december 2012 northeast edition

Widespread power outages and sub-way shutdowns, added to the tremen-dous physical damage to property,may make Superstorm Sandy the sec-ond most expensive storm in U.S. his-tory, according to the forecasting firmEqecat. That would rank it right be-hind Hurricane Katrina.

Estimates also suggest that Hur-ricane Sandy will rank as the nation’ssecond-worst storm for claims paidout by the National Flood InsuranceProgram. With 115,000 new claimssubmitted and thousands more beingfiled each day, the cost could reach $7billion at a time when the program isallowed, by law, to add only an addi-

tional $3 billion to its already sub-stantial debt.

Eqecat said that the damage from

by Melanie Anderson

Superstorm Sandy hit the northeast inlate October, leaving thousands with-out power and leaving behind manydamaged homes and businesses.

Dave Brindle, owner of Brindle’sAuto Body, 7318 Village Lane in St.Thomas, located in southcentral Penn-sylvania, got a double whammy whenboth his business and his home, lo-cated about a half mile apart, got hit bySuperstorm Sandy.

The eye of the storm went overthe area north of Chambersburg andconcentrated in St. Thomas and Mer-cersburg, PA, according to the FranklinCounty Department of EmergencyServices.

“The storm took a path rightthrough St. Thomas,” Brindle said of

Brindle’s Auto Body in St. Thomas, PA, GetsHome and Shop Double-Hit by Sandy

See Sandy Damages, Page 23

Sandy’s Total Economic Damage May Reach$50 Billion, 250,000 Flood-Damaged Vehicles

See Double-Hit, Page 22

by John Yoswick

Representatives of Toyota drew mul-tiple rounds of applause at the Colli-sion Industry Conference (CIC) in LasVegas in November as the automakerpreviewed what it is referring to as a“predictive estimating” system for itsvehicles.

Toyota’s Jerry Raskind calledthe system a “game-changer” in thatrather than having an estimator startfrom a blank page and add line itemsbased on what they know or can lo-cate about OEM procedures, the newsystem begins with a complete esti-mate that incorporates all necessaryparts and Toyota-recommended pro-cedures, along with links to all relatedToyota bulletins and published docu-mentation.

The system allows the user to ad-just the estimate, such as changing thetype of part to be used or omitting a

procedure not nec-essary based onthe actual damageto the vehicle. Re-pairs can be sub-stituted for partsreplacement. ButToyota believesthe system will

help ensure estimates are more likelyto be completed based on the au-tomakers’ prescribed procedures.

“They’re more likely to includeall the appropriate repair methodolo-gies, procedures and parts, and won’tmiss any of the key repair items,”Raskind said.

See Predictive Estimating, 4

Toyota Develops and Announces ‘PredictiveEstimating’ Tool—Called ‘Game-Changer’

by John Yoswick

The Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS) held a variety of train-ing sessions and panel discussionsaimed at collision repairers during theSEMA show in Las Vegas in Novem-ber.

Among the best-attended wasone entitled, Bidding Wars, in whichcollision industry representatives

from Australia,New Zealand andCanada discussedwhat they haveseen in their coun-tries after an in-surer mandateduse of a particularelectronic parts

procurement system.“We’re not going to tell you

what’s going to happen here in theUnited States,” David Newton-Ross,editor of a trade publication in Aus-

tralia, said as he opened the session.“We’re going to tell you what’s hap-pening in other countries. What hap-pens here is up to you.”

Rex Crowther, who sold his twoNew Zealand shops in 2008 and is

now editor andpublisher of a col-lision repair trademagazine in thatcountry, said Part-sTrader launchedthere in 2005, anduse of it was man-dated initially by

one large insurer.With no domestic automakers

and a vehicle population that averages13.5 years in age (compared to 11years in the U.S.), used parts dominatethe New Zealand market, accountingfor between 55% and 65% of all partsused, Crowther said. Mark-up onthose parts dropped from 25% to 20%

SEMA Panel Discussion Reviews Insurer-Backed Parts Ordering in Other Countries

See Other Countries, Page 20

Jerry Raskind

David Newton-Ross

Rex Crowther

A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as aresult of superstorm Sandy on Tuesday, Oct.30, 2012 in Hoboken, NJ. (AP Photo/CharlesSykes)

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Acura of Westchester . . . . . . . . . . 20Amato Agency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . 54Auto Data Labels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Auto Land Hyundai-Suzuki . . . . . . 12BASF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 45Car-Part Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Central Avenue Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55DCH Family of BMW Stores . . . . . 33Empire Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Equalizer Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . 31Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . 48Fred Beans Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Garmat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Glanzmann Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Hackettstown Honda. . . . . . . . . . . 18Haydell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Healey Hyundai. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-29

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers. 47Jaguar Wholesale Parts Dealers. . 55Kia Motors Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Koeppel VW-Mazda. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Lexus Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 53

Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Maxon Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Maxon Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 51MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . 44MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . 35Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Nucar Mazda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Plaza Auto Mall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers. 50PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Reliable Automotive Equipment . . . 8SCA Appraisal Company . . . . . . . 14Scion Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 40Security Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep . . . . 7Solution Finish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Stadel Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Star-A-Liner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Subaru Wholesale Parts DealersDE, South NJ, PA . . . . . . . . . 16-17

Subaru Wholesale Parts DealersNorth NJ, NY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Thompson Organization . . . . . . . . 39Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 38Tsunami Compressed Air Solutions. 4Volkswagen Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 46

Inde

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REGIONAL

Brindle’s Auto Body in St. Thomas, PA, Gets

Home and Shop Double-Hit by Sandy . . . . . 1

Carsmetics Opens Third Location in

New England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CARSTAR Gives Gift Cards for Vehicle

Repairs at Annual Turkey Derby . . . . . . . . 43

Cole’s Collision Centers Opens 4th Site

in New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Dealers Hit by Sandy Worry about Insurance,

Inventory, Non-insured Business Losses. . 13

Duo Arrested in Clearfield, PA, Bulglaries,

Including Body Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Ellinger Again Named AAA Top Shop

in New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

EPA Starts Radiation Abatement

at Former Atomic Project Site,

Now a Body Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Fire burns several cars in PA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

H&V Collision Centers Contributes

Vehicle to Recycled Rides. . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Keenan Auto Body West Wins

2012 ACE Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

LIABRA Meets on Labor Laws and

Talks PartsTrader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Many Shops Still Closed in Aftermath of Sandy . 3

Massachusetts and NY Dealers Sue

Tesla Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Massachusetts Shops Get EPA Grants . . . . . 10

MD’s Mark’s Body Shop Releases

Car-O-Liner Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

PA Emissions Inspection Bill Passes Senate . . 4

PA Governor Signs “Chop Shop Bill” Into Law,

Shop Inspections During Business Hours . 55

PA Vehicle Code is Also Amended to

Provide Exceptions for Dealers When

Statement of Origin Exists. . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

PA Vehicle Code is Amended to Exclude

Totaled Vehicles’ Assignment of Title

Requirements for Insurers . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Paul’s Auto Body Receives Appreciation

Certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick’s

Flat Tire Draws a Crowd at Body Shop . . . . 6

Possible Body Shop Burglar Gets Hit by a Car. 4

Ridgewood’s ‘Lightly’ Radioactive Legacy

Prompts EPA Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Robert Matthews, Owner of Matthews

Auto Body, Died November 4 . . . . . . . . . . 10

Sandy’s Total Economic Damage May Reach

$50 Billion, 250,000 Flood-Damaged

Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Students and their Cobra at NY’s

Bohlen’s Tech Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

VIP Auto Body Dedicates Plaque for

50th Anniversary of NY Fire that

Killed Six Firefighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

COLUMNISTS

Attanasio: My Crazed 36 Hours at SEMA . . . 32

Franklin: What’s the Value of a Lifetime

Customer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Insider: Customer Service Has the Power—

Don’t Perfume the Pig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

NATIONAL

4th Generation Body Shop Celebrates

135 Years in Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Automaker, OEM and Recall News . . . . . . . . 30

BASF and Finishmaster Win New Trial

in Paint Lawsuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chess Teaches How to Make More Money

Without Spending $$$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Clemson Students Unveil Deep Orange 3

at SEMA 2012 Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Education Foundation Awards $50,000

Makeover Grants at SEMA . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Going Green Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

Says GRC-Pirk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Guilty of Junk Thinking? ‘How to Think

Better’ at SEMA 2012. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Honda’s ProFirst Shop Recognition

Program Puts Shops First . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

How Marketing Can Help Customer-Pay Sales. 44

Matrix Wand Captures New Collision Product

Award at SEMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Michigan Auto Supplier Adds Jobs

for Corvette Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

New Alabama Association to Kick off

Advertising Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Rich Evans and Crew Unveil 2004 H2

Hummer at SEMA 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

SCRS Claims SEMA Now the Premier

Show for Collision Repairers. . . . . . . . . . . 31

SEMA Awards Best New Cutting-Edge

Automotive Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

SEMA in Pictures: Car Candy . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

SEMA Panel Discussion Reviews

Insurer-Backed Parts Ordering

in Other Countries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Toyota Develops and Announces

‘Predictive Estimating’ Tool—Called

‘Game-Changer’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

WD-40 Keeps on Truckin’ When it Comes

to Helping Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Contents

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Melanie AndersonContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, David Brown,John Yoswick, Rich Evans, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess,Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman,Jay Lukes (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Kristy NavarroArt Director: Rodolfo GarciaServing New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware

and adjacent metro areas, Autobody News is a monthlypublication for the autobody industry. Permission to re-produce in any form the material published in AutobodyNews must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2012 Adamantine Media LLC.

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

ortheast

www.autobodynews.com | DECEMBER 2012 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Many Shops Still Closed in Aftermath of Sandyby Chasidy Rae Sisk

When Hurricane Sandy struck theCaribbean and Eastern United States inlate October, she left behind $52.4 bil-lion in damage and a couple of hundredfatalities. Sandy touched land in AtlanticCity, NJ, and wrought havoc on the Jer-sey shoreline and throughout New YorkCity, causing severe flooding and a lossof electricity. With such a vast amountof damage, collision shops in the areaaffected have taken a huge hit.

Ed Kizenberger, Executive Di-rector of LIABRA (Long Island AutoBody Repairmen’s Association), notesthat Hurricane Sandy was “one of themost catastrophic, weather-relatedevents that the collision industry has hadto endure.” He notes that many shops inthe NYC area are still closed, due notonly to flooding and a lack of electricity,but also because of the damage sus-tained to equipment, computers, etc.The largest challenge that owners cur-rently face is the fact that many live neartheir shops, so they are working onrestorations for both their businessesand their homes.

In addition to facing up to six feetof water, shops also have to contend withthe partially or fully repaired vehicles intheir facilities that were flooded during

the hurricane. Most of the vehicles thatsustained damage from the storm havebeen declared total losses, but there aresome more fortunate whose vehicleswere damaged by felled trees and debris,and undamaged shops are starting toprocess these repairs, though there is adevastating backlog due to the sheer vol-ume of damaged vehicles.

Though Sandy hit hardest in NJand NY, her effects were also felt farthernorth. While Al Brodeur’s Auto Body,Inc. of Marlborough, MA, never lostpower, Molly Brodeur notes, “We havedefinitely noticed an uptick in businesssince the storm—a lot of damaged pan-els from debris, but we haven’t had anyissues with parts or receiving productsin a timely manner since the storm.”

According to Jeff McDowell,President of AASP/NJ, many shops inNJ have suffered severe damage as a re-sult of the storm. All low-lying areaswere hammered, and many continue tobe closed due to lack of power evennow, three weeks later. Recovery effortsare still ongoing. McDowell notes thattens of thousands of vehicles were af-fected by the storm, causing an extremeback-up in repairs, especially since somany shops are currently out of opera-tion. Many of these vehicles have been

See Shops Still Closed, Page 18


Carsmetics’ new 9,600-square-footcollision repair facility in Attleboro,MA, is the company’s third locationin New England. Carsmetics ExpertAccident Repair is a chain of colli-sion repair shops based in Tampa, FL.The shop will focus on fast-track re-pairs, drivable damage on vehiclepanels, bumpers, fenders, hoods andwheels that can be repaired within atwo-day cycle time. Carsmetics nowoperates more than 25 locations inFlorida, California, Georgia, Massa-chusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma andPennsylvania.

Carsmetics Opens Third Location in New England

Dealers in Massachusetts and NewYork are suing to shut down TeslaMotors stores they say run afoul offranchise laws and consumer protec-tion measures in their states.

The Massachusetts State Auto-mobile Dealers Association andsome of its dealers recently filed acomplaint in Norfolk County Supe-rior Court seeking to shut downTesla’s store in the Natick Mall insuburban Boston. A request for atemporary restraining order was re-jected, but a hearing on whether toissue a preliminary injunction wasscheduled on Oct. 25.

In New York, the Greater NewYork Automobile Dealers Associa-tion and one of its dealer memberssued Tesla and the state Departmentof Motor Vehicles in the New YorkState Supreme Court.

The California electric-vehiclemaker, which models its retail ap-proach on the Apple store experience,operates 18 U.S. retail locations in 11states and the District of Columbia.Company officials have said they areworking within the limits of state andlocal laws at all locations.

Massachusetts and NY Dealers Sue Tesla Motors

A 60-year old man in Northampton,MA, was hospitalized in critical con-dition after being hit by a vehicle inearly November and is also the sub-ject of a police investigation into apossible burglary at an outbuilding atWayside Auto Body just prior to theaccident.

Police say Paul Gillis was seri-ously injured in a pedestrian accidentand is possibly connected to thebreak-in that was reported just min-utes before the accident.

“We are not sure of the exactcircumstances yet,” Lt. KennethWatson said of the reason why theman may have been inside the out-building. Police received calls abouta suspicious person believed to bebreaking into the building shortly be-fore Gillis was struck.

Capt. Scott Savino said wit-nesses spotted the suspect leaving thevacant outbuilding with a white bagin his hand just before the accidentoccurred near Wayside Auto Body.

The driver stopped at the sceneand waited for police. Northamptonpolice have had “several contactswith Gillis over the years,” but de-clined to elaborate on the nature ofthose contacts.

Possible Body Shop BurglarGets Hit by a Car

SEMA-supported legislation to pro-vide a 10-year emissions inspectionexemption for vehicles never beforeregistered in Pennsylvania or anyother jurisdiction was approved bythe Senate. The bill now moves to theHouse Transportation Committee.Current law only exempts new vehi-cles that have less than 5,000 mileson their odometer for one year aftertheir first registration.

The bill acknowledges that it issenseless to test newer vehicles, theresults of which demonstrate no sig-nificant air-quality benefits. The ideabehind exempting any class of vehi-cles is to reduce costs while not los-ing appreciable emissions reductions.This strategy builds support for emis-sions-inspection programs, but alsodirects finite resources to where theywill be most valuable in cleaning theair. The measure still requires that thenewest 10 model-year vehicles besubject to visual anti-tampering in-spections for the presence of emis-sions-control components installedon the vehicle by manufacturers.

For details, visit the SEMA Ac-tion Network (SAN) website. Formore information, contact Steve Mc-Donald at [email protected].

PA Emissions Inspection BillPasses Senate

Paul’s Auto Body in Ellwood, PA, onNov. 2 received an Appreciation Cer-tificate from Mayor Anthony Courtfor his services to the Ellwood Citycommunity. The owner of the busi-ness is Doug Weingartner whosefamily has owned and operated thebusiness for 75 years and is stillgoing strong today.

The certificate stated congratu-lations to the family for its years ofservice that has been provided to theEllwood City Community. It laterstates, “A business, such as yours,serves as a REMINDER to others,that with dedication, hard work, anda true commitment, businesses canthrive, regardless of the location.”

Paul’s Auto Body ReceivesAppreciation Certificate

Investigators are trying to figure outwhat caused several cars to go up inflames at an auto body shop in Hunt-ingdon Valley, PA.

The fire happened Nov. 11 onthe 2900 block of Franks Road inLower Moreland Township.

When firefighters arrivedaround midnight, they found fourcars engulfed in flames. They got thefires under control quickly.

There are no reports of injuries.Investigators are not saying at

this point if the fires are suspicious.

Fire burns several cars in PA

Mayor Court, left, presenting the certifica-tion to Paul’s Auto Body Shop

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BOCES students put together a 1987Mustang 5.0 engine and a five-speedtransmission in a 1965 Shelby Cobrareplica body as a class project at theBohlen Technical Center in Watertown,NY. BOCES purchased a replica CobraMK3 roadster kit seven years ago, in-tending to use it in several classes.“Auto body, auto tech, welding, visual

communications, electrical wiring—it’sbeen a full gamut of different peopleworking on the car to get it to the pointwhere it’s at today,” said Russ Berger,principal of the technical center. Theparts cost about $20,000, but the replicaroadster could go for around $25,000.Berger noted that the kids at BOCESare miles ahead because of it.

Students and their Cobra atNY’s Bohlen’s Tech Center

When asked how fast, Berger laughinglysaid “55 in a 55 mile-an-hour” zone

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VIP Auto Body Dedicates Plaque for 50th Anniversary of NY Fire that Killed Six FirefightersIn late October, over 100 friends andfamily members paid tribute to the50th anniversary of a fire in Maspeth,NY, that took the lives of six fire-fighters.

The plaque and dedication cere-mony took place at the location of the50-year-old fire, now home to VIPAuto Body.

“We thought we had it undercontrol,” said John Killcommons, anow-retired FDNY member who wasthere the night of fire. Killcommons,78, said he was lucky to make it outthat night, stressing that as crews con-tinued to take water to the fire, it justgrew brighter and stronger. “That’swhen the wall came down.”

Killcommons said that two of thefirefighters who passed in the fire hadjoined the department with him twoyears earlier.

“It was a sad day, but here we arefifty years later,” he said.

Killcommons said that the eventwould not have been possible withoutthe help of Peter Keanne, the autoshop’s owner, who learned of the firewhile doing renovations on the build-ing several years ago.

On October 26, 1962, a fire broke

out at the former site of the Sefu Soapand Fat Company on 56th Road – nowVIP Auto Body - killing CaptainWilliam Russell, Firefighter RichardAndrews and Firefighter JamesMarino from Engine 325; FirefighterRichard Gifford and FirefighterGeorge Zahn from Engine 238; andFirefighter Francis Egan from Ladder115.

Lorraine Zahn, 50, whose fatherGeorge died in the fire when she wastwo months old, said she felt over-whelmed by the ceremony. “I think it’sa wonderful thing,” Zahn said. “And Ifeel like it’s been a long time coming.”

As the audience prepared for theplaque unveiling, Fire CommissionerSalvatore Cassano reminded atten-dants how dangerous a firefighter’sjob is. “This fire is a very sobering re-minder of that,” he said.

However, he also pointed outthat the plaque’s dedication would ed-ucate others who did not know thefirefighters who lost their lives at thesite 50 years ago.

“We place the plaque on the wallso that members of the community willsee and always remember those whocame 50 years ago and today,” he said.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterbackMichael Vick made an unplannedstop in Berlin, MD, on his way to Vir-ginia Beach, VA, when a tire on hisLexus went flat. Vick rolled up onRoute 113, directly across the streetfrom John’s Auto Body in Berlin.Berlin is a town of about 3,500 nearOcean City.

Workers from the shop didn’tknow who Vick was, but the owner,an Eagles fan, did. When the footballplayer walked into the office of thebody shop, staff members were moreconcerned about whether they couldfix the tire than who their customerwas.

“I knew right away,” said shopowner John Derrickson. “I’m an Ea-gles fan. I walked up to see what wasgoing on and I said, ‘Do you knowwho this is?’ “

As he and his mechanics workedto bring the Lexus across the highwayto the shop, Carmella Solito of theadjacent Twisters Gymnastics cameout to see what was going on.

“She came out with her hands onher hips and wanted to know why wewere blocking her driveway,” Der-rickson said, laughing.

Solito was no longer worriedabout her driveway when she foundout whose car was in the way.

Solito invited Vick into her gym,where dozens of children were work-ing on becoming athletes themselves.There were more than 100 kids at thefacility. Pictures were snapped.

“He was very nice. There were lit-tle ones just hanging off his leg,” Solitosaid. “He told them if they workedhard, it would pay off.”

Both she and Derrickson hadnothing but good things to say aboutthe NFL quarterback.

“He said he would send me a jer-sey and some tickets,” Derricksonsaid. “He was so down to earth. It wasa pretty neat experience.”

Vick, whose mother lives inVirginia, told them both he mighteven stop back by on one of his tripssouth.

“It was such a cool experience,”Derrickson said.

The brief stop was not Vick’sfirst visit to Delmarva. Two years ago,Vick, who pleaded guilty to dogfight-ing charges in 2007, spoke to studentsat Snow Hill High School about mak-ing positive choices.

Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick’sFlat Tire Draws a Crowd at Body Shop

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

The Long Island Auto Body Repair-men’s Association (LIABRA) metOct. 16 at Levittown Ford on SouthBroadway in Hicksville, NY. Thismeeting focused largely on the laborlaws established by the New YorkState Labor Department with a mini-

seminar explaininghow to properlyrun your collisionrepair business toavoid costly en-counters with theLabor Department,an important topicsince the NYS

Labor Department has specifically tar-geted the collision repair industry foraudits. Other topics included LIPAEnergy Efficiency Rebates and Enter-prise Rent-A-Car’s ARMS Auto Tech-nology.

Ed Kizenberger, Executive Di-rector of LIABRA, began the meetingby talking about PartsTrader. Becauseof the many complaints that Part-sTrader causes inefficiency, Part-sTrader released an efficiency study

on Oct. 9 claiming they have ad-dressed their efficiency problems andthe newly-increased efficiency of theprogram will allow shops more freetime; however, Kizenberger claimstheir study is not transparent becausethe bottom line is that PartsTrader “re-ally does adversely affect your busi-ness” by negatively impacting partsprofits. Moreover, this program willnot cease with one insurance companybut will expand to others as well. Be-cause of this, there has been substan-tial pushback from the Americancollision repair industry, and Kizen-berger has scheduled a meeting withNew York State regulators and legis-lators to discuss why this program isa bad idea in the U. S.

Next, Kizenberger briefly dis-cussed a recent press release fromHonda regarding their new website onparts, collision.Honda.com, which helauds as being informative and user-friendly for shops as well as con-sumers. He also mentioned the 2003Avery v. State Farm case where StateFarm was sued for the use of imitationparts, resulting in a $1,000,000,000judgment which was overturned in

their appeal. The case stifled the risein imitation parts until the appeal waswon. As of Sept. 26, the plaintiffsbrought the case to the Supreme Courtconcerning how the appeal was han-dled and accusing State Farm of RICOhandling.

After a quick reminder that theuse of counterfeit and salvaged airbags is illegal in the state of NewYork, Kizenberger introducedLIABRA member Greg Smith for anew problem-solving segment toallow members to discuss issuesthey’ve faced in their shops. Smithand several members conversed aboutfighting for their money against insur-ance companies who do not want topay. LIABRA plans to continue thissegment in future meetings as theyfind it beneficial to discuss problemswith others in the collision repair in-dustry since, as Smith noted, “we allhave the same problems.”

A brief political presentation fol-lowed as Kizenberger insisted that itis important for trade organizations tobe politically involved because it isuseful to have legislators and electedofficials who understand the issues

faced by this industry. He introducedtwo candidates for the Supreme Court,Joy Watson and Chris Quinn, whoeach spoke for a moment on their plat-forms.

Mike LiPetri, from the Long Is-land Power Authority (LIPA), thenpresented on LIPA’s 2012 Commer-cial Efficiency Program. The goals be-hind the program include reducingpeak energy usage, deferring the costof building new power plants, helpingcustomers save money, and stimulat-

ing business. LIPAis offering rebatesthrough December2012 in order toboost the economyand to encourageshops to converttheir large lightingfixtures to more

energy-efficient options. These op-tions include T8 High Bay Fixtureswhich last longer and are more effi-cient than traditional T12s, as well asLEDs which are brighter and lastlonger. Though these options are moreexpensive, the rebates currently of-fered by LIPA can cover up to 80% of

LIABRA Meets on Labor Laws and Talks PartsTrader


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the cost in some cases.LIPA’s enhanced incentive for fall

2012 includes T12 replacement, theaddition of LED High-bays (L800)and more lighting controls, such asdaylight sensors and dimming bal-lasts. Rebates for lighting controlsrange from $20 to $150, while LEDrebates begin at $300 and can be ashigh as $500. The rebates have beenenhanced to increase the number ofshops replacing their low-efficiencyfixtures before many of these are out-lawed next year.

LiPetri continued by explainingthe guidelines of the program. Allprojects require pre-inspections, pre-approvals and post-inspections. Thepre-inspection involves validation ofexisting conditions and an appoint-ment with the customer. Measures thatare installed prior to the pre-installa-tion process are not eligible for re-bates. Additionally, eligible lightingproducts must be listed on one of thefollowing websites: Consortium forEnergy Efficiency (www.ceel.org),Energy Star (www.energystar.gov), orDesign Lights Consortium (www.de-signlights.org). The documents re-quired to receive a rebate include asigned application, W9 form, cut-

sheets, worksheets and invoices, inaddition to assignment letters and 501© 3 Certificates, if applicable. Thecutsheets are required for all measuresproposed or installed, and they serveto indicate what product is proposedfor the project and to validate themeasures performed.

All non-residential LIPA cus-tomers are eligible to participate inthe Commercial Efficiency Program.Applications should be sent to [email protected] or [email protected], and additionalinformation can be obtained by call-ing the Energy Infoline at 800-692-2626.

The next segment was hosted byJenelle Proudfoot of EnterpriseRent-A-Car about their ARMS pro-gram. The purposes of this programare to simplify rentals, work smarterand increase efficiency by enhanc-ing customer service and streamlin-ing communication between the

shop, the rental companyand the customer. The threetiers of the system are Re-pair Updates, Exchangeand Customer Repair Sta-tus Notification. In the Re-pair tier, shops fill out theinformation pertaining tothe repair and receive feed-back. Exchange works withthe shop’s estimating sys-tem to pull in labor hours,and ARMS can sync withmost management systemsas well. This will also pro-

vide Body Shop Reporting whichconsists of a summary of vehiclesrepaired, cycle times and so forth,broken down by insurance compa-nies.

The final tier, Customer RepairStatus Notification, allows shops totext customers with the status of theirrepair, regardless of whether the cus-

tomer uses the rental company. Im-proving communication between thecustomer and the shop leads to be abetter informed customer and a highercustomer satisfaction rating. Shopscan elect to have texts automaticallysent at certain points in the repairprocess, or they can opt to send mes-sages through the system at will.Soon, ARMS will be updated to allowshops to make rental reservations fortheir customers through the system.The ARMS program is intended tosave shops time by minimizing thenumber of phone calls they receivedaily. More information about ARMScan be acquired by visiting http://arm-sautosuite.com or by [email protected].

In the meeting’s final segment,Bob Arnold and Bob Arnold Jr. ofArnold Standard Cost Control Serv-ices in Long Island, NY discussedhow the Labor Department is target-ing the auto body industry in their au-dits, specifically as a Tier 1 AuditTarget. Most shops are ill-equipped todeal with these issues, but they needto be addressed because the authori-ties are aware and are using this infor-mation to shops’ disadvantage. Arnoldstressed that it is important to look at


Ron Thorn (l), Graziano Collision, winner of the 50-50drawing with Ed Kizenberger


Robert Matthews, Owner of Matthews Auto Body,Died November 4 in Ormond Beach, FloridaRobert E. Matthews, 85, died sud-denly on Sunday, Nov. 4 in OrmondBeach, FL.

He was born on Oct. 22, 1927, inBrooklyn, to Robert Richard Matthewsand Beatrice Morell Matthews. He ispredeceased by a younger brother,Bruce Matthews.

Bob’s early career was as aDraftsman for Republic Aviation inFarmingdale, NY. He then openedMatthews “Mobile” gas service sta-tion and then Matthews Auto Body Re-pair Shop, which later led him tobecome the Founder of MatthewsBuses Inc. and owner of Upstate Tran-sit in Saratoga Springs, both later be-came wholly-owned subsidiaries ofthe Matthews Group Inc., which nowincludes Matthews Specialty Vehi-cles, Rifled Air Conditioning, andMatthews Mobile Media, all locatedin Greensboro, NC.

He was happily married to Jus-tine Hackett Matthews for 63 years,living first on Long Island and thenlater in Dansville, NY, where theyraised their family of five sons. Bobretired in 1995 and moved to Floridaand also spent many years travelingthe USA with Justine in their mo-torhome. They later returned to Dans-

ville, to make it ‘home’ once again.Bob was passionate about avia-

tion and was a licensed multi-engineand instrument rated pilot and a gliderpilot. He put his love of aviation togood use when building MatthewsBuses, making countless trips withcustomers to visit the Thomas Busmanufacturing facility. He took greatpride in being a member of the An-cient & Secretive Order of Quiet Bird-men since1982. He also earned thecoveted Distributor of the Year Awardfor excellence for Thomas Built Busestwice.

He is survived by his wife, Jus-tine Hackett Matthews; five sons, Guy(Betsy), Mark (Kate), Rob (Rhonda),Glenn (Lori) and Brad (Nancy); 11grandchildren and four great-grand-children, to whom he was affection-ately known as “Bunky.”

A private memorial service washeld on Nov. 17, followed by a cele-bration of life open to all friends. Me-morial contributions may be made toWounded Warriors of America atwww.woundedwarriorproject.org orvia a mail form downloaded from thissite and sent to: Wounded WarriorProject PO Box 758517 Topeka, KS66675.

a shop’s operations because the in-dustry standards have to change, andhe suggests “every shop conduct in-ternal procedural audits.”

Several key points in these auditshave been the requirement for em-ployees to receive a 30-minute mealbreak after working four hours, em-ployees must be paid for 15-minutebreaks, and overtime has to be paid attime and a half. If the Labor Depart-ment audits a shop and finds that em-ployees aren’t being paid for their15-minute breaks, shop owners willbe forced to reimburse employees forthese 2.5 hours per week deficit inovertime pay, plus they face a 50%fine. If the oversight is deemed inten-tional or has been noted for a secondtime, the fine is increased to 100%.One attendee noted that when he wasaudited, he was forced to pay all pres-ent and past employees for the pasttwo years for the 2.5 hours of weeklyovertime. Arnold Jr. emphasized thatit is “necessary to understand the lawand what your responsibilities are asa business owner.”

Arnold Jr. noted that record-keeping is very important as it per-tains to this issue. Employees areobligated to keep detailed records,

and such records can be used toprove a shop’s adherence to laborlaws in case a disgruntled former em-ployee brings said shop to the LaborDepartment’s attention. Additionally,employee handbooks should be re-viewed and updated, if necessary, atleast once a year. Arnold insists shopowners “must have your records inorder and be in compliance so youcome from a position of strength.”

Some additional notes during theQuestion and Answers section with at-tendees included that Federal andNYS laws are nearly identical, as bothare governed by wages and hours.Employees should clock in directlybefore starting work and clock outwhen they leave, and though breaksthat last less than twenty minutes mustbe paid, employers do not have tocompensate workers for breaks thatexceed 20 minutes. Also, shopsshould complete the Labor Depart-ment’s forms and update them manu-ally, at a minimum. Kizenbergerpromised to expand on this topic atLIABRA’s next meeting, leaving at-tendees with this comment: “Whiningabout it doesn’t eliminate the prob-lem; we all need to know what our re-sponsibilities are.”

Massachusetts Shops Get EPA GrantsThe Toxics Use Reduction Institutewill be working with auto body shopsin Lowell, MA, and some other BayState cities to reduce use of harmfulchemicals after receiving an $82,000federal grant.

TURI at the University of Mas-sachusetts Lowell recently receivedthe grant from the Environmental Pro-tection Agency’s New England re-gion.

The funding is intended to edu-cate auto body shops around Lowell,Springfield, Holyoke, Fall River andNew Bedford about toxic chemicalscommonly used in the industry andhelp them switch to safer alterna-tives.

Toluene and acetone, which areused for spray-gun washing, areknown to cause damage to the centralnervous system, according to TURI.

Brake cleaning aerosol productstypically contain perchloroethylene,which is classified as a probable humancarcinogen by the International Agencyfor Research on Cancer. It may alsocause liver, kidney or central-nervous-system damage, TURI says.

The grant will enable TURI toassist 30 auto shops. TURI’s staff andfield workers will visit the cities toidentify the shops that are willing to

participate in the program. During thefree three-month program that startsin January, the participants will re-ceive safer brake-cleaning products orpaintgun-washing systems as well asbefore and after air monitoring studyand technical support.

“The biggest concerns we hearabout switching to safer products isthat they won’t work as well and theywill be harder to use,” Joy Onasch,community and small business pro-gram manager of at TURI, said in thepress release. “That’s why the trial pe-riod with the safer alternatives and thetechnical assistance is critical to suc-cess.”

The program is modeled after theBoston Public Health Commission’sSafe Shops Project. At Moreno AutoBody in Roxbury, one of the partici-pants, the before-and-after indoor air-quality monitoring showed a 94%decrease in the presence of acetoneand an 88% decrease in the presenceof toluene, according to TURI.

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by Ed Attanasio

When American Honda Motor Co.Inc. launched its ProFirst(ProFirst.Honda.com) body shoprecognition program on Oct. 17, theautomaker was pleased with the posi-tive feedback it received from dealer-owned and independent collisionrepair facilities alike. RepresentingHonda’s updated approach to onlineinformation, ProFirst is fueled withthe newest technology, partnered withnames like OEConnection and I-CARand backed by the power of one of thenation’s most popular automotivenameplates.

The program’s missionis to promote comprehensiveand safe repairs of Hondaand Acura vehicles, and toprovide support to shops thathave demonstrated a com-mitment to high levels ofcustomer satisfaction. Thereare a few requirements thatshops must fulfill in order toqualify for the ProFirst pro-gram including use of OE-Connection’s Collision Linktool and meet a level of I-CAR training.

Participating shops mustalso be designated as I-CAR GoldClass Professional businesses andhave a minimum of one technicianwho has completed I-CAR’s CollisionRepair for Honda and Acura Vehiclescourse (HON01), according to GaryLedoux, the Assistant National Man-ager of Wholesale Parts Marketing forAmerican Honda Motor Co.

These requirements are a big in-gredient and one reason why I-CAR is

pleased to be a partof the ProFirst pro-gram and Honda’sapproach to train-ing and recogni-tion. “It’s meant toelevate the cus-tomer experienceand enable shop

employees to work up to their full po-tential,” said John Van Alstyne, pres-ident and CEO of I-CAR. “Training

and knowledge provide a platform forbusiness and personal excellence, gen-erating benefits for both the organiza-tion and the customer, includingincreased operational efficiencies, re-duced cycle times, minimized repairmistakes, and most importantly, com-plete and safe repairs.”

Honda said all shops that qualifyas a ProFirst shop will receive aplaque, free access to Honda andAcura parts catalogs and bulletins, ac-cess to service and repair information,and placement on the company’sshop-locator tool on its consumerwebsite: collision.honda.com.

“As the new Honda and Acuramodels become more and more so-phisticated and technologically ad-vanced, it requires a collision repairtechnician with higher knowledge andskills to properly repair them,”Ledoux said. “Partnering with I-CARin this context helps promote trainingand thus promote safe and completerepairs of Honda and Acura automo-biles.

“With a new program involvinghundreds and hundreds of shops, weneeded a new way to manage it andthe ProFirst website really kicks it upa notch,” Ledoux added.

“Profirst.honda.com makes itquick and easy for the shop to enroll,and then after qualifying, an easy waythrough which to access the parts cat-alog and service and repair informa-tion. Automating the enrollment andadministration process was one of our

main goals and we achieved it.”“Once a shop becomes a ProFirst

shop, we offer them the advantage ofbeing listed in our shop locator site,which is attached to our new con-sumer site (Collision.Honda.com) thatwe launched in mid-September,”Ledoux said. “Shops are very inter-ested in this aspect of the consumersite, because it gives them more expo-sure to an automobile brand with alarge number of units in operation.”

Bob McSherry, owner of NorthHaven Auto Body in North Haven, CT,was the first shop to sign upfor ProFirst last October. “Asa body shop, I would have tosay it is pretty slick,” he said.“The parts catalog is veryhelpful and we understandthat Honda is going to bepromoting both sites prettyquickly here, so that will beinstrumental. It’s a win-win,because what Honda is say-ing is that shops that do theright thing are going to getrecognized for it.”

ProFirst is an excellenttool, said McSherry, because

he fixes a lot of Hondas in his part ofConnecticut. “We see at least 50 Hon-

das a month,which is essen-tially 20% of allthe vehicles we re-pair. We use Colli-sionLink at least50–60 times everymonth as well andwe’re proud to say

we’re an I-CAR Gold shop with all ofour 14 production technicians trainedon Honda and Acura. That’s why we

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The landing page for Honda’s new ProFirst website isdesigned to help and market body shops that qualify

Gary Ledoux

The site’s Shop Locator will allow customers to findHonda-approved body shops in their respective regions

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Dan Stander

joined right away and are happy to beinvolved is such a new program.”

Dan Stander is the owner of FixAuto Highlands Ranch in Littleton,CO. Stander is active in the nationalindustry associations such as NACEand was one of the first body shops toachieve Honda’s Level 3 and is happy

to be a part of ProFirst, he said. “Therepair updates are excellent and per-fect for us. We repair as many as 50Hondas every month, so updated col-lision repair data is essential to oursuccess. If we can’t find it in our esti-mating system, we know we can gothere to find it. We’re excited to be a

Level 3 shop on ProFirst andknow it will make us a bettershop as a result.”

As the carmaker’s web-site manager, Ledoux’s job isnow a little easier with thenew site and its added tech-nology.

“We receive updated in-formation from I-CAR andOEConnection every night.As soon as a shop becomesan I-CAR Gold Class shop,we know it right away. Wealso track a shop’s CollisionLink usage on a daily basisso as soon as they qualify forProFirst, we know that rightaway as well. The process isquick and easy for us, quickand easy for the shop, andthe best part is, ProFirst coststhe shop nothing. It’s a win-win for everyone.”


Once the user inputs their zip code or address, they willfind a list of ProFirst Honda collision facilities within theparameters they’ve set, both quickly and easily

Dealers Hit by Sandy Worry about Insurance,Inventory, and Non-insured Business LossesMark Scheinberg, president of theGreater New York Automobile Deal-ers Association told NADA Used CarGuide that “some big issues right nowrevolve around insurance,” for deal-ers in areas damaged by Sandy.

“Flood insurance was not avail-able for most of the coastal property,so damage to property is on thedealer,” Scheinberg said.

He also noted that FEMA doesnot help with business losses, so deal-ers must deal with storm impact ontheir own.

The Greater New York Automo-bile Dealers Association has con-tributed $250,000 on top of the $1Mprovided by NADA to the EmergencyRelief Fund of the National Automo-bile Dealer’s Charitable Foundation.

Approximately 340 dealers inNew York were affected, and about 25percent still have issues, either withphone lines, power, or Internet (as ofNov. 8), officials shared. And it isn’tjust physical damage they are worriedabout.

“Many dealers’ insurance plansdo not cover for losses from losingbusiness days. This is a challengesince about 85 percent of dealers serv-ice employees are union and are guar-

anteed a 30 hour minimum workweek,” Scheinberg told NADA UCG.

As for the vehicles themselves,thankfully, Scheinberg explained thatmany new vehicles are covered byfloorplan insurance, so many dealersare “not on the hook” for damaged ve-hicles.

“There were a lot of units lost be-cause any salt water damage on vehi-cles results in a salvage situation.Also, since dealers don’t have muchreal estate, many vehicles were storedon piers and in other areas near thecoast,” Scheinberg explained.

Penske Motor Group’s 36 deal-erships along the eastern UnitedStates were impacted by the storm andlost, on average, three to four days ofbusiness, with the dealerships in theNew York metropolitan area sufferinga more prolonged impact.

The most severe damage was feltin Jersey City, NJ, where three of thecompany’s dealerships sustaineddamage from flooding, including theloss of approximately 1,000 new andused vehicles which were in inven-tory.

Power was restored to thosedealerships on Nov. 6, and the dealer-ships have re-opened for business.

As demonstrated, the system re-quires the user only to select the dam-aged portions of the vehicle (left frontfender, for example), and all items re-lated to that section of the vehicle areautomatically listed, including such

item as one-timeuse fasteners, nec-essary informationlabels, and proce-dures such as colorsand and polish(with a link to Toy-ota’s bulletin indi-cating that is a

procedure necessary even at the fac-tory).

“Everything you need to fix ourcars correctly and to our standards isthere,” Toyota’s Rick Leos said. “Idon’t need all kinds of opinions onhow to fix our cars when I have engi-neers who are telling me how to fixour cars. That’s who I’m relying on.So now if someone wants to challengethis stuff, we have engineers to givethem the answers. It’s no longer justyou and your opinion, and the guydown the street who ain’t doing it.”

Leos, who said he is in discus-sions about the system with CCC In-formation Services (and has contactedthe other estimating system providers),used the system at the meeting to pre-pare a $10,000 estimate in two min-utes.

He said he hopes to have the sys-tem completed on Toyota’s top fourvehicles during the first quarter of2013, and he said other automakersare interested in working on the proj-ect as a joint venture.

Response to Toyota toolWhen asked about insurer response,Leos said he believes the system willhelp smooth out some of the variancesin estimating.

“We have had some talks with in-surance companies…and they’re not

negative on this at all,” he said.Herb Lieberman of LKQ Cor-

poration called the system “the rightthing to do,” but asked Leos aboutwhat he termed the “unintended con-sequence” of more cars being totaledbut ending back on the road afterbeing rebuilt to no standard. Leospointed out that the system allows theuser to adjust the estimate, for exam-ple, to use alternative parts.

“But what if a car totals becausewe’re going to fix it right? Then that’sprobably where it needs to be,” Leossaid. “I can’t stop the rebuilders in thisindustry. They’ve been around foryears. They always will be. Salvagevalue will actually go down, not up, ifthat’s the case. So the insurance com-pany might want to throw a little moremoney into fixing that car.”

One shop owner at CIC told Leosthis could reduce both the number ofestimators he needs and the experi-ence level they would need to preparethorough estimates.

Iowa shop owner Bob Jones saidhe had considered something similarin years past, perhaps ordering every-thing needed for a corner hit as kit, forexample, but that insurers would balkif the unneeded items included ini-tially were removed from the bill laterin the process. Leos reiterated that heenvisions an estimator taking the esti-mate that the system generates out tothe car to omit parts or procedures notneeded for that vehicle’s particulardamage.

Some of the groups who earlierthis year called on automakers to helpthe industry establish OEM proce-dures as the industry’s “repair stan-dards” praised Toyota for gettingshops this easy access to the com-pany’s repair procedures.

“We really appreciate whatyou’ve done to lead the pack,” ScottBiggs of Assured Performance Net-work told the Toyota representatives.

“You opened the door for us,”Raskind told the groups who havepushed for OEM procedures as the in-dustry’s repair standards. “We’re now

taking a bold step through it.”

New chairman offers perspectiveAlso in Las Vegas, Mike Quinn of Cal-iber Collision completed his final meet-

ing as chairman ofCIC, and GeorgeAvery of StateFarm offered histhoughts as the in-coming chairman.Avery acknowl-edged that his se-lection to lead CIC,

which was made by those who havepreviously chaired the conference, hasnot been universally popular—particu-larly among those discussing it on “so-cial media”— given his role at StateFarm.

“The past chairs did selectGeorge Avery, not necessarily thecompany that he works for,” Averysaid. “The George Avery that acceptedwas the one who started as a painter’shelper and over the years has made hisway through the collision industry.”

Avery’s career at State Farm hasnow spanned more than 30 years. Heis not the first insurance company rep-resentative to chair CIC. Joe Landolfichaired the conference in 1995 and

1996 when he was an executive withKemper Insurance. And Roger Wrightjoined AIG Insurance several monthsinto his two years as CIC chairman in2003 and 2004.

Avery in Las Vegas reiterated hisbelieve in the value of CIC, notingthat the industry in Canada used CICas a model for a similar organizationin that country, and that the restorationindustry on the property insuranceside is “desperately today trying to geta CIC to get all stakeholders in theroom.”

“So we can’t lose sight that CICis a place where we can all talk,”Avery said, “We all go to meetingswith our own folks, our own disci-plines, and that’s healthy and good.But having an opportunity to all gettogether is very important.”

Avery said he is working on asystem to give more participants atCIC “a voice” even if they don’t getup to the microphone at the meetings.

He will chair his first CIC meet-ing on January 24–25 in PalmSprings, CA.

That meeting is CIC’s biennial“planning meeting” at which the com-mittees and broad subject matter forthe coming two years are developed.


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Continued from Cover

Predictive Estimating

Rick Leos

Herb Lieberman

State Police in Clearfield, PA, havearrested two people in connectionwith a string of burglaries. Police ar-rested Michael Whitmore of DuBoisand Rebecca Carfley of Cur-wensville for burglaries that allegedlyoccurred Oct. 16–18. Whitmore andCarfley allegedly burglarized Adam’sGolden Grill, Butch’s 101 Pit Stop

and Down River Restaurant on andGrampian Car Wash. Whitmore alsoallegedly burglarized Tibben’s AutoBody and Towing, 7630 Clearfield, inClearfield on Oct. 16 or Oct. 17.Whitmore was charged and waivedhis right to a preliminary hearing. Apreliminary hearing for Carfley hasnot been scheduled.

Duo Arrested in Clearfield, PA, Bulglaries, Including Body Shop


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The Environmental ProtectionAgency is working to reduce traceamounts of radiation on a certainblock in Ridgewood—1125 to 1139Irving Avenue, near the edge ofKnollwood Park Cemetery, accordingto a report at capitalnewyork.comwritten by Lauren Kirchner. See par-allel story next page.

Now home to a deli, an autobody shop: Primo Autobody Repair &Sales, and a construction company,this block was the site of the Wolff Al-port Chemical Corporation from the1920s to 1954, according to a noticeon the EPA website.

Some of the minerals that WolffAlport processed and sold containedthorium, a natural radioactive sub-stance that can be harmful to humansin concentrated amounts. One ofWolff Alport’s clients, according toanother report, was the ManhattanProject.

Unfortunately for Ridgewoodresidents, the radioactive waste fromthat project, among others, has nevergone away. For several years in the1940s, Wolff Alport chemists dumpedthe concentrated thorium byproductfrom the processed minerals into thecity sewers. Tests of the area in thepast several years have found con-tamination in and around the sewers,in the cement foundation of the build-ings, and coming from the soil under-neath the sidewalks on Irving Avenueand in the yard behind the building.

In fact, when Wolff Alport em-ployees were dumping radioactivewaste into the city sewers in the1940s, they weren’t breaking anylaws, because no such laws existed atthe time. They were simply followingindustry protocol, said Dr. AndyKaram, a health physicist and radia-tion expert working for the city. Ac-cording to the EPA, the federalgovernment only told the company tostop disposing of its waste in thesewer in 1947. That was the sameyear that Wolff Alport sold off all ofits remaining thorium to the govern-ment “for military uses.” The com-pany went out of business in 1954.

The October 17 meeting ofBrooklyn’s Community Board 4 innearby Bushwick began with a pres-entation by several representativesfrom the New York City Departmentof Health and Mental Hygiene and theEPA, two of the city, state, and federalagencies that are partnering to addressthe site. Dr. Andy Karam, a healthphysicist and radiation expert work-ing for the City, assured his audience

that the health risks posed by the ra-diation is incredibly low.

Radiation is part of our naturalenvironment, Karam explained; weall get about one mrem of natural ra-diation every day on average. Wemight also get another one mrem perday from artificial sources. (A chestX-Ray, by comparison, would giveyou 10 mrem, and a CT scan 1,000mrem). The radiation that has beenmeasured at the Wolff Alport siteranges from 0.1 mrem to 0.3 mrem.

“To put that number in context, ittakes about 100,000 mrem to give usenough radiation to make us sick,”said Karam. “As a scientist, I think it’svery safe to say that nobody’s goingto get radiation sickness from WolffAlport. There’s just not enough radia-tion there for that to happen, so there’sno short-term risk.”

That said, the goal of the projectis to reduce long-term exposure forpeople who work on the site everyday, or for people who live nearbywho might use the sidewalk out frontevery day.

Mike Ferriola, an on-scene co-ordinator from the EPA working onthe project, described a course of ac-tion in which he and his colleagueswould first do a pilot study, layingdown different types of shielding ele-ments like concrete and steel on theground, and taking measurements todetermine which material will reducethe radiation to the lowest level.

Both I.S. 384 and the AudreyJohnson Day Care center are withintwo blocks of the site, but the EPArepresentatives said at the meetingthat readings taken throughout thosebuildings for radiation and radon gashad shown normal levels.

Toward the end of the group’spresentation, a board member askedwhat had prompted “everybody [to]come out now and start to do some-thing after all these years?”

Karam assured her that there hadbeen no change in the radiation at thesite itself, and that there hadn’t beenany negative health effects reported.The radiation detected in the area hasbeen the same for decades, he said.Although the EPA is only just actingon the site now, the New York CityDepartment of Environmental Protec-tion has been taking readings of thesite since the late 1980s, when the cityfirst became aware of its troubledpast.

“The site itself hasn’t changed,but the regulations have,” said Karam.“And that causes us to go back and

look at it again.”EPA press officer Elias Ro-

driguez, in response to some ques-tions, wrote in an email that “thisaction is being taken as a result of theState’s request for help,” a requestwhich only came in August of thisyear. He also wrote that an exactbudget has not yet been set for thisproject, but that “$320,000 has beenauthorized as a starting point.”

A few days before Sandy hit,Hector Rodriguez (no relation toElias), a mechanic working at PrimoAutobody Repair & Sales, which ison the affected block in Ridgewood,confirmed that the DEP has been vis-iting the shop and conducting surveysperiodically for the past several years.On Wednesday, he said, several DEPand EPA coordinators were out infront taking readings on the sidewalk.

Rodriguez said he has beenworking at Primo for 13 years. Whenasked whether he was concernedabout what he had learned about radi-ation there, he smiled and shrugged,and said he was not sure what tothink.

“They say they are going to fix it,though,” said Rodriguez.


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Ridgewood’s ‘Lightly’ Radioactive Legacy Prompts EPA Action

declared total losses and have beenmoved to parking lots pending process-ing while recovery efforts are beingmade.

As a result of such a large quantityof lost vehicles, rental cars are in an ex-treme shortage, and many people arewithout transportation at the momentsince importing rentals from nearbystates still is not enough to maintainsupply for the demand of rentals.

Despite the many challengescaused by Hurricane Sandy, NJ shopsare determined to rebuild. ManyAASP/ NJ members’ shops managedto escape damage from the storm, andthese owners have volunteered theirservices to help their peers in the in-dustry. McDowell states, “That’s onething you can always count on. Asmuch as we compete, we are all partof the same brotherhood. Sometimesthe worst brings out the best in us. Wehave seen a lot of that since the storm,and I am proud of those who havestepped up.”

Anyone interested in helping theNJ victims can send donations to Hurri-cane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund, P.O. Box 95, Mendham, NJ 07945-0095.

Continued from Page 3

Shops Still Closed

In the Ridgewood neighborhood ofQueens, NY, a past Manhattan projectsite is finally receiving government at-tention to protect current workers andnearby residents after decades of ele-vated radiation levels at the building,DNAinfo.com website recently re-ported.

The former site of Wolff-AlportChemical Company includes a giantwarehouse that currently houses anauto body shop and construction com-pany and an abandoned lot— and hasbeen contaminated with the radioac-tive element thorium since the 1930s,government officials said. In October,the Environmental Protection Agencystarted to work on shielding the site onthe Ridgewood-Bushwick border.

“We just got a referral from thestate to perform shielding Aug. 31,”said Eric Daly, the EPA’s on-scenecoordinator at Wolff-Alport, where thecity has known of radioactivity sinceit did a study in 2007.

A 2009 EPA survey determinedthere was “no immediate risk to peo-

ple, but that more evaluation wasneeded,” the agency’s spokeswomanMary Mears said.

Some work done by Wolff-Alportwas performed under contract to theAtomic Energy Commission and theManhattan Project, a research and de-velopment program that produced thefirst atomic bomb during World WarII, according to EPA documents. Thecompany, which operated from the1920s to 1954, imported monazitesand on a railroad spur behind the fa-cility. Wolff-Alport processed themonazite to extract rare earth ele-ments, leaving thorium and to a lesserdegree, uranium byproducts, accord-ing to the EPA.

“These waste byproducts weredisposed of into a nearby sewer andother wastes may have been buriedonsite,” according to an EPA docu-ment released.

The EPA, the city’s Departmentof Health, the state’s Department ofHealth, and the state’s Department ofEnvironmental Conservation all were

unable to explain why the EPA is tak-ing sudden action at the site.

“There has been further evalua-tion that led the agencies to determinethe EPA should take the lead,” Mearssaid.

Daly and his colleagues are nowbuilding a fence on Cooper Avenue tostop people from entering the lot, andare testing various types of shielding(including placing steel plates andconcrete on the sidewalk) to lower thelevels of radiation for workers andcustomers at Primo Auto Body andTerra Nova Construction, he said.

Daly and other EPA officials, aswell as a spokesman from the city’sDepartment of Health and Mental Hy-giene, said no elevated radiation orradon levels had been found outsidethe site, DNAinfo.com reported.

David Brenner, director of radi-ological research at Columbia Univer-sity Medical Center, said theheightened radiation at the site did fallabove the standard for the generalpublic, but that the level was “not un-

common.”The level of radiation for a

worker would fall at 120 millirem (theunit used to measure radiation’s effecton the human body) per year, 20%more than the recommended 100 mil-lirem per year for an average person.

A worker at Primo Auto Body,for instance, would raise his chanceof contracting fatal cancer by 1 in25,000, according to the informationavailable.

For workers at Wolff-Alport, aswell as some local residents, the wordof radiation and radon certainly war-ranted concern.

“I’m scared. I’ve worked here fortwo years but my husband has workedhere for 14 years,” Hilda Rodriguez,assistant to Primo Auto Body’s man-ager, said. “He’s had health problemsand others say they’ve had heart prob-lems, breathing problems. But wedon’t know if it’s connected to the ra-diation.” Rodriguez said the workersfelt confused about the risk they en-counter each day.

EPA Starts Radiation Abatement at Former Atomic Project Site,Now a Body Shop in Ridgewood Neighborhood, Queens, NY


under PartsTrader, Crowther said, andshops found themselves having to buyfrom many more different suppliers(Newton-Ross said he spoke with oneNew Zealand shop that now has 300suppliers rather the 30 the shopbought from previously). Some sup-pliers were dumping low-quality partsthrough the system, Crowther said.

The insurer offered a $3 increasein labor rates, but Crowther said thathad been the first increase in threeyears and did not offset the loss ofparts profit. In his own $4 millionbusiness in 2006, he estimated that useof the PartsTrader system accountedfor a decline in margins equal to about4% of his sales.

He cautioned that the PartsTradersystem used in New Zealand is differ-ent than the one being mandated byState Farm in some U.S. markets. In-surers in New Zealand (almost all ofwhich have now adopted the use ofPartsTrader), for example, can see allprices quoted in the system there.

And much to Crowther’s sur-prise, he said, an online survey that hismagazine conducted in late 2011found that 53% of shops (and 48% ofsuppliers) felt that PartsTrader hadhad a positive effect on their business.

“I tried to find these people, but Ican’t find them,” Crowther said.

Canadian shops face challengesJohn Norris, executive director of

Collision IndustryInformation Assis-tance, a trade asso-ciation in Ontario,Canada, said amajor insurer inthat market nowrequires use of anelectronic parts

procurement system. The insurer hasabout 22% market share overall (forcomparison, State Farm has about18% market share in the UnitedStates, and Allstate has about 10%),but as much as 50% market share inNorthwestern Ontario.

Norris said the parts system isforcing some participating shops toendure delays in delivery of partsfrom sometimes distant suppliers be-cause only suppliers willing to pay theinsurer a fee (generally 3% of the partprice) on every part sold may partici-pate.

The insurer contends the systemhas reduced parts returns from 15% ofall parts ordered to just 10%.

“The program supports our (di-rect repair) shops in reducing cycletime and improving the overall cost ofrepair,” the insurer told a Canadiantrade magazine.

Norris is unconvinced, however.He cited a shop in Sault Ste Marie,Ontario, that used to walk across thestreet to pick up parts from a Hondadealer but now must wait three to fivedays for parts to be trucked from aHonda dealer nearly 400 miles away.

“He cannot go across the roadand buy a part even if at the sameprice,” Norris said. “If the other sup-plier that is working with the insurerhas that part, he must buy it from thatdealer.”

Norris said a shop in ThunderBay, Ontario, has had to buy usedparts from a supplier in Welland, On-tario, 933 miles away. Hamilton, On-tario, has a population of about half amillion people, but shops there—Nor-ris said—must order General Motorsparts out of Niagara Falls, Ontario,which is 43 miles away; the deliverytrucks pass 11 other GM dealers whilebringing the parts to Hamilton shops.

Attendees share their viewsA brief question-and-answer session

following the panel discussion in-cluded a variety of comments from at-tendees. Charles Lukens, co-founderof APU Solutions, a web-based partsprocurement system company re-cently acquired by Solera (parentcompany of Audatex), said he felt thepanelists lumped all parts systems to-gether, unfairly indicating they allhave a negative impact on shops.

“Not in any scenario are we in-creasing cycle time and decreasingmargins, so I think it’s an unfair state-ment to say all parts procurement so-lutions are doing that,” Lukens said.

Bobby Price of Prices CollisionCenters, which operates five shops inTennessee, said he is currently on StateFarm’s “Select Service” program but“expects not to be” if the PartsTradermandate comes to his market.

“I don’t need State Farm tellingme how to run my business,” Pricesaid. “I believe that that’s what this isabout.”

Price said he is working to buildhis company’s brand directly to con-sumers through increased marketingand advertising.

Newton-Ross cautioned thatshops in the United States should viewthe issue as something larger than just

State Farm and PartsTrader.“It’s every insurer,” he said. “Be-

cause if State Farm is successful withwhat they do, do you think the otherinsurers are going to sit there and letthem have an edge in the market-place? No, they’re going to have theirown deal with PartsTrader or someoneelse.”

SEMA Attracts 60,000 BuyersSEMA organizers acknowledged thatattendance at this year’s event wascurtailed somewhat by HurricaneSandy-related impacts on the EastCoast. Still, SEMA CEO Chris Ker-sting said as the event was ending thatclose to 60,000 “buyers” attendedSEMA, with about an equal numberof others at the event, including ex-hibitors representing more than 2,250companies, returning the show toabout pre-recession levels.

The “collision repair and refin-ishing” section of the show, now in itsthird year, featured about 160 compa-nies, with many of the paint manufac-turers and equipment vendors that sellto the industry located elsewhere onthe massive show floor.

SEMA will return to Las Vegasnext year on November 5-8.


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New Alabama Association toKick off Advertising Campaign

On Aug. 30, a federal jury awardedCustom Car Crafters of Austin, TX,$1.5 million from BASF and$750,000 from FinishMaster. CustomCar Crafter’s was also awarded $1.5million in compensatory damages.However, on Nov. 5 the court reverseditself and agreed with BASF and Fin-ishMaster that the jury’s verdict wasinconsistent. It has has ordered a newtrial, vacating the misrepresentationand fraud claims of Custom CarCrafters.

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the small town. The damage to hisshop was worse than he initiallythought.

Brindle, who has been inbusiness for more than 20years, was able to save all thevehicles the shop had at thetime because they noticed theroof coming down in time tosave the cars. The storm blewthe roof off and falling raftersdamaged and pulled downwalls. The building is nowgutted and will need to be re-wired as the storm also pulled out thepower lines. Thankfully, no one washurt.

The shop was without power forabout 10 days and on Election Nightsomeone who must have known thebusiness was without its security cam-eras and alarm system broke in andstole several thousand dollars worth of

hand tools, Brindle said. Items miss-ing include a paint gun, socketwrenches and other equipment.

“Nothing like kicking youwhen you’re already down,”Brindle said. A police reporthas been filed.

Brindle plans to re-openpart-time in about two weeksdue to the gracious offer of acompetitor, a former em-ployee who now owns hisown shop working out of hisgarage. Brindle will use his

former employee’s garage for bodywork. The shop repairs four or fivecars a week.

Meanwhile, even thoughthe paint side of the businesswasn’t damaged, the shop isstoring tools and equipmentrelated to the collision side ofthe business in the paint sec-tion; so that side of the busi-ness isn’t open either.

He’s not sure when hisbusiness will re-open full-time. He’s hoping it could bethree or four weeks, depend-ing on how rebuilding goes.

“It did not happen at a goodtime,” Brindle said. “We are in ourbusy season right now. We’re gener-ally very busy with deer damage atthis time of year. We have a very highpopulation of deer in this area.”

Storm damage “is hurting us,”Brindle said. “But we have good in-surance (Nationwide) and I believethey are going to stand behind us.”

As for community support,Brindle says it’s been awesome.

“Friends, family and neighborscame out the day after and helped getour roof covered, cut some trees outof the road so we could get our cars

out of the driveway. One family evenbrought lunch for everyone. Then, as

soon as everyone was finished, theyall moved to the shop to start cleanup.Dave Miner from Dave’s Auto Sal-vage brought a big crane over and weused that to pick the roof trusses outof the building. And most of our cus-tomers are being very patient andwaiting on us to reopen.”



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the storm will likely be far worse thanit initially predicted, largely a result ofSandy hitting the most densely popu-lated part of the country.

The firm doubled its previous es-timate for the total bill and now saysSandy may have caused between $30billion and $50 billion in economiclosses, including property damage, lostbusiness and extra living expenses.The cost to insurance companies couldrun as low as $10 billion and as highas $20 billion.

The new numbers square with anearlier estimate from IHS Global In-sight. IHS said Sandy could causeabout $20 billion in property damagesand between $10 billion and $30 bil-lion in lost business.

The firm pointed to two reasonsthat Sandy will leave a bigger bill thanit first thought. Power outages are morewidespread than in a typical Category 1storm, Eqecat said. Sandy knocked outelectricity for more homes and busi-nesses than any other storm in history,according to the Department of Energy.

The lack of subway service inNew York City and blocked roadways

will also push the total cost higher, Eqe-cat said. Before the storm hit, Eqecathad estimated that total economic lossesfrom Sandy could range as high as $20billion and that losses to insurance com-panies could reach $10 billion. Payoutsfor insurance claims are typically a frac-tion of the overall cost to the economy.

If the damages hit $50 billion, itwould make Sandy the second-costliestU.S. storm after Katrina in 2005. Kat-rina’s overall costs were $108 billion.Taking inflation into account, that worksout to $128 billion in today’s dollars.

Even after adjusting for inflation,the high end of Eqecat’s damage esti-mates for Sandy would be higher thanthose caused by previous majorstorms. Andrew, which struck in 1992,cost $44 billion in today’s dollars, andthe Ike storm of 2008 cost $32 billion.

Estimates by a California-basedrisk modeling firm have placed in-surer losses from Hurricane Sandy toas high as $25 billion.

Risk Management Solutions pro-jected that insurers may face lossesbetween $20 billion and $25 billion.Initial estimates on property and casu-alty claims from the hurricane byFitch Ratings were roughly $5 billion,similar to that of last year’s Hurricane

Irene. RMS said that it has two recon-naissance teams out surveying thedamage. The firm has offices in Hobo-ken, N.J., where floodwaters strandedthousands of people.

Eqecat’s estimates only cover pri-vate losses, not costs covered by thegovernment through the NationalFlood Insurance Program adminis-tered by the Federal Emergency Man-agement Agency. Max Mayfield, thehurricane center director during Kat-rina, said the costs to FEMA can be $2to $2.5 for every dollar of losses cov-ered by private insurance.

A FEMA official said the govern-ment-backed flood insurance programexpects to take a $6 billion to $12 bil-lion hit from Hurricane Sandy, mak-ing it very likely the heavily indebtedprogram will soon turn to Congress toraise its borrowing authority.

Ed Connor, deputy associate ad-ministrator at FEMA’s Federal Insur-ance and Mitigation Administration,told the Treasury Department’s FederalAdvisory Committee on Insurance thathe estimates that Sandy would inundatethe program with about 143,000 claims.

Flood claims from HurricaneSandy are expected to cost the Na-tional Flood Insurance Program at

least $8 billion, far above the roughly$4 billion the government-backed in-surance program can currently pay, ac-cording to the Consumer Federation ofAmerica. According to the consumergroup, Hurricane Sandy will give riseto 200,000 claims for wind damageand an additional 200,000 claims forflood damage.

Flood Damaged VehiclesWhile most reports say Sandy flood-damaged cars will not exceed 250,000,Black Book’s Ricky Beggs said Su-perstorm Sandy will have an even big-ger industry impact than HurricaneKatrina did seven years ago, which heestimated at 640,000 units destroyed.The National Insurance Crime Bureauestimates than Katrina damaged ‘only’325,000 vehicles.

Insurance companies so far con-cur with the lower estimates for Sandy.State Farm, Progressive, New JerseyManufacturers, Nationwide and USAAhave received about 40,000 car-dam-age claims as of Nov. 10.

Allstate, considered to be one ofthe companies most exposed to in-sured losses from superstorm Sandy,said only that it expects October catas-trophe losses to exceed $150 million.



Sandy Damages


Some Car Candy from SEMA

The Specialty Equipment Market As-sociation announced the winners ofthe New Products Showcase Awardsheld at the 2012 SEMA Show on Oct.30. The event recognized the mostcutting-edge automotive products onthe market or about to hit the market.This year, more than 2,000 new prod-ucts were submitted for consideration.

Criteria that ranked high on thejudges’ selection for the New ProductShowcase Awards included superiorityof innovation, technical achievement,quality and workmanship, consumerappeal and marketability.

The 2012 New Product AwardWinners are:

Collision Repair & Refinish ProductWinner: Matrix Wand 3-D Blueprint-ing System, Matrix Wand 3-D Blue-printing and Discovery SystemRunner Up: Goliath Carts, D1-A ‘Mo-bile Detailer’ Detail CartRunner Up: PRO-TECH-IT, PRO-TECH-IT Reusable Covers

The Matrix Wand 3-D Blueprint-ing and Discovery System wand hascameras on both ends, and whenpassed in front of a damaged car, iden-tifies damaged and ‘trusted’ areas. Itallows for three-dimensional XYZmeasurements, while the repair analy-sis software allows comparison of anytwo XYZ points.

The D1-A “Mobile Detailer”from Goliath Carts utilizes the stan-dard Goliath technology of a “closedsystem” that provides security andcontrol of all tools and materials re-quired by the detail and car wash de-partments of a collision repair shop.The cart is designed to minimizedcontaminants on the paper rolls anddetailing supplies. Power tools can beconnected on a mounted power strip.

Pro-Tech-It was also granted a run-ner up spot for the Collision Repair andRefinish category for its magnetic carcovers. The durable, reusable covers aredesigned to replace disposable car cov-ers, reducing both costs and waste.

SEMA recognizes a wide array ofproducts, many of which aren’t con-fined to the collision repair industry.

Engineered New ProductWinner: Mastershift, Magnum Paddleand Sequential Type ShifterRunner Up: Detroit Speed, 1964.5-1970 Mustang Aluma-FrameRunner Up: MSD Performance, MSD

Atomic LSTM, EFI for LS Engines

Exterior Accessory ProductWinner: Husky Liners, Husky® 5thWheel Tailgate w/ Backup CameraMountRunner Up: Rampage Products LLC,Self Contained Electric mirror andpower supplyRunner Up: Hornblasters Inc., Horn-Blasters Jackass 228VX

Interior Accessory ProductWinner: Edge Products/Superchips,TrailDashRunner Up: Xtreme Outfitters, CargoAssault MountRunner Up: U-Ace Inc./Formosa SaintJose Corp., 3D MAXDURA FLOORLINER

Merchandising DisplayWinner: Extang/Truxedo/UnderCover,UnderCover FlexRunner Up: AMP Research, Power-Step POPRunner Up: Extang/Truxedo/Under-Cover, UnderCover SwingCase

Mobile Electronics ProductWinner: INTRAPHEX, SmartphoneIntegration Device (S.I.D.)Runner Up: Auto-i (Canada) Corp., Spe-cial OE Fit Camera for Commercial VanRunner Up: Brandmotion, LoftliteLED Interior Lighting Kit

Off-Road/4-Wheel Drive ProductWinner: BedRug Inc., BedRug andBedTred for Jeep®Runner Up: Fuel-Tool, Fuel-ToolPT500 Fuel Transfer SystemRunner Up: Hi-Lift Jack Co., Hi-LiftOff-Road Base

Packaging DisplayWinner: Edge Products/Superchips,TrailDashRunner Up: MSD Performance, MSDAtomic EFITM, Master Kit PackagingRunner Up: Solution Finish Trim Re-storer, Solution Finish, Rich EvansDIY Kit

Performance-Racing ProductWinner: ATI Performance Products,ATI Cast Aluminum T-400 SuperCaseRunner Up: Lingenfelter PerformanceEngineering, CTAP-001 Clutch andThrottle Activation Position SwitchRunner Up: Zeitronix Inc., EthanolContent Analyzer with Flow ThroughSensor

Performance-Street ProductWinner: COMP Performance Group,COMP Cams 4-Pattern CamshaftsRunner Up: ProCharger, ProChargeri-1® superchargerRunner Up: COMP PerformanceGroup, Inglese Sidedraft EFI System

Powersports ProductWinner: K&N Engineering Inc., K&NStreet Metal Intake SystemRunner Up: Warn Industries Inc.,WARN Vantage 3000-S PowersportsWinchRunner Up: AMSOIL Inc., AMSOILDOMINATOR Octane Boost

Street Rod/Custom Car ProductWinner: MSD Performance, MSDAtomic LSTM, EFI for LS EnginesRunner Up: Powertrain Control Solu-tions (PCS), 6 SPEED VALVE BODYRunner Up: Circle Racing WheelsInc., ORIGINAL EQUIPMENTSTYLE BILLET WHEEL

Tire and Related ProductWinner: Pirelli Tire North America,Pirelli Cinturato P7 All-SeasonRunner Up: Mickey Thompson Per-

formance Tires & Wheels, ET StreetRadial ProRunner Up: Mickey Thompson Per-formance Tires & Wheels, Street Comp

Tools & Equipment ProductWinner: Miller Electric ManufacturingCo., MultimaticTM 200 TIG/MIG/StickWelderRunner Up: Del City, Brake LineWrench KitsRunner Up: Wray Products, The StandHand Plus

Van/Pickup/Sport-Utility ProductWinner: CURT Manufacturing LLC,Easy Mount Electrical BracketsRunner Up: AnzoUSA, 2007 and upChevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra 5Function LED Tailgate SpoilerRunner Up: Elephant Stand, ElephantStand Swivel Hitch

Wheel and Related ProductWinner:Hotchkis Sport Suspension,Hotchkis Performance Wheels Model- H SportRunner Up: Concept One/KlutchWheels, Concept One Executive CSL5.5Runner Up:Enkei Wheels, COMPE

SEMA Awards Best New Cutting-Edge Automotive Products


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Dick Ide HondaRochester

800-462-0056 (N.Y.)585-586-4919

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Lamacchia HondaSyracuse

315-471-7278Dept. Hours:

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Lia Honda of AlbanyAlbany

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Ray Laks HondaWest Seneca716-824-7852

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Clinton HondaAnnandale

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AUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALLAUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALL

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Autobody News December 2012NEW YORK • NEW JERSEY • PENNSYLVANIA • DELAWARE


Toyota to Recall 2+ Million Vehicles Worldwide for Steer-ing, Water Pump ProblemsToyota Motor Corp. said it will re-call 2.77 million vehicles world-wide, including some of its popularPrius hybrid cars, for steering andwater pump problems. It is the car-maker’s second multimillion-car re-call in a little more than a month.

Toyota is recalling the vehiclesto fix a steering component thatcould be damaged by wear and tear,and 630,000 gasoline-electric hy-brid vehicles to replace waterpumps, company spokesman JoichiTachikawa said. Many vehicles aretargeted by both recalls, resulting inoverlap.

The recall affects 496,000 ve-hicles in Europe, 670,000 vehiclesin the United States and 1.5 millionvehicles in Japan. The defects,which Toyota said had caused noaccidents and could each be fixed inan hour or so, could cost hundredsof millions of dollars to repair, ac-cording Deutsche Securities autosanalyst Kurt Sanger.

While the recall is widespread,the flaws are less serious and anydamage to Toyota’s reputationwould likely be limited comparedwith massive recalls in 2009 to 2011when unintended acceleration prob-lems in Toyota vehicles were thesuspected cause of fatal crashes inthe United States.

Mack Trucks is recalling certainmodel year 2008-2009 GU, LEU,and MRU trucks, manufacturedfrom Dec. 12, 2007, through May8, 2008 and equipped with a certainfocal mounted retarder control box.The control box may lose its elec-trical ground. If the control boxloses ground, it may have localizedoverheating. This could lead to avehicle fire. All affected vehicles,260, were sold to one customer thathas already been notified. An offi-cial owner notification letter wasmailed to the one customer in earlyNovember 2012. Mack will replacethe suspect control box on the af-fected vehicles, free of charge.Owners may contact Mack Trucksat 1-800-866-1177.

Mack Trucks Get Recalled

BMW Recalling 7-SeriesCars Over Software GlitchBMW AG is recalling 7,485 2005-07 7-Series vehicles that may have a soft-ware glitch that may allow the doors toinadvertently open when they appearclosed.

BMW says “the door may unex-pectedly open due to road or drivingconditions or occupant contact with thedoor. The sudden opening may result inoccupant ejection or increase the risk ofinjury in the event of a crash.”

The German automaker said therecall covers vehicles equipped withboth Comfort Access and Soft CloseAutomatic options, and built from Au-gust 2004 through September 2007.

The automaker says no crashes orinjuries have been reported related tothe condition.

The recall is taking place fiveyears after BMW recalled vehicles inJapan and five years after the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administrationfirst asked BMW about the issue.

Even though BMW didn’t think itwas a safety issue, it ultimately recalledthe vehicles in Japan in September 2007.

BMW made a software update aspart of production change in 2007 to ad-dress the issue.

In February, BMW agreed pay a$3 million penalty for failing to recallvehicles in a timely fashion.

Chrysler Recalls Jeeps forAirbag Issues

GM Investing $450 Million inArgentina FacilityGeneral Motors Co. said recently itwill invest $450 million to build anall-new global Chevy vehicle at itsRosario Automotive Complex in Ar-gentina.

The Detroit-based automakersaid it would make the investment be-tween 2013 and 2015.

“We are pleased to be makingthis investment in Argentina, whichremains a very important market forus,” GM Chairman and CEO DanAkerson said in a statement.

“We have a long, proud historyhere dating to 1925 and our latest in-vestment is certainly good news forour GM Argentina employees, our ex-tensive dealer and supplier networkand the local economy.”

The Rosario facility producedmore than 136,000 vehicles in 2011.

VW to Build New SUV in U.S.VW Chief Executive Martin Win-terkorn said the company expects tobuild an all-new SUV in the U.S. de-signed for American customers after thesuccess of the new Passat sedan. A finaldecision is expected next year.

Strong demand for the Passat, alsodesigned for Americans, has trans-formed the U.S. into a growth hub forVW, which faces rough conditions inEurope.

The company recently said itsprofit margins narrowed in the thirdquarter as pricing and demand for carsdeteriorated.

While operating profits were downfor the first time this year, its results ex-ceeded expectations.

“Many of us wondered if VW’slong period of outmaneuvering and out-performing the horrible European mar-ket was going to come to an end,” saidanalyst Max Warburton at BernsteinResearch. “Yet third-quarter resultsshow little evidence of such pressure.”

For the year to date, VW’s operat-ing profit is up 2% at 9 billion euros, or$11.7 billion, and VW retained its fore-cast for slightly higher sales revenueand flat earnings this year.

GM Unveils Faster, FuelEfficient Engine for CorvetteGeneral Motors Co. recently debutedits faster, more fuel-efficient smallblock, LT1 6.2-liter V-8 engine, whichwill power the new 2014 ChevroletCorvette.

In what GM is calling the mostsignificant redesign in its history,the fifth-generation small block forthe Corvette will include a direct-in-jection fuel system, continuouslyvariable valve timing and active fuelmanagement, or cylinder deactiva-tion, all of which will help giveowners more miles out of a gallon ofgas.

The biggest fuel saver for theCorvette is active fuel management,which GM has said can boost fueleconomy up to 12% in cars. It savesfuel by deactivating four of the eightcylinders in light load situations, suchas coasting on an exit ramp or cruis-ing on the highway.

Jaguar is recalling certain modelyear 2010-2012 XF vehiclesequipped with a 5.0L gasoline en-gine. The affected vehicles mayhave a fuel tank fuel outlet flangethat may crack. The cracked flangemay result in fuel leakage onto theground. This leaking fuel, in thepresence of an ignition source, mayresult in a vehicle fire.

Jaguar will notify owners, anddealers will replace the affected fueltank fuel outlet flanges, free ofcharge. The recall is expected tobegin on, or before, December 7,2012. Owners may contact Jaguar at1-800-452-4827.

Jaguar Recall for XF Model

Chrysler is recalling certain modelyear 2002 and 2003 Jeep Liberty ve-hicles manufactured Jan. 9, 2001,through March 28, 2003, and 2002through 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokeevehicles manufactured Feb. 13, 2001,through May 23, 2003. A componentin the air bag control module may failcausing the front airbags, side curtainairbags, and/or seatbelt pretensionersto deploy inadvertently while the ve-hicle is being operated.

The recall covers Jeep GrandCherokee and Liberty SUVs for apart in airbag control modules thatmay fail, according to documentsfiled with the U.S. National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration andChrysler.

A failure of that module couldcause the front airbags or side cur-tain airbags to deploy inadvertentlywhile the SUVs are being operated,increasing the risk of injury or acci-dent, according to NHTSA docu-ments.

Of the vehicles recalled, 744,822were in the United States; 49,430 inCanada; 21,828 in Mexico; and 103,465outside North America, Chrysler said.


Half a decade ago, the SEMA Showwas less than a blip on the collisionrepair industry’s radar. Those days arelong gone as the show continues tosolidify its standing as the premierevent for the industry, with filledaisles, packed booths, a burgeoningnumber of collision-repair-related in-dustries on the show floor, and an in-fectious energy that collision repairersjust can’t seem to resist.

“From our vantage point in thebooth, you can’t help but notice theenthusiasm of the collision repair cus-tomers walking the aisles,” saidBrian Shenk, director of marketingservices for Sherman-Williams Auto-motive Finishes. “I think it’s becausethe Show is infused with the colorful,cool fun of the custom car segment,which carries over to collision repairparticipants. Two years ago, wemoved our booth to the North Hall,home to the collision repair section,and we haven’t looked back since.Having a presence here has reallypaid off, and our custom paint groupis totally on board, as well.”

The SEMA Show is attracting in-

creasing numbers of collision repair-ers and exhibitors for a variety ofpractical reasons, too. At the top ofthe list is the search for alternativerevenue streams, as more and morecollision repairers understand theneed to think out of the box whenconsidering products and services thatcan increase their bottom line. At theshow, they get exposure to these kindsof options, like customization andspecialty paint work that often can beaccomplished with a collision re-pairer’s existing tools. Vendors ofproducts and services that align with arepairer’s core work, such as those re-lated to mechanical repair, are alsowell represented at the SEMA Show.

“Repairers that keep their eyesopen to opportunity can walk theaisles of the show and get any num-ber of ideas to diversify their busi-nesses,” said Frank Terlep, owner ofSummit Software Solutions Inc.

“Reduced claims and increasedconsolidation are dictating that re-pairers refine their business model;this is the place to get inspired to doit,” said Terlep.

Jonathan Barrick, marketingmanager for Global Finishing Solu-tions, has similar feelings. “Basicallycollision repair owners and managerscan come to this show and find every-thing they need to improve their busi-ness,” he stated. “This includes thequality educational material thatSCRS provides and promotes throughRepairer Driven Education (RDE).Our company likes being here be-cause the attendees seem so open tolearning about new products. Thatmakes the SEMA show the perfectplace to illustrate what our companyis all about. It’s a venue that allows usto show our personality and make agood brand impression. We’ve in-creased our booth space every year.”

The benefits of expanded mar-kets resonate throughout the ex-hibitor side, as well. “Our companyhas been coming to this show formany years,” noted PPG Senior Man-ager Business Solutions/Industry Re-lations Domenic Brusco, “primarilyas a well-received provider of customfinishes for hot rods, motorcycles andother specialty vehicles. The tractionthat is growing in the collision repairsection—which I think can be attrib-uted in part to the work SCRS hasdone to build the industry’s identityat the show—is great for us becauseit also gives us the opportunity toconnect with our collision refinish

business customers. It’s a nice syn-ergy.”

SEMA also exhibits a set of in-tangibles that adds to its allure. “Theshow brings together everyone that isan auto enthusiast, which makes itunique,” said Jeff Kern, president ofCar-O-Liner, another company thathas increased its booth size every yearand was one of the first collision repairvendors to host a booth on the SEMAshow floor. “Attendees get a sense of‘we are all in this together’ and feel apart of a greater automotive-relatedwhole, perhaps, they never would havegotten to experience otherwise.”

SCRS Board Member KyeYeung likewise sees benefit in thedistinctive nature of the show. “Be-cause the SEMA show includes allauto-related businesses, it provides akind of neutral background which, forsome reason, seems to encourage net-working between shop owners,” hesaid. “I guess you could say it takesus out of the day-to-day mindset wefall into as we are grinding away inthe trenches, so we can look at ourcompetitors more objectively and ap-preciate what they have to offer.”

Top-notch education of the typeSCRS provides through RDE is yetanother reason repairers find the showcompelling—explaining why somany collision repair vendors havestepped up to support the program.

SCRS Claims SEMA Now the Premier Show for Collision Repairers, Citing Traffic, Exhibitors

Michigan Auto Supplier Adds Jobs for Corvette PartsA Michigan auto supplier, Continen-tal Structural Plastics, which makesexterior body panels and structuralcomposites components, announcedNov. 13 that it plans to expand itsoperations in Huntington, IN, creat-ing up to 50 new jobs by 2015.

The Michigan-based companywill invest $6.3 million to renovateand equip its 203,000-square-footHuntington facility to accommodatea new production line for the 2015Corvette model body panels. Reno-vations on the facility, which cur-rently manufactures products forother General Motors and Ford ve-hicles, is expected to be operationalby next spring.

“CSP’s growth reflects theproven strength of the HoosierState’s automotive industry, a sectorhard hit by the sluggish nationaleconomy,” said Dan Hasler, Secre-tary of Commerce and chief execu-tive officer of the Indiana Economic

Development Corp. “However, theindustry is on the rebound with In-diana leading the recovery thanks toour work in preserving a low-tax,pro-business environment,” Haslersaid.

CSP currently has 286 full-timeemployees in Huntington and has al-ready begun hiring additional pro-duction, logistics, engineering andadministrative associates.

Founded in 1969, today CSPemploys more than 1,890 people atsix production facilities across theMidwest.

The Indiana Economic Devel-opment Corporation offered CSP upto $300,000 in conditional tax cred-its and up to $50,000 in traininggrants based on the company’s jobcreation plans. The city of Hunting-ton will consider additional propertytax abatement at the request of Hunt-ington County Economic Develop-ment.


The late writer Hunter S. Thompson(known as the father of “gonzo jour-nalism” and a long-time contributor toRolling Stonemagazine) wrote that hefeared and loathed Las Vegas, yet heconsistently returned there to get invarious forms of trouble and test thelimits of acceptable behavior. Thomp-son would have loved SEMA andother automotive industry shows, be-cause they’re great events for re-porters to cover and offer a wide rangeof opportunities to get into mischief.

I know, because I have coveredquite a few of these shows for manyyears as a freelance writer specializ-ing in collision repair. I’m proud tosay I survived them all. One year, Icovered three in a row—SEMA,AAPEX and NACE, all in LasVegas—and it nearly killed me. Iknow firsthand why many shops neverattempt this schedule. After eightcrazy 15-hour days and walking showfloors for miles, I came down with akind of walking pneumonia, whichsidelined me for several weeks after-ward.

I’m not saying shows like SEMAaren’t fun. In fact, they’re a blast, butthey can also be exhausting and if youdon’t pace yourself, you can get sickjust like I did. Because industry shows,in many ways, are races with the clock

running. You havea lot to achieve in avery limited periodof time (in SEMA’scase, five days),coupled with aplethora of funevents—like din-ners, shows, cock-

tail parties, luncheons and even somewining and dining of clients or col-leagues, in many instances.

Show burnout is a common ail-ment. Too little sleep, not enough liq-uids (or maybe too many of the wrongtype), sleep exchanged for gamblingor other endeavors, too much walkingin the opposite direction, fast food,caffeine and sugar, and it all leads toeither mental or physical exhaustion ifnot handled properly.

Peter MacGillivray is the vice-president of events and communica-tions for SEMA. He has attended

every show since 1987, so he has sto-ries to tell and advice to offer.

To avoid the feared SEMAburnout scenario, MacGillivray sharesa few helpful tips. “We tell our peopleto get humidifiers and put them intheir hotel rooms,” he said. “The air

here in Las Vegas is very dry, so it willhelp them to sleep. I always have onerunning in my room. Also get com-fortable shoes, because you’re goingto be walking miles and miles. Anddress comfortably. We loosened upour dress code for SEMA employeestwo years ago and got rid of thosesuits. Now our staff wears button-down shirts and they look and feelmuch more relaxed.”

When you think about it, every-one at SEMA has a different agenda.As a writer, I need to find interestingthings to write about. As an exhibitor,your goal is to sell product and meetwith as many customers as you possi-bly can in a very limited time. As abody shop owner, you want to learnabout all of the newest products outthere in the market and purchase theones that are right for your business.Since SEMA is not open to the gen-eral public (although many sneak in)everybody here has a distinct motiveand plays a unique role.

Trying to find a particular boothis like playing the board game Battle-field. I was guessing most of the timeand walking in exactly the long direc-tion without fail. Every time I was inthe North Hall, the next booth I

wanted to visit was in the South Hall.I know SEMA has its own app, butwhy can’t they invent a GPS for di-rectionally-challenged people likeme? A handheld unit telling you thatbooth 17884 is approximately eightmiles from where you’re currentlystanding and maybe design a route foryou so you don’t have to zig-zag allover the Las Vegas Convention Cen-ter would be nice.

One topic that seems to come upevery year at SEMA involves the useof attractive (usually scantily clad)women to help exhibitors as theypromote their products and services.Do they attract the kind of customerscompanies want, or are people sim-ply flocking to your booth to oglethese beautiful ladies?

MacGillivray explained that it’sa Catch-22, because the women willcreate traffic. But does it result in salesand/or can it damage the company’sreputation?

“We encourage exhibitors to lettheir products speak for themselves.Anyone is going to appreciate a beau-tiful woman standing next to a car, liftor paint booth—but is it really benefi-cial to your bottom line? Many com-panies still use them and report it’s auseful marketing vehicle, but latelymore and more are moving away fromthat strategy.”

Celebrities are a big part ofSEMA—with many doing appear-ances. MacGillivray said, “We get thebig names who want to attend and in

most cases, they get in. Tim Allen,Jay Leno, Snoop Dogg, the guysfrom ZZ Top, race announcer DaveMcClelland, the “Voice of NHRA,”and many more apply for tickets and

we always accommodate them be-cause they add a little buzz to thewhole affair.”

I always like to go around and seethe celebrities representing exhibitorsat their booths. This year I met formerfootball star William “The Refriger-ator” Perry (representing a company

called Big Ass Fans), comic/ventrilo-quist Jeff Dunham, race drivers Dan-ica Patrick (she’s even prettier inperson and talked to me for at least 10minutes), Dario Franchitti (3-timeIndy 500 winner) and Mario An-dretti; “The King of the Kustomizers”

George Barris, the legendary customcar builder Gene Winfield and all ofwhat I call the “paint/rebuilder stars”such as Mitch and Tom Kelly fromCrazy Paint, Chip Foose, Rich Evans(who appeared at no less than five dif-ferent booths) and Mickey Harris.

Overall, I would have to say thatmy 36 hours of SEMA was a fun andfruitful adventure. The only thing I leftin Sin City was my phone charger andabout 200 business cards. I did winenough money playing poker to payfor my trip.

with Ed Attanasio

Social Media for Shops

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

My Crazed 36 Hours at SEMA

Celebrities are always a big part of any SEMAshow. Here I am with former Chicago BearsNFL star William “The Fridge” Perry as herepresents Big Ass Fans (yes, that’s theirbrand name.)

Peter MacGillivray

“The King of the Kustomizers” George Barris isalways nice and spends time with everyone

Pretty girls are always used for marketing pur-poses at SEMA and always attract crowds ofmostly men. These ladies were working theKIA booth as the carmaker unveiled its SuperHero Street vehicles

Mitch (at right) and Tom Kelly from Crazy Paintproudly displayed their ’57 Chevy Blue Heavencreation at SATA’s SEMA booth. See Autobo-dynews.com for background on this vehicle


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What is the value of a lifetime cus-tomer? Let’s just take 15 years. A typi-cal driver has some sort of vehicledamage once every three to five years.If we count little parking lot scrapesand minor dents, three years may bejust about right. That means a goodcustomer might visit the shop fivetimes in 15 years, but at least threetimes. How important is it that this cus-tomer becomes a repeat customer? Ofcourse that depends on the size of theshop, the referral sources the shop re-lies on, and the number of repeat cus-tomers the shop relies on to maintain asteady, profitable business. A shop withmany DRPs providing a steady flow ofnew customers may not be as con-cerned with repeat customers as a smallto medium sized shop that needs atleast half of all customers to come backagain—and hopefully again and again.

In just those 15 years, a repeatcustomer might generate $5,000 worthof business, and possibly much more.In his unique book on marketing, “Get-ting Everything You Can Out of AllYou’ve Got,” author Jay Abrahamsays: “Until you identify and under-stand exactly how much combinedprofit a client represents to your busi-ness for the life of that relationship, youcan’t begin to know how much time,effort and ... expense you can afford toinvest to acquire that client in the firstplace.” Cable, phone and other similarcompanies offer a low rate for the first

year to gain new users. It’s well knownthat repeat buyers and users become farmore profitable as time goes on. Howcan this approach apply to a bodyshop?

Visiting many shops over theyears, I’ve often heard the viewpointthat fixing dings and small dents is alosing proposition. They say the timeand effort just generating the paperwork costs more than the small profitmade for the repair. Obviously thisviewpoint is not taking into account thelifetime value of a customer. It alsooverlooks the habit principle that saysthe number of repeat experiences de-termines how deeply a habit is in-grained in an individual. Just gettingsomeone to come to the shop multipletimes (without having a bad experi-ence) will accustom that person to hav-ing a repetitive relationship with theshop. How deeply the habit is ingrainedwill also determine how resistive thecustomer will be to being pressed byhis or her insurance company to go totheir selected DRP shop. For manypeople, a strong, personal relationshipis necessary to be willing to reject theirinsurer’s insistence on using a differentshop than yours.

So, how far would you go to getmany, if not most, customers to be-come lifetime friends and customers?Jay Abraham says it starts with view-ing the person as a ‘client’ rather thanas a ‘customer.’ A customer is one who

purchases a product or service, but Jaynotes that a client is defined as “a per-son who is under the protection of an-other.” He advises becoming a trustedadviser who they can look to for pro-tection—in our case from predatoryshops seeking obscene profits or mak-ing fraudulent claims, or insurancecompanies directing them to a shopthat is more to the advantage of the in-surance company than to the cus-tomer/client.

I’ve seen the length some shopswill go to, to find a less costly part or toprovide service above and beyondwhat is generally expected. The cus-tomer/client loyalty to these shops isquite remarkable. But is there some-thing more a shop can do to cement alifetime relationship during that firstvisit to the shop? Many businesses nowprovide customers with a ‘reward’ cardand department stores provide cus-tomers with a credit card only good attheir store. Most reward cards just ac-

cumulate points for gifts or to applycredit against a future purchase. I’veheard of a few shops that were in theprocess of creating a similar card togive to first time repair job customers.But the card could also be used for carwashes, detailing, pin-striping andother vehicle related services.

A completely different approach isproviding an estimator with special in-centives to build a more personal rela-tionship with first time customers. If ashop has a long-term estimator whocan be counted on to stay with the shopfar into the future, the personal touch isoften key to getting people to comeback. Letting the estimator be the goodguy, cutting some costs or speeding uprepair time, can endear him or her tothe customer. Many people come backsimply because they like and trust aspecific person at a place of business.When future business is taken into ac-count, a shop is always wise to calcu-late profits in the long run.


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What’s the Value of a Lifetime Customer?

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

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

H&V Collision Centers—with sev-eral locations including Troy, Ala-bany, Queensbury and SaratogaSprings, NY—has partnered withCatholic Charities of the Diocese ofAlbany (CCDA) and State Farm todonate a vehicle to a needy commu-nity member as part of the NationalAuto Body Council's (NABC) 2012Recycled Rides program, a nation-wide awareness project where mem-bers of the NABC—a not-for-profitorganization—repair and donate re-cycled vehicles to families in need.State Farm works with the NABC todonate vehicles in communitiesacross the country.

Recycled Rides is scheduled tomake simultaneous donationsthroughout the country the week of

Thanksgiving. The 2012 donationmarks the third time that H&V Col-lision Centers has contributed a ve-hicle to a family in need or one thatis facing special challenges.

“H&V Collision Center’s goalis to help people in our local com-munity, especially during these chal-lenging times,” said Vartan Jerian Jr.of H&V Collision Centers. “Thisimportant program allows H&V tomake a positive impact for a familyin need right here in our communityand across the country.”

H&V Collision was founded byVartan Jerian Sr. in the early 1970sat the company’s home on OakwoodAvenue in Troy. In the 1990s, VartanSr.’s three sons, Vartan Jr., Jamesand John joined the operation.

H&V Collision Centers Contributes Vehicle to Recycled Rides

by Melanie Anderson

The Collision Repair Education Foun-dation announced the two winningschools who will each receive a$50,000 Ultimate Collision EducationMakeover grant. The winners weresurprised at an Oct. 30 reception heldat the Las Vegas Hotel during SEMA.

This year, for the first time, both asecondary and a post-secondaryschool received a $50,000 makeovergrant. The two winning schools are

Nichols Career Center in JeffersonCity, MO, (a secondary school) andManhattan Area Technical College lo-cated in Manhattan, KS. The Educa-tion Foundation awarded two grantsso secondary and post-secondaryschools didn’t have to compete witheach other. Seventy schools from 31states applied for the 2012 Makeovergrant. Over the next several months,the Education Foundation will beworking to fulfill the two schools’ col-lision programs $50,000 wish lists ofneeded tools, equipment and supplies.

Although he was unable to attendthe reception due to SuperstormSandy, Collision Repair EducationFoundation Executive Director ClarkPlucinski later noted, “It was greatbringing the collision industry to-gether during our industry reception tonot only highlight the support the or-ganization has provided to collisionschool programs through the generos-ity of our industry donors, but also tosurprise both of these instructors thattheir collision programs will havetheir $50,000 wish lists fulfilled. Welook forward to working together withnot only the two winning schools butalso focusing support on all of the ap-

plicant schools, as they took the timeand effort to let us know their specificcollision needs. Congratulations againto both Nichols Career Center andManhattan Area Technical College!”

The two instructors attending thelate-night Las Vegas reception wereawestruck when they learned they hadwon the makeover grants for theirschools. The $50,000 for tools andequipment means their programs,barely surviving on miniscule budgets,can now offer the newest and latest inindustry technology for their students.

Dennis Bruemmer, instructor atNichols Career Center Automotive Col-lision Technology in Jefferson City,MO, said he was “totally overwhelmed”when the announcement was made thathis school was one of the winners.

“Before being hired as their in-structor in 1998, I had served on theNichols Career Center AutomotiveCollision Advisory Board,” Bruem-mer said. “My personal goal has al-ways been to improve the quality ofeducation for the students in this pro-gram. Winning this grant will helptremendously in my quest to achievethis goal. I am extremely grateful tothose involved for choosing my pro-gram to receive this award.”

The Automotive Collision Tech-nology program at Nichols CareerCenter has been in existence for 36years, from its inception during the1976-1977 school year. “I am proud tosay I was a student in that first class atNichols Career Center,” said Bruem-mer. “My instructor at that time wasFred Bremmerkamp, who now runsa successful collision repair business.He, as well as many other area colli-sion repair facilities, have participatedin internships and shop tours for ourstudents. These internships have led tofull-time positions for some of ourstudents, as well as encouraged othersto continue their education in collisionrepair after they have graduated fromour program.”

The collision repair program atNichols currently has 27 students.

The Manhattan Area TechnicalCollege in Kansas has offered their au-tomotive program to students since the1970s. Typically, the program has 18-20 students, but this year, only nine areenrolled. With a budget of only $8,600,instructor Linn Schroll can’t buy muchin the way of materials, tools or equip-ment. Due to the constrained budget,students get hit with lab and material

fees. He plans to spend some of theMakeover grant money to beef up hisprogram and attract more students.

“Winning the Ultimate Makeovergrant from the Collision Repair Educa-tion Foundation was one of the biggestsurprises of my life,” said Schroll. “Mywife and I were standing at the back of

the room because I don’t win thesekind of things, so why move up in theroom? When they started reading partof the application letter for the post-secondary winner, I looked at my wifeand said, ‘Holy cow, that is my writing,I think I just won.’ I am not really surehow I made it to the stage.”

Even though he’s had time to di-gest the news, Schroll said his head is“still spinning. I still can’t believe thatwe won but I am excited about what itwill mean to this program. I have putmany hours into this program over thelast six years and it feels really good tobe recognized for my efforts on a na-tional level. I am also very pleasedthat so many things that I have wantedfor the program will be completed be-cause of this Makeover grant. I thinkmost teachers who are committed toimproving a program donate so muchof their own time and money to helpmake a program better, but with lim-ited resources, there is only so muchyou can do out of your own pocket.

“By winning the Makeover grant,I will be able to accomplish in a shorttime what would have taken years toaccomplish, if at all. We are beingcontacted by vendors who are donat-ing materials and the Foundation ismaking contact with a lot of people toget things moving. I can’t thank theselection committee and the Founda-tion enough for what this will mean tothe school, students and myself,”Schroll said.


Education Foundation Awards $50,000 Makeover Grants at SEMA

Instructors Dennis Bruemmer, left, and LinnSchroll, right, accepted $50,000 makeovergrants from the Collision Repair EducationFoundation for their schools

by Melanie Anderson

I-CAR instructor, Autobody Newscolumnist, and shop consultant TobyChess, AAM, entertained and taughta small crowd at SEMA about how tomake more and spend less within thenormal daily operations of a collisionrepair shop.

In the industry since 1969, Chess’background includes wrecking, restora-tion and collision.

Falling asleep in Chess’ classwasn’t an option as he kept the pres-entation lively, heckling those atten-dees who were sitting in the back ofthe room and pulling out the ‘ladderof success’ from his attaché bag to

kick off the talk.Make More Money Without Spend-

ing an Arm and a Leg focused on howbusinesses can cultivate positivechanges without spending a hugeamount that many shops can’t justify inthe current economy. Chess presentedsimple, straightforward tips to help shopowners and managers streamline opera-tions and increase profits by reducingwaste and expenses.

“For collision repair businesses,there is a ton of opportunity to im-prove your business with very little in-vestment if you know where to look,”said Chess. “This session offers anumber of proven ideas that will de-crease cycle time, reduce comebacks

and increase quality; and the invest-ment costs will be under $500. Forgetabout learning fancy buzzwords asso-ciated with process improvement.This session will give time-tested ex-amples of ways to improve your busi-ness and make more money for verylittle, if any, up front expense.”

And with that promise, Chess wasoff to the races, touching on severaltopics including time wasters, settinggoals and developing SOPs.

To set the tone, Chess re-definedthe industry by saying, “You do not fixor repair cars. You re-manufacturecars.”

Chess got the audience involvedby asking the question, “How much is

spent on a supplement?” Most of theshop owners and managers thoughtthe cost of adding a supplement to anestimate was $40 or $50. Some said$100. One brave soul said $300 and

Chess zeroed in on him wanting a firmcommitment to his answer and thegentleman didn’t waver. Chess thenturned the classroom into a sponta-neous live production, getting audi-ence members to role play a scenariowhere a supplement is needed. Turnsout, according to Chess and his theater


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A Few Toby Tips:• Belong to an association, such as SCRS, to becomemore powerful as a group.• All owners and managers should be asking ‘why’ ifsomething isn't right. • Write your goals down. If it's not written down, it'sjust a dream.

• It takes 30 days to develop a new habit.• Don't put a car up on the frame racks without havingall the parts there.• A waste of time is the devotion to useless activity.• Take advantage of training and seminars by vendors.• Organize your shop. Clutter in a shop is a waste ofenergy.• List the items needed in the tear down stall.

Toby Chess always gets the audience to par-ticipate. In this scenario, Chess simulates acar needing a push.

Clemson University automotive engi-neering students unveiled Deep Or-ange 3, a third-generation vehicle, atSEMA 2012 in Las Vegas on Oct. 31.

Deep Orange 3, the third-genera-tion Deep Orange vehicle prototypedesigned and engineered by the auto-motive engineering students is awhole new vehicle, inside and out.

Working at the Clemson Univer-sity International Center for Automo-tive Research (CU-ICAR), thestudents have free reign to push theboundaries of conventional design andengineering. They designed the vehi-cle in partnership with Mazda NorthAmerican Operations and the Art Cen-ter College of Design in Pasadena,CA.

Deep Orange 3 features a uniqueTwinEngine hybrid powertrain thatautomatically chooses front-, rear- orall-wheel-drive; a load-bearing struc-ture based on innovative sheet-foldingtechnology patented by IndustrialOrigami; and a groundbreaking 3+3seating configuration in sports car ar-chitecture all packaged in an exteriordesign created by students at the ArtCenter College of Design.

Paul Venhovens, BMW En-dowed Chair in automotive systemsintegration, who leads the Deep Or-ange program, said the latest designnot only provides solutions to the effi-

ciency-vs.-sportiness debate, but alsodelivers driving pleasure, practicalityand flexibility in a setting whereeveryone enjoys the ride.

The vehicle accelerates fromzero to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds with atop speed of 125 mph, achieving 42city and 49 highway miles per gal-lon.

“The students’ design is truly in-novative,” Venhovens said. “Witheach new concept, the class must pushthe boundaries of conventional think-ing to produce a vehicle that is both

groundbreaking andfunctional.

“The students atCU-ICAR representtomorrow’s engi-neering leaders whowill need to combinedeep knowledge of aparticular field withthe breadth to placeit in context,” Ven-hovens said. “DeepOrange 3 is evidenceof that.”

Deep Orangeruns the course of

two academic years in parallel withClemson’s two-year masters pro-gram in automotive engineering. Theprogram provides students with ex-perience in financial and marketanalysis, vehicle design, develop-ment, prototyping and productionplanning, and gives them an oppor-tunity to work with automotive in-

dustry partners to develop ideas.Robert Davis, senior vice presi-

dent of U.S. Operations for MazdaNorth American Operations and aClemson alumnus, said the experi-ences Clemson students gain fromDeep Orange makes them very attrac-tive to industry.

“These engineers will design andbuild the cars we drive tomorrow,”Davis said. “The work they contributeto the Deep Orange project is out-standing, and we at Mazda are hon-ored to support their efforts.”

John Waraniak, vice president ofvehicle technology for SEMA, also aCU-ICAR partner, said the Deep Or-ange project demonstrates Clemson’svision to develop CU-ICAR as theworld’s premier auto manufacturer,performance aftermarket and motorsports research and education facility.

“Deep Orange encourages openinnovation, entrepreneurship and cre-ativity,” Waraniak said. “Next-genera-tion vehicle enthusiasts want thefastest and coolest cars, as well as thesmartest cars. For this alone, CU-ICAR and SEMA is an obvious part-nership.”

Clemson Students Unveil Deep Orange 3 at SEMA 2012 Show

Deep Orange 3 is the third-generation vehicle prototype designed andengineered by Clemson automotive engineering students. Image byClemson University


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Keenan Auto Body West Wins 2012 ACE AwardKeenan Auto Body West recently wonthe VeriFacts 2012 Repair CenterAchievement in Collision Repair Ex-cellence Award, also known as theACE Award.

“We are truly proud of this awardand wish we were able to attend thepresentation ceremony at SEMA butHurricane Sandy had other plans forus here on the East Coast,” saidKeenan President and COO MichaelLeVasseur.

“Our shops take the highest qual-ity standards put forth by VeriFactsvery seriously and work very hard tokeep on the cutting edge of technol-ogy instead of getting complacent. Weare committed to this program andfeel it is in perfect alignment with thegoals of quality, service and integritythat the insurers demand,” LeVasseursaid.

VeriFacts is recognized as one ofthe industry’s only on-site, hands-oncoaching and quality assessment so-lutions available to collision repairand claims professionals.

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well. We have hosted two onsite clin-ics in the past two years and have hadterrific insurance support and manyof their field appraisers that havesigned up and gained knowledge thatthey didn’t necessarily know ex-isted.”

The VeriFacts ACE awards wereestablished to recognize outstandingperformance from individual techni-cians and collision repair centers com-mitted to attaining higher repair qualityas measured through the VeriFacts Ver-ified Quality (VQ) program.

Keenan Auto body, Inc. ownsand operates eleven state-of-the-artcollision repair centers throughoutPhiladelphia, Delaware, Chester,Montgomery counties, and New Cas-tle County in Middletown Delaware.Keenan has been in business for over60 years offering its customers thehighest quality collision repairs at nomore than standard industry rates.

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by Ed Attanasio

Many shops today spend a lot of timeworrying about the ability to meettheir weekly payroll and don’t haveenough time to think about next week,let alone next year. So, when you hearabout a shop that has been around for135 years, your first response might

be shock, followed by curiosity. In thishighly volatile, ever-changing indus-try, how has any collision-relatedbusiness lasted so long?

When George V. Arth opened hisshop back in 1877, there were obvi-ously no DRPs, aftermarket parts, sup-plements or waterborne paint—oreven cars for that matter. The country’spresident was Rutherford Hayes andThomas Edison had just invented thephonograph.

It all began when George V. Arthand his family arrived in the San Fran-cisco Bay Area of California, afterhaving made the long journey from Al-sace Lorraine, France. A career black-smith, Arth bought a small local shopnamed the Oakland Carriage Manu-factory and promptly renamed itGeorge V. Arth & Son. The businesswas wildly successful and quickly be-came well-known for performing top-tier repairs on horse-drawn buggies.But pretty soon the business modelchanged dramatically, when HenryFord’s “horseless carriages” beganroaring through the streets of Oakland.The shop realized rather quickly thatthey would have to re-invent them-selves to survive, so they embraced thetechnology and began repairing andpainting these new motorized vehicles.

135 years and four generationslater, George V. Arth & Son is still fix-ing cars in Oakland, CA, and flourish-ing, despite experiencing at least fiverecessions over the decades (includingthe Great One in the 1930’s); twomajor earthquakes and a professional

hometown football team that left andthen came back again. Until someonecan prove differently, George V. Arth& Son is the oldest continually oper-ated family-owned auto body shopwest of the Mississippi and maybeeven in the entire country.

Ron Arth is the great grandson ofGeorge V. and the manager today. Hestarted working at the shop in his earlyteenage years and has continued towork alongside his father, George W.Arth Jr. and his brother George ArthIII in the family business. Ron believesthat his shop is the oldest in the West,but he isn’t sure if it’s the oldest in thecountry. A national trade publicationhad a contest back in the early 1970’sand found two shops to be older on theEast Coast, but that was almost 40years ago and Ron has no idea if thosetwo shops are still in business.

“To be safe, we just refer to ourshop as being the oldest family-ownedshop west of the Mississippi,” RonArth said. “I can’t imagine that thereare very many body shops, or evenmechanical shops that have been incontinuous operation for 135 years.”

Ron took on full responsibility andmanagement of the shop when his fa-ther stepped down and retired on his65th birthday. Ron’s father, George W.Arth, Jr., is still going strong at age 86

and stops by the shop on a regular basis,usually three to four times a week, justto check in, Ron said. “My father stillplays a role here and actively attendsOakland Rotary meetings every Thurs-day,” he said. “These connections to thecity were built over years and years ofliving and working here and they stillhelp us to keep the shop strong.”

George W. Arth, Jr. was also one ofthe founding members of the East BayAutobody Association, now known asthe East Bay Chapter of the CaliforniaAutobody Association. Ron’s fatherserved as president and was on the boardof the association for many years beforefinally retiring. His son has followed in

those same footsteps by serving on theorganization’s board and as president ofthe association for several years as well.

Ron cites several reasons for thecompany’s longevity and ongoing suc-cess, but being customer centric is themost important. “The fact that we’vealways been a family-run business isimportant. People like to see the samefaces every time they bring their car in.It provides them with a sense of sta-bility in what is usually a stressful sit-uation. It also allows us to buildrelationships which really are the foun-dation of our business. We now getcustomers whose parents and grand-parents brought their vehicles here.“

Repairing more than 80 carsmonthly and employing 12 people,Ron has also seen a definite change inthe relationship between body shopsand insurers. “Obviously, another oneof the biggest changes that I’ve seenin this industry is the introduction ofDirect Repair Programs (DRPs) thatentered the picture about 15 years ago.The insurance companies used to dothe estimates themselves, but now wewrite most of them and often take theplace of the insurance adjuster.”

What is one of the biggest changesin this industry? “It would have to bethe technology, definitely. I rememberwhen my father used to have to get aledger sheet from our bookkeeper atthe end of every day, so that he couldknow exactly where he stood finan-cially. Then one day I showed him thatwe can do the same thing with just acouple of clicks of a mouse. He wasshocked, but we assured him it wasjust as accurate, if not more so. Withthe variety of new computer manage-ment systems available today, it notonly makes us better owners and oper-ators, but saves us time with the over-all estimating and repair process.”


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George V. Arth bought the Oakland Manufactoryin 1877 and changed the name to George V.Arth & Son. Today, it is recognized as the oldestbody shop west of the Mississippi

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Today, George V. Arth & Son is still a family-ownedand operated business, employing 2 people andfixing approximately 80 cars monthly


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Contrary to popular belief, goinggreen doesn’t have to be expensive,said Steven Schillinger of GRC-PirkManagement.

“Shops can save a lot of moneyby greening their practices,” saidSchillinger.

“Marketing tricks and television ad-vertising do their best to convince us thatin order to become more eco-friendly,we have to buy more stuff—but that’s

not true. If you re-place a perfectlygood item just tobuy a new eco-friendly one, youaren’t really doinganything to benefitthe environment.”Schillinger is a reg-

istered environmental assessor and pres-ident of ReComply, an environmentrecords management company.

Schillinger’s presentation, GoingGreen Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive,discussed 101 ways that shops can savemoney by practicing green. (See ab-breviated list below). The talk helpedattendees understand what it means to

‘go green’ and how to be a good envi-ronmental steward, what sustainability,energy conservation and pollution pre-vention means, and that shops can’t

manage what isn’t measured, such ascarbon footprint = greenhouse gas.Sustainability is defined at a conditionwhich natural and social systems sur-vive and thrive together indefinitely.

Schillinger said that a carbonfootprint verifies the environmental

condition, or reduction, of greenhousegases, in a shop. The amount of green-house gas created in a shop is caused70% from energy use, 10% from con-

sumption of metal, wood and plastic,15% from waste, such as paint, sol-vent, soap and trash and only 5% isfrom VOCs and other chemicals.

The energy used in a typical col-lision repair shop includes 33% for the

spray booth, 31% for lighting, 18%for heating, ventilation and air condi-tioning, 12% for miscellaneous and6% for the air compressor.

For an idea of how much GHG(greenhouse gas) pollution cars create,envision 65 million cars on UnitedStates roads, with an average car emit-ting five tons of carbon dioxide eachyear, Schillinger said.

Benefits of going green includereceiving tax credits, 30-year sharedsavings funding, discounts, rate re-duction or rebates with the local util-ity, reduced workers’ comp insuranceand business insurance, and promo-tion by your local city.

To attain recognition for being agreen shop, go to www.findgreen-garage.com, a public service website.

For more information aboutgoing green, see the Federal TradeCommission website to downloadfree copies of FTC green guides at:www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/10/green-guides.shtm.

Businesses who promote or ad-vertise themselves as ‘green’ need toprove it with hard evidence. A lack ofproof is called ‘greenwashing.’ Those


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Do-It-Yourself Tipsto Save on Energy• Realign or re-hang windows or

doors that do not close properly.

• Make sure automatic door clos-

ing mechanisms work properly.

• Replace or repair faulty gaskets

in garage or on other overhead

doors

• Resize exterior doors, such as

delivery door, to make them

smaller to reduce excessive infiltra-

tion.

• Add expandable separate enclo-

sures where practical.

• Install self-closing doors on

openings to unconditioned spaces.

• Install a switch on overhead

doors that prevents activation of

heating and cooling units when

doors are open.

• Install vestibule doors at major

entrances.

• Replace worn and/or broken

weather-stripping and caulking.

• Replace broken or cracked win-

dows.

• Recycle your old refrigerator. Do

not have multiple refrigerators.

• Reduce hot water heater temper-

ature

• Shut down exhaust fans after

hours.

• Use economy sensors on your

spray booth.

• Use a timer on the photocopier.

• Add a surge tank to the air com-

pressor.

• Create incentives to conserve

energy.

For a free ROI (return on invest-

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companies who ‘greenwash’ hide thehidden trade-off, have no proof, arevague, incorporate irrelevant prac-tices or outright lie.

Currently in progress is a EnergyStar Green Garage Challenge spon-sored by the EPA. This program en-courages consumers to use repairshops that have attained green certi-fication under official governmentprograms. Automotive industry sup-pliers, associations and organizationscompete for prominent mapping po-sition based on improved energy per-formance and greenhouse gasreduction. For more information onthe Green Garage Campaign, go towww.GreenGarageChallenge.com.

Within the website is an energytracking tool called Track GreenGarage, an automated system thatcollects and reports electronic dataacquired from local utility companiesand suppliers. The Energy Star-baseddata processing procedure convertselectricity, gas, water and wasteusage into greenhouse gas ‘GHG’metrics. The metrics are compared toa previous period on a time-weighted-work average basis to de-termine a more or less percent ofgreen sustainability.


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Residents of New Jersey are still dig-ging out from Hurricane Sandy andmany face damaged vehicles to repair.CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Expertsstore owners throughout EasternPennsylvania and New Jersey areready to help, providing gift cards forvehicle repairs to select fans attendingthe annual Turkey Derby at Wall Sta-dium Speedway in Wall, NJ, Nov.22-24.

The recipients will include mem-bers of the Garden State VintageStock Car Club, many of whom losttheir homes and businesses. Addition-ally, select fans in need will be pre-sented with CARSTAR gift cards.

The CARSTAR gift cards, total-ing some $2,800, will be presented toselect recipients by special guests RayEvernham, former Wall Stadiumtrack champion, retired NASCARchampionship crew chief and currentESPN analyst, and legendary modi-fied and open-wheel driver WallyDallenbach as part of the unveiling ofa historic race car that Evernham re-stored to its original condition.

“Everyone in this region hasbeen hit hard by the storm, and we’reall working together to recover andget our lives back to normal,” said

Gus Natelli, owner of Gus’CARSTAR Collision in Philadelphia.“We understand that people’s vehiclesare usually the second most expensiveitem they own, and that they need toget their vehicles safely repaired sothey can get back to work and theirdaily activities. As automotive profes-sionals, and as members of this com-munity, we want to do everything wecan to help them get back on theroad.”

The participating CARSTARstores include:Lakeside Collision CARSTAR3233 Marne HighwayMt Laurel, NJ 08054Autocrafters CARSTAR Collision2659 Bristol PikeBensalem, PA 19020-0000Pete's CARSTAR Collision213 Horsham RdHorsham, PA 19044Hunter's CARSTAR133 Chester PikeNorwood, PA 19074Gus' CARSTAR Collision9412 Bustleton AvePhiladelphia, PA 19115Champion CARSTAR Collision1291 US Highway 130Hightstown, NJ 08520

CARSTAR Gives Gift Cards for Vehicle Repairs toSelect Fans at Annual Turkey Derby in Wall, NJ

Cole’s Collision Centers has an-nounced the opening of its newestcollision repair shop in Halfmoon,NY.

The center will create 15-20immediate job openings for variouspositions including administrative,auto repair technicians, customerservice representatives and estima-tors. Cole’s Collision currently em-ploys 52 full-time workers and hasthree other locations in the CapitalRegion.

Formerly the location of Lee’sPlumbing and HVAC LLC, the ren-ovated 11,800-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility at 1624 Route 9includes a showroom, office space,repair shop, two estimating bays, ashipping and receiving room andmore. The total investment on reno-vations and new equipment for thebuilding exceeds more than$500,000.

“We are committed to the high-est safety standards and quality cus-tomer service at all of our locations,”said John Cole, founder and presi-dent. “This new store wouldn’t bepossible without the support of ourcustomers, partners, suppliers andstaff.”

Cole’s Collision CentersOpens 4th Site in New York

by Melanie Anderson

Shop owners and managers learnedhow to market to self-paying con-sumers in a presentation led by SteveTrapp and Robert Rick at SEMA2012 in Las Vegas.

Steve Trapp, Program Manager atDuPont Performance Services andDuPont Performance Alliance, andRobert Rick, President of RR CustomSolutions Training and Consulting,presented “Marketing to Consumers -

Supporting Cus-tomer-Pay SalesEfforts.”Current statistics

show that 35-40%of customers areasking repairers towrite a customer-paid estimate, with

a historical 50% closing ratio on these

estimates. Improving sales skills forthese more price-sensitive customersis key.

This SCRS Repairer Driven Edu-cation course reviewed the advisorysales process and how it uniquely ap-plies to this segment of prospectivecustomers. “Customer pay is goingup,” said Rick. “People are freakedout about turning in an insuranceclaim because consumers are afraid ofbeing dropped or having their premi-ums go up.”

Because most shop owners don’thave a marketing degree, Trapp andRick presented a mini “Marketing101” class to teach shop owners andmanagers the basics of marketingtechniques. In layman terms, market-ing is getting someone to contact youor bringing someone to your door.

“Marketing happens when some-one comes into your shop or when you

pick up the phone,” said Rick. “Howmuch time and money is spent gettingpeople in the door? When your phonerings, how many people in your repairshop look at the ringing phone like it’sthe devil?” Rick said he wishes hecould change the sound of a ringingphone into dollar signs because theperson on the other end of the phonecould be your next $2,000 customer.

Trapp added, “They are already inthe door, so why not close them?” De-pending on your shop size, increasing

closing sales ratio by 5% on customerself-pays could increase annual repaircenter sales by $200,000.

“Getting work to the door is mostrepairers biggest need,” said Rick. “Atthe end of the day, we are here to bringin more customers.”

Estimators don’t want to see cus-tomer pays because they are comfort-able with DRPs, said Rick. But, withcustomer-pays, “your market opportu-nities to close are limitless,” he said.

Trapp suggested that shops call


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Steve Trapp, Aaron Schulenberg and Robert Rick

Robert Rick

Marketing Tips• One marketing tool that really standsout is a lighted exterior sign. “A newstandard sign does not stand out after aweek. It becomes a tree,” Trapp said.Instead, he suggests shops invest in alighted sign that includes the time andtemperature because it becomes a land-mark in your town. “As you drive aroundyour town, do you know what busi-nesses display the time and tempera-ture?” he asked. Everyone in the roomraised their hand.• If you have the customer’s attentionand they decide to call you, do notwaste the opportunity with a mundanegreeting and impersonal phone interac-tion. This is your next customer, so treatthem like your mother, Rick said.• To brand your business, make surepeople see a sign outside of the buildingand another sign the first thing they seewhen they walk in. Every member of theteam also needs to be wearing a namebadge. Trapp suggests shops invest ininterior foam logo signs and exteriorfabric banner signs to help supportsales and shop branding.• Posters showing photos of a step-by-step repair process help customers un-derstand how much work is involved intheir repair. Use the posters as a visualwhen talking to your customers abouttheir repair. Trapp said DuPont will cus-tomize these posters for their customers

and other paint companies offer similarposters.• Don’t use lingo and acronyms thatcustomers won’t understand.• Giving customers a shop tour willhelp close the sale.• Customers, especially younger peo-ple, love text messages for status andupdates.• Use an iPad and hand it to your cus-tomer for the CSI, so you know it’s doneimmediately. When you get a negativeremark on the CSI, call the customerand try to resolve the problem.• Develop a plan to stay in touch withcustomers for five years. Ideas includesending periodic enewsletters, offeringspecial coupons for seasonal services,such as spring detail or headlight aim-ing, offering a 24-month paint protectionplan, or mailing out letters a year or twoafter service offering lifetime warrantyor a coupon. Mail a lottery ticket andask for a referral.• Create good will and public relationsopportunities by holding communityevents at your location. Communityevents can include teen driver nights,ladies’ nights, vehicle extractions andparticipating in the NABC RecycledRides program.• And the #1 marketing tool bodyshops should use, Trapp said, is to havesolid customer service and using cus-tomer relationship management tomaintain a relationship.

demonstration, that chasing down asupplement wastes a lot of time andtakes people away from work, therebycosting the shop about $288 per sup-plement.

Chess also touched on the impor-tance of Standard Operating Proce-dures, or SOPs.

SOPs are not needed for everyoperation, he explained, but for thoseareas where there are problems.“Look at what obstacles are blockingproduction,” he said. He stressed theimportance of creating the SOPs withshop employees so they have a buy-into the new procedure.

“The number one thing an em-ployee wants is to be treated with re-spect, and the best way to do that is toask for their input,” Chess said. Hewent on to give an example of how hehelped a shop in Gardenia, CA, gofrom $88,000 in the red to more than$100,000 in profit and one of thethings he did was implement an Em-ployee Appreciation Month.

The benefits of creating StandardOperating Procedures include:

• reducing system variations• facilitating training• facilitating cross training• reducing waste• creating regular evaluation of work• improving work activity

As an example of a SOP, Chessshared what information he marks ona windshield when a car comes intothe shop:• Repair order number• Customer last name• Insurance information or COD• Date of arrival• Target date of repair completion• Name of estimator• Name of technician• Any sublets needed (such as alignment)• Note whether pictures have beentaken.

their sales advisors ‘service advisorsor customer care advisors.’

“Earn your customers’ trust bygiving good advice,” Trapp said.

“Get rid of the E-word,” Rickagreed. “Stop using the ‘estimator’word.”

Shops need to remember that thekey needs of a customer are conven-ience, empathy, needing a trusted advi-sor and superior service. The average

consumer reports an insurance claimevery 10 years. They don’t know theclaims process. Your job is to helpthem get through it.

It’s important to do what you canto get your customers to rememberyou. Create a story so your customers

remember you. Build a relationship.One way to do that is to always thankyour customers. Don’t send anemail—that’s too impersonal and theyget deleted. A mailed handwritten noteis best.

What should your marketingbudget be? For new shops just start-ing out, spending 10% of yourbudget on marketing is best. Forshops that are five years or less into

the business and growing, spend-ing 5% of your budget on market-ing is good. And for shops that aremore mature and have been inbusiness longer than five years,only 3% of your budget is neededfor marketing.

Social media is a whole othersubject, but Trapp and Rick brieflyspoke on website presence. Yourwebsite is your virtual lobby thatis open 24 hours a day. It managesyour virtual branding. Basically, awebsite should provide directions,

answer frequently asked questions,provide status updates and include anamateur video to boost website con-tent and interest. The website contentshould be relevant and current. Don’tlet it become stale. Remove outdatedinformation.


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by Ed Attanasio

The Specialty Equipment Market As-sociation (SEMA) announced its NewProducts Showcase Awards on the eveof its 2012 show to recognize theworld’s most cutting-edge automotiveproducts in the collision industrytoday. With more than 2,000 newproducts submitted for consideration,only a handful received accolades andthe trophies that accompany them. It’sthe Oscar, the Emmy and the Lom-bardi Trophy of collision combinedand surely one of the most covetedawards out there, because it comeswith the SEMA stamp of approval andall of the benefits associated with it.

First place in the Collision Repair& Refinish Product division went tothe Matrix Wand 3-D Blueprintingand Discovery System, manufacturedby Matrix Electronic Measuring, Inc.,a company that was founded in 2003and is located in Salina, KS. Judgedon its superiority of innovation, tech-nical achievement, quality and work-manship, consumer appeal andmarketability, the Matrix Wand waslaunched in April 2012 and received

positive reviews almost immediately.This handheld, electronic measuringsystem accurately and precisely meas-ures collision damage so that a bodyshop can repair a vehicle back to fac-tory specifications.

Consisting of the wand, cameras,computer, and software, the MatrixWand collects measurements and datautilizing stereoscopic photo documen-tation and archives all of the informa-

tion electronically for retrieval and sub-sequent analysis. Three feet long andweighing about 12 pounds, the deviceis extremely precise and easy to oper-ate. By passing it over the vehicle likea magician’s imaging wand, techni-

cians can complete the en-tire process in 15 minutesor less.

Jan Srack is the co-founder and president ofMatrix Electronic Measur-ing Inc. and a 25-year vet-eran of the collisionindustry. She’s obviouslypleased about winning theaward and has great plansfor the product’s poten-tially bright future. “We’vegot the Matrix Wand cur-rently in body shops fromHawaii to Connecticut andsoon it will be available in-ternationally. This is an ex-citing time for us because

the industry has embraced the Wandand without that, we wouldn’t bewhere we are right now. The fact isthat so many people have supportedand assisted us in our success. With-

out them, we wouldn’t be where weare today and I sincerely mean that. Ittakes so many levels within this in-dustry to make a product successful. ”

SEMA’s award kicked off a greatshow for the company and Srackhopes to ride that momentum into2013, she said. “To share our victorywith our team was really wonderful.We always knew there was a need foreffective electronic measuring in thisindustry, and the Wand provides it.We’ve been developing this productsince 2008, so it hasn’t happenedovernight. We introduced it to the col-lision industry in April 2012 aftermuch work, because we wanted tomake sure it was dynamic and market-ready before we made it available tobody shops. We got the call fromSEMA at 10 p.m. on Monday, Octo-ber 29 to tell us that we had won, so itwas a thrill. There were a lot of greatproducts in consideration, so it meanseven more to us to be recognized.”

The Matrix Wand’s journey fromconception to completion took a totalof 4.5 years, but it has paid off withthe SEMA award and burgeoningsales. “There was a lot of work in-


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Matrix Wand Captures New Collision Product Award at SEMA

Ron Chiles, director of sales and marketing at Matrix ElectronicMeasuring, Inc. poses with the Matrix Wand system and thetrophy for first place in the Collision Repair & Refinish Productdivision from SEMA.

volved in developing it and testing it,”Srack said. “We received approval re-cently on our three patents, which ishuge, so this award was even moremeaningful to us and our distributorsnationwide. SEMA is a great organi-zation, so being a part of that is sig-nificant. This industry is full ofamazing companies and people, so itdefinitely means a lot.”

What are some of the main rea-sons for the Matrix Wand’s successand acceptance within the industry?“The documentation in 3-D is instru-mental,” Srack explained. “It’s a win-win-win all the way around, becausefrom the body shop owner to the esti-mator to the technician and onto thecustomer and the insurance company,this product benefits all of them andmakes their lives easier. The MatrixWand decreases the friction betweenthe shops and the insurers, and takesthe drama out of the blueprinting andmeasuring process, because it providesaccurate information that every partyinvolved can rely on. That’s an idealsituation and how often does it reallyhappen in any industry, let alone colli-sion repair?”

Costing approximately $31,000each—but with an affordable lease op-

tion, the complete Matrix Wand systemis a substantial investment for any shop,but by paying for itself within a reason-able period of time, it makes sense forany size operation, Srack said.

“Our customers are justifying thecost after just six months, in mostcases. How often can you buy a pieceof equipment and say that you’ll re-coup all your money within half ayear? One of the advantages of inno-vative technology, even in a poor econ-omy, is that people will still invest incutting-edge technology.”

How is the Matrix Wand differentthan laser measuring systems out thereon the market? “Most lasers are two-dimensional, but our imaging is three-dimensional and you have access tothe information much easier, within 15minutes or less with the Matrix Wand.Without our product, it takes 1.5 hourson average to do the job, and you’restill guessing because you don’t havethree dimensions to refer to. By dis-covering the structural damage up-front, body shops can quantify it andtriage the car throughout the shop,meaning that cycle times are greatlyimproved. For the first time, the insur-ance companies have 3-D validation ofthe damage on their customers’ vehi-

cles. This is not a CAD drawing or anoverlay; this is really the actual cus-tomer’s vehicle. Mobility is anotherbenefit of using this product, becauseit’s a handheld device and you don’thave to worry about the car beinglevel. With the complexity of thesecars today, the Matrix Wand is moreessential than ever.”

SEMA’s Vice-President of Eventsand Communications PeterMacGillivray discussed the impor-tance of the award and how it impactsthe industry worldwide. “The numberone reason why people go to the showis for new products. These productawards are judged by industry peersand that’s why they mean so much tothe winners. We always announcethem before the show begins, so thatthe winners can enjoy the benefits ofthis very special achievement.”

For more information see:http://thematrixwand.com/

To schedule a demonstrationcontact: Toby Chess at [email protected], or by phone at310-995-7909.

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Greg Ellinger Collision, 5839 Rome-Taberg Road, in Rome, NY, has againbeen named an Automotive “TopShop” by AAA Western and CentralNew York, based on customer satis-faction ratings.

Greg Ellinger Collision is afamily-owned and operated business.Greg Ellinger and wife PrudyEllinger established the collision re-pair center in 1974 when they openedtheir business in Lee Center. Al-though the facility was good, theyquickly outgrew it. In 1977, GregEllinger Collision moved to their sec-ond location on Route 69 in Rome.After several additions, they onceagain outgrew the building andmoved across the street to their cur-rent location.

Winners of the annual award areparticipants in AAA’s Approved AutoRepair program and have met thehighest standards for automotive re-pair and customer service, the groupnoted. Ellinger was named an AAA-approved Auto Body Repair TopShop winner.

Repair centers displaying theaward sign ‘excel in workmanship,service, training, appearance, andreputation,’ AAA stated.

Ellinger Again Named AAATop Shop in New York

by Ed Attanasio

We know how many uses there are forWD-40® and you’ve probably beenusing it for many years. But are youaware of all the charity outreach thatthe company performs every year,through its SEMA Cares vehicles pro-gram?

After the last three WD-40®/SEMA Cares vehicles raised acombined $400,000 for children’scharities during previous shows,Chip Foose and WD-40® Companyteamed up this year one more time tobuild two more custom trucks, a1953 Ford F-100 and a 2012 Ford F-350, that will eventually be auc-tioned off to benefit the SEMA Caresprogram.

This year’s first project vehicle,the WD-40®/SEMA Cares Foose ’53Ford F-100, was created to commem-orate the 60th anniversary of WD-40®.Six decades ago, engineers in SanDiego, CA, developed this product todisplace moisture on the Atlas missile,and today WD-40® is sold in 187countries worldwide.

Featuring a vintage “shoptruck” look with an updated drivetrain and suspension, one-offFoose wheels and custom paint,this one-of-a-kind pickup trucklooks similar to the truck used todeliver the first case of the prod-uct in the early ‘50s, back whenthe company was called RocketChemical Company.Proceeds from the auctioned

vehicle will benefit two SEMACares charities—Childhelp®, an or-ganization that provides services toabused and neglected children, andVictory Junction, which provideslife-changing camping experiencesto special needs and chronically illchildren.

WD-40® Brand Manager Shan-non Edwards passionately believes

in supporting causes that help chil-dren while strengthening the auto-motive industry in the process, shesaid. “Victory Junction is a greatorganization and Childhelp offers awide variety of services to abusedand neglected children, as well as

to treatment counselors, educators,parents, foster care families thecommunity and law enforcementprofessionals.”

Leading aftermarket manufactur-ers and other companies that chippedin to build and promote the vehicle in-

clude: Foose Design, Street SceneEquipment, Barrett-Jackson, LMCTruck, L&R Automotive, Egge, MHTWheels, Pirelli Tires, BASF Paint,American Auto Wire, Painless Per-formance, Quiet Ride, K&N Filters,Red Kap and McGard.

“This year, we’re upping the anteand building two vehicles – one thatpays tribute to WD-40® Company’shistory, and one that celebrates someof its newer specialty products thathelp auto pros like me get the job doneright,” Foose explained. “With the


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WD-40 Keeps on Truckin’ When it Comes to Helping Others

Here is the initial mockup of the WD-40®/SEMACares Foose ’53 Ford F-100

The WD-40®/SEMA Cares Foose ’53 Ford F-100 commemorates the 60th anniversary of WD-40®

help of some great aftermarket part-ners and a lot of WD-40® brand prod-ucts, we’ll be able to build twovehicles that honor those who workhard every day.”

The second project vehicle, theWD-40® Specialist/SEMA CaresFoose Ford F-350, is a custom 2012Ford Super Duty work truck that in-cludes Foose-inspired front and rearwheel flares, side rockers, and cus-tom bodywork, among other up-grades. The vehicle represents thenew WD-40® Specialist line of prod-

ucts that help skilled trade profes-sionals get their specific jobs donewith ease.

Following its debut at the2012SEMA Show inside the WD-

40® Company booth, this vehiclewill hit the road for several monthsmaking special appearances beforebeing auctioned to help fund theSEMA Cares scholarship fund.Leading aftermarket manufacturersand other companies that chipped into build and promote the vehicle in-clude: Foose Design, Street SceneEquipment, Ford, Source InterlinkMedia, Icon Vehicle Dynamics, Dy-naTrac, Custom Truck Shop, BF-Goodrich, Magnaflow, Takit, HuskyLiners, LEER, Katzkin, Pro Comp,Polk Audio, Audio Innovations andPowerBass.

After its unveiling at SEMA,both vehicles will embark on a tourat automobile shows and otherevents throughout the West, beforebeing auctioned for charity at theBarrett-Jackson Collector Car Auc-tion in Scottsdale, AZ, Jan. 13–20,2013.

Edwards is happy to work withChip Foose for a wide range of rea-sons. “He lives our values and makesa lasting impression in everything hedoes. The way we run our companyand the way Chip operates his busi-ness are very similar, and that’s whywe’re very pleased to be associated

with him, especially on great projectslike this one.”

Ford Motor Company sold WD-40® its Ford F-350 for one dollar, Ed-wards said, and in just eight months itwent from blueprint to reality. “Fordstepped up and Foose with Mike

Spagnola from Street Scene Equip-ment in Costa Mesa, CA, made thistruck a one-of-a-kind vehicle. Byusing some of the best of the best inthis industry, we were able to get twoamazing trucks that efficiently com-municate our message while capturinga point in the company’s history withthe ’53 Ford F-100.” WD-40®’s mar-keting VP thanked everyone in-volved, with special kudos for Fooseand his finished product.

“These charity vehicles would nothave been possible without the hardwork and vision of Chip Foose and histeam, as well as the time, energy, ded-ication and resources of our build part-ners,” said Tim Lesmeister, vicepresident of marketing for WD-40®Company. “After raising a combined$400,000 for SEMA Cares with ourlast three project vehicle builds, weexpect these trucks to turn a lot ofheads and continue to help a greatcause.”


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Two powerhouse thinkers thoughtthey could change the way we thinkand so presented “Change the WayYou Think at a CORE Level” atSEMA 2012 in Las Vegas.

The purpose of the presentationwas to provide a clear understanding

of what junk think-ing is, show evi-dence of existenceof junk thinking inthe market, andprovide a clear di-rection to departfrom the junkthinking environ-

ment. According to speakers BillPark and Dr. Byron Bissell, junkthinking is responsible for at least80% of the problems in one’s busi-ness.

“The lack of quality thinking hasled to enormous disasters and disap-pointments. And it’s not only thinkingthrough the solutions to the gnarlyproblems. More often than not, it’s thepainful reality you’re working on thewrong problems,” said Dr. Bissell.

Dr. Bissell is a retired associateprofessor of business from the Uni-versity of Arizona and is currently ablogger for mPowerU, a website ded-icated to providing insight and infor-mation to the auto body collisionrepair industry. His background in-cludes working as a manager, an edu-cator, scholar, academic administrator,behavioral consultant, psychiatric so-cial worker and child welfare case-worker. He holds a PhD in businessand a Master’s degree in psychiatricsocial work and in public administra-tion.

Bill Park currently trains and con-sults small to medium sized busi-nesses in the automotive collisionrepair industry. His passion is to “Addvalue. Period.” Bill also has foundedand operated multiple businesses overthe years, ranging from small, 2-3 per-son entities, to a medium sized 100-employee corporation. Bill has over20 years experience in all facets ofbusiness development, including, butnot limited to: green-field and start-ups, process development, venturecapital, financial literacy, acquisitionsand disposition. He also holds an

MBA and previ-ously owned fourcollision repair lo-cations in Arizonathat were sold threeyears ago to GerberCollision & Glass.

“The purposeof this presentationis to identify junkthinking, act on it,change it, and im-prove businessthinking,” saidPark. In short, junkthinking is “think-ing that leads to atrain wreck.”

Junk thinking is a major reasonwhy businesses fail. The top 5 reasonsa business fails are:1) lack of experience2) insufficient capital3) poor location4) poor inventory management5) over-investment in fixed assets

“The commonality here is junkthinking,” Park said.

Junk thinking happens becauseit’s easier. “Thinking is hard,” Dr. Bis-

sell said. “Good thinking takes effort,discipline, and learning how to havegood thinking. Good thinking doesn’tcome naturally. Start the journey togood thinking first by admitting to en-gaging in junk thinking.”

An example of junk thinking,Park said, is that employers will oftenhire workers based on their workskills, which is only 20% of theirtotal skills—the other 80% being“soft skills”—such as how they getalong with people, their work ethic,


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Guilty of Junk Thinking? ‘How to Think Better’ at SEMA 2012

Bill Park (l) and Dr. Byron Bissell (r) encouraged SEMA attendees tostop junk thinking and to think better

Byron Bissell

attitude, presentation. Basic job de-scription skills can be taught, espe-cially for those employers who wanttheir people to follow particular stan-dards. Other examples of junk think-ing include crisis management,wishful thinking, biased thinking,and denial.

Dr. Bissell described how ourbrain thinks. Our five senses capturedata from an external environmentand our brain interprets the data andprocesses it. The brain then identifieswhat the information means to us andselects the behavior we will engage.

In a nutshell, Bissell and Park saidthere are two types of thinking. Thefirst is called System 1 and is the typeof thinking we do lightning fast, that isautomatic and effortless. For example,we automatically stop at a red light.We don’t have to think about it.

System 2 thinking is slower, me-thodical, deliberate, controlled andruled-governed. It uses up a lot of en-ergy and it’s a lot of work. Most of usavoid that type of thinking. To visual-ize System 2 thinking, think of a turtleworking on a Rubik’s Cube.

When an event happens, we takeabout a nano-second to compartmen-talize it. System 1 thinking is, do we

pay attention to it, ignore it, deal withit now or later? If it’s later, we move itinto System 2, where we give it a greatdeal of thought later.

In System 2 thinking, we pull in-formation from memories and beliefs.“The reality is, knowledge is based onbeliefs,” said Dr. Bissell. System 2thinking comes into play when we askourselves, “Is what I know enough?”If you say yes, then you take action. Ifyou tell yourself no (which we rarelydo because it takes strength to admitwe don’t know enough), we move onto System 2 thinking and seek moreinformation.

Junk thinking is a result of Sys-tem 1 thinking when we should beusing System 2 thinking. “The trick isto know when to activate System 2thinking,” said Bissell. “If the cost-benefit ratio of time and energy to useSystem 2 thinking is positive, then en-gage it.”

Success in the auto repair industrystarts with good System 2 thinking, andtuning up your CORE, Bissell said.

CORE thinking is an acronymfor:Cognition (the way you think)Organization (how information isstored and retrieved)

Reference (based on your identity,who you think you are)Energy (mental)

To think better, prepare yourselfto make thinking changes. Change theway you think; change what you be-lieve; change your perception of whoyou are; change how you direct yourmental energy. “We seem to have aprime directive inside all of us thatsays ‘we shall not change,’” Bissellsaid. “In order to change, you have tobe willing.”

“What we can do better from abusiness perspective is better under-stand the real business we are in,which, by the way, is not fixingcars,”said Park. “People feel stuck,they don’t have the control they want.A business has to be under constantexperimentation and testing based onsound thinking principles.”

Park asked the audience to speakup and admit to a major mistake theyhad made based on junk thinking. Ashop owner from Hawaii said he madea million dollar expansion to his busi-ness without utilizing the knowledgeand expertise of others, particularlyvendors. The owner didn’t design theexpansion properly and ended upchanging the shop layout, which costhim time and money.

Assumptions and emotions canget in the way of good thinking. Wethink we know best. Bissell cautionedthat emotion is an important part ofdecision making but needs to be con-trolled, not eliminated.

Dr. Bissell pointed out that weneed to think about what could gowrong. We need to do due dili-gence. “You have to be willing tohear what you don’t want to hear,”he said.


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Rich Evans and crew unveiled this2004 H2 Hummer at SEMA 2012.The H2 Hummer was built in 10 daysin Canada for the first taping of Evans’new show, “World Wide Car Build-ing.” All nine U.S. builders werethere, as well as the Canadian teamfrom Curtis Customs.

Rich Evans and Crew Unveil 2004 H2 Hummer at SEMA 2012

MD’s Mark’s Body Shop Releases Car-O-Liner VideoMark’s Body Shop of Baltimore, MD,an Auto Damage Experts coaching/consulting client, released a new in-formational video in their ongoing ef-forts to help inform and educateconsumers.

Mark Schaech, owner and Pres-ident of Mark’s Body Shop’s said,“Through our relationship with AutoDamage Experts, we have learned theimportance of continually edifyingconsumers within our marketplaceand beyond to enable them a betterunderstanding of the benefits ofproper and thorough repairs and tohelp prepare them to make informeddecisions before the need arises. Mostconsumers are just not prepared tomake the important decisions on mat-ters that often affect their personalsafety and economic welfare when itcomes to the repair of the damagedvehicle. They oftentimes rely upon theadvice of others, whose interest maynot be in the overall best interest ofthe consumer.”

Schaech continued, “With the as-sistance of Lee Emmons of AbsolutePerfection Tinting & Graphics, we areputting together a series of videos onthe various aspects of collision repairand issues consumers should be awareof.”

Mark’s prior video showed a postrepair inspection of a poorly per-formed repair.

“Such aspects will be the neces-sary equipment, quality parts, materi-als, training and knowledge which arerequired to perform a repair that willrestore a vehicle’s original safety, per-formance, appearance and value to thebest of human ability. A level of repairthat unfortunately fewer consumersare receiving today. We want to helpconsumers to understand it is theirproperty and it is their choice of re-pairer and help them to make the rightchoices.”

“It’s interesting that upon releaseof the video, we were contacted byCar-O-Liner corporate and they askedif they could show our Car-O-Linervideo during the recent NACE andSEMA expositions and their trainingseminars. We were very gratified inthis request and of course authorizedtheir use of the video. We have heardmany positive comments since theirshowing it,” Schaech said.

The video can be viewed athttp://www.marksbodyshop.com/car-accident-repairs-auto-collision-spe-cialists

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Customer service has taken on a lifeunto itself. If you don’t have a job inwhich customer service is PriorityNumber One, then you won’t be em-ployed for very long. Why? Becauseyour company will lose business andeventually downsize or go out of busi-ness. We’ve become a society whereoutstanding customer service is nolonger just expected. It’s demanded.And it’s demanded NOW!

Remember that old slogan atBurger King: “Have It Your Way.” Toelaborate how extensive the desire toplease the customer goes, here’s myembarrassing tale of my teenage grand-son. He was visiting the other day andtold me that he’d gone into a “BK” theday before and immediately after or-dering had asked them to make freshFrench fries because he didn’t want theones already made. And I suppose theiranswer will be anti-climactic at thispoint: They did it.

I asked him why? Were the fries

old? He said, acting very surprised, thatthey weren’t at all. But they told me, hesaid, that “I can have it my way.” Wow.I wish I could employ those tactics athome with my wife. It’s never my way.

Customer service seems to be theprimary driver and motivation for vir-tually every large corporation today. Attimes, profitability seems almost sec-ondary. Okay, maybe not quite, but thefact is that customer service motivatescompanies to take action and change.

JD Powers and Associates’ customerservice reports seem to draw the samefocus as quarterly earnings reports. Ex-ecutives await the results to see if theirattempts to drive results have become a

reality. Employees await the con-gratulatory email or a call-to-actionto improve results.In the shrinking market for autoinsurance, carriers are focused ongaining and retaining their customerbase. We spend millions of dollarson marketing to new customers.Has that translated into new policy-holders? The results have beenmixed. If it was that easy, even acaveman would do it. If it was aseasy as throwing money to create

commercials and trendy gimmicks,everyone would be following thatmodel AND reporting record sales.Spending millions hasn’t proven to cre-ate the desired result. There have beena few success stories, but far more ex-amples exist of money wasted for 30seconds of air time.

As a result, companies are nowevaluating whether or not spending theridiculous amounts of money on mar-keting and advertising pays dividends.Buying customers through trendy ad-vertising still requires you to deliver anexemplary product and service. Mydad used to say, “Son, you can’t putperfume on a pig.” The pig may smellnice but he’s just as dirty and sloppy ashe was before. The bottom line is thathe is still a pig. I think that’s what con-sumers have experienced with thosecompanies that have spent significantamounts of their annual budget to at-tract but not retain.

So, you may ask, if companiesaren’t growing, what are they doing toretain business? They’re doing a myr-iad of things but let’s focus on their di-rect repair programs (DRP). As a directrepairer for a given insurance company,do you have any idea the power youhave to influence the customer’s per-ception? If you don’t, you are missingthe best opportunity you have to growyour business.

You aren’t really in the business ofrepairing vehicles, nor are we insurersin the business of paying for their loss.All of us are in the business of provid-ing service in a time of need. The easi-

est thing any of us can do is help thecustomer through something that hap-pens once every seven or so years onaverage. We should be providing re-spect, courtesy, information, updates,smiles, reassurance and comfort toname a few things. The cost to providethose items? Nothing. Assuming thatyou don’t charge for effort, care andcompassion.

The sooner you realize that, thesooner you can win the game. Cus-tomers and insurers expect the car to berepaired properly and on time. We bothdemand customer service. Dependingupon the carrier, the vehicle owner willspend more time in your facility and in-teracting with your staff than they willwith their insurance company. If youwow the customer, the customer isgoing to be satisfied with you and morethan likely the insurance company. Ifthey don’t like you, you can bet yourlast customer service survey that theydon’t have a lot of nice things to sayabout us either.

In my opinion, insurance carriersallow the repair facility to have toomuch influence on the customer expe-rience. Carriers have become accli-mated to pushing additionalresponsibilities onto the shops. Cus-tomer service is something that insur-ance companies need to reclaim moreof a share in. Unfortunately, insurancecompanies are beset with shrinkingbudgets and are reducing staff becauseof the lack of growth and fierce com-petition.

That’s good news for shops. It cre-ates an opportunity, obvious or not.Find a way to deliver consistently out-standing customer service, and your di-rect repair business is going to growexponentially because insurance carri-ers need you.

Don’t try putting perfume on thepig. You can’t fake good customerservice. You either create a culture ofservice in your business or you will beleft behind with the other swine.

“The Insider” is an auto insurancecompany executive who wishes to re-main anonymous. This column reflectssolely the opinion of The Insider as itoffers an unvarnished look at variousissues impacting the collision industry.


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with Walter DanalevichShop Strategies for Savings

with The Insurance InsiderInside Insurance

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with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News

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


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Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has amended its Title75 (Vehicles) of the PennsylvaniaConsolidated Statutes, in certificateof title and security interests, furtherproviding for certificate of salvagerequired. Insurers receiving assignedtitles will be exempt from notariza-tion and verification requirements.The text of the bill reads:

The General Assembly of theCommonwealth of Pennsylvaniahereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. Section 1161(b) ofTitle 75 of the Pennsylvania Consol-idated Statutes is amended to read:

§ 1161. Certificate of salvagerequired.

(b) Application for certificate ofsalvage. An owner who transfers a ve-hicle to be destroyed or dismantled,salvaged or recycled shall assign thecertificate of title to the person towhom the vehicle is transferred. Ex-cept as provided in section 1163, thetransferee shall immediately presentthe assigned certificate of title to thedepartment or an authorized agent ofthe department with an application fora certificate of salvage upon a formfurnished and prescribed by the de-partment. An insurer as defined in sec-tion 1702 to which title to a vehicle is

assigned upon payment to the insuredor claimant of the replacement valueof a vehicle shall be regarded as atransferee under this subsection, andan assignment of title to an insurerunder this subsection is exempt fromthe requirements of notarization andverification in section 1111(a) (relat-ing to transfer of ownership of vehi-cle). If an owner retains possession ofa vehicle which is damaged to the ex-tent that it qualifies for vehicle re-placement payment, the owner shallapply for a certificate of salvage im-mediately. In this case, an insurer shallnot pay vehicle replacement valueuntil the owner produces evidence tothe insurer that the certificate of sal-vage has been issued. A self-insurer asdefined in section 1702 shall apply fora certificate of salvage when a vehicleis damaged to the extent that the costof repairs would exceed the replace-ment value of the vehicle as certifiedby a licensed motor vehicle physicaldamage appraiser.

This act shall take effect in 60days.

Pennsylvania Vehicle Code is Amended to Exclude TotaledVehicles’ Assignment of Title Requirements for Insurers

Sections 1111(a.1) and (b) and1161(b) of title 75 of the Pennsylva-nia consolidated statutes are amendedto read:

§ 1111. Transfer of ownershipof vehicle.(a.1) Exception for dealers. when acertificate of title for a vehicle ac-quired by a licensed dealer for thepurpose of resale is encumbered by alien or when there is a manufacturer’sstatement of origin for a new vehicle,delivery of the certificate of title ormanufacturer’s statement of origin bythe dealer as a transferor at the timeof delivery of the vehicle upon resaleshall not be required [for a vehiclebeing titled in this commonwealth] if,prior to delivery of the vehicle, thedealer obtains the applicable powersof attorney to properly execute trans-fer of the title or manufacturer’s state-ment of origin and the dealer requestsand receives the departmental verifi-cation of any lienholders, ownership,odometer information[,] and titlebrands, on titled vehicles, and anyother information that the departmentdeems necessary to be verified. Uponpayment of the established fee, thedepartment shall provide the dealer orauthorized messenger service with

verification of the required informa-tion. The department may supply theverified information by either writtenor electronic means. The applicationand a properly assigned certificate oftitle or manufacturer’s statement oforigin shall be delivered to the de-partment within the time period pre-scribed by section 1103.1 (relating toapplication for certificate of title). If adealer sells a vehicle after verifica-tion of the required information for acertificate of title encumbered by alien, but fails to satisfy the lien or de-liver an assignment and warranty oftitle to the dealer’s transferee within90 days of the date of purchase, andthis failure is the result of an act oromission by the dealer, the dealershall accept return of the vehicle fromthe transferee and shall refund thepurchase price less actual deprecia-tion of the vehicle while it was withinthe possession of the transferee. In re-funding the purchase price, the priceshall include the listed dollar value ofany trade-in vehicle as stated in thesales transaction document in lieu ofreturning the transferee’s trade-in ve-hicle.

Pennsylvania Vehicle Code is Also Amended to ProvideExceptions for Dealers When Statement of Origin Exists



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Pennsylvania Governor Signs “Chop Shop Bill” Into Law, Shop Inspections During Business HoursThe Pennsylvania governor has signedinto law a bill that significantly strength-ens the state’s laws targeting chop shopsand other auto crimes. Senate Bill86—sponsored by Sen. Stewart Green-leaf—takes effect the end of Decemberand gives law enforcement the ability toinspect body shops (or any automotivebusiness) “during normal business hours,or any other time when body work isbeing done” for the purpose of locatingstolen vehicles or parts.

“The crime of auto theft has be-come increasingly complex, and autothieves have become more organized,”said Senator Greenleaf. “Pennsylva-nia’s existing laws need to be amendedto help prosecutors charge someonewith auto theft.”

SB 86 expands the Motor VehicleChop Shop Act to include “trailers” and“semitrailers” to help law enforcementcharging thieves who steal trailers.

Law enforcement has said that thecurrent law is vague when attemptingto charge someone with the crimes ofprofiting from stolen vehicle activity.SB 86 clarifies the offense of dealing inproceeds of unlawful activity to specif-ically include stolen or illicitly obtainedproperty.

The current law fails to establishany limits on time for police inspections

of suspected “chop shops.” The bill al-lows for inspections during a shop’snormal business hours or any other timein which work is being done and alsoallows for the search of any vehicles orparts that are subject to the record keep-ing requirements of the law.

The measure contains new record-keeping requirements that must beavailable for these inspections for up tothree years, as well as an entire sectionimposing stiffer penalties (up to 10years in prison) and empowering theCommonwealth to seize all property,tools and equipment of a business foundto be operating a chop shop.

With nearly unanimous passage byboth legislative houses and signed bythe governor on October 25, SB 86 saysthat “Any person who knowingly owns,operates or conducts a chop shop; ortransports, sells, transfers, purchases orreceives any vehicle or vehicle part thatwas illegally obtained either to or froma chop shop, commits a felony of thesecond degree and, upon conviction,shall be sentenced to imprisonment fornot more than ten years or a fine of notmore than $100,000, or both.

The law creates a broad scope ofinspection powers providing that anypolice officer or authorized departmentemployee may inspect any vehicle, or

major component part, for whichrecords are required to be kept, in anygarage or repair shop or on the prem-ises of any dealer, miscellaneous motorvehicle business, salvage motor vehicleauction or pool operator, salvor, scrapmetal processor, or other public placeof business which deals in the trade ofvehicles or major component parts.

New record-keeping requirementshave also been beefed up, including arequirement (among others) that shopskeep a photocopy of a government-is-sued form of photo identification fromthe person towing or selling a vehicleor major component part, includingtheir driver’s license number and loca-tion from where the vehicle or majorcomponent part was towed or sold andthe business name, address, licensenumber and contact number of the tow-ing company. The records shall bemaintained for three years.

If inspection under the law revealsstolen vehicles, or major componentparts with identification numbers, Fed-eral certification labels, anti-theft labelsor parts stickers removed, altered or fal-sified, any police officer or authorizeddepartment employee may seize thosevehicles or vehicle parts, and the entirebusiness as well as any “instrumentali-ties used to facilitate criminal activity.”

The short title of SB 86 is: An Actamending Titles 18 (Crimes and Of-fenses) and 75 (Vehicles) of the Penn-sylvania Consolidated Statutes, furtherproviding for dealing in proceeds of un-lawful activities, for the unlawful dis-position of motor vehicles and forinvestigation by police officers; and re-pealing the Motor Vehicle Chop Shopand Illegally Obtained and AlteredProperty Act.

Also on the Gov.’s desk for his sig-nature is HB House Bill 1970, whichwould provide for an exemption fromvehicle registration and limits on num-ber of towed vehicles. For example, awestern Pennsylvania company, Beth'sBarricades, hauls traffic control devicesto and from job sites. Although theequipment is designed to be towed intandem, law enforcement has cited thecompany several times for towing twoof these trailers together. As such,House Bill 1970 makes it clear thathauling two such trailers is legal if theyare less than 300 inches combined andthe trailers are designed by the manu-facturer to operate in tandem. This leg-islation provides a simple but neededfix to our Vehicle Code that puts Penn-sylvania in line with other states.

HB 1970 was unanimously passedby the Senate and House.

december 2012 northeast edition

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