january 2013 southeast edition

by John Yoswick

A lot happens in the collision repairindustry, so trying to compile it allinto a single year-end review is a chal-lenge. But here’s our look at what wesaw as among the most important orjust plain interesting and memorablenews item, event or quote from eachof the last 12 months.

JanuaryState Farm’s George Avery announcedthat his company is testing the electronicparts ordering system “PartsTrader” withtwo collision repair businesses. He de-clined to identify the shops, saying that it

is too early in the testing “to put thosefolks under the microscope and ask,‘What do you think of the new sys-

tem?’”Lots of shops

have since voicedwhat they think ofthe system. By theend of the year, theprogram was beingrolled out to a fifth

market (Chicago) for a total of about600 Select Service shops.

FebruaryJohn Borek of Autocraft Bodywerks in

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

When Hurricane Sandy charged intothe East Coast in late October, shedevastated many homes and busi-nesses. Her most vicious attack wasperpetrated in NY and NJ, leavingmillions with flooded properties andno power. Sandy’s effects on the autobody industry were no different.Many collision repair facilities in thearea were destroyed, and equipmentand tools were demolished. Some stillhad not reopened as of the middle ofDecember.

Three shop owners took the timeto share their stories.

Bobby Zigman, owner of Colli-sion Depot in Oceanside, NY, sufferedpersonal and business losses as a re-sult of Sandy since his home is nearhis shop and both were flooded. Zig-man notes that the storm left five orsix feet of water in his shop and park-ing lot, completely wiping out all ofhis shop and office equipment.

Though Collision Depot techni-cally remained open after the storm,the flooding ruined equipment andlack of both phone connections andelectricity prevented them from per-forming any actual repair work forabout two weeks. Zigman’s dedicated

Northeast Shops Still Recovering from Sandy

Industry Year in Review—A Month-by-Month Lookat the Most Interesting Collision News of 2012

See Still Recovering, 0

See Year in Review, Page 23

Alabama repairers who recentlyformed a new association calledALARISE (Alabama Automotive Re-pair Industry Society of Excellence)recently launched a new advertisingcampaign with a commercial airingthrough December on the largestcable network in central Alabama.The campaign aims at consumerawareness. To watch the commercial,go to www.alarise.com.

ALARISE held a meeting for 30founding and charter members Dec. 8.The meeting included presentationsby Charter Media Account ExecutiveTorrie Grelle, Collision AutomotiveRepair Services, Inc. Operations Di-rector Matt Boyles and attorneyKirby D. Farris from the law firm ofFarris, Riley & Pitt, LLP.

Grelle provided details about theALARISE commercial currently air-

ing and the reach of the campaign(250,000 households) with over 800commercial spots purchased.

Boyles provided an overview ofhow a shareholder of CARS can bene-fit. Boyles discussed the intent in theformation of CARS and how, as agroup, benefits can become moreavailable as compared to an individual.Boyles discussed the opportunities ofhow CARS can assist ALARISE.

Attorney Farris provided infor-mation to the group on Alabama lawand how issues faced by individualbusiness members of ALARISE couldbe addressed. Farris also provided acomparison of the mirror image of themedical insurance industry of 15 yearsor so ago to today’s automotive insur-ance industry. Comparison of the twoindustries issues of rates and require-

New Alabama Collision Association LaunchesConsumer TV Advertising Campaign

See ALARISE, Page 5

As the Georgia Collision IndustryAssociation looks back at 2012 andcloses a busy year, the association isalready making plans for 2013.

Here is a recap of the events thatthe GCIA held in 2012:● In January, Dave Gruskos fromReliable Automotive Equipmentspoke to members regarding the newrepair technology in today’s indus-try. He spoke about the new high-strength steel that is now involved inthe production of many of the vehi-cles on the road today and the newtools, training and materials neededto repair them.● In March, the GCIA conducted itssixth annual labor rate survey of theMetro Atlanta area. 292 Metro At-lanta shops completed the survey on-line or were contact by CSiComplete. According to the results,the average Metro Atlanta rates were$42 on body and refinish labor and$30 on paint and materials.• In March, Rick Palmer from Com-puter Logic discussed paint and ma-terial compensation and how the ruleof thumb method (Refinish Hours xMaterial Rate) was outdated and doesnot take into accounts special colors,

tri stage and various other factors.Several states have used Palmer’sPaintLogic program to invoice the in-surance companies and be paid prop-erly for paint and material.● In May, GCIA members attendedthe Georgia Insurance Property andCasualty Advisory Committee at theGeorgia Insurance Commissioner’soffice. The association was able toaddress paint and material caps, salestax and the manipulation of the data-bases. In addition, the GCIA sched-uled an additional meeting with P&Cdirector Steve Manders to discussthese issues● In June, Ray Gunder, BarrettSmith and Attorney Brent Geoha-gan provided a special legal presen-tation to teach members how to taketheir businesses back from insurer in-fluence and learn how to addressshort pays and breach of contract.This was a well attended meetingwith over 80 people in attendance.● In August, several GCIA boardmembers met with Senator JackMurphy to discuss many issues thatare affecting Georgia consumers. Theassociation discussed P&M caps,

GCIA Reviews the Events of 2012, ExpectsAnother Busy Year in 2013

See GCIA Recap, Page 37

George Avery

SoutheastEdition

FloridaGeorgia

AlabamaMississippi YEARS www.autobodynews.com

313131ww.autobodynews.comww

VOL. 3 ISSUE 11JANUARY 2013

Presorted StandardUS Postage

PAIDSan Bernardino, CA

Permit #2244

P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018

Change Service Requested

2 JANUARY 2013 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

GGGGGGGrrrrrraaaaaayyyyyy--DDDDDDDaaaaaannnnnniiiiiieeeeeellllllssssss NNNNNNNiiiiiissssssssssssaaaaaannnnnn ooooofffffff JJJJJaaaaaccccckkkkksssssooooonnnnnfffffGray-Daniels Nissan of Jackson

• Trained Wholesale Crew• In State Next Day Shipping w/Quick Local Delivery• Great Discounts

Hours: Monday - Friday 7 am - 5:30 pmSaturday 8 am - 4 pm

Parts Manager: Steven Hill800-530-7522601-899-7462 [email protected] I-55 North Frontage Rd.,Jackson, MS 39211

GENUINE SERVICE & PARTS

GGGGGGGrrrrrraaaaaayyyyyy--DDDDDDDaaaaaannnnnniiiiiieeeeeellllllssssss NNNNNNNiiiiiissssssssssssaaaaaannnnnn ooooofffffff BBBBBrrrrraaaaannnnndddddooooonnnnnfffffGray-Daniels Nissan of Brandon

• Collision Parts Price Matching• Dedicated Wholesale Sta!• Large Inventory

Hours: Monday - Friday 7 am - 6 pmSaturday 8 am - 4 pm

Parts Manager: Jack Willoughby800-530-7989601-985-3753 [email protected] Gray-Daniels Blvd.,Brandon, MS 39042

GENUINE SERVICE & PARTS

GGGGGGGrrrrrraaaaaayyyyyy--DDDDDDDaaaaaannnnnniiiiiieeeeeellllllssssss CCCCCCChhhhhheeeeeevvvvvvrrrrrroooooolllllleeeeeetttttttGray-Daniels Chevrolet

• Prompt, Accurate and Free Local Delivery• Dedicated Wholesale Sta!• Large Inventory

Hours: Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 5:30 pmSaturday 8 am - 4 pm

Parts Manager:Eddie Williamson800-729-6160601-206-5894 local601-206-5899 [email protected] I-55 North,Jackson, MS 39211

GGGGGGGrrrrrraaaaaayyyyyy--DDDDDDDaaaaaannnnnniiiiiieeeeeellllllssssss FFFFFFFoooooorrrrrrddddddGray-Daniels Ford• No Order Too Big or Too Small• Highly Experienced Parts Personnel• Great Discounts


Parts Manager:Bill Styrone800-898-1944601-591-2648 [email protected] Octavia Drive,Brandon, MS 39042

GGGGGGGrrrrrraaaaaayyyyyy--DDDDDDDaaaaaannnnnniiiiiieeeeeellllllssssss LLLLLLLiiiiiinnnnnnccccccoooooollllllnnnnnnGray-Daniels Lincoln• Trained Wholesale Crew• In State Next Day Shipping w/Quick Local Delivery• Great Discounts


Parts Manager:Bill Styrone800-898-1944601-591-2648 [email protected] Octavia Drive,Brandon, MS 3904

Gray-Daniels ToyotaGray-Daniels Toyota

• Prompt, Accurate and Free Delivery• Dedicated Wholesale Sta!• Large Inventory

Hours: Mon. - Fri. 7am - 6 pmSaturday 8 am - 4 pm

Parts Manager: Steve Calhoun800-530-7955601-948-0576601-965-8458 [email protected] Gray-Daniels Blvd.,Brandon, MS 39042

GGGGGGGrrrrrraaaaaayyyyyy--DDDDDDDaaaaaannnnnniiiiiieeeeeellllllssssss SSSSSSScccccciiiiiioooooonnnnnnGray-Daniels Scion• No Order Too Big or Too Small• Highly Experienced Parts Personnel• Great Discounts

Hours: Mon. - Fri. 7:30 am - 6 pmSaturday 8 am - 4 pm

Parts Manager: Steve Calhoun800-530-7955601-948-0576601-965-8458 [email protected] Gray-Daniels Blvd.,Brandon, MS 39042

For All YourCollisions Part Needs

WWW.GRAYDANIELS.COM

Visit our E-Store:www.graydanielsnissannorthparts.com

Participating in Collision Link




REGIONAL

26 Insurers Now Paying Gunder’s Rate

Increases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

AL Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Collecting

Damages for Loss of Vehicle Use. . . . . . 8

Boyd Grows in FL with 14 New Locations . 4

FL Man Accused in Ponzi Scheme Registers

New Businesses, Including Body Shop. . 6

Florida Auto Angels Give 11 Vehicles as

Holiday Gifts to Local Needy Recipients . 37

Florida Judge Upholds Repairs Right to

Hold Power of Attorney . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Florida OIR Approves More Take-Outs

from Citizens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

GCIA Reviews the Events of 2012 and Looks

Forward to Another Busy Year in 2013 . . 1

Groups Join Forces to Raise Concern about

Georgia’s Tax Changes on Leased Cars . 5

Mississippi Association Back in 2012 . . . . 3

New Alabama Collision Association Launches

Consumer TV Advertising Campaign . . . 1

The Dynamic Duo of Phillips Paint &

Auto Body in Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Thief Locks Himself Out of His Own

Getaway Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

COLUMNISTS

Franklin: Integrity Sells! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Insider: Not All Insurance Executives

Are Created Equal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Yoswick: Former Advocate of Collision

Industry Standards in the U.K. Sees

Need for Them Here. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

NATIONAL

3M Awards Final “Ticket to the Track”

VIP Grand Prize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

44 Techs Honored at ASE . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

American Honda Launches Two New

Consumer Websites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

ASA Collision Division Recaps 2012,

Moves Forward into 2013 . . . . . . . . . . 26

Audatex Extends Contract with Boyd for

Estimating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Auto Insurance Consumers Shop for

Price ... Sometimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Automaker, OEM and Recall News . . . . . . 22

CAPA’s Lighting Standard Expanded to

Include Testing of HID Lamps, and

Positioning Motors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

DEG Redesigns Website and Adds Top 10

list and Twitter, See ‘www.degweb.org’ . 36

Education Foundation Plans for 2013

Summer Golf Fundraiser in Boston . . . . 39

Education Foundation Wants Facebook

Likes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Elektron Joins VSG Family of Brands . . . . 34

Former GM Engineer Convicted of

Stealing GM Trade Secrets . . . . . . . . . . 11

Honda’s ProFirst Shop Recognition

Program Puts Shops First . . . . . . . . . . 14

Hurricane Sandy Whips Up the Highest

Auto Sales in 4 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska Collision

Groups Join SCRS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Industry Year in Review—A Month-by-Month

Look at the Most Interesting Collision

News of 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Mitchell Repair Center ToolStore Integrates

with Car-Parts.com Pro Search . . . . . . 35

MO Shop Owner Admits $2 Million Fraud

on Bank Loans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

NASCAR Scam Leads to Prison . . . . . . . . . 4

NC Repairer Sues Insurer on Behalf

of Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

NC Shop Sues Six Insurers . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

New Low-VOC Bumper & Cladding

Adhesion Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

New SEMA Scholarship in Dick Dixon’s

Name Planned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

New Spies Hecker Sealer Delivers a

Smooth Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

No Surprise: Teens Text Behind the Wheel

More Than Their Parents Realize . . . . . 17

Northeast Shops Still Recovering

from Sandy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Rhode Island Shop Owner Arrested Again . 11

Sandy Caused Thanksgiving Car

Rental Shortage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Sandy Forces Automakers to Scrap

Damaged New Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

SCRS Welcomes Utah as 40th

Affiliate Assoc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

SEMA Unifies Racing Industry Trade Shows. 17

Sherwin-Williams Sets First Quarter

Training Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

State Farm Updates ASA on PartsTrader

Pilot Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Study Finds Aging Population Won’t

Increase Accident Rates . . . . . . . . . . . 18

TV Public Service Commercial for

Body Shops Aimed at the Dangers

of Texting, Driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

White Still Favored as Most Popular

Car Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

WIN Launches 2013 Scholarship Program . 8

WIN Seeks 2013 Sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Women’s Industry Network Reports

‘Winning’ Growth in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . 31

Contents

Southeast

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Melanie AndersonContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, Stefan Gesterkamp, John Yoswick, Janet Chaney,Toby Chess, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Jay Lukes (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the auto body industry. Permission to reproduce in any formthe material published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2013 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsBox 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018; (800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

Allan Vigil Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Auto Data Labels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 36

Car-Part Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

CSS USA, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Don Reid Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

FL, GA, AL, MS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Gray-Daniels Auto Family . . . . . . . . . 2

Gus Machado Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Haydell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts

Dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 38

Intertape Polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Jim Ellis Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers. 40

Malco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Mazda Wholesale Parts . . . . . . . . . 38

Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts

Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers. 29

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 5

Nalley BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Nissan Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 35

Palmers Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . 31

Safety Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Sam Galloway Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . 34

SCA Appraisal Company . . . . . . . . . 4

Serra Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Serra Automotive Group. . . . . . . . . 13

Southtowne Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Subaru of Gwinnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 35

Sullivan PDR Estimator . . . . . . . . . . 11

Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 12

VIM Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Inde

xofAdvertisers

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2013 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

In 2012, the long dormant MississippiCollision Repair Association saw a re-awakening, due in large part, to thelooming prospect of the mandatedelectronic parts procurement program.

“Many see State Farm’s Part-sTrader program as an unwarrantedand unnecessary intrusion into thecollision repair business by one of thenation’s largest insurers,” said MCRAmember Bill Fowler.

The first association organiza-tional meeting, held in Jackson, MS,

on May 23, was heavily attended byrepairers, vendors, and representativesfrom the attorney general’s office andthe department of insurance.

Topics of discussion included thePartsTrader program, steering and therefusal of many insurers to acknowl-edge all necessary repair operations asdescribed in the respective procedurepages of all major data providers.

Also discussed was the necessityto begin using a material calculatingprogram to document true paint andmaterial charges instead of the out-dated and inaccurate system histori-cally used by the industry.

Subsequent monthly meetingswere held in all regions ofthe state in an effort to re-cruit new members, shareinformation, and monitorprogress in the associa-tion’s efforts to improve thebusiness atmosphere andheighten consumer aware-ness as to their collision re-pair options and rights.

Numerous sponsors havestepped up to the plate, of-fering financial support forthe association’s efforts,further validating the asso-ciation’s position.

Membership continues to growand 2013 promises to be a year ofchange in the collision repair businessin the state of Mississippi.

Mississippi Association Back in 2012


Instead of trying to turn a profit on repairs...get paid well just for writing estimates.

Enjoy the FREEDOM of a business with LOW OVERHEAD,A FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE, and NO OFFICE REQUIRED.

yshop hes For a New

Career as an

yshop hes For a New

Career as an

Instead of tf r tr t ying to tur ruru n a prn a pr rofit on repairofit on repair riri srsr ...s...sget paid well just for writing estimates.s.s

yshop yshop ys op yshop hes hes hes hes FFFFFor a New ooor a New oor a New or a New or a New or a New FFFoFoFFFFor a New F

Career as anCareer as anCareer as anCareer as anSCA Appraisal Franchise Owner!

• Simple to Use Cutting Edge Web-Based Business Management• Guaranteed Payment for Your Services Rendered• Dedicated Real-Time Support Staff - You Just Concentrate on the Estimates!• Opportunity to Build Equity & Sell Your Business in the Future• Clearly Defined Territory in Your Local Area• National Marketing Team Builds Your Business With You

Proven Business Model Since 1979 Working with One of the LargestNational Appraisal Companies in the USA.

For more information: For more information: • Call • Call 1-800-572-8010 ext 3801-800-572-8010 ext 380• Mail card • Visit our website at • Mail card • Visit our website at www.sca-appraisal.comwww.sca-appraisal.com

or email: or email: [email protected]@sca-appraisal.com

For more information: • Call 1-800-572-8010 ext 380• Mail card • Visit our website at www.sca-appraisal.com

or email: [email protected]

Boyd Grows in Floridawith 14 New LocationsIn early December, the Boyd GroupIncome Fund announced it had com-pleted the acquisition of three or-ganizations known as Autocrafters,which operates 14 collision andglass repair centers in northernFlorida.

Boyd acquired three differentcompanies under the trade namesAutocrafters Collision Repair,Walker Collision Repair and S&LAuto Glass, which collectively op-erate as Autocrafters. The organiza-tion serves the Florida markets ofJacksonville, Gainesville and Talla-hassee, and generated sales of $32.6million in 2011.

The $19.5 million transac-tion, which is the Boyd Group’sfourth multi-location acquisitionthis year and its third in Florida,was completed Nov. 30. The BoydGroup now operates 37 locationsin Florida. At the end of last year,Boyd did not have any shops inFlorida.

With the Autocrafters acquisi-tion, the Fund adds 14 new locationsto its North American footprint,bringing the total number of loca-tions to 220 across 14 U.S. statesand four Canadian provinces.

A Belmont, NC, auto body shop re-cently filed 16 lawsuits on behalf oftheir customers. Pack Brothers Colli-sion Center filed lawsuits against Na-tionwide, State Farm, Allstate,GEICO, Penn National and Amica.

The suits allege that the insurersrefused to pay for “reasonable andnecessary” parts, procedures and ma-terials to return customers’ vehiclesback to “pre-accident condition.”

The total amount sought in thelawsuits is in excess of $23,000, pluslegal fees and court cost.

NC Shop Sues Six Insurers

NC Repairer Sues Insurer on Behalf of CustomerMichael Bradshaw of K&M Colli-sion in Hickory, NC, recently filed alawsuit against Nationwide MutualInsurance Company on behalf of hiscustomer and the insurer’s policy-holder.

Only after unsuccessful attemptsto have his customer’s insurer provideample consideration for reasonableand necessary parts, procedures andmaterials was it necessary to informhis customer of the short pay by theirinsurer.

The customer authorized K&Mto proceed with the repairer’s recom-mended repair activities and signeddocumentation authorizing Bradshawto act in his behalf in filing a lawsuitagainst their insurer seeking full com-pensation for the repairer’s recom-mended and performed activities.

The claim includes denial of pro-cedures including test-drive, removalof molding adhesive from paintedpanels, tint color, finish sand and buffand underpayments of numerousother reasonable and necessaryprocesses including body, refinishingand mechanical and frame labor rates,material allowances and storagecharges for the insurer’s delays. Thetotal amount sought in the lawsuit is$2,956.98 plus legal fees and costs.

To avoid the necessity of holding

the vehicle until receipt of full pay-ment, K&M Collision allowed theircustomer to take possession of theproperly repaired vehicle with the un-derstanding that all billings remainedtheir full responsibility in the eventthe insurer failed to provide full pay-ment.

Michael Bradshaw states, “Wevalue our customers and work hard toensure their repairs are done properly,thoroughly and in a timely manner.It’s unfortunate that such legal activi-ties have become necessary. Con-sumers rely upon insurers to be therein their time of need and when theyneed them most, and when they fail tokeep their promise, who can blamethe consumer for becoming upset. Ourefforts will be to illustrate to the courtthe insurer’s intentional Breach ofContract, Unfair and Deceptive TradePractices and their acting in Badfaith.”

“When an insurer fails to fullyascertain the full extent of all loss re-lated damages and /or fails to provideproper consideration for each neces-sary process, part and/or material, thefailure can be defined as either igno-rance, gross incompetence or inten-tional misrepresentation… or acombination thereof,” said BarrettSmith of Auto Damage Experts.

SCRS Welcomes Utah as 40th Affiliate Assoc.The Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS) recently announcedthe Utah Auto Body Association asthe 40th state or regional organiza-tion to join the Society as an Affili-ate Association. The Utah Auto BodyAssociation is the first statewide col-lision repair association in Utah’shistory.

“There’s been a growing interestin forming an association in our statefor some time, given the rapidchanges our industry is experiencing,”explained Chairman Bob Torrey,who was part of the organizing groupforming the association.

“Our belief is we will be betterequipped to handle the challenges fac-ing us if we are united in our effortsand communicate well with eachother. With the help of Janet Chaneyof the CARS Cooperative, who wasinstrumental in helping us see the ad-vantages of coming together and howto do it effectively, we’ve began mak-ing rapid progress toward this goal.”

The Utah Auto Body Associationhas made it a priority to vigorously re-cruit new members.

“Our initial emphasis is seekingout quality training and education forour members,” said Torrey. “We arealso committed to working effectively

with the state legislature to ensure theinterests of our industry are well-rep-resented.”

The association’s Novembermembership meeting was a direct re-flection of its focus, with subject mat-ter surrounding the potential impactupon collision repairers of recentlyenacted laws pertaining to air qualitystandards, including a Utah legislatoras a guest speaker. The association’sinterest in aligning with SCRS comesfrom the same place.

“Getting exposure to a group ofoutstanding collision repair profes-sionals like those found in SCRS, andtheir network of existing Affiliate As-sociations, will be very helpful to ourmembers,” stated Torrey.

“They possess a lot of accumu-lated knowledge and experience, andcan help us be responsive and effec-tive in dealing with the issues that wewill be facing in the coming years.With SCRS, we’ll benefit from hav-ing a national profile, as well. Part-nering with them will help give theUtah Auto Body Association credibil-ity and information right out of thegate. They’ve already served as amodel for us in many different ways.”

The association’s inauguralmeeting is scheduled for January.

NASCAR Scam Leads to PrisonA Los Angeles man was sentenced to6-1/2 years in prison for his involve-ment in a $13.5 million fakeNASCAR merchandise business.Federal prosecutors say 66-year-oldEliott Dresher was also ordered topay $8.8 million in restitution.Dresher is accused of taking moneyfrom family, friends and others overan 11-year period to invest in a busi-ness that would buy overstockNASCAR apparel and sell it at aprofit. In reality, he had no relation-ship with the car racing organization,nor its licensed manufacturer or dis-tributor.


Nalley BMW

www.nalleybmw.com(800) 622-2021

Large original BMW parts inventoryBMW trained techniciansService when you need it

Open 7 days a week:M-F 7:30am - 7pmSat 7am - 5pm

Free express delivery serviceto the southeast region.

1606 Church St., Decatur, GA 30033www.nalleybmw.com

(800) 622.2021(404) 297.9134 Fax(800) 622.2021(404) 297.9134 Fax

Toll Free:Toll Free:

Nalley BMW

Parts Manager: Gary Lazenby

Need Parts?Our parts department is always ready to help you outwith our original BMW parts & accessories.

by Auto Remarketing Staff

The American Financial ServicesAssociation and the National Vehi-cle Leasing Association recentlyjoined forces to urge Georgia law-makers to reconsider legal changesin regard to financing companiespaying taxes when vehicles areleased.

Officials used the joint letter tothe Georgia Department of RevenueOffice of Tax Policy to raise signifi-cant concerns about a law that requiresfinance companies that provide vehi-cle leases to pay an initial Title AdValorem Tax (TAVT) in addition to themonthly sales taxes on the lease pay-ments.

AFSA said it was approachedby a couple other trade associationsrepresenting the leasing industryabout the issue. AFSA sought inputfrom these groups, invited them tocosign the letter and ultimatelyNVLA did.

The letter suggests that GA HB386, which was signed into law onApril 19, will result in substantiallyhigher overall costs for leasing versuspurchasing a vehicle, putting leasingat a competitive disadvantage anddenying some consumers the benefit

of leasing.The letter noted that discouraging

leasing could negatively affect taxrevenue generation in the state, be-cause a leased vehicle generates morerevenue because of the frequent own-ership change.

To keep a finance company’scost of a purchase or lease agree-ment relatively the same, AFSA andNVLA recommended that Georgiaeither exempt leases from the TAVTand continue to hold them liable forsales and use tax, or adopt the taxpurchase model in which TAVT ispaid each time vehicle ownership ischanged, without additional monthlysales taxes.

The two officials who signed theletter were Danielle Fagre Arlowe,AFSA’s senior vice president of stategovernment affairs, and NVLA exec-utive director Jack Tracey.

“Imposing increased costs onlessors puts leasing at a competitivedisadvantage and can deny some

consumers the benefits of leasingby raising the price of leasing rela-tive to buying,” Fagre Arlowe andTracey wrote to Georgia officials.“Leasing is an affordable way formany consumers to drive vehicleswith the latest safety and emissionsequipment, and the law should notdisadvantage leasing relative topurchasing.

“Our members believe that thecosts to them of a purchase or leaseagreement should be broadly thesame,” Fagre Arlowe and Traceycontinued. “This can be achieved ei-ther by adopting the tax purchasemodel, in which TAVT is paid eachtime vehicle ownership is changed,without additional monthly salestaxes, or by exempting leases fromthe TAVT and continuing to holdthem liable for sales and use tax. Thislatter solution has the advantage thatit would not increase the tax base andthus stay true to the intent of thelaw.”

Groups Join Forces to Raise Concern about Georgia’s Tax Changes on Leased Cars

ments being determined by someoneother than the actual provider of serv-ices had virtually all in attendance nod-ding in agreement with the assessment.

Steve Plier, acting executive direc-tor for ALARISE, provided a short pres-entation on the importance of workingtogether to address the mountain of is-sues the industry faces today. Plier chal-lenged the attendees to step forward asan industry to work to develop relation-ships with the education systems to bringawareness and education not only to theconsumer on issues, but also to candi-dates for the workforce of the future.

The challenge of working to de-velop an apprenticeship program withlocal technical schools was identifiedas a pressing issue to address the acuteshortage of qualified technicians.

Plier also challenged the group tomake sure as a business owner, manageror individual that each person take actionson the issues that are concerning to them.

ALARISE will conduct a statewidemembership drive with a goal of 150members during 2013. Alabama collisionrepairers and repair vendors interested inbecoming a member of ALARISE,please go to www.alarise.com for moreinformation or call Steve Plier at 205-623-9307.

Continued from Cover

ALARISE

at www.autobodynews.com

Register Your Email for Our

Free Twice Monthly NewsletterFree Twice Monthly NewsletterFree Twice Monthly Newsletter


FL Man Accused in Ponzi Scheme Registers New Businesses, Including Body Shop

Florida OIR Approves More Take-Outs from CitizensApproved “take-out companies” inFlorida have been given the go-aheadto remove another 65,990 policiesfrom the state’s bloated insurer of lastresort, reported Chad Hemenway ofPropertyCasualty360.com.

The policies are set for depopu-lation from Citizens Property Insur-ance Corp. in January.

This newest round of take-outsapproved by the state Office of Insur-ance Regulation is in addition to310,000 policies the office approvedfor depopulation in November andDecember.

The OIR says 87,337 policieshave been taken off of Citizens’books as of October 2012. Policy-holders of Citizens—which has far-outgrown its intended means tobecome the state’s largest provider ofproperty insurance—have the optionto remain with the state-run insurer.

According to OIR, the recently-licensed Heritage Property & Casu-alty Insurance Co. has added 20,000policies to its initial request to take60,000 from Citizens.

Southern Oak Insurance Co. hasbeen approved to remove anotherbundle of 10,000 policies in Januaryto go along with a 10,000 bundle itwas approved to take in November.

Added to the list of take-out

companies is United Property & Ca-sualty Insurance Co. The insurer hasbeen green-lighted to remove 20,990policies in January. But United P&Cis no stranger to the take-out process.It was approved to remove two bun-dles in 2011.

The other take-out companiesincluded in the November-Januarytake-out approvals are: Florida Penin-sula Insurance Co.; HomeownersChoice Property & Casualty Insur-ance Co.; Southern Fidelity Property& Casualty; and American IntegrityInsurance Co. of Florida.

Each company is based inFlorida.

Companies looking to poten-tially remove a total of 375,990 poli-cies from Citizens from November toJanuary are doing so without the fi-nancial incentives proposed by Citi-zens as part of a controversial plan toloan its surplus.

A surveillance video at Lou’s SuperService Auto Repair in West Park,FL, caught a thief in the act of steal-ing batteries from the business onNov. 11. However, the suspect lockedhimself out of own his getaway carand had to break a window.

Surveillance video shows thesuspect parked in the lot and walk-ing back and forth between a trashremoval truck and a car as he loadstwo batteries into his front and backseat.

The video shows the suspectclosing the back passenger door,then pulling on the door handle andrealizing he’s locked himself out.He walks around to the driver sideof the car and unsuccessfully triedto get inside before walking to thegarbage truck to grab a crowbar.He smashes a small rear, passengerside window of the car and opensthe door from the inside, the videoshows.

He loads two more batteries intothe trunk of the gold color Chevroletand drives away.

The suspect is thought to be inhis late 20s to early 30s, wearing ablue shirt, blue jeans, a black beltand dress shoes.

Thief Locks Himself Out ofHis Own Getaway CarAnthony Fregenti, accused of oper-

ating a Ponzi scheme involving high-end motorcycles and exotic cars, islisted in state records as having regis-tered four new businesses this yearwhile he awaits trial on multiplefelony charges related to his busi-nesses in Flagler County, FL.

The 41-year-old former PalmCoast resident now living in St. Au-gustine faces 33 felony charges in-cluding organized scheme to defraud,grand theft, securities fraud, sale ofunregistered securities and sale of se-curities by an unregistered dealer, ac-cording to the Flagler County Clerk ofCourt.

The charges are associated withbusinesses Fregenti ran in Flagler,most of which had “Dark Hawk” aspart of the name.

Fregenti is listed as “registeredagent” of four new businesses in St.Augustine, according to the FloridaDepartment of State Division of Cor-porations. He is associated with 14businesses, according to the Divisionof Corporations website, but only fourare active. One of those is CruisersAuto Body which, according to itswebsite, has locations in Palm Coast,Jacksonville, Hastings, Palatka, in ad-dition to St. Augustine. The principal

address is listed as 620 S. HolmesBlvd. but the business website showsan Old Moultrie Road address.

“Cruisers Auto Body is a onestop auto body shop as well as a carbody shop for the finest quality cardent repair, auto glass repair, car paintrepair, collision repair for any vehi-cle,” according to the website, whichstates Cruisers has been in business formore than 35 years, and more than 15years in St. Augustine.

Filing for the business was doneon Jan. 27 and amended on Nov. 13.Documents for Cruisers Auto Salesand Cruisers Automotive Group,which share the Holmes Boulevardaddress, were filed Sept. 28. A fourthbusiness, Cruisers Automotive Cen-ters, filed two days earlier on Sept. 26.

Harold Gear, 53, is listed asmanager of the Automotive Group;chief financial officer, president andvice president of the Auto Sales Cor-poration and the Automotive Center.Nicole Gear, 22, who has the samehome address as Harold Gear, is listedin association with Cruisers AutoBody but her title isn’t clear.

Harold Gear declined to com-ment about his business relationshipwith Fregenti. “I don't want to talkabout any of that,” he said.

Michelle Milligan, a spokes-woman for the state’s Division of Cor-porations, said it’s not a requirementfor the owner of a business to also bethe registered agent.

Lindsey Fregenti, Anthony Fre-genti’s wife, is also listed as a managerof Cruisers Automotive Group. Sheshows a Townsend, GA, address onthe filing paperwork, but other recordsindicate she has the same StratfordMills Boulevard address as her hus-band.

Palm Coast residents Devin Kolb,31, and Michael Stevens, 45, were re-cently arrested. Both are charged withmoney laundering in connection withtheir dealings with Fregenti and DarkHawk.

In addition to money launder-ing, a first-degree felony, Stevens ischarged with ‘structuring,’ a sec-ond-degree felony, meaning that hemay have evaded currency-transac-tion reporting requirements, accord-ing to court documents. A pre-trialhearing for Stevens is scheduled forJan. 9.

The State Attorney’s Office hasyet to file formal charges againstKolb, who was working in a time-share business in Flagler when ar-rested.

Search:

Autobody Newson Facebook


The Alabama Supreme Court haschanged a 57-year-old standard onhow commercial vehicle owners getcompensated when their vehicle istotaled in an accident.

The court held in 1955 that anowner who recovered damages forthe total loss of a vehicle could notalso get damages for loss of the useof the same vehicle. The SupremeCourt changed that Dec. 7 to say theowner could recover damages forthe destroyed vehicle and for loss ofuse. However, damages are limitedto a reasonable time required to finda replacement vehicle.

The ruling came in an appealby Huntsville Cab Co. The companyreceived compensation for a wreckthat totaled a cab. But it also wantedto recover $7,000 in income lostwhile waiting a month for a replace-ment.

AL Supreme Court Rules inFavor of Collecting Damagesfor Loss of Vehicle Use The Women’s Industry Network has

several Conference Scholarshipsavailable for its upcoming 2013 Con-ference. Full-time students, instruc-tors and collision shop employees areencouraged to apply for scholarshipsto attend this year’s conference inPhoenix, AZ, on May 5-7.

Student scholarships includeconference registration, one-yearmembership to WIN, two night’shotel expense and travel expenses.Instructor scholarships include con-ference registration, one-year mem-bership to WIN, two night’s hotelexpense and travel expenses. Colli-sion shop employee scholarshipswill include conference registration,one-year membership to WIN, twonight’s hotel expense and travel ex-penses.

The deadline for applications isMarch 8. For scholarship require-ments, see WIN’s website. Scholarshipsubmissions should be mailed to WINScholarship Committee; c/o BeverlyRook-Twibell, Safelite Solutions 1820N Corrington Avenue Kansas City,MO 64120. For further informationplease contact Beverly Rook-Twibellat (816) 678-4777 or via email to [email protected].

WIN Launches 2013Scholarship Program

26 Insurers Now Paying Gunder’s Rate IncreasesAs of late November, 26 insurers haveelected to provide full compensationfor Gunder’s Auto Center’s labor ratesand material invoicing.

This past August, Ray Gunderplaced a notice in his reception area andprovided handouts to all auto apprais-ers and insurer claim representativeswho visited his shop that new laborrates and allowances were in effect. Asreported Sept. 12, (“15 and Counting”),with the exception of a handful, mostinsurers have conceded to paying with-out argument (excluding Infinity wholater acquiesced after a Gunder filed alawsuit against them). The increases in-clude labor, refinishing labor, framelabor, mechanical labor rates and the in-voicing of PMC Logic for all body andrefinishing related materials.

Currently, those insurers include:MetLife; Kemper Services’; WestfieldComp.; Auto Owners; Acceptance Ca-sualty; Liberty Mutual; Amica Mu-tual; Horace Mann; The Hartford;Direct General; Zurich American;Mercury; Esurance; Security Na-tional; *Infinity; Occidental; First Ac-ceptance; GMAC; Esis; SpecialtyProducts Claims (a division of Na-tionwide); Sentry; Michelin TireCompany; Grange Mutual; CNA;Global Indemnity; and Commerce In-

surance.Some insurers are taking Gunder

to court, arguing that Gunder, with thePower of Attorney, has no standing tofile lawsuits on behalf of his customers.It’s anticipated that the court will heararguments from all defendants and ren-der a joint verdict for all 25 cases. Thehearing occurred on Dec. 13. See adja-cent story. Defendants include: StateFarm, Allstate, USAA, Travelers, In-finity, and Geico.

“This hearing and the judge’s rul-ing will be significant and may set astrong precedent regarding similar ef-forts of quality-minded independentrepairers across the country,” Gundersaid.

“We are very confident that thedecision will be in the favor of ourcustomers and support the right for re-pairers to stand in the shoes of theircustomers if and when such issues re-garding the full payment of any and all“Reasonable and Necessary” chargesshould arise. I’m excited to bring thismatter to closure as it will only em-bolden us to move forward in servingour customers in an unencumberedfashion. This will also hopefully opena door to better communications andcooperation with insurers to betterserve our mutual customers.”

Florida Judge Upholds Repairs Right to Hold Powerof Attorney in Cases Against Insurance CompaniesOn Dec. 13, a judge’s ruling gaveFlorida repairers the green light forpower of attorney.

Brent Geohagan was the attor-ney representing both Ray Gunderof Gunder’s Auto Center, Inc. andPaul Hawks of Bernies Paint &Body, Inc., both of Lakeland, FL, indefending the repairer’s rights tostand in the shoes of their customersas their Power of Attorney.

Judge Reinaldo Ojedo pa-tiently listened to State Farm’s con-tentions as to why the six lawsuitsRay Gunder has filed against the na-tion’s largest personal auto insurershould be dismissed on grounds thatGunder did not having standingbased upon the Power of Attorneygranted by his customers.

Progressive Insurance’s legalcounsel was also present for the sameissue relative to a lawsuit leviedagainst them by Paul Hawks on be-half of his customer and the insurer’spolicyholder.

After hearing arguments fromboth State Farm’s counsel and BrentGeohagan, the judge ruled that the re-pairers do indeed have legal standingon behalf of customers who grant

them Power of Attorney, and as such,he denied the insurer’s motions todismiss all seven cases.

Brent Geohagan stated, “I feelstrongly that the court made the cor-

rect decision andwhile this is butone more in along line of vic-tories for Rayand his cus-tomers, that iswarranted andwell deserved,it’s a significant

victory for the entire collision repairindustry in Florida and beyond …and the fight goes on and will as longas need be!”

“I was extremely proud while Isat watching and listening to Brent’spassion, preparation and expertise ashe defeated each of the insurer’s ar-guments,” said Gunder.

“This is a huge deal, as onceagain, State Farm’s efforts to avoiddisclosure of their internal businesspractices have been unsuccessful.We’re excited as to see what will berevealed in upcoming depositionsand discovery,” Gunder said.

Follow us on Twitter:@autobodynews

Accept no Substitutes!

Brent Geohagan

employees still went to work, and hepaid them to help restore the shop andclean their tools and equipment. Sincethen, Collision Depot has installedsome generators. Even though theyare now fully operational, they are stillrestoring their building and replacingthe $750,000 loss in equipment asthey go, due to a lack of insurance.

More than 250,000 cars in theNY and NJ area have been totaled dueto severe flooding, and Zigman notesa decrease in business because of thevast number of destroyed cars and theinflux of rental vehicles in the area.He shares that though he is receivingoccasional repair requests caused bythe storm, his only hope for now is forthe general public to get back on theirfeet. Zigman says he has noticed in-creased difficulties with insurancecompanies as they are investigatingclaims in greater depth and just gen-erally giving consumers a harder timeobtaining repairs. They’ve opted tototal many of the damaged vehicles.The insurers have also given CollisionDepot some problems regarding par-tially and fully repaired vehicles thathad not yet been picked up; the insur-ers are objecting to paying for the re-pairs on vehicles that were totaled bySandy’s flooding.

Despite the challenges that hefaces daily, Zigman maintains a posi-tive outlook and puts his efforts andfocus into rebuilding. He states, “Whatgets me through living with this tragedyis remembering 9/11 and knowing thisis nothing but lifestyle changes com-pared to what others went through then.We will get through this.”

Burnside Collision of Inwood,NY, was similarly struck by Sandy’sdevastating impact. With several feetof water in their office, all computersand desks were destroyed and had tobe replaced. Over two feet of water intheir work area demolished theirequipment, submerging and ruiningtheir spray booth motor and their Car-O-Liner’s mechanisms. Additionally,the flooding destroyed a number ofpartially and fully repaired vehiclesstored on the property, including po-lice cars and Burnside’s tow truck. Allof this destruction forced owner Ron-nie Marciano to shut down for twoand a half weeks.

Though Marciano has noticed aninflux in repair business since the

storm, he initially had to turn away agreat deal of business due to the dam-age done to his shop, thus losing po-tential business in addition to the lossof work-in-progress. Several com-pleted cars were also destroyed, andone completed repair which was beingstored was completely flooded out,forcing Marciano to fight with the in-surance company in order to get paidfor the work he had already com-pleted. In addition to the general frus-tration of declining customers’ repairrequests, Marciano faced the difficultyof expenses without the ability to cap-ture business and revenue. BurnsideCollision’s current focus is on repair-ing and replacing the equipment dam-aged by the storm.

Marciano’s house was alsoflooded, as was his estimator’s and of-fice manager’s homes. Employeeswho were not affected came to theshop to start working on repairs andget the business back up and running,said Marciano—a credit to his em-ployees’ dedication and his relation-ship with them. Because of this extraeffort, Burnside Collision was able tomeet payroll obligations instead ofutilizing FEMA’s layoff program.

Noting that insurance companiesare currently focused on picking upsubmerged cars, Marciano expects tosee more storm-damaged vehicles inthe future. He suggests that many con-sumers may not yet realize that theircars were damaged by salt water, andhe also suspects that some people haveavoided submitting claims for fear theirinsurer will total their vehicle. Thoughinsurers are totaling many cars, Mar-ciano notes that they’ve returned tostandard procedure with handlingclaims. Initially, the volume of claimswas overwhelming, causing delays, butby using independent appraisers tomanage their volume, insurers havebeen able to return to normal process-ing times. Burnside Collision has seenvery few flooded cars come in for re-pairs due to the challenge that ownersface when trying to retain their vehi-cles. Marciano believes that insurancecompanies should be making decisionson a case-by-case basis instead of mak-ing a blanket decision to total so manyvehicles.

In spite of their own problems,Marciano and his staff helped unloada truck filled with supplies sent fromFlorida to provide relief for victims ofHurricane Sandy. Marciano sees thistragedy as a learning experience, stat-ing “We will pick up the pieces and

work diligently to move forward anddevelop better plans for the future tobecome a better, more prosperousbusiness than before.”

Of the three shops describedhere, Tony D’s Auto Body of AtlanticHighlands, NJ, seems to have sufferedthe most severe losses. Owner TonyDellapietro notes, “We lost every-thing. And I mean everything!” Withfive feet of water in the shop, all of histools and equipment were destroyed.With the help of his parents and dedi-cated employees, Dellapietro hasbegun cleaning and oiling his equip-ment, but not his personal toolbox,which he began accumulating whenhe was 11 years old. He laments, “Istarted this business in 2003. What Ibuilt in ten years was wiped out in tenhours.”

Because of difficulties with hisinsurance, Dellapietro has been forcedto explore loan options to avoid hav-ing to close. He has purchased new of-fice desks and computers, and anelectrician has replaced outlets in theshop. For now, everything is still up inthe air as the funds for shop repairsjust aren’t there. Dellapietro has beenforced to utilize his savings and otherassets, and being forced to turn busi-

ness away has been devastating. “Youjust don’t get rich in this business,”says Tony. He has been unable to turna profit since Sandy, and the bills justkeep accruing.

Employees of Tony D’s are cur-rently relying on unemployment in-surance since the shop is still closed.Dellapietro is busy dealing with dis-aster unemployment issues. On theday that Sandy hit, police had to forceDellapietro out of the building, but hecould not extract the cars he wasworking on as there was already threefeet of water in the yard. All sevencars in his shop were totaled, whetherpartially or fully repaired. Dellapietroadmits that he was very emotionalwhen he saw how badly his shop wasdamaged, and he has been seekingspiritual comfort. He has no cluewhen he will be able to reopen, and henotes “It feels like I’m starting overagain.”

These three shops are just a smallsampling of the businesses that weredamaged by Sandy. There are manyoptions to contribute aid for Sandy’svictims.

One such option is HurricaneSandy New Jersey Relief Fund, P. O.Box 95, Mendham, NJ 07945-0095.



Still Recovering


www.sullivanpdrestimator.com The Sullivan PDR Estimator represents a real breakthrough in the Autobody Repair Industry. Now that shops and dealers can do their own quick and accurate estimates with SPDRE, this saves the PDR route tech lots of time and travel expense. And hail chasers can write, manage, and print estimates online, saving them time and giving them a more professional image.

Sullivan PDR Estimator650 Salem RoadCenterville, TN 37033(615) 476-0114

Estimate dents of any size.Estimate multiple dents per panel.Include multiple panels per estimate.

Turns estimates into invoices.Edit estimates you’ve already done.Upload up to three photos per panel.

I must admit that I was skeptical at first, but after watching and actually interacting..., I am sold. — Vaughn's Collision Center

Easy, web based estimates for automotive dents of all sizes.

ThThThThTh e e SSSulllllliiivan P PDDR Estimator represents a real bre kakththrough h h iiinin t t t thhhehehe Autobody Repair Industry Now that shops and dealers can do

Thursday, January 17 - Education DayThursday, January 17 - Education DayFriday & Saturday, January 18 & 19

Worldgate Resort Hotel& Convention Center,3011 Maingate Lane,Kissimmee, FL - USA

ORLANDO - FLORIDA

Former GM Engineer Convicted of Stealing GMTrade Secrets for Possible Use in ChinaA former General Motors engineerwith access to the automaker’s hybridtechnology was convicted Nov. 30along with her husband of stealingtrade secrets for possible use in China.

Shanshan Du won a transferwithin GM in 2003 to be closer to thetechnology and then copied docu-ments until she accepted a severanceoffer and left the company in 2005,prosecutors said.

Du and Yu Qin were found guiltyby a federal jury in Detroit after a trialthat lasted weeks. Qin also was con-victed of wire fraud and attempting toobstruct justice by shredding docu-ments. They shook each other’s handafter the verdict but declined to com-ment, as did their attorneys.

The couple face up to 20 years inprison. No sentencing date has beenset.

Prosecutors told jurors that GMtrade secrets were found on at leastseven computers owned by the Oak-land County couple. The governmentdoesn’t believe the information evermade it to China, although Qin had setup his own company, MillenniumTechnology International, andclaimed to have made contact withGM competitors overseas.

Defense lawyers acknowledgedthat GM information was in the cou-ple’s possession, but they downplayedthe commercial significance.

In her closing argument, Assis-tant U.S. Attorney Cathleen Corkensaid Du, 54, was the “linchpin” in thescheme because of her job at the au-tomaker. “It can't happen withouther,” the prosecutor said.

Corken noted that the agents keptan eye on the couple after searchingtheir home in 2006 and watched Qindump shredded documents in a gro-cery store trash bin.

“Is that the conduct of innocentpeople?” she asked.

Corken said the technology wasworth at least $40 million, the pricethat other automakers paid GM to getit.

Du and Qin, both U.S. citizens,had been under scrutiny for years afterGM accused them of theft. They werecharged in 2006 with destroying doc-uments sought by investigators, butthat case was dropped while investi-gators pursued a broader probe thatled to an indictment in 2010.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuadehas referred to trade secrets as the“crown jewels of private industry.”

The owner of a Pawtucket car shopaccused of scamming customers wasarrested again by Rhode Island StatePolice.

Dino Cocciawas taken into cus-tody in North Providence by the Vio-lent Fugitive Task Force Nov. 29 onfour Superior Court Bench Warrants:Failure to Appear/Unlawful Appro-priation; Failure to Appear/UnlawfulAppropriation; Failure to Appear/Ob-taining Money under False Pretenses;Failure to Appear/Obtaining Moneyunder False Pretenses.

Coccia is the owner of America Salesand Collision Center. He was arrested inMay after he was accused of selling twocustomers the same car and renting out carshe was supposed to be repairing.

More than two dozen peoplehave come forward, claiming to bevictims of his scheme.

In July, the Attorney Generalfiled 50 new charges against him, in-cluding obtaining money under falsepretense, unlawful appropriation, ut-tering bad checks and one count ofattempted larceny.

Rhode Island Shop OwnerArrested Again

An overwhelming majority of autoinsurance buyers who switch carriersmake the change based on price, butnot many are actively shoppingaround, according to a survey fromInsuranceQuotes.com.

In a national telephone surveyof 1,000 adults conducted in earlyNovember by Princeton Data Sourcefor InsuranceQuotes.com, within thepast 12 months only 21% of thosesurveyed say they shopped for car in-surance. Of those shoppers, 43%switched carriers. The vast majoritywho switched, 81%, made thechange because of price.

“This suggests that many peoplewho shopped around liked what theyfound,” says John Egan, managingeditor of InsuranceQuotes.com in astatement.

“Consumers don’t care as muchabout customer service or reputa-tion—they want to know who’sgoing to save them the most money.Everyone should take an hour or twoto compare a few different carriers. Itcan’t hurt, and you might be amazedby how much money you can save,”Egan said.

Auto Insurance ConsumersShop for Price ... Sometimes

www.autobodynews.comC

www.autobodynews.com

by Ed Attanasio

American Honda recently launchedtwo consumer-related websites to pro-vide pertinent and timely informationto owners of Hondas and Acuras. Seenext story for new collision center fo-cused Honda website.

Earlier this year, the manufacturerlaunched its collision consumer site,Collision.Honda.com, after years ofdevelopment and the early reviews arevery positive, according to GaryLedoux, Honda’s Assistant NationalManager of Wholesale Parts Market-ing.

Last month, the carmaker alsolaunched AirbagAware.Honda.com, asite the company created in responseto the burgeoning problem associatedwith the proliferation of counterfeitairbags on the market.

After polling its customers andgetting their feedback through severalfocus groups, Honda saw a need forboth new websites, Ledoux said.

“We conducted several focusgroups in 2009, and we learned somevery interesting things. The averageconsumer knows that their car getswrinkled up, they take it to the bodyshop and a few days later they get itback and it’s straight and shiny again,but they have absolutely no idea whatgoes on in the background. So, one ofthe main things that we cover on Col-lision.Honda.com is an in-depth lookinto the collision industry from theconsumer’s perspective,” Ledoux said.

Another need for education about

parts became apparent through theirfocus groups, Ledoux said.

“We learned that most people donot know that aftermarket parts couldbe installed when their cars are beingrepaired at a body shop or collisioncenter. They understand that aftermar-ket parts are used in the mechanical

world, because they drive by the partsstores every day, but they’re not awarethat aftermarket parts exist in the col-lision industry. In the past, they as-sumed that OE parts were being usedin their cars. They didn’t realize therewas an alternative. When we explainedthis fact to the people in our focusgroups, some of them were visiblyupset, because they all thought theywere getting OE parts.”

In the past, Honda created collat-eral pieces to convey important mes-sages to its owners, but now they’reembracing the Internet to achieve thesame thing, Ledoux said.

“Years ago, we created a brochurecalled “What to Do When You Get inan Accident”, designed for new own-ers of Hondas or Acuras. We put themin every car we manufactured, and didit for several years. It cost a lot ofmoney to produce them and when weconducted a survey, we found out thatmost of these brochures died a slowdeath in the bottom of peoples’ gloveboxes. So, we decided to put the infor-mation online, so that people could ac-cess it quickly and easily.”

The Accident Assistant section ofthe site deals with what to do after anaccident, and the section titled Colli-

sion 101 focuses on factors and issuesdrivers can and should deal with be-fore an accident takes place, Ledouxexplained. “Collision 101 is a primeron how to deal with body shops, byproviding a glimpse into the industryfrom a consumer’s perspective. It’s avery thorough approach with a ton ofvalue-added features.”

The website includes pages thatdeal with repairs, parts, insurance re-lationships (DRPs), safety tips, a shoplocator, a collision glossary (that goesfrom Accident Forgiveness all the wayto Waterborne Paint), news, views anda special section that features Honda’sposition statements can be found in theCollision 101 section. Honda has in-cluded a series of position papers onCollision.Honda.com as well.

“We didn’t know what the re-sponse would be to the position pa-pers, but it’s been exceptional,”Ledoux said. “They deal with all of thetopics that people are concerned aboutand they want to know our stance onall of them. They deal with subjectslike aftermarket vs. OE parts, wheelrepairs, safety recalls, structural partsreplacement, salvaged and used airbag

components and unibody repairs andsalvaged/recycled parts. It covers theentire gamut and evidently it’s goingto be a very popular part of the site.” Inthe News, Views and More section,users can access the latest and greateststories about the collision industry,with a focus on relevance to the con-sumer, Ledoux said.

“This is an ever-changing sectionof the site, because we’ll be postingnew articles on there all the time. Inaddition, we have a Hall of Fame pagein that section, which consists of sto-ries about people or companies withinthe collision industry that do goodthings for other people on a regionalbasis. That means that only the peoplein those areas know about it. Our Hallof Fame will bring national attentionto these efforts and we want them toget out there, because they deserve theaccolades. Also, our Rear View sectionis going to be a lot of fun, providinghistorical capsules that relate to the au-tomotive history, as well as the worldof collision repair.”

In addition to creatingCollision.Honda.com, Honda also re-

American Honda Launches Two New Consumer Websites


THESE DEALERS ARE GENUINE WHOLESALE PARTS SPECIALISTS.

ALABAMA

Palmers ToyotaMOBILE

800-874-2777800-475-9091 FaxMon. - Fri. 7:30am - 6pm;

Sat. 8am - [email protected]

www.palmersairporttoyota.com

See American Honda, Page 16

Collision.Honda.com tells owners of Hondas and Acuras what to do when they get in an accidentin its Accident Assistant section, while they get a glimpse into what happens when their cars getfixed by accessing the site’s Collision 101 section


Serra KiaSerra KiaSerra Kia1170 Center Point Pkwy. • Birmingham, AL 35215

• Largest Wholesaler in the country• Over $500,000 in Kia parts inventory• Free overnight delivery to body shops• Ask for Dusty or Mike!

Call Our Parts Dept. Today!

800-426-4351205-853-7530 Fax

Hours:Mon-Sat 8am - 5:30pm

www.serrakia.com

SerraSerraMitsubishiMitsubishiSerraMitsubishi

1170 Center Point Pkwy.Birmingham, AL 35215

• 6th LARGEST WHOLESALER IN THE COUNTRY• Free delivery to body shops• Ask for Dusty or Mike!Call Our Parts Dept. Today!

800-426-4351205-853-7530 Fax

Hours: Mon-Sat 8am - 5:30pmwww.serramitsubishi.com

Mentionthis ad and

receive 5% Offyour order!

SerraSerraHyundaiHyundaiSerraHyundai1170 Center Point Pkwy.Birmingham, AL 35215

• 3rd LARGEST WHOLESALER IN THE COUNTRY• Free delivery to body shops• Ask for Dusty or Mike!

Call Our Parts Dept. Today!

800-426-4351205-853-7530 Fax

Hours: Mon-Sat 8am - 5:30pmwww.serrahyundai.com

BirminghamBirminghamSubaruSubaruBirminghamSubaru1170 Center Point Pkwy.Birmingham, AL 35215

• Free overnight delivery to body shops• Ask for Dusty or Mike!Call Our Parts Dept. Today!

800-426-4351205-853-7530 Fax

Hours: Mon-Sat 8am - 5:30pmwww.birminghamsubaru.com


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, becausehe fixes a lot of Hondas in hispart of Connecticut. “We see at least50 Hondas a month, which is essen-tially 20% of all the vehicles we re-pair. We use CollisionLink at least50–60 times every month as well and

we’re proud to say we’re an I-CARGold shop with all of our 14 produc-tion technicians trained on Honda and

Acura. That’s why we joined rightaway and are happy to be involved is

such a new pro-gram.”Dan Stander is

the owner of FixAuto HighlandsRanch in Littleton,CO. Stander is ac-tive in the nationalindustry associa-

tions such as NACE and was one ofthe first body shops to achieveHonda’s Level 3 and is happy to be a

part of ProFirst, he said. “The repairupdates are excellent and perfect forus. We repair as many as 50 Hondasevery month, so updated collision re-pair data is essential to our success. If

we can’t find it in our esti-mating system, we know wecan go there to find it. We’reexcited to be a Level 3 shopon ProFirst and know it willmake us a better shop as a re-sult.”

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, quick

and easy for the shop, and the best partis, ProFirst costs the shop nothing. It’sa win-win for everyone.”

Honda’s ProFirst Shop Recognition Program Puts Shops First

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

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

at www.autobodynews.com

Register Your Email for OurS

Free Monthly NewsletterFree Monthly NewsletterFree Monthly Newsletter

Dan Stander


Auto Data Labels is a preferred vendor for MSO’s, Dealership Collision Repair Centers, Franchises, Networks, Independent Collision Repair Facilities, and Insurance Companies throughout North America. If your business would like to make Auto Data Labels your “Preferred Vendor” pleasesubmit your info through our “Contact Us” page and we will be more than happy to assist you.

We recently ended an election cam-paign season during which exaggera-tions, misrepresentations and outrightlies were rampant. It made me think ofJohn, a small shop owner who sur-prised me when I asked where his cus-tomers came from. He had been inbusiness for nearly 30 years, but he toldme he didn’t rely on any corporate re-ferrals, dealership business or any ofthe other usual sources that many shopowners tell me are vital to keepingthem in business. “So,” I said, “wheredoes your business come from?” Hereplied, “My customers just keep com-ing back. After 30 years, you accumu-late a lot of customers.”

Right away I thought about manyother owners who complain to me thatthey have lost a lot of their old cus-tomers. They tell me their customersare swayed by steering, websites, ads,and news stories designed to scarethem away from small shops. I askedJohn if that happened to him. “Some-times,” he replied, “but mostly whenthey try to sway my customers, theyfail. My customers are my friends.Good friends never desert you.”

John isn’t the only small shopowner in business for more than 20years. What does he do different thatbinds his customers to him with suchloyalty? I overheard a couple of con-versations with his customers. I noticedthat John was scrupulously honest. Hewent to great pains to get the truth ofthe situation across to each customer. It

appeared to me that no prospective cus-tomer would ever doubt John’s in-tegrity. There was no phony “trust me”kind of selling on his part. He simplycame across as 100% sincere and100% determined to give or get for hiscustomer the best deal possible. Thatkind of integrity speaks for itself.

I’m sure some would say to me,“Of course he comes across with in-tegrity after 25 or 30 years! Whowouldn’t? But how can you communi-cate integrity instantly when you aremeeting a prospective customer for thefirst time? Or when you’ve only beenin business for less than a year? I re-cently had some work done on myhouse. The handyman that did the worksent me a thank-you note (not some-thing I’ve ever received from a handy-man before) and also he sent mesomething else I had never receivedfrom a handyman before: something hecalled “The Code of a Handyman.” Itwas a statement of his personal com-mitment to do a good job, to be ontime, to perform as promised, to pro-vide top service for a fair price, and afew other commitments to reassure meand his other customers that neither henor anyone working with him wouldever steal anything or knowingly dam-age any property or falsely representwhat had been done. In short, it was acode of handyman honor, a pledge ofintegrity far more effective than ver-bally boasting of his integrity. RalphWaldo Emerson once commented on a

boastful political speaker. He noted,“The louder he talked of his honor, thefaster we counted our valuables.”

The dictionary defines ‘integrity’as follows: 1. Rigid adherence to aCODE of behavior. 2. The state ofbeing sound; unimpaired. 3. Complete-ness; unity. Codes of ethics are oftenprovided by various industry associa-tions and also franchise operations.Such a ‘code,’ posted in a conspicuousplace, can serve to reassure theprospective customer that this place ofbusiness is committed to following adefinite criterion of ethical behavior. Ofcourse the prospect can only hope thebusiness owner and employees will ac-tually adhere to the code they haveposted, but at least the promise is therefor all to see.

Recall that the third definition of‘integrity’ was “completeness; unity.”It comes from the same root word as‘integrated.’ That word has come tohave a racial connotation, but actually

means “to make into a whole by bring-ing all parts together.” The businessowner who has ‘integrated’ into his orher community and become an ‘inte-gral’ part of that community, is gener-ally viewed as concerned and thustrustworthy. It is no longer necessary to‘sell’ the public on one’s integrity.

During the worst of the recessionin the early 1990s, John Baraona,owner of ‘Fussy Cleaners’ in Akron,OH, offered free dry-cleaning servicesto temporarily unemployed customers.When they finally landed new jobs inthe cleaned and pressed clothes Johnhad provided for them, they became hismost loyal customers. Was there anyfurther need for John to publicize hisintegrity? Integrity sells! In the shortrun, it may always be possible to lieand deceive, to gain a temporary vic-tory. But in the long run one’s reputa-tion for integrity, trustworthiness andhonesty is the best sales and marketingasset of all.

Integrity Sells!

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


Largest PartsInventory in Central Florida

Parts Hours:Monday-Friday 7:30 am - 5:30 pm; Saturday 8 am - 4 pm

Call Us Today!407. 644.5111

Fax:407.645-4971

1875 SOUTH ORLANDO AVE. – MAITLAND, FL 32751

F-250 Lariat ‘11

Ken AdamsParts Director

www.fordparts.com/donreidfordwww.donreidford.com

407. 64

F

d idf

1875 SOUTH ORLANDO AVE MAITLAND FL 32751

cently launched a second consumer-re-lated site, AirbagAware.Honda.com, aneffort that became necessary when thecarmaker encountered a growing prob-lem associated with counterfeit airbags.

“A few years ago, we began see-ing more and more of these counterfeitairbags,” Ledoux explained. “Con-sumers need to know the facts so theycan insist that only OE airbags areused. It’s a life and death situation, sowe’re very concerned and want to beproactive in providing valuable infor-mation to the public about this contro-versy.”

AirbagAware.Honda.com launchedin mid-December and is full of usefuldata, including safety advisories pro-vided by the National Highway TrafficSafety Association (NHTSA), usefulnews about airbags, videos, and docu-mentation that explains the differencebetween a Honda and a non-Hondaairbag.

One of the featured videos appear-ing on both websites is called “UseYour Melon,” a 30-second commercialthat shows exactly what happens to awatermelon when an airbag opens toolate. “It’s quite a visual and people havebeen talking about it since we producedit,” Ledoux said. “It illustrates how cru-cial airbags are and how things can gowrong if they’re not genuine.”

Continued from Page 12

American Honda


CSS USA, Inc.

A Smart Solution.The CSS Workstation Feaattures:es:ttuurreatn FtiotatrksWoSS W CSTheTThe CSS Workstation Features:A massive 179 square feet of �ltration area.Two huge input �lters (over 36sf ) clean the air going throughthe Workstation.Four Paint Arrest Filters (140+ square feet) and two ActivatedCharcoal Filters ensure the air going back into the environmentis clean and EPA compliant.

••••

Di!erent Sizes Availabbleebblleelabvails Azest Sient!erDi!D ——Including:g:ingudnclIIDi!erent Sizes Available—Including:13’x11’—Parts, pieces and motorcycles.30’x14’—Any full size vehicle.35’x16’x12’5” tall—As above but also Sprinter vans, small boats,and smaller RVs.60’x16’x12’5” tall—Full size RVs, boats, large trucks, etc.

•••

•

LLiigghhttiinngg:gg::ttiinngghhtLiLighting:Four large clear windows provide ample lighting.Additional stand lights can be placed outside the booth.

••

The CSS Workstation works the sameand just as e�ectively as a cross-�owpaint booth.

The CSS Workstation is EPA Certified.Ideal for the busy body shop-mobiletechnician-smaller shop with limitedfacilities.

Phone:904.567.3825Toll Free:866.910.0889info@carcoonusa.comwww.carcoonworkstation.com.coontiiootaattksstrrkkwwoonwoncooarc mom.cawwwwwwww.carcoonworkstation.com

55

99mm

In a study by the University of Michi-gan Transportation Research Institute,it was found that teens text while driv-ing more than their parents think theydo, the Detroit News Washington Bu-reau recently reported.

But the good news, according topreliminary findings of the study byToyota Motor Corp. and the Univer-sity of Michigan Transportation Re-search Institute, is that parents have alot of influence on how their teensdrive.

None of this should come as sur-prising news.

The survey of more than 5,50016–18 year-olds and parents, thelargest study of its kind, found thatteens who think their parents are dis-tracted drivers—eating while driving,looking for things, or focusing on pas-sengers and passenger behavior—aremuch more likely to engage in riskydriving behaviors themselves.

The study said that 61% of par-ents and 54% of teens report they usehand-held cell phones while driving.

According to the study, parentsunderestimate how much teens textbehind the wheel: 26% of teens reador send a text message from a smart-phone at least once every time they

drive, but only 1% of parents believetheir teen does this.

The worst news is that one infive teens admit to extended, multi-message text conversations whiledriving, according to the study spon-sored by Toyota’s CollaborativeSafety Research Center in Ann Arbor,which conducts studies with hospitals,universities and research institutes topromote safety.

More than two-thirds of teens,69%, report driving with two or threeteen passengers and no adults in theircar, which, according to a study by theAAA Foundation, is associated with adoubling of the driver’s risk of beingkilled in a crash. 44% of teens admit-ted to driving with more than threeteen passengers and no adults, whichquadruples the driver’s risk of beingkilled.

Car crashes are the leading causeof death for U.S. teens. Last year,seven teens a day died, on average, inthe U.S. from injuries sustained inroad accidents, according to the Cen-ters for Disease Control and Preven-tion.

“Be the driver you want yourteen to be,” said Tina Sayer with theCollaborative Safety Research Center.

No Surprise: Teens Text Behind the Wheel MoreThan Their Parents Realize

SEMA Unifies Racing Industry Trade ShowsThe Specialty Equipment Market As-sociation (SEMA) announced it hasfinalized an agreement to purchase theInternational Motorsports IndustryShow (IMIS), the racing trade showthat has been held annually in Indi-anapolis since 2009.

The IMIS will be consolidatedwith the Performance Racing Indus-try (PRI) Trade Show, which returnsto Indianapolis for 2013 and beyond.The 2013 PRI Trade Show occupiedthe entire Indiana Convention Centerin Indianapolis, with Thursday, Fri-day, and Saturday Show days, De-cember 12–14, 2013.

The acquisition unifies the racingindustry’s two trade shows into one,creating the opportunity for exhibitorsand buyers to do business in a singlelocation.

“The racing industry needed tohave just one motorsports trade showin the U.S. I’m proud to say we’veaccomplished that,” said ScooterBrothers, SEMA chairman of theBoard of Directors. “We have allworked toward a common goal, andhave succeeded on behalf of the in-dustry. To have a single home for theracing trade show is clearly the bestthing for the industry, and workingtogether with Chris Paulsen (co-

founder of IMIS), we got it done.”Both the PRI and IMIS trade

shows will take place as scheduled for2012. The PRI Trade Show was heldNov. 29–Dec. 1, in Orlando. TheIMIS was held Dec. 6–8, in Indi-anapolis. The IMIS transaction is setto close in December 2012.

“We formed IMIS in 2009 tobring a hardcore racing tradeshowback to Indianapolis,” Paulsen said.“We grew a lot faster than we evercould have dreamed of and we could-n’t be happier that a hardcore racingtradeshow will remain in Indianapolisfor years to come. SEMA will be greatstewards of the hardcore racing in-dustry and I couldn’t be more pleasedthat Indianapolis will remain the cen-ter of motorsports both on and off thetrack.”

“Being from Indiana, having ahardcore racing trade show in Indi-anapolis was very important to me,”said Tony Stewart, three-timeNASCAR Sprint Cup Series cham-pion and co-founder of IMIS. “That’swhy I got involved with Chris and Jeff(Stoops, co-founder of IMIS) to helpform IMIS and bring back a show toIndianapolis. I know SEMA will do agreat job to make sure Indy remainsthe place for hardcore racing.”


Allan Vigil Ford Lincoln��eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrttttttttttttttttttttt @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ tttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!�� RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp tttt @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh RRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTT ttttttttiiiiiiiii !!!!!!!!!!�e RIGHT part @ the RIGHT time!

MON-FRI: 7-7 / SAT: 7-3

• We Got It In Stock! Over 3 Million In Inventory. Over 3 Million In Inventory.• We Got It In Stock! Over 3 Million In Inventory.

350 lariat 2011

WWW.FORDPARTS.COM/ALLANVIGILFORD6790 mt. zion blvd., morrow, ga 30260

PPAPAAARRTTTSSS DDEEPPTTT..PARTS DEPT.

(770) 960-6268 Fax(877) 585-3472

• Delivering Next Day Next Day To All Southeast States theast States • Delivering Next Day To All Southeast States

• Utilizing Collision sion Link For All Your Parts Needs. For All Your Parts Needs.• Utilizing Collision Link For All Your Parts Needs.

Audatex Extends Contract with Boyd for EstimatingAudatex North America, Inc. an-nounced a new multi-year agreementwith The Boyd Group Inc. to provideestimating software and related toolsto support the multi-shop operator(MSO) in the U.S. and Canadianmarkets.

The Boyd Group operates morethan 200 locations across the fourCanadian provinces under the tradename Boyd Autobody & Glass, andin 14 U.S. states under the tradenames Gerber Collision & Glass,Pearl Auto Body and The RecoveryRoom. Boyd also operates GerberNational Glass Services, an autoglass repair and replacement referralbusiness with approximately 3,000affiliated service providers through-out the United States.

“Through an ongoing commit-ment to excellence, the Boyd Groupis a leader in the collision repair in-dustry and continues to build mo-mentum as one of the fastest growingmulti-shop operators in North Amer-ica,” said Wolfgang Ahrens, Man-aging Director of Audatex US.

“Audatex is pleased to extendour business alliance with the BoydGroup as we support their U.S. andCanadian operations with the indus-try’s most intelligent and complete

estimating and collision repair solu-tions,” Ahrens said.

Boyd and its predecessor com-panies have been Audatex customersfor more than 25 years. More than100 of Boyd Group’s collision repaircenters will use Audatex Estimatingtechnology, leveraging features suchas intelligent 3D graphics, color-coded parts and digital imaging to en-sure estimating accuracy andefficiency, as well as the highest lev-els of customer satisfaction.

“We have established and main-tained a long-standing alliance withAudatex because the company con-tinues to innovate and address the dy-namic business and technology needsof our repair centers and employees,so that they in turn can better serveour customers,” said Tim O’Day,President and COO of the BoydGroup’s U.S. Operations.

As baby boomers age, there has beena growing concern that traffic fatali-ties and vehicle crashes will spike, es-pecially since older drivers alreadyare a high risk segment, but a newstudy finds that these changing de-mographics won’t cause the crisismany are predicting, says ConsumerReports.

The new study by the HighwayLoss Data Institute (HLDI) looked atthe changing demographics and howit could affect insurance claims andfound that while the driving popula-tion is expected to increase and olderdrivers will account for a larger per-centage, there will not be an increasein collision claims based on their pre-dictions.

In addition, while a higher num-ber of older drivers will be on theroad, there will be a decrease in driv-ers under age 30, who have the high-est claims overall.

HLDI analysts also looked atcollision claims if more seniors con-tinue to drive. They increased the rateof insured drivers by 20% for peopleover 65 and found that it still didn’tchange the insurance claim fre-quency. Looking at current trends, the

overall claim rate is decreasing andwill actually be lower in 2030 than in2010.

The study only looked at low-severity crashes and didn’t make aprediction on fatal crashes, which ishigher for older drivers because theirfragility makes them more likely todie in a crash. There could be a higherrate of fatal crashes in the future, buthealth improvements could also makethem less likely to die in thosecrashes. Safer cars may also help con-tribute to a reduction in fatality rate asnew technologies can help older driv-ers avoid crashes in the first place.

The issue of older drivers is acomplicated one. In Consumer Re-ports’ October 2012 article “RiskyDrivers,” crash risks of older driverswas looked at and found that it is notonly high traffic fatalities that are ofconcern, but what they should dowhen they can’t drive anymore. Un-fortunately, there aren’t many trans-portation alternatives for seniors whoneed to give up the keys. Small com-munity organizations are working toincrease mobility and offer rideshares, but not nearly enough to han-dle the future demand.

Study Finds Aging Population Won’t IncreaseAccident Rates as Baby Boomers Get Older

Search:

Autobody Newson Facebook


Plans are in motion to institute aSEMA Memorial scholarship in thename of Dick Dixon, long time SEMAmember and educator from La Verne,CA, who lectured at Cal State Univer-sity San Bernardino, and who champi-oned higher education for youngpeople who wanted a future in the au-tomotive and related industries.

Dixon passed away on Nov. 15after waging a tough battle with can-cer. Even as the disease had him ingreat pain, he spent some of the lastdays of his life among colleagues,friends, and students at the annualSEMA Show meetings in Las Vegas.

“He was there to see his friends,and to pass the baton on in his way,”said Pat McInturff, Professor Emeri-tus in the Department of Managementat San Bernardino. “He was weak, butevery student, every friend that hespoke to about his ideas for new proj-ects buoyed him up. He never allowedthe conversation to become abouthimself and his problems; it was allabout the future, the students.”

“Dick was more than a col-league,” said McInturff, “He was aninspiration for all of us, he truly en-joyed teaching and he particularlyloved helping students to understandthe value that a solid business educa-

tion would have in their future in theautomotive industry.”

Dixon came to formal teachingsomewhat later in life. A lifelong mo-torsports junkie, an open-wheel racingdriver in his youth, a magazine pub-lisher, writer, and skillful organizer, hewas involved in countless facets of theautomotive business throughout hislife. He touched hundreds of lives inhundreds of different ways, but it al-ways his boundless enthusiasm that

his friends will remember and missmost of all.

At Dick’s request, there was nofuneral, and his wife Judi has asked thatfriends and associates remember Dickby contributing to this scholarship.

Contributions should be made di-rectly to SEMA. Checks should bemade out to: SEMA Memorial Fundearmarked: “Dick Dixon” and sent to:1575 S. Valley Vista Drive, DiamondBar, CA 91785-0910.

New SEMA Scholarship in Dick Dixon’s Name PlannedThe National Institute for Automo-tive Service Excellence (ASE) rec-ognized 44 automotive professionalsat its Fall Board of Governors meet-ing held Nov. 14 at the Hilton Palaciodel Rio in San Antonio, TX. The an-nual awards banquet spotlights topscorers on the ASE CertificationTests.

Thirty-seven companies fromboth OEM and Aftermarket segmentssponsored the individual technicianrecognition awards in the Auto,Truck, Collision and Parts categories,along with three instructor awards,and one recognizing a U.S. Air Forcetechnician. In addition to looking fortop scores on ASE tests, award spon-sors may also consider such factorsas on-the-job excellence, communityservice and more when selectinghonorees.

“ASE has been honoring thebest of the best in our industry formore than 30 years, and we are proudto once again recognize 44 outstand-ing individuals from all across thenation,” said Tim Zilke, ASE Presi-dent & CEO. “This is all made pos-sible by the support of our manyaward sponsors, whose ranks includesome of the best-known names in theindustry.”

44 Techs Honored at ASE

Dick Dixon ObituaryThe SEMA website published the followingobituary: Writer, educator and industryspeaker Dick Dixon passed away in hissleep November 15 after battling cancer. Helived by the philosophy that life was a sand-box from which to learn, work and play. Hethought of himself as an unconventionalget-it-done-right guy, who “worked like a270 Offy.”

Dixon grew up in Hawthorne, CA, andearned his masters degree in managementand marketing at California State UniversityDominguez Hills. Most recently, he was thedirector of the International Motorsports Al-liance at California State University, SanBernardino and chairman of the AutomotiveTrades Institute. Dixon was a lifelong auto-

motive and motorsports enthusiast and 30-year member of the aftermarket and motor-sports industry.

A three-time SEMA Ambassador ofthe Year and Motorsports Legends Hall ofFame inductee, Dixon received numerousindustry awards and spoke at industryevents nationally. He authored the CalState/SEMA-endorsed aftermarket manage-ment and marketing education certificateprogram and served on the SEMA Scholar-ship Committee for 13 years. Dixon was aformer professor and motorsports adminis-trator at Indiana and Purdue Universities. Hewas also managing editor and publisher ofthe Hot Rod Parts Guide and chairman andCEO of the Automotive Education Alliance.Dixon actively participated in SEMA’sARMO, HRIA, YEN, and SBN councils.


Autoway HondaClearwater

888-205-2564727-530-1173

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5; Sun [email protected]

Braman Hondaof Palm Beach

Greenacres888-479-0695561-966-5185

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-4:[email protected]

Classic HondaOr lando

888-893-4984407-521-1115

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat [email protected]

Coggin DelandHondaDeland

800-758-0007386-626-1811

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Ed Morse HondaRiv iera Beach

800-232-1098561-844-8089

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Hendrick Honda DaytonaDaytona Beach800-953-4402386-252-2301


Maroone Hondaof Hollywood

Hol lywood800-542-8121954-964-8300


Rick Case HondaDavie

877-544-2249Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7:30-4

[email protected]

South Motors HondaMiami

888-418-3513305-256-2240Dept. Hours: M-F 8-7

[email protected]

Carey Paul HondaSnel lv i l le

770-985-1444Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat [email protected]

Ed Voyles HondaMariet ta

800-334-3719770-933-5870 DirectDept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat [email protected]

Gerald Jones HondaAugusta

800-733-2210706-228-7040


Gwinnett Place HondaDuluth

800-277-8836678-957-5151


Honda Mall of GeorgiaBuford/Gwinnet t678-318-3155


Milton Martin HondaGainesv i l le

770-534-0086678-989-5473

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:[email protected]

Nalley HondaUnion C i ty

866-362-8034770-306-4646


Southern Motors HondaSavannah

888-785-8387912-925-1444


Jerry Damson HondaHuntsv i l le

800-264-1739256-382-3759

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5:30; Sat [email protected]

Serra HondaBirmingham

800-987-0819205-949-5460


Patty Peck HondaRidgeland

800-748-8676601-957-3400


FLORIDA FLORIDA GEORGIA ALABAMA

MISSISSIPPI

The Honda and Acura Dealers Listed Here are Subscribers:HONDA

FLORIDA FLORIDA GEORGIA ALABAMA

ACURA

Acura of Orange ParkJacksonvi l le

888-941-7278904-777-1008


Duval AcuraJacksonvi l le

800-352-2872904-725-1149


Rick Case AcuraFort Lauderdale800-876-1150954-377-7688


Jackson AcuraRoswel l

877-622-2871678-259-9500

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Nalley AcuraMariet ta

800-899-7278770-422-3138


Southern Motors AcuraSavannah

800-347-0596912-232-3222


Jerry Damson AcuraHuntsv i l le

800-264-1739256-533-1345

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5:30; Sat [email protected]

GEORGIA

GEORGIA

www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

AUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALLAUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALL

, ,, , ,R OEMR OEMR, OEMAUTOMAKER, OEM, OAUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM, OAU OM R AU OM R AUTOMAKER AUTOMAKER, OEM,O AUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM,O , , M M M,U U U M M MR R R E E EE E E K K K M M M T T T K K K A A A A A A E E KE A A A AK AK AK MA MA MA U U U M M MM M M R K K K O O O AUTOMAKER, OEM, DDNNNNA DDDDANDANDDDNNNNAAAAANANDNNDDAND A C EC C R L A C EC R R R C C C RE RE R R R L L L L L L A A A E E E CA CA AL AL LL LL L L R RECALLAUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALL

Autobody News January 2013FLORIDA • GEORGIA • ALABAMA • MISSISSIPPI


Ford Fusion Wins ‘Green Carof Year’ TitleFord Motor Co.’s all-new Fusionwon Green Car Journal’s “GreenCar of the Year” title at the recentLos Angeles Auto Show.

The Fusion beat out the DodgeDart Aero, Ford C-Max, MazdaCX-5 SKYACTIV and the ToyotaPrius c.

It is the eighth consecutiveyear that Green Car Journal has rec-ognized a “Green Car” of the year.Previous winners include the com-pressed natural gas-powered HondaCivic in 2011 and the range ex-tended plug-in hybrid ChevroletVolt in 2010.

The Fusion comes with multi-ple internal combustion engine op-tions, and as a hybrid and plug-inhybrid model.

Ford’s Fusion has a base priceof $21,700; the hybrid model, whichgets a combined 47 miles per gallon,starts at $27,200. The C-Max hybrid,which also gets a combined 47 milesper gallon, starts at $25,200.

The winner was selected by ajury of environmental leaders, in-cluding Sierra Club Executive Di-rector Michael Brune, OceanFutures Society President Jean-Michel Cousteau, Global GreenUSA President Matt Petersen,“Tonight Show” host and auto en-thusiast Jay Leno, and Green CarJournal staff.

Volkswagen is recalling certainmodel year 2012-2013 Beetle vehi-cles, manufactured from Feb. 2012through Aug. 2012, and equippedwith leather sport seats. If the rightfront passenger seat gets wet, theoccupant control module may notproperly detect the presence of achild restraint installed in the seat.If the control module does not de-tect a child seat installed, the airbagwill not turn off. If the airbag doesnot turn off, in the event of a crashnecessitating front airbag deploy-ment, a child secured in the childseat may be at an increased risk forserious injury. Volkswagen will no-tify owners, and replace the controlmodules, free of charge.

Volkswagen Beetle Recall

Ford Recalls Escapes, Fusions for Engine FiresFord Motor Co. issued its fourth recallNov. 30 for its 2013 Ford Escape SUV,citing a fire risk.

The recall affects 73,320 Escapes,as well as 15,833 midsized 2013 FordFusions. Some 80,000 of the recalledvehicles were in the U.S.

It’s the latest setback for the Es-cape, introduced in June and a key ve-hicle in Ford’s lineup.

The Dearborn automaker urgedowners of the vehicles with 1.6-liter en-gines to contact dealers immediately, toarrange loaners. But unlike an earlierEscape recall, this one didn’t cautiondrivers to stop driving them.

The recall is for Escape and Fu-sion SE and SEL models with a 1.6-literengine.

The company said it has not yetestablished repair procedures, and can’tsay when owners will be able to gettheir cars fixed. A Ford spokesman saidengine overheating can lead to fluidleaks, which may come in contact witha hot exhaust system and trigger a fire.

Ford said it received 13 reports ofengine fires that followed overheating.No injuries have been reported.

Ford told the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration that thefirst report of an Escape fire was Sept. 7in Florida.

150,000 Toyota TacomaTrucks Recalled Due to Rust

Hyundai, Kia Faces $775 MLawsuit Over Fuel EconomyLiesA lawsuit was filed against HyundaiMotor Corp. and Kia Motors Corp forover $775 million in damages due to theauto companies admitting they over-stated the fuel economy in close to 1million vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.

Reuters reported the lawsuit wasfiled in the U.S. District Court forCentral California on behalf of 23Hyundai and Kia vehicle owners.

The lawsuit is expected to chal-lenge Hyundai and Kia’s compensa-tion plan that they have set to satisfydisappointed customers.

The South Korean automakersadmitted they had overstated the fueleconomy on 13 Kia and Hyundaimodels after the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency released a reportabout the mistakes. The agencylooked into the matter after over adozen customers filed complaints.

Volt Sales Plummet Due toInventory IssueChevrolet sold 1,519 Volts in Novem-ber, a 33% rise over the same month ayear ago. But that was only about halfthe record 2,961 vehicles sold in Octo-ber and 2,851 in September.

Don Johnson, U.S. vice presidentof Chevrolet sales and service, attributedthe fall in Volt sales from its record-set-ting tally in October as an inventoryissue, felt particularly hard in California.

“Dealers are just clamoring formore,” he said of the California market,where GM sells about 34% of Volts andwhere it recently had just an eight-daysupply of the vehicle. Inventory is nowup to 23 days for California and about60 days for U.S. supply, which Johnsondescribed as ‘ideal.’

Volt sales through 11 months thisyear totaled 20,828.

It’s difficult to tell whether expira-tion of favorable sales incentives alsoled to the fall in Volt sales. Without spe-cial incentives, the Volt costs $39,145before a $7,500 federal tax credit. That’smore expensive than the base prices forToyota’s Prius plug-in ($32,000), FordMotor Co.’s C-Max Energi plug-in($32,950) and Nissan Motor Co.’s all-electric Nissan Leaf ($35,200).

GM to Hasten Developmentof Electric Vehicles in ChinaGeneral Motors Co. said it is increas-ing the speed of its development ofelectric vehicles in China, where itwill build and sell an all-electricChevrolet Sail Springo in addition toselling the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in electric.

GM recently announced plans tobuild 500,000 vehicles a year by 2017that would be powered in some wayby electricity. That would includeplug-in electrics, pure electrics, mildhybrids that use the company’s eAs-sist technology and full hybrids, ac-cording to the automaker.

GM China opened an advancedmaterials lab in Shanghai in Sept.2011 where employees work on bat-tery technology and lightweight ma-terial research. Workers there canbuild cells for lithium-ion batteries.

GM is recalling 2,949 model-year2012 Buick Verano, ChevroletCruze and Chevrolet Sonic vehiclesbecause the airbags could fail, ac-cording to the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration.

The recall involves the driver-side front airbag, which contains ashorting bar that could intermittentlycontact the airbag terminals,NHTSA reported. If the bar and ter-minals are contacting each other atthe time of a crash, the airbag maynot deploy. This increases the risk ofinjury.

GM Recalls 2012 Buick Verano, Chevy Cruze, Sonic

Toyota is recalling its popular Tacomapickup truck, sold in certain parts ofthe country. At issue is the carriers thathold the emergency spare tire under-neath the truck may not be adequatelyprotected from the chemical road de-icers used in several states. If the tirecarrier rusts, the spare tire may fall offthe truck and present a road hazard, in-creasing the risk of collisions.

According to the National High-way Traffic Safety Administration, therust problem affects 150,000 2001 to2004 model year Toyota Tacoma full-size pickup trucks sold in so-call “rustbelt” areas of the U.S., including:Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indi-ana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,New Hampshire, New Jersey, NewYork, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Is-land, Vermont, Virginia, West Vir-ginia, Wisconsin and Washington,DC.

Toyota has not yet developed aremedy to this situation, but they willnotify owners when a fix is in place.


Austin, TX, wasn’t accepting the ex-planation from American NationalProperty and Casualty Company(ANPAC) that an appraiser working onits behalf was just using “an outdateddocument” when denying the shop’ssupplement for color sand and buff.

In a follow-up letter to the TexasDepartment of Insurance, Borekpointed out that the document lookedlike a page from the Audatex guide toestimating, but shows that color sandand buff is included in refinish times;Borek says an Audatex manager whosearched the Audatex/ADP “DatabaseReference Manuals” back to 1993, con-cluded that the page is “most certainlynot a document from ADP/Audatex.”

“This manufactured documentcan only achieve one goal, which is toconvince uneducated consumers andshops that this operation is includedso they can ‘short pay’ the claim,”Borek wrote in his follow-up letter tothe Department of Insurance.

MarchChrysler became the latest automakerto announce a certification program

for both independent and dealershipcollision repair shops. Certification re-quires meeting more than 40 standardsincluding maintaining I-CAR GoldClass status and using squeeze-typeresistance spot welding equipment.Under the program, if all OEM partsare used on a job, that will be noted onthe vehicle’s CARFAX report, alongwith the fact that the vehicle was re-paired a Chrysler-certified shop.

AprilLKQ Corporation worked to counter

ongoing liabilityconcerns forshops about useof alternativeparts by announc-ing that in addi-tion to a lifetimewarranty on itsnon-OEM parts, it

would indemnify shops against injuryor damage caused by a defective ve-hicle part distributed by LKQ.

The “Promise of Protection” saysit covers a “licensed automotive repairshop” that purchases the part fromLKQ, excluding claims arising fromshop negligence or malfeasance.

LKQ’s move followed Diamond

Standard’s announcement in Januarythat it was offering ASA member shopscoverage under a $40 million liabilityinsurance policy for any liability issuesrelated to the performance of DiamondStandard non-OEM structural parts.

MayEileen Sottile of the Quality PartsCoalition (GPC) urged attendees at theAuto Body Parts Association (ABPA)conference to contact Congress to sup-port the coalition’s legislation (HR3889) that would reduce the time au-tomakers can use design patents to pre-vent other companies from producingreplacement crash parts. Sottile saidthe bill would reduce the patent pro-tection from 14 years to just 2.5 years.

Despite a public relations and lob-bying effort funded by LKQ Corpora-tion ($3.7 million), Nationwide andState Farm ($115,000 each), Allstate($92,000) and others, the bill never gotbeyond a hearing in the U.S. House.

JuneInsurer groups’ radio ads and other ef-forts were successful in convincingRhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee toveto legislation that would have givenshops in that state the right to sue in-

surers directly in small claims courtover disputed repair costs.

Chafee said he believed the billwould have given shops rights thatexist in “no other state in the nation,”and would have “hurt Rhode Islandconsumers” by raising the cost of autoinsurance.

The legislation, supported by theAuto Body Association of Rhode Is-land and passed by lawmakers, alsowould have strengthened the state’santi-steering law, and would have re-quired that damages exceed 75% of avehicle’s value before that vehicle can

be declared a totalloss.

The associationissued a statementexpressing its dis-appointment withChafee’s action.

“Though his vetomessage states that

he is concerned about the consumer, heclearly put the consumer and smallbusiness’ interests aside and bowed tothe pressure of the real ‘special interestgroup’ —the billion-dollar insurancecompanies,” the association’s state-ment read.


Year in Review

Eileen SottileRob Knott

See Year in Review, Page 25

Include Mike Monaghan as amongthe proponents of the benefits of colli-sion repair industry standards. Whateffect did he see such standards hav-ing in the United Kingdom?

“The bad repairers went away.The incompetent and inefficient and il-legal repairers went away,” Monaghan

said. “The insurance carriers got moreintegrity, better safety, better customerservice. They got better value fromtheir supply chain.”

Monaghan spoke at the CollisionIndustry Conference (CIC) in LasVegas in November. As a three-shopoperator in the United Kingdom in

1988, he said was discouraged withhaving to compete with other repairersthat he didn’t feel had made the invest-ment he had in equipment and training.He wrote a white paper outlining whathe felt a “good shop looked like,” andover the course of three years helpedcraft one of the first set of collision re-pair standards in the U.K.

Though some others have pointedto some downsides to the standardsprogram in the U.K., Monaghan wasunequivocal about the positive impactof the standards. He began his argu-ment for standards in the U.S. by not-ing that change is inevitable, and thattoo often collision repairers allowthemselves to remain only on the re-ceiving end of that change.

“The tragedy for our industry iswe react too late. We react to every-thing and then we seek to blame,”Monaghan said.

“Can the collision industry takecontrol of its market and its destiny?

Yes, it absolutely can, but what it can’tdo is constantly wait and react. It hasto take control.”Are minimum requirements enough?He challenged whether repairers or in-surers clearly have defined what“good” looks like. He pointed out oneexample in a draft revision of CIC’sdefinition of the minimum require-ments for a shop, which calls for shopsto have a minimum of one techniciancertified in welding. Monaghan askedabout a shop that has six or eight tech-nicians, only one of which who is cer-tified and who is gone for a day whenwelding is done on vehicles.

“Is that safe? Is it right? I seriouslydon’t think so,” Monaghan said. “Ifyou’re welding a car, you should betested before you get to weld.”

He said that part of the problemwith not having standards is that re-pairs are too often designed basedmore on negotiated cost.

“You need to understand there is

Advocate of Collision Industry Standards in the U.K. Sees Need for Them Here

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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


Your Premiere Dealership for GenuineSubaru Parts and Accessories

Your Premiere Dealership f for G Genuine

We are the #1 PartsWe are the #1 PartsWholesale Dealer in Georgia!!Wholesale Dealer in Georgia!!

We are the #1 PartsWholesale Dealer in Georgia!!

2920 Satellite Blvd. è Duluth, GA 30096920 Satel e Blvd920 tellite B vd. èè 09th, GA 3009th Du Dulut

SubaruSubaruof Gwinnettof Gwinnett

Subaruof Gwinnett

678-584-7246678-584-7246Parts Fax:

678-584-7245678-584-7245Parts Direct Line:

678-584-7246678-584-7246678-584-7246678-584-7246Faxx:

800-584-8727800-584-8727800-584-8727Toll Free:

è Order Using Collision Linkè Most Comprehensive Parts Collection in Atlanta!è Visit our Subaru Parts eStore!è Wholesale Specialist On Call!

www.subaruofgwinnett.comè HOURS: Monday - Friday 8:00 am—6:00 pm Saturday 8:00 am—4:00 pm

Other perspectives on standards in the U.K.As an advocate for implementation of a set of collision repair standards here,Mike Monaghan, at the most recent CIC, spoke mostly of the upside of thestandards he helped develop in the United Kingdom. But others there, eventhose who support the standards, acknowledge some challenges they pose.

In the U.K., more than 840 shops (out of an estimated 1,400 that partici-pate in insurer direct repair programs) have earned certification under the 5-year-old set of repair standards. Although the standards were developed byan inter-industry effort, the implementation of those standards and certifica-tion of the shops is overseen by Thatcham, an insurer-funded research or-ganization.

“It’s basically a get-of-jail-free card for insurers,” said Chris Mann, pub-lisher of Bodyshop Magazine in the U.K., has said of the standards program.“If something goes wrong and they are asked, ‘Why did you choose thisbody shop,’ just saying, ‘It’s cheap and it’s there,’ is not a very good answerto a court. But ‘I chose this body shop because it is independently-auditedthrough this standards program,’ means you’ve taken the due care that a rea-sonable organization should do. I think that’s a big, big plus for insurers.”

But Mann also points out that without such standards “against whichtheir suppliers can be measured...the only criteria insurers can use is price.”

Certified shops also have the benefit of using the “Kitemark” logo,somewhat equivalent to the “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval in thiscountry in that it is widely recognized by U.K. consumers as a designation ofsome level of performance among the companies and products that haveearned its use.

Paul Gange, the president and chief operating officer of Fix Auto USA,said that while he believes in the value of standards for the industry, he’s ob-served some of the challenges with the program in the U.K., where a similarFix Auto organization has more than 60 franchises.

Gange noted that at one point in the U.K., there were multiple competingsets of industry standards, and shops found themselves being required bydifferent insurers to implement multiple standards

“This was, at the very basis, a bit of a mess,” Gange said.Gange also said that while single standards program now in the U.K., is

“at its essence positive, it’s riddled with bureaucracy, and along with bureau-cracy comes costs.” Gange said that shops in the U.K. feel they bear the bur-den of these costs, which include $30,000 to $80,000 in terms of an initialimplementation fee, along with the equivalent of just under $8,000 a year inannual training.

an independent correct repair, and thathas to come first, and only… then doyou figure out, and if necessary nego-tiate, the cost,” he said.

Monaghan said over the course ofthree years, he took his white paper toshops, insurers and automakers forinput, and by 1991 it was ready to beimplemented as a standard.

“The good shops that wanted todifferentiate themselves stepped upand said, ‘If that means I have to beaudited four times a year, front door toback door, looking in every dark cor-ner, then that’s the standard I want tobe identified with,’” Monaghan said.

The standard was eventuallyadopted by 13 insurers (who requiredit be met by shops on their programs)and 11 auto manufacturers, Monaghansaid.

Though Monahan didn’t mentionthat another set of standards was alsovying for adoption by shops and in-surers, he did say that in 2007 hestepped aside and the current singlestandards program in the U.K., imple-mented by the insurer-funded researchfirm Thatcham, moved forward.

The issue of costsMonaghan returned several times at

CIC to the topic of the impact of stan-dards on costs. He acknowledged thatin some instances in the U.K., repaircosts (and the percentage of vehiclesdeclared total losses) have risen. Buthe said the reduction in costs associ-ated with variability and other issuesdeclined.

“If you get the right people, theright repairers with the right materialsand the right skills and training—ifyou get all those things more fre-quently—then you reduce the vari-ables,” he said. “There is less rancor,less rework, less supplementaries. Allthose factors were contained andscaled back considerably.”

Monaghan, who recently movedto the United States, clearly has an in-terest in playing a role in the develop-ment of standards here.

“I’m living here now, and I’mwilling to help CIC or anybody else inthis industry with my knowledge andbackground,” Monaghan said. “I thinkthe U.S. can achieve something quitespectacular (and) does not need to gothrough the pain we went through… “If the repair industry does not em-brace this and take charge of its owndestiny, then it will be a victim ofchange.”


For Your Next Repair Pick Only Original

TOYOTA PARTS!or Y ur ex R p r c On y O O iginanao Your Next Repair Pick Only O iiri iiigiPALMERS TOYOTAPALMERS TOYOTA

HOURS:Mon. - Fri. 7:30am - 6pmSat. 8am - 4pm

470 Schillinger Road • Mobile, AL 36695

www.palmersairporttoyota.com

Wayne NettlesParts Manager

[email protected]

Call Us Today!

800-475-9091 FAX to Wholesale Desk

251-639-9970Direct Local

800-874-2777DirectWholesale

• We deliver in our own trucks to NW. Florida, S. Alabama and SE. Mississippi• Call up til 5:30pm for next day delivery• Courteous, professional parts people with integrity to help you• Better service + better prices = faster turn time and more profit for you

JulySome good news for shops worriedabout the growing amount of acci-dent-avoidance technology in vehi-cles: It’s not all working.

The July issue of “Status Report”from the Highway Loss Data Instituteexamined insurance claims data to seewhat impact crash-prevention tech-nology is having.

“Forward collision avoidance sys-tems, particularly those that can brakeautonomously, along with adaptiveheadlights, which shift direction as thedriver steers, show the biggest crash re-ductions in the studies,” the publicationstated. “But one feature, lane departurewarning, appears to hurt rather thanhelp, though it’s not clear why, andother systems aren’t showing clear ef-fects on crash patterns yet.”

AugustDuPont announced it was selling its11,000-employee automotive paintbusiness to private equity firm TheCarlyle Group for $4.9 billion in cash.

“Through targeted investmentswe will support DPC’s product devel-opment and growth objectives as ittransitions to a stand-alone company,”Greg Ledford of The Carlyle Groupsaid.

The Carlyle Group earlier in thesummer had announced it was acquir-ing majority ownership in the Texas-based Service King Collision RepairCenter chain.

SeptemberThe Department of Justice (DOJ) andFederal Trade Commission (FTC)jointly held a workshop on the topicof most-favored-nation (MFN)clauses, such as the basis for StateFarm’s pricing requirements for itsSelect Service shops.

“Although at times employed forbenign purposes, MFNs can, under cer-tain circumstances, present competitiveconcerns,” the two agencies noted.“This is because they may, especiallywhen used by a dominant buyer, raiseother buyers’ costs or (prevent) would-be competitors from accessing the mar-ket. Additionally, MFNs can facilitatecollusion and stabilize coordinatedpricing among sellers.”

OctoberSpeaking at NACE in New Orleans,representatives of State Farm, Allstate

and Nationwide said that any MSOson their DRPs are measured as indi-vidual shops and must compete to per-form as-such.

George Avery of State Farm saidhis company’s experience with M2,the 27-shop consolidator in Californiathat closed suddenly back in 2005, ledhis company to focus on finding top-performing individual shops, whetherstand-alone or part of an MSO.

Rob Knott of Nationwide con-curred.

“We think the mom-and-popsstill have a place,” Knott said. “Someof the challenges that the MSOs haveis over-saturation in certain market-places, so you’re not going to put (alltheir shops in a market) on (the directrepair program). And then there’s theconsistency issue, when they expandtoo fast and aren’t able to maintain thesame service levels and quality.”

NovemberToyota previeweda new “predictiveestimating” sys-tem it is creatingthat incorporatesall necessary partsand Toyota-rec-

ommended procedures along withlinks to all related Toyota bulletinsand published documentation. Toy-ota’s Jerry Raskind called the systema “game-changer,” in that rather thanhaving an estimator start from a blankpage and add line items based on whatthey know or can locate about OEMprocedures, the system begins with acomplete estimate and allows the userto omit items as appropriate.

“Everything you need to fix ourcars correctly and to our standards isthere,” Toyota’s Rick Leos said.

DecemberThe National Insurance Crime Bureau(NICB) released revised estimates in-dicating that 230,000 vehicles in East-ern states had been damaged bysuper-storm Sandy. New York had themost vehicles affected by the stormwith 130,000 while New Jersey gen-erated 60,000 claims.

John Yoswick, a freelance writerbased in Portland, Oregon, who hasbeen writing about the automotive in-dustry since 1988, is also the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.Crash-Network.com). He can be contacted byemail at [email protected].


Year in Review

Rick Leos

The ASA Collision team, composed ofASA staffer Denise Caspersen andASA collision members participatingon the ASA Collision Division Opera-tions Committee, led by team directorDan Stander, owner of Fix Auto High-lands Ranch, with input from the ASABoard of Directors, had a productive2012 representing the ASA member-ship and engaging with the various seg-ments of the industry that affect theASA collision repair membership.

ASA is fortunate to have willingvolunteers with diverse backgroundsactively donating their time, mind-share and leadership in addressing ac-tions and issues of the association.

“ASA’s collision division func-tions extremely well as a team and ap-proaches things just that way, as ateam,” said Caspersen.

Just as the collision repair industryfaced multiple challenges and changesin 2012, so did the volunteers and staffof ASA’s collision division. Followingthe release of a revised ASA crash partspolicy, supporting the original part asthe standard of measure, and a jointstatement with AASP and SCRS rec-ommending that original manufacturerrepair procedures be considered as thestandard, the ASA’s collision teambegan 2012 with the announcement ofa strategic alliance with alternativeparts manufacturer, Diamond Standard,that afforded ASA members with prod-uct liability protection against the un-likely scenario of damage or personalinjury directly related to use of Dia-mond Standard parts in the repair.

In early 2012, ASA Arizonaplayed a vital role in bringing aboutthe removal of language from Housebill 2394 which would have forcedshops, in many situations, to absorbthe costs associated with vehicle stor-age or bill it to the vehicle owner.

This was accompanied by ASATexas bringing forth opposition to pro-posed licensing ordinances in early 2012followed by ASA Texas challenging thestate’s franchise tax law in mid 2012.

At the federal level, ASA beganthe year monitoring an auto parts bill,H.R. 3889, Promoting AutomotiveRepair, Trade and Sales Act (PARTS).The bill would amend the U.S. designpatent law to change the period of de-sign patent protection for automakersfrom 14 years to 30 months. ASAjoined with 10 other automotivegroups in opposition to the bill whilemonitoring actions in the U.S. House

Judiciary subcommittee.Continuing a long-standing tradi-

tion of ASA calling for the repeal ofMcCarran-Ferguson, ASA showedsupport for federal bill, H.R. 5 askingfor the restoration of the Applicationof Antitrust Laws to Health Sector In-surers, which passed on the Housefloor in the first quarter.

Also related to insurance, ASA at-tended a workshop in the Federal TradeCommission and the U.S. Departmentof Justice review of Most Favored Na-tion (MFN) clauses within the insur-ance industry. Prior to the workshop theFTC noted: “The most commonly usedMFN provisions guarantee a customerthat it will receive prices that are at leastas favorable as those provided to otherbuyers of the same seller, for the sameproducts or services. Although at timesemployed for benign purposes, MFNscan, under certain circumstances, pres-ent competitive concerns. This is be-cause they may, especially when usedby a dominant buyer of intermediategoods, raise other buyers’ costs or fore-close would-be competitors from ac-cessing the market. Additionally, MFNscan facilitate collusion and stabilize co-ordinated pricing among sellers.” ASAwill continue interest in Most FavoredNation discussion in 2013.

The 2012 ASA legislative objectsand can also be located on the ASA leg-islative website at www.takingthe-hill.com – sidebar – LegislativeObjectives - http://www.takingthe-hill.com/objectives.htm. 2013 ASAlegislative objects will be appearingthere in the very near future.

In addition to working with SCRSand AASP on seeing vehicle manu-facturers repair procedures recognizedas the standard for repair procedures,ASA continued in the three’s mutualsupport of the Database EnhancementGateway (DEG) program, which con-tinues to provide free industry supportfor addressing questions of informa-tion provided the industry leading in-formation providers.

Throughout 2012, ASA’s collisiondivision also provided the ASA mem-bership with representation by takingpart on the on the I-CAR Board of Di-rectors, the CIECA Board of Directors,the WIN Board of Directors, CIC meet-ings and the CIC Data Privacy commit-tee. ASA looks forward to continuedinteractions with these bodies in 2013.

These items were in addition tothe lengthy and extensive engagement

of ASA’s collision team centered onthe electronic parts procurement ap-plication currently piloted by StateFarm. During many conversations,ASA’s collision division has been metwith both support and disappointmentof ASA’s approach of professionalism,factual understanding and industry en-gagement in addressing this pilot.

During the early stages of thepilot, information was presented to theindustry which brought both concernand confusion to the ASA member-ship. In early April, the ASA collisionteam took on the challenge of provid-ing ASA’s membership and the colli-sion industry with as much verifiableinformation as possible through theengagement with as many segments aspossible, in addition to speaking di-rectly with State Farm and the appli-cation’s designer, PartsTrader.

Over the past months, this ap-proach also called for the ASA collisionvolunteers to express the concerns ofthe ASA membership (initially centeredaround the repairer/supplier relation-ship, and then expanding to specifics ofthe application, and now on ‘what hap-pens to the collision repair shop’s profit

on parts?’) and follow up on requestsfor data on what are the affects of thepilot are on those participating. The De-cember 2012 expansion of the pilot tothe 475 Select Service shops in theChicago, IL, area will broaden the testmarket to approximately 600 collisionrepair facilities currently on the SelectService program.

To date, ASA has provided the in-dustry with 13 statements focused on theState Farm Select Service pilot, includ-ing: initial details of the pilot; public re-quest for result data of the pilot;overviews of industry meetings; changesto the pilot and detailed coverage ofASA’s ongoing conversations with StateFarm. ASA will continue to be a part ofconversations, advocacy and communi-cations about the State Farm electronicparts procurement application in 2013.

ASA’s communication piecesspecific to the State Farm pilot canbe located on the ASA website atwww.ASAshop.org. Click on “Tools& Resources,” then “State FarmPilot Program.”

And lastly, the ASA collisionteam spent many hours designing and

ASA Collision Division Recaps 2012, Moves Forward into 2013


THE LARGEST INVENTORY OF FORD • LINCOLNMERCURY PARTS IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

• OE COLLISION PARTS, MECHANICAL REPAIRS AND HEAVY REPAIRS PARTS

• SPECIAL PRICING FOR COMPETITIVE COLLISION AND MOTORCRAFT PARTS

• EXPERT COUNTER LOOK-UP WITH MASTER CERTIFIED COUNTERMAN

HOURS: MONDAY - FRIDAY 8 A.M. - 7 P.M., SATURDAY 8 A.M. - 4 P.M.

NORTH MIAMI-DADEHIALEAH LOCATION:1200 W. 49 STREET,HIALEAH, FL 33012

DIRECT: 305-822-8338FAX: 305-825-3018

[email protected]

SOUTH MIAMI-DADEKENDALL LOCATION:15551 S. DIXIE HWY.,

MIAMI, FL 33157DIRECT: 305-234-2668

FAX: [email protected]

See ASA Recaps, Page 37


Direct Wholesale:770-234-7995 or 800-533-118024 Hr. Fax: 770-234-7988

Huge Inventory &8 Delivery Trucks

www.jimellishyundai.come-mail: [email protected]

5785 Peachtree Inc. Blvd.5785 Peachtree Inc. Blvd.Atlanta, GA 30341Atlanta, GA 30341

WHOLESALE BODY AND MECHANICAL PARTS

EXPERTS SERVING THE AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR

INDUSTRY OF GEORGIA

Mon. - Fri. 7:30am - 7pm Sat. 8am - 4pm

• Fast and Free Delivery• Extremely Competitive Pricing• 50+ Years of Combined Parts Experience• The Best Inventory in GA, Over 95% of Orders are Off the Shelf. Make it Easy on You and Your Staff, Call Us First• Offering OE Connection

Hyundai

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy,automakers reported the highest levelof new vehicle sales —1.1 million—the best month since January, 2008.Sales for new cars rose 15% in No-vember. The increase in sales is at-tributed to totals due to the hurricane,which slammed into the East Coast inlate October. It is estimated that200,000 vehicles will be replaced inthe Northeast. November, 2012,marks the industry’s bestmonthly sales rate in fouryears nationwide.

Compared to last No-vember, sales rose 11.9%from a year earlier, toppinganalyst forecasts. That putsales at an annual pace of15.5 million vehicles, ac-cording to Autodata.

So, how good were No-vember sales? Honda andNissan had the best Novem-ber and BMW its best U.S. monthever. Automakers sold more units inNovember than in October, only thesecond time that has happened in 24years of records.

Analysts say that between 20,000-30,000 of the sales during Novemberwere by consumers replacing Sandyflooded, damaged or destroyed vehi-cles. Some analysts say that those con-sumers who meant to buy in Octoberwere delayed by the hurricane andwaited to purchase in November whenthings calmed down.

In West Babylon, NY, the Hondadealership there move its entire newand used car inventory inland as thestorm approached because their regu-lar lot was swamped.

“I’ve been in business since 1964,and I’ve never had a month like this be-fore,” said Gary Schimmerling, pres-ident of the Honda dealership, about 45minutes east of Manhattan on Long Is-land. He sold more than 250 new vehi-cles in November, versus 100 in atypical November, Schimmerling said.

The New York Times reportedthat preliminary figures showed that1.14 million vehicles were sold in No-vember, in contrast to 994,000 in the

same month a year ago, according tothe research firm Autodata. Becauseof Hurricane Sandy, it is expected thatthe industry will exceed 2012 salesforecasts and that recovery will con-tinue into 2013.

Kelley Blue Book sees the stormdemand continuing through Decem-ber which could possibly end up beingthe strongest month in vehicle sales in2012.

The storm damaged more than230,000 vehicles, including 190,000in New York and New Jersey, accord-ing to estimates from the National In-surance Crime Bureau. But analystssay only about 25% of those cars willbe replaced with new ones because thereplacement value in most caseswould only be enough to replace aused car with another used car.

In addition to Hurricane Sandyhelping to lift auto sales to a four-yearhigh, healthy sales in November arealso attributed to the need to replaceaging cars and a steady supply of fresh,new models with superior fuel econ-omy, the New York Times reported.Typically, the end of the year is a goodseason for the auto industry anyway, es-pecially for those offering good rebates.

Analysts said the strong salesacross the industry proved that the gainwas the result of more than just salesdelayed by Sandy. Most believe thatsales would have been above the 15million pace even without the storm’seffect.

Besides the surge in new car salesdue to the storm, reports say U.S. carbuyers are returning to showrooms inrecent months due to pent up demandand because Americans are feelingmore confident in the economy, be-cause there has been some improve-ment in the job market, and consumershave easier access to credit and fi-nancing.

Jesse Toprak, an analyst at True-Car, said that larger economic worries

such as the fiscal cliff have had littleimpact on car buyers, at least so far.

“Right now, consumers are feel-ing better about making big ticketitem decisions,” said Toprak. But, headded, that could change dependingon the political climate and the stockmarket.

However, automakers fear thattalks of the ‘fiscal cliff’ could put adamper on the party, if Congress andthe White House can’t reach anagreement. The ‘fiscal cliff’ termrefers to the tax increases and gov-ernment spending cuts set to roll intoeffect starting Jan. 1 if the govern-ment can’t come to an agreement tocut the deficit.

Toprak and other analysts believethat car sales will get an additional liftfrom Sandy in the coming months, asconsumers move to replace damagedcars after they’ve received checksfrom their insurers.

“It typically takes 90 days to sortout the impact of a storm like this,”said Michelle Krebs, a senior analystfor Edmunds.com.

AutoGuide.com reported one an-alyst who said he doesn’t read too

much into the November increase ofauto sales.

“Automakers do not sell cars tocustomers, they sell to dealers,” saidJim Hall, Managing Director of 2953Analytics. “And retailers replenishtheir inventory faster than consumerspurchase vehicles, so that could ex-plain a lot of the sales bump. There isnothing worse for a dealer than to below on stock.”

Toyota and Honda reported largeincreases in sales that were partiallydue to replacing storm-battered vehi-cles. Toyota said its November salesjumped 17.2%, and Honda reported at38.9% increase. One analyst saidHonda is the most popular brand inNew York, New Jersey and Connecti-cut. Nissan said its sales increased12.9% in November.

General Motors reported a lowsales of increase of just 3.4%, mostlybecause of a drop in truck sales. FordMotor Company reported its saleswere up 6.4% in November becauseof the popularity of the Focus sedanand C-Max hybrid models. Chryslerfared well with a 14.4% increase inNovember.

Hurricane Sandy Fuels Auto Sales Not Seen in Four Years


Making a Difference

• Tickets over $100 00 Free Overnight Freight• Parts on COD• Overnight Via Noble• Interstate Billing

1503 Gadsden Hwy., Trussville, AL 35235

www.serramazda.comParts Mgr.: Casey Cargo - [email protected]

205-661-5878Parts Line:888-448-7278Toll Free:205-661-5879Fax Line:

Call, Fax or Email Your Order Today!

Interstate BBilling

Parts Dept.:Mon. - Fri.7:30am - 6pmSat.7:30am - 2pm

MMakkiing a DDiifffferenceSERRA MAZDASERRA MAZDASERRA MAZDA

Cars totaled by Hurricane Sandy

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s de-struction, automakers were forced toscrap more than 15,000 new vehiclesdamaged by the storm.

Nissan estimated more than 6,000Nissan and luxury Infiniti brand carsand light trucks were not going to beable to be sold because of storm dam-age. Including used autosand those of individual own-ers, approximately 200,000will have to be replaced,said Larry Dixon, senioranalyst for the National Au-tomobile Dealers Associa-tion.

“Total vehicles affectedmay be about one-third ofwhat we saw with HurricaneKatrina, and that was about600,000” used and new ve-hicles, said Dixon, based inMcLean, VA.

Sandy, the biggest Atlantic stormin U.S. history, raked New Jersey,New York and the surrounding regionwith 100 mile an hour winds and ledto at least 100 deaths. The storm’ssurge of more than 13 feet inundatedtransit tunnels and underground utili-

ties, destroyed homes and eroded nat-ural barriers such as beaches after itstruck Oct. 29.

Fisker Automotive Inc., a startupmaker of luxury plug-in hybrids, lost338 of its $103,000 Karma sedans atthe port of Newark, New Jersey, in-cluding 16 that burned in a fire trig-

gered by salt water, said RogerOrmisher, a spokesman for the Ana-heim, California-based company.

“We don’t have a full estimate ofthe cost to replace them yet,” he said.The closely held company’s cars werebeing processed for delivery to deal-ers when the storm arrived. Replacing

338 Karmas at the $103,000 baseprice would total $34.8 million.

Some 4,000 Toyota and Lexus ve-hicles were at the company’s port fa-cility in Newark, CA, when the stormhit, said Jana Hartline, a spokes-woman for Toyota’s U.S. unit in Tor-rance, CA.

“We have about 1,300 that we aretaking a second look at” that may besalvaged, she said. “A little bit under3,000 will likely be scrapped.”

Another 825 vehicles in dealer in-ventory were damaged by Sandy andcan’t be sold, Hartline said.

Honda and Acura dealers expectto have to scrap about 3,440 vehicles,said Chris Martin, a spokesman forHonda’s U.S. unit in Torrance, CA.Scrappage decisions will be deter-mined by dealers and their insurers, hesaid.

Additionally, about 500 U.S.-builtvehicles Honda was preparing to ex-port from the FAPS Inc. port facilityin Newark were also damaged, Mar-tin said.

Chrysler dealers lost about 750vehicles from their stock due to hurri-cane damage, said Ralph Kisiel, a

spokesman for the Auburn Hills,Michigan-based carmaker that’s ma-jority-owned by Fiat.

Hyundai Motor Co. U.S. unit lost400 vehicles, said Lori Scholz, a com-pany spokeswoman in Costa Mesa,CA.

Kia Motors Corp., a Hyundai af-filiate also based in Seoul, has about200 vehicles “damaged beyond re-pair,” said Scott McKee, a spokesmanfor the company’s U.S. unit in Irvine,CA.

The company’s dealers in BayRidge, New Jersey, Jersey City andStaten Island “lost most or all of theirinventory,” McKee said.

New York and New Jersey areamong the top 15 U.S. states for vehi-cles in operation and auto dealerships,NADA said in a report. The two statesalso have a larger portions of cars thantrucks and non-U.S.-based brands ac-count for a significant share of totalsales, the dealer organization said.

There are 886 auto dealerships inNew York and 463 in New Jersey, ac-cording to NADA.

Sandy Forces Automakers to Scrap over 15,000 New Vehicles


Genuine Mitsubishi Replacement Crash Parts are closeat hand through the following quality dealerships.Exceptional customer service, wide selection of in-stockparts and the experience necessary to ensureyour repairs proceed smoothly.

Parts You Need.People You Trust.

2012 Lancer Sportback

ALABAMA

Serra MitsubishiBIRMINGHAM800-426-4351(205) 853-7530 Fax

M-Sat 8:00 am - 5:30 pm

The former owner of a northwestMissouri auto body shop has admit-ted defrauding three banks of morethan $2 million.

The U.S. Attorney's office says35-year-old Clint Edward Dukes,of Mayview, pleaded guilty to bankfraud Nov. 28 in federal court.

Dukes owned the now-defunctDukes Auto Repair in Higginsvillefrom 2004 to 2011.

In his plea, Dukes admitted ob-taining nearly $3 million in loansfrom First Community Bank, USBank and First Central Bank byfalsely claiming he had repair con-tracts with the state. He also usedphony paperwork to hide the factthat he was using loans from eachbank to pay off previous loans fromthe other banks.

Prosecutors put the total loss tothe banks from the seven-yearscheme at slightly more than $2 mil-lion.

MO Shop Owner Admits $2Million Fraud on Bank Loans

Superstorm Sandy created a shortageof rental cars as the storm damagedthousands of cars, including thoseowned by rental companies. Thanks-giving and Christmas are normally-busy rental periods.

To help ease the shortage, carrental companies drove in thousandsof vehicles from elsewhere in thecountry. They also kept older modelsthat they would normally sell toused-car dealers.• Hertz held on to older vehicles thatwere scheduled to be sold. It alsobrought in extra cars and even rentedtrailers and generators to keep opensome locations destroyed by the storm.• Avis Budget brought in 6,000 extracars from elsewhere in the country.• Enterprise Holdings moved 17,000cars to the Northeast region fromother parts of the country. Another10,000 brand new cars, set for otherstates, were instead redirected toNew York and New Jersey.

Thousands of people in theNortheast are still without vehicles.Some cars were flooded by surgingwaters and will be replaced with newones once insurance checks are cut.Others were damaged by falling treesand debris and are in body shops.

Sandy Caused ThanksgivingCar Rental Shortage

Cars damaged in Manhattan from Hurricane Sandy.Photo by: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

[email protected] us!write us!

Start Your FREEMail Subscription.

CALL 800-699-8251

The source for timely information that every

body shop needs!e-mail:

[email protected]

800-699-8251

To advertisecall Joe Momber at:


Promote your business with an exclusive article featuring

your products or services.

800-699-8251CALL: Joe Momber for details!



800-699-8251Call for details!

[email protected]

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

write us!write us!


Autobody News WebsiteAutobody News Websiteat www.autobodynews.com

Register Your Email for OurSee the NEW

Free Monthly NewsletterFree Monthly Newsletterat www.autobodynews.com


Free Twice Monthly NewsletterFree Twice Monthly Newsletter

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


e-mail:[email protected]

800-699-8251

To advertisecall Advertising Sales at:



800-699-8251

To advertisecall Sean Hartman at:


Read all our RegionalEditions Online at:


by Barrett Smith, President, AutoDamage Experts, Inc.

Congratulations to Sheilah Phillips,her husband Wes and two of their col-lision techs for their recent successfulcompletion of the I-CAR weldingclass.

While this may seem like no largeaccomplishment to some, one needs tounderstand that Sheilah is a trueSouthern Belle who less than a fewyears ago had little to no experiencein the technical aspect of collision re-pair… let alone running a well re-spected high-quality collision repairfacility.

Following a serious motorcycleaccident in 2007 that placed her hus-band Wes in recovery and physicaltherapy for an extended time, Sheilahfound herself at the helm of PhillipsPaint, Body & Towing, the family’s30-year-old collision repair businesslocated in Carrollton, outside of At-lanta, GA.

“I only came in to answer phonesfor Wes and I was appalled by thetreatment he received from insurancecompanies,” Sheilah said.

“Our PPG rep wanted me to go toestimating class but I didn’t see thepoint since I was only helping outuntil Wes could find someone to runthe office permanently and I could goback to the farm and my horses!”

Besides taking on the normal day-to-day activities of running a business,Sheilah found herself at a significantdisadvantage in directing her techni-cal staff due to her total lack of under-standing of how a vehicle should berepaired. While they respected her as“the owner’s wife,” their technicalstaff were “old school” longtime em-ployees who took exception to whatappeared to be a ‘rookie female’telling them how to do their jobs. Shesoon realized that she needed to gainthe knowledge and insights to fullyunderstand and ensure repairs werebeing performed to the highest level.

Sheilah began an extensive andoften exhaustive regimen of readingeverything she could find and attend-ing every available training event togain the knowledge to properly man-age their team members as well as thecompany’s day-today activities. In notime she found that the entire shop’sproduction staff needed ongoing train-ing and she began the task of makingit happen.

Thus far Sheilah’s education in-cludes management training throughPPG MVP Business Solutions, AAMChief Technology training in Com-puterized Measuring, Design BasedRepairs, and Structural DamageAnalysis I-CAR Platinum IndividualEstimator, Refinish, Steel and Non-Structural.

She was offered and accepted toserve on the ASA Georgia Board ofDirectors for 2012–2014.

“It didn’t take me long to see first-hand that many insurance companyclaims people were simply out ofline!” Sheilah said.

“Through my ongoing efforts tolearn as much as I can, I have met andbecome friends with many excellentindustry leaders including Ron Per-retta through PPG Management train-ing, Danny Hernandez, GA shopowner and past ASA Georgia Presi-dent and Barrett Smith of Auto Dam-age Experts, Inc. (ADE). They haveshown me how to get out from underthe insurance industries thumb, writeproper estimates and to get fair com-pensation for our customers and ourtechnicians. It is a challenge everyday. I am so thankful for the way theindustry in general tries to help theirfellow colleagues excel.”

“I recall Barrett Smith speaking atthe seminar in Florida and everythinghe said resonated with me and I knewthen I was ready to go to the nextlevel. I have and continue to facemany challenges but thanks to hiscoaching we are gaining the insurer’srespect and for the first time we arebeing fairly compensated for our ef-forts and the associated liabilities.Barrett has taken my thinking to awhole new level.”

“I’ve also learned that “profit”is not a dirty word and we mustprofit in order to educate ourselves

and to acquire and maintain theequipment needed to repair the rap-idly-changing vehicles in today’smarket. Through my training withChief I have found myself to be in-credibly interested in the way carsare designed and how they react in acollision.”

Smith said, “I first met Sheilahand Wes at the CCRE meetingin Philadelphia early in 2012and again at the free legalseminar which Ray Gunder,his attorney Brent Geohaganand I provided in Lakeland,FL, in April, 2012. We metagain at the free legal seminarwe provided to the GeorgiaCollision Industry Associa-tion (GCIA) in June 2012.She’s not afraid to learn. Ihave found Sheilah to be aspitfire and her energy per-meates throughout the com-

pany! Wes is recovering nicely fromhis injuries and has re-gained the ex-citement and a sense of the enjoy-ment he had when he initially gotinto the collision repair business.With his wife and partner now lead-

ing the way, they are a powerful pair,a “Dynamic Duo” if you will, with anew sense of independence and whowill be making a positive differencein their market place, the collision re-pair industry and in the lives of theiremployees! I am very proud ofSheilah and Wes in their ongoing ac-complishments and proud to havethem as friends and part of ADEConsulting team of enthusiastic anddedicated professionals.”

Phillips Paint, Body and Towing804 Newnan Rd.Carrollton, GA 30117(770) 834-6919 Phone(770) 838-0759 Fax Blog: www.phillipsmyride.com

Sheilah and Wes are currently seek-ing additional skilled team membersto join their company and to helptake it to the next level of success.

For an opportunity to join this well-re-spected, quality-minded, family-ownedand operated company; e-mail yourresume to: [email protected]

The Dynamic Duo at Phillips Paint & Auto Body in Carrollton, GA


Tameron... One Way, the Right Way

Tameron, your trusted automotive wholesale parts supplier, is now Tameron, your trusted automotive wholesale parts supplier, is now delivering Genuine Hyundai replacement parts to your area.delivering Genuine Hyundai replacement parts to your area.

Tameron, your trusted automotive wholesale parts supplier, is now delivering Genuine Hyundai replacement parts to your area.

Please call your salesman for details!Please call your salesman for details!Please call your salesman for details!

1595 Montgomery Highway • Birmingham, AL 35216

www.tameronhyundai.com

Parts Department:1-800-467-0699

205-443-7651 Direct205-443-7656 Fax

Equus

(From left) Adrian Nicely, Barry Richardson, Sheilahand Weston Phillips

by Kelly McNalis

In retrospect, it’s apparent that 2012was another “winning” year for WIN,the Women’s Industry Network®. WINis a not-for-profit organization dedi-cated to providing women in the colli-sion repair industry with educationalopportunities that create a platform forsuccess, as well as recognition for ex-cellence and leadership within the in-dustry.

WIN has reported growth in sev-eral areas of the organization in 2012,from enhanced membership servicesand additional sponsorship opportuni-ties, to improved internal operationsand a refined governance structure.

The organization reported a 50%increase in member engagement since2010 and a nearly 13% average in-crease in conference attendance since2007. The organization published itsfirst annual Report to the Industry,which gave visibility and transparencyto the organization’s activities, finan-cial data, and sponsors.

Victoria Jankowski, WIN Chairstated, “While this committee-run or-ganization has come a long way, focus

on the core mission remains the same;a strong sense of community, scholar-ship support, and ongoing educationalefforts for our members.”

WIN has increased its visibilitywithin the industry in a variety of ways.Its members have made an impact onmembership through networking, per-sonal connections, and corporateawareness.

Enhanced publicity efforts aroundthe 2012 Annual Conference in At-lanta, GA, generated buzz beginningthree months prior to the event andfeatured an expanded scope of speak-ers covering a variety of topics.

As an example, Robyn Benincasa,adventure racer, firefighter and motiva-tional speaker, addressed the confer-ence’s theme of, “Be the Change.”

“Her message of strength, perse-verance, and accomplishment bothresonated and inspired everyone in the

room,” said Ruth Weniger, WINCommunications Chair and CEO ofAirbag Solutions.

A variety of sponsorship levelsand conference sponsorship opportu-nities have helped spread organiza-tional awareness of WIN withinsponsoring companies, as well as theindustry at large. The greatest expen-ditures in the WIN budget are relatedto the Annual Educational Conference,which provides attendees with an op-portunity to interact with their collisionindustry peers and receive educationalopportunities. Once spon sorship is se-cured, WIN subsidizes 35% of each at-tend ee’s cost to attend the conference.

To continue strengthening its pro-gram and providing measurable im-provements in 2013, the WIN BoardStrategic Planning Session identifiedthree primary objectives at the start of2012:● Enhance the value of WIN mem-bership and sponsorship● Increase industry visibility of WIN,our activities and our members● Establish a more robust operationaland governance structure for theBoard of Directors

Jankowski stated, “Like any grow-ing organization, WIN will continue tobe challenged with building strongeroperational processes, creating consis-tency in communication that supportsthe WIN mission, and tracking progressso we can support continued success.”

The Board and committee mem-bers are engaged and confident thatthese objectives will align WIN foranother successful year in 2013 andenable the organization to continue itsmomentum.

“WIN will continue to explorenew ways to connect with women inthe industry, keep our sponsors en-gaged, and support the positive energyour network brings to the overall in-dustry community. As the organiza-tion grows, expect to see more waysWIN can contribute,” Jankowski said.

“We are ever grateful for the con-tinued generosity of our sponsors whosupport our efforts to engage womenin the Collision Repair Industry andwe welcome new members and spon-sors who are similarly committed toadvancing our mission,” she said.

To learn more about WIN, visitwww.womensindustrynetwork.com.

Women’s Industry Network Reports Winning Growth in 2012


Genuine Porsche Parts... Only The Best.

These Select Dealers Have The Parts You Need.

918 RSR

FLORIDA

Brumos PorscheJacksonville

800-726-9155904-725-0358 FaxM-F 7:30am - 5:30pm

[email protected]

Finish it like a Masterpiece

THESE DEALERS ARE

MERCEDES-BENZ

GENUINE PARTS

SPECIALISTS.

USE GENUINE MERCEDES-BENZ PARTS.è< SL 63 AMG

ALABAMA

Crown AutomobileMercedes-Benz

Hoover800-476-4669

205-402-2243 FaxM-F 7:30am - 5:30pm

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.crownautomobile.com

FLORIDA

Brumos Motor CarsJacksonville

800-726-9150904-725-2923 FaxM-F 7:00am - 7:[email protected]

www.brumos.com

Being an insurance executive has itspros and cons. I guess it’s not reallydifferent from any other job – withone exception. We are the ones withthe gold, and the evil body shops arethe ones that aretrying to get it.That makes my jobunique because noteveryone gets toplay the role of theleprechaun.

Although I amjoking, there are alot of similaritiesbetween insurancecompany employ-ees and the lep-rechaun at the endof the rainbow pro-tecting the pot ofgold. We are unique, misunderstood,deceptively sneaky at times – and con-tinuously worried about someone tak-ing our money.

With the holiday season here,perhaps I should be making compar-isons between Santa Claus and insur-ance executives, but that would beridiculous. We are nothing like Santabecause we don’t give anything away.I guess we more closely resembleEbenezer Scrooge, if trying to staywithin the holiday theme.

Why am I telling you somethingyou already know? After all, we allknow that grass is green, there is nosuch thing as paint caps or Santa Claus,and insurance executives are all misers(present company excluded). Actually,I’m telling you all of this because notall insurance company executives arecreated equal. Even though it is fun tothrow jabs at defenseless suits, the re-ality is that there are a few good onesamong us (present company included).

But please meet Bob. Bob is aninsurance executive who works withme. Although Bob doesn’t wear green,isn’t short and doesn’t have red hair,he is very much a leprechaun. I don’tknow when or why he became so bit-ter and perpetually worried about theevil body shops stealing money. Buthe has more conspiracy theories thanthe George Bush administration.

It’s extremely difficult to workwith guys like Bob because he lives in

a different world. It’s people like Bobthat cause lower-level insurance com-pany employees that you have to workwith to think and act like empowereddictators towards shops.

It isn’t a healthy situation but it’sone that is tolerated at various levelsbecause Bob is a company man, andhe watches our money and is helpingto eliminate fraud. When Bob identi-fies a shop that he thinks is over-writ-ing estimates or not properly repairingvehicles, his view is considered justi-fied. Sadly, Bob’s word is taken as if itwere written by Matthew, Mark, Lukeor John.

An even sadder reality is that Bobnever worked on a car in his life. Hecouldn’t tell you a weld nugget from achicken McNugget, yet he is judgeand jury on a proper repair and repairhours.

How is this possible? Becausemost insurance company executivesare born on a different side of townand have years and years of drinkingfrom the same water fountain. I’mnot sure how I escaped because Iwas drinking the same stuff. But formost of us, all of our experience isinsurance-related, so we don’t knowwhat’s really on the other side of thewall. Depending upon your mentorswithin an insurance company, yourvision of body shops can end upbeing tainted.

I am grateful that I’ve had manylevel-headed bosses over the years. Ido recall one in the early 1980s thatlooked just like the nutty professor.I’ve never asked Bob, but I am will-ing to bet that he spent a lot of time

working for that mad scientist. Hedespised body shops, and Bob is ex-actly the same. I think he wakes upevery morning with sole purpose ofpenalizing shops. While Bob actu-ally does find some shops that arethieves and couldn’t repair a RadioFlyer wagon correctly, the vast ma-jority of his hysteria should beviewed as nothing short of a witchhunt.

This story doesn’t have a happyending. Bob isn’t a mythical charac-ter. He is someone who is still very ac-tive in our business. I believe he willretire in a few years but the damagehas already been done.

I think every insurance companyhas a Bob. Insurance companies havemade positive changes over the past30 years, but they’ve been unable tofully rid themselves of the cancers likeBob. They are the old-timers who arecarry-overs from a time when shopsand insurance companies were sepa-

rated by the Berlin Wall. I’m gratefulto have been there when both that wallwas erected and when it was torndown. I found out that the people onthe other side of the wall are just likeme.

You can’t fight with the Bobs ofthe world because you won’t win.There is no answer or fix. The bestyou can do is to know your enemy.Debating, arguing and offering per-sonal opinion will surely raise the ireof the cunning and deceptive lep-rechaun. Only facts and documenta-tion are worth their weight in gold.

Just don’t tell Bob that. He mighttry taking both of them for his over-flowing pot.

“The Insider” is an auto insur-ance company executive who wishesto remain anonymous. This column re-flects solely the opinion of The Insideras it offers an unvarnished look atvarious issues impacting the collisionindustry.


Free Delivery to All of the SoutheastLarge Inventory • Helpful Staff • Great Prices

www.southtowneatlanta.com

770-473-8730Call for AssistanceToday!

7665 Highway 85 South, Riverdale, GA 30274H Y U N D A I

Service Dept.

Hours:Monday - Friday 8:00am - 6:00pmSaturday 8:00am - 4:00pm

Fax: 770-471-6835

Not All Insurance Executives Are Created Equal

with Rick WhiteShop Management

with Stefan GesterkampPaint Management

with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox

with Richard ArnoldJobber Journal

Mainstream Media

with Dale DelmegeAsk Dale

Mainstream Media

Automakers’ Actions and Analysisby Autobody News Staff

Shop Showcaseby Autobody News Staff

with Ed AttanasioShop and Product Showcase

with Ed AttanasioConsumer Callout

with Walter DanalevichShop Strategies for Savings

with The Insurance InsiderInside Insurance

with Rich EvansCustom Corner

with Chasidy Rae SiskCompany Connections

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News

with Chasidy Rae SiskShop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Snapshot

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]


Use Genuine Ford Parts for your customers late model Ford, Lincoln

and Mercury vehicles.

You're always guaranteedthat they will �t right the

�rst time, every time.

Take it to the End Zone.

with our Genuine Ford Parts

s la

You'that

Ta

customers

Yoth

Call your local Authorized Ford Wholesaler today!

ine Ford Parts for your late model Ford, Lincoln

nus la

Use Genucustomers

When it comes to Ford Genuine Parts,go with a winning team.

These dealers are Genuine Ford Parts wholesale specialists.

FLORIDA GEORGIA

Bartow Ford Co.BARTOW

863-533-0425863-533-7758 Fax

www.fordparts.com/bartowford

Bill Currie FordTAMPA

800-752-8203800-844-2455 Fax

[email protected]

Don Reid FordMAITLAND/ORLANDO

407-644-5111407-645-4971 FaxM-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-4www.donreidford.com

www.fordparts.com/donreidford

Greenway FordORLANDO

800-773-5078407-515-6454 Fax

www.greenwaypartscenter.com

Gus Machado FordKENDALL/HIALEAH

305-328-0400305-234-2657 [email protected]@gusmachadoford.com

Sam GallowayFord LincolnFORT MYERS

888-578-8883239-274-2420 [email protected]

www.fordparts.com/samgallowayparts

Bobby JonesFord Lincoln

AUGUSTA

706-738-8000706-261-8004 Fax

[email protected]/bobbyjonesford

Make us your one-stop shop today!


• High Quality Genuine OEM Parts• Knowledgeable Staff Each With Over 15 Years Mazda Experience• Competitive Prices• Free Delivery To Fort Myers, Labelle, Naples, Punta Gorda & Port Charlotte

Parts Dept.:Mon. - Fri.7:30am - 6pmSat.8am - 4pm

2320 Colonial Blvd. • Fort Myers, FL 33907

22233399-22774--22470239-274-2470Local:239-274-2460Fax:

8777--8872-1122333322222877-872-1232Toll Free:

Right Parts. Right People. Right Prices.

T ll F

www.samgallowaymazdaparts.com

SAM GALLOWAY MAZDASAM GALLOWAY MAZDA

Order via CollisionLink

PreFab Ads recently introduced “TextCrash,” a TV/Internet commercialaimed at increasing public attention ofthe hazards of texting while driving,making it available to auto body shopsnationwide.

Chuck Jessen of Jessen Produc-tions in San Rafael, CA, wrote, di-rected and produced “Text Crash,”which opens with a young womantexting her boyfriend while driving.As a result, she runs a red light and T-bones a van in the intersection. In theeerie aftermath, amidst the wreckageand against the wail of the approach-ing sirens, a “ping” is heard—a textfrom her boyfriend, wondering whereshe is. The words “Please don’t text

and drive. We don’t need the businessthat bad” fade up, followed by thelogo sponsoring auto body shop.

Designed as a body shop-spon-sored public service announcement(PSA), “Text Crash” will be making

its December debut in 14U.S. markets and oneCanadian market, withmore body shops signingon to run it every week, ac-cording to Jessen.

“Body shop owners seemto easily recognize the po-tential good will this PSAcould generate in theirlocal communities,” Jessensaid. “Nearly all the shopsrunning this spot say theyhave fixed cars damaged

from a texting-while-driving incident.Hopefully the awareness generated bythis spot will help take this tragictrend in another direction.”

“Text Crash” is just the latest of17 collision repair commercialsJessen offers through PreFab Ads(prefabads.com), a division of JessenProductions, LLC. It can be viewedon prefabads.com and YouTube. Toview “Text Crash” go to:http://www.prefabads.com/text_crash.php.

TV Public Service Commercial for Body ShopsAimed at the Dangers of Texting and Driving

Sherwin-Williams Sets First Quarter Training ClassesSherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes announced its training sessionsdesigned to help automotive collisionprofessionals in the first quarter of2013.

These upcoming business-build-ing and production-excellence coursesare being provided through class-room, web and hands-on settings atnumerous Sherwin-Williams Auto-motive Finishes training centers lo-cated in metropolitan areas across theUnited States and Canada. The classesare designed to increase shop produc-tivity as well as specifically focus on:painter certification, AWX Perform-ance Plus™ waterborne refinish sys-tems, color adjustment and blending,fleet refinishing, accurate estimating,workshop efficiency and much more.

According to Rod Habel, Sher-win-Williams Automotive FinishesDirector of Training Operations, allthe new classes have been developedfor 100% digital training; the brandhas converted all of its hands-on train-ing classes from standard, printedmanuals to digital textbooks.

“Converting all of our TrainingManuals from paper to digital has pro-vided our employees and customerswith an enhanced learning experi-ence,” says Habel. “It has establishedSherwin-Williams Automotive as a

category leader in training practicesand demonstrated our environmentalconsciousness by eliminating the useof thousands of pages of paper eachyear.”

Details on some of the 2013 firstquarter training sessions include:Fleet CFR in Reno, NV, Jan. 7; AWXPerformance Plus™ Waterborne Re-finish System Painter Certification inAtlanta, GA, Jan. 14; AWX Perform-ance Plus™ Waterborne Refinish Sys-tem Painter Certification in Dallas,TX, Jan. 14; ATX™ Refinish SystemPainter Certification in Dallas, TX,Jan. 17; Color Adjustment & Blend-ing in Atlanta, GA, Jan. 21; AWX Per-formance Plus™ Waterborne RefinishSystem Painter Certification inPhiladelphia, PA, Jan. 21; EstimatingSolutions for Profit in Atlanta, GA,Jan. 24; ATX™ Refinish SystemPainter Certification in Philadelphia,PA, Jan. 24; Painter Certification inDallas, TX, Feb. 11;Fearless PlasticRefinishing, in Philadelphia, Feb. 22.

For a complete listing and moreinformation about Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive Finishes training orother products, visit the training sec-tion at http://www.sherwin-automo-tive.com/Training/TrainingCourseSchedule.aspx or call 1-800-SWUL-TRA (1-800-798-5872).

Vehicle Service Group (VSG) has ac-quired the assets of Elektron BremenGmbH, a global manufacturer of re-sistance welders, plasma cutters andbattery service equipment based inBremen, Germany, since 1942.

Elektron joins Chief AutomotiveTechnologies™ in VSG’s portfolio oftop collision repair brands. Chief isone of the world’s largest manufac-turers of frame-pulling equipment,vehicle-anchoring systems, comput-erized measuring systems, and vehi-cle frame specifications. Chief is alsoa leading provider of comprehensivetraining on structural analysis, com-puterized measuring, collision theoryand repair.

“The Elektron acquisition en-ables us to offer collision repairshops a ‘total repair solution,’” ex-plains Gary Kennon, president ofVSG. “We can now supply equip-ment to diagnose and identify colli-sion damage, repair the damagethrough pulling the frame, replacingparts or welding, and document thatthe vehicle was returned to the origi-nal manufacturer’s specifications.Elektron is an important strategiccomponent as we continue buildingour global collision business.”

Elektron Joins VSGFamily of Brands

Paint technician Neil Smith of Mas-ters Auto Body in Charlottesville,VA, was the final VIP Grand Prizewinner of 3M’s “Your Ticket to theTrack” sweepstakes. Smith and hisguests will attend an expense-paidtrip to the 2012 NASCAR Sprint CupSeries Champion’s Week in LasVegas.

Accompanying Smith duringhis Vegas experience are MastersAuto Body owner Jeff Cotton, E&MAuto Paint Supply representativeStan Fitzwater, E&M owner TerryWhitmore and their guests.

Smith’s VIP prize package in-cludes round trip airfare and hotel ac-commodations, admission intoNASCAR Victory Lap and NASCARAfter the Lap meet-and-greet with aNASCAR personality, tickets to theNASCAR Sprint Cup Series AwardsCeremony, and a 3M Racing mer-chandise gift bag.

3M Awards Final “Ticket tothe Track” VIP Grand Prize

Search:Autobody News

on Facebook


The followingdealerships areeager to serveyour needs.Call your localSubaru collisionparts specialisttoday!

GEORGIA

Subaru of GwinnettDuluth

(678) 584-7245(678) 584-7246 Fax

Mon.-Fri. 8:00-6:00Sat. 8-4:00

www.subaruofgwinnett.com

ALABAMA

Birmingham SubaruBirmingham

(800) 426-4351(205) 853-7530 Fax

Mon.-Sat. 8-5:30

2012 GT-R

Genuine Nissan and Infiniti OEM Wholesale Parts are superbly crafted to strict quality standards. The following dealers proudly stock genuine parts. Call your local distributor today!

Shift into Genuine Nissanand Infiniti OEM Parts

Coral Springs NissanCORAL SPRINGS

954-752-9595954-753-3226 FaxM-Sat. 7-7; Sun. 9:30-4

[email protected]

FLORIDA

Spies Hecker® introduces Perma-solid® Spectro Sealer 5450, a pre-mium 2K high solid system that canbe used as a wet-on-wet sealer, un-derhood color or as a flexible sealerfor plastic repairs. Fast and easy toapply, this low VOC sealer deliversexcellent coverage and a smooth fin-ish. Designed for use with all SpiesHecker® base coats, Permasolid®

Spectro Sealer 5450 is an excellentchoice to help increase productivityand profitability. Spraying requiresonly 1.5 coats with no flash-off timebetween coats.

Permasolid® Spectro Sealer5450 is currently available in blackand white. Red, blue, green and yel-low will be available in 2013. Allcolors can be mixed together to getan unlimited number of colors, in-cluding shades of gray.

“Permasolid® Spectro Sealer5450 helps technicians to achievegreat results faster and easier,” saidDebbie Curry, product manager, NorthAmerica. “It lays down quickly and ifneeded, nib sands easily. Additionally,it can be used to make underhood col-ors a one step process.” For more in-formation, visit SpiesHeckerUSA.comor call 1-888-371-3313.

New Spies Hecker SealerDelivers a Smooth Finish

Urethane Supply Company’s newBumper & Cladding Coat AdhesionPrimer is an advanced, low-VOC, sol-vent-based primer designed to stick toproblem plastics, such as TEO, TPOand PP, without sanding or pretreat-ment. The primer is designed for easyrefinishing of new, unprimed OEMreplacement bumpers.

The Bumper & Cladding CoatAdhesion Primer is compatible withall popular urethane and waterbornebase-clear topcoat systems and manysingle stage products. It does nothave to be scuffed or sanded and maybe topcoated at any time after appli-cation. Due to the primer’s lowVOCs, it can be used in all 50 statesand Canada.

“The low-VOC formula sprayssmoother and has improved topcoatcompatibility over our previous for-mula,” said Urethane Supply Com-pany President Kurt Lammon.“Plus, the simple, ready-to-spray, 1Kformulation means there’s no waste,and what a technician doesn’t use canbe poured back into the can.”

In addition, technicians can mixshades to match the desired tint to re-duce the amount of topcoat requiredto achieve the final color match.

New Low-VOC Bumper &Cladding Adhesion Primer

Mitchell Repair Center ToolStore Integrates withCar-Parts.com Pro SearchMitchell recently announced a newtechnology integration with Car-Part.com as a partner in the Repair-Center™ ToolStore, making itpossible for body shops to search forgreen parts in the Car-Part Pro mar-ketplace directly from the Repair-Center Workspace.

The Car-Part Pro value addedmarketplace, designed for bodyshops and insurance appraisers, isnow seamlessly integrated into Re-pairCenter through the RepairCenterToolStore. Car-Part Pro allows pro-fessionals to search by delivery date,warranty, recycler certifications, andpart quality, and returns all inclusivepricing results from a database of140 million parts, 4,200 recyclers,and hundreds of alternative partsproviders. The built-in Live Serv-ice™ messaging feature allows real-time communication with partsuppliers, and Car-Part.com’s exclu-sive SmartVin™ technology decodesVINs to simplify part choices duringthe search.

“This integration gives Mitchellcustomers the ability to search forgreen parts and see only those that canbe delivered within their cycle timewindow, meet their warranty criteria,

and conform to their quality stan-dards,” says Jeff Schroder, foundingCEO of Car-Part.com. “We know it’scrucial for shop’s profitability to haveall the information they need at theirfingertips, and we’re excited to pro-vide a simple and powerful solutiondirectly integrated into Repair Cen-ter.”

In addition to passing data to fa-cilitate parts lookup and ordering, theRepairCenter ToolStore also pro-vides the ability to receive data backfrom Car-Part Pro. This two-way in-tegration empowers shops to elimi-nate the manual steps required toupdate relevant parts costing and es-timate information in RepairCenter,further simplifying workflow. Car-Part Pro interface is offered at no ad-ditional cost in the RepairCenterToolStore and takes just one click toactivate.

To learn more about RepairCenter,visit www.repaircenter.mitchell.com,orto get additional information aboutbuilding your own application in theToolStore, contact Mitchell by [email protected] ortelephone at 1-800-238-9111.



CALL 800-699-8251



[email protected]

800-699-8251









[email protected]


write us!write us!










800-699-8251




800-699-8251




North County BMW

www.ncountybmw.com(800) 564-8222

North County BMW


North County BMW


North County BMW


Original BMW Parts

bmwusa.com

Original BMW Parts

bmwusa.com

Original BMW Parts

bmwusa.com

Original BMW Parts

bmwusa.com

Alabama

BMW of MobileMobile(251) 544-2853(251) 544-2870(251) 476-2584 FaxWe offer 30% off list

You only get one chanceat the first repair.

Original Thought #78

• Original BMW Parts & Accessories

The Database Enhancement Gateway(DEG) recently announced the launchof its fully redesigned website, locatedat www.degweb.org. The redesignedsite provides a new look and improvednavigation, as well as new features toenhance the end-user’s experience. Thefunctions of submitting an inquiry andviewing previous inquiries are still ac-tive, central components of the website,but the new design produces a better vi-sual experience and allows the DEG tocommunicate more frequently with theindustry about database related issues.

The most significant website ad-dition is the ‘Top 10 List’ for each ofthe three estimating platforms. In con-trast with DEG inquiries that are typi-cally year/make/model-specific, theselists are populated by end-user inputreflecting macro-level issues or en-hancements users would like to seeaddressed within these estimatingproducts. Estimating Guides and Pro-cedural Pages are still readily accessi-ble with the new design, and the userwill have the ability to receive Tweetsabout new and previous inquiries thatare important to the collision industryby following @thedegweb.

Top10 ListThe DEG was built to help address in-

dividual database issues on specific ve-hicles. While this core purpose remainsfocused, the associations who built andcontinue to fund the DEG also often ad-dress more global issues, or suggestionsto improve the estimating system prod-ucts, directly with the informationproviders. These macro issues are fullydriven by end-user feedback, so theDEG website can be used to both accu-rately compile this feedback, and to thendisplay it transparently for public view-ing by both end users, and by the infor-mation providers. These Top 10 listshave been compiled so that your mostpressing collective issues can be clearlyconveyed to the information providerswith the hope that they will improvetheir systems in ways that are mostmeaningful to you and your business.

Estimating Guides and P-PagesEach estimating system has its own setof estimating guides or p-pages whichhave always been available on theDEG website. The DEG is now ableto create links to these guides on thehome page, allowing DEG visitorseasy access to these important guideswith minimal navigation or searching.

TwitterThe DEG is now using Twitter to push

important information to the industryabout database issues and concerns.You can follow the DEG on Twitter,@thedegweb. “The DEG is excitedabout our ability to continually en-hance the user experience when sub-mitting IP inquiries, and the agilitythis new site allows in our communi-cations with the collision industry,”states Barry Dorn, DEG Joint Oper-ating Committee member. “We feelthat the existence of the DEG has re-sulted in significant content improve-ment in these estimating products, andthe new features within our redesignedwebsite should result in greater trans-parency of end-user issues resulting inpositive changes.”

The Database Enhancement Gate-way (DEG) is an initiative that was de-veloped to help improve the qualityand accuracy of collision repair esti-mates, through proactive feedbackfrom the collision repair industry andother "end users" to the InformationProviders (IPs) that supply the data-bases for the various estimating prod-ucts. The DEG is created, equallyfunded and maintained by the Auto-motive Service Association (ASA), theAlliance of Automotive ServiceProviders (AASP) and the Society ofCollision Repair Specialists (SCRS).

DEG Redesigns Website and Adds Top 10 list and Twitter, See ‘www.degweb.org’The Women’s Industry Network(WIN) is seeking corporate sponsor-ships to help expand its 2013 educa-tional and mentorship programsoffered to women in the automotiveindustry.

WIN offers several levels ofcorporate sponsorship opportuni-ties, including bronze, silver, gold,platinum and diamond, as well assponsorship of its annual Educa-tional Conference. Each sponsor-ship enables the organization toprovide women in the collision re-pair industry with educational op-portunities that position them forfuture success.

All sponsors of WIN are recog-nized on the organization’s website,promotional items, signage, andmembership functions and activities.Visit WIN’s website to view themonetary donation amounts associ-ated with each level of sponsorship.

“WIN is dedicated to providingwomen in the automotive industrywith a platform for growth,” saidVictoria Jankowski, chair of WIN’sboard of directors.

For more information aboutsponsorship opportunities, contactWIN board member Susanna Gotschat [email protected].

WIN Seeks 2013 Sponsors

Keeping pace with the latest lightingtechnology, the Certified AutomotiveParts Association (CAPA) has addednew testing requirements to coverelectric motors, actuators, and highintensity discharge (HID) lamps.

The new requirements were ap-proved by CAPA’s Technical Com-mittee, an inter-industry consensusbody made up of collision repairers,distributors, insurers, technical ex-perts, and manufacturers.

CAPA is the only independentcertification body in the U.S. for af-termarket lighting parts that tests for,and confirms compliance to, FMVSS108, as well as true comparability tothe car company brand counterpart.

“I’m proud to report that CAPAStandards are keeping pace with thelatest technology and complex com-ponents used in today’s headlights,”said Jack Gillis, CAPA’s ExecutiveDirector.

“Thanks to CAPA’s TechnicalCommittee, which is undoubtedlyone of the greatest quality resourcesin the industry, the CAPA standardsenable informed choices in even thevery newest products. The fact is, no-body can simply look at an aftermar-

ket light and know if it truly matchesthe car company brand part or fullycomplies with FMVSS 108—that’swhy CAPA’s independent certifica-tion program is so important,” saidGillis.

The CAPA 301 Lighting Stan-dard include: headlamps, taillamps,stop lamps, turn signals, and foglamps.

Parts that have been certified tothe CAPA Lighting Standard areclearly marked with CAPA’s unique,tamper-proof Quality Seal. TheCAPA Seal, each with a unique num-ber, represents independent verifica-tion of both compliance to FederalMotor Vehicle Safety Standard 108and comparable performance to thecar company brand parts.

Like all CAPA Standards, theupdated CAPA 301 Lighting Stan-dard test procedures and tolerancesare available to the public at nocharge via the CAPA website.

“Full transparency is a criticallyimportant component of the CAPACertification Program,” said Gillis.

CAPA’s Lighting Standard Expanded to IncludeTesting of HID Lamps and Positioning Motors



CALL 800-699-8251



[email protected]

800-699-8251









[email protected]


write us!write us!










800-699-8251




800-699-8251




leading in the educational elements ofAutomotive Service and Repair Week(ASRW), which took place in NewOrleans, LA, in October. During theweek, ASRW conducted more than 80educational sessions, along withNACE forums and the Assembly, atown hall type discussion for repairersonly. For those attending ASRW in2012 and taking part in the invaluableeducational activities, it’s likely youheard from ASA’s collision team invarious sessions, panels and forums.

ASA’s communications pieces spe-cific to all the other above mentionedactives of the ASA collision division for2012 are found at www.asashop.org.Click on “News & Events,” then LatestNews – 2012 Press Releases.

The key driver in ASA collisionteam actions continues to be centeredon the engagement of the ASA collisionleadership and the ASA membership atlarge. To be a part of the conversation,continue to contact ASA’s collision di-vision manger, Denise Caspersen byemail; [email protected] or phoneat (817)-514-2906.


ASA RecapsAuto Angels of the Florida AutobodyCollision Alliance (FACA) mid-statechapter gave 11 reconditioned vehi-cles and mechanical services to localresidents in need of dependable trans-portation.

More than 260 applications werereviewed to choose the 11 recipientsof the refurbished donated vehicles. Inaddition, three other recipients withdisabled vehicles in need of repairwere chosen to received gifted repairs.

A presentation of the gifts tookplace Dec. 20, just in time for Christ-mas, at Victory Church in Lakeland, FL.

“It always seems like each year’sevent gets better than the last and thisyear is no different,” said David Stew-art of Stewart Auto Repair, this year’sAuto Angels co-chair. “We’ve beengifted some great vehicles which havebeen reconditioned by some greatlocal repairers and their staff. A taskonly made possible with the financialsupport and efforts of many vendorsand suppliers who provided every-thing from cash donations, engines,transmissions, tires, materials, gas/giftcards and title work. Without the ef-forts, resources, hard work and dedi-cation of those who gave their timeand abilities, Auto Angels simplywouldn’t exist.”

Ray Gunder of Gunder’s Auto Centerand Auto Angels’ co-chairman said,“We would like to give credit to thoseFACA members who made the pro-gram the success that it continues to beand express our sincere gratitude to thevehicle donors and those who continueto support the Auto Angel program.”

Participants included:

FACA RepairersAuto Body ResurrectionBernie’s Body ShopGunder’s AutomotiveJenkins Collision CenterMaurice’s Auto RepairMeisner’s Paint And BodyStewart Auto Repair

Parts SuppliersAll Pro Used Auto PartsBartow FordBill Currier FordLKQ Corp.NAPA Auto Parts: LakelandNAPA Auto Parts: Winter HavenBen’s Paint SupplyColor New Upholstery

MediaAuto Damage Experts, Inc.Lakeland MediaReal Success Radio

Innovative InkLakeland LedgerChannel 13 Fox News

Local Car DealersHill NissanRegal Automotive GroupStingray ChevroletWinter Haven Honda

RefreshmentsSub N SuchPublix AuburndaleShane’s Rib ShackExpress Auto Body - DrinksCommunity Southern Bank–FoodTraysCenter State Bank–Food Trays

Special GiftsPolk Sheriff CharitiesJerry Wattron, America’s Auto Body,Schaumburg, IL, $1000 cash giftSteve Barger of Enterprise Holdings,Lakeland, FL, $1500 cash gift

TransportationBoltons Towing – Winter HavenCentral Towing – Winter HavenJenkins Towing – LakelandMaurice’s Towing – LakelandWemer Towing– LakelandVictory Church Van

Florida Auto Angels Give 11 Vehicles as Holiday Gifts to Local Needy Recipients

manipulation of the database, and salestax on paint and materials. SenatorMurphy said he would work with theassociation to address these issuesthrough legislation.● In September, Allstate Insurance no-tified their repair facilities that theywould no longer reimburse sales tax onpaint and material. The GCIA con-tacted the Georgia Insurance Commis-sioner’s office and Senator JackMurphy to help resolve this issue. Sen-ator Murphy contacted the Georgia De-partment of Revenue and had themcontact GCIA Executive DirectorHoward Batchelor. After severalweeks of discussion, Allstate reversedtheir decision and began reimbursingshops again for the sales tax.

● Also in September, State Farmspokesman George Avery spoke tomembers to discuss the new Part-sTrader program. Over 140 people at-tended to hear Avery discuss why StateFarm implemented this program andwhy they were trying to lower the listprice on parts. Several shops from theAlabama area that were on the pro-gram expressed serious concerns onhow this would affect their gross profiton parts.● In October, the GCIA held its 16thAnnual GCIA Golf Tournament at Tro-phy Club of Atlanta in Alpharetta, GA.72 golfers enjoyed a beautiful day ofgolf and fellowship.

Some of the projects the GCIA isworking on for 2013 include:● Meeting with PartsTrader on Thurs-day, January 17.● Extrication program● 7th Annual GCIA Labor Rate Sur-vey.


GCIA Recap

The Idaho Autobody Craftsman As-sociation and the newly-formed UtahAuto Body Association have becomestate affiliate associations of the So-ciety of Collision Repair Specialists;the Idaho group, dormant for nearly adecade, had more than 50 attendees

at a recent meeting, and the Utahgroup is the first statewide collisionrepair association there. Also lookingto revitalize itself is the NebraskaAuto Body Association, which willhold a meeting January 19 in Ash-land, Nebraska.

Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska Collision Groups Join SCRS

State Farm recently provided ASAwith a PartsTraders update.

Dan Stander, AAM, ASA’s col-lision division director and owner ofFix Auto Highlands Ranch in Little-ton, CO, and Denise Caspersen, ASAcollision division manager, receivedupdates from State Farm about the in-surer’s current pilot, which uses thePartsTrader electronic parts orderingapplication. Representing State Farmon the call was George Avery, claimsrepresentative, and State Farm stafferDuane Willemain. The Novemberupdate was the first of several ex-pected from the insurer, which hascommitted to keeping ASA membersabreast of the pilot and its potential ef-fect on future State Farm Select Serv-ice participants.

The ASA collision leadership andstaff continue to focus on providingASA members and the industry withaccurate information about the pilot,while engaging and advocating on be-half of collision repairers.

The pilot expanded into Chicago,IL, on Dec. 10, and will increase in-volvement to nearly 600 Select Serv-ice collision repair facilities of the

10,300 shops participating nationwidein the State Farm Select Service pro-gram.

The following updates were pro-vided to ASA during the call:● Pilot locations in Charlotte, NC,and Birmingham, AL, now have theability to do 30-minute quotes—re-sulting in all four original pilot mar-kets now having a 30-minute quotewindow.● Regarding estimating systems, Au-datex; CCC Information Services; andMitchell International all have two-way integration in all four markets.● A change has been made in theprocess of writing estimates to betteraccommodate alternative pricing. Ac-cording to State Farm, if a shop has al-ternative pricing available through adifferent source, State Farm is recom-mending Select Service shops writeestimates with those prices—thereforeutilizing price matching.● In Chicago, business meetings areset with multi-shop organizations andall Select Service repairers. Chicagois recognized as a heavy consolidatormarket. Items for the meetings in-clude:

– An overview of the program– Handouts about the program– Preparation material for the Dec. 10“live” date– PartsTrader started hosting meetingsNov. 12 for dealers and parts suppli-ers.– Select Service shops have been

asked to identify suppliers.– To date, 466 letters from State Farmto suppliers have been sent out.– 500–600 suppliers have been identi-fied in the Chicago market.– To date, 475 of 477 Select Serviceshops have registered.● Regarding cycle time improve-ments, State Farm said it was hard toprove, at this point, any cycle timeimprovements linked to the applica-tion. State Farm does not expect animmediate or large reduction in cycletime.● Regarding “saving of total losses,”State Farm said that at this point thereis not enough data to validate this. Noris there data that demonstrates an in-crease in recycled or alternative parts.● PartsTrader is moving forward withintegration into the various collisionmanagement systems.

● No evidence to date on reductionsin parts profit, according to StateFarm.● The length of the Chicago pilot isunknown. According to State Farm,once a change is introduced into theapplication in pilot, it is necessary forthe change to “mature” to determinethe impact of the change. This impactsthe end date.● The PartsTrader application has un-dergone at least seven updates sincethe initial pilot release in March2012.● PartsTrader has announced it willnot charge suppliers until 2014.

“For the ASA collision member-ship volunteering on the operationscommittee, the focus continues to beone of information, engagement andimpacting the outcome in the mostpositive way on behalf of repairers. Itwas apparent early on that the ‘trainhad left the station’ in regard to stop-ping this application from being pi-loted. The ASA team made thedecision to focus on accuracy and en-gagement, and will continue to do soas this pilot continues and future itemsarise,” said Caspersen.

State Farm Updates ASA on PartsTrader Pilot Program


Genuine Mazda parts are specifically designed, engineered and tested for Mazda vehicles. Customers and repair professionals prefer the quality and satisfaction that only comes from genuine Mazda parts.

Sam Galloway MazdaFort Myers

877-872-1232239-454-5500Fax 239-274-2460Mon - Fri 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Serra MazdaBirmingham

205-661-5878888-448-7278 Toll Free

Fax 205-661-5879Mon - Fri 7:30-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Give your customers what they deserve... The Best.

Order your Genuine Mazda Parts from one of these parts specialists in your area.

ALABAMAFLORIDA

RX-8 2012

See these Hyundai dealers below for all your collision parts needs!

Genesis 2012

QUALITY IS ALL WE THINK ABOUT. THAT

AND QUALITY.

MISSISSIPPIGEORGIA

Wilson HyundaiJACKSON

800-486-6871601-914-4200

601-914-4292 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 6pm

[email protected]

SouthTowne HyundaiRIVERDALE

770-473-8730770-471-6835 FaxMon-Fri 8am - 6pmSat 8am - 4pm

www.southtowneatlanta.com

ALABAMA

Serra HyundaiBIRMINGHAM

800-426-4351205-853-7530 FaxMon-Sat 8am - 5:30pm


AUTOBODY MARKETPLACE

www.rustbullet.com and watch our videos

or scan this code

Call or e-mail now for rates: 800-699-8251 or [email protected]

Advertise in ourCLASSIFIED SECTION for

$50 per columninch!

[email protected]

Place an ad in ourAUTOBODY MARKETPLACEsection of Autobody News.

Registration and event sponsorship isnow available for the Collision Re-pair Education Foundation’s 12th an-nual golf fundraiser event takingplace Thursday, July 25, 2013 inBoston, MA. Golfers will enjoy around of golf at the South ShoreCountry Club, a championshippar 72 golf course designed in1922 by Wayne Stiles and fea-tures rolling topography, elevatedapproaches, and pristine condi-tions.

As the Education Founda-tion’s 2012 golf fundraiser sold-out six months in advance,industry professionals are encour-aged to register for this year’s golffundraiser early as it is anticipatedto be sold-out by early 2013. Thisfundraiser takes place in conjunc-tion with the Collision Industry Con-ference (CIC) and I-CAR industrymeetings being held that week inBoston, and funds raised through thisevent assist the Education Foundationin providing support to collision repairstudents and their school’s collisionprograms.

Even if you can’t attend in per-son, industry professionals can stillscore a hole-in-one through the heli-copter golf ball drop fundraiser that

will take place as part of the event,presented by LORD Corporation. In-dividuals can sponsor golf balls ($25each ball/ 5 for $100) that will be

dropped from a helicopter over a holeon the South Shore Country Club golfcourse the day of the event. Whoeversponsors the numbered golf ball thatgoes in the hole (or the closest to thepin) will win a $1000 American Ex-press gift card. Participants do notneed to be present to win and only1,500 golf balls will be sold.

Early-bird individual player reg-istration is $225 p/person ($900 four-some team) before April 1, 2013 and

$275 p/person ($1,100 foursometeam) after April 1, 2013. Registrationincludes 18 holes of golf, cart rental,complimentary beverages/snacks onthe course, BBQ lunch, dinner, at-tendee promotional items, and the op-portunity to participate in severalcontests on the course. For those at-tendees who will be traveling intoBoston to attend industry meetingsthat week, complimentary transporta-tion will be provided to and from theindustry events to the golf course.

This fundraiser event is open toall industry professionals and registra-tion spaces are availableon a first-come, first-serve basis.

Those interested in registering,sponsoring, and/or participating with thegolf ball drop fundraiser should contactDirector of Development Brandon Eck-enrode at [email protected], 847-463-5244, or visitwww.CollisionEducationFoundation.orgfor more information.

Education Foundation Plans for 2013 Summer Golf Fundraiser in Boston

White Still Favored as Most Popular Car ColorWhite/white pearl dominates theglobal automotive color popularityranks for the second consecutive year,according to the 2012 DuPont Auto-motive Color Popularity Report, re-leased Dec. 6.

Black/black effect moves intosecond place in the global ranks thisyear, largely due to the increased pop-ularity in the Asia Pacific market asthis color has a worldwide perceptionof high quality and luxury. Silver fellto third, as its popularity has waneddue to its overall gradual decline, es-pecially in the critical large automo-tive markets of Europe and Asia.

The DuPont report, in its 60thyear, is the largest and longest runningreport of its kind in the automotive in-dustry. It is the only report to includeglobal automotive color popularityrankings and regional trends from 11leading automotive regions of theworld.

North American vehicle color in2012 was once again dominated bywhite/white pearl, with 24% marketshare, putting it in first place for thesixth consecutive year. It also led thecompact/sport and truck/SUV seg-ment.

Black/black effect was at the topof the intermediate/CUV segment and

luxury/luxury SUV segment popular-ity ranks. It represented 19% of theoverall market, maintaining secondplace in vehicle color popularity inNorth America. Compared to metallicversions, solid blacks are most fa-vored in the truck segment. Metallicblacks brought interest to the marketand have been widely used in all seg-ments, especially in luxury/luxurySUV.

For the first time since 1998, sil-ver did not lead in any of the NorthAmerican vehicle segments, whichmay be attributed to the increased in-fluence of black and white as statussymbols for luxury and quality. How-ever, silver held steady in third placeoverall with 16% market share.

Gray rose two percentage pointsthis year with increases in the truck,luxury and intermediate vehicle seg-ments. The top four preferences,white, black, silver, and gray, haverepresented the majority of popularitythe last 10 years.

Red rounded out the top fivecolor choices across each vehicle seg-ment and consequently, overall in theregion, with 10% of the market. Pop-ularity rankings of bright colors: red(10%), blue (7%), brown/beige (5%),yellow/gold (2%), and green (2%).

The Collision Repair EducationFoundation and LORD Corporation,the maker of Fusor products, arepartnering to provide safety glassesto collision students. Until Dec. 31,for every individual who “Likes”both organization’s Facebook pages,LORD will donate a pair of safetyglasses (up to 10,000) to collisionschool programs through the Colli-sion Repair Education Foundation.

“Like” the organization’s Face-book pages by visiting:● www.facebook.com/CollisionRe-pairEducationFoundation● w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / p a g e s /LORD-Fusor-Automotive-Repair-Adhesives/531537473524134

Collision Repair Education Foun-dation Director of Development Bran-don Eckenrode noted, “Due to schoolbudget reductions, there are many col-lision school instructors who don’thave the ability to purchase safetyglasses for their students. ThroughLORD’s generosity, we can help keepup to 10,000 collision students safe.Please “Like” both of our Facebookpages before the New Year so that wecan provide the full amount of safetyglasses to collision students this up-coming spring semester.”

Education FoundationWants Facebook Likes

If your golf shot is not so reliable, a helicopter golfball drop might be your best shot at a $1000closest-to-the-pin win

Read all our RegionalEditions Online at:


FLORIDACentury Kia

Tampa800-250-8864

(813) 873-8319 FaxFREE Delivery

Parts delivered by Autoway

Coral Springs KiaCoral Springs

954-344-8706(954) 753-5424 Fax

M-Sat 7-7www.coralspringskia.com

Courtesy Kia877-646-8080www.brandonkia.com

State-wide FREE deliveryAdd’l 5% off 1st in-house orderor 7% off 1st internet order

M-F 8-6, Sat 8-5

Deland KiaDeland

386-734-7800(386) 822-9278 [email protected] Local Delivery

Fuccillo Kia ofCape Coral

Cape Coral239-829-1956

(239) 242-7002 FaxM-F 8-5:30, Sat [email protected]

Kia of Orange ParkJacksonville

877-674-0211(904) 674-0221 Fax

M-F 7-7, Sat [email protected]

ALABAMASerra Kia

Birmingham800-426-4351

(205) 853-7530 FaxM-Sat 8-5:30

MISSISSIPPIWilson Auto Group

Flowood866-944-1114

(601) 914-4291 [email protected]

www.wilsonautogroup.com

Precise fit and finish, easyinstallation and a limitedwarranty direct from KIA

— all genuine advantagesof genuine KIA parts. Yourlocal KIA retailer has all

the parts you need.

january 2013 southeast edition

Documents

collision repairindustry

collision repair facilities

collision depot techni

interesting collision

shop owners

ofhis shop

nearhis shop

thealarise commercial