEAST 2011 Show Fills the Aisles at the Meadowlands

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BASF was the official sponsor of Northeast 2011 (l to r) AutobodyNews’ writer Chasidy Sisk (see her coverage of the event thisissue, p. 32), James Beck from BASF, and Autobody News Co-owner Barbara Davies

mounted to the wall out of PVC pipe.The pipe contained the wires to thetester that we mounted on the wall. Itwas more for decoration than usable,but it was kinda cool in its own funkyway. Anytime we got one of those“lookylews” (one of my dad’s favoritewords), you know the type, the kindthat has to hover over the hood whileyou’re working on it. Dad would mo-tion to me to wire up the buzzer to the

battery, and use it as a way to find thedraw or short in the car.

His job was to entertain, while Ilooked for the problem. Most of thetime, I’d study the wiring diagrams, de-termine the most likely spot for theproblem, and find the solution. As Iwould get close to the problem I wouldintentionally ground out the buzzer onthe wall, and it would make a horriblenoise.

Dad would make a comment to thecustomer as to what was going on. Hisold school charm was what made the

difference. At times this whole thingwould get quite humorous. I’d be lyingunder the dash zapping the buzzer andgood old dad would be working hismagic with his broad smile, and hisquirky sense of humor.

These days the electronic scannershave somewhat evened the playingfield. To some degree the abilities of agood tech are now wrapped up in agood quality diagnostic machine. But itstill takes a good tech to understand it,and evaluate the information he/shesees on the screen.

I still try to diagnose things as fastand accurately as I can. I don’t have theold buzzer, or my dad’s inventive con-versations with the customers to helpme with the diagnostics. It’s a memoryI’ll never forget. But, I’ll always keepin mind some of those lessons from myfather… “Take your time son, you’regood… but they (the customer) don’tknow how good you are… so you’llhave to prove it to them each and everytime.” Old school wisdom is still im-portant, and fatherly advice is some ofthe best.


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Quick Diagnostic


TThis month, let’s take a look at Busi-ness Liability Insurance needs for oper-ating a professional body shop with thegoal of adding profit to your bottomline.

Our auto body shop in Santa Bar-bara, California, after several years ofpatronage to a well-known businessinsurance provider, recently changedour business liability insurance carrierto another major player.

The results were a saving of about33% from the previous year with sim-ilar coverage. Like most of us, I amguilty of getting too busy during theday-to-day operation of our businessto review our insurance policies andtheir costs on a regular basis.

What motivated me to review mypolicy and getting new insurancequotes was an act of “overeagerness”from my insurance company to rollover my policy.

A few weeks before our policy

expiration date, a large brown enve-lope arrived via special delivery at ouroffice. On opening the envelope I dis-covered a binder containing our busi-ness insurance policy documentspertaining to the next policy term.

My first thoughts after openingthe envelope were skeptical. In yearspast we never received a renewal pol-icy before discussing our renewal in-tentions with the assigned insuranceagent.

I came to the conclusion thatsomeone from our insurance companyappears to have placed us on an “Au-tomatic Renewal Mode.”

A few days later I initiated shop-ping for other insurance quotes. Mypreference was to speak to an autobody shop liability specialist insteadof shopping for quotes online, with-out really understanding what is cov-ered.

Soon afterwards, I scheduled an

appointment at our shop with a busi-ness insurance liability specialist.Within 24 hours I was presented an in-surance quote which was approxi-mately 33% less than my long timeinsurance company.

When I realized the annual sav-ings I felt some bitterness as a resultof accepting the rates from my long-time insurer for so many years.

Based on my business insur-ance shopping experience I highlyrecommend reviewing your insur-ance policy at least 60 days beforethe renewal date. With some pre-planning and research you shouldhave sufficient time to choose thebest value for your specific insur-ance coverage needs. All it takes isallowing some time to acquire com-parative insurance quotes instead ofproceeding with the habitual “auto-matic renewal”.

The following policy options canbe used as a preliminary aide to helpyou understand your business liabilityinsurance. At a minimum, your busi-ness should have the following pro-tection;

● Business property insurance:Protects your business by funding re-pair or replacement of damaged phys-ical assets.

● Building coverage: Protects yourbusiness against financial losses re-sulting from claims of injury or prop-erty damage caused by you or youremployees from your products andservices.

● Workers Comp Insurance: Pro-tects you and your employees to sat-isfy medical needs in the event of anaccident or injury.

● BusinessAuto Liability Insurance:Protects you from liability created as aresult of damaged incurred to anotherparty’s vehicle and bodily injury.

● Business Crime Insurance: Pro-tects your business from fraud, theft,forgery or robbery.

Optional Insurance

● Business interruption coverage:Allows you to continue to receive in-come while your Auto Body shop con-tents are being repaired or replaced.

● Employment Practices Liability:Protects you from employment relatedoffenses against you.

●Umbrella liability:Adds additionalcoverage over and above your primarypolicy.

●Machinery and equipment break-down: Covers loss of Business in-come resulting from equipmentdamage.

Remember, there is no such thingas a one-size fits all business insur-ance coverage.

I highly recommend you steeraway from the “automatic renewal”mode and discuss your shop’s in-surance repair needs with an expe-rienced insurance specialist who isknowledgeable in understandingand explaining the variety of avail-able auto body shop insurance cov-erages.

Remember, your business hasspecific needs which may change overtime. As a result of reviewing yourpolicy with an auto body shop insur-ance liability specialist annually, itwill provide you peace of mind aboutyour insurance coverage and will con-tinue to fully protect your and yourfamily’s assets.

The choice is yours, either pre-plan your shopping several weeks inadvance of your renewal date or gowith the status quo and see where yourbusiness liability insurance journeytakes you!

Business Liability Insurance: Review & Research Before You Renew!

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with Walter DanalevichShop Strategies for Savings Walter Danalevich, AAM, has been the owner of Santa Barbara

Auto Refinishing since 1979. Contact him at:[email protected].

[email protected] us!write us!write us!

Give us your opinion on matters affecting the industry.

Let’s start with a simple question:What does “DRP” really stand for?

Conventional wisdom says that“direct repair program” is the correctanswer. While that is the literal mean-ing of the acronym, the non-officialtranslation could easily be, “Don’t re-move, please.” I can assure you frommany years of experience in the insur-ance industry that this is more truethan most people care to acknowledge.

Many body shops have lost con-trol of their business. As a result,many of those shops spend a lot oftime hoping, begging and pleadingthat they aren’t removed from theirDRP lifelines.

When the insurance companysays, “Jump,” the shop shouts, “Howhigh, how many times and should Igive you a discount for allowing meto jump?”

This isn’t conducive to a market-place that allows all the stakeholders-

-repairer, insurer and vehicle owner--to benefit.

Before anyone shouts “Amen,”there are different ways of losing con-trol. Yes, it is true that the insurance in-

dustry has assumed some control over aportion of the body shop industry. The

control was attainedbecause shops al-lowing it to happen,and because of theever-evolving mar-ketplace. That mar-ketplace has seen adrop in claims, dou-ble-digit total losspercentages, cus-tomers cashing out,$1,000 deductibleson the rise, anddamaged vehiclesbeing shipped over-seas faster than theycan be rolled off anassembly line in aDetroit manufactur-

ing plant.The end result is a drop in the

number of repairable vehicles, leaving

many of the 35,000+ repairers in theUnited States in search of work. Inother words, low demand and high sup-ply equals shops desperate for business.

Even though I am referring hereto the U.S., international shops haveexperienced very similar problems.Australia and the United Kingdomcome to mind. In fact, in the U.K., thelow supply caused a large percentageof shops to go out of business.

Although neither industry wouldopenly admit it, many insurers and re-pairers have been anxiously awaitinga mass reduction in the number ofshops for varied reasons. High-qual-ity, ethical body shops want the bot-tom-feeders to go out of business. Thebottom-feeders invest very little intheir businesses – yet they are (un-fairly) treated the same as the Tier 1shop. In most cases, the Tier 1 shopand bottom-feeder have the exact


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DRPs and Fear—Hope for a Reduction in the Number of Shopswith The Insurance Insider

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

See DRPs and Fear, Page 52

Hey Toby—Is it true that the fine forusing an illegal air blower is $5000 inCalifornia?

—Jeff from San Francisco

Hey Jeff—I checked with CAL Oshaand they confirmed that fine could beup $7000 for using an illegal airblower. With the poor economic con-ditions that exist today in state fi-nances, more and more regulatoryagencies are now becoming revenuegenerators. Here in California, Gov-ernor Brown has stated that there willbe no new taxes (unless approved bythe electorate and that has about asmuch chance of happening as a snowball in hell.)

On January 6th of this year, traf-fic fines went way up. For example,using a hand-held cell phone whiledriving, first offense: $148. Parkingin a handicap zone: $976 for first of-fense and $1876 for a second offense,

and $436 for failing to stop at a stopsign—the list goes on.

I have been taking a 40-hour online OSHA course and I have beenchecking for OSHA violations in bodyshops as I conduct I-CAR training onsite. What I have seen is unbelievable.


Make Sure Your Shop is Clear of these Glaring OSHA Violations

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

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

The typical blower in the body shop is a femaleand male air tool fitting

Respirators not in a secured bag when not inuse

Ungrounded and damaged electrical cords

Exit door blocked and locked during businesshours

Fire extinguisher access blocked by an object

No signage for fire extinguisher

Ungrounded flammable storage containers andnot spill containment equipment

Open solvent container for cleaning a spray gun Grinders without a shield

See Hey Toby!, Page 56

to come into compliance. Give the re-gional EPA folks a call. Ask for helpin filling out the forms. Talk to folks inyour trade group for assistance. Talkto your paint suppliers. A lot of thepaint suppliers have really been offer-ing such excellent customer service byhelping you comply.”● An informal collection of cash do-nations from the approximately 150people at the meeting raised morethan $1,600 for the Japanese RedCross to support efforts to help thatcountry following the earthquakesand March 11 tsunami.

same labor rate in a given direct repairprogram. How is that fair or good forbusiness?

Insurers need to find a way to dif-ferentiate the high quality shop fromthe bad. That is one reason why insur-ers like the idea of a shrinking num-ber of body shops. There are so manyshops that they have a hard time iden-tifying the high quality shops. In ad-dition, a reduced number of shopswould better assist them in controllingthe customer’s experience and repair.

There are many shops around thecountry that have resisted the DRP se-curity blanket and have remained au-tonomous. This doesn’t make theautonomous shop any better or worsethan the DRP shop. It’s simply a dif-ferent way of doing business. It’s okayto be different. In fact, in this worldwe celebrate and promote diversity.And, at least in the United States, ifyou don’t promote and encourage di-versity, you can quickly find yourselfon the receiving end of a lawsuit forbeing discriminatory.

DRPs play a vital role in the in-dustry whether you care to believe it ornot. They promote competition, can re-duce cost (which ultimately benefitsthe consumer) and can positively im-pact the customer’s experience. Don’tbe hypocritical by questioning myopinion if you are one of the many en-rolled in a DRP-type health care pro-gram. If you are currently enrolled inan HMO or PPO program, please don’tsend me any hate email on how stupidI am. In the immortal words of ForestGump, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

While I was joking about “Don’tremove, please,” the fact is manyshops do operate in total fear. Fearthat at any given moment they couldlose a significant amount of their busi-ness and revenue. While this may notbe fair, shops that heavily rely uponDRPs benefit the most from these re-lationships. In the end, it is a decisionmade on an individual level as to whatis best for that business. Just be care-ful that the oxygen that the direct re-pair program is providing your shopisn’t your only source of air.

Otherwise, you risk having theplug pulled when you expect it theleast.


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DRPs and FearContinued from Page 40

Repair Standards

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Want to Contribute to this Southwest Edition?Give us your opinion on matters affecting the industry.

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Georgia Collision IndustryConducts Labor Rates SurveyThe Georgia Collision Industry Asso-ciation (GCIA) will again conduct alabor rates survey for body shops inthe Atlanta area.

The purpose of this survey is toprovide Georgia collision shop own-ers with prevailing rates for labor andmaterial charges so all shops can bepaid fairly for work performed.

CSi Complete is conducting thesurvey as a third party. Go tohttp://www.csicomplete.com/gcia/survey.aspx to complete the survey.

Labor rates surveys are a valuabletool for body shops in any area. Theyhelp to determine the fair and prevail-ing rate for work done at a collisionshop in a variety of areas includingmetalwork, refinishing, painting, etc.They are also an invaluable tool whenit comes to Direct Repair Program pay-ment negotiations.

Associations in many areas at-tempt to conduct annual labor ratessurveys to keep track of the industryaverage for posted door rates.

Although many insurers conductlabor rates surveys of their own, theassociations usually follow up withtheir own surveys to make sure thecorrect average rate is agreed upon.

This month is a current project I’mworking on which is a 1941 ChevroletDeluxe STD two-door sedan. This isfor some of you fabricators out thereand other body men who know thatsometimes you can’t just replace partsor parts aren’t available. This 1941Chevy was rear-ended and the impact

damaged the deck lid, the left quarterpanel, the bumper filler and the floor.So I’m having to repair this deck lidbecause there aren’t any deck lidsavailable, or at least any metal deck

lids. Chevys of the ‘40s offer a fiberglass one but this customer wantsmetal. You know some customers aredifferent, some will play off the fiberglass. Sometimes you can look forused deck lids and I put my feelers outthere and I could not find any useddeck lids for this ‘41 Chevy. The prob-

lem is the ‘41 Chevy is the only yearthat those deck lids would fit, espe-cially for the sedans. From ‘42 to ‘48they’re all interchangeable. So thatnarrows the options a lot .We’ve got a

vehicle that doesn’t offer this deck lidas a match for any other year.

The best way to start this processis to take the deck lid off and strip it allthe way down to metal, so there’smaybe 65–70 years worth of bodywork, bondo, paint, etc. I strip all themetal off inside and outside. From that

point we’re going to depick the skinfrom the frame and there’s specialtools out there for that. You can findthem through Eastwood and differentspeciality companies like VIMTools.These guys carry specialty equipmentwhere you can go back and pull thingsapart without damaging them toobadly. Next I drilled the spot welds outthen depicked it with a depick tool toroll that edge back out. I take my timeon this. I don’t try to get into it toohard because these panels are 70 yearsold and they’re going to be brittle andhave rust in them. If you’re too roughyou’re going to have to go back andrepair them.

The process I used takes a littlebit of time so you’ve got to be patientwith it. After removing the skin fromthe frame, I hammer it out roughlywith a hammer and dolly. Use a sandbag if you need to. Try not to stretchthe metal too much. Just try to rough itinto its shape because metal does havememory. I used a selection of MartinHammer tools and dollys. If you guysaren’t familiar with Martin Hammersgo to their site at www.martin-sprocket.com. They’ve been aroundfor years and even have books that tellyou how to hammer and dolly andshow you different techniques. Theyhave a variety of hammers, a varietyof dollys, spoons, you name it—theyhave it. Their tools will help you to getthrough a process like this.

I’m going to start with the frame,and hammer it out to get it as close as

I can. Then I’m going to take it backto the vehicle, bolt it on, and makesure I’ve got that frame fit as best as itcan. I’ll make my adjustments asneeded. Then get the latch on it nowto make sure it latches, because then Ican see everything without having toskin everything. I spend a little bit of

time reinforcing, welding, and repair-ing which will pay off in the end.

After that’s completed I drill two1/8th-inch holes in the left and righthinge so I know that this structure willgo back exactly where it needs to go.I don’t want to spend a half-hour tomaybe 2 hours trying to adjust it andget it back where it was. Now to rein-stall it I insert two 1/8th inch dowelpins in there, put your 3 bolts on eachside, tighten them, and you’re rightback where you were. I call it a mockup.

I’m back on to the skin now. I’llhammer and dolly it, slapstick it a lit-tle bit, get it as close as I can. I’mgoing to go use the English Wheel totry to even out the metal. You want todo this as a slow process because youdon’t want to stretch the metal, youjust want to get it back to where itwas. You want to make sure all yourhigh and low damage spots are mostlygone. Start working from one end tothe other with the English Wheel, rollit, tighten it a little bit, go backthrough the same process again, roll itsome more, make sure you’re not put-ting too much pressure on. All youwant to do is just even it out, and thepanel should take its shape back. Youwant to use the flat side of the EnglishWheel, the flattest wheel you can get,the ones without any radiuses onthem. A slight radius basically. So it’sa back and forth motion, the more youuse the English Wheel the more you’llget comfortable with it. Just another


Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans


Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney


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

Remaking a 1941 Chevy Deluxe Back-End with an English Wheel

tool. Woodward is a sponsor of mine,so check out www.woodwardfab.com.They have affordable tools from ham-mers to English Wheels to shears. Alltheir stuff is affordable. They have 36-inch throats or 24-inch throats on theEnglish Wheel. You can make thatwork until you start stepping it up anddoing bigger panels like roofs and big-ger fenders on bigger cars. You canthen upgrade to something else.

After I’ve spent about an hourand a half using the English Wheel,I’ll pull the skin out, lay it on thestructure that’s bolted to the car. Thisway it’s easier for me to see how it’sgoing to fit. Then I clamp it up, but nottoo much pressure with the clamp be-cause too much pressure will bow thestructure and it could twist on you.

When it’s sitting right without toomuch pressure on the clamps you canremove it from the car and set it up.The next step is like putting on a reg-ular door skin. We’re going to roll itback. Some pieces break off on theedges just because it’s been brittle sosave those smaller pieces. I foundsome cracks where I need to roll it. Ido the next step with a TIG welder.Some people use a torch. I don’t have

a flame, but I TIG those areas where itallows me to roll that edge over to theframe. Then I can take the pieces thatbroke off, clamp them there and TIGthem back on. Then hammer and dollythe welds flat. With a TIG welder youdon’t have a lot of build up as long asyou get your settings right.

I don’t weld it in place because I

might have to shift the skin around alittle bit. I reattach the deck lid to thehinges, set it down, check the gaps toget them right, and do whatever align-ments I have to do to massage the skinconnected to the frame. Then I put thelatch in to make sure the handle fits.The handle has an alignment partwhere it has to go through a hole, so Imake sure that’s centered and shut.Then I can massage it a little more

with the hammer to get it closer to fit-ting perfect.

Now I go outside of the deck lidand find the low and high spots, markthem out and work from there. I canpull some of the low spots out, evenout your high spots and then you canstart filing at that point. I’m thinkingnow how far I want to take it and re-

member, we all need to make sure weget paid for our time.

I’ll put a skim coat of Bondo™on it, shape it, and try to keep thatBondo™ under an 1/8th inch. Goingfor 1/16th inch would be better, 1/8thinch at the max. Spend a little moretime, use a uni-spotter, nail gun, pullout those lows, if you have to heat alittle bit, then heat it and shrink it,keep that metal tight.

I may have to split some panels ifsome work has been done before onthe back. Not a surprise. This car’sbeen around for awhile. I can split thepanels, get the gap a little better. Mockup is key, before you even start shap-ing. Once I have the gaps I’m prettymuch home home free.


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See Remaking, Page 57

As the financial pressure mounts with theU.S. recession going on three years now,the collision industry is rapidly falling be-hind the technology curve. Many shopsare unable to afford the training and newequipment required to repair today’s mod-ern vehicles.

Insurers are accutely aware of the factthat there are fewer and fewer shopsable and ready to repair many oftoday’s high tech vehicles. The oldmethods of repair will no longer workbut the responsibility to educate theinsurers lies with the collision repair-ers themselves. But how can a shopthat is well-educated and well-trainedcompete in a marketplace where thestatus quo is so far behind the times?We’re implicitly teaching insurers thatit’s still OK to ‘repair’ vehicles theway we always have because to do socosts less.

When we are forced to prove thispoint over and over, it makes the shop

that is doing a proper repair look likea bunch of pompous overchargingprima donnas. The fact is that it costsmore to repair a collision properlythan to do a proforma job and intoday’s marketplace it is also lessprofitable to do it right. Although theoverall ticket average may be higherthe bottom line profit remains lower.

The entire collision industry isstruggling because we have allowedourselves to become “yes men” andthroughout this recession things haveonly gotten worse. How can anyoneagree to repair a vehicle the new tech-nical details of which they know littleor nothing about? Yet many shops aredoing this every day.

The inexperienced adjuster saysyou do it this way and shops say ‘yes,’some to eliminate any repercussionsand others because they think it’s OK.It is never OK to put a used weldedframe rail on vehicle but I am forced

to argue this point weekly. Becausethe wrecking yard has clips availabledoes not mean we should be usingthem. So why do we find it necessaryto have the same argument over andover almost weekly?

The reason is because of under-trained, underequipped body shops.Adjusters are not our problem; insur-ance companies are not the prob-lem—underqualified shops are theproblem.

Eliminate the underqualified, un-dertrained shops and you will elimi-nate the problem. Why? Becausetraining raises the standards bar foreveryone. When the inexperienced ad-juster comes in to a well-trained shopand then goes on to the next one, he orshe is hearing the same thing every-where (s)he goes and he or she beginsto learn something, the supervisorsbegin to learn something, and the ar-gument of repairing the vehicle cor-rectly goes away.

I believe there are many roadsthat lead to the same destination butwith collision repair we first need todefine our destination before we beginour journey. If our destination is tocontrol costs (at all cost) we arrivesomeplace different than where a safestructural repair should lead. If ourdestination is a safe repair that restoresthe integrity of the vehicle’s standardsthen cost alone cannot be the guidancesystem to get us there.

I believe that the only consistentcredible way to restore the vehicle’ssafety after a collision is to rely onwhat the OEM’s have tested and

proven to be deemed reliable meth-ods. Anything differing from therestoration of the vehicle’s structuralintegrity is the wrong road to follow.Everybody needs to use the same mapto arrive at the correct destination witha collision repair.

So where does this leave the shopsthat may be willing to do the repair cor-rectly but lack the knowledge or equip-ment to do so? It leaves you on thesidelines of the collision industry untilyou gain the credentials required to re-pair today’s modern vehicles. Wouldyou head out on a cross-country tripwithout knowing where you weregoing or with out knowing your desti-nation? Certainly Not.

So it’s time to step up and checkyour destination or you will find your-selves lost in the wilderness without amap or compass with no way of evergetting back. This may sound harsh but50% of the shops will not make the cut.

Insurers are becoming more andmore conscious of the liability in-volved if the vehicle is not repairedproperly and they are naturally gravi-tating to the shops that are trained andequipped properly.

There are plenty of resourcesavailable for shops interested in mak-ing the cut. VeriFacts, I-CAR, ASE,OEM programs, and ALLDATA forOEM specs come to mind. Join thesegroups in raising the bar, and pass theeducation you get from them along toyour customers, insurance adjusters,and your fellow shop owners.

Support the industry, protect yourcustomers, and don’t get left behind.




















Lee Amaradio, Jr. is the president and owner of “Faith” Quality Auto Body Inc. in Murrieta,California. Lee is president of the CRA as well as an advocate for many other industrygroups. He can be contacted at [email protected]

Underqualified Repairers Hurt the Whole Industry

with an icon? They don’t call him theKing of Customizers for nothing.Jimmy Shine: He is very educatedand knows his stuff big-time. He’sfrom the show Hard Shine and one ofthe top guys at So-Cal Speed Shop.All three judges are more than capa-ble to judge these builds.

Q: What’s in the future for CarWarriors?

RE: I’ve heard through the grapevinethat the show is being sold overseasand the reviews have been very posi-tive. Tune in each week, because itgets better and better. You will seesome amazing builds coming up andthe vehicles are more and more overthe top every week.

To keep up on Car Warriorsnews, visit the show’s Facebook fanpage and for breaking news aboutRich Evans, visit Rich’s updated Website at: www.richevansdesigns.com orthe new Rich Evans Designs Face-book fan page.


CAR WARRIORS

Let’s take a look at some of the morecommon violations in the body shop.

The next series of pictures weretaken at my friend’s shop about 2 yearsago. He embarked on the lean processtrail and the first thing that we did, wasclean up the shop and make it OSHAcompliant. It took about 2 weeks andthe results of cleaning up in the shophas resulted in 20 percent decrease incycle time in the first six months ofimplementing the lean process.

I have many more examples, butI think that you get the picture. Thenext issue of Autobody Newswill havea shop check list that will allow you togo through your shop and identifymajor potential OSHA problems.


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Unlabeled bottles

This picture needs not description

No signage, missing electrical outlet cover andextension cord missing its ground

There were parts stored in the 3 foot barrierthat is needed around all electrical panels.Also the signage was missing Today

Refrigerator in paint department, ungroundedflammable storage drum, battery charger, newflammable products, no signage and unlabeledpaint containers

Today

Unchained welding tank and no signage

Today


Hey Toby!

Ungrounded flammable waste container and anopen lid. Also there is not signage on the wall

Then it’s left to primer block,mask and blast, you’re ready to go. Sothose are a few little tips for theprocess I use. Metal finishing versustaking the easy route and just puttinga fiberglass deck lid on. Take sometime. Learn and work the metal. It’s allabout seat time, that’s how you’re just

going to better yourself. My dailyfocus is to get up every morning andlearn something new and try to bettermyself, it’s all I can do.

That’s basically how I run myday in a nutshell. You have to lovewhat you do, and I love what I do.Anyone else working on these ‘40s

might want to look up a companycalled Chevs of the 40s. They’ve gotat least an inch thick catalog. Visitthem at www.chevsofthe40s.com.They’ll give you a free catalog.They’ve got parts that I wouldn’t haveeven known they had.

Often I’ll come across a projectwhere I have to reach out and spend alittle time on the computer. Checkwith friends and find out wherethey’re getting parts or if they’ve

worked on these types of cars. I evenwent to Gene Winfield to see if he hadany contacts on digging up a deck lidand all the way back to South Dakotato where my brother lives to see if heknew about any deck lids. I must havespent about two days searching for adeck lid and with those two days I

have pretty much knocked out thisdeck lid. I’ve got about 19 hours intothe whole process and, again, I wanteveryone to make sure they get paidfor that. If it’s an insurance job, makesure you get paid for metal time, forfabrication time, all of the above be-cause it is a learned skill and it doestake time as well as taking us awayfrom other projects. Cross your T’sdot your i’s, be smart about it, havefun with it. At the end of this build,we’re going to add a little two-tone,put the color back on it while it has itsdown time.

The owner wanted to do a few al-terations and that’s what make it fun.With this project I also found a lot ofproblems, the striker used housescrews to hold it on, the lower bumperfiller had about 50 self-tappingscrews. I welded all the holes and putnut inserts on and marked them outevenly. It just makes for a cleaner job.You’re not getting paid for this, butyou’re practicing to get better, andthat’s what we should all do every day.When I see something wrong, I justtake the time and fix it. Do what ittakes to make the job better than whenit came in and fix other people’s prob-

lems that they overlooked. That makesyou a better tech and keep on goingguys. Better yourselves.

Check out my new show CarWarriors on SPEED, 6pm PST and9pm PST every Wednesday night. It’sthe hottest car build competition showthat’s ever hit the airwaves. If you’venever thought about what you can doin 72 hours, this show will show youwhat can be done in 72 hours. Trustme, what can be done will blow yourmind. Got to my fanpage on Face-book, Rich Evans Designs, become afan and you’ll be able to stay up todate with everything I’m doing andthe projects I’m working on day inand day out.

Talk to you guys next month.


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Quake Damage Stalls Japanese Auto Sales in the U.S.Factory shutdowns in Japan have dis-rupted the country’s best-selling exportmodels to the United States, with 17 ofthe top 20 nameplates still offline morethan a week after the earthquake, ac-cording to Automotive News reporterHans Greimel.

Hardest hit is Toyota , which orig-inally suspended vehicle assemblythrough March 22. The company ex-tended the shutdown of its 18 domesticassembly plants, including those ofsubsidiaries, through March 26. Partsshortages and supply chain disruptionswere mostly to blame.

Sales of the 20 most popularJapanese import models accounted for1,092,453 U.S. vehicle sales in 2010.Through February, they racked up U.S.sales of 174,667 vehicles. Small or fuel-efficient cars, such as the Honda Fit,Toyota Prius and Toyota Yaris accountfor a big chunk of the nameplates. Butso do larger luxury brands such asLexus, Infiniti and Acura.

Production of the Prius hybrid, thebest selling Japanese import in theUnited States with 24,174 units soldthrough February, has been on holdsince March 13. Other affected Toyotamodels among the best-selling Japan-made vehicles in the United States in-clude the Corolla compact, 4RunnerSUV, RAV4 small crossover, and theYaris subcompact. The Yaris is made at

two plants in northern Japan, the regionreceiving the brunt of the March 11earthquake. The 9.0-magnitude quake,one of the strongest ever recorded,broadsided Japan’s auto industry. Com-munication breakdowns, blackouts,transportation problems and wide-spread damage to suppliers have madeit difficult for production to resume.

With most of its lineup made inJapan, the Lexus brand is among thebig casualties. The Lexus ES and ISsedans, the No. 15 and 18 best-sellersin the U.S. this year, are offline. So arethe LS and GS sedans, as well as theRX crossover and GX and LX SUVs.Toyota expects to lose 140,000 units ofToyota and Lexus brand productionthrough March 26. About 60%, or84,000 vehicles, would have been ex-port bound.

“For the time being, we’ll have tohandle it with vehicles already in stockor on ships,” Toyota spokesman PaulNolasco said about overseas demandfor Japan-made vehicles.

Honda said it will extend its shut-down, through March 27. It had ini-tially suspended production throughMarch 22. All three domestic assem-bly plants will be closed. Honda hasthree models among the top 20 sellersin the United States. Its Fit subcom-pact is No. 8, followed by the CR-Vcrossover at 9.


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Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety,an alliance of consumer, health, safety andinsurance groups, on Jan. 31 ranked Penn-sylvania as one of the seven worst stateswhen it comes to the adoption of safe driv-ing laws. The group gave Pennsylvania an“F” in teen driving laws and an overall“Danger” rating when it comes to basiclaws. The group rated every state sur-rounding Pennsylvania with a green lightfor legislation that promotes safe driving.

The group’s annual report was an-nounced at the National Press Club inWashington, D.C. Among the speakers wasMarlene Case, of Lower Pottsgrove, whobecame a highway safety activist after her

17-year-old son, Andrew, was killed in acrash involving a teen driver in November2009.

“It’s too late for Andrew, but it’s nottoo late for others,” said Case, as she spokethrough tears to the gathering. “These lawsdon’t cost states any money and only re-quire political leadership.”

The leadership lacking to enact safedriving laws in Pennsylvania has a pro-found effect.

In another study released the sameday, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphiaand State Farm Insurance reported that in2008 more than half a million people,681,000, were involved in crashes in which

a teen driver was behind the wheel.The study said that nearly one-third of

the recently people killed as a result of carwrecks involving teen drivers aren’t evenin the teenagers’ cars. Cyclists, pedestriansand occupants of other vehicles comprise30 percent of the people killed in crashesinvolving teen drivers.

Officials said the research shows thatmost of the tragedies are caused by inexpe-rience and are therefore preventable.

Strong graduated driver licensinglaws, which allow teenagers to gain expe-rience under lower-risk conditions, areproven to be an effective prevention meas-ure, researchers maintained. Also proven

effective in states where they have beenadopted are passenger limits in cars drivenby teens.

As Case pointed out, this is not diffi-cult: It just requires leadership.

Safe driving standards and more re-strictive teen driving laws have beenadopted in neighboring states of New Jer-sey, New York, Delaware and Maryland.

Pennsylvania has gotten failinggrades on many fronts recently, and newGov. Tom Corbett says he intends tochange some of that.

This fix is simple. It doesn’t cost any-thing except leadership to enact safe drivinglaws.

Pennsylvania Auto Safety Report is an “F”

autobody news april 2011 western edition

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