autobody news february 2014 northeastern edition

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

As State Farm rolls out PartsTrader invarious metropolitan areas across thecountry, a growing number of shopsappear to be withdrawing from theirSelect Service DRP. Recently, shopsin several states have withdrawn fromthe program, and this trend is nowspreading to NY where Angelo andGus Palakis, owners of Dale-WayAuto Body Center in the Bronx, re-fused to sign up for PartsTrader andwere subsequently removed fromState Farm’s Select Service Program.

In January 2014, Angelo postedon LinkedIn: “State Farm is in the

process of rolling out PartsTrader inNY. We declined to sign on so wewere immediately removed from theservice first program. Hopefully, mostshops in NY will do the same!”Palakis graciously agreed to discusshis reasons for refusing to use Part-sTrader.

Angelo was “very upset aboutthe implementation of PartsTrader be-cause it’s extortion! By State Farmmaking the use of PartsTrader manda-tory, it’s dictating to body shopswhere to buy parts from, with poten-tial savings for State Farm at the bodyshops’ expense. You are not given a

A NYC Select Service Shop Decides to “JustSay No” to PartsTrader as a Mandate

See Just Say No, 0

If you’ve been paying the least bit of attention to legal issues in thecollision repair industry over the past decade, you probably know ofErica Eversman, an OH-based attorney and consumer advocatewho specializes in understanding collision repairers’ issues andtheir impact on consumer safety. A noted authority and frequentspeaker on the topics of diminished value, DRP networks and theinfluence insurers attempt to exert over repairers, Eversman servesas a consultant to the industry, assisting repairers to analyze pro-posed regulations and laws affecting collision repair. In addition tocreating “AutoMuse”, an award-winning blog, she is chief counselfor Vehicle Information Services, Inc. and the founder of the Auto-motive Education and Policy Institute, a non-profit organizationgeared towards educating consumers. Though Eversman is obvi-ously busy playing so many roles, she took time from her hecticschedule to talk to Autobody News readers about some of the majorconcerns plaguing the collision repair industry today.

As a consumer advocate, Eversman stresses that consumereducation is vital; “first and foremost, consumers are the people incharge of their vehicles, but if they don’t have the proper informa-tion, they can’t stand up for themselves. They are the only oneswho can effect meaningful change because it is their vehicles andtheir contract with the insurance company.”

Furthermore, collision repairers must comply with consumerprotection laws, so they are the ones at risk of noncompliance wheninsurer interference promotes a situation where repairers are askedto do as the insurer requests, which is always focused on cost andsaving money rather than on providing a quality repair. The shopcan only do so much, and if the consumer doesn’t help, they are es-sentially saying that the repair is good enough, even if it’s not ac-tually safe.

continued on page 18INTERVIEW by Chasidy Rae Sisk

ERICAEVERSMAN

Industry Observations fromCollision Attorney

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

In December 2013, State Farm expe-rienced a dramatic reduction in thenumber of shops participating in Se-

lect Service (theirdirect repair pro-gram) in the FortWayne, IN, areadue to the imple-mentation of Part-sTrader. Of the 22local shops partici-pating in the DRP,

14 (over 60%) opted out of the pro-gram, though some of these shops had

been on the program for decades. Sev-eral shop owners and managers werewilling to discuss their reasons forbeing removed from the Select Serv-ice.

Todd Bonecutter, General Man-ager at Glenbrook Collision at 100 W.Coliseum Blvd in Ft. Wayne, said heopposes PartsTrader as a mandatedtool. “We don’t like being told wherewe can buy our parts or being pre-vented from buying parts from ourusual vendors. This is just a steppingstone for the insurers to dictate otherthings in the collision industry. They

14 Fort Wayne, IN, Shops Opt Out of StateFarm’s Select Service Citing PartsTrader

See Shops Opt Out, Page 48

Todd Bonecutter

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VOL. 3 ISSUE 11FEBRUARY 2014

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Acura of Westchester . . . . . . . . . . 26Amato Agency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . 57Automotive Service Equipment . . 12Axalta Coating Systems . . . . . . . . . 5B & R Associates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Baystate Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram. 21BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 53CCC Information Services. . . . . . . 11Central Avenue Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Certified Automotive PartsAssociation (CAPA) . . . . . . . . . . 23

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Colours, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Continental Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . 20Creative Metal Manufacturing . . . . 30DCH Family of BMW Stores . . . . . 27Ditschman/Flemington Auto Group. . 2Downdraft Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Empire Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Equalizer Industries, Inc . . . . . . . . . 6Fitzgerald’s Lakeforest Hyundai-Subaru. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . 55Fred Beans Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Future Cure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Gary Rome Hyundai-Kia . . . . . . . . 39Glanzmann Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . 29GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 50Goyette’s Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Hackettstown Honda. . . . . . . . . . . 16Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-33

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers. 49I-CAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Ikotec USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Jaguar Wholesale Parts Dealers. . 63Kia Motors Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Koeppel VW-Mazda. . . . . . . . . . . . 47Lexus Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 60Martech Services Company . . . . . 10Maxon Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Maxon Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 56MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . 52MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . 37Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers. 59PreFab Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Providence Lacquer & SupplyCentre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Ruge’s Parts Center . . . . . . . . . . . 35Security Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep . . . . 7Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . 45Sussman Auto Group . . . . . . . . . . 43TechZone Airbag Service . . . . . . . 38Thompson Organization . . . . . . . . 19Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 61Valspar Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Volkswagen Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 54Wagner Auto Group . . . . . . . . . . . 31Yonkers Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36York Kia of Medford. . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Inde

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Contents

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, David Brown,John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess,Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman,Bill Doyle (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo GarciaServing New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts

and adjacent metro areas, Autobody News is a monthlypublication for the autobody industry. Permission toreproduce in any form the material published in AutobodyNews must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2014 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsP.O. Box 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018(800) 699-8251 (760) 603-3229 Faxwww.autobodynews.comEmail: [email protected] N

ortheast

REGIONALA NYC Select Service Shop Decides to “Just

Say No” to PartsTrader as a Mandate. . . . . . . 1Auto Collision Specialists Says it is the

First Mercedes-Certified Body Shopin Baltimore, MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Connecticut Personal Injury Attorney PleadsGuilty to Defrauding 10 Insurance Carriersof a Total $2.5 Million . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Delaware Drivers Have New ProtectionsUnder the Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Long Island City Repairer Gets Tesla’s Approval . 13MD Charges Insurance Agent with 87 Fraud

Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12NJ Considers Banning ‘All Distractions’

While Driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12NSM Insurance Acquires Collector Car Insurer . 12NY Attorney General Advises that Repos on

Payday or Title Loans are Illegal in the State. . 4NY Gov. Cuomo Approves Esurance Program to

Install Anti-Texting While Driving Devices . . . . 4PA Residents Have Right to E-Proof of Insurance

in March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Samuel F. Fortunato Passes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Ulster BOCES in NY Gets I-CAR and GEICO $5K

Grant Via Collision Education Foundation . . . 17Western NY to Receive State Funds to Combat

Insurance Fraud and Auto Theft . . . . . . . . . . 20

COLUMNISTSAttanasio - How to Improve Your Success

with Google in 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Chess - Honda’s Repair Instructions Need

to Be Read and Followed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Franklin - Re-Think Your Marketing For The

New Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Sisk - AASP-Massachusetts Prepares for

2014 with a Strategic Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Sisk - Montana Repairers Form a Small

Association with Big Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Yoswick - Shops Can Put News and Trends

Related To Auto Insurers To Good Use . . . . . . 8

NATIONAL14 Fort Wayne, IN, Shops Opt Out of State Farm’s

Select Service Citing PartsTrader . . . . . . . . . . 114 States to Increase the Minimum Wage

in 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583M Presents its Top Body Shop Resolutions

for 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54AAIA Releases 67 page 2013 Digital Collision

Repair Trends Report with Analysis ofWhole Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

ABRA Acquires X2 Collision in Southern Illinois . 30Attorneys Report Settlement of Largest [Auto

Lending] Loan Discrimination Case in History . 47Axalta Global Color Popularity 2013 . . . . . . . . . 44Baton Rouge Tech is Safelite National Champion . 21Beware Hole-in-One Golf Insurance Scams . . . 63Body Shops and Towing Backed Up During

Snowstorms in Indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Bosch Demos Driverless Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59California BAR Releases Consumer Inspection

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53CCC Acquires Auto Injury Solutions Inc. . . . . . 58Chrysler Files Suit Against LKQ on RAM

Design Patents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Chrysler Seeks Registration of Diagnostic

Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58CIC in Brief, More Next Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58CIC Roundtable Launches Consumer Website

for OEMs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Couple Guilty of Embezzlement from MI Auto Glass

Company Get Probation and $189K in Fines . 46Daydreaming Tops List of Crash-Causing

Distractions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Elk Grove, CA, CarMax Flooded with Job

Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Enterprise Donates $25,000 to Education

Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Fiat Completes Purchase of Chrysler Using$1.9B Chrysler Funding, Deal Heads OffIPO Wanted by UAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Fire Destroys St. Augustine, FL’s CompleteCollision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Ford Approves Chief and Elektron Equipmentfor 2015 F-150 Repairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Ford Approves Pro-Spot for Repairs ofNew F-150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Ford Rep Paul Massie on Repairing the2015 F-150. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Ford’s 2015 F-150 Launch Focuses RepairerConcern on Costs and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . 16

Ford’s Best Selling F-150 Gets Lighterand Tougher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Hyundai, Kia Expect to Top 2013 GlobalVehicle Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

I-CAR President Van Alstyne Talks Weldingand Training at CIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

I-CAR Appoints Elise Quadrozzi as Director,Segment Development for Insurance . . . . . . 21

Industry Observations from Collision AttorneyErica Eversman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Insurance Companies Manipulate Repair CostsSays Shop-Sponsored Complaint inMississippi Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Japanese Auto Lighting Supplier to Receive$56.6 Million Criminal Fine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

K&M Collision of NC Files Six Separate Shortpay Lawsuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

LKQ Responds to Chrysler Design Patents Suit . 3Meet California’s NEW Bar Chief, Patrick Dorais . 22Mercedes-Benz Recalls Some 2013 Vehicles

for OCS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Minicars Fail Tough New IIHS Crash Test,

Chevy Spark ‘Acceptable’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35MN Media Reports Increased Body Shop Traffic . 30Mobileye Integrates with Accel Connected

Car Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36NASTF Board Appoints 2014 Co-Chairs . . . . . . 59Nelson County High School in Lovingston, VA,

Strives to Get Students to Work Right Away . 25New Driver Authorization Cards Allow Legal

Driving in Nevada, Insurance Has BeenAvailable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

NHTSA Moves Ahead on Backup CameraLegislation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

North American Car & Truck Production Hits16.6M Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Not All Insurance Carriers Will Sell Policies toNewly Carded Immigrant Drivers, Citing History . 6

OSHA Implements New Internet Resources toEncourage Safer Practices: Toolkit Optionsand PEL Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

OSHA Piles On Fines after Failure to Abate in NJ . 13OSHA Gives Whistleblowers More Online Options . 10Other Lightweights at the Detroit Auto Show . . 63Pacific Collision Centers, Elite Group, and

Supporters Donate 2013 Ford Focus toFamily with Handicapped Child . . . . . . . . . . 57

PPG Introduces New Color Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Santa Monica FIAT is Now Largest FIAT

Dealer in USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Self Driving Cars Could Dramatically Decrease

Accidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Service King Acquires All Six Las-Vegas Based

Collision Authority Repair Centers . . . . . . . . 20Shops Weather All Kinds of Winter Weather

Disruptions but More Polar Vortex Coming?. 38State Farm and I-CAR Partner on New Welding

Initiative, Easy Registration, Reduced Prices . 28State Farm to Exit Canadian Market,

Credit Union Buying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Study Estimates 9% of Cars will be Self-Driving

by 2035 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58SUV Crashes into Colleyville, GA, Body Shop,

Alcohol a Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Texas Repairer Says He Wants His Tax Refunded . 53What Precautions Need to be Taken Doing

Windshield Repair in Very Cold Weather?. . . 40

www.autobodynews.com | FEBRUARY 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

LKQ Corporation confirmed that acomplaint has been filed against itby Chrysler Group LLC in the U.S.District Court in the Eastern Districtof Michigan. The lawsuit contendsthat certain aftermarket parts LKQsells infringe Chrysler design patentsrelating to the Dodge RAM pickuptruck. LKQ says it believes that thelawsuit is without merit and will de-fend it vigorously, “Moreover, theparts we sell that allegedly relate tothese design patents represent an im-material amount of our revenue.They represent less than one-tenth ofone percent (0.001) of our estimated2013 total revenue and less than one-half of one-tenth of one percent(0.0005) of our estimated total rev-enue for all the years since the firstpatent was granted (2009 through2013).”

LKQ says it has forged mutu-ally-beneficial business relationshipswith other auto manufacturers andcites its license arrangement withFord, in place since 2009.

The license arrangements allowthe company to sell aftermarket partscovered by certain patents in ex-change for a license fee.

LKQ Responds to ChryslerDesign Patents Suit

Chrysler has filed a patent infringe-ment action against LKQ and Key-stone Automotive, saying thecompanies are producing and/orselling parts that infringe on 10 of itspatented designs, specifically relatedto the Dodge RAM brand. Chryslernoted that LKQ's regulatory filingshave the company stating that one ofthe risks of manufacturing aftermar-ket parts is patent infringement. Thefiling, which was made with federalcourt in Detroit, MI, Jan. 17, hasChrysler looking for a ban on theparts that infringe on the patents anddamages “adequate to compensateChrysler for the infringement, in-cluding the infringers’ profits,Chrysler’s lost profits, and/or no lessthan a reasonable royalty... Damagesalone will not be a sufficient remedyunder the law, and Chrysler has beenand will continue to be irreparablyharmed by Defendants’ infringe-ment of the Ram Design Patents.Only a permanent injunction againstDefendants will be adequate.” Thesuit seeks attorneys fees, a jury trial,and an award tripling the damagesfound at trial.

LKQ has responded (next story.)

Chrysler Files Suit AgainstLKQ on RAM Design Patents


NY Attorney General Advises that Repos onPayday or Title Loans are Illegal in the StateNew York’s attorney general’s officerecently sent a warning letter to theAmerican Recovery Associationabout repossessing vehicles ownedby state residents that are connectedwith title loans, which law enforce-ment officials contend are illegal inthe Empire State.

In the document posted onARA’s website, assistant attorneygeneral James Morrissey explainedpayday loans are illegal in New York,but firms are using online channels toaccomplish the same endeavor byusing a vehicle title as collateral.

Morrissey clarified that the fol-lowing attributes taken togethermake loans illegal in New York:—A personal loan to a New Yorkresident of $25,000 or less from alender that is not licensed by theNew York State Department of Fi-nancial Services.—The loan is for personal, family,household or investment purposes.—The unlicensed lender charges anannual interest rate of more than 16percent.

“If the lender is a federally char-tered bank, or a bank that is charteredby a state other than New York State,

the loan may not violate New Yorklaw. This would rarely be the casewith a title loan,” Morrissey said.

“Your members should beaware that if they repossess themotor vehicles of New York resi-dents based on an illegal title loans,they too may find themselves thesubject of an investigation and an en-forcement action by the (Office ofthe Attorney General),” Morrisseywent on to tell the ARA here.

Morrissey added that the NewYork attorney general believes that re-possessing vehicles based on illegal,void and unenforceable loans consti-tutes illegal, fraudulent and deceptivebusiness practices. He said a courtcould order penalties of up to $5,000for each deceptive act as well as costs.

“I welcome the opportunity tospeak with you to discuss what rolethe ARA could play in assuring thatits members do not enforce paydayor title loans that violate New Yorkcivil and criminal usury laws,” Mor-rissey said.

NY Gov. Cuomo Approves Esurance Program to Install Anti-Texting While Driving DevicesA new program that utilizes telemat-ics and is aimed at curbing teen tex-ting while driving has been approvedin New York state, according to Gov-ernor Andrew M. Cuomo.

The program, from insurer Es-urance, allows policyholders to installa device free of charge in their cars tohelp prevent teens from texting andcalling while driving.

The initiative, which was re-viewed and approved by the Depart-ment of Financial Services, letsparents choose to create customized“block lists” that can stop specific cellphone activities when the car is in mo-tion.

“It’s encouraging to see programsthat give parents new tools to help stoptheir sons and daughters from textingwhile driving,” said Governor Cuomo.“A combination of inattention and in-experience has far too often producedtragic results for teenage drivers.That’s why my Administration willcontinue to do everything it can to dis-courage distracted driving and helpparents better protect their children onthe highways.”

Benjamin M. Lawsky, superin-tendent of financial services, said, “Iapplaud Esurance for using innova-tive technology to discourage texting

while driving, which could help pre-vent accidents and save lives. That’sa step toward keeping not only teendrivers, but everyone else, safer onthe roads. We encourage other insur-ers to consider using this type of tech-nology – known as ‘telematics’ – tohelp reduce distracted driving andhold down premiums over the longterm.”

Under Esurance’s new voluntaryprogram, policyholders may install anin-car device into their teen’s car that,in conjunction with an Esurance appinstalled on their teen driver’s phone,can limit the use of text, email, appli-cation usage and phone calls whiledriving (with the exception of 911).The device can also monitor driving

behavior, including speeding, hardbraking, fast acceleration, and otheractivities. Parents can log onto an Es-urance Web portal to customize thedevice and review their teens’ drivinghabits.

“We are pleased that GovernorCuomo, Superintendent Lawsky, andthe state of New York have approved ourteen driver safety program,” said Es-

urance president and CEOGary Tolman. “Esurance Dri-veSafe can empower parentswith smart, innovative tech-nology to help their teens be-come safer, more responsibledrivers.”

Governor Cuomo hastaken a number of steps toenhance the safety of NewYork roads and discouragetexting while driving. Hehas:

Directed the DMV to in-crease the number of points earnedagainst a person’s driving record forconvictions for cell-phone related in-fractions.

Signed a law that raises thepenalties for young and new driverscaught texting-while-driving to thesame severity as the penalties forspeeding and reckless driving.

Designated 91 “Texting Zones”on the New York State Thruway andstate highways to give drivers a pull-off area to park and use their phones.

The Governor has also worked toincrease awareness among driversabout the dangers of texting whiledriving. Statistics show that textingand using a cellphone while driving isa growing trend, whereas alcohol-re-lated driving has declined.

From 2005 to 2011, there hasbeen an approximately 143% increasein cell phone-related crashes in NewYork state. In that same time period,there has been an approximately 18%decrease in alcohol-related crashes inNew York state.

In 2011, there were 25,165 fataland personal injury crashes involvingdistracted driving in New York, com-pared to 4,628 caused by alcohol-re-lated driving.

In New York state, the number oftickets issued for texting-while-dri-ving (30,166) approached the numberof DWI/DWAI arrests (43,954) in2012. In fact, between 2011 and 2012,there was a 234% increase in the num-ber of tickets issued for texting whiledriving. In the same time period, therewas a 4% decrease in the number ofDWI/DWAI arrests.

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A law passed by the 2013 Legislatureand signed by Republican Gov. BrianSandoval allows immigrants in Ne-vada without citizenship status to ob-tain driver authorization cards. Anincreasing number of states have beenpassing similar laws in recent years,and 11 states and the District of Co-lumbia have enacted such measures.

These cards authorize the holderto drive a motor vehicle on Nevadapublic streets and highways. A DAC isnot valid as identification to obtain anystate benefits, licenses or services orfor federal purposes such as boardingaircraft or entering facilities where IDis required. Driver Authorization Cardsare valid for one year from the date ofissuance. You may renew the card eachyear. All renewals and address changesmust be completed in person.

You cannot drive legally in Ne-vada without a driver’s license but youhave long been able to buy auto insur-ance without one. It’s a little known factthat illegal aliens in Nevada have al-ready been able to insure themselves,purchasing insurance for as little as $30a month and as much as $200. It meetsthe state’s requirements, even if they’vebeen illegally driving the roads.

Las Vegas agent EsperanzaMonte longo sells at least a dozen poli-

cies for liability coverage a month. Shehas sold more than 5,000 policies inthe past eight years for American Ac-cess, a Chicago-based insurance car-rier that saw an opportunity to provideauto insurance to a segment of peoplewho have been ignored by mainstreaminsurance companies. These immi-grants have been considered a highrisk because they can’t produce a validdriver’s license. Montelongo estimatedthat at least 80 percent of the undocu-mented population in Las Vegas al-ready have insurance.

Asked whether from a businessstandpoint she’s looking forward toNevada’s new driver authorization card,which will allow immigrants in thecountry illegally to legally drive in Ne-vada starting , the 58-year-old Nebraska-born woman sat back and chuckled.

“Gosh, I can only hope that there’sa huge fluctuation in business. But I’mnot anticipating it because most of theMexicans here are already insured,” shesaid, referring to Las Vegas.

“And I say Mexicans becausewe’re talking about Mexicans. Nevadais Mexican country. They’re the ma-jority of my customers, and they’refiercely loyal.”

It’s an interesting approach todoing the right thing and yet such pur-

chases have been upstaged by the po-litical hype surrounding the new cardand the boon that an estimated 60,000card-carrying customers are expectedto bring insurance companies acrossthe Silver State under Senate Bill 303,Montelongo said.

The legislation was designed tomake the roads safer on the premisethat motorists will not only be requiredto purchase insurance but also to passDMV tests demonstrating that theyknow how to drive and understand therules of the road.

Aztec isn’t the only insuranceagency doing business in the valley.Nearly 50 such companies, most li-censed and registered under the Ne-vada Department of Insurance, can befound in and around predominantlyLatino neighborhoods. There’s Insur-ance for Less down the block from theAztec Insurance office. There’s El SolInsurance about a mile away. EstrellaInsurance a little bit farther.

Many of these insurance compa-nies here have been selling liability poli-cies for years to immigrant motoristswho want to be covered in case of an ac-cident. In the absence of a license, theimmigrants want to have proof of insur-ance should they be cited for a traffic in-fraction and wind up in court.

Alfonso Garcia, a criminal attor-ney, has represented hundreds of im-migrants who have had to explain toLas Vegas judges why they don’t havea valid driver’s license. Many timesthat proof-of-insurance card brings le-niency, not only from the traffic copbut also from the judge.

“We’re talking about people whoare already on the radar for being in thecountry illegally,” he said. “The lastthing they want to do is get stopped andnot have proof of insurance.”

Mostly, Garcia said, the judges ac-commodate them by reducing chargesand fines for first-time offenders. “Theyknow that just about any of us can getcited for a traffic infraction, and so theygive them a chance,” he said. “Just likethey’d give you or me a chance.”

But because they are living in thecountry illegally, it can be difficult toproduce a driver’s license without firstproducing proof of legal residency.This fact has led some offenderstrekking across state lines to apply fordriver’s licenses in the more lenientstates, such as Oregon, Washingtonand New Mexico.

“But all that’s about to change,”Garcia said. “Now every thing will beabove board with the new law, and thejudges are hip to that.”

New Driver Authorization Cards Allow Legal Driving in Nevada, Insurance Has Been Available

Not All Insurance Carriers Will Sell Policies toNewly Carded Immigrant Drivers, Citing HistoryAlthough some insurance companiesanticipate a flood of new policies,many are taking a wait and see ap-proach to the newly legal drivers.

Some car insurance companiesanticipate a new golden market innew driving privileges. Even beforethe cards were available, these carri-ers found that the illegal driver seg-ment is very profitable. The insurancecompanies experience good “reten-tion,” meaning that the policies renewregularly. Just as important is the factthat illegal immigrants seldom reportsmall accidents to lower the chancesthat they'll have a brush with the law.Companies like Progressive, FarmersGroup, Bristol West, Infinity P&Cand Alliance United have been put-ting a lot of effort into expanding thispart of their book of business.

Even though many states denydriver's licenses to illegal immi-grants, the law generally doesn't pre-vent insurers from selling insuranceto unlicensed drivers and car owners.Companies like Progressive are al-ready writing car insurance for ille-gal immigrant drivers and expect tosell more now that licenses are avail-able to illegals.

However others are more cau-

tious. Farmers Insurance Group ofCompanies, for example, is still tak-ing a wait-and-see approach as towhether it will insure the new mo-torists, according to Robert Com-pan, the company’s government andindustry affairs manager. He esti-mates it will take at least three yearsto figure out whether there’s a profitin the business.

“The law doesn’t mandate thatwe sell it,” said Compan, an execu-tive board member for the NevadaInsurance Council, an educationaland public policy arm of the indus-try.

“But if there’s a profit margin tobe made, of course we’re going tosell it, but how do you rate it if theydon’t have a driving history? Howdo you rate it if somebody doesn’thave a credit history? If we don’tknow how they manage their dailylives, it could be difficult providinginsurance.

“Normally, what we’ll do istake a look at the driving history andpredicate the rates on that, but in thiscase it’s hard to rate somebody whodoesn’t exist in the system,” he said.

Compounding the problem,See Immigrant Drivers, Page 10

It’s easy as a shop owner to get socaught up in day-to-day operations thatit can be a challenge to follow just thenews directly affecting collision re-pairers.

But there’s plenty of insurance-re-lated news that shops also shouldknow about, because it can help themeducate their customers, market theirbusiness, and maybe even alter howthey vote or shop for insurance them-selves.

Insurer pushes for more alternativepartsAs of this year, The Hartford is nowrequiring its direct repair shops to use“any appropriate alternative part whenit is available” regardless of the age ormileage of the vehicle being repaired.

A memo from Bethany Siddall,director of auto claims for The Hart-ford, tells shops the new policy is sub-ject to state law, and that any salvageparts still must be of the same modelyear or newer than the vehicle being

repaired. But unless prohibited by statelaw, the new mandate means availablenon-OEM parts must be used even oncurrent model year vehicles.

“Keep in mind that each claimshould be handled on an individualbasis and any variance from this stan-dard should be clearly documented inthe claim file,” Siddall’s memo states.

State Farm encouraging weldingtraining, certification. When I-CARannounced a new lower pricing struc-ture for its welding qualification test-ing (now called Welding Training andCertification) early this year, it alsoannounced that State Farm negotiateda discount for its Select Service shopsas well. The announced continuesState Farm’s track record of encour-aging but not mandating certain train-ing requirements on its direct repairshops.

“We believe welding proficiencybenefits State Farm policyholders byproviding quality repairs to policy-holder vehicles,” Russ Hoffbauer, di-

rector of property and casualty claimsfor State Farm, said. “While partici-pating in the I-CAR Welding Trainingand Certification is not mandatory forSelect Service repairers, we anticipatethat repairers will be eager to take ad-vantage of this unique opportunity.”

Tardy insurance regulation reportissued by the feds. Nearly two yearsafter it was due, a new report releasedby the Federal Insurance Office in De-cember concludes more federal regu-lation of some aspects of insurance isneeded. Rather than debating federal-vs. state-oversight of insurance, the re-port suggests a hybrid approach, withfederal involvement where beneficialin an otherwise state-based system.

Most of the federal regulationsuggested in the report deals withmortgage insurance and internationalinsurance issues, but it also calls foroversight of personal lines in terms ofpractices related to risk-profilinggroups and individuals based on per-sonal information.

Insurer groups were generallypleased with the report’s support formore consistent state-based regulationof the industry but were more skepticalof its call for more federal involve-ment.

State insurance regulator group in up-heavalAt the same time when increased fed-

eral oversight ofthe insurance in-dustry is beingproposed, the as-sociation of stateinsurance regula-tors appears to behaving internalconflicts. Con-

necticut Insurance Commissioner TomLeonardi is calling for an outside firmto conduct a corporate-governance re-view of the National Association of In-surance Commissioners (NAIC),questioning what he sees as poor deci-sions by the group’s executive com-


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Shops Can Put News and Trends Related To Auto Insurers To Good Use

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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

Tom Leonardi


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mittee and what he called NAIC’s“imperial presidency.”

Leonardi cited as one examplethe decision by last year’s president,Kevin McCarty of Florida, “to givethe Federal Insurance Office one ofthe NAIC’s three seats on the Interna-tional Association of Insurance Su-pervisors Executive Committee.” Hewas also critical of some insurancecommissioners’ decision to turn downan invitation to meet with PresidentObama.

“This could be so bad that itmight be the pivotal point we laterrecognize that doomed state-basedregulation. Talk about a self-inflictedwound,” Washington CommissionerMike Kreidler is quoted in the letter.

Leonardi said “cronyism” andthe “undue influence of two former[unnamed] commissioners,” is under-mining the NAIC and gives fodder tothose who question “whether we areup to the task of regulating the largestinsurance market in the world.” Otherstate insurance commissioners haveraised similar concerns but believethe NAIC needs to attempt to addressthe issues internally before seekingthe outside review that Leonardiwants.

State enacts new deductible rules.Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett inDecember signed a new law that al-lows insurers to offer zero-deductibleauto policies? Previous state law re-

quired a deductibleof at least $100.The legislation alsodrops the currentmandate that poli-cyholders selectinga deductible below$500 acknowledgein writing that they

recognize that “a lower deductiblemeans a higher premium.”

Insurer offers telematics as a way forparents to track teen driversEsurance says parents in 39 states whohave installed its DriveSafe telematicsdevice on their vehicle can now pairthe device with their teenage driver’scell phone to limit (on some phonebrands) texting or other use of thephone while the car is in motion. Thesystem also allows parents to monitora teen’s driving behaviors includingroutes taken, speeding, hard braking ordriving past curfew.

Esurance says the information isnot shared with the insurer nor is itused to determine premiums.

Insurance exec a big, big winnerIra Curry, a 56-year-old vice presi-dent for property-casualty in the At-lanta office of Aspen Insurance, wasone of two winners in December’sMega Millions $636 million jackpot.An Aspen spokesman said Curry hadtaken a leave from the company “todisappear with family for a while.”Curry took the lump-sum cash option,walking away with about $120 millionafter taxes.

Insurer to offer policies in anotherstatePennsylvania-based Erie InsuranceGroup will expand into Kentucky, its13th state, by early next year. Erie isthe 15th largest personal auto insurerin the country, although nearly half ofits premiums are from insureds in itshome state.

Idea of city-owned insurer debatedAn editorial in the Detroit News urgedMayor-elect Michael Duggan to drophis idea of starting a city-owned autoinsurance company.

Duggan first raised the idea last fallwhile campaigning to become Detroit’snext mayor. Detroit residents by some

estimates have thehighest auto insur-ance rates of anycity in the country,leading some resi-dents to use subur-ban addresseswhen buying autoinsurance. Duggan

said his own auto insurance rates dou-bled when he moved from nearby Livo-nia to within the city limits of Detroit.

The newspaper says Dugganshould not take on such a risky en-deavor but should instead focus on ef-forts to curtail auto thefts and tolobby the state for reform of the no-fault system. One claim in the edito-rial surely caught the eye of collisionrepairers.

“If Duggan believes he can lowerpremiums by taking the profit out ofinsurance, he’s in for an awakening,”the editorial states. “There is no profitin auto insurance, (Peter) Kuhnmuench(executive director of the Insurance In-stitute of Michigan), says.”

John Yoswick is also the editor ofthe weekly CRASH Network (for afree 4-week trial subscription, visitwww.CrashNetwork.com). He can becontacted by email at:[email protected].

Mike Duggan

Tom Corbett

choice; if you do not use PartsTrader,they remove you from their SelectService Repair Program and startsteering your customers to other bodyshops.”

Using PartsTrader would also cre-ate more administrative work for theshops, Palakis believes. In turn, thiswill increase the shops’ cycle times aswell as rental costs for the consumer.Because PartsTrader requires purchas-ing parts from the vendor that bids thelowest price, a ten-part order could po-tentially be shipped from multiple ven-dors. Palakis recently read an articleabout a shop owner using PartsTraderwhose number of vendors grew from30 to 300, most of which were locatedoutside his market area.

“To manage parts from so manydifferent vendors would be very time-consuming (receiving them, checkingthem, and distributing them),” Palakisexplains. “To return a wrong or dam-aged part would also be very time-consuming since you have to findwhere the part came from and whatprocedure that vendor wants you tofollow.”

Currently, Dale Way has accountswith most of their vendors, grantingthem 30 days to pay their bills, butusing PartsTrader would necessitatepaying for their parts upfront, thoughState Farm won’t pay the shop untilthe repair is finished and the vehicleis delivered to the customer. Accord-ing to Palakis, “this is a lot of time thatwe wouldn’t be compensated for. Atthe same time, our parts profit marginswill shrink. For example, since you’renot purchasing your GM parts fromone vendor, you would not be gettingthe same discount or service. Our abil-ity to negotiate a better parts discount,as an independent business, would betaken away, leaving us at the mercy ofthe vendors on PartsTrader.

Since opening Dale-Way AutoBody Center in 1981, the Palakisbrothers have developed close rela-tionships with their vendors. “Not onlywhen it comes to parts; sometimes, wemay need information or help with avehicle, and they are always there forus. By using PartsTrader, these rela-tionships would be destroyed,” Palakissays.

“State Farm asked us to sign onwith PartsTrader and provide themwith a list of our vendors so they can

approach them and basically intimi-date them to sign on and pay amonthly fee or lose our shop’s partsbusiness – those are mafia-like tactics!There is no benefit to the repairer orthe customer.”

Serving the customer’s best inter-est is a high priority for Palakis, but hedoes not feel that State Farm’s actionsregarding PartsTrader align with thisgoal. “We have a responsibility to ourcustomers who entrust their vehicle re-pairs to us, the auto body repair pro-fessionals. They trust us to repair theirvehicles using the best procedures,parts and materials available, but usingPartsTrader would mean I’m puttingthe insurance company’s interest be-fore the customers who authorized usto repair their vehicle in the first place.In the end, the repairer and the con-sumer would lose, while the insurerand PartsTrader would profit.”

In business for over 30 years,Dale-Way Auto Body Center repairsaround 80 to 100 vehicles monthly.Currently, they participate in DRPSfor three smaller insurance carriersthat are “somewhat fair and do not tryto micromanage us,” Palakis shares.In the 1990s, they enrolled in severalDRPs for major insurers, such as All-state, Geico and State Farm, amongothers. Palakis explains that the reason forjoining these DRPs was because theyfelt that Dale-Way “could serve ourown customer better by writing ourown estimate, thus eliminating theneed for most supplements and nothaving to wait for adjusters who weremostly incompetent. We also thoughtthese programs could better our in-dustry because they required shops tobe licensed, equipped and trained,thus perhaps leading to higher andfairer labor rates. Obviously, we werewrong.”

Dale-Way began withdrawingfrom these programs as long as adecade ago when “they tried to micro-manage us and dictate how repairsshould be done,” Palakis recalls. Evenif State Farm was willing to terminatethe mandated use of PartsTrader,Palakis would not rejoin their DRP;“the way that they are strong-armingour industry, I don’t think I wouldtrust State Farm enough to participatein their Select Service Repair Programagain.”

Palakis feels that what State Farmis doing, in terms of their interferencein the repair process, is illegal; hehopes that the lawsuits against State

Farm and PartsTrader are successfulin MS and FL and that more states fol-low suit in resisting this tortuous in-terference via legal channels.

He also believes that “this is justthe beginning – once State Farm andPartsTrader implement this programacross the country and State Farm hasall its Select Service shops using it,after a period of time, State Farm willutilize PartsTrader to squeeze a biggerpercentage of the parts profits awayfrom body shops, maybe even justsend the parts to the shops and paythem a handling fee.”

What would be Palakis’s adviceto shop owners who are still decidingwhether to sign up for PartTrader?“Just say ‘no’,” he suggests. “If mostshops say ‘no’, State Farm will get themessage and stop the mandated use ofPartsTrader. If this industry keeps al-lowing insurers to dictate our practicesand interfere in our businesses, it willreduce your parts profits, and you willhave less control of your own busi-ness.”Dale-Way Auto Body Center3039 Tibbett Ave.Bronx, NY 10463718-601-8100www.Dale-Way.com


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Just Say NoEmployees covered by any of 22whistleblower statutes adminis-tered by OSHA can now file theircomplaints with the agency online.The five-part online form promptsworkers to include basic whistle-blower complaint information sothey can be contacted easily forfollow-up. Complaints are routedautomatically to the appropriate re-gional whistleblower investigators.The form is downloadable and canbe submitted in hard-copy formatby fax, mail or hand delivery.

“The ability of workers tospeak out and exercise their rightswithout fear of retaliation pro-vides the backbone for some ofAmerican workers’ most essentialprotections,” OSHA AssistantSecretary Dr. David Michaelssaid.

“Whistleblower laws protectnot only workers, but also the pub-lic at large and now workers willhave an additional avenue avail-able to file a complaint withOSHA.”

OSHA Gives WhistleblowersMore Online Options


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Such activities as smoking, drinkingcoffee or putting on make-up whiledriving could be a no-no in New Jer-sey if a bill introduced in the state As-sembly gains traction. The Assembly’stransportation committee voted 12-0to advance the bill, which proposes tofine drivers who “engage in any activ-ity unrelated to the operation of amotor vehicle in a manner that inter-feres with the safe operation of a ve-hicle.” The bill doesn’t lay out whichactivities would cause distracted driv-ing, instead leaving that up to the po-lice to determine. The bill has not beenintroduced in the state Senate.

NJ Considers Banning ‘AllDistractions’ While Driving

Carolyn Yvonne Nowicki, 43, an in-surance agent in Pasadena, MD, hasbeen charged with 87 counts of in-surance fraud and felony theft andone count of theft scheme over$100,000 by the Maryland attorneygeneral’s office. The indictment al-leges that from June 22, 2009through May 13, 2011, Nowickistole a total of $117,150.59 in insur-ance premium funds from 57 indi-viduals and businesses. At the timeof the theft, Nowicki was working asan insurance agent at Main Street In-surance, an independent insuranceagency located in Pasadena. Herscheme targeted customers of MainStreet Insurance and involved nu-merous insurance companies. InMaryland, a fraudulent insuranceclaim having a value of $300 ormore is a felony and is punishableby a maximum sentence of 15 yearsincarceration and a $10,000 fine, ac-cording to state authorities. A theftscheme involving $100,000 or moreis a felony punishable by a maxi-mum sentence of 25 years incarcer-ation and a $25,000 fine. The case isbeing prosecuted by the InsuranceFraud Unit of the Maryland AttorneyGeneral’s Office.

MD Charges InsuranceAgent with 87 Fraud Counts

Pennsylvania residents will soon beable to prove they have auto insurancevia electronic mobile devices during atraffic stop. Residents will be able toreceive their proof of auto insuranceelectronically or sign up for collisioncoverage without a deductible. SenateBill 1040 allows insurance companiesto electronically issue financial re-sponsibility identification cards, ifboth the insurance company and con-sumer agree. “With the type of tech-nology we literally have at ourfingertips, we receive all sorts of doc-uments electronically,” said Rep. TinaPickett (R), who serves as chairmanof the House Insurance Committee. “Itis time to update our laws to reflectthis change, and that’s why we [haveworked] to make it easier for motoriststo receive their auto insurance cardselectronically.” The legislation also re-moves the requirement that vehicleowners carry insurance policies with aminimum deductible for collision cov-erage. Currently, state law mandatesthat vehicle owners carry a $100 min-imum deductible for collision cover-age. ductible policy. The law takeseffect in March. Other states, includ-ing VA and ME, have similar legisla-tion.

PA Residents Have Right toE-Proof of Insurance in March

NSM Insurance Group has acquiredAmerican Collectors Insurance ofCherry Hill, NJ, a 40-year-old in-surer of collector cars and other col-lectibles. Terms were not disclosed.

NSM, a national commercialP&C insurance program administra-tor based in Conshohocken, Pa., spe-cializes in the development andimplementation of industry-specificinsurance programs across the U.S.The company will triple its collectorcar business with this acquisition,according to NSM.

“We are looking forward togrowing and expanding AmericanCollectors,” said Geof McKernan,CEO of NSM Insurance Group.

NSM underwrites more than 20admitted and non-admitted insuranceprograms nationally. In addition tocollector cars, other niche marketsthe company serves are coastal con-dominium associations, social serv-ice, hospitality, professional liabilityfor lawyers and dentists, constructionand workers compensation.

In a statement, NSM said it is“aggressively seeking” to acquireadditional collector car businesses,program managers and niche spe-cific insurance businesses.

NSM Insurance AcquiresCollector Car Insurer

Samuel F. Fortunato, age 84, of LittleSilver, died Jan. 8. He was New JerseyInsurance Commissioner under Gov.Jim Florio. It was during this time thathe implemented the FAIR AutomobileInsurance Reform Act of 1990. Hepresided over the largest life insurer re-habilitation in history with the collapseof Mutual Benefit Life ensuring pay-ment of benefits to thousands of poli-cyholders. Mr. Fortunato was born andraised in Brooklyn, New York.

Samuel F. Fortunato Passes


Premium electric vehicle manufac-turer Tesla Motors has invited Preci-sion Auto Works, 3746 9th St, LongIsland City, to become a Tesla Ap-proved Collision Repair Center(TACRC). Precision Auto Works isthe only Tesla certified collision cen-ter in New York City. Mike Gian-nakos, an owner of Precision AutoWorks, said Precision’s I-CAR-cer-tified Technicians were invited toTesla headquarters in Fremont, CAto complete a combined 160 hours offactory training on the fully-electric,aluminum-constructed vehicles. “It’sexciting for Precision Auto Works tobe a part of the green automakingrevolution,” said Giannakos, who isan ASE certified Master Technicianwho holds a BS in Mechanical En-gineering and is also FAA-certifiedin aircraft repair, “... and to see somuch cutting-edge technology ineach Tesla vehicle.” The shop beganthe process two years ago when theypursued specialized hybrid and elec-tric vehicle training and certificationthrough Go-Green Auto Centers ofLong Island. Precision Auto Worksof LIC provides both collision andmechanical repairs in Long IslandCity, NY.

Long Island City RepairerGets Tesla’s Approval

In September last year the U.S. De-partment of Labor’s OSHA citedJersey Shore Steel for four viola-tions, including three failure-to-abate citations, at its Jacksonfacility. Proposed penalties total$115,400 after OSHA’s follow-upinspection. “By not abating past vi-olations, Jersey Shore Steel keeps itsemployees vulnerable to hazardsthat can cause injuries and, possibly,death,” said Paula Dixon-Roder-ick, director of OSHA’s local office.“It’s vital to correct all hazards im-mediately to protect workers at thefacility.” The failure-to-abate no-tices, which carry $111,000 in penal-ties, relate to the company’s failureto develop and implement a writtenlockout/tagout program that pre-vents inadvertent machine start-up;require fork truck operators to havetheir performance evaluated at leastonce every three years; and trainworkers to use portable fire extin-guishers. A failure-to-abate noticeapplies to a condition, hazard orpractice, found upon re-inspection,that the employer was originallycited for and failed to correct. Thecompany was also fined $4,400 forlacking proper machine guarding.

OSHA Piles On Fines afterFailure to Abate in NJ

Fiat Completes Purchase of Chrysler Using $1.9BChrysler Funding, Deal Heads Off IPO Wanted by UAWFiat has completed the acquisition ofshares in Chrysler Group it did not pre-viously own, making the U.S. unit awholly-owned subsidiary of the Italiancarmaker. The deal headed off a publicstock offering of Chrysler shares thatFiat and Chrysler didn’t want, but theUAW was forcing, in order to set avalue on its stake.

The company announced that ithad struck the $4.35 billion deal to gainfull control of Chrysler on Jan. 1, end-ing more than a year of talks that hadobstructed CEO Sergio Marchionne’sefforts to combine the two automakers’under one management structure.

Fiat bought the remaining 41.46percent stake in Chrysler from a retireehealthcare trust affiliated with theUAW. The trust, known as a voluntaryemployee beneficiary association orVEBA, has received $3.65 billion incash for the stake, $1.9 billion of whichcame from Chrysler and $1.75 billionfrom Fiat.

Chrysler has also committed togiving the UAW trust another $700million in four equal annual install-ments, the first of which was paid inconnection with the deal closure, Fiatsaid.

Fiat previously bought out the

stake held by Canadian governments,so once the current deal closes, Fiat andChrysler can be merged into a singlecompany. The deal will unite the Fiatand Lancia brands and Alfa Romeo,Maserati and Ferrari, with Chrysler andDodge mass market groups and Jeep.

Marchionne, a Canadian/Italianaccountant, will remain as CEOthrough at least 2016 to pursue themerger of Fiat and Chrysler as part of astrategy to maintain earnings growth,Chairman John Elkann told journalistsin Detroit on Jan. 13.

Marchionne has estimated thatFiat and Chrysler together are the sev-enth-biggest carmaker worldwide. Thetwo companies sold about 4.4 millionvehicles combined last year, about halfthe annual production of Volkswagen,GM, and Toyota.

Marchionne has said that the UShas the best claim as headquarters forthe new company and that, once theChrysler combination is complete, Fiatwould be open to additional partner-ships with other carmakers, such asPeugeot Citroen and Suzuki MotorCorp. Chrysler, meanwhile, has re-ported solid earnings—$1.14 billion forthe first three quarters of 2013, and nineconsecutive profitable quarters.

As 2013 draws to a close, AASP-MAprepares for what it sees as an excit-ing new year. Though the Board of Di-rectors’ last meeting of 2013 wascanceled due to inclement weather,they have used the time to make plansfor 2014. Executive Director JillianZywien notes “2013 was a year ofchange for AASP-MA, and I am en-couraged by the feedback receivedfrom our leadership and members. Wehad a successful year, and I look for-ward to 2014.”

The association will hold theirfirst quarter Statewide Informationaland Educational meeting on January14th at the Doubletree Hotel in West-boro, MA, where all statewide andboard meetings are scheduled to con-vene. According to Zywien, “our up-coming State Meeting will focus on anumber of recent AASP-MA projects,including: our strategic planning ses-sion, our new member benefit offer-ings, and updates to our website andsocial media presence. We will also bepresenting on legislative activities andthe decision by Auto Damage ApraiserLicensing Board (ADALB, see Auto-body News, Jan issue) to open the reg-ulations (CMR 211, 212) for updatesand changes. This meeting is a greatopportunity for members and non-members, too.” Additional statewidemeetings are scheduled for March 11,May 13 and September 9, 2014.

AASP-MA’s Board of Directorsmet on January 9th to discuss theADALB’s recent decision to open cur-rent regulations for review by both theADALB and the Division “in an effortto update antiquated language, alignthe regulations with current businesspractices, and make sure the ADALBis doing its job.”

The Board of Directors has se-lected five sections of regulations theywould like to see reviewed: conflict ofinterest, contact with claimant and se-lection of repair facilities, revocationand suspension, conduct of appraisals,

and requirements of personal inspec-tion and photographs. Both CMR 211and CMR 212 are to be reviewed bythe Division’s general counsel andstaff, with those recommendationsbeing reviewed at the ADALB’s nextmeeting on February 25th. After thisreview, a notice of hearing will be dis-tributed for public comment, and theformal hearing will be scheduled.

Regarding AASP-MA’s role inthis review, Zywien explains, “AASP-MA’s legislative committee has set upa meeting to review the regulationsand formulate and submit our re-sponse to the Division and theADALB. On January 7, we will beformulating our strategy for the up-coming ADALB. This is an importantopportunity for our member shops toplay an active role in the rewrite ofthese regulations. Please pay close at-tention to all future association publi-cations as this initiative develops.”

AASP-MA’s Board of Directorsplans to meet monthly in 2014 withsubsequent meetings scheduled forFebruary 25, March 25, April 22, May27, June 24, July 22, August 26, Sep-tember 23, October 28, November 25,and December 16.

AASP-MA has determined thatthey will hold their Annual Golf Out-ing at the Charter Oak Country Clubin Hudson, MA on either June 10th or12th, while Casino Night 2014 will beheld on either November 8th or 15th.Though individual chapters of the as-sociation have yet to establish datesfor their planned events, they intend tohost the same events as in past years,such as the Midstate Chapter’s AnnualBBQ and the Western’s Chapter’syearly Clambake.

At their recent strategic planningmeeting, AASP-MA’s Board of Direc-tor’s primary goals were to “clearlydefine AASP-MA’s mission state-ment, vision, and strategies and toprovide members with a clear under-standing of the association’s directionon behalf of the entire industry... Thisis the first time the Board of Directorshas participated in this kind of exer-cise, and I believe they did a fantasticjob in aligning the new plan to mem-bers’ needs,” Zywien boasts.

The association has also re-

vamped their mission statement to“Building the Success of the Auto Re-pair Industry”, which has been incor-porated into their new logo.

When the Board of Directors wasasked what 2016 if they face no hur-dles, they established a long list oflike-to-haves. In addition to having afunctioning ADALB and increasingmembership to 500 individuals, theywould like to have an auto labor ratechange and a vehicle for sustained in-creases, as well as to strengthen par-ticipant appointees from the industryto the government. They also strive tobe a subject matter expert to legisla-tors, Departments of Insurance, mediaand consumers, plus they’d like to im-prove the image of collision repairowners and facilities to include settingthe standards for the industry. Othergoals include: “have our membershops be proud to be members andhave clout with insurers, to be the ed-ucation provider to the industry and

provide continuing education pro-grams for shops and employees, havean increase in sponsor and vendor in-volvement, and have fair negotiationsachieved through regulatory restruc-turing to include parts procurement.”

While AASP-MA is a known ad-vocate within the industry and amongtheir peers, they have asked them-selves how they will achieve theirplan. Zywien and the Board of Direc-tors respond, “we have the intestinalfortitude, resources, and determina-tion to win. We focus on advancingthe collision industry. We make you amore successful business owner. Wework to solve industry wide problems.We are the experts for our industry,and we have ‘right’ on our side.”

AASP-MA has their work cut outfor them as they aspire to reach theirvisions, but Zywien is optimistic; “Iam really looking forward to delvingdeeper into our strategic plan andtackling some of our goals.”


AASP-Massachusetts Prepares for 2014 with a Strategic Plan

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast Associations

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

Ford has spend 5 years developing its2015 F-150, the first full size pickupwith a 95% aluminum body, and it hasinvested heavily in a market segmentit already dominates. Ford startedwork in 2009 on the truck programthat yielded the F-150, according toCOO Mark Fields in assessing itsability to service, manufacture andpurchase material before deciding onan aluminum body.

What are the costs of this radicalreengineering to consumers? Ford hasimplied the sticker price will be“roughly the same as the current F-150, from $24,500 to $55,000.”

Maybe. But what is indisputableis aluminum’s inherently higher price.Aluminum sheet currently costs $2.20per pound vs. steel at 75 cents perpound. Analysts say you can roughlycalculate the price premium of thenew F-150 by figuring $2 extra perpound saved (700 lbs.)

If those estimates are correct, thenew F-150 should cost about $1,400more than its predecessor. Ford alsocharges an extra $2,095 for adding theEcoBoost engine option on the currentF-150.

Repairers though have differentconcerns: the impact of probablehigher insurance rates; the complexityof aluminum repair; and the potentialimpact on the iconic brand they’reused to working on.

Writes Craig Trudell in Automo-tive News, “Less than 10 percent of the

more than 30,000independent repairshops in the UnitedStates are certifiedand meet trainingand equipment re-quirements to workwith most alu-minum auto bodyparts, according to

an estimate by Darrell Amberson,ASA chairman. While some dealershipsdo in-house body work, independentbusinesses handle the vast majority ofcollision repair in the United States, hesaid.

“Ford is betting buyers will ac-cept what it estimates will be a 10 per-cent jump in costs to insure the pickupin return for improved fuel economy,towing and payload. Ford must alsoget the aftermarket industry up tospeed as it debuts the highest-profilevehicle ever to swap steel for alu-minum.”

“You don’t get any more main-stream than the F-150,” Amberson,who is also vice president of opera-tions for LaMettry’s Collision Inc. inMinneapolis.

Insurers see the material as moreof a liability and Ford expects rates onthe new F-150 to be about 10 percenthigher than its predecessor. Ford has

said it isn’t worried about this becausethe current F-150 is now about 10 per-cent cheaper to insure than competingtrucks, said Doug Scott, Ford’s truckmarketing manager.

But repair shops need separatehand tools for aluminum and steel suchas wire brushes, grinders and sanders,because corrosion can happen whendissimilar metals come in contact withone another. The repair industry alsohas less experience with differences inhow aluminum springs back from im-pacts compared with steel.

“Aluminum has a very poormemory and it resists straighteningattempts,” noted Jeff Poole, a coor-dinator for I-CAR. “Experience re-ally pays dividends here, and this iswhere we’ve got a learning curveahead of us.”

Ford’s internal data show that 90percent of customers live within twohours of a capable repair facility fortoday’s F-150, and 80 percent are within30 minutes, Ford’s Scott said. Buyers ofthe aluminum-bodied F-150 will havethe same access by the time it arrives indealerships late this year, he said.

“We’ve just been waiting for thereveal to unveil a certification processfor dealer-owned body shops and theindependent channel,” Scott said.

Once the decision was made togo with the material, Ford was able toselect a military grade high-strengthalloy, thicker than what’s used in thecurrent truck, because aluminum isabout one-third the density of steel,Fields told reporters.

“The new F series is going to bemore dent- and ding-resistant,” hesaid. “Our engineers have great tests

where they’re dropping bowling balls.We’ve actually been testing this with anumber of our customers, in the con-struction industry, the mining indus-try, to help us.”

Residual values for the new F-150, which measure how well thetruck retains its worth after years ofownership, could decline because ofhigher insurance costs.

“The automakers can force theircertified body shops to be able towork with aluminum, but that stillcould narrow down the choice and thescope of shops that consumers and in-surance companies will have,” LarryDominique, the president of ALG,which has forecast residual values foralmost 50 years. “This will work itselfout, but it could take 10 years.”

Ford produces its F-series trucksin much higher volume than other alu-minum-centric manufacturers do. Pastexamples of aluminum use in autobodies are inconsistent in terms ofwhether insurance rates rise and affectownership costs that play a role inforecasting residuals, Dominique said.“Truck owners are so damn loyal,” hesaid.

Manufacturing experts and steel-industry advocates say that moving toaluminum will require fundamentalchanges to how Ford truck bodiesmake their way down the assemblyline.

Ford is adding thousands ofsalaried workers including technicalengineers to support new-product in-troductions and assigned Fields thetask of honing its processes.

The complicated switch to alu-minum from steel in the F-150's bodycontributes to IHS Automotive's esti-mate that Ford will need to take aboutsix weeks of downtime at each of itstruck plants to retool and swap out ro-bots and machinery.

However, Ford estimates that 80percent of its customers are or will becomfortable with its use of aluminumbecause they know it in other applica-tions, such as with toolboxes and lad-ders that need to be both strong andlight, Scott said.

The ability of the industry toprove it can handle collision work onthe new F-150 will be tested soonafter the truck reaches the market, said


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Auto Collision Specialists Says it is the FirstMercedes-Certified Body Shop in Baltimore, MDOn December 13, 2013, Auto Colli-sion Specialists, in Baltimore wasrecognized by admission to the Mer-cedes-Benz Tier 2/Elite CertifiedCollision Program. Only a selectednumber of shops throughout theUnited States have been granted thiselite certification for aluminumstructural repair. Mercedes-Benz hassaid that Tier 2 certifications will belimited, as needed, per market area.

ACS became the first Mer-cedes-Benz Certified Collision Cen-ter in the Baltimore area when thecertification program was initially in-stated. In the past year, Mercedes-Benz introduced an even moreexclusive program for aluminumstructural repair, and ACS was one ofthe first to apply.

To become a member, collisionrepair facilities must prove, in thecourse of a rigorous audit, that theypossess the equipment and technicaltraining to qualify. Typically, an autobody shop will require multiple au-dits and numerous corrective actionsbefore being granted certification.ACS was one of the few in the his-tory of the program to achieve Tier2/Elite status after the first audit,with no corrective actions required.

Aluminum is widely used in theconstruction of luxury vehicles.Proper repair of aluminum body ve-hicles requires specialized trainingand equipment, including specializedtools and welds, which can only beused in a controlled clean room. Alu-minum structural repairs should beperformed only by certified shopswith the proper equipment and tech-nical training.

In addition to their specializedaluminum welding equipment, AutoCollision Specialist’s technician DanScilipote has been certified for re-ceiving advanced training in Alu-minum Structural Welding.Technicians possessing that certifi-cation are required to have consider-able experience in Gas-Metal Arc(GMA) Welding, and in the repair ofcomplex body structure damage.

This new elite certificationcomes as a result of ACS’s continuedinvestment in the latest equipmentand training. ACS utilizes: GenuineMercedes-Benz Replacement Parts,M-B approved equipment; dedicatedfixture bench approved by Mer-cedes-Benz to ensure assembly-lineaccuracy; and ASE, I-Car and Mer-cedes-Benz certified technicians.

Ulster BOCES in NY Gets I-CAR and GEICO $5KGrant Via Collision Education FoundationStudents in the Ulster BOCES Career& Technical Center’s Auto CollisionTechnology program in New Paltz,NY, got an early holiday surprise.Thanks to a successful collaborationbetween administrators, instructors,and students, the program receivedan I-Car Collision Repair EducationFoundation grant worth $5,000. Thegrant was funded by the GEICOPhilanthropic Foundation and pro-vided funding for the purchase ofmuch-needed new tools and equip-ment for the program.

Among the purchases was aseven-drawer rolling metal cabinetand five-drawer top chest, all filledwith items that the students can usein their hands-on auto collision shop,including an 11-piece metric flare nutwrench set, an eight-piece standardflare nut wrench set, a punch set, aportable pressure blaster, and muchmore. “This grant allowed our pro-gram to spend our shrinking budgeton program improvements, and notto have to spend it on replacing or re-pairing old tools and equipment,”said instructor Dave Rosenberg.

“As school districts, includingUlster BOCES, trim budgets, we needto find alternative ways to assure that

our students have the proper tools andequipment to gain the skills they needto excel in their field. This grant willprovide a huge boost to the Automo-tive Collision Technology programand its students,” says Ulster BOCESGrant Coordinator Bonnie Meadow.

Kingston High School studentEric Stinemire, who will be continu-ing his education in auto collision re-pair at Hudson Valley CommunityCollege, appreciates all of the workthat went into getting the grant.“Now we know we have tools thatwork, and we can get the job done.”

The Automotive Collision Tech-nology program is dedicated to provid-ing technologically advanced collisionrepair training and certification throughstate-of-the-art curricula and hands-ontraining that educates students in threeprimary areas: collision repair, auto-motive refinishing technology, anddamage estimating and management.


According to Eversman, con-sumers possess the power in relationto shops and insurers, so they must de-mand what they are entitled to or theinsurance companies will steer themto low-cost shops that may not be per-forming quality repairs. These con-

cerns should be highlighted because“if consumers had any idea thatthey’re driving potentially dangerousvehicles due to insurer interference,they would be appalled, but they haveno clue what’s going on.”

Actually, insurers have no role inthe repair process whatsoever; theyare only supposed to sign the checkpaying for the repairs, but they’ve be-come involved because the closertheir involvement, the more controlthey can exert, allowing them to avoiddispersing full payment on repairs.Rather than arguing labor rates andshortchanging repairers, Eversman be-lieves insurers should “take a stepback, consider what they are askingshops to do, and reevaluate whethertheir requests are fair.”

When insurers refuse to compen-sate for the full repair cost, shops areforced to pursue shortpay cases, butEversman admits, “litigation is notpleasant. You may get what you’re en-titled to at the end of the day, but youhave to trudge through mud to getthere.”

Recently, there has been a signif-icant rise in the number of shortpaylawsuits being pursued in the courts,but this is not a novel or recent expe-rience. Eversman believes that “colli-sion repairers have had enoughinterference in their businesses from athird party entity who doesn’t performrepairs or accept liability. They aretired of being shortchanged on pay-ments, so they are turning to the courtsfor attention, but no one is excited togo to court.”

There are benefits to this recentinflux, though. Not only do these law-suits send a message to the insuranceindustry, they also serve to createawareness of these issues amongst re-pairers, attorneys and consumers na-tionwide, raising public scrutiny and

helping to alter insurers’ behavior. Ad-ditionally, it “sheds light on how muchyou can trust insurance company adsthat promise to take care of you butdon’t explain how they intend to doso,” Eversman explains.

Eversman hopes these shortpaycases will cause insurance companiesto reevaluate their attitudes. Thoughcollision repairers can’t control in-surer’s behavior, this type of litigation

provides them with an opportunity tobe fairly compensated for their workwhich, in turn, allows them to acquirethe training necessary to branch out toother vehicles.

Still, this concern is detrimentalto consumers, and it should be re-solved by the Departments of Insur-ance who insist this only involvescollision repair shops and insurancecompanies due to their failure to un-derstand that most of these shops thatare being shortchanged are non-DRPfacilities that have no contracts withor obligations to the insurance com-panies. Eversman is “appalled it hascome to this because the Departmentsof Insurance are not doing their job

which is to protect the consumerssince insurance companies are notproperly and fairly paying theseclaims.”

Another example of insurer inter-ference in the collision repair industryis seen in State Farm’s mandate forshops on their Select program to usePartsTrader. Eversman insists, “any-thing which is imposed on collisionrepairers from an outside entity is in-herently a bad thing. There are otherparts procurement systems that shopsuse, but it is their decision. I find themandate to use PartsTrader troubling,and I’m also troubled by the applica-tion as recent disclosures have indi-cated estimates coming back withalterations to labor rates which havenothing to do with parts! This is notwhat PartsTrader was intended to do,as represented by State Farm and Part-sTrader.”

The state of OH specifically has

a state statute prohibiting repairersfrom installing salvage parts on a ve-hicle unless those parts were removedby an Ohio licensed salvage dealer.Eversman fears that the mandate re-quiring the use of parts procurementsystems, especially PartsTrader, willlead repairers to violate these types ofstatues, creating a dangerous situationwhich could potentially lead to con-sumer protection-related lawsuits.

Eversman feels that these issuescould be rectified easily; “State Farmshould withdraw their mandate re-quiring the use of PartsTrader. Then,PartsTrader would be like other partsprocurement systems, and it wouldhave to compete on its own merits, al-lowing repairers to have more powerin choosing parts, ensuring those partscome from a legitimate source, andadhering to the law.”

Eversman sees the PARTS Act as“an absolute example of the extremesto which any industry will go to getwhat it wants without considerationfor other industries. The patent lawsfocus on rewarding companies thatspend money and produce or designsomething unique, protecting them fora designated period of time. Aftermar-ket parts manufacturers and insurersare trying to obtain an exemption forimitation crash parts from the applica-tion of the patent laws, but if Con-

gress really wants to do somethinggood for the consumers, they shouldfocus on evaluating patents on med-ication; that would be far more bene-ficial than exempting imitation parts!”

An interesting side of this pro-posed legislation is the fact that, fordecades, the insurance and aftermar-ket parts industries have claimed thatthe imitation parts are “purely cos-metic” and have nothing to do withhow the vehicle performs in a colli-sion; however, because the parts automakers seek to protect are cos-metic—the standard for design patenteligibility—imitation crash parts man-ufacturers are now arguing that theirparts do have a meaningful function inthe car’s performance.

Eversman says “this is a terribleidea! We have patent laws for a rea-son, and since imitation parts manu-facturers haven’t demonstrated asignificant need to change this, we

may as well do away with patents [ifthe PARTS Act is passed] since it un-dermines the entire patent system.”

Though Eversman admits that shehas not been very involved with andis not particularly informed on theRight to Repair, she wants collisionrepairers to be able to make a livingdoing what they’re good at. On theflip side, she has significant concernswith the increasing technology and so-phistication of vehicles, as well as theuse of alternate metals and compositeparts, and she believes the industry israpidly approaching a point where noteveryone has the necessary skills andequipment to safely repair all vehicles.

Because Eversman also wantsconsumers’ vehicles to be repairedsafely, she can see the value of re-stricting this information to those whohave received the proper training, yetsince she also sees value in permittingany repairer access to this informationin order to repair all vehicles, heropinion is split between these twoconflicting interests.

Additionally, there are manyother challenges facing the collisionrepair industry. For starters, the indus-try is in a continuous state of flux, par-tially because of the changing natureof the vehicles themselves and alsodue to the significant presence of con-solidators and multi-shop operators(MSOs). Many MSOs are activelybuying other shops, leaving independ-ent shops feeling that they can’t com-pete and providing an escape route forshop owners who are exasperated withthe current state of the industry.

Of course, the still impoverishedstate of the economy comes with itsown set of problems which also nega-tively impact repairers. Finally, thefact that people are driving less andwinters have been milder in recentyears leading to fewer accidents alsoaffects some shops’ business. Overall,Eversman believes there is “a conflu-ence of things impacting repairers thatthey don’t have much control over.”

Fortunately, there are some pre-emptive measures that shops can taketo protect themselves from some ofthese problems.

Stay tuned to Autobody News fora future series on key documentationthat every shop should consider utiliz-ing.

Continued from Cover

Erica Eversman

“There is a confluence of things impacting repairersthat they don’t have much control over.”

“Anything that is imposed on collision repairersfrom an outside entity is inherently a bad thing.”


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Western NY to Receive State Funds to CombatInsurance Fraud and Auto TheftMore than half a dozen police de-partments and law enforcementagencies in Western New York willreceive new state funds to help fightauto theft and insurance fraud.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo an-nounced the state will provide nearly$4 million in grant funding to 29 or-ganizations statewide through itsMotor Vehicle Theft and InsuranceFraud Prevention program, adminis-tered by the state Division of Crimi-nal Justice Services.

The program targets the state’surban centers and is funded througha $10 fee assessed on insurance poli-cies issued for vehicles registered inthe state.

Grants will be used to fundsalaries for assistant district attor-neys and investigators assigned tohandle motor vehicle theft and in-surance fraud cases; enhanced en-forcement and sting operations; andfor specialized training for prosecu-tors, police officers and investiga-tors.

Grants awarded in the WesternNew York region include: ErieCounty District Attorney’s Office,$120,700; Niagara County DistrictAttorney’s Office, $152,100; Buffalo

Police Department, $121,000;Cheektowaga Police Department,$48,000; Niagara Falls Police De-partment, $36,500; and NiagaraCounty Sheriff’s Office, $21,500.

Statewide grants include$57,000 for the New York Anti-CarTheft and Fraud Association; and$31,900 to the New York State Pros-ecutor’s Training Institute.

Motor vehicle theft has beensteadily declining in New York, ac-cording to the governor’s office,with the number of motor vehiclethefts in New York declining 90 per-cent since 1997.

In 2012, 18,677 incidents ofsuspected motor vehicle insurancefraud were reported to the InsuranceFrauds Bureau of the state Depart-ment of Financial Services, a 9 per-cent increase over 2011, when17,121 suspected incidents of fraudwere reported.

Service King Acquires All Six Las-VegasBased Collision Authority Repair CentersService King Collision Repair Cen-ters announced Jan. 15 that it has ac-quired Las Vegas-based CollisionAuthority.

Service King, with more than110 locations in Texas, Tennessee,Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, Okla-homa, and now Nevada, acquiredCollision Authority’s 6 collision re-pair centers in the Las Vegas-Hender-son area.

Said Chris Anderson, MarketVice President for Service King,“Collision Authority is the premierprovider of high quality repairs andexceptional customer service in thesouthern Nevada market. Starting in1991, Michael Spears, Vicki Des-saints, and Bill Falls built a locallyowned company with high integrityand values. We look forward to ex-panding their successful culture andoperations.”

With this acquisition, ServiceKing will now operate 18 repairshops in the western United States.Collision Authority’s state-of-the-artrepair facilities cover 210,000 squarefeet and are capable of serving morethan 1,500 cars per month.

Collision Authority’s partners,Michael Spears and Vicki Dessaints,

and 130 team members will be join-ing more than 2,300 Service Kingteammates across the country. Spearshas over 22 years of industry experi-ence, helping grow Collision Author-ity to become the largest and mostsuccessful chain of auto body shopsin Nevada.

“We never intended to sell, butafter spending considerable time withService King, we knew that ServiceKing would be a great fit,” saidSpears. “Service King shares the samecommitment to high quality customerservice and teammate values thatmade our stores number one in LasVegas. This is an excellent opportu-nity for myself, Vicki and the entireCollision Authority team to join thepremier and growing Service Kingbrand.”

“With our current presence inArizona, we are excited about the op-portunity to expand into Nevada andbe able to serve our customers andthe insurance community in theWestern United States,” said ChrisAbraham, Chief Executive Officer ofService King. “We welcome the Col-lision Authority team and are thrilledthat they will be joining the growingService King family.”

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I-CAR® welcomes Elise Quadrozzi,CPCU, AIC, AIM, AU, ARP to I-CAR as Director, Segment Develop-ment for Insurance. Quadrozzi joinsI-CAR after serving two terms asBoard Chair on the I-CAR Interna-tional Board of Directors and waspreviously Director of Claims forHouston International InsuranceGroup (HIIG). In her new role with I-CAR, Quadrozzi will focus on devel-opment of broader training optionsfor the insurance segment, introduc-tion of additional insurance specificroles in I-CAR’s flagship Profes-sional Development Program™ andengaging new insurers beyond the“Top Ten.”

John Van Alstyne, I-CAR CEOsaid, “To strategically focus on eachof the key industry segments weserve, I-CAR uses a segment-basedapproach to managing and expandingsupport in the Collision Repair, In-surance, OEM and Education seg-ments.” Van Alstyne continued, “Oursuccess with this strategy since 2011has confirmed its effectiveness and

we are thrilled to welcome Elise tothe team leading our insurance seg-ment initiatives.”

With over 20 years of industryexperience, Quadrozzi has held sen-ior executive and management posi-tions and has extensive experience inclaims and operations management.Prior to her role at Houston Interna-tional Insurance Group, Quadrozziworked at Crawford & Co. as Direc-tor of Channel Management whereshe focused on Crawford’s educationbusiness. She has also served as Sen-ior Vice President, Claims and Oper-ations, for Assurance America andpreviously led development of an Ac-cident Management business unit forAkzo Nobel Coatings.

“Elise’s extensive industry knowl-edge and experience, as well as her un-derstanding of the critical roles thatsafety and training play in the collisionrepair industry, supports I-CAR’s vi-sion and organizational goals. Elisewill certainly be a valuable asset to ourleadership team and the industry,” ex-plained Van Alstyne.


Baton Rouge Tech is Safelite National ChampionSafelite AutoGlass®, the country’slargest vehicle glass repair and re-placement company, has crownedCasey Rose from Baton Rouge, LA,as the national champion of its 2014technician competition. The bi-an-nual event—Safelite’s Best of Bel-ron® —brings together the company’stop 12 technicians to compete for thetitle, a cash prize of $10,000 and torepresent Safelite AutoGlass in theinternational Best of Belron® Com-petition, a tournament hosted bySafelite’s parent company, which in-cludes champions from each of its 35countries.

Belron® is the world’s largest ve-hicle glass repair and replacementcompany, with 25,000 employees op-erating in over 30 countries.

The event took place on January10-11, 2014, in Columbus, Ohio, wel-coming guests from all over the coun-try. The competition, which includeswindshield replacement, windshieldrepair, back glass replacement and sideglass replacement, is based on skill,quality and customer service. The 12competitors were identified in a seriesof market and regional competitions.

Representing Safelite’s Mid-South region, Casey Rose has beenwith the company for five years. The

father of two met his wife at Safelite,who is a customer advocate supervi-sor Jill Mace. He will travel to Rome,Italy in May to compete for the inter-national title.

To prepare for the competition,Rose worked closely with his techni-cian manager Tony Darbonne. “Icouldn’t have done it without Tony.Together, we studied the notes thatour technician director provided andI made sure to take time with my cus-tomers,” Rose said. “I just felt goodwhen I stepped away from my vehi-cle after the competition, knowing Icommunicated well with my cus-tomers making sure they understoodwhat was going on. While I am ex-cited to win, each one of the 12 guysare winners.”

Casey Rose (center) accepting his award

I-CAR Appoints Elise Quadrozzi as Director,Segment Development for Insurance

Appointed by Governor Edmund G.Brown, Jr. effective November 8, 2013,Patrick Dorais is the new Chief of theBureau of Automotive Repair (BAR). Inthis position, he oversees all opera-tional matters, including licensing andenforcement activities and the admin-istration of the Smog Check Program.

Dorais served as BAR DeputyChief of Smog Check Operations, Engi-neering, Research Administration andConsumer Assistance Division from2007 to 2013 and has been working ingovernment in some capacity since1986, with a focus on consumer rights.

ABN: What have you learned aboutthe job that you didn’t know initiallywithin your first two months in the po-sition?PD: As Deputy Chief, my focus wasthe administration of the Smog CheckProgram. Since my appointment asChief, I have learned more aboutBAR’s other programs and objectivesthat are aimed at ensuring a fair andcompetitive automotive repair mar-ketplace for California consumers.I’ve also learned that we have a great

number of quali-fied and profes-sional people herat the BAR that arecommitted to pro-moting consumerprotection and theautomotive repairindustry. I’m hon-

ored to work with these individualsand appreciate their dedication tomaintaining BAR’s mission and val-ues. Lastly, I’ve learned that althoughour stakeholders come from varyingperspectives, we all share in the sameobjective –to provide consumers withquality automotive repair services.

ABN: In this position, you’re over-seeing 600 people; an annual operat-ing budget of approximately $200million and a statewide network of 12field offices. It’s an enormous respon-sibility, so where do you begin? Areyou planning on making significantchanges and if so, what will they be?PD: I was involved in the develop-ment of BAR’s current Strategic Plan,which identifies our organization’sgoals and objectives for the next fouryears. This plan provides an effectiveframework that I will follow to over-see and uphold the services and pro-grams we provide and to make any

necessary improvements or changes. Ibelieve in the old adage if it ain'tbroke, don’t fix it. We have a solidplan to follow and we will make ad-justments as necessary to reflect theinterests of consumers and otherstakeholders. I also believe in sur-rounding yourself with good peopleand hiring dedicated staff to get thejob done right. I used this approachwhen appointing Dan Povey asDeputy Chief of Field Operations andEnforcement and will do the same tofill the vacancies for Deputy Chief ofSmog Check Operations and DeputyChief of Consumer Assistance, Li-censing and Administrative SupportPrograms.

ABN: When I talk to body shops inCalifornia, they feel like many illegaloperators stay off your radar andthereby continue to do shady work.How would you respond to this claim?PD: This issue is something we con-tinue to address, but we can’t do it alone.We encourage any shop that suspectsunlicensed activity to contact their localBAR field office and report their con-cerns so we can investigate these issues.

ABN: Midnight Body Shops whoaren’t licensed and operating underthe radar still seem to exist in consid-erable numbers, according to bodyshop owners I’ve polled. How has theBAR dealt with shady shops and howcan they be stopped?PD: BAR utilizes two enforcementpaths for unregistered shops. First, reg-ulations for issuing citations took effectin October 2011, and BAR regularly is-sues citations to unlicensed facilitiesunder this authority. Second, BAR con-tinuously fosters relationships with dis-trict attorneys throughout the state in aneffort to create support for criminal andcivil filings against unlicensed facili-ties.

In addition, BAR is exploring an in-dustry suggestion to require in regulationthat providers of automotive repair serv-ices publish their registration numberingall advertisements. This will further en-hance BAR’s ability to identify thosewho are engaged in unlicensed activity.

ABN:When you’re encountering shopsbreaking the law, how are they normallydoing it? And is it true that most of yourconsumer complaints deal with me-chanical (rather than collision) issues?PD: The most common auto body vi-

olation is failure to provide the partsor services specified on the invoice.When looking at all auto repair com-plaint trends, the majority of com-plaints received by BAR involvemechanical issues. BAR categorizescomplaints by component or the typeof repair. Examples of this are AutoBody, Engine Repair, and AutomaticTransmission. The greatest percentageof complaints received fall underthese categories.

ABN: Both of your predecessors triedto create a BAR that is a kinder andgentler organization. What is going tobe your approach to enforcement?PD: It’s all about balance and creat-ing an open line of communicationwith our registrants and licensees. Wewill educate those who are trying todo the right thing to ensure they arein compliance. We will also exerciseour enforcement authority for thosewho are deliberately harming the con-sumer or trying to circumvent the law,and thereby undermining the opera-tions of those who truly want to com-ply. I will ensure that our enforcementteam has the tools and resources they

need to appropriately address these is-sues.

ABN: BAR’s Auto Body Inspectionprogram has gained a lot of exposureand I’ve received positive reports aboutit from people within the collision in-dustry. How many inspections did theBAR conduct in 2013 and do you planto make any changes to it in 2014?PD: In 2013, BAR conducted 104 no-cost auto body inspections. SinceBAR’s highest priority is to protect thepublic, we have set a goal to creategreater awareness of our consumer pro-grams and to promote increased partic-ipation in the Auto Body InspectionProgram (Program). To meet this goal,BAR, with the assistance of the De-partment of Consumer Affairs (DCA),recently released a YouTube video tohighlight the Program’s services. Thevideo has been posted on various socialmedia sites and is available on BAR’sWeb site at: www.autorepair.ca.gov.

ABN: Of the nearly 15,000 com-plaints received every year, how manyof these are collision repair-relatedand how many of these are acted on?


Meet California’s NEW Bar Chief, Patrick Dorais

Patrick Dorais

Amberson.“People don’t wait until the ve-

hicle is a few years old to start hav-ing accidents,” he said. “We can seethem very early on.”

It’s expected the first F-150s willhit dealerships in the third quarter.Ford said last week that the truck willgo on sale in the fourth quarter.

“This is the biggest bet of theshow and maybe one of the biggestbets ever in the car industry,” MikeJackson, CEO of AutoNation Inc.,said in an interview.

“Ford is going to have to exe-cute, and building at that volume inaluminum has never been done in thehistory of the automobile business.And there are reasons it hasn’t beendone: It’s expensive, and it’s compli-cated and it’s difficult to work with.”

It’s a lot to ask” [of dealers],Jackson said. “But that’s the price ofleadership.”

PD: Auto body related complaintstypically account for approximately10% of all complaints BAR receives.BAR investigates all complaints re-ceived and contacts the consumer todocument their concerns and obtainthe final invoice before performing aninspection of the vehicle. BAR ad-dresses any deficiencies identifiedduring the inspection with the shopthat performed the repairs.

ABN: What are your top three priori-ties overall?PD: Consumer protection is alwaysparamount. We need to get back to thebasics of what we do well, which ispromoting and protecting the interestsof California consumers. Over thepast few years, our efforts have beenfocused on several side projects thathave diverted our attention from ourmain objectives. We will renew ourconsumer focus and ensure the suc-cess of our programs, which includethe Auto Body Inspection Programand the rollout of the new On-BoardDiagnostic Inspection System (OIS).

Collaboration is also a top prior-ity. BAR does not have all the answerson the best methods for consumer pro-tection and proper regulation of the

automotive repair industry. We wantto work with all stakeholders, includ-ing those inside and outside of our or-ganization, to continue to be a leaderin the automotive repair industry. Todo this, we have also prioritized com-munication and consistency. We strivefor regulatory consistency and want todo government in a way where all par-ties have a voice and can participate.

ABN: Another of your predecessor’sstated goals was to embrace the tech-nologies available to you to be moreeffective, including updating your Website and using the Internet/Intranet tomore effectively communicate and dis-seminate relevant information morequickly. How will you continue in thisarea and what changes are you plan-ning technologically?PD:The BAR uses various approachesto disseminate program specific andgeneral information, including Face-book, Twitter, YouTube, news releases,Webcasts, regulatory workshops, pub-lic meetings, publications, and mailinglists. Our public Web site is the mosteffective and comprehensive sourceused to communicate information toconsumers, licensees, and interestedparties. Information provided to con-

sumers includes on-line services to findSmog Check stations and automotiverepair dealers and to verify the statusof licenses and registrations, SmogCheck and vehicle maintenance assis-tance, outreach and educational infor-mation, and dispute resolution andcomplaint reporting materials. Webtools provided to Smog Check techni-cians, lamp and brake adjustors, andstations include information on licens-ing, training, and program updates.

A complete revision to our pub-lic Web site is currently underwayand is planned for release in mid-2014. The revised Web site will bemore user-friendly for both con-sumers and industry and will includerelevant and up-to-date informationabout BAR programs. The Web sitewill feature a cleaner look-and-feeland will have a consumer focus to en-sure that important information iseasily accessible and understood bythe general public.

The BAR is also consideringelectronic certificates for lamp andbrake inspections. This process is stillunder consideration and would replacethe current paper certificate with anelectronic certificate similar to thoseissued for Smog Check inspections.


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With plenty of hands-on experience in-tertwined with book work, the auto-motive technology program at NelsonCounty High School in Lovingston,VA, makes strides each year to con-tinue offering a useful vocational alter-native for students hoping to workright after graduation.

“We try to teach them so whenthey leave here, they could make some-one money,” teacher Mike Fanelli said.

The program is split into threeyears. As sophomores, students take aone-semester auto mechanics coursethat is about half book work and halfshop work. In their junior and senioryears, the students take a two-semestercourse with an increased emphasis onshop work. This school year, Fanelliteaches 40 sophomores, 16 juniors and10 seniors.

A majority of students graduatecertified by Virginia State Police to bestate inspectors, or they get that certifi-cation soon after graduation, Fanellisaid. That certification alone provides adegree of job security for the students.

After leaving the high school’s pro-gram, students have branched out towork as auto technicians in several sur-rounding areas, including Charlottesville,Lynchburg and Amherst County.

“We supply a lot of centers in thearea with entry-level individuals,”Fanelli said. For instance, of the eight

students who graduated from the pro-gram in May, four already are em-ployed in the field, and all eight aredoing state inspection work, he said.

NCHS graduate Aaron Scheib,19, who completed the program in2012, said he enjoyed the Auto technol-ogy program and felt it gave him a solidfoundation for his work in the industry.

“It’s a great program,” said Scheib,who works as an auto technician at theNelson County Public Schools busgarage, working on a variety of county-owned vehicles. During his senior year,he did an internship with the garage andthen was employed full-time after grad-uation. Going through the programmeant he and other students “could getinto what we wanted to a little earlieron,” he said.

Since 2000, NCHS has been ac-credited under the National Institutefor Automotive Service Excellence(ASE), which means the instruction,course of study, facility and equipmenthave been evaluated by the NationalAutomotive Technicians EducationFoundation (NATEF) and met stan-dards of quality for training auto tech-nicians.

“It brings the program to a higherlevel,” Fanelli said.

Earlier this year, the NCHS pro-gram was re-certified through 2018.

“Basically, they want these kids to

have good entry-level skills,” saidFanelli, who has been an ASE mastertechnician for more than 30 years anda NCHS teacher since 2006.

He said the high school’s programhas been improving over the years tomatch the way cars have become more“technical and complicated.” Fanelliworked to move the class away frombeing a “hobby shop,” and NATEF’s en-forced requirements have helped, he said.

“We’ve got a lot more stringent, Iguess,” he said. “More rigid in someways, but I think we’ve definitely comea long ways. But cars are so compli-cated. I mean, not anyone can fix themanymore.”

NCHS is certified in four of eightareas monitored by NATEF: brakes,electrical/electronic systems, engineperformance and suspension and steer-ing.

During the course of the students’time in the three auto classes, the learn-ing is comprehensive.

“We try to teach them a little bitof everything,” Fanelli said.

First and foremost is shop safety.Secondly, the students learn theoriesand small details car owners may notknow or be able to apply when it comesto solving problems with their cars.

“We just teach [the students] astep-by-step, scientific method of trou-bleshooting it,” he said. “But the first

thing we always do is verify the prob-lem.”

A less obvious skill set taught inthe course involves knowing how to in-teract with others, since students willbe dealing with customers in the pro-fessional world.

“We try to teach them the softskills, how to talk to people,” Fanellisaid. “You know, if you think [a car is]a piece of junk, it may be someone’sbaby, and you need to respect it.”

The school owns 10 vehicles thatthe students can practice on, and some-times teachers or other students canbring in their cars. Fridays often pro-vide an extra treat for those in the class,as Fanelli allows them to bring in theirown vehicles to work on.

Scheib said that was his favoritething about the course — “having freerange of the shop on that day.”

He said the students also werelucky to have a master technician witha state inspection license as a teacher.

Overall, Schieb said, everythinghe needed to know heading into hisjob, he gained through the program. Allthe basic information he learned, espe-cially knowledge about how to operatea lift, shop safety, changing oil, tiremaintenance and more, has been usedduring his time at the bus garage.

“They leave with a wealth ofknowledge,” Fanelli said.

Nelson County High School in Lovingston, VA, Strives to Get Students to Work Right Away

In the early 1980s, a group of collisionrepairers in Montana realized “wefight battles on a daily basis in this in-dustry, and it’s better to do battle as agroup than on our own,” as describedby repairer Bruce Halcro. Theyformed the Montana Collision RepairSpecialists (MCRS) and their currentpresident, Bruce Halcro, describes itas “an awfully active association. Weare very involved in training, and wealso have a strong legislative agenda.”

Representing members from allover the big sky state, MCRS’s mis-sion is “to provide management andtechnical training to enhance the pro-fessional ability of each individual andimprove the quality of the collision re-pair industry in the State of Montana.”

Halcro expands on this goal,adding the desire to continue to be avoice not only for collision repair fa-cilities in MT but also on a nationallevel, noting “trends in our industrytend to start elsewhere and migrate tomore rural areas like MT, so we liketo stay abreast of these trends to en-sure that our members are aware ofany changes in the industry.”

MCRS strives to be a useful re-source to help all collision repair fa-cilities, whether they are smallindependent shops, larger multi-shopoperators or dealerships. Their mis-sion is to enhance the collision repairindustry in their state and to create asafer, more well-trained industry over-all. Halcro believes that training andlegislation are the two key compo-nents in achieving this initiative.

As part of their efforts, MCRSbecame an affiliate of the Society ofCollision Repair Specialists (SCRS)about ten years ago because they feltthey needed more of a national pres-ence. Halcro “can’t say enough aboutwhat SCRS has done for our associa-tion and for the industry nationally.”

Halcro stresses the importance oflegislative involvement when it comes

to reaching MCRS’s goals. In MT,legislators only meet every other year,and since 2014 is not one of theseyears, MCRS is currently focused onplanning and determining which is-sues need to be addressed most. Assuch, Halcro is “keeping a close eyeon the parts issue nationally, includingthe different forms of action beingtaken in various states.”

The parts issue is one of thebiggest dilemmas currently facing thecollision repair industry, Halcro be-lieves. “In my shop, parts are always achallenge since we’re located in arural area, but shops have workedthrough this problem for years. Partsprocurement systems cause delays inobtaining parts because they aresourcing them from all over the coun-try, but the insurers still hold us to thesame cycle time standards as urbanareas where parts are much more eas-ily accessible.”

Another problem is that many af-termarket parts ordered are unusableupon receipt, leaving shops to beginthe process all over again. As a result,Halcro believes that there is a need fortighter regulations on parts quality.“Parts procurement systems are beingmandated without any accountabilityas to whether these programs are inthe best interest of the shops. I don’tsee any benefits. Their claim was thatit would improve efficiency, but thisis not true according to feedback fromshops on the program. I see it as beinga trainwreck when it’s rolled out inMT.”

Still, Halcro sees no reason tofocus on one company; he thinks thatState Farm and PartsTrader are takinga big hit on this issue somewhat un-fairly since other insurers are alsostarting to mandate the use of partsprocurement systems, but, accordingto Halcro, “Mandated use doesn’twork. It’s not beneficial, and the deci-sion should be more collaborative.

The insurers claim that collision repairshops are their partners, so theyshould spend time with their partnersto determine what’s best for the in-dustry as a whole.”

MCRS’s legislative involvementis important for the association’smembers because it is related to en-suring that consumers’ vehicles are re-paired safely. When shops are forcedto take shortcuts because of insurermandates, the consumers are not get-ting what they paid for, plus it can re-sult in unsafe repairs.

Additionally, when insurancecompanies refuse to pay for certain re-pairs, collision repair facilities are leftwith the choice of absorbing the costor passing it along to their customers.These shortpay situations are unfair tothe consumers, and the shops’ best re-course is through legislative activity.In fact, MT has an unique law, passedseveral sessions ago, that prohibits in-surers from dismissing procedures

that both they and the collision repairfacility agreed upon. Halcro believesthe law has been hugely successful asit has alleviated many of the shortpaysthat were coming through before itwas passed.

Of course, there are always chal-lenges associated with pursuing leg-islative changes. MCRS is a relativelysmall association, and though theyemploy a lobbyist, they still have tobattle the insurers’ lobbyists, plus theyhave to get legislators to understandthat the issues doesn’t just concern theinsurance and collision repair indus-tries; it is a matter of consumers’safety. Halcro states, “our associationis professional and well-respected atthe Capitol, but there are always chal-lenges. We aren’t there to play poli-tics—we have real concerns that needto be addressed. Sometimes, our ini-tiatives fail. It’s not always pleasant,but it’s important for MCRS’s mem-bers and their customers.”

Montana Repairers Form a Small Association with Big Goals

with Chasidy Rae SiskWestern Associations

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


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Halcro also weighed in on someother legislative issues on a nationalscale. Regarding the Right to Repair,he believes “the proper informationshould be available to shops repairingvehicles so that they can properly andsafely repair the vehicles going backon the road.”

The PARTS Act is another causefor attention. Halcro’s opinion is that“manufacturers spend millions ofdollars to pass safety tests with theproper parts and materials designedfor specific vehicles. Aftermarketparts that mimic these OEM partsaren’t always properly tested, andthis can alter the safety ratings on thevehicle, a key deciding factor formany people when they purchase anew car. We also have a high returnrate on aftermarket parts, and I justdon’t believe they’re always de-signed the same as OEM parts. Theyaren’t all bad, and there is definitelya place for aftermarket parts, but Idon’t believe they belong on a two-year-old car.”

Training is also a key initiativefor MCRS, and a national trainer isscheduled to attend their next meet-ing at the end of March. The associa-tion’s Board of Directors will also be

meeting in February for a planningsession to establish their 2014 agendaand to discuss a potential legislativeagenda for the next session. In themeantime, MCRS strives to maintainan updated website to ensure theirmembers are informed of nationaltrends and issues in the industry. Cur-rently, there are around 100 membersin the association with about 75-80%being repairers and vendors makingup the remainder.

Like most associations, mem-bership and ongoing participation isalways a challenge for MCRS, espe-cially as it pertains to smaller shopswhose owners write estimates and re-pair vehicles, making it difficult forthem to leave their business. Still,Halcro has found that once theycome to a meeting, most of these re-pairers become regular attendees.“This is a tough industry and surviv-ing every day is a challenge, but it’seasier when we face the challengestogether as a group.”

Montana Collision Repair Specialists(MCRS)P.O. Box 1168Sidney, MT 59270www.mtcollisionrepair.com


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State Farm and I-CAR Partner on New WeldingInitiative, Easy Registration, Reduced PricesState Farm Insurance has teamedwith I-CAR and invites all of its Se-lect Service repairers to participatein I-CAR’s Welding Training & Cer-tification program throughout 2014.This initiative supports State Farm’scommitment to training that will en-able its repairers to perform properwelds that yield quality repairs.

The program offers Select Serv-ice businesses the opportunity to eas-ily register for welding trainingdirectly through a provided link ontheir websites, at newly reduced pricelevels. Russ Hoffbauer, P&C Claimsdirector from State Farm, explain,“We believe welding proficiencybenefits State Farm policyholders byproviding quality repairs to policy-holder vehicles. While participatingin the I-CAR Welding Certification isnot mandatory for Select Service re-pairers, we anticipate that repairerswill be eager to take advantage of thisunique opportunity.”

Repairers who participate in I-CAR’s Welding Training & Certifica-tion program will find they benefitfrom an assessment of shop infra-structure and equipment that includescoaching and trouble- shooting, en-suring readiness for a successful train-

ing event. Once a shop passes the as-sessment, each student in class willreceive personal instruction, have theability to practice on the equipmentthat they use in-shop every day, thenapply their skills and demonstratethrough a certification test that theyhave a confirmed level of weldingskills.

“I commend State Farm forworking with I-CAR to develop thisinitiative that supports the industry’sneed to better prepare repairers forthe welding required today and in thefuture,” states I-CAR CEO & presi-dent John Van Alstyne.

For more information on I-CARcourses, visit www.i-car.com.

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Mercedes-Benz is recalling certainmodel year 2013 SL63, SL550, andSL65 vehicles manufactured Jan. 16,2013, through April 30, 2013, accord-ing to the National Highway TrafficSafety Administration. The affectedvehicles are equipped with an occu-pant classification system (OCS) thatmay not detect a very light person sit-ting in the front passenger seat.

If the OCS does not detect a verylight person sitting in the seat, the pas-senger side air bag would be turnedoff. In the event of a crash necessitat-ing side air bag deployment, the pas-senger would be at an increased riskof injury.

Mercedes will notify owners,and dealers will replace the passengerside seat cushion including the OCS.The recall is expected to begin in De-cember 2013. Owners may contactMercedes at 1-201-573-0600.

Owners may also contact theNational Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration Vehicle Safety Hotline at1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

Mercedes-Benz RecallsSome 2013 Vehicles for OCS I-CAR® CEO & President, John Van

Alstyne, addressed I-CAR’s leadinginitiatives for 2014 and reviewed2013 milestones during a speech atthe Collision Industry Conference(CIC) meeting in Palm Springs onJan. 16.

The 2014 initiatives highlightedby Van Alstyne will have a signifi-cant impact on the industry and willdeliver on I-CAR’s commitment toeducation, knowledge and collision-repair solutions. Van Alstyne honedin on enhancements to I-CAR’s in-dustry-recognized Welding Training& Certification™ program and theRepairability Technical Support ini-tiative in 2014.

Van Alstyne stated, “Today, asthe major provider of welding train-ing to the collision repair industry, I-CAR estimates that at leasttwo-thirds of technicians who weldlack formal welding training.” Headded, “I-CAR has beefed up itswelding programs and significantlyreduced pricing to encourage repair-ers to more broadly invest in thetraining that makes perhaps thebiggest difference in complete, safeand quality repairs for the ultimatebenefit of the consumer. To effec-tively navigate the vehicle technol-

ogy tsunami our industry is facing,repairers today need technicians thatare trained and certified with up-to-date welding skills in order to per-form the complex structural repairsthat are now required.”

Major insurers, such as StateFarm, and OEMs, including GM,have already committed to partner-ing with I-CAR in 2014, encourag-ing or requiring their networks toparticipate in I-CAR’s WeldingTraining & Certification.

Van Alstyne also provided anupdate on the Repairability Techni-cal Support initiative. Van Alstyneshared details on the launch of thededicated “technical knowledge”website, upcoming plans and keymilestones that have been achieved.This initiative launched in 2013 andis designed to provide technical re-pair knowledge, address gaps in re-pair procedures and enhanceindustry technical communicationwith OEMs.

“I-CAR thanks the industry forits support in 2013. Through yourcommitment, I-CAR is well posi-tioned to deliver on its vision in2014 and beyond,” explained VanAlstyne.

Key 2013 accomplishments that

Van Alstyne shared were the mile-stone $200,000 donation to the Col-lision Repair Education Foundationon behalf of the industry, no priceincreases for the third consecutiveyear, the introduction of GoldClass™ program enhancements, a$2.6 million investment in a newlearning content management sys-tem (LCMS), the expansion of net-work partner programs and newProfessional Development Pro-gram™ training.

Van Alstyne further renewed I-CAR’s commitment to hold all pric-ing flat again in 2014, except theWelding reductions mentioned. Healso announced that an estimated$165,000 donation will be made byI-CAR to the Collision Repair Edu-cation Foundation in 2014, repre-senting $1 for every class theindustry took with I-CAR in 2013.

I-CAR President Van Alstyne Talks Welding and Training at CIC

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MN Media Reports Increased Body Shop TrafficFreezing rain and low temperaturesturned Northland roadways into askating rink causing many accidents.

“Black ice happened, it's a realthing,” Duluth resident BridgetteBaker told NNCNow.com.

According to Duluth Police, 56crashes happened Sunday, Jan. 12between 9:30 AM and 3:30 PM fromicy roads.

“A lot of cars were going side-ways down the hills, ya know, noth-ing real heavy as far as hits go,” saidSteve Nelson, owner of Twin PortsCollision Repair.

Local auto body repair shopworkers say although these types ofslippery road conditions causeheadaches for many, they boost repairshop business.

“I do make my living on otherpeoples' misfortune, but everythingis going good, we're getting as manycars as we can done so it's a greatyear,” said Nelson.

A great year for repair shops...but for drivers, slippery roads onlycreate headaches.

“I've been trying to get it into aauto body shop and they're all verybusy,” said Baker, Some shops arefully booked through the next month,because of accidents like these.

“I was skidding on the freeway,just trying to get up to freeway speed,and hit some black ice and collidedwith another vehicle,” said Baker.

For Baker, the collision means adent in her pocket financially, andunanticipated time and energy spentsearching for a way to fix her vehicle.

“Most of them are just smallerjobs. When it was real cold thebumpers would just shatter, so we'redoing a lot of that, too,” said Nelson.

Local repair shop workers urgeeveryone in the Northland to driveslowly during these slippery times.

Although there were 56 crashesin a six hour time span in DuluthSunday, none were fatal.

Of the 56, 34 were off-road ve-hicle crashes, while statewide off-road crash statistics were 111.

Winter weather travel advisories havelifted and shops are seeing increasedtraffic in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

For Kelley Auto Group Collision,technicians have just begun to receivethese vehicles, according to NathanNix, manager of body shops at 500 E.State Blvd. and at 633 Avenue ofAutos in the 14/69 Auto Mall in Ft.Wayne.

Since the company services dri-vable and nondrivable vehicles, tech-nicians have worked hard to getdrivable vehicles finished in order tobegin work on the nondrivable vehi-cles.

“The question is, how soon canwe get to them without giving some-one an expectation that’s too great?”Nix asked.

Besides dealing with insurancecompanies, Nix said nondrivable carstake time to move into the shop fromthe lot.

“We use state of the art equip-ment to move the vehicle inside with-out creating additional damage,” Nixsaid. “We dissect the damaged parts ofthe car thoroughly. This shortens therepair time and ultimately provides abetter service to the customer.”

With tow services two days be-hind schedule, both locations will con-

tinue to receive vehicles steadily theremainder of this week. Nix said tech-nicians were working overtime andweekends.

Nix also said Hertz and Enter-prise, two car rental agencies withwhich Kelley works, are pulling carsfrom other cities that are not affectedby the snowstorm to help customers inneed.

Mark Muntzinger, owner ofMark’s Body Shop, also reported anincrease in business that he expects tolast the next few weeks.

“We’re here to serve the commu-nity to get them back on the road,”Muntzinger said. “We smooth out thebad situation.”

People who have had troublestarting their cars have also floodedGouty Service Center Inc. with calls.Owner Ron Katt said he was backedup about 8–10 hours because wreckercompanies were backed up.

The lag time body shops were ex-periencing in receiving vehicles is di-rectly related to towing services thatare experiencing heavy call volumefrom distressed drivers and police.

Blue Eagle Towing’s operationsmanager said the company usually re-ceives 60 calls in a 24-hour period, butwas receiving 80 to 100 calls by noon.

The company, which serviceslight-duty (cars) and heavy-duty(trucks) vehicles, has especially seenan increase in heavy-duty calls—fromfive to 10 calls a day to almost 150calls a day.

Dan Parker, who owns ParkerService Inc., Kelley Wrecker, Hinsey’sWrecker Service, Dan’s Towing andAllen County Towing, has doubledbusiness because of the latest snow-storm.

The 24-hour towing service,which averages 250–300 tows a day,now is towing 500–600 vehicles daily,according to Dan Parker, third-genera-tion owner of Parker Service Inc.

“The first two days we were get-ting 100 calls an hour,” Parker said.“Now we’re scheduling for Friday.”

Among the five towing services,Parker said, 80 employees using 55trucks are doing their best to jump startand pull out stuck cars, tow vehiclesand assist disabled semis.

“This is the busiest we’ve seen itin 20 years,” Parker said, adding thattow services are usually busy for abouta day or so after a snowstorm – but notfour days.

“So far everybody’s been prettyunderstanding,” Parker said. “We’reworking through it as fast as we can.”

Body Shops and Towing Backed Up During Snowstorms in IndianaABRA Auto Body & Glass an-nounced the acquisition of X2 Colli-sion in Southern Illinois, just outsideSt. Louis, MO. Terms of the dealwere not disclosed.

ABRA’s portfolio now includes132 company-owned locations and48 independently-owned franchisesfor a total of 180 collision repair cen-ters in 17 states. “This deal is anotherimportant step for us and strengthensour position as an industry leader,”said Duane Rouse, ABRA’s presi-dent and chief executive officer.“This acquisition builds on our in-creasing success in the region andhelps meet the demand of our cus-tomers and business partners. This isan exciting time for the company andthe next chapter in ABRA’s aggres-sive growth strategy.” The newABRA location is at 2727 MaryvilleRoad in Maryville, IL, and will servethe Metro East, surrounding com-munities, and the city of St. Louis,MO. X2 employees will joinABRA’s staff and continue servicinglong-time customers in the area. “Formany years our repair center hasbeen a trusted part of the commu-nity,” said Scott Jennings, owner ofX2 Collision.

ABRA Acquires X2 Collisionin Southern Illinois


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Connecticut Personal Injury Attorney Pleads Guilty to Defrauding10 Insurance Carriers of a Total $2.5 MillionA Connecticut personal injury lawyerpleaded guilty to charges that he mas-terminded an extensive insurance fraudscheme that defrauded 10 insurancecarriers a total $2.5 million, say reportsfrom local media sources.

During an undercover investiga-tion by federal authorities dubbed “Op-eration Running Man,” which began in2011, it was discovered that Joseph P.Haddad, 65, of Bridgeport, CT, in con-cert with doctors and chiropractors, wasallegedly recruiting victims of minortraffic accidents by using “runners” totrack them down. The runners’ job wasto find clients involved in motor vehicleaccidents. The runners would also ob-tain and review accident records fromlocal police departments. The conspira-tors were said to have provided the vic-tims with unnecessary medical servicesand overstated their injuries for the pur-poses of receiving millions from the au-tomobile insurance companies.

Once runners had directed clientsto Haddad, he would refer them to aStamford chiropractor and an unli-censed Fairfield doctor, who orderedtreatments for the patients at Haddad’srequest.

Francisco R. Carbone, 53, an in-ternist from Fairfield whose medical li-

cense was revoked in 2005, would sub-mit claims for services he never pro-vided to patients. He would inflate theseriousness of the patients’ conditions,and would instruct a Monroe osteopathto write prescriptions for clients.James W. Marshall Jr., who also ad-mitted to his involvement in thescheme, is said to have written over145 prescriptions for more than 4,400pills for accident victims he never di-agnosed.

Haddad also directed his clients toMarc Kirshner, a Stamford chiro-practor. Kirshner owned a chain of chi-ropractic offices in Connecticut calledHealth First and a diagnostic testingcompany called Midas Medical. He ad-mitted to performing medical serviceson his patients at Haddad’s direction.When necessary, he would justifylengthy treatment with falsified med-ical records.

The patients were sent to MidasMedical for $2,000 “nerve velocitytests.” Authorities say that Haddad andKirshner instructed Carbone to referclients to the diagnostic testing com-pany because the procedure wouldlikely result in a higher settlement if or-dered by a doctor.

Haddad decided how much his

co-conspirators would be paid for themedical services ordered, and some-times paid them only a fraction of theamount he reported to insurers. TheU.S. Attorney’s Office said that morethan 10 insurance carriers lost up to$2.5 million as a result of the conspir-acy. Haddad pleaded guilty to mailfraud and conspiracy to commit mailfraud. Prosecutors initially charged himwith nine counts of fraud, mail fraud,and conspiracy.

Haddad is the seventh person toadmit involvement in the scheme. Hepleaded guilty to mail fraud and con-spiracy to commit mail fraud.

He faces a maximum prison sen-tence of 20 years for each charge, anda fine of up to $3.5 million, in additionto the $1.7 million he agreed to pay inrestitution under the plea agreement hereached with the government. He andhis co-conspirators also face a pendingcivil case Allstate Insurance Co.brought against them.

The case was investigated by theFederal Bureau of Investigation, withthe assistance of the National InsuranceCrime Bureau, the Metropolitan Prop-erty and Casualty Insurance’s specialinvestigation unit and the Travelers In-surance Co.

Santa Monica FIAT announced itwas the number one FIAT store inthe country in 2013. The dealershipjust had its grand opening in May2012, making 2013 the first full cal-endar year for the store. In spite ofthat, the dealer sold 813 new carssince January 1st. “We're so proud ofthe entire team here,” Santa MonicaFIAT General Manager JonSchwartz said. “To have come thisfar in such a short time is a hugeachievement.” The battle for the topspot was a close one. The SouthernCalifornia dealer just edged out itsclosest rival by less than 20 sales.The large numbers are a testament tothe growing popularity of the carsthemselves. General Sales Manager,Jason Frieder admits the charmingcharacter of the FIATs makes his jobeasier. “Santa Monica has really em-braced FIAT,” Frieder said. “They'refun, different, affordable and don'tuse much gas. They really are theperfect California car.” One of themain reasons for the store's successcould be the introduction of the all-electric FIAT 500e. The new electriccar is only available in Californiaand is one of the most affordableEVs on the market.

Santa Monica FIAT is NowLargest FIAT Dealer in USA


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Minicars Fail Tough New IIHS Crash Test, Chevy Spark ‘Acceptable’“The Chevrolet Spark was the onlyminicar out of 11 tested to earn an ‘ac-ceptable’ rating in the Insurance Insti-tute for Highway Safety’s smalloverlap front-crash test, which was in-troduced in 2012,” writes Phil Gus-man at PropertyCasualty360.

The test simulates what happenswhen the front corner of a car collideswith another vehicle or a stationary ob-ject such as a tree—25 percent of acar’s front end on the driver side strikesa five-foot-tall rigid barrier at 40 mph.The small overlap test is now part ofIIHS’ basic battery of tests.

The IIHS explains, “The test ismore difficult than the head-on crashesconducted by the government or thelongstanding IIHS moderate overlaptest because most of the vehicle’s front-end crush zone is bypassed. That makesit hard for the vehicle to manage crashenergy, and the occupant compartmentcan collapse as a result.

“Nevertheless, in many size cate-gories, manufacturers have found waysto improve vehicle structures to meetthis challenge.”

In the most recent minicar frontoverlap test, the Honda Fit, Fiat 500,Hyundai Accent, Toyota Prius c, NissanVersa sedan and 2014 Mitsubishi Mi-rage all received “poor” overall ratings.

The 2014 Ford Fiesta (built afterAugust 2013), Toyota Yaris, Kia Rioand Mazda 2 received “marginal” over-all ratings.

The Spark, which received an “ac-ceptable” overall rating, received “good”ratings on all dummy injury measures,“acceptable” on restraints and kinemat-ics, and “marginal” on structure.

No minicar earned a rating above“marginal” on structure, which the IIHScalls “the most fundamental element ofoccupant protection.”

The IIHS says, “The ChevroletSpark’s ‘acceptable’ rating in the test,along with good ratings in the Insti-tute’s four other crashworthiness eval-uations, earns the new minicar a 2014Top Safety Pick award.”

The IIHS says all of the minicarsexcept the Spark and the Mazda 2

earned low ratings for restraints andkinematics. “Seven of the eleven weredowngraded for allowing too much oc-cupant forward motion during thecrash,” says the IIHS. “In these cases,either the safety belt didn’t do a goodenough job holding the dummy inplace, or the dummy’s head missed orslid off the frontal airbag.”

The two worst performers are theHonda Fit and the Fiat 500, says theIIHS. “In both cases, intruding structureseriously compromised the driver’sspace, and the steering column waspushed back toward the driver. In thecase of the Fit, the dummy’s head barelycontacted the frontal airbag before slid-ing off and hitting the instrument panel.During the test of the 500, the driver dooropened after the hinges tore. An opendoor creates a risk that the driver couldbe partially or completely ejected.”

The IIHS raised the bar for its2014 rating, and as a result, just 39 ve-hicles earned either a Top Safety Pick+or Top Safety Pick compared to 130vehicles in 2013. The main difference,says IIHS President Adrian Lund in astatement, is that the “small overlapfront crash is now part of our basic bat-tery of tests, and good or acceptableperformance should be part of everyvehicle's safety credentials.”

2014 Chevrolet Spark

CarMax says it’s been overwhelmedduring its effort to fill 100 positionswith people searching for jobs. Thenew dealership won’t open untilFebruary, but thousands of peoplehave come looking for work in ElkGrove.

“We’ve had over 5,000 appli-cations to fill approximately 130 po-sitions,” said Bruce Juchnik withCarMax. That’s nearly 40 peoplecompeting for each job. While un-employment figures may be drop-ping, the volume of applicationsshow how many people are lookingfor work in Sacramento.

“Right now, with a lot of com-panies that were looking to hire justseasonal jobs, at CarMax we arelooking for people to start a career,”Juchnik said. With new car sales onthe rise, CarMax may not be theonly dealership in the area hiringsoon, said Brian Moss with the Cal-ifornia New Car Dealers Associa-tion.

The recession slashed car salesin half to around 1 million by 2009.But numbers are bouncing back,with 1.7 million cars sold last year.

CarMax is still accepting appli-cations to fill 55 positions.

Elk Grove CarMax Floodedwith Job Applications

When you’re running a busy shop,it’s necessary to have many systemsand procedures more or less on auto-matic. There’s no time to addressevery situation newly every time.Lean processes and procedures havebeen carefully thought out so ifeveryone adheres to the system, theshop runs smoothly.

Nevertheless, periodically it’snecessary to re-evaluate any system orprocedure that’s been used for a longtime. I, for example, tend to invest individend-bearing securities that I cancount on generating consistent incomefor the long haul. But from time-to-time I have to weed out the poor pro-ducers and replace them with betterproducers or perhaps just purchasemore of the good producers. An astuteshop owner or manager should do thesame thing with marketing proce-dures.

Sadly many shops fail to accu-rately track the effectiveness of pro-motional ads, mailings, e-mails,website hits and events. At one timethis was understandable. We didn’thave tools like hit counters or e-mailsreceived reports or 800 number calls.But even tools like these don’t reallytell us whether any of these promo-tional responses turned into real jobs.Our only reliable statistic is the cus-tomer’s report about what sent him orher to the shop. Without those num-bers the shop owner or manager hasno real idea what marketing actions todrop and which ones to double up, torefine or replace.

Even with customers’ informa-tion about who sent them, it’s still notalways possible to know how to rein-force the sources that sent business tothe shop. Some insurance companyreferrals will specify the customer’sagent but sometimes the agent is manymiles away so that it’s not practical tomarket to thse remote agents. If mostof the jobs come to the shop referredby one insurance company, how se-cure is it to bet the survival of the shopon one source that could cripple theshop if it stops sending work? Oneagain, the investment metaphor ap-plies. How secure is it to put most ofyour investment money into purchas-ing or holding just one stock, bond orother security? It’s well known that acertain amount of diversity is neces-sary to protect oneself against possi-ble market turndowns.

Another factor that must be con-sidered in a re-evaluaton is the cost ofeach marketing action. Some promo-tional actions are hard to track but costso little it may be worth keeping themin motion. But if a marketing move iscostly, it’s definitely worthwhile totake a close look at how much profitthat action is creating. One shopowner I knew well kept a DRP with alow-profit, cut-rate insurance com-pany that he knew barely made him aprofit on each job. But when he wasable to get a contract with a much bet-ter paying DRP, he dropped the otherone like a rock!

I’ve found that some shop own-ers don’t really know the true cost of

referral arrangements with insurancecompanies, dealerships and other re-ferral sources. If the labor and partsdiscount is calculated per job, andgive-aways factored in, like lot dam-age, totals storage and more, the realcosts of some of those relationshipsmay be much more than they seem tobe at a glance. Like the automatic pro-duction procedure, a shop owner mayhave gotten so comfortable with a re-lationship, he or she may not realizeit’s time to re-evaluate that relation-ship and perhaps consider looking fora new one -- or re-negotiating theprofitability of that long-term situa-tion.

Finally, our world has changedsignificantly with the proliferation ofsmart phones and tablets. New appsfor these pop up daily now, and thereis an expectation that every businesscan provide instant electronic infor-mation. Printed paper phone booksand many publications are now rarely

read or used. Resources spent in thisdirection may be totally wasted. Whileit can be costly to seek out a goodprovider for social media promotionand possibly even a smart phone app,it would be wise to face up to that costnow or be left behind in the dust. Andeven this marketing effort and costmight not be necessary if a shop’s pri-mary customer base is unlikely to seekout or respond to this electronic kindof marketing.

The location, age, environmentand occupations of a shop’s customerscould be such that the shop could getaway with another year of limitedstate-of-the-art electronic marketing.But the young people becoming adultstoday are totally conversant withsmart phones, social media and more.If a shop plans to be in business pastthis year, there’s no getting aweayfrom the need to embrace these newtechnologies and put the marketingdollars in that direction.


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Re-Think Your Marketing For The New Year

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney


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

Mobileye, a Dutch private companyand a leader in camera-based advanceddriver assistance systems (ADAS)technologies for the automotive indus-try and Accel Telecom Ltd., a leadingprovider of cellular based connectedcar solutions, have announced the inte-gration of Mobileye’s Collision avoid-ance system with Accel’s VOYAGERconnected car smartphone. The inte-grated solution allows remote monitor-ing of Mobileye alerts transmitted viathe VOYAGER 3G cellular connec-tion, which is ideal for fleet managers,insurance companies and families thatwant to receive real time updates on

their driver’s behavior on the road.Isaac Litman, Mobileye CEO

commented: “[This] is an elegant so-lution that allows both the driver anda third party to receive Mobileye’s lifesaving alerts in real time which is areal need for fleet managers, busi-nesses, families and more. We arehappy to partner with Accel on thisexciting offering and believe it willenhance the Mobileye experience.”

Marc Seelenfreund, Accel CEOsaid, “the integrated VOYAGER–Mobileye solution will add an addi-tional layer of driver safety via remotemonitoring of Mobileye alerts.”

Mobileye Integrates with Accel Connected Car Technology

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

This January added another new me-teorological term to collective vocab-ulary even though the phenomenon itdescribes has been known since 1853.January 2014 started off with a frigidslow-moving cyclone known as apolar vortex that wrought havocthroughout the midwest and easternparts of the country with record-breaking low temperatures and icywinds.

Worse news perhaps is that thepolar vortex will get stronger andmove farther south later in January,causing cold to intensify in the Mid-west and East and drought to build inCalifornia and the West. Impact fromthe another surge of very cold air mayinclude the already familiar risks frombelow-zero temperatures includinglife-threatening conditions and frost-bite. The new invasion of frigid airwill produce lake-effect snow down-wind of areas of open water. Whilemuch of Lake Erie has frozen over,most of the other Great Lakes are stillopen. Some areas immediately down-wind of Lake Erie may get colder witha late January outbreak (compared tothe last) as a result.

Beginning on Thursday, January2nd, the polar vortex spewed snowand freezing rains throughout thecountry until about Tuesday, January7th. Over two dozen states from theMidwest to the Northeast and eventhe Southeast were impacted by thiscold front, so it’s no surprise that thisunusual event also affected manybusinesses nationwide, includingcollision repair facilities.

Tiger’s Body Shop in Chicagofortunately did not suffer many ill ef-fects, according to Greg Yonan, amember of the family that owns thefacility. “It was really cold, andthough there may have been an in-crease in accidents related to the icyroad conditions, we haven’t seen theeffects yet. Monday, Jan. 6, was socold that we had several appointmentcancellations because people didn’twant to leave their homes.”

Though their equipment workedfine since the inside of their shopwas well-heated, the water coming infrom the street froze, and they had towait for the city to come out andsolve that problem. Overall, though,Yonan notes that it has been businessas usual.

Mike Hartman, owner of Hart-man Auto Body Inc. in Waterloo IN,noted some effects from the weatherbecause “when a major storm is fore-

cast in advance, people heed thewarning and stay off the streets. Italso impacted volumes quite a bit.We have had a couple of cancella-tions each week for the last threeweeks because customers do notwant to get out in the snow or ex-tremely cold temperatures.”

In terms of operations, Hartmanexperienced several cold-relatedtechnical difficulties; “our paintbooth quit working when it was -18degrees Fahrenheit and -40 degreesFahrenheit on the wind chill. I had togo on top of the roof, which had 12inches of snow on it, to reset themain computer module. What a trip!It’s also harder to write a very accu-rate estimate when customers bringtheir car in and it is covered withsnow, ice and salt. We would reallylike to have the vehicle for half a dayso we could wash it and let it thawout.”

Debbie Ross, Office Manager atRoute 1 Auto Body in Fairfield, CT,their shop was lucky enough that theunprecedented low temperatures did-n’t really have a negative impact ontheir business or their equipment.“We have been able to service all ofour customers. Other than wearingmore layers of clothes, we have beenlucky… We did have a few new cus-tomers whose collisions were a re-sult of sliding on black ice but notmany. I think that because the worstweather was on a weekend, therewere less people on the road becausethey didn’t have to be.”

For Don Mallon Chevrolet inNorwich, CT, the Polar Vortex gen-erated more business, according toCollision Manager, Dawn Barden.“It has actually brought us morebusiness, more front and rear bumpercovers cracking upon a minor im-pact, instead of flexing. One of thecustomers said that a shopping car-

riage rolled into her front cover, andit left a hole in it . They are breakinglike ice or glass shattering… I do notthink that it has affected our businessin a negative way here in the colli-sion center; however, in our servicedepartment, it has definitely slowedthem down; people do not want todrive out in the colder weather un-less they have to!”

Don Mallon Chevrolet did suf-fer some technical inconveniencesdue to the weather, though. “Ourpaint booth sprinkler heads froze andbroke, leaking in the booth and mak-ing us two days behind on paint afterrepairs were made. My painter saysthat it is taking more time for thebake cycle now, and we have addedan additional heater in the paint mixroom as we have water-based paintwhich is at a greater risk of freezingnow with the low temperatures. Theheater in our office has not been ableto keep up with the colder weathereither, plus my customers’ cars arehaving issues with the lift gatesfreezing because the gate shocksgrease probably froze,” Barden said.

Craig Camacho, Marketing Di-

rector at Keenan Auto Body Inc. inClifton Heights, PA, notes that theirvolumes have increased by 25%across the board.

“Claim volume has increased inour entire servicing footprint, di-rectly related to the recent lowtemps, snow and ice… Our toolingand machinery was not affected onebit, but our locations were hinderedby the snowfall and the need forsnow plows and salt.”

Though Keenan Auto Body ex-perienced some delays due to theirtechnicians being unable to work,Camacho looks upon this dilemmagraciously. “As they say, family first.Many of our employees and techswere home taking care of their owndriveways and walkways, ensuringtheir families’ safety and the safetyof others as their primary focus. Ourcustomers were made aware by ourstaffs that, due to the low tempera-tures, heavy snowfall and ice devel-oping, there may be delays incompleting their vehicles on time.”

Rich Tornetta, MarketingCommunications Manager of eightCollisionMax Auto Body and Glass


Shops Weather All Kinds of Winter Weather Disruptions but More Polar Vortex Coming?

Projections for Late January

Centers in PA and NJ, notes quite afew issues caused by the Polar Vor-tex. “Customers sometimes wouldnot show up for their scheduled esti-mate appointments or repairs. Thiscould be due to cars not starting,being buried in snow or the roads notbeing adequately plowed and saltedfor safe travel. The weather has de-layed our technicians who’ve had is-sues making it in to work on timedue to unsafe driving conditions,cars not starting or being plowed inby passing trucks. We’d spend timedigging out vehicles to be repairedand then gaining access to the partsin the storage facilities which arecommonly located outdoors. Somemornings were spent plowing andshoveling outside bays to get cars in.Once the vehicles got into the shop,we’d sometimes use heat gunsand/or air hoses to melt and removethe remaining snow/ice. The timespent cleaning the storage facilitiesis time not spent repairing vehicles,so this had a negative effect on pro-duction.”

Tornetta said that CollisionMaxhad to postpone valet delivery of ve-hicles to their customers because ofthe unsafe driving conditions, and

there were also delays with parts de-liveries which, in turn, caused delaysin repairs. He adds, “below freezingtemperatures made mobile auto glassrepair and replacement difficult forour technicians both due to unsafetravel conditions and because theirfingers would get numb within min-utes of being outside.” There werealso some technical difficulties as“the spray booth and older equip-ment tend to fail during cold streaksbecause they’ve been working over-time,” Tornetta explains.

On the positive side, Tornettanotes that “collision workflow is upabout 15% compared to what wenormally run. Our glass business sawa spike in volume as well, due to theextremely low temperatures whichcaused many windshields with smallchips to crack. In some instances, in-creased non-drivable volume hascaused extended scheduling on dri-vable repairs.”

As we move further south, wesee less impact from the coldweather. According to AssistantManager Walt Link, at Nalley Colli-sion in Doraville, GA, suffered feweffects caused by the abnormallycold weather. A few employees were

delayed due to the snow, but the coldweather did not impact volumes orcause any problems with equipment.

“We had a bit of ice in the park-ing lot, but we didn’t have an issue.”Link is uncertain whether volumeswere affected as business seems tobe picking up as usual after the holi-days, with numbers appearing to beconsistent with last year.

Alysia Hanks, Office Managerof Lakeway Collision in Mandeville,LA, states “the weather didn’t reallyaffect us in anyway, except that ourguys hate working in the cold, soproduction slowed down a lot!”

The Polar Vortex is a regular cir-culation of strong winds surroundingthe Arctic Pole, but normally, thesewinds keep the coldest air trapped inthe Arctic regions of the NorthernHemisphere. Occasionally the vortexcan become distorted, permitting thissuper cold air to travel further south.Though it is inconvenient and cer-tainly unpleasant, the Polar Vortex ofearly January 2014 seems to havehad little long-lasting impact onmost shops’ operations.

However, meteorologists saythe during the third and fourth weeksof January, more changes will take

place. The high amplitude pattern isforecast to get more extreme.patternwill gradually change the currentmixture of Pacific and Arctic air inthe Canada Prairies and the NorthCentral U.S. to all Arctic air. The airwill get significantly colder over theCanada Prairies and the much of theeastern half of the nation as a result.


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Attorney Mark R. Schmidt has someadvice for Delaware drivers. Begin-ning January 2014 for policies writ-ten/renewed after January 3, 2014,Delaware automobile insurance pro-tection will take a major step forwardin providing protection for citizens ofthe First State, Schmidt wrote in hisblog at Lawyers.com.

Delaware clients can be involvedin an auto accident caused by an indi-vidual without adequate insurancecoverage. This underinsured individ-ual may have only limited liabilitycoverage.

Under these circumstances, vic-tims of negligence can access theirown automobile insurance policy forunderinsurance protection whichshould be a part of everyone’s com-prehensive insurance protection pack-age.

Under existing Delaware law, ifan injured victim elected Uninsuredprotection in an amount less than orequal to the amount of coverage avail-able under the at-fault driver’s policy,you will NOT be permitted to accessyour own policy for underinsuranceprotection.

Therefore, if you have $50,000 inUnderinsured coverage and sustainedtragic injuries worth in excess of$100,000, you are still NOT permittedto access your own policy unless theat-fault driver has less than $50,000 incoverage. The flaw in the logic of thelaw is obvious — the driving forceshould be the value of your injuries

not the amount of the respective cov-erages in relation to each other. More-over, the victim has paid premiums forextra coverage!

This injustice has been rectifiedby the Legislature of Delaware andthe law has been amended “to allowinnocent victims of motor vehicle col-lisions to access their own underin-surance benefits in circumstanceswhere the victim’s damages aregreater than the amount of the negli-gent driver’s insurance policy limits.”

Thus, for policies written or re-newed after January 3, 2014, vic-tims of automobile negligence bydrivers with inadequate insurancewill only need to demonstrate theat-fault driver’s insurance is insuf-ficient in relation to the injuriessustained to be able to access un-derinsured benefits.

This development in the law islogical and corrects a long-standingquirk in our laws that left many vic-tims of negligence without sufficientlegal recourse.

So, after January 3, 2014:1) talk to your insurance agent

about underinsurance coverage onyour automobile policy; and

2) select or renew adequate un-derinsurance coverage in case you oryour loved ones are struck and in-jured by an underinsured driver (re-member, a Delaware driver maycarry as little as $15,000 in liabilitycoverage).

Be mindful, though, a renewal of

your policy before January 3, 2014will NOT qualify. Only your first re-newal AFTER January 3, 2014 willqualify.

Mark R. Schmidt is an attorney inMedia, PA.


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Some experts were asked by Glass-bytes™ what precautions need to betaken in this excessively cold weather.

“We’re not doing anything rightnow,” says Karen Waldroupe of A-1Glass Co. in Manassas, VA, whosecompany does in-house and mobile au-tomotive glass repairs just outside ofWashington, DC. “We had a lot of snowso people are late coming in. But I’msure we’ll see it get busier. When it getscold like this, business increases.”

While repairing windshields out-side in the bitter cold is not ideal, it canbe done, according to officials fromGlasWeld and Delta Kits.

“There are extra challenges in get-ting your repairs to cure properly in coldweather,” explains Randy Mackey,GlasWeld’s manager of technical serv-ices. “[T]o fully cure your repairs incold weather, all you need is a littleextra patience and preparation. It’s a fact

that resin takes longer to cure in coldweather. This is for several reasons. Forstarters, the voltage output of the vehi-cle’s cigarette lighter or power outletmay be lower in cold weather so the UVlamp receives less power and output isless. Also, when your UV lamp is cold,it does not emit as much UV radiationas it does when it is warmed up. Andresin that’s cold doesn’t cure as quicklyas resin that is at a warmer tempera-ture.”

Slow down and give your repairsmore time to cure, he says.

“You should count on adding anextra one to two minutes to the curingcycle,” Mackey adds. “Also, warm upthe UV lamp an extra minute or twobefore you begin to cure. And whenyou’re traveling between jobs, keep theUV lamp where it can stay warm—such as inside the vehicle with you.”

Keep your resin warm and when-

ever possible, pre-warm the windshieldto get the glass to over 60 degreeFahrenheit.

“The vehicle’s heater is the bestway to warm the glass but other typesof heaters can be used as well. Just becareful not to heat the glass tooquickly, too hot or on too small an areaas windshield damage is more likely tospread under these circumstances,” heexplains. Extra precautions during coldweather are definitely necessary, saysBruce McDonald, a sales representa-tive with Delta Kits.

“To start, ideally the glass temper-ature should be between 70 and 100 de-grees Fahrenheit. Also, remove anymoisture that may be present in thebreak,” he says. “If warming the glassis necessary, make sure it’s done slowlyand evenly. Sudden changes in temper-ature can cause the glass to crack out, souse caution.”

Using defrosters can be a goodway to warm up the glass, he notes.

“It blows cool air when the vehi-cle is first started and gradually thevents warm up as the engine warmsup,” McDonald says. Another idea is touse a hairdryer, he says.

“Just make sure you warm thearea several inches around the damage,and if possible, keep the warm airblowing across the damaged area tomaintain an even temperature. Be care-ful of overheating,” McDonald cau-tions.

“Matching your windshield repairresin and injector temperature to the glasstemperature within 10 degrees Fahren-heit will greatly minimize the chance ofcrack outs,” he points out.

But the best solution for doing re-pairs when the temperature plummets?Take the vehicle in doors if at all pos-sible, McDonald says.

What Precautions Need to be Taken Doing Windshield Repair in Very Cold Weather?

Delaware Drivers Have New Protections Under the Law

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I tell marketing people at body shopsall the time that if you pay attention toGoogle and stay on top of its periodicalgorithm updates, you’ll be wayahead of the game. It may not soundthat important, but when you thinkabout the fact that every website in theworld is affected by Google in oneway or another, you can see that thosewho know how to use it right will ob-viously have a distinct advantage overtheir competition.

Google’s incarnations (or re-leases) come with little or no warningand every time Google updates itself,it’s an attention-getter for anyone whoworks with the Internet. Named afteranimals (first there was Penguin andthen there was Panda) these updatesrevolve around the fact that Googlewants to reward sites that offer valuewhile penalizing those that containspam and irrelevant content. Thenewest update is called Hummingbirdand it’s been buzzing in every web-master’s ears since it was releasednearly six months ago.

This summer, Google explainedtheir newest update in a simple para-graph: “Hummingbird is paying moreattention to each word in a query, en-suring that the whole query—thewhole sentence or conversation ormeaning—is taken into account, ratherthan particular words. The goal is thatpages matching the meaning do better,rather than pages matching just a fewwords.”

Some people will always try tobeat the system and fool Google with“black-hat” tactics, but in the endthey’re like the IRS. You may getaway with using text that you’re “bor-rowing” from other sites for a whileand do other shady things to rankhighly in local searches, but in theend, the party’s over. And Google isnot like the American justice sys-tem—no one is innocent until provenguilty and they could care less aboutreasonable doubt.

But, do not fear—if you hire a re-spectable webmaster with a goodtrack record that performs honest SEOrelevant to your business and adheringto Google’s rules, you’ll be fine on-line. One company that’s been doingexceptional work for both mechanical

and collision businesses online is RingRing Marketing in San Jose, CA.Their motto is “We Make Your PhoneRing” and they specialize in workingwith small to medium-size companies.Welton Hong, the COO at Ring RingMarketing offered us some valuabletips on how body shops can useGoogle effectively in this new Hum-mingbird environment. “To optimizean auto body shop website for GoogleHummingbird, consider adding morereal-world, question-specific queriesinto your site content,” Hong said.“This could be in the form of blogposts, FAQs and more.”

In the end, Google still valuesand respects original content andquality links over anything else. Anytime you’re going to post somethingon your web site or blog, ask your-self this—is it of real value to mycustomers? Make certain that you’recreating content that is relevant toyour audience and then integrate itinto all of your social media. In-crease your exposure and build yourbrand by positioning yourself as anexpert in collision and getting theword out through to the local media,including radio, TV, print and the In-ternet. And post different types ofcontent to enhance your SEO andcreate more opportunities to engageyour audience—especially video, ac-cording to Hong.

“Add more relevant video con-tent to your site,” he said. “It's muchharder for Google to generate this sortof content in response to inquiries, sothis type of material will be insulated,at least for now, from the negative ef-fects of Hummingbird.”Other Google-related things to con-sider this year:● Ride the Google+ Train: Googlerewards companies that use theirproducts and this is one of their lead-ing products. Too many body shopsset up Google+ accounts in 2013 anddid nothing else. Tell your marketingpeople that you want to use Google+more and devise a plan.

● Going Mobile: The Internet isgoing more mobile every day, so geton the ball and be a part of it. Googlewants you to make your site optimized

for mobile users to attract mobile vis-itors. Right now, half of all Americans(and every 13-year-old girl out there)own smartphones and one-third owntablets. The number is going to growat an explosive rate, so get mobile ofget lost. “Make sure your site is asmobile-friendly as possible,” Hongexplained. “Hummingbird is designedfor mobile users. Mobile visitors arequickly outnumbering desktop visi-tors. You must focus your effortshere.”

● Some Appetizing Google Apps:I use Google Docs every day, becauseit enables me to share documents eas-ily with others, via my desktop, lap-top or smartphone. It saves time,because users can check in wheneverand wherever. Also consider Evernote(a great note-taking app) and ofcourse, Gmail and Dropbox. Googletweaked and improved both of theseapplications in 2013, making them

easier to use and full of new func-tionality.

Whether working on a vehicle orcoordinating your marketing efforts,it’s all about having the best toolsavailable and knowing how to usethem. Google has literally 50-plusbusiness tools to make you more ef-fective and profitable in 2014 and be-yond. So tap into the Google universeand learn which ones are best-suitedfor you.

But, most importantly, learn theHummingbird update and discover itsnuances and capabilities. MakeGoogle a bigger part of your market-ing plan this year and plug away atcreating a significant presence there.Because Google is here to stay and theshops that use it correctly will reaphuge benefits over time. Be patientand stick to your plan and pretty soonyou‘ll hear the phone ringing, fol-lowed by those wonderful words, “Wefound you on Google!”


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


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OSHA Implements New Internet Resources to EncourageSafer Practices: Toolkit Options and PEL TablesOn October 24, 2013, the Occupa-tional Safety and Health Administra-tion (OSHA) initiated two new internetresources to assist employers in betterprotecting their employees from expo-sure to hazardous chemicals.

These initiatives do not createnew mandatory standards, but ratherprovide employers with resources thatOSHA hopes will encourage compa-nies to voluntarily adopt safer policiesregarding hazardous chemicals. Ac-cording to OSHA, these new re-sources are needed because many ofits standards are out-of-date and failto adequately protect workers fromexposure to hazardous chemicals.

One of the new internet re-sources is a toolkit that identifies saferchemicals that can be used in place ofmore hazardous chemicals. Thistoolkit can be found at:http://www.osha.gov/dsg/safer_chemicals/index.html.

OSHA also created AnnotatedPermissible Exposure Limit tables(annotated PEL tables), which listmore stringent exposure limits forchemicals. The annotated PEL tablescan be found at:http://www.osha.gov/dsg/annotated-pels/index.html.

Compliance with the exposurelimits contained in the annotated PELtables is voluntary, though recom-mended by OSHA. David Michaels,assistant secretary of labor for occu-pational safety and health, stated thathe hopes employers will adopt thesenew PEL tables. He explained, “I ad-vise employers, who want to ensurethat their workplaces are safe, to uti-lize the occupational exposure limitson these annotated tables, since sim-ply complying with OSHA’s anti-quated PELs will not guarantee thatworkers will be safe.”

Employers who use hazardouschemicals in the workplace are en-couraged to review these new internetresources in an effort to improve thesafety of their workers.

AAIA Releases 67 page 2013 Digital Collision RepairTrends Report with Analysis of Whole IndustryThe Automotive Aftermarket IndustryAssociation (AAIA) has released the2013 Digital Collision Repair Trendsreport, an online 67-page descriptiveanalysis of data compiled from primaryAAIA research, federal governmentand independent research data sources.The report highlights the size and scopeof the U.S. collision industry, includingthe paint, body and equipment (PBE)aftermarket, with a brief analysis of theCanadian collision industry. It also in-cludes analyses of factors influencingthe collision industry, automotive col-lision insurance coverage and the Di-rect Repair Program (DRP).

According to this year’s report,collision repair-related sales by after-market repair shops grew 2.3 percentin 2012 to $39.7 billion. This growthwas driven by several factors such asincreased number of registered vehi-cles, increased road congestion caus-ing a higher frequency of accidentsper year and the increased collisionrepair cost per vehicle. Powered byNxtbook Media LLC™, this digitalpublication retains both the traditionaldesign and high quality content ofAAIA reports. This online productionprovides added value with many newfunctional enhancements. Users can:

● Download Excel-based files, charts,tables and graphs that can be copiedand pasted for presentations.● Turn pages with the click of a mouse.● View pages in a variety of sizes andformats.● Quickly locate what you are lookingfor through a “word search” feature.● Save material for future referencethrough the “bookmarks” feature.● Print the entire publication.

Copies of the new 2013 DigitalCollision Repair Trends report arenow available—cost is $125 forAAIA members and $250 for non-members. To order, visit:www.aftermarket.org and click “Mar-ket Intelligence,” or call AAIA mar-ket intelligence at 301-654-6664 [email protected]

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Koito Manufacturing Co. Ltd., aTokyo-based company, has agreed toplead guilty and to pay a total of$56.6 million in criminal fines for itsroles in separate price-fixing conspir-acies involving automobile lightingfixtures and lamp ballasts installed incars sold in the United States andelsewhere, the Department of Justiceannounced Jan 17.

According to a two-count felonycharge filed in U.S. District Court forthe Eastern District of Michigan inDetroit, Koito engaged in separateconspiracies to rig bids for, and to fix,stabilize and maintain the prices ofautomobile lighting fixtures and au-tomotive high-intensity discharge(HID) lamp ballasts sold to automak-ers in the United States and else-where. In addition to the criminalfine, Koito has also agreed to cooper-ate with the department’s ongoingauto parts investigations. The pleaagreement is subject to court ap-proval.

“The conspirators engaged inlong-term conspiracies to fix theprices of essential components usedin the production of automobiles,”

said Brent Snyder, Deputy AssistantAttorney General of the Antitrust Di-vision’s criminal enforcement pro-gram.

“Today’s criminal fine demon-strates the Antitrust Division’s contin-ued commitment to hold companiesaccountable for collusive behavior thatimpacts American consumers.”

According to the charges, Koitoand its co-conspirators sold the light-ing fixtures and ballasts at noncom-petitive prices to automakers in theUnited States and elsewhere. Koitoand its co-conspirators carried out theconspiracies through meetings andconversations in which they discussedand agreed upon bids and price quo-tations and agreed to allocate amongthe companies certain sales of auto-motive lighting fixtures and HIDlamp ballasts sold to automobile andcomponent manufacturers.

Koito’s involvement in the con-spiracy to fix prices of automotivelighting fixtures lasted from at leastas early as June 1997 until about July2011. Koito’s involvement in theconspiracy to fix prices of automotiveHID lamp ballasts lasted from at least

as early as July 1998 until at leastFebruary 2010.

Koito manufactures and sells au-tomotive lighting fixtures, which in-clude automobile headlamps and rearcombination lamp assemblies thatemploy various bulb technologies andare used for forward illumination, vis-ibility and to signal various vehicularfunctions, such as braking, reversingdirection and turning.

Koito also manufactures andsells HID lamp ballasts—electricaldevices that are essential for the op-eration of an HID headlamp. HIDlamp ballasts regulate the electricalcurrent used to ignite and control theelectrical arc that generates the in-tensely bright light emitted by an au-tomotive HID headlamp fixture.

Including Koito, 24 corporationshave pleaded guilty or agreed to pleadguilty in the department’s investiga-tion into price fixing and bid riggingin the auto parts industry, and haveagreed to pay a total of more than$1.8 billion in fines. Additionally, 26individuals have been charged.

Koito is charged with price fix-ing in violation of the Sherman Act,

which carries a maximum penalty ofa $100 million criminal fine for cor-porations. The maximum fine maybe increased to twice the gain de-rived from the crime or twice theloss suffered by the victims of thecrime, if either of those amounts isgreater than the statutory maximumfine.

Today’s prosecution arose froman ongoing federal antitrust investi-gation into price fixing, bid riggingand other anticompetitive conduct inthe automotive parts industry, whichis being conducted by each of the An-titrust Division’s criminal enforce-ment sections and the FBI.

The charges were brought by theNational Criminal Enforcement Sec-tion, with the assistance of the DetroitField Office of the FBI and the FBIheadquarters’ International Corrup-tion Unit. Anyone with informationconcerning this investigation shouldcontact the Antitrust Division’s Citi-zen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258, visit: www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html or call the De-troit Field Office of the FBI at 313-965-2323.


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Japanese Auto Lighting Supplier to Receive $56.6 Million Criminal Fine

“We settled on a plea and she and herhusband will be at least paying a littleback,” says Lynette Hackworth, officemanager for A2 Auto Glass based inWashtenaw County, Michigan. Oral andJanice Molden were sentenced to proba-tion this month for allegedly embezzlingfrom the automotive glass company.They have been ordered to pay a com-bined total of $189,881 in fines.

“We’re glad for it to be over,” saysHackworth. “It took way too long andit’s a shame this ever happened. It’s avery sad situation and cost the businessa lot of money in attorneys’ fees. Ourcompany is much healthier now andwe’re glad to move on.”

The couple was accused of em-bezzling the money over a three-yearperiod. Janice Molden was a book-keeper for the company and OralMolden did computer work there.

Janice Molden was sentenced tofive years of probation and has beenordered to pay $166,440 in fines, ac-cording to a report. Her husband wassentenced to two years of probationand ordered to pay $23,441 in fines.

Plea deals in the case werereached in October with the sentenc-ing taking place this month.

Janice Molden pleaded no contest

to one count of using a computer tocommit a crime and one count of em-bezzling more than $999 but less than$20,000 and an additional count ofusing a computer to commit a crime.In exchange for the plea, the counts ofembezzling $100,000 or more, embez-zling $25,000 or more and two addi-tional counts of using a computer tocommit a crime were dismissed.

Oral Molden pleaded no contestto one count of maliciously using atelecommunications service. In ex-change, the court dismissed one courtof false pretenses of more than $20,000and false pretenses between $999 and$20,000, making or permitting a falsetax return.

Charges against the couple werefirst brought in 2011, with new countsfiled in December 2012.

A2 Auto Glass has locations inAnn Arbor and Jackson MI, as wellas a mobile service.

Couple Guilty of Embezzlement from MI Auto GlassCompany Get Probation and $189K in Fines

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Attorneys William McSwain andRichard Haggerty of Drinker, Bid-dle and Reath, LLP, a national lawfirm, have reported that CFPB andDOJ have settled the largest loan dis-crimination case in history.

On December 20, 2013, the Con-sumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB) and the Department of Jus-tice (DOJ) announced that the federalgovernment has reached a $98 mil-lion settlement with Ally Financial,Inc., and Ally Bank (Ally), resolvingallegations that Ally had allowed au-tomobile dealers to charge minorityborrowers higher rates of interest onautomobile loans than they chargedwhite borrowers. It is the largest autoloan discrimination settlement inUnited States history.

The Ally settlement is the latestcollaboration between the CFPB andthe DOJ in the enforcement of con-sumer protection statutes. Since May,when the two agencies announcedparallel civil and criminal complaintsagainst a debt settlement company,they have worked together on severalinitiatives.

In early December, CFPB andDOJ signed a memorandum of under-standing that outlines the frameworkof their collaboration on fair lending

enforcement and seeks to avoid du-plication of their respective efforts inconsumer protection.

Companies that offer consumerfinancial products can expect in-creased federal scrutiny of their busi-nesses as the two agencies continuethis collaboration.

Congress created the CFPB aspart of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Re-form and Consumer Protection Act(Dodd-Frank), which President Obamasigned into law on July 21, 2010.

Title X of Dodd-Frank, which isentitled the Consumer Financial Pro-tection Act of 2010, specified that theCFPB, which exists as part of theFederal Reserve System, would becharged with the broad task of regu-lating “the offering and provision ofconsumer financial products underthe Federal consumer financial laws.”12 U.S.C. § 5491. Its statutory pur-pose is to “seek to implement and,where applicable, enforce Federalconsumer financial law consistentlyfor the purpose of ensuring that allconsumers have access to markets forconsumer financial products andservices and that markets for con-sumer financial products are fair,transparent, and competitive.” 12U.S.C. § 5511(a). Accordingly, Con-

gress granted the CFPB authority toenforce 18 existing federal statues re-lated to consumer financial products.

The CFPB began its investiga-tion of Ally in September 2012, andit eventually determined that Ally hadviolated the Equal Credit OpportunityAct (ECOA), which is one of thestatutes over which the CFPB has ju-risdiction. The ECOA prohibits dis-crimination “against any applicant,with respect to any aspect of a credittransaction,” on the basis of a numberof characteristics, including race andnational origin. 12 U.S.C. § 1691.

According to the CFPB, Ally didnot directly discriminate against con-sumers. Instead, it allegedly violatedthe ECOA by allowing “dealermarkups.” In a common practice in theauto lending business, Ally set risk-based interest rates on automobileloans, but it then allowed auto dealersto increase the rates before they final-ized the loans with consumers. Allywould then share part of the revenuefrom these dealer markups with the in-dividual dealers.

The CFPB’s investigation, whichwas the agency’s first enforcementaction involving discrimination in theauto lending business, concluded thatbecause Ally allowed dealers to in-

crease the rates charged to con-sumers, more than 235,000 African-American, Hispanic, and Asianborrowers paid higher interest ratesthan similarly situated white borrow-ers from April 2011 through Decem-ber 2013.

Under the terms of the settle-ment, which the DOJ filed in the U.S.District Court for the Eastern Districtof Michigan, Ally will pay $80 mil-lion in restitution to consumers alongwith an $18 million penalty. The set-tlement also requires Ally to workwith the CFPB in establishing a com-pliance program to monitor potentialdiscrimination in its loan portfolio.According to the CFPB, one optionfor Ally to maintain compliance is tocompletely eliminate dealer markups.

Ally did not admit to any wrong-doing in the settlement.

In addition to their investigationof auto lending practices, the CFPBand DOJ are currently conductingjoint investigations in the mortgageindustry and other areas involvingloans to consumers.

Attorneys Report Settlement of Largest [Auto Lending] Loan Discrimination Case in History



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starts with parts, but it’s only a matterof time before they move on to paintsand other materials.”

Jeff Rice, Estimator at KoesterBody Shop at 6818 SR 930 East, alsoin Ft. Wayne, agrees that the changesto the Select Service program are abad thing which is why his shop optedout when use of PartsTrader becamemandated. He also notes that sincebeing removed from the program,there have been big delays in gettingState Farm to get out to the shop tolook at new jobs.

The owner of Dan T. Gratz BodyShop, Dan Gratz, said PartsTrader is“just another way of keeping us underState Farm’s thumb and having themdictate how we run our businesses.They are looking for a way to makemore money off the little guy, the col-lision shops… Insurer interference isgetting worse and worse. If we don’ttake a stand now, when will we? StateFarm needs to learn that there areshops who will take a stand for theright thing.”

Since the removal of these shops,State Farm has been using small,sometimes uncertified, shopsthat don’t have the propertraining and equipment, ac-cording to Gratz who seesthis as a “lawsuit waiting tohappen… State Farm doesn’tseem to realize that they arerunning shops out of busi-ness by doing things like im-plementing PartsTraderwhich reduces our profits. If we can’tmake money, we will have to closeour doors. Who is going to repair carsthen?”

Eric Knipscheer, owner ofKnipscheer Collision Center at 747 WSuperior St in Fort Wayne, opted outof the Select Service because Part-sTrader did not offer parts from anylocal suppliers. He prefers buying lo-cally for the benefit of his local econ-

omy and “really doesn’t appreciatesomeone telling [him] where to buyhis parts.”

All four of these shops currentlyparticipate in four to six total DRPs,and the consensus seems to be that theSelect Service program wasn’t partic-ularly problematic until the use ofPartsTrader was enforced. All of thesegentlemen agreed that they’d be will-ing to renegotiate their DRP contractswith State Farm if the insurer ceasedto mandate the use of PartsTrader.

When asked about the advicethey’d give to shops on the SelectService in areas where PartsTrader isnot yet mandated, everyone agreedthat whether a shop should remain onthe program after PartsTrader is im-plemented is a personal decision eachshop must make. Bonecutter suggeststhat “you understand the ins and outsof the program so you can evaluateyour options and make an educateddecision in the best interests of yourbusiness.”

Gratz believes that shops shouldalso consider contacting some of theshops in Fort Wayne that opted out tolearn more about the program andwhy they made the decision to with-draw from the Select Service. Knip-scheer cautions that if PartsTrader isnot resisted, “other insurers will adoptsimilar programs if we allow it, andshops will lose the freedom to choosetheir suppliers and to make a profit.”

Mike Hartman, former presi-dent of the Indiana Auto Body Asso-ciation (IABA), is also paying closeattention to this situation. ThoughHartman Auto Body still participatesin Select Service since he is located inan outlying rural area where Part-

sTrader is not yet mandated, once thischanges, he will “probably bail out.My sign says Hartman Auto Body, notState Farm Auto Body! I’m not will-ing to be forced to use PartsTrader be-cause I see no benefit to it whatsoever,especially if there are no local vendorson the system.”

From his conversations withsome of the shops that chose to optout, Hartman has found “the shops are

not opposed to using parts procure-ment systems, but they are opposed tohaving it shoved down their throats.Owners don’t like someone coming inand telling them how to run theirshops.”

Another problem cited is thatsince parts vendors in Fort Wayne arenot participating in PartsTrader, shops

have to order parts from outside theirarea, from suppliers they don’t haverelationships with. This negatively im-pacts the shops’ cycle times as they’reforced to wait to receive their parts,and this affects their scorecard withState Farm.

One Fort Wayne dealership optedout of Select Service because the pro-gram forbade them from purchasingparts from their own parts departmentsince it wasn’t on PartsTrader, andthey didn’t like the loss of control inchoosing their parts, particularly inbeing unable to supply their own bodyshop.

Yet another criticism of Part-sTrader is that it cuts the collisionrepair facility out of the parts profit.In New Zealand, the parts procure-ment program has progressed andexpanded to include paints and ma-terials also, and Hartman fears thishappening in the U.S. because “youcan’t sustain your business on laborrates alone.”

Hartman also notes that theshops that opted out are seeing StateFarm take longer to write estimates,sometimes taking as long as a weekto even visit the shop. Because ofthis, longtime customers are beingsteered to shops on the Select Serv-ice where estimates are being writtenimmediately. In one such instance, ashop waited eight days for an ap-praiser to come out to view a claim;meanwhile, several appraisers fromState Farm visited the shop for sup-plements, yet they refused to write anestimate on the new job, according toHartman.

Though State Farm is making itdifficult on the shops that opted out,

Hartman believes these shops aredoing a fabulous job with explainingthe reasons for the delays and educat-ing consumers on their right to choose.Customers have been pretty under-standing, and some even dropped StateFarm because they were displeasedwith how the insurer is treating theshops and their customers.

The 14 shops, many of themlarger facilities and dealerships, whichopted out of Select Service were doingapproximately 80% of State Farm’sbusiness in Fort Wayne before Part-sTrader was mandated. The shops thatremain are struggling to keep up withthe increase in volumes while StateFarm presumably seeks new shops inthe Fort Wayne area to join SelectService.

IABA continues to monitor thesituation closely. In October, Mis-sissippi’s John Mosely and LloydBush attended IABA’s meeting todiscuss PartsTrader, and this topicwill certainly be pursued at the as-sociation’s next meeting. Membersof IABA include shops that optedout, as well as those who stayed onSelect Service.

Hartman thinks “it’s really coolto see so many Fort Wayne shopssticking together. This is a really com-petitive area, and it’s amazing to seethese shops supporting one another.I’ve never seen such solidarity.”

State Farm’s has issued the fol-lowing response: “Repairers whowant to leave our Select Service pro-gram can inform State Farm and re-move themselves. We are aware thatsome repairers in the Ft. Wayne areahave recently done that. Our priorityis to continue to meet the needs of ourcustomers in the Ft. Wayne area, andwe continue to do all we can to dothat.”

Continued from Cover

Shops Opt Out

Todd Bonecutter (center) with Glenbrook Collision Staff



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A host of body shops has alleged inMississippi federal court that a groupof insurance providers, including StateFarm Mutual Automobile InsuranceCo. and GEICO General InsuranceCo., of conspiring to manipulate carrepair costs in order to reduce theirpayments.

The complaint was filed in theU.S. District Court for the SouthernDistrict of Mississippi, Northern Di-vision-Jackson. Defendants named in-

cluded: State Farm; Progressive; All-state; Nationwide; GEICO; UnitedServices Automobile Association;USAA; Safeco; Shelter Mutual Insur-ance Co.; Direct General InsuranceCompany of Mississippi; MississippiFarm Bureau; and Shelter General In-surance Co.

The repair shops are representedby John Arthur Eaves Jr. of JohnArthur Eaves Attorneys At Law inJackson, MS.

The suit named 16 separate in-surance firms as defendants, but re-peatedly alleges that State Farmlargely orchestrated the scheme,which the body shops said involvesthe artificial suppression labor, repairand material costs and the enactmentof harsh punitive measures againstnoncooperating repair providers.

One of the main cogs of the al-leged scheme is the abuse of direct re-pair program agreements under which

the body shops agree to certain priceconcessions in favor of preferentialtreatment from the insurers, accordingto the complaint.

“The concessions demanded bythe individual in exchange for re-maining on the direct repair programwere not balanced by the purportedbenefits,” the suit alleged. “The de-fendants, particularly State Farm,have utilized these agreements to

Insurance Companies Manipulate Repair Costs Says Shop-Sponsored Complaint in Mississippi Court

See Insurers Sued, Page 61

Question: What is the major differ-ence between the two Honda Ac-cords?Answer: The “A” Pillar reinforce-ment, “B” pillar reinforcement andRocker panel reinforcement are con-structed of one of the highest strengthssteels seen in passenger cars. Theyhave an 1500 MPa steel rating.Question: What does Honda saywhen these parts are damaged from aside impact?Answer:—Plenty

First and Foremost—Honda states“No body repairs should be at-tempted without first referring to theappropriate body repair manual forcomplete information”. I find itamazing how many collision repairshops in this country will repair/re-place structural components ontoday’s vehicles without having theappropriate procedures when the ve-hicle is estimated and repaired. I alsofind in appalling that many insuranceadjusters will estimate a vehicle with-out having repair data before writingtheir estimate. Furthermore, why dobody shops have to prove that theyneed a certain procedure for a OEMstated position, when they shouldhave this information as well. Just theother day, A shop owner called mefor information to justify why theshop could not use heat on repairinga 2010 Toyota Tacoma frame thatwas damaged in the rear. Moreover, Ifeel that there should be a charge onthe estimate for data retrieval. It costme $300.00 for a one year subscrip-tion to the Honda web site and I don’thave a shop or write estimates any-more. (Sorry for getting off the sub-ject, but I needed to get it off mychest.)

Use of Heat for body straighten-ing and repairs. What does Hondasay? “When you are doing bodystraightening and repair procedures:DO NOT apply heat to any body partduring straightening. This may com-promise the internal structure andstrength of high strength steel parts.Moreover, any part that has heat ap-plied to it during straightening MUSTbe replaced with new parts. Ignoringthese instructions, may significantlyreduce occupant protection in anysubsequent collision.”

Let’s look at what Honda saysabout sectioning. “Because of bodystructure improvements for collisionsafety and rigidity, the materials, steelthickness and internal reinforcementshave become very specific. Followthese guidelines to avoid an unsafe re-pair: avoid sectioning (cut and joint)except for outer panels and floor pan-els unless a specific procedure is pro-vided in the body manual (As I statedpreviously, how do you repair todays

vehicles without having the repairdata) and relace body structural com-ponents as assemblies that match thereplacement parts configuration.Honda dedicates 3 pages in their guidelines for replacement and welding, butI will address this later on in the arti-cle.

Honda states in their body repairnews about seats with airbags “ dam-aged front seat covers should be re-placed and not repaired. Furthermore,Do not install non-factory seat covers,because they may alter the airbags in-tended deployment.”

Honda also states “NEVER at-tempt to modify, splice or repairairbag system wiring. If airbag systemwiring is damaged, replace the wiringharness(es).

What does Honda say about theirTire Pressure Monitoring System(TPMS). “TPMS calibration must bestarted every time you: Adjust thepressure in one or more tires; Rotate

the tires; Replace one or more tires;Replace or update the VSA-modula-tor control unit. A couple of otheritems that should be noted when esti-mating and repairing a 2013 HondaAccord.

Honda now sells replaceableheadlamp brackets that get broken inan accident. It should noted that theyonly work if the following criteria ismet: No damage to the headlamp as-sembly and sealing of the headlamplens and housing is maintained.

Some models may be equippedwith one or more of the followingsystems the require aiming aftercollision repairs (special tools arerequired to complete the aimingprocedures).

Lane Watch—Lane Watch uses acamera and center dash display forblind spot detection. The camera mustbe aimed if the following operationsare performed in the repair process:The camera is removed or replaced,


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Tech Notes

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

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

with Jeremy HayhurstPublisher’s Page

with Karyn HendricksShop Showcase

with David M. BrownShop Showcase

Shop Showcasewith Jeremy Hayhurst

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

California Autobody Associationwith David McClune

Collision Repair Association of CA.with Richard Steffen

Insurers Excel at Steeringwith Richard Steffen

Year in Quoteswith John Yoswick

Transition Planningwith John Yoswick

Mainstream Media

My Turnwith Joe Momber

Toby Chess is an I-CAR program instructor, Training specialist, and former salvage yard operator.Toby is universally known in the collision industry for his work with first responders and advocacyfor body shops and consumers. He can be reached at [email protected]

Honda’s Repair Instructions Need to Be Read and Followed

2012 Honda Accord

2013 Honda Accord

4-door Models1 Front Inner Upper Pillar

2 Center Pillar Upper Stiffener

3 Side Sill Stiffener

4 Inside Sill Reinforcement

1,500 MPa (HOT STAMP) STEELLOCATIONS1,500 MPa steel stronger than ordinarysteel, so it can help protect vehicle occu-pangts while reducing overall vehicleweight to improve fuel efficiency. Thenumbered parts in the diagrams beloware constructed of 1,500 MPa steel:

Door mirror is removed and/or re-placed, door panel is removed or re-placed or the door is repaired. Itshould be noted that DTC will not bedisplayed on the dash, but will bestored in the control module.

Forward Warning: The cameramust be re-aimed if the FWC cameraunit is removed or replaced. If thewindshield is removed or replaced, theunit must be re-aimed. Note a dashlight will illuminate if the system is in-operative.

Adaptive Cruise Control(ACC). The millimeter wave radar ofthe ACC must be re-aimed if the radarunit is removed or replaced. If dam-age occurs in the unit’s mounting area,the system needs to be re-aimed. Amalfunction of the unit will be dis-played in the multi-unit dash. Let’slook at welding and repairing the 1500MPa steel on the Honda Accord.

Honda states when repairing andwelding 1500 MPa steel parts as fol-lows:

● NEVER attempt to straightendamaged 1500 MPa steel

● 1500 MPa steel parts MUST bereplaced at factory seams usingsqueeze type resistance spot welds

● MIG weld braze joints should

be used ONLY in locations that cannot be reached with STRS welders.

● To maintain adequate weld ten-sile strength, always set the spotwelder to specifications in the bodyrepair manual.

● NEVER perform MAG (akaMIG) welding on 1500 MPa steelparts

● MIG brazed joint locations arespecified in the body repair manual

● A single or double hole MIDbraze may be specified in the body re-pair manual depending on tensilestrength of the parts being joined.

● A pulsed MID welder MUSTbe used. You can convert most MIGwelders to weld bronze silicon, butyou have better heat management andcontrol with a pulsed welder. More onthis a little later on in the article.

● Parts made of Ultra HighStrength Steel (UHSS) must be in-stalled as complete part. No section-ing allowed. FAILURE TO USE THEPROPER EQUIPMENT OR FOL-LOW THE PROPER PROCEDURESCAN RESULT IN AN UNSAFE RE-PAIR.

Honda specifications for repair-ing and welding steels with 590 to980 MPa ratings: Parts made of High

Strength Steel (590-980 MPa) mustbe installed as a complete part. Nosectioning is allowed unless a proce-dure is provided in the body repairmanual. Plug welds using a MIGwelder may be done joining bodyparts with 590-980 MPa steel ratings.MAG (MIG) butt welding may bedone only steel parts with a tensilestrength of 590 MPa and lower. Youwill need to print out the diagramshowing the locations of the differentstrengths of steel from the Honda website.

Here is what Honda specifies forwelding 1500 MPa steel on the2013/2014 Honda Accord. You willneed to go to the web site for pictureson the welding procedures.

2014 Accord

1500 MPa Parts WeldingSpecifications______________________________High-Strength Steel (1500 MPa) PartsWelding SpecificationsThe high-strength steel (1500 MPa) ma-terial is used for the front pillar area, theroof side area, the center pillar area, andthe side sill area of the vehicles.

Parts replacement for the rein-

forcement and/or the stiffener may berequired depending on the damage tothe side panel. Take notice that spotwelding conditions for welding the re-placement parts differ from the nor-mal welding conditions. MIG brazingmust be used where spot weldingcannot be done. NEVER perform MAGwelding.

MIG brazing welding methodTo ensure adequate joint strength, use apulsed MIG welder with specified wireand the following brazing technique.This will create a capillary action in orderto liquefy the solder so that it can pene-trate into the upper and lower plates:

• Begin brazing about 5mm (0.20in)before the holes(s).• Move the torch across the hole in azigzag pattern as you close theholes(s).• Continue the brazing operation about10mm (0.39 in) past the hole(s).

Spot welding specifications

• Current: 9000 A• Pressure: 3432 N (350 kgf, 772 lbf)• Welding cycle: 40

NOTE: When spot welding is per-


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formed, make sure that the followingconditions are maintained: the speci-fied current, conductivity time, weldingpressure, holding time, and shutdowntime recommended for spot welder.Follow the spot welder manufacturer'sinstructions.

MIG brazing specifications

• MIG brazing machine with pulsecontroller• Wire: CuSi3• Shielding gas: Argon gas (100%)

NOTE:• For details about correct brazingcurrent and voltage, refer to the equip-ment manufacturer’s recommenda-tions.• MIG welding/brazing: Metal inert gaswelding or brazing where 100% Argon(Ar) shielding gas is used. Argon isinert and does not react with themolten weld pool or brazing operation.

Brazing hole sizeFor joining, or brazing of stiffener(340 and 980 MPa) and the high-strength steel (1500 MPa) parts: Drilltwo holes φ8 mm (0.31 in) in about 10mm (0.39 in) pitch.

For joining, or brazing of outerpanel (270 MPa) and the high-strengthsteel (1500 MPa) parts: Drill one holeφ8 mm (0.31 in) at the outer panel.

As I previously mentioned, let’s talkwelding machines.

I purchased a Prospot SP5 after test-ing it at the SEMA show.

This is the 5 in one welder. Youcan MIG Steel, MIG Weld Braze,MIG aluminum, TIG steel and arcweld all in one machine. It is a 220volt single phase machine that is

pulsed. It is a very user friendly andthe welds that are produced areamazing. This machine is overkillfor the body shop. Prospot has thesame machine, but with 2 guns(steel, aluminum or MIG braze—

your choice). It is about 25 percentcheaper and I would highly recom-mend this unit. You can go toProspot.com and click on the SPwelder for a video demonstration ofthis welder. Now to the actual re-


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This diagram is taken from the 2013/2014 Honda Body Repair Manual. It is located in the GeneralDescription under Roof and Side Panel 4 Door Construction

This legend is also found on the same page as the diagram. Note that part number 6 isconstructed of 3 different metal strengths

You will note that there are 3 spot welds (590 steel)welded to reinforcement on the inside of thevehicle along with 4 spot welds

Center Pillar Stiffener Completea: Upper Stiffener [1.8 (0.071)] 1500 —

b: Lower Stiffener [1.8 (0.071)] 590 —

c: Center Pillar Reinforcement [1.8 (0.071)] 980

Self Driving Cars Could Dramatically Decrease AccidentsSelf-driving cars (SDC) that includedriver control are expected to hithighways around the globe before2025 and self-driving “only” cars areanticipated around 2030, according toan emerging technologies study onAutonomous Cars from IHS Auto-motive, a division of IHS researchand analysis firm.

In the study, “Emerging Tech-nologies: Autonomous Cars—Not If,But When,” IHS Automotive fore-casts total worldwide sales of self-dri-ving cars will grow from nearly 230thousand in 2025 to 11.8 million in2035—7 million SDCs with bothdriver control and autonomous con-trol and 4.8 million that have only au-tonomous control. In all, there shouldbe nearly 54 million self-driving carsin use globally by 2035.

The study anticipates that nearlyall of the vehicles in use are likely tobe self-driving cars or self-drivingcommercial vehicles sometime after2050.

The price premium for the SDCelectronics technology will add be-tween $7,000 and $10,000 to a car’ssticker price in 2025, a figure that willdrop to around $5,000 in 2030 andabout $3,000 in 2035 when no drivercontrols are available.

“There are several benefitsfrom self-driving cars to society,drivers and pedestrians,” said EgilJuliussen, principal analyst for in-fotainment and autonomous driverassisted systems at Colorado-basedIHS Automotive. Juliussen co-au-thored the study with IHS Automo-tive senior ADAS analyst JeremyCarlson.

“Accident rates will plunge tonear zero for SDCs, although othercars will crash into SDCs, but as themarket share of SDCs on the highwaygrows, overall accident rates will de-cline steadily,” Juliussen says.

“Traffic congestion and air pol-lution per car should also decline be-cause SDCs can be programmed to bemore efficient in their driving pat-terns.”

The study also notes some po-tential barriers to SDC deploymentand two major technology risks: soft-ware reliability and cyber security.The barriers include implementationof a legal framework for self-drivingcars and establishment of governmentrules and regulations.

Several automakers have saidpublicly they will have autonomouscars by 2020, or earlier, according tothe report.

placement of the center pillar androcker reinforcement.


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Welding SymbolsPlate spot welding

Plate spot welding

Plate spot welding

MAG plug welding

MAG welding

MIG brazing

L= Welding length unit: mm (in)( ) and ( )*: The number of welds

You will note that the upper and lower out sec-tions of the reinforcement are MIG weld braze

11. From the passenger’s compartment, weld thecenter inner pillar (A) and the roof side rail (B)

You will note that there are 3 spot welds (590steel)welded to reinforcement on the inside ofthe vehicle along with 4 spot welds

1. When replacing the center pillar lower stiff-ener (A) only, weld it to the center pillar rein-forcement (B) and the center pillar upperstiffener (C).( )*: Welding positions with 590 MPa or higherparts. Confirm the plug welding specifications.(■)*: Welding positions with the center pillarupper stiffener (1500 MPa parts). Confirm thespot welding and the MIG brazing specifications

The California Department of Con-sumer Affairs’ Bureau of Automo-tive Repair (BAR) has released ashort video for its No-Cost AutoBody Inspection Program.

The program provides con-sumers with no-cost vehicle inspec-tions to ensure all collision repairslisted on their auto body repair in-voice were done correctly.

“The Auto Body InspectionProgram is a great resource for driv-ers who have recently been in a col-lision and have had auto body repairdone,” said Bureau Chief PatrickDorais.

“To the untrained eye, it can behard to tell if a repair was done cor-rectly and whether or not the vehi-cle’s safety has been compromised,”Dorais said. “This program is veryeasy to participate in and providesconsumers with peace of mindabout any auto body repairs theymay have had performed.”

The video features an actualconsumer who has used the pro-gram, explains how the programworks and how to contact BAR toparticipate.

The video can be seen at auto-bodynews.com.

California BAR ReleasesConsumer Inspection Video

Texas passed House Bill 500,amending the tax code definition of“retail trade,” which reclassified in-dependent body shops as eligible fora reduction to 0.5 percent tax, thesame that dealership body shopswere paying under the “retail” clas-sification. But Robert Jordan ofProtech Collision Repair Center inWebster, TX, says he and other re-pairers should have the .05 extrathey have been paying refundedback to them. The Texas Comptrol-ler apparently disagrees: “H.B. 500did not make the amendment to thetax code retroactive, therefore pay-ment adjustments would not bemade for past reports,” said R.J. De-Silva, spokesperson, Texas Comp-troller.

Jordan estimates his additionaltax paid to be $84,000. “I’m not ask-ing for anything that’s not fair andnot reasonable,” Jordan told a mediasource. “I want my .05 back. Anyfool who is not asking for it shouldbe. This is a serious hosing andneeds to be addressed.” Jordan sayshe’s going to refile his tax formsshowing the correct amount hewould have paid had he been adealer shop.

Texas Repairer Says HeWants His Tax Refunded

Most New Year’s resolutions involveyour body and your health like loseweight, get in shape or improve yourdiet. But are you making New Year’sresolutions that improve the health ofyour body shop?

Simple changes in the tools, so-lutions and systems that you are usingin your body shop can have a signifi-cant impact on your shop’s perform-ance in the year ahead – fromproductivity to solvent use, materialswaste, margin improvement and KPIperformance.

Here are the top five resolutionsyou might want to consider as youplan for 2014, courtesy of 3M Auto-motive Aftermarket, which workswith thousands of body shops acrossthe country to help improve perform-ance and profitability.

Resolution #1 – Decrease mate-rial waste and solvent use and deliverthe savings to the bottom line.

Are you sending profits down thedrain with wasted materials and un-needed solvent use? The family of3M™ Accuspray™ System HVLPspray guns with replaceable atomizinghead and 3M™ PPS™ technology de-livers premium performance at a frac-tion of the cost and effort. The systemcan provide exceptional resultsthrough excellent atomization, result-ing in high transfer efficiency and alarge, usable spray pattern with lowoverspray. It is designed to help im-prove productivity, reduce solventconsumption and minimize clean-uptime.

Customers using the 3M PPStechnology report that it delivers asmuch as a 70 percent reduction in theuse of cleaning solvents. In addition,the system helps reduce the amount ofpaint required for a job by as much as1 to 3 ounces per mix, leading to sig-nificant cost and waste reductions.The Accuspray System can be cleanedwith as little as 1 to 2 ounces of sol-vent, versus a pint to quart of solventfor traditional primer guns. This cantranslate into a more than 90 percentreduction in solvent use.

Resolution #2 – Make toughjobs more efficient with the righttools.

Removing spot welds fromtoday’s high-strength steel automotivepanels can be easier and less expen-sive, thanks to the new 3M™ Green

Corps™ File Belt and the 3M™ FileBelt Tool. Using specialized drill bitsto separate panels during disassemblyis time-consuming, expensive andchallenging for the technician. The3M Green Corps File Belt is an idealalternative to drilling, with a long-last-ing abrasive surface designed for spotweld removal as well as grinding inother tight areas.

A single 3M Green Corps FileBelt grinds off many more spot weldsthan drill bits, and it works well onall types of steel. It is a solution thatrequires less effort, performs fasterand at a cost savings in time and ma-terials. Also available is the Scotch-Brite™ Duraflex File Belt that can beused for the removal of window ure-thane and seam sealer, as well asweld preparation and cleanup appli-cations.

Today’s advanced paints can bechallenging, too. The 3M™ Cubi-tron™ II Clean Sanding Hookit™Disc is a revolutionary advancementin automotive abrasive technology. Itfeatures 3M Precision-Shaped GrainTechnology that provides faster cut-ting for paint removal, the early sand-ing stage in small or large area bodyrepairs, body filler rough shaping andfeather edging. It ultimately lastslonger and delivers a finer, more uni-form finish.

The 3M Cubitron II Clean Sand-ing Hookit Disc has a cut rate that is asmuch as 30 percent faster and laststwice as long as conventional ceramicpremium abrasives. This is possiblebecause the discs incorporate triangu-lar-shaped ceramic grain technologythat continuously fractures to formsharp points and edges that slicethrough paint and filler. The technol-ogy allows the disc to run cooler andresults in a finer finish.

Resolution #3 – Cut the leadingreason for comebacks – swirl marksin paint finishes.

Almost any paint professionalwould agree, compounding is themost difficult step in the traditionalpaint finishing process. The time, theheavy polisher, the mess of the rub-bing compound – it all adds up to asignificant speed bump in the processof delivering a high-quality paint fin-ishing job. To remove that speedbump, 3M Automotive Aftermarkethas re-invented the paint finishingprocess to eliminate the compound-

ing step – thanks to an advancedpaint finishing system that features3M™ Trizact™ abrasives and 3M™Perfect-It™ 1 Finishing Material.The new 3M Perfect-It Paint Finish-ing System replaces messy com-pounds and heavy polishers with a3M Trizact abrasive disc and DAsander.

The new 3M Perfect-It 1 PaintFinishing System offers one-step fin-ishing; deeper, glossier finishes; lesstime with a heavy polisher; reducedrework and comebacks for swirlmarks; cleaner jobs and reduced timefor detailing. Paint professionals cansay goodbye to swirl marks in 2014!

Resolution #4 – Eliminate tex-ture matching headaches.

For automotive professionals,matching textures on rocker panelshave always been a challenge. Andthe current technology for applyingthese textured coatings and under-coatings means painters struggle withcoating thickness, overspray, productwaste and cleanup. The new 3MBody Protection System is reinvent-ing how repair technicians spray tex-

tured finishes found on today’s vehi-cles for rock protection and sounddeadening. The innovative 3M BodyProtection System helps paintersspray low-viscosity textured finisheswith fine, medium, coarse or splat-tered patterns.

The 3M Body Protection Systemgives automotive professionals a pow-erful new tool for productivity, in-cluding:Ability to adjust pressures and spraypattern, allowing for better match toOEM textures.

Ability to cut in half applicationtime of textured finishes to rockerpanels, wheel wells and undercar-riages in many cases.

The pressurized 3M Accusprayspray gun allows the product to besprayed at any angle making it easierto reach lower rocker sections and in-side wheel wheels.

The painter can easily adjust thespray pattern to reduce overspray andmasking.

Painters can easily achieve a per-fect texture match, which contributesto improved repair quality and higherCSI scores.


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3M Presents its Top Body Shop Resolutions for 2014

PPG has introduced a dedicated colortool for the value Refinish user. TheValue Color Deck provides a visual al-ternative for finding the best color for arefinish repair. Consisting of 1,800 large,color chips chromatically sorted andsprayed with Refinish paint, the ValueColor Deck is the latest addition to PPG’scomprehensive line of best-in-class coloridentification and matching solutions.

“PPG recognizes the importanceof the value segment,” said JenniferBoros, PPG Automotive Refinish seg-ment manager, solvent-borne brands.“The Value Color Deck is one moresolution we can offer to collision cen-ters for their vehicle repairs. For therepair technician, this is an affordablepath to visual color assessment. Ourcustomers will quickly view the toolas an accurate and effective means toidentify the right color for the job.”

According to Boros, the ValueColor Deck provides the necessarycolor information required for mostcost-effective repairs. The tool will beupdated annually. Its chromatic colordisplay opens countless possibilities ofcolor choices independent of vehiclemanufacturer, and the large chip size,

with its continuous color display, makesit easy to plaque the chip to the vehicle.

“As industry leaders we are com-mitted to providing all our customers withthe tools they need to do the very best re-finish job possible,” added Mary Kim-bro, PPG global color director. “We wantto support the value sector with efficientcolor tools that simplify the color identi-fication process. The Value Color Deckwill go a long way to ensure PPG cus-tomers have the right tools for the job.”

The Value Color Deck is the latestaddition to PPG’s industry-leadinglineup of color identification and match-ing tools that includes color informationbooks, Paint It, and COLORMOBILE®

and PAINTMANAGER® software.For more about the Value Color Deck,visit the site at www.ppgrefinish.comor call (800) 647-6050.

Resolution #5 – Do away with re-dosfor pinholes.When it comes to the shop floor,every minute is critical to deliveringexcellent dent repair, on time and ata profitable margin. And everyminute spent mixing, cleaning andreworking repairs represents dollarswasted. Automotive professionalscan stop mixing and start fixing,thanks to the Dynamic Mixing Sys-tem from 3M, a high-tech tool forapplying filler and glaze. This inno-vative system mixes the material andhardener right in the nozzle to al-ways deliver the perfect formulation.The unique design allows profes-sionals to dispense the filler whenthey want it, right where they wantit, at the touch of a trigger.

With the Dynamic Mixing Sys-tem, there is no messy mixingprocess, no wasted materials, and nolost time cleaning up. In fact, usersreport a reduction in waste of more

than 40 percent and reduced re-workand clean-up times of more than 30hours per month. One of the biggestadvantages of the Dynamic MixingSystem from 3M is the reduction ofpinholes, which reduces additionalcoats of filler or glaze, prevents re-working of jobs and delivers highercustomer satisfaction with the finalrepair. The unique system achievesthis through the automatic mixingsystem, which ensures pinholes aren’tblended into the filler and preventsover-catalyzation. The system alsodelivers a tight wet-coat on the carsurface, which discourages pinholesfrom forming.To make these innovative solutionspart of your shop’s process in 2014,contact your local 3M representativeor distributor.

For more information on thesesolutions, visit www.3MCollision.com and follow us at www.Face-book.com/3MCollision.


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by Chasidy Rae Sisk

On November 27, 2013, MichaelBradshaw, VP of Operations atK&M Collision in Hickory, NC, filedsix shortpay lawsuits on his cus-tomers’ behalf. Of the six cases filed,three were against GEICO, two wereagainst Nationwide, and one was filedagainst Allstate, with amounts rang-ing from $680.95 to $5749.64. Someof the claims included in the lawsuitswere Breach of Contract, Bad Faith,and Unfair/Deceptive Trade Prac-tices. K&M Collision is being repre-sented by attorney William E. Morganof Morgan Law PLLC in Hickory,NC.

According to Bradshaw, “Theseclaims stem from the insurers’ contin-ual refusal to pay for factory correctrepairs according to manufacturer re-pair specifications and guidelines. Notall insurers are bad; what we’re find-ing is that many of these companiesare doing the right thing and payingfor manufacturer correct repairs; how-ever, there is a select group of insur-ance companies that show completedisregard for manufacturer specifiedrepairs, procedures and safety checkson a consistent basis. Unfortunately,those insurers put us in the position ofeither performing the operations forfree, making the customer responsiblefor the additional costs or resorting tolegal action.”

While the six shortpay casesBradshaw is currently pursuing en-compass a little bit of everything, “themost consistent problem is the failureto recognize and reimburse customersfor manufacturer recommended re-pairs and safety checks.” This is par-ticularly the case when only a fewshops are performing the operation asit leaves the insurance company unin-terested in the manufacturer’s docu-mentation showing the need for therepair, and they will refuse to pay forsomething which other shops don’tcharge, even though the absence of thecharge is due to the fact that it is notbeing done. Bradshaw fears that theseinsurers are “basing their repair stan-dards on sub-standard repairs beingperformed.”

An example of this is seen with aBMW recently brought to the shop.Because the manufacturer’s facility isonly 45 minutes away from K&MCollision, Bradshaw toured the facil-ity and learned about a procedure they

use to correct any imperfections in thepaint; however, Nationwide refused topay the shop to perform this proce-dure, though manufacturer guidelinesindicate it is required and should bebilled separately without being in-cluded in the paint time. The insurerinsisted they have to do what the mar-ket dictates, and because most shopsdon’t perform this requirement, K&MCollision cannot perform it either (orat least they won’t be paid if they do).

K&M Collision has been in busi-ness since 1991, and though Brad-shaw did not begin working thereofficially until 2006, he has alwaysbeen around this family-owned andoperated business. Despite their deci-sion to refrain from participating inany DRPs, the shop repairs a high vol-ume of vehicles, grossing just over 1.3million this past year.

When questioned about the im-portance of pursuing shortpay law-suits, Bradshaw explains, “in order tomaintain our 12 manufacturer certifi-cations, pay employees, and make aprofit, it’s really a necessity; either wedo it, or we don’t make money. Theshortpay amounts are usually ourprofit margins on these jobs.”

Though Bradshaw just won ashortpay lawsuit against Nationwidethis past summer, he has not seen anyimprovements in their behavior sincethe victory; “they seem to change theway they handle claims, in terms ofwhat they will and won’t pay, everyfew months.” He also notes the odd-ity of how Nationwide handles ap-praisals; they usually send at leasttwo people to the shop, one of whomis generally a supervisor, and theseindividuals will engage in a review oftheir findings before making a deci-sion about what they’ll pay. It is notuncommon for Nationwide represen-tatives to be at the shop for fourhours or more to process just oneclaim.

Additionally, Bradshaw recentlyran into a case where Nationwide didnot believe certain repairs were nec-essary, and even after K&M Collisionproved the necessity by performingmeasurements and providing this evi-dence, the insurer only paid for a por-tion of the repair.

In contrast, Bradshaw notes thathe is seeing some improvements fromsome other insurers. For example, hefiled a claim against one insurer for re-fusing to pay his labor rates because

they claimed the rates were too high.Since the lawsuit was filed, this sameinsurer has not contested four newclaims that were processed withhigher labor rates than the first casewhich caused K&M Collision to lodgethe complaint.

Though Bradshaw believes thatthe majority of insurance companiesare changing their behavior due to therecent influx in shortpay cases beingpursued, for some insurers “this is theway it is and the way it’s going to be.Some of these insurers fear payingone shop more than the others be-cause they have the mistaken beliefthat it’s necessary to pay all shops thesame.”

This is especially untrue as itpertains to shops that are certified byrare manufacturers, such as Porschewhich only has around 50 certifiedshops in the nation, making it logicalthat these shops should receive in-creased compensation when perform-ing the more difficult repairs thatthese cars call for. Bradshaw believesthere will be “fewer cases being filedin the future due to a combination offactors.”

“As always, our main concern isthat our customer’s vehicles are re-paired safely, as close as humanly pos-sible to their pre-accident condition.The costs involved in having theproper equipment, training, facilitiesand staff to repair today’s vehiclescontinues to escalate. But the reim-bursement rates have moved very lit-tle in the past several years. I think theproblem is many times an insurer isattempting to base payment on thelowest cost in the market and not thecost of proper repairs in the market.Based on our conversations with othershop owners around the country, thisis a situation I believe is occurring na-tionwide. I remain hopeful that some-day these actions will no longer benecessary as all insurers will chooseto do right by their customers.”

Bradshaw is fairly confident andoptimistic about the outcome of thesepending lawsuits. “We put a lot of re-search into this, and we believe thesecases will be decided in our favor.”Trial dates for these six lawsuits havenot yet been set, but they are expectedto occur sometime during the first halfof this year.

K&M Collision of NC Files Six Separate Shortpay Lawsuits


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On January 15th 2014 at the NationalAuto Body Council’s annual golffundraiser, Pacific Collision Centershad the honor of donating a 2013 FordFocus to family in need.

The family was nominated byVariety the Children’s Charity of theDesert, which is a nonprofit organiza-tion dedicated to promoting and pro-tecting the health and well-being ofunderprivileged and special needschildren in the Coachella Valley. Theorganization works closely with lowincome families.

The beneficiary of the car wasJennifer Gutierrez, a mother of atwo-year-old boy named Angel who

was diagnosed with a condition calledas Arthogryposis Multiplex Con-genita. Angel’s arms dangle at hissides along and he has very little legmobility.

Without transportation of theirown, Jennifer was forced to take pub-lic transportation from Coachella toLoma Linda’s Children’s Hospitalmultiple times a week for his treat-ment.

Pacific Collision Centers and TheElite Group collaborated with sometrusted partners that felt compelled tohelp in any way possible. With the as-sistance of Central Ford in South

Gate, PPG, Single Source Inc., Mr.C’s Towing, K&P Automotive andKeystone we were able to repair theminor damage on the vehicle. As anadded bonus Mercury Insurance pro-vided an extended vehicle warranty to100,000 miles.

Additional supporters offered giftand gas cards; they included Davis &Madden Insurance Agency, GP BrownInsurance Agency, Costal Compre-hensive Insurance and Agency ManorInsurance Agency. Angel view of theDesert donated a car seat and strollerthat were specifically made for chil-dren with disabilities.

Said Pacific Collision Centersowner Steve Vettel, “Once you experi-ence the pure excitement and energy ofgifting a vehicle to a family in needyou’re absolutely committed to theprogram. Having the opportunity towork with our great team members andbusiness partners to make this happenis truly rewarding. It’s my hope thatevery shop owner would participate ina Recycled Rides event in their com-munity.”


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Pacific Collision Centers, Elite Group, and Supporters Donate2013 Ford Focus to Family with Handicapped Child

Refurbished 2013 Ford Focus

Pacific Collision marketing manager, MarthaPimentel (l) presents the keys to JenniferGutierrez and Angel

The $25,000 gift from Enterprisewill support the foundation’s Col-lision Repair Education Campaignfund, which allows the organiza-tion to provide its annual studentscholarships, school grants, and theannual Ultimate Collision Educa-tion Makeover $50,000 schoolgrants.

“Our collision repair partnersplay an essential role in the successof our replacement business,” saidBruce Clifton, vice president, in-surance replacement for EnterpriseRent-A-Car. “We are pleased tomake this contribution to help ex-pand opportunities for young menand women in the collision repairindustry.”

Added Collision Repair Edu-cation Foundation Executive Direc-tor Clark Plucinski, “Enterprise’sdonation assists the Collision Re-pair Education Foundation’s abilityto help provide support to highschool and college collision schoolprograms, instructors and studentsnationwide.

Enterprise Donates $25,000to Education Foundation


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CCC Information Services Inc.(CCC) announced on Jan. 7 the ac-quisition of Auto Injury Solutions,Inc. (AIS), formerly a division of Hu-mana Inc. The transaction brings to-gether CCC with AIS, the onlynational, full-service provider of autoinjury medical review solutions.“We’re thrilled to welcome MattElges and his team to the CCC family.The acquisition of AIS is an impor-tant step in the continued execution ofour strategy to expand into adjacentsegments in order to better service theauto claims market,” said Githesh Ra-mamurthy, Chairman and CEO ofCCC. “Together, our platform will beable to leverage proven technology,advanced data analytics and world-class customer service to provide cus-tomers with an array of solutions.”

Elges said, “The combination ofCCC and AIS represents a strongstrategic fit that will enable us to ex-pand our reach and leverage our col-lective strengths in developinginnovative new solutions for our cus-tomers.

CCC Acquires Auto InjurySolutions Inc.

The National Automotive ServiceTask Force (NASTF) reported thatthe Chrysler Group LLC is register-ing diagnostic software and tools inboth dealerships and aftermarketshops to ensure authenticity whenservicing customer’s vehicles.NASTF was made aware of thisfrom Chrysler in response to a ques-tion NASTF had asked on this topic.License registration has been in useby many OEMs for some time, butin the near future, unregisteredChrysler tools will not operate.Soon, the wiTECH software willshow a warning to users whose de-vices do not hold a valid registra-tion. Registration of the Chryslertool is free, assuming the user haspaid the yearly license fee. AChrysler spokesperson told NASTFthat approximately 80– 90% ofknown users have already registeredtheir device. Later in 2014, Chryslerwill no longer allow unregisteredusers to operate their wiTECHs. Theother affected group will be users ofclones of the wiTECH VCI.

Chrysler Seeks Registrationof Diagnostic Software

Sales of vehicles able to drive them-selves will account for about 9 per-cent of global auto sales in abouttwo decades, according to a forecastpublished this month by auto indus-try consultant IHS Automotive. Thestudy focused on autonomous cars,which can drive with “no attentionneeded by the driver,” IHS analystEgil Juliussen said. Such cars arenot currently available for sale, butIHS predicts they will be availablearound 2025. IHS expects globalsales of self-driving cars in 2025 tobe 230,000—less than 1 percent ofthe 115 million cars expected to besold that year. But by 2035, sales ofself-driving cars will reach 11.8 mil-lion, or 9 percent of the 129 millionglobal auto sales expected that year,Juliussen said. Most of those saleswill be in well-established auto mar-kets such as the United States, west-ern Europe and Japan. The pace ofgrowth for self-driving cars will ex-ceed that of electric cars, whichhave been hobbled by the high costof batteries, Juliussen said.

Study Estimates 9% of Carswill be Self-Driving by 2035

As of January 1, 2014, thirteenstates will raise the minimumwage for workers. In Arizona($7.90 per hour), Colorado [pdf]($8.00 per hour), Connecticut[pdf] ($8.70 per hour), Florida[pdf] ($7.93 per hour), Missouri($7.50 per hour), Montana ($7.90per hour), New Jersey ($8.25 perhour), New York ($8.00 per hour),Ohio ($7.95 per hour), Oregon[pdf] ($9.10 per hour), Rhode Is-land ($8.00 per hour), Vermont[pdf] ($8.73 per hour), and Wash-ington ($9.32 per hour), workerswill see an increase. All employ-ers in these states need to displayupdated posters with the new stateminimum wage as required bystate law. Additionally, Califor-nia’s minimum wage will increaseto $9.00 per hour on July 1, 2014.The Federal minimum wage re-mains unchanged at $7.25 perhour. However, if your workersare in a state that has a minimumwage above the Federal rate, youmust pay workers the higher rate.

14 States to Increase theMinimum Wage in 2014

CIC chair George Avery welcomedthe CIC body before inviting JohnVan Alstyne, president and CEO ofI-CAR, to present the organization’sinitiatives for the coming year (seeI-CAR story this issue) FollowingVan Alstyne was a presentation byguest speaker Scott Sorrell, CEO ofSales Adrenaline. Sorrell discussedhow to find your value as a businessand how to keep reselling that valueto customers. The afternoon was fo-cused on reviewing each CIC com-mittee—definitions, insurer/repairerrelations, parts and material, dataprivacy, education and training,human resources, governmental,marketing, and technical—and theirplans for the coming year. Notablechanges to the committees includedputting the definitions committee onhiatus, and the appointing of RandyHanson, auto director at Allstate, asthe new chair of the insurer/repairerrelations committee. Hanson willreplace Rick Tuuri. Discussion alsooccured on the data privacy com-mittee on vehicle information tech-nology.

CIC in Brief, More Next Issue

The Collision Industry Conference’sOE Roundtable Committee an-nounced the launch of crashrepair-info.com, a consumer education site,during the first day of the January2014 Collision Industry Conference(CIC) planning meeting in PalmSprings, CA. The site is aimed atproviding consumers with informa-tion that can help them navigate theprocess of getting their vehicles re-paired following a collision. GaryLedoux, assistant national managerof wholesale parts marketing atHonda and a member of the OERoundtable Committee, said the siteis meant to help vehicle ownersmake informed decisions about thecollision repair of their vehicle. Thesite includes OE position statements,collision repair basics, what to do incase of an accident, and links to otherOE sites. Ledoux said the committeerecommends all repairers use the siteas a resource and direct customers tothe site, as is applicable.

CIC Roundtable LaunchesConsumer Website for OEMs



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North American car and truck pro-duction reached an estimated 16.6million units in 2013, up 4 percent.That would mark the first timesince 2005 that production sur-passed 16 million units. Mexicanplants are expected to have pro-duced a record number of vehiclesin 2013, an estimated 3,071,000units, topping 2012’s record of3,020,404.

Several manufacturers’ NorthAmerican totals are expected tosurpass records set in 2012. Honda,Hyundai-Kia, Nissan and Toyotaall had record producing years in2013, but BMW, Subaru, Volkswa-gen and AutoAlliance—the Ford-Mazda joint venture—producedfewer units in 2013 than in 2012.

While Canada built over 2.4million vehicles in 2012, that num-ber is expected to drop to 1.8 mil-lion by 2020. Since 2010, automakers have invested $42 billion inmanufacturing. The biggest de-clines in Canada are expected tocome at GM and Chrysler.

North American Car & TruckProduction Hits 16.6M Units Bosch sponsored a Driverless Car

Experience at the 2014 Interna-tional CES (Consumer ElectronicsShow), the global gathering placefor consumer technologies, heldJan. 7 to 10, 2014, in Las Vegas.“Bosch is proud to contribute tothe future of safer driving by con-tinuously developing technologiesfor a more intelligent and forward-thinking vehicle,” said Mike Man-suetti, president, Robert BoschLLC. “We predict fully automateddriving beyond 2020.” The Driver-less Car Experience took place inthe Las Vegas Convention Center(LVCC). Bosch technologies ap-plied to two demonstration vehi-cles include: automated parkingand pedestrian protection, based ona stereo video camera, which isbeing shown for the first time inthe US. Bosch wanted to showhow each driver assistance tech-nology works: intelligent headlightcontrol, integrated cruise assist,traffic jam assist, automatic parkassist, pedestrian protection andmore.

Bosch Demos Driverless Car

NASTF Board Appoints 2014 Co-ChairsAll 12 of the important co-chair posi-tions on the six working committeesof the National Automotive ServiceTask Force (NASTF) received ap-pointments from the NASTF Board ofDirectors for the 2014 term. Eachcommittee has one co-chair represent-ing the OEMs and one co-chair repre-senting the independent automotivesegment. Appointments included:

Education CommitteeRob Barto (Nissan)Rob Morrell (WorldPac)

Vehicle Security CommitteeBob Stewart (General Motors)Claude Hensley (Lockman)

Service Information CommitteeSteve Douglas (Auto Alliance)Dave Zwalina (Automotive One)

Equipment & Tool CommitteeDennis Blough (Suzuki)Greg Potter (DG Technologies)

Collision Repair CommitteeGary Ledoux (Honda)Tim Morgan (Spanesi)

Communications CommitteeJohn Cabaniss (Global Automakers)

Bob Chabot (Manic Media)

In making the appointments, NASTFChair, Allen Pennebaker, noted “Sincethe beginning of NASTF the commit-tees have been doing the heavy liftingto be the source of progress in gener-ating solutions that help OEMs and theaftermarket tackle the challenges ofservice resources. Again this year, theco-chairs of all our committees willdeal with important initiatives; and”,he continued, “NASTF is very fortu-nate to have such an impressive list ofvolunteers leading these efforts.”

Information including the com-mittee charter, their roster, meetingdates, responsibilities and past meetingminutes are available for public viewon either of the committee webpagesindexed at www.nastf.org/committees.

NASTF was established in 2000to identify, communicate and resolvegaps in the availability and accessibil-ity of automotive service information,service training, diagnostic tools, andequipment for the benefit of automo-tive service professionals and theircustomers. NASTF was incorporatedin 2006 as a 501(c)(6) not-for-profitorganization.

Additional details can be found atwww.nastf.org.

Police believe alcohol was a factorin an accident where an SUVcrashed into a Colleyville, GA, bodyshop. The GMC Yukon crashed intothe Lone Star Collision repair in the6800 block of Colleyville Blvd. inColleyville after hitting a sedan. Col-leyville police believe alcohol andspeed were a factor in the accident.The driver of the Yukon was takeninto custody by Colleyville Police.That person’s name has not yet beenreleased, but sources say that thesuspect has prior arrests for DWIand at least one DWI conviction.

A grandfather who was drivingthe sedan that was hit was trans-ported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries along withhis granddaughter, who was in thepassenger seat. “Had somebodybeen in the backseat, they would nothave survived,” said Captain RobertHinton with the Colleyville Police.

“There was very little left of thecar.” Lapier and her husband re-ceived a call from police around11:30 p.m. Jan 1. “It was unbeliev-able,” said the business’ owner, Jen-nifer Lapier. “I just couldn’t believewhat I saw. I’ve never seen anythinglike that before.

SUV Crashes into ColleyvilleBody Shop, Alcohol a Factor

The Florida Department of Environ-mental Protection and Hazmat crewsare assessing the damage left behindby a fire at an auto body shop onState Road 207 on Jan. 21. St. JohnsCounty Fire and Rescue arrived onscene at Complete Collison shortlyafter 12:00 a.m. They said the firewas out just after 1:30 a.m.

Local TV News talked to adeputy with the St. Johns CountySheriff's Office who said the buildingis a total loss. According to their web-site, Complete Collision is a trucktowing, transportation and auto bodyshop.

SR 207 reopened just before 4:30 a.m.

Fire Destroys St. Augustine,FL’s Complete Collision



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After several delays, the Obama ad-ministration is reviewing a revisedrule that could push automakers toinstall backup cameras in more oftheir cars and trucks. The reworkedregulation, submitted to the WhiteHouse on Dec. 25, would set newrear visibility standards for light ve-hicles sold in the United States, ac-cording to a White House databasethat tracks the rulemaking process.

The standards are aimed atkeeping children from being runover and killed by vehicles movingin reverse. Automakers might de-cide to install backup cameras in allof their models. The standards mayalso allow automakers to comply bymaking less costly changes, for ex-ample, by redesigning a car’s mir-rors to reduce the odds that a childbehind the rear bumper will go un-detected.

The administration intends torelease the final rule by January2015. But that’s not soon enough tosatisfy auto safety advocates. Con-sumers Union filed a lawsuit in Sep-tember with the goal of compellingthe Obama administration to makethem a standard feature across theU.S. fleet.

NHTSA Moves Ahead onBackup Camera LegislationFord Motor Co. has named Chief

Automotive Technologies and Elek-tron approved collision repairequipment suppliers for the 2015 F-150 pickup truck. Ford’s F-Serieshas been America’s best-selling ve-hicle for more than 30 years.

To improve fuel economy, Fordhas significantly redesigned the F-150 to replace the vehicle’s tradi-tional steel body panels and bedwith military-grade aluminum. Fordhas also increased the amount ofhigh-strength steel in the new F-150’s frame from 23 percent to 77percent. Properly restoring an alu-minum collision-damaged vehicleto pre-accident condition requiresnew repair methods and equipment.Recognizing this, Ford has added anumber of Chief and Elektron prod-ucts to its Rotunda Dealer Equip-ment program and is encouraging itsdealers to invest in the proper equip-ment and training before the 2015F-150 hits the showrooms later thisyear.

‘Chief has the largest installedbase of structural repair equipmentin North America and is a long-timeFord-approved supplier,’ says MikeCranfill, vice president of collisionfor Vehicle Service Group (VSG),

parent company of the Chief andElektron brands. ‘In fact, more than60 percent of Ford dealers withbody shops currently rely on Chiefequipment every day. We haveworked closely with Ford to de-velop a dedicated new structuralholding package and target attach-ments for the 2015 F-150 that willfunction seamlessly with dealers’existing Chief frame racks andmeasuring systems. We are also pro-viding a full range of Elektronwelders designed specifically foraluminum repair.’

In addition to the Chief frameracks, LaserLock™ live mapping™system and Elektron spot weldersthat are already available to Forddealers through the Rotunda DealerEquipment program, Ford has ap-proved the following F-150 specialtools:● Chief Structural Holding with F-150 Kit, Complete (part #128-3000001)● Chief F-150 Holding Kit (part#128-300002)● Chief Deluxe Chain and Clamp-ing Package with Rolling Cart (part#128-619205)

Chief Collet Style Target Attach-ment Set for Non-Ferrous Vehicle

Openings (part #128-540-200)● Elektron MultiMig 511 Welderwith Standard Torch (part #128-EL900011)● Elektron MultiMig 511 Welderwith Push-Pull Torch (part # 128-EL900012)● Elektron MultiMig 522 DualTorch Welder Complete with Stan-dard and Push-Pull Torch (part#128-EL900010)● Elektron MultiTool AluminumDent Repair Station (part #128-EL930001)

Chief will also introduce newtraining through Chief Universitylater this year that will cover properaluminum repair methods to helptechnicians prepare to work on thenew F-150.

‘Our Chief and Elektron tech-nical experts are working with theRotunda team to help dealers ensurethey are ready to properly repair thenew 2015 F-150 as soon as it goeson sale,’ Cranfill says. ‘We canequip them with the training, toolsand equipment they need tosmoothly transition to aluminum ve-hicle repair.’

See www.chiefautomotive.comor call (800) 445-9262.

Ford Approves Chief and Elektron Equipment for 2015 F-150 Repairs

Ford’s Best Selling F-150 Gets Lighter and TougherIn what many industry analysts con-sider a risky move for Ford, and oth-ers consider a transformative moment,the company is rolling the dice on thepickup line, America’s best-sellingtruck for 37 years and its best-sellingvehicle for 32.

The 2015 F-150 will be substan-tially lighter due to extensive use ofaluminum and more high strengthsteels. Aluminum alloys are usedthroughout the F-150 body for thefirst time, as the truck slims down byup to 700 pounds.

The lighter body then allows othercomponents such as fuel tanks, brakesand powertrains to also shrink, all whilemaintaining or improving driving per-formance and fuel economy, accordingto companies involved, including Alcoaand Novelis Inc.

“This is already the most significantdebut at the auto show,” said Joe Lang-ley, a production analyst for researcherIHS Automotive. “Especially since Fordwill be taking such a big gamble.”

Ford engineers increased the use ofhigh-strength 70,000-psi steel—from 23percent to 77 percent of the frame—toimprove stiffness and durability whilereducing weight. The new frame is up to60 pounds lighter than the current frame.“The frame is the backbone of the

truck, and we delivered a frame that isstronger and more capable than be-fore,” said John Caris, F-150 leadframe engineer. “Our frame team de-veloped exclusive, industry-first engi-neering techniques to create a truckfoundation that is lighter without sac-rificing toughness. This F-150 frameis the toughest we have ever built.”

Ford engineers also increased theuse of advanced materials in the F-150 body.

“Our objective was to find mate-rials that allowed us to design thetruck to be as tough or tougher thanthe current model, yet could help it behundreds of pounds lighter for bettercapability and fuel economy,” saidPete Friedman of Ford manufactur-ing research. “Out of all the materialswe tested, we carefully selected onlycertain grades of aluminum that metour high performance standards in allof our tests, while allowing us to trimhundreds of pounds from the truck.”

The reduced weight of the high-strength, military-grade, aluminum al-loys enables the F-150 to tow and haulmore than ever while also improvingacceleration, braking and handlingperformance. Also, aluminum alloyswill not rust and are resistant to cor-rosion, helping enhance vehicle life.


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Ford Rep Paul Massie on Repairing the 2015 F-150Paul Massie, powertrain and collisionproduct marketing manager for Ford,spoke at the Collision Industry Confer-ence (CIC) held Jan. 16–17 in PalmSprings, CA. He sought to reassure re-pairers concerned about the forthcom-ing newly engineered 2015 F-150which goes on sale later this year.

“We designed the vehicle so it can beeasily repaired and accessible so the cus-tomer can go where they want to get it re-paired,” said Massie. Massie said there willbe no restrictions on what kind of shopscan repair the vehicle. Ford will not requirea shop to have a separate clean room how-ever, it will recommend the use of curtainsto separate aluminum from steel work andspecific equipment to handle the repairs.The total investment for a shop that is start-ing from ground zero with aluminum re-pair can be as high as $50,000. (AutobodyNews’ next issue will detail a shop’s outlayon clean room setup.)

“That’s if you have absolutely noaluminum equipment,” Massie said.“So if you’re already in the aluminumbusiness and already have the equip-ment and can separate aluminum fromsteel, you’re probably a long way to-wards having the equipment you need.”

Genuine Ford collision repair partswill be available to all shops. All partssold will include instructions on how to

properly install them.Ford will begin its education on

the 2015 F-150 and aluminum repair atthe AASP/NJ Northeast Show March21–23 at the Meadowlands Expo Centerin Secaucus, NJ. A cutaway of the vehi-cle will be featured so repairers can seeall of its structural components. Engi-neers will be present to talk about thevehicle, and I-CAR training developedwith Ford will be available.

Ford is also offering to do a pres-entation on the 2015 F-150 at the nextCIC April 9–10 in Portland, OR, al-though details are not firmed up yet. In-formation will also be available atNACE in July and SEMA in October.

“The goal is to make high-strength,military-grade aluminum alloy collisionrepair mainstream,” said Massie. “Wewant it to be as mainstream as it alreadyis for steel.”

Elsewhere Ford has said it put thenew model through rigorous tests, in-cluding cross-country hauls throughdesert valleys and over high-altitudemountain passes and in climates of 20 de-grees below zero and 120 degrees above.

A disguised F-150 even raced inthe Baja 1000, where it earned the dis-tinction of completing the 883-mile racewhile some other purpose-built race ve-hicles could not.

exert control over plaintiffs' busi-nesses in a variety of manners, wellbeyond that of an ordinary businessagreement.”

“The entire collision repair in-dustry is caught between a rock and ahard place," said Eaves. “On onehand, they're trying to maintain thesafety and quality of repairs for thecustomers in a time when the manu-facturers are trying to develop moresophisticated, more fuel efficient andsafer cars, but yet the insurance in-dustry is trying to force them to cutcorners on their repairs. So Missis-sippi repairers have felt like they havebeen backed into a corner, and nowthey have to start to reclaim some ofthese costs and send a message to theinsurance industry."

Eaves said the complaint is cur-rently being modified for use in sevenother states. Meanwhile, 22 otherstates are preparing to join the fight.While his law firm is leading the ef-fort, it's also partnering with “tal-ented” attorneys in each state whohave experience in asbestos, tobaccoand natural disaster litigation.

“We're looking to go to all 50states," Eaves said. “What we need isa few committed shops in each of the50 states that are willing to take the in-dustry back and join us."

Collectively, insurers named inthe suit control nearly 70 percent ofthe automobile insurance business inMississippi, a dominant position theyhave used to create a vertical conspir-acy in violation of the Sherman Act,the complaint said.

The suit accuses State Farm andthe other companies of employingvarious tactics to artificially set ratesfor repairs, labor and parts used in therestoration of vehicles damaged in ac-cidents, such as refusing to compen-sate shops for replacement parts whenrepair is possible though strongly notrecommended based on the shop'sopinion.

Insurers have also routinely en-gaged in the practice of “steering” inorder to punish noncompliant shops,the suit said, elaborating that insurerswill urge customers not to seek repairsfrom a certain shop because quality orcustomer service issues have croppedup.

Used/recycled parts are alsomentioned in discussing the insurers

going against the repairers’ expertopinions and therefore “compromis-ing the safety of both the driver andpassengers as well as other membersof the traveling public.”

Another count in the complaintreferences “quantum meruit,” a con-cept that states that a party is not al-lowed to enrich itself at the expenseof another.

“These statements have beenmade about certain plaintiffs with-out any attempt to ascertain thetruth thereof,” the suit said. “Notonly that, some of the ills recitedwhich implicitly criticize the shopsare wholly attributable to the in-surer itself.”

“Plaintiffs have performed valu-able services and expended materialresources with the reasonable expec-tation of payment/compensation forthose services and materials. This istheir business,” the complaint reads.“Performing said services and ex-pending material resources benefit-ted Defendants and Defendants’insured/claimants for whom Defen-dants are required to provide pay-ment for repairs.”

The complaint added that severalof the plaintiffs attempted to raisethese issues with insurance industryrepresentatives at a meeting held inApril.

At the meeting, the insurerssaid that repairs and subsequentpayments should be consistent withthe estimates prepared through thecompanies' database software. Butthe suit said that little has changedsince, with State Farm and the otherdefendants continuing to refuse tomake full payments for necessaryrepairs.

The suit seeks treble damagesand injunctive relief, along with anyother relief the court deems proper.

Among the other insurers namedin the suit are Progressive Gulf Insur-ance Co., Allstate Insurance Co. andNationwide Property And CasualtyInsurance Co.

An attorney for the repair com-panies and a representative for StateFarm did not immediately respond torequests for comment Wednesday.

Counsel information for the in-surance companies was not immedi-ately available for comment.

The case is Capitol Body Shop,Inc. et al v. Lewis et al., case number3:14-cv-00012, in the U.S. DistrictCourt for the Southern District ofMississippi.

Continued from Page 49

Insurers Sued


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Hyundai and Kia saw their com-bined global sales rise 6 percent to6.9 million vehicles from January toNovember 2013 from a year earlier.The companies said that they are ontrack to sell more than 7.5 millionvehicles globally this year, higherthan their earlier target of 7.41 mil-lion vehicles. Hyundai and Kia rankfifth in global vehicle sales, and ex-pect a tough year in 2014 as Japan-ese and European automakers areseen accelerating competition andthe United States and Chinese mar-kets slow. In the US, Hyundai’s salesare up 2 percent this year throughNovember while volume has de-clined 3 percent at Kia in an overallmarket that has expanded 8 percent.Hyundai and Kia said they saw theircombined global sales rise 6 percentto 6.9 million vehicles from Januaryto November this year from a yearearlier. Solid sales gains in emergingmarkets like China and Brazil out-weighed slowing sales in the UnitedStates and South Korea whereHyundai and Kia have underper-formed rivals partly due to agingmodels. Last year, Hyundai and Kiasold a combined 7.1 million vehi-cles.

Hyundai, Kia Expect to Top2013 Global Vehicle Sales

Studies and data suggest that driversneed to pay more attention to the taskof driving to avoid accidents. Ac-cording to a recent study, simplybeing “lost in thought” amounted to62 percent of the distractions listed asa cause of a fatal automobile acci-dent. The report indicates thatroughly 10 percent of fatal traffic ac-cidents involve at least one driverwho is distracted. This amounts toabout 6,500 people killed each year.Cellphone usage of all types placedsecond at about 12 percent in thestudy. This includes both talking onthe phone as well as texting and dial-ing. Using other devices, such as nav-igation tools, was ranked as being afactor in two percent of fatal acci-dents as was adjusting the climatecontrol or audio systems. Othermajor factors include being distractedby the scenery or people outside thevehicle, which accounted for sevenpercent of accidents, and conversingwith passengers, which was listed infive percent of accidents. More minorcauses include consuming foods orliquids, adjusting car controls, smok-ing, moving pets and even swattinginsects. These factors were found inabout two percent of the incidents.

Daydreaming Tops List ofCrash-Causing Distractions

Beware Hole-in-One GolfInsurance ScamsAutobody Associations planninggolf events with hole in one prizesneed to watch out for potentialphony insurance scams. A Con-necticut man pleaded guilty inWashington state to two counts ofselling insurance without a licenseand one count of first-degree theftafter insuring golf tournamenthole-in-one prizes and failing topay.

Kevin Kolenda, 55, of Nor-walk, Conn., could spend up to threemonths in jail when sentenced. Hemust also pay up to $35,000 in resti-tution. Kolenda started his businessin 1995 under the name Golf Mar-keting. It went through several namechanges, including Golf MarketingWorldwide, Golf Marketing Inc.,Hole-in-Won.com and its currentname, Hole-in-Won.com World-wide. He has a satellite office inRye, NY.

Kolenda has been accused sev-eral times of insurance tournamentsand failing to pay hole-in-one win-ners in several states, includingMontana, Ohio, Georgia, Califor-nia, New York, Hawaii, Alabama,Massachusetts, Florida, Connecti-cut and North Carolina.

State Farm Insurance is getting out ofCanada. The Bloomington-based in-surance giant is selling its Canadianunit to Desjardins Group, Canada’slargest credit union. State Farm, Des-jardins and its French partner CreditMutuel, will invest $1.5 billion in thecombined business. State Farm isnow the fourth largest auto insurer inCanada, though it’s business is largelyconcentrated in three provinces. Thenew business to be run by Desjardinsunder the State Farm brand for someyears would become the secondlargest Canadian property and casu-alty insurer with a larger geographi-cal reach. The deal is expected toclose in January of 2015. At thatpoint, State Farm’s 1,700 Canadianworkers and 500 Agents would workfor Desjardins. State Farm ChairmanEd Rust says the agreement allowsfuture cooperative ventures inCanada. Rust told Canadian workersin a letter that the regulatory and po-litical response to the great recessionand the company’s US-centric ap-proach limits State Farm’s ability torespond and adapt to changing Cana-dian markets. Rust calls the decisionto sell “difficult” but good for the newoperation.

State Farm to Exit CanadianMarket, Credit Union Buying

Other Lightweights at the Detroit Auto ShowThe redesigned 2015 Ford F-150 andthe 2015 BMW M3 and M4 are lead-ing the “lightweight” movement atthe 2014 Detroit Auto Show.

The push for better fuel econ-omy is helping to drive the move-ment toward lighter weightvehicles. Consumer demand formore content, such as infotainmentsystems, leather seats and largerwheels, adds more weight to the car.Automakers are then under pressureto cut weight elsewhere throughoutthe body of a vehicle in order to im-prove fuel efficiency. This new dietrequires new materials such as alu-minum, magnesium and carbonfiber, as every pound counts.

The estimated 700 lb weightloss in Ford’s best-selling truck helpsthe vehicle to “tow more, haul more,accelerate quicker and stop shorter,”while “contributing to efficiency,”Ford said on Monday. The EPA hasnot yet published fuel economy num-bers on the 2015 F-150.

BMW said its 2015 BMW M4Coupe has a curb weight of around3,300 pounds, “thanks to the rigor-ous application of intelligent light-weight design measures.” Thisreflects a weight savings of around176 pounds over a comparably

equipped predecessor model, ac-cording to the automaker.

The weight was reduced through theuse of lightweight materials, such ascarbon-fiber-reinforced plastic andaluminum on a number of chassisand body components. The 2015BMW M3 and M4 feature a carbonroof. The cars are on display at theDetroit auto show.

Another car in the BMW lineupalso puts the emphasis on lightweight. The electric 2014 BMW i3features a body made of carbon fiber.The automaker says this super-lightvehicle gets more miles on a chargethan its competitors.

An all-aluminum body andchassis let Land Rover shave about800 pounds off the 2014 RangeRover Sport.

The 2014 Chevrolet CorvetteStingray, which debuted at the 2013Detroit Auto Show, features light-weight materials, including an alu-minum frame, carbon-fiber hood anda removable roof panel on coupes.

Edmunds says: As this trendpicks up speed, “lightweight” is be-coming a major marketing point, agood thing for car shoppers con-cerned about fuel economy.

autobody news february 2014 northeastern edition

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