Autobody News March 2012 Southwest Edition

by John Yoswick

Speaking at the January Collision In-dustry Conference (CIC) in PalmSprings, State Farm’s George Averysaid that PartsTrader, the electronicparts ordering system the insurer ex-pects it will eventually require its Se-lect Service shops to use, is currentlybeing tested at one repair facility andsoon will be at another location.

He declined to identify the shops,saying that it is too early in the testing“to put those folks under the micro-scope and ask, ‘What do you think ofthe new system?’”

The announcement was just oneof the parts-related issues discussed atCIC. The CIC “Parts and MaterialsCommittee” shared the results of apreliminary survey of 11 of the com-

panies offering electronic parts locat-ing and procurement systems to the

industry. Commit-tee member MaryLou Lubrano ofCar-Part.com re-ported, for exam-ple, that about thesame number ofthose companiessaid insurers payfor use of theirsystems as thosethat said they arefunded by partsvendors; two ofthe companies

said shops pay for the systems.“I would argue that shops pay for

all of them, because having nine dis-

by Ed Attanasio

There are three sacredthings dear to thehearts of Texans: 1)Football 2) NASCARand 3) Bass fishing.And although therewasn’t any car racingor angling during therecent Super Bowlweekend, there was alot of football and all of it was doneTexas-style.

On Saturday, February 4, oneday before the New England Patriotsmet the New York Giants in that

other Super Bowl, 20 flag footballteams competed in the Van TuylGroup’s Super Bowl of Flag Foot-ball tournament followed by a trade

Van Tuyl Charity Super Bowl Weekend IncludesFlag Football Tournament/Trade Show Highlights See CIC Report, Page 12

See Van Tuyl, Page 16

State Farm’s Testing of Parts Ordering SystemAmong News, Discussion at CIC Meeting

Appropriately enough for Valentine’sDay, the Texas Department of Trans-portation (TxDOT) is calling on teensto love their lives and buckle up withthe launch of the Teen Click It orTicket campaign. This year, TxDOT ispartnering with more than 700 highschools and community collegesstatewide to reach more than 750,000Texas students with the importantmessage that buckling up can saveyour life.

Teenagers are involved in threetimes as many fatal crashes as allother drivers. In Texas, the use of seatbelts saved an estimated 1,425 lives in2010. At the same time, nearly half ofthe 291 teen drivers and occupants ofpassenger vehicles, ages 16–20, killedin motor vehicle crashes were notwearing their safety belts at the timeof the crash. The Teen Click It orTicket campaign, in its second yearstatewide, aims to increase seat beltusage among teenage drivers, age

16–20, across the state.“A few seconds—that’s all it

takes to buckle up. In that sameamount of time, you can lose your lifein an accident because you weren’twearing your seat belt,” said Carol T.Rawson, P.E., TxDOT’s traffic oper-ations division director. “TxDOT iscommitted to educating teens aboutthe deadly effects of not wearing aseat belt, and this campaign says toevery teen: ‘If you love your life,buckle up.’”

As part of the campaign, TxDOThas distributed kits, including ban-ners, lawn signs, posters and windowdecals, to high schools and commu-nity colleges around the state. Thesematerials reinforce the importance ofbuckling up. Additionally, TxDOT of-ficials will be visiting high traffic lo-cations throughout the month with awrecked truck from which two teenswearing their seatbelts emerged after

See Texas Seat Belts, Page 23

Texas DOT Pushes Teen Click It or Ticket toMore than 750,000 Teens at Over 700 Schools

Van Tuyl Team #1 took the crown, while Van Tuyl Team #2 finishedthird. Sherwin-Williams (in white jerseys at the far right) battled V.T.Team #1 in the final, but ended up losing by a score of 5-3

The Promoting Automotive Repair,Trade and Sales (PARTS) Act, a newbill introduced to the U.S. House ofRepresentatives, proposes to reduce thepatent period car companies have ontheir collision repair parts from 14years to 2.5 years (30 months). H.R.3889 was introduced on Feb. 2 by Dar-rell Issa (R-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren(D-Calif.) to the House Judiciary Com-mittee. A similar bill is currently beingprepared in cooperation with the U.S.Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bill would amend title 35 ofcurrent U.S. design patent law wherebyautomotive manufacturers may enforce

their design patents on collision repairparts against alternative suppliers.

Both members serve on the HouseJudiciary Committee’s Subcommitteeon Intellectual Property, Competitionand the Internet. Lofgren introducedauto parts patent legislation in the lastCongress.

The new subsection reads as fol-lows: “It shall not be an act of in-fringement of such design patent tomake or offer to sell within the UnitedStates, or import into the United States,any article of manufacture that is sim-ilar or the same in appearance to the

U.S. House Judiciary Members Introduce AutoParts Bill, Aims to Limit Parts Patent Protection

See PARTS Bill, Page 32

Ron Reichen,Oregon ShopOwner, said

carriers’ reportedreturn rates don’tappear to match upwith those reported

by vendors

SouthwestEdition

TexasOklahomaLouisiana

New Mexico YEARS www.autobodynews.com

3030ww.autobodynews.comww VOL. 30 ISSUE 3

MARCH 2012

PresortedStandardUSPostage

PAIDOntario,Ca.PermitNo.1

P.O.BOX1516,CARLSBAD,CA92018

ChangeServiceRequested

2 MARCH 2012 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

DAVID McDAVIDT H I S B R A N D S TA N D S F O R S AV I N G ST H I S B R A N D S TA N D S F O R S AV I N G ST H I S B R A N D S TA N D S F O R S AV I N G S

HONDA OF FRISCOACURA OF AUSTIN

Parts Manager: Chris EdgarPhone 972-731-3175Toll Free 1-866-442-2711Fax [email protected]

HONDA OF IRVINGACURA OF PLANO

NISSAN OF HOUSTON

HONDA OF HOUSTONLINCOLN MERCURY OF PLANO

• Over $600,000 Parts Inventory• 11,000 Parts in Stock• Trained Wholesale Crew:

Mario, Phillip

• In State Next Day Shippingw/Quick Local Delivery

• Great Discounts

Hour: Monday - Friday 7 AM - 7 PM • Saturday 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM • Sunday 11 AM - 4 PMWholesale Parts Specialist: John Raygo512-401-5976Watts 800-575-3553Parts 512-401-5976Fax [email protected]

• Over $400,000 Parts Inventory• 15,000 Parts in Stock• Trained Experienced Crew


• Great DiscountsHour: Monday - Friday 7 AM - 7 PM • Saturday 8 AM - 5 PM • Sunday Closed

Wholesale Parts Specialist: Doug GrajczykPhone 972-964-6000972-964-6044Fax [email protected]




Parts Manager: Dick GrahamPhone 800-231-9657Fax [email protected]

• Over 1.3 Million Parts Inventory• 28,000 Parts• Trained Experienced Crew

• Texas & Louisiana Next DayShipping


Parts Manager: John KeithPhone 972-964-5000Fax [email protected]



• Great Discounts

Hour: Monday - Friday 7 AM - 6 PM • Saturday 7:30 AM - 4 PM • Sunday Closed

Parts Manager: Dan ZieberPhone 972-790-6008Toll Free 1-800-492-4464Fax [email protected]

• Over $900,000 Parts Inventory• 17,000 Parts in Stock• Trained Wholesale Crew:

Gary, Marie, Jim


• Great Discounts

Hour: Monday - Friday 7 AM - 9 PM • Saturday 8 AM - 5 PM • Sunday 11 AM - 6 PM

Wholesale Specialist: Robert QuinteroPhone 800-444-1263Fax [email protected]

• Over $1,000,000 Parts Inventory• 100,000 Parts in Stock• Trained Experienced Crew



WELCOME TO THEWELCOME TO THEDAVID MDAVID MccDAVID AUTO GROUPDAVID AUTO GROUP

WELCOME TO THEDAVID McDAVID AUTO GROUP

www.davidmcdavid.comwww.davidmcdavid.comwww.davidmcdavid.com

SouthwestPublisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst

General Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Erica SchroederContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio, Dan EspersenJanet Chaney, Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Tom McGee, David Brown, Rich Evans,Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Kristy NavarroArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2011 Adamantine Media LLC.

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

Accudraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 45Chevyland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Classic BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46CSS USA, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Dallas Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48David McDavid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Filtersforbooths.com. . . . . . . . . . . . 23Ford Wholesale Parts DealersTX, OK, LA, NM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Fowler I-240 Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge. 13Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Gene Messer Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . 20GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 44Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25

Huffines Hyundai Plano . . . . . . . . . 27Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 42Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers. 37LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Malco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 34Mercedes-Benz of Oklahoma. . . . . 34

Mike Calvert Toyota. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Mitsubishi Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 35Nissan Genuine Parts . . . . . . . . . . . 15PCL Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Ray Huffines Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . 5RealParts.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Reliable Chevrolet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Replica Plastics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Russell & Smith Ford-Mazda . . . . . 39Safety Regulations Strategies. . . . . 14SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . 10Scoggin-Dickey Buick . . . . . . . . . . 43Solution Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40South Pointe Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge. 21Star-A-Liner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Toyota of Fort Worth . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Toyota of Laredo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 20Van Tuyl Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Volkswagen Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 32Young Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Inde

xofAdvertisers

REGIONALHouston City Licensing Ordinance Stalls . 14LA Police Crack Staged Crash Ring . . . . . . 6NWLCRA Holds First Meeting of 2012 . . . . 6Oklahoma Among Crash Parts Bills

Introduced to State LegislaturesCountrywide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Service King Appoints New Vice Presidentfor Houston Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Texas DOT Pushes Teen Click It or Ticketto More than 750,000 Teens at Over700 Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Texas Independent Automotive AssociationHosts State Comptroller’s Office forFebruary Meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Texas Invests in Continental AutomotiveSystems Inc. to Create 300 Jobs inSeguin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Van Tuyl Charity Super Bowl WeekendIncludes Flag Football Tournament/TradeShow Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

COLUMNISTSAttanasio, Garmat - Global Collision

Uses Garmat USA Paint Spray Boothsin All 8 Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Evans - Barrett-Jackson DIY Event DrawsFans and Future Body Techs. . . . . . . . . 40

Franklin - Spotting a NewsworthyOpportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

I-CAR - Corrosion Protection toStructural Part Interiors . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Insurance Insider - Getting a Guess-timateFrom the Real Experts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Nigro - A Shop Owner’s Suggestions toControl Steering and Worse to Come . . 18

Schroeder - FCC Collision ContinuesExpansion in the GreaterSan Francisco Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Sisk - Checker Auto Body: A Small-TownShop Offering Big-Time Repairs . . . . . . 28

Sisk - Prestige Auto Body in NJ—A Non-DRPThriving in a DRP World . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Weaver - Code Talkers: It Takes More ThanReading Codes to Be a Good AutomotiveTechnician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Williams - Jerry Ulm Dodge Chrysler Jeep,a Truly Distinctive Florida Dealer. . . . . . 29

NATIONAL“Evangelist Jerry Bratt” Scam,

Tow-for-Pay Revived . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9CA Attorney Wins $10,000 Claim v. Honda . 9California Law Demands More Low

Emission Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44CARSTAR Holds Results and Goals

Teleconference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Chevy Volt Sees Stalled Momentum, Also

Optimism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Chrysler Recalls Police Cars . . . . . . . . . . 39Chrysler Reports First Full Year Profit

Since Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Consumer Reports Says Brand Perception

Narrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39CREF Sees Record $4.1 M in Industry

Donations for 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43DuPont Paint Unit Bidding . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Federal Trial of Baltimore Police Kickbacks

Involves Local Body Shop, About 60Officers and Insurance Fraud . . . . . . . . 43

Feds Escalate Jeep Airbag Investigation . . 44Georgia Northwestern Technical College

Considers Campus in Ringgold, GA . . . 42German Auto Parts Stamping Plant to

Come to Dublin, GA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30GM is Back on Top As the World #1 . . . . 39Honda’s Ridgeline Recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Insurance Auto Auctions to Sell Salvaged

Vehicles Directly to China, CouldImpact U.S. Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

KBB Gets New President . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39MOPAR Celebrates 75th Anniversay,

4 New Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44NABC Plans At Least One Vehicle Gift

in Each State This Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . 42NHTSA Investigating Chevy and Toyota

Models for Power Windows . . . . . . . . . 26NHTSA Opened Ford and GM Van

Investigations in January . . . . . . . . . . . 46Nissan Recalls 2012 Versa . . . . . . . . . . . 39NJ Shop Questions State Farm’s Denial of

Cost Accounting Based Paint Allowances. 36NSF Certifies PartsChannel Under

Automotive Collision Parts DistributorCertification Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Phoenix Auctions Show Collector Cars’Comeback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

SAAB Dealers Still Looking at Options,Six Parties Still Contend . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

SCRS Offers Repairers Digital MemberServices E-catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Second Toyota Driver’s Door Fire ProbeLaunched . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

State Farm’s Testing of Parts OrderingSystem Among News, Discussionat CIC Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Study: 96% of All Repair Shops RecycleScrap Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Subaru Recalling 2012 Outback andLegacy Models for Air Bags . . . . . . . . . 26

Supreme Court Allows Lawsuits onLack of Safety Equipment . . . . . . . . . . 10

This Year’s Chicago Auto Show Used NewMedia Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Toyota to Build Compressor Parts Plantin Pendergrass, GA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

U.S. Auto Industry Bullish on 2012,Sales up 11% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

U.S. House Judiciary Members IntroduceAuto Parts Bill, Aims to Limit PartsPatent Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Contents

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2012 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

The issues will

focus on:

• PAINT PROCESSES

• PAINT TECHNOLOGIES

• CUSTOM & PRODUCTION PAINTERS

Coming April, May and June of 2012

Autobody News will again focus 3 special issues

on paint and paint technology this year.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has an-nounced the state is investing $1.2million through the Texas EnterpriseFund (TEF) in Continental Automo-tive Systems Inc., to relocate produc-tion of its sensors and actuators fromEurope and Asia to its plant in Seguin,TX, creating 300 new jobs and $113million in capital investment.

“Employers from around the na-tion and all over the world continue tolook to Texas as the premier locationfor business expansion, relocation andjob growth thanks to our low taxes,reasonable and predictable regula-tions, fair legal system and skilledworkforce,” Gov. Perry said. “ThisTEF investment in Continental willcreate hundreds of jobs, pump mil-lions of dollars in capital investmentinto the area, and further strengthenSeguin’s diverse economy.”

Continental is one of the world’slargest automotive industry suppliers.The company manufactures engine,transmission and hybrid control unitsat its plant in Seguin, and will beginproducing sensors and actuators.Continental AG, the parent company,

also has facilities in Houston andUvalde.

“Today’s announcement wouldnot have been possible without thestrong support of and collaborationwith the state of Texas and Texas En-terprise Fund, Seguin Economic De-velopment Corporation, City ofSeguin and Guadalupe County offi-cials,” Kregg Wiggins, senior vicepresident, NAFTA Powertrain Divi-sion for Continental said. “We trulyappreciate their support and look for-ward to expanding our business in thisregion.”

“We are extremely excited by thisannouncement and look forward tocontinuing our long and mutually-beneficial relationship with Continen-tal,” Seguin Mayor Betty AnnMatthies said. “The recruitment ofthis project was made possible byseamless cross-jurisdictional coordi-nation, and is another great exampleof how our community is able to ag-gressively utilize its economic devel-opment resources and pro-businessapproach to create a win-win publicprivate partnership.”

“Continental continues to be asuccess story here in Seguin,”Seguin Director of Economic Devel-opment Terry M. Treviño said.“Since January 2010 the Seguinplant has grown from about 660 em-ployees to more than 1,340 today,more than doubling its workforce,and is now adding more than 300 ad-ditional employees for a total ofnearly 1,700. As most areas through-out the nation are losing jobs, Seguincontinues to thrive - a testament tothe strong fundamental advantagesthat make Seguin competitive on aninternational scale.”

“I’m delighted for the residents ofSeguin who may find jobs because ofthe Texas Enterprise Fund investmentin Continental Automotive Systems,”Sen. Jeff Wentworth said. “I’m al-ways happy to see job growth andbusiness expansion in Senate District25, and I applaud the City of Seguin,the Guadalupe County officials and theSeguin Economic Development Cor-poration for their diligence and suc-cess.”

“To have one of the world’s

largest automotive industry suppliersexpanding their business right here inSeguin, makes this is an exciting timefor this region,” Rep. John Kuempelsaid. “I want to thank everyone at thelocal and state levels and Continentalfor investing in Seguin and the sur-rounding area.”

The Legislature created the TEFin 2003 and re-appropriated fundingin 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 to helpensure the growth of Texas businessesand create more jobs throughout thestate. TEF projects must be approvedby the governor, lieutenant governorand speaker of the House. The fundhas since become one of the state’smost competitive tools to recruit andbolster business. To date, the TEF hasinvested more than $442.2 million andclosed the deal on projects generatingmore than 60,700 new jobs and morethan $15 billion in capital investmentin the state.

For more information about theTEF, please visit:http://www.texaswideopenforbusi-ness.com/incentives-financing/tef.phpor http://www.governor.state.tx.us.


800 N. Central Expy.Richardson, TX 75080

Find Your GM Parts Here!

866.754.3244Fax: 972.952.8151

Please call or fax your inquiries today!

www.reliableGMparts.com

Parts Department Hours:Mon. - Fri. 7:30am - 6:30pm

Sat. 8am - 5pm

• Extensive Inventory• Eliminate Needless Delays

• Genuine GM Parts• Free Delivery

RELIABLECHEVROLET

THE NORTH TEXAS CHEVY STORE

Texas Invests in Continental Automotive Systems Inc. to Create 300 Jobs in Seguin

On February 3, Chris Abraham,President of Service King CollisionRepair Centers, announced the ap-pointment of Justin Regan as thecompany’s new Vice President of theHouston market.

In November of 2008, Abrahamaccepted the challenge of assemblinga team to develop the Houston marketwith the goal of having a multi-loca-tion collision repair operation to com-pliment the company’s success in theDallas Ft. Worth market. Just lastmonth, Abraham the former VicePresident of Houston was promotedto President of Service King.

Abraham said, “Justin Regan isa respected and talented teammatewho will serve the Houston marketproud.” Abraham added that Reganwill continue building on their recentexpansion in Houston with a new lo-cation scheduled to open in Clearlake,Texas within the next three months.Regan will continue his goals of im-plementing the Service King cultureinto a relatively new market andworking closely with Service Kingleadership to maintain consistencywithin the organization between mar-kets to ensure Service King’s success.

Regan joined the Service Kingteam in 1996. He began his ServiceKing career as a service adviser andwithin a few years moved into man-

agement. Regan has managed 2 Serv-ice King locations, including theopening of the Grand Prairie facilityin 2000. While under Regan’s leader-ship, his Grand Prairie team won 5straight Top Shops as well as the es-teemed annual “Morgan Award” forthe top performing location within theService King organization.

Regan spent 8 years as the Loca-tion Manager in Grand Prairie, Texasbefore joining the Service King Sup-port Center Operations team as a Re-gional Manager in 2008, overseeing 6locations in the Dallas Fort Wortharea.

In August of 2009, Regan joinedChris Abraham in Service King’s suc-cessful venture outside the Dallas-Forth Worth market by moving toHouston, Texas.

As Regional Manager in theHouston market, Regan accepted thechallenge of building an operationsteam to develop and support theHouston market through the acquisi-tion of 2 collision repair operations,which included 4 locations, as well asopening an additional 7 facilities in ashort two year timeframe.

A Dallas native, Regan is a grad-uate of The University of Texas at Ar-lington and received a Bachelor’sdegree in Communications/PublicRelations.

Service King Appoints New Vice President for Houston Market


Call UsFor Your SaturnParts Also.

WATS:800-955-6282Parts Direct:972-202-2300Hours: Monday - Friday 7 to 7

Saturday from 8 to 5

• 9 Salesmen• Over $2 Million Genuine GM Parts• 7 Delivery Trucks• Extensive GM Collision Parts Inventory• Free Delivery within Texas (call for details)• GM Engines and Transmissions at

truck load pricing (call for details)

Ray Hu!nesChevroletPlano, TX

• We “Meet or Beat” aftermarket pricing. Ask yoursalesman about “Bump the Competition” and“GM Outlet Shop”.

• Cycle time costs you money. Let our huge GMcollision inventory work to your advantage.

• Online ordering through OEConnection (call for details)

Collision Centers & Body Shops

The Northwest Louisiana Collision Re-pairAssociation (NWLCRA) held theirfirst meeting of 2012 on January 10 atthe Country Tavern Barbecue inShreveport, LA.

The association announced theirnew officers for 2012 at the start of themeeting. The 2012 Officers are as fol-lows; President, Chris Fielder, VicePresident, Ken Stephenson, Secre-tary/Treasurer, Bill Burnside.

The meeting’s guest speakers wereDarren Moore, Regional Managerwith Alloy Wheel Repair, and AdamWright, Area Manager with AlloyWheel Repair.

Darren began by stating that Alloyis a mobile wheel repair service; if adamaged wheel is painted, they cometo your location and repair the wheel.They don’t do any welding, so if piecesof the wheel are missing, they won’t beable to repair the wheel. They are ableto repair polished wheels and becausethe sheen on spokes may be different,they are taken on a “case by case” basis.They can straighten a wheel up to 24”,so they can repair most bent wheels.They mainly work on a schedule, but

will take “emergency” calls.They are a nationwide company,

so if the wheel is repaired in our areaand your customer is on vacation inCalifornia when a problem with the re-pair occurs, they can find an AlloyWheel Repair shop in California for thewarranty work.Alloy works out of theirtrucks and trailers, which are fullyequipped. Because they have their owncompressors, spinners, and other equip-ment, they don’t need to use anythingin your shop.

Darren also discussed remanufac-turing shops and how you have to sendthe wheel to the remanufacturing shopand wait for it to be delivered. AlloyWheel Repair comes to you and mostgeneral repairs cost $100.00. They haveover 1 million wheels in stock in theevent the wheel is too damaged to be re-paired. They use UPS for deliveries,which usually takes 2 to 3 days. Theydon’t charge a core charge. They havepartnered with LKQ and others, plustheir own in-house inventory, they willbe able to replace any wheel you need.

KrystalAdams withKrystal AutoCollision in Bossier City, LA, asked

how long their warranty is. Darrenstated that Alloy Wheel Repair has alifetime warranty.

Chris Shepherd asked about bal-ancing the wheel after the repairs aremade. Darren stated that cosmetic re-pairs won’t interfere with the wheelsbalance, but if they repair a bent wheel,it would need to be rebalanced and theydon’t balance wheels.

Krystal asked if they do powdercoating and Darren said they don’t. Headded that they will attempt tostraighten a bent after market wheel, butif it cracks, it will not be covered underthe warranty. Krystal asked what typeof paint they use and they stated theyuse Dupont paint.

They have a search engine ontheir website, www.midwestwheelre-pair.com and if you contact DarrenMoore by e-mail, [email protected], he’ll provide youwith a user name and password so youcan search their extensive database.

The group was able to see firsthand how they can repair wheels onsite.Alloy Wheel Repair also fed everyoneat the meeting by picking up the tab.

At the end of the meeting KenStephenson with Louisiana Glass andMirror in Bossier City, LA, added thathe used Caddo Career and TechnologyCenter’s Job Shadowing program andwas very impressed with the studentthat was sent to him. He said the studentwas extremely willing to do any job andwas eager to learn. He said if anyoneused the job shadowing program, theywouldn’t regret it.

For more information please visitwww.nwlcra.org.


• Toyota Star Elite Dealer• Free Delivery to All of Texas• Free Toyota Electronic Parts Catalogue

for our Wholesale CustomersCall Toll Free:

888-818-5176Fax Your Order:956-718-4234

Parts Dept. Hours:Monday - Friday: 7:30am - 6pmSaturday: 8:30am - 5pm

of LAREDO

Parts DMonday

Toyota

NWLCRA Holds First Meeting of 2012

Louisiana state police arrested fourpeople on January 24 for allegedlystaging traffic accidents in OuachitaParish, LA, according to ClaimsJournal. Detectives told the MonroeNews-Star that they investigated sixof 20 crashes where individuals filedfalse bodily injury claims.State troop-ers said the insurance companies intwo of the six crashes paid out morethan $18,000 to the suspects. Sevenwarrants were signed January 23 andarrests were made January 24. Statetroopers also said they are still look-ing for three suspects.

LA Police Crack Staged Crash Ring


Call your localdistributor

Eco Tech Systems at:

• Spraybooths• Prep Stations• Mixing Rooms• Waterborne Systems

www.accudraftpaintbooths.comwww.accudraftpaintbooths.com

800524-0340524-0340

ECOTECH SYSTEMS LLC

Several crash parts bills have been in-troduced in state legislatures acrossthe U.S. Crash parts bills have beenintroduced in Oklahoma, Hawaii,Massachusetts, New York, South Car-olina, North Carolina and Washing-ton.

The ASA says two state bills areof particular importance for inde-pendent repairers. Oklahoma SenateBill 1458 calls for consumer noticeand consent language, and adds newpolicy provisions including “emis-sions part” and “safety part.”

“Emissions part,” the ASA notes,requires the replacement of parts orsystems related to the control, moni-toring and release of waste gases andparticles created as a byproduct ofcombustion. Those parts include oxy-gen sensors, catalytic converters, ex-haust pipes, exhaust manifold, fueldistributor, electronic emissions con-trol unit, onboard emissions diagnos-tic device (OBD), and related partsand components.

“Safety part” requires the re-placement of parts or systems essen-tial to vehicle operation. Those parts

include suspension, electronic controlunits (ECU), brake parts, safety sys-tems and supplemental restraint sys-tem (SRS) components, according tothe ASA.

In addition, Hawaii Senate Bill2326 amends the state’s current lawby removing provisions requiringclaimants to pay additional costs forthe use of original equipment manu-facturer (OEM) parts. It also requiresinsurers to make available the use ofcertain used or aftermarket parts in-stead of “like kind and quality” partsin motor vehicle body repairs. Thelegislation reads as follows:

“Original equipment manufac-turers and like kind and quality parts;used or aftermarket parts: (a) An in-surer shall make available a choice tothe insured of authorizing a repairprovider to utilize a like kind andquality used or aftermarket part of anequal or better quality than the origi-nal equipment manufacturer part ifsuch part is available or an originalequipment manufacturer part formotor vehicle body repair work. If theinsured or claimant chooses the use of

an original equipment manufacturerpart, the insured or claimant shall paythe additional cost of the originalequipment manufacturer part that is inexcess of the equivalent like kind andquality used or aftermarket part, un-less the vehicle is currently under themanufacturer’s warranty or originalequipment parts are required by thevehicle manufacturer’s warranty.”

(b) A [like kind and quality] usedor aftermarket part under subsection(a), of an equal or better quality thanthe original equipment manufacturerpart, shall carry a guarantee in writingfor the quality of the [like kind andquality] used or aftermarket part fornot less than [ninety days or for] thesame guarantee period as the originalequipment manufacturer part,[whichever is longer]. The guaranteeshall be provided by the insurer.

(c) [Like kind and quality] Usedor aftermarket parts, certified or ap-proved by governmental or industryorganizations, shall be utilized ifavailable.

At its fall board meeting, ASAapproved a new crash parts policy to

reflect the collision marketplacechanges occurring in the past fewyears. ASA’s new crash parts policystates:

“ASA supports requiring insurersand auto collision facilities to providedisclosure of part type, descriptionand warranty information to the con-sumer for all part types including, butnot limited to, original equipmentmanufacturer, aftermarket, recycled,remanufactured, reconditioned andrebuilt crash parts.

ASA supports quality parts, cer-tified and verified in which the qual-ity is determined based on empiricaland measurable evidence equal to thestandards of OEM parts. ASA recom-mends quality verification and testingrelated to metallurgy, fit, functional-ity and responsiveness.

ASA believes a competitive partsmarketplace, of tested and verifiedquality parts, is in the best interest ofthe motoring public. ASA continuesto oppose parts policies that focussolely on efficiency without regard tocertification, verifiable quality andsafety.”

Oklahoma Among Crash Parts Bills Introduced to State Legislatures Countrywide

Before you can begin repairing a ve-hicle, you need an estimate. It’s theeasiest part of this whole deal, right?You have a computerized estimatingsystem that allows you to accuratelydocument everything that is needed tofix the car.

Some say it’s so easy that you cando it remotely by merely looking at apicture. Now that does sound easy!Almost as easy as going fishing withthe “Pocket Fisherman.” Ah, thememories. For those not old enough toremember, every man in the worldwanted one of those little babies nes-tled in their glove box.

Why do I reference the inspira-tional and ageless Ron Popeil and hiscompany, Ronco? It has nothing to dowith getting a sales commission. Imention him because he made the im-possible seem possible. The trivial anddifficult became simplified and logi-cal.

I believe that repairers and insur-ers view estimating through the never-invented “Ronco Goggles.” (Sorry foranother pathetic Popeil reference. Ifyou can’t tell, I’m a big fan and proudowner of an original Pocket Fisher-man and Mr. Microphone.)

If estimating is so easy why is itthe most misguided, challenged andsubjective part of the process? Thereis an easy answer: It’s not really thateasy. Repairers and insurers argue allthe time about the estimating process.I’ve heard repairers say, “The cost torepair the car is the cost to repair thecar. Insurance companies are just try-ing to write a low-dollar estimate. Letthe experts write the estimates and re-pair the vehicle.”

Does that sound familiar to any-one? It should.

Estimating is best defined by theactual root of the word: estimate. Nomatter what any expert tells me, es-timating isn’t an exact science. Infact, if it was an exact science itwould be called a repair bill, not an“estimate.”

Look at the cartoon with this arti-cle and tell me which one of the esti-mators is right. If you said, “All ofthem,” or “None of them,” you wouldbe today’s lucky winner of a PopeilPasta Maker. (Note to self: Add Pasta

Maker to this year’s Christmas wishlist.)

I hope this doesn’t insult any-one who makes their living writingestimates. My intent is to illustratethat any one of them could be right.The monkey was willing to do it forthree bananas; does that make himwrong?

To nobody’s surprise and to thedelight of stockholders everywhere,the insurance company wrote the low-est estimate. If I were put on the stand,I could defend this estimate. It is a vi-sual damage estimate without anytear-down. Does it make the insurancecompany wrong if there is additionaldamage behind some of those parts?That’s why it’s called an “estimate,”complete with a disclaimer at the bot-tom.

I know that this article will resultin some hate mail, but the fact is thatit’s not an exact science and it’s wrongto say “the damage is the damage.” Ifthat was the case, why does it costmore to have vehicles fixed at oneshop compared to another one that’s ablock away with the same labor rate?It is subject to opinion, experience,tear-down and a hundred other factorsincluding whether or not it was rain-ing out or 20 degrees below zero at thetime of the estimate.

By the way, those “other factors”apply to both repairers and insurers.I’m sure estimate accuracy at 4:45p.m. on a Friday compared to 11 a.m.on Tuesday is worthy of another arti-

cle on Insurance Company Estimating101.

Here’s a good recipe to producean accurate, consistent estimate. Itshould include a visual inspection, a

lift, tear-down, a thorough washing ofthe exterior of the vehicle, ample time,3-dimensional measuring equipment,a preliminary pull if needed, updatedestimating software, a live competitiveparts database, an experienced flexibleestimator, use of best-case repair sce-narios, 75 degree sunny weather withno clouds, and of course 20/20 vision.

If you were to have all of thosethings, you are guaranteed to get anestimate that gets you closer than theguess-estimate. So please stop usingthe term, “The damage is the dam-age.” If that was the case, don’t youthink that Ron Popeil would have al-ready simplified our estimating lives?

The Insider is a corporate-levelexecutive with a Top 10 auto insurerin the U.S. Got a comment or questionyou’d like to see him address in a fu-ture column? Email him at [email protected].


Getting a Guess-timate From the Real Expertswith The Insurance Insider

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

The Texas Independent AutomotiveAssociation (TIAA) held theirmonthly members meeting on Febru-ary 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the County LineBBQ on I-10 in San Antonio.

The night’s speaker was AndreEames from the State Comptroller’soffice. He talked about sales taxes, e-filing and making sure certainrecords are kept. He also let atten-dees in on a great tip: putting thenumber of the business owner on allthe forms. Eames said they have ex-

perienced problems when calling onbusinesses about issues with theirforms, oftentimes the Bookkeeper orSecretary doesn’t relay the messageto the owner. By putting the owner’s

contact informationon all forms busi-nesses can avoidthis issue.

He also statedbody kits, lift kitsand performance up-grades are taxablealong with the labor.

Next month’smeeting will be heldon March 15 at 6:30p.m. The location isTBA. The speakerwill be from local

channel KLRN. They will speak abouthow shops can donate a service fortheir upcoming 46th annual BlazingGavels charitable auction. For moreinformation about the auction pleasevisit blazinggavels.com.

For more information about theassociation please visit www.tiaa.net.


Texas Independent Automotive Association Hosts StateComptroller’s Office for February Meeting

There is a new tow for pay scamgoing around and several shops havecontacted ABN to alert us.

The scenario described by faxand possibly email is that their carneeds to be towed from another stateto be fixed at your shop. But theyneed you to pay the tow bill beforethe car can be delivered. One shopreceived two faxes (in two differentfonts) from someone calling himself“Evangelist Jerry Bratt” saying hiswife had an accident in a 2007Cadillac Escalade on her way toKansas. And of course it asks thatyou only email him. And he’ll bepaying cash. And of course you needto pay the bill. The fax asks for theaddress of your shop.

The last time this went aroundshops were expected to pay a towbill over a $1000 and they tell youthe “wrecker” will only accept amoney gram. Maybe also a requestfor a credit card.

Don’t fall prey but alert us ifyou receive this fax. The sending faxnumber is/was 202-204-0669, anumber traced to Washington, D.C.

We don’t know if there is a realJerry Bratt, or whether or not he isan Evangelist.

“Evangelist Jerry Bratt” Scam,Tow-for-Pay Revived

California Attorney Wins$10,000 Claim v. HondaA non-practicing California attorneywon nearly $10,000 for herself inher small claims suit against Hondaclaiming the company knowinglymisrepresented the mileage shewould get with her Civic Hybrid.The Small Claims Court lawsuit isunusual in that some legal expertsbelieve it could change strategiesfor both Small Claims Court andclass-action litigation. A Los Ange-les County court commissionerruled that American Honda MotorCo. negligently misled Civic ownerHeather Peters when it claimed thehybrid’s gas mileage could be asmuch as 50 miles per gallon. Hondahad offered a couple hundred dol-lars and a $1,000 voucher towardthe purchase of another Honda ve-hicle to complaining customers whoparticipated in a class action law-suit. Honda says they will appealbut many more owners of the 2006Civic Hybrid may be going thesmall claims route.

Some say Peters is suing thewrong party, since EPA oversees thempg ratings and Federal law requiresthem to be used. Five states’ AGshave asked for more time to considerthe settlement with 200,000 owners.

Andre Eames from the State Comptroller’s office spoke to the 40 orso attendees at the meeting


Supreme Court Allows Lawsuits on Lack of Safety EquipmentThe Supreme Court has reversedcourse and ruled that the nation’s au-tomakers can be sued for failing to in-stall the most-effective safetyequipment in their vehicles. Theunanimous decision on Feb.23 clearsthe way for a California man to sueMazda Motor Corp. because his fam-ily’s 1993 minivan did not have a lapand shoulder belt in a middle rearseat.

Judges in California had thrownout his lawsuit, citing a SupremeCourt ruling in 2000 that shielded au-tomakers from lawsuits for their fail-ure to install air bags immediately inall their vehicles.

In a surprise outcome, the highcourt reversed the California courtsand cleared the way for Williamson’slawsuit to proceed. Its opinion alsobacked away from its earlier view thatthe federal motor-vehicle safety lawblocks most safety-related lawsuitsagainst automakers.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer de-scribed the federal safety regulationsas setting forth only “minimum stan-dards,” not the “maximum standards”required by law.

Lawsuits from injured motoristscan play a “continued meaningful

role,” he added, by requiring au-tomakers to go further in seekingsafety.

Breyer explained that air bagshad posed a different issue because, atthe time, federal safety regulators didnot want mandatory installation of airbags because of early doubts abouttheir effectiveness.

By contrast, he said, federal reg-ulators had no objection to automak-ers installing lap and shoulder beltsfor all seats.

It is not clear whether the deci-sion in Williamson vs. Mazda willopen a door to many more successfulsuits against automakers. Much de-pends on the specifics of the federalmotor-vehicle safety regulations.

But the outcome is a surprisenonetheless. In recent years, the highcourt led by Chief Justice John G.Roberts Jr. has regularly sided withcorporations and blocked many law-suits.

In this case, however, the justicestook the view that lawsuits filed by in-jured people can lead to safer prod-ucts. Moreover, these suits are notblocked simply because the federalgovernment regulates the product atissue, they said.

CARSTAR held their annual outlookteleconference on February 9; CEOof CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Ex-perts, David Byers, detailed the2011 results for the MSO as well astheir goals for 2012.

According to Byers, 2011 was a“very solid” year for the MSO; salestotaled over $600 million and ex-ceeded the group’s objectives for theyear. 2011 was also a big year forcontinued growth and acquisition ofnew locations, which will also con-tinue to be an objective for 2012.

“We have acquired 17 new lo-cations in the last few months,” saidByers. CARSTAR plans on focusingon growth in California especiallyfor 2012.

Byers also said that the newstores that were acquired in 2011were very successful—seeing 50percent higher revenues than storesacquired in 2010.

Byers also said that changescoming for 2012 will “set the stagefor growth.”

In 2012 CARSTAR plans togrow existing store revenues andprofits, add new stores especially inCalifornia, add new MSO insurancerelationships, and fully deploy

CARSTAR solution, the group’s newmanagement system in partnershipwith Mitchell. The MSO aims to add50 new US stores in 2012.

CARSTAR did have a presencein California in the early 90s, but itdid not last. Byers said that he thinksthis current expansion into Califor-nia will be more successful becauseCARSTAR now has an insurance de-partment and a purchasing depart-ment which make the company morestable.

Byers said the way CARSTARis now is “a dramatic difference overwhere we were in the early 90s.”

Byers discussed the affect thismild winter has had on locations thatnormally see an increase in repairsdue to winter weather. He said al-though the mild winter has clearlyaffected business across the US,CARSTAR depends on KPIs andDRPs to continue driving its busi-ness.

“The industry...has seen a soft-ening in the third quarter of 2011into this year” due to the absence ofinclement winter weather, accordingto Byers.

For more information aboutCARSTAR visit: www.carstar.com.

CARSTAR Holds Results and Goals Teleconference

FCC Collision Centers, a multi-shopoperation with three locations in Moun-tain View, Milpitas and Sunnyvale, CA,

started in 1975 when Adam Piper de-cided to start his own business. A re-pairman at the time, he purchased thelocations in Milpitas and MountainView and ran those until 1996.

Then he decided to sell both ofthose locations to a business calledM2 Collision Care Center, whilemaintaining ownership of the build-

ings the businesses were in.Then in 2005 M2 went bankrupt

and since his two sons, Matt andJason, were working at other collisionrepair centers in the area, Adam askedthem if they’d go into partnership withhim on the two stores. Now Matt cur-rently manages the Mountain View lo-cation and Jason manages the Milpitaslocation; they both manage the newSunnyvale location.

“We worked really hard the firstcouple of years to build the businessesback up,” said Jason. M2 had burnedsome bridges in the industry beforegoing out of business and the build-ings also needed some repair, so thetrio worked hard for the first few yearsto get the business to where it is now.

During the economic recession in2008 and 2009 the Pipers had to ridethe slow economic wave just like therest of the industry.

Although, according to Jason, onething set their businesses apart from

the rest during this time, “We pushhard during the slow times to reinventour business.” During the recession thegroup reinvented their marketing strat-egy, improved their operations andupped their training to get ready for theeconomic rebound. It paid off—thebusinesses have seen a 15 to 20 per-

cent growth in the past few years andhave gained several new DRPs.

Then 4 months ago the Pipers de-cided to buy a third location in Sunny-vale. They are currently working to getmore DRPs as well as improving thebuilding and image of that location.

The Pipers hope to grow FCC to 4 or 5locations within the next few years andsee continued growth of locations asthe best way to stay competitive.

According to Jason, there is a lot ofindustry consolidation going on currentlyand FCC intends to stay competitive inthe industry with their continued growth.

“The market is fertile for consol-idation right now,” said Jason.

The Pipers are currently lookingfor a fourth location, but it’s got to be theright location, says Jason. Ultimately thePipers want their locations to comple-ment each other, since the current threelocations service adjacent communities.

“One thing you can’t be in thisindustry is stagnant,” said Jason.

Across all locations FCC cur-rently has 40 employees, sees about250 cars per month and grosses nearly$7 million annually. Mountain View isthe largest location with 22,000square-feet, then Milpitas with 16,000


FCC Collision Continues Expansion in the Greater San Francisco Areawith Erica Schroeder

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

FCC Collision Centers’ owners Matt, Adamand Jason Piper

The crew at the FCC Milpitas location

See FCC Collision, Page 20

parate parts systems, some of whichmay be mandated by their insurancepartners, may require shops to traintheir people on potentially nine differ-ent methodologies to order parts,” con-sultant Matt Ohrnstein of SymphonyAdvisors responded during the com-mittee’s question-and-answer period.

Ohrnstein suggested the commit-tee could help communicate to indus-try constituents that, just as thebanking industry settled on a standardway to transfer funds worldwide, thisindustry would be better served bystandardized parts-related electroniccommerce systems.

CIC Parts and Materials Com-mittee member Aaron Lofrano alsoreported in Palm Springs on his ad-

mittedly informalsurvey of morethan 120 people inthe industry askinghow use of differ-ent types of partsbenefit or hindertheir business op-eration on a daily

basis in terms of job performance andprofitability.

Lofrano shared some representa-tive comments from the various con-stituencies included in his survey. Hesaid non-OEM parts vendors, for ex-ample, expressed concerns about thenumber of parts returned, and ques-tions about whether those parts reallydid not fit as the shops returning theparts might indicate (often withoutproviding any specific informationabout the problem with the parts).Such returns occur, Lofrano said hewas told, even though other shops inthe same markets return few if anyparts. The parts vendors also ex-pressed frustration with parts being re-turned without boxes or packaging.

Following Lofrano’s presenta-tion, Oregon shop owner Ron Reichensaid he’d like to have more detailedinformation about the vendors’ re-ported parts returns rates.

“We are repeatedly told by thecarriers that it’s about 2 percent,” Re-ichen said, saying that doesn’t seem tomatch up with Lofrano’s assessmentof what he heard from parts vendors.

Info Providers Discuss Data SharingThe “Big Three” estimating systemproviders offered some response at the

recent Collision Industry Conference(CIC) to a joint statement by three re-pairer groups earlier this year voicingconcern about collection and use ofshop data.

In that statement, the Alliance ofAutomotive Service Providers (AASP),the Automotive Service Association,and the Society of Collision RepairSpecialists, said shops wishing to useany of the estimating systems have nochoice but to agree to allow their datato be aggregated and sold or reported tothird-parties, potentially “in ways thatmay ultimately be detrimental to the(shop) who generated the data.”

The estimating system providerspointed out the benefits to the industryof having aggregated data from whichall shop-identifying information hasbeen removed.

Greg Horn of Mitchell Interna-tional noted that the associations areamong those who have at times re-quested such aggregated data, and thatit can help shops understand how theyperforming relative to their market.

Jack Rozint of CCC InformationServices said his company takes everyeffort to ensure it isn’t releasing infor-mation that “could be used to the detri-ment of our customer.” He said, forexample, that CCC would never shareshops’profitability data - such as grossmargins on profit or labor - that it hasaccess to through clients using its shopmanagement system, even if a shopgave its permission to do so.

“Because we recognized that‘permission’ in this industry is not al-ways ‘permission’ (because) it’ssometimes (given) when someone hasa program being held over them (and)if they don’t do it they aren’t going toget any more cars,” Rozint said. “Sowe walled off that data and said it’snot going anywhere from our system.”

But Rozint said even if the sys-tem providers gave shops a way toopt-out of having their estimate dataaggregated, little would change.

“Most of the work in this industryis paid for by insurance companies,”he pointed out. “If the insurance com-panies want that data aggregated, theyhave access to it because they paid theclaim, so it will be aggregated. Theonly data you could exclude as a shopif that permission existed would becustomer-pay data.”

EMS vs. BMS debate continuesThe discussion came during a CICData Privacy Committee panel dis-cussion related to when the industry

will shift to a newer technology stan-dard for the transfer of a shop’s esti-mate data to third-parties.

The associations have beenamong those calling for a shift by theinformation providers away from usingthe older “EMS” standard for transfer-ring estimate data to using the newer“BMS” standard, in large part because

BMS gives theshop more controlover what aspectsof the estimate dataare shared. If ashop, for example,orders parts elec-tronically, the partsvendor receiving

the parts list via the EMS file gets notonly what parts are needed but infor-mation about the customer and his orher insurance. A rental car companyalso might be getting all this informa-tion even if all it really needs is infor-mation on when a customer’s car willbe repaired and the rental returned.

CCC’s Rozint and Rick Tuuri ofAudatex said more fully implementingBMS will require significant develop-ment resources for the informationproviders. And Tuuri said even if a

shop could export data using the BMSstandard right now, it would be a littlebit like being the only one with a phoneor fax machine in that you couldn’t useit unless the other party was preparedto communicate that way as well.

“If there’s no one prepared to re-ceive BMS and understand it, there’s notmuch impetus to develop it,” Tuuri said.

But Fred Iantorno of the Colli-sion Industry Electronic CommerceAssociation (CIECA) said EMS isbuilt on technology introduced in the1980s; most programmers workingtoday, he said, aren’t even familiarwith it. He said there’s been no re-sources spent on the EMS standardsince its last release a decade ago.

“So yes, you will have to spendmoney to move to BMS because you’renot spending any money today,”Iantorno told the information providers.

John Yoswick, a freelance writerbased inPortland,Oregon,whohas beenwriting about the automotive industrysince 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].


MIKE CALVERT TOYOTA

• Overnight Delivery in Most Areasof TX & LA

• Volume Discounts• One-Stop Shopping

2333 S. Loop West • Houston, TX 77054

pping

www.mikecalverttoyota.com

(713) 558-8131

(713) 558-8272Fax

Local

Toll Free

1-800-527-5368Download at www.CollisionLink.com

Continued from Page One

CIC Report

Aaron Lofrano

Jack Rozint


This has been a year of extremeweather. Recently, fierce winds blewdown hundreds of trees in one areaI’m familiar with. Many of those treesdamaged vehicles parked on the streetor in driveways and those damagedvehicles wound up in a local collisioncenter to be repaired. Those local shopowners obviously were pleased to getthe business, but only one that I knowof took the time to get some photosand get the story to a local newspaperto get the name of their shop in print.Perhaps if they had acted a bit faster,they could also have gotten their shopfeatured along with some of the TVnews coverage of the wind damage,but any coverage is better than none.To take full advantage of a situationlike this requires a real nose for news.Most shop owners are too busy takingcare of business to constantly ask, “Issomething happening that might getus free publicity and our name andpicture in the news?”

The amazing thing is every shopowner, manager or estimator is pre-sented with potential news storiesmost every day. Many vehicle ownerswho bring a crashed vehicle in for re-pair have a story to tell. And many ofthose stories are bizarre and oftenfunny. If the customer is willing tohave the story told— and better yet ifhe or she has some photos—therecould be some great material to passalong to the evening news or themorning paper.

People are especially interestedin circumstances affecting pet animalsor small children. For example, morethan a million dogs are killed in carcrashes every year. Many of these an-imals have been greatly loved by thedriver or a family member. This couldbe a newsworthy story — especially ifit was the pet of a small child. The im-portant thing for a representative ofthe shop to keep in mind is to not givethe impression that this is an attemptto exploit a sad situation. Unless thestory is funny and the vehicle owneris laughing about it too, a sad story hasto have a positive appeal. If a pet is in-jured or killed, a story could appeal toviewers or readers to take greaterpains to have a proper pet restraint inthe vehicle. The same appeal could bemade if a child is injured or killed andthe seat belt or restraint was not beingproperly used. The story then has apublic service message, but it can alsoreveal the name and concern of theshop and its owner.

A similar message could havevalue if the driver fell asleep at thewheel. Drowsy driving accounts forabout 4 percent of all fatal crashes inthe United States, or roughly 1,500deaths each year. Researchers at theU.C., San Diego School of Medicinesay that each year, potentially 980 livescould be saved and $11.1 billion in au-tomobile-accident costs could beavoided if drivers who suffer from adisorder called obstructive sleep apnea

were successfully treated. Half of thenation’s adults (51%) admit to drivingwhile drowsy, reports the NationalSleep Foundation (NSF). Among 18 to29 year olds, nearly one-quarter reportactually falling asleep at the wheel atsome point during the past year, com-pared with 15% of those aged 30-64,and 6% of people 65 and older. Thereare about 5,000 fatal accidents a yearinvolving big trucks, but there is nogood way to know how many are dueto truck-driver fatigue.

“Driving while drowsy is no dif-ferent than driving under the influenceof alcohol or drugs,” says RichardGelula, NSF’s Executive Director.“When you’re sleepy, your brain startsto shut down,” “But even before youactually nod off, performance slips.”Trying harder to stay awake may nothelp. Your thinking slows, you misssignals and risk-taking behavior in-creases. At 60 mph, if you close your

eyes for only one second, you’ve trav-eled 88 feet. Will a driver who crashedas a result of falling asleep be willing toreveal that? And if so, would he or shebe willing to have that story publicized,even to provide a positive public serv-ice message? Possibly not, but it cannever hurt to ask, and if the driver iswilling, this could be a great story fea-turing the shop in a positive light.

While these public service mes-sage stories may have the greatestvalue, the ones that are bizarre andoften funny will be easier to get anagreement to publish. The driver whoswerved and crashed to avoid hittingan armadillo that escaped from thezoo, or the homeowner who dropped abucket of paint on his car while paint-ing his house may be most willing toshare in the laugh. The astute shopowner who thinks to pass these storiesalong to the press could enjoy an ex-cellent bit of free publicity.


Northeast 2012

Booth# 317

The mayor’s office in the city ofHouston released new changes to theproposed ordinance to regulate the au-tomotive repair and collision industry.The Houston City Council did notreach a final conclusion on the Valen-tine’s Day ordinance proposal butopted to refer the ordinance back tothe administration.

There has been no date set for theordinance to be reconsidered. Automo-

tive Service Association (ASA) mem-bers in Houston opposed the proposedordinance and will continue to work toensure that any ordinance approved bythe city council will treat consumersand repairers fairly. To view informa-tion regarding ASA’s grassroots effort– including the letter sent to the mayorand Houston City Council members –visit ASA’s legislative website atwww.TakingTheHill.com.

Houston City Licensing Ordinance Stalls

Spotting a Newsworthy Opportunity

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

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

at www.autobodynews.com

Register Your Email for OurS

Free Monthly NewsletterFree Monthly NewsletterFree Monthly Newsletter



show and two days of companymeetings. The Irving-based companythat operates more than 70 car deal-erships’ collision centers nationwidehosted an activity-packed four-dayschedule, bringing Van Tuyl man-agement and employees, as well ascollision vendors and local collisionprofessionals together to eat BBQ,

network and play some high-spiritedflag football.

The entire weekend was thebrainchild of Van Tuyl Group’s Na-tional Collision Director DarrenHuggins, who comfortably wore sev-eral hats in creating, overseeing andimplementing all of the weekend’sevents. Sponsored by Van Tuyl, PPGRefinish and Enterprise Rent-A-Car,the full-day flag football double-elim-

ination tournament took place at theStampede Sports Arena, a state-of-the-art facility in Southlake, Texas thatfeatures three artificial turf fields. Au-tobody News and Collision Hub werealso on hand to cover the event and allthe fanfare surrounding it.

Teams entered in the tournamentread like a who’s who of leaders in the

automotive collision field, includingrental car companies (Enterprise en-tered three teams, representing threeregions in Texas and Hertz was alsoon-hand); Paint companies and paintjobbers (English Color and SingleSource, PPG and Sherwin-Williams);Body shop chains (Caliber Collisionhad two teams) and several local Dal-las-area car dealerships (SewellLexus, Town East Ford and ReliableChevrolet).

Huggins was happy to see thathis weekend’s plans came offwithout a hitch, he said. “Thisweekend surpassed all of ourdreams,” Huggins explained.“This is the first year we’vedone this and we’re alreadytalking about making it an an-nual event. By bringing the in-dustry together for a couple ofdays, it was exceptional. Weachieved everything we ex-pected and even more. Thecompetition was unbelievableand some of the games werereally close. And by helping acharity on top of it, that madeit even more special. I’d also

like to thank my co-director of thetournament, Russell Hamilton of En-terprise Rent-A-Car, who did all of thescoring and played an integral part ofits overall success.”

All four teams entered on behalfof the Van Tuyl Group were called“America’s Team” and coached byDarren Huggins himself. Led by V.T.Team #1, this championship squadconsisted of standouts such as Captain

Zachary “Huggy” Huggins,Darren’s son; MVP QB/DBJared “Squid” Mosquedaand WR Matt Saoit, who“pretty much caught every-thing thrown his way,” accord-ing to Darren Huggins. Otherstars for the superior team in-cluded WR/DB Heath“Chief” Baker; Johan “TheBelgian Waffle” Huewartand WR Gregg “G-Unit”Strandberg. On defense,Bobby “El Natural” Ghan-bari led the attack, intercept-

ing multiple passes and taking them tothe end zone more than once.

V.T. Team #1 went undefeatedthroughout the entire tournament, run-ning the table and beating a strongteam sponsored by Sherwin-Williamsin the final game. One of Van Tuyl’sother teams (V.T. Team #2) finished inthird place, led by Eric Payne, Tay-

lor Hoover and Eli Naylor, amongothers.

Robert Shushi was the captainof the second place Sherwin-Williams’ team and proud of hissquad, but perplexed by the domi-nance featured by V.T.’s Team #1.“We gave it our best and we playedwell, but in the end they were a littlefaster and a lot more organized. Theyhad signals and plays and they prac-ticed, something we didn’t really dothat much of. In the end, they were abetter team, so hats off to them. All ofthe Van Tuyl teams were really goodand the fact that Darren coached themall didn’t hurt, I’m sure.”

V.T. Team #4 was by far the old-est team in the tournament, totaling449 years of age amongst the group,consisting of nine seasoned veteranswho gave a very impressive and spir-ited performance.

If you’re not familiar with thisfull-speed, non-contact version offootball, here’s a brief description ofthe rules, offered by Huggins. “Youget five players on offense and fouron defense. The quarterback cannotrun past the line of scrimmage, so it’sprimarily a passing game. The gameconsists of two 7.5 minute halves andthe clock runs continually until thelast two minutes of each contest. Thefields are 30 yards long and each teamgets four downs to score. You can’tget a first down and there are not anyfield goals or punts, so it’s all-or-nothing when you have the ball. Thedefense can’t rush the QB, but he onlyhas four seconds to throw. And unlessthey collide while going for a pass,there is no contact permitted in thisgame.”

By playing a safer, non-contactincarnation of football, you wouldthink no one would get injured, but afew bumps and bruises did occur dur-ing the tournament, Huggins said.“Nothing serious, but we did see a fewpulled groins, quad sprains, brokenfingers and one bruised heel. Other-wise, everyone walked (or limped)away a little sore. Pretty much, withso many people playing (in excess of150) you would expect more injuries,so we were fairly lucky.”

Huggins came up with the ideafor flag football as a team building ex-ercise, when he devised such a tour-nament while holding a series ofcompany meetings last year, he said.“We were in Orlando when I came upwith this idea. I’ve been a DallasCowboys fan my whole life and I’vecoached and played football for manyyears. Football reinforces a team ap-

proach and teaches peoplehow to work well together fora common cause. When I sawhow excited and competitivemy guys were, I thought—wow, this can be used to buildrapport and leadership on alarger stage. And that’s how itstarted!”

Van Tuyl’s Super Bowlweekend raised more than$22,000 for Trinity RiverMission (TRM), a West Dal-las volunteer-based commu-nity learning center that setsup children (3-12 grades) forsuccess. Standing for Tutor,Read, Mentor, TRM gradu-ates 98% of its students, bycreating a wide range of edu-cational and support pro-

grams. By instituting programs toprovide nutrition for its studentsthrough a Kid’s Café that provideshot meals and snacks four daysweekly and conducting a TutorPower Hour with 68 trained tutorson- site, TRM is successfully fight-ing illiteracy and combating low testgrades in Texas.

TRM’s Executive Director De-lores Sosa Green, M. Ed., set up abooth at the Van Tuyl Super Bowl ofFlag Football and met with spectatorsand players all day long. “We providementoring for at-risk kids to put themin a position to learn and grow asyoung people. We have children in ourprogram who want to be engineers,teachers, architects—but the publicsystem is failing them. Low gradua-tion rates prove it.”

Continued from Front Page

Van Tuyl

Van Tuyl Team #1 went undefeated throughout the tour-nament and beat Sherwin-Williams in an exciting finalgame. (At far right, National Collision Director DarrenHuggins and at center flashing number #1 sign is TeamCaptain Zachary “Huggy” Huggins, Darren’s son.)

A Trade Show took place at Van Tuyl’s headquarters onSuper Sunday, featuring 44 exhibitors and attractingmore than 400 people from the West Dallas area

The Van Tuyl Group raised in excess of $22,000 for theTrinity River Mission, represented at the flag footballtournament by (from left) Elizabeth Franco (OutreachManager), Alexandra Lopez (8th grader who has beenwith TRM since kindergarten) and Delores Sosa Green(Executive Director)


THE VAN TUYL GROUP WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR SPONSORS ANDTHE FOLLOWING DEALER TEAMS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THEOLLOWING DEALER TEAMS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE

CHARITY SUPER BOWL.Proceeds and sponsorships benefit Trinity River Mission.

I would like to add special thanks for the following vendorsfor their charity contributions:

Grand Prairie FordGrand Prairie, TX

Grapevine FordGrapevine, TX

Gwinnett Place FordDuluth, GA

Joe Meyers FordHouston, TX

Mall of Georgia FordBuford, GA

Town East FordMesquite, TX

Westway FordIrving, TX

Crest South/Plano CollisionPlano, TX

Crest/Plano CollisionPlano, TX

Husker GMLincoln, NE

McKinney Buick GMCMcKinney, TX

Midway ChevroletPhoenix, AZ

Miles ChevroletDecatur, IL

Reliable Chevrolet (MO)Springfield, MO

Reliable Chevrolet (NM)Albuquerque, NM

Reliable Chevrolet (TX)Richardson, TX

Stonebriar ChevroletFrisco, TX

Van ChevroletScottsdale, AZ

Van Chevrolet (MO)Kansas City, MO

Van Chevrolet (TX)Carrollton, TX

Vandergriff Chevrolet - NArlington, TX

Vandergriff Chevrolet - SArlington, TX

ABC NissanPhoenix, AZ

Bell HondaPhoenix, AZ

Camelback ToyotaPhoenix, AZ

Cerritos NissanCerritos, CA

Collision Center of PeoriaPeoria, AZ

David Maus ToyotaSanford, FL

Grapevine CollisionGrapevine, TX

Kenny Kent ToyotaEvansville, IN

Reliable ToyotaSpringfield, MO

Toyota of DallasDallas, TX

Toyota of RichardsonRichardson, TX

Trophy NissanMesquite, TX

South County Lexus CollisionViejo, CA

on

a

O

Enterprise Holdings-Dallas, Garmat USA, Dent Concepts, English Color, Gene Lopez, Kaesar Compressors, Car O Liner, All Data, Velox-Bed Liners, Reliable Chevrolet, Mo., Mitchell International, Becca, Summit

Software Solutions, Auto House Technologies, Matrix Measuring, Auto Body Color and Autobody News.

Modern vehicles are complex and in-creasingly easily totaled; advances likeanti-lock brakes and traction controlhave increased driver control, and in-creased consumer awareness has im-proved safe driving practices. This alltranslates into fewer repair jobs and col-lision shops must follow best practicesto remain profitable. But what aboutbusiness declines due to steering?

Steering has existed since the be-ginning of the auto insurance industryand, while illegal, it may be here tostay unless something is done tochange the awareness, standardswithin the industry and the laws thatgovern their behavior.

Steering hurts both the shops andthe customer, and if there is going tobe progression in this industry, a solu-tion must be found and regulationsmust be enforced. Good body shopsare being forced out of business. Carowners are receiving sub par parts andservice. A solution would benefit theentire industry and its customers.

The shops trying their hardest toget work based on their reputation andwork aren’t the only ones being af-fected. The customer is also affectedby steering and it can be dangerous tomore than the bottom line. Insurancecompanies can have agreements withshops and vendors where the carowner will get cheaper aftermarket orunexamined used parts, which canhave hairline fractures or other struc-tural issues that may be unsafe.

Almost everyone agrees that thispractice hurts the industry, but fordecades no progress has been made tochange it. Obviously a steered vehicleusually ends up at a DRP shop, ratherthan an independent one, and whetheryou see steering as good or bad de-pends on which type of shop youhave. One reason there’s not enoughopposition to steering is that the shopslosing jobs are balanced by the DRPshops that benefit from it. Solutionsmust be evaluated and once one isagreed upon, implementation and en-forcement must be carried out andmonitored.

So, what are the possible solutions?

Unity Within the CommunityThe auto body industry should come

together, DRPs and non-DRPs, as acommunity, to set a standard for re-pairs and claims. Standards for whatprocedures are covered must be madeso that fair and accurate prices arecharges industry wide. This level ofcommunication and standard settingdoesn’t currently exist and causesgreater separation within the bodyshop community and resentment fromnon-DRPs who may not be able tomatch DRP prices because the influxof jobs coming to DRPs allows themto offer unnaturally low prices.

Change Method of Reporting a ClaimCurrently, the vast majority of claimsare made over the phone. These phonecalls often include a recommendationfrom the insurance company for a pre-ferred DRP shop. Instead of phoningin a claim, improve the Internet claimsubmission process, so that the firststeps of the claim can be done onlineand don’t require human interaction.This will eliminate the possibility thatthe car owner is manipulated intousing a particular shop recommendedsolely by the insurance company.

Another option is making theclaim in person from the body shop oftheir choice. Instead of first calling theinsurance agency, have the car ownercall the insurance company after theychoose a shop, and if possible, havethem call from the shop.

AwarenessWe must let the car owners know thatthey do have a choice when it comesto who is repairing their car. The ag-gressive “recommendation” practiceswon’t intimidate or influence the carowner if they are aware that the prac-tice is illegal, and by allowing the in-surance company to influence theirdecision, they are partaking in illegalpractices that can ultimately hurt thecar owner.

Curtail DRPs, Stop Preferred ProvidersDRPs are the greatest source of frictionbetween shops and insurers but worsecould be on the horizon. “Preferredprovider options” are proposed by theinsurance industry to control costs byoffering policyholders discounts in ex-change for limiting their choices when

it comes to collision repair. Those lim-its include the use of specific repairshops and the use of aftermarket ornon-OEM parts and sheet metal.

If we eliminate DRPs we canstart to re-establish free enterprise, al-lowing the best shops offering themost fair pricing and doing best qual-ity work to get the job, which will re-store a more natural flow within theindustry.

Policy Changes and RegulationOn a larger scale, the issue of steeringcan be addressed through legislation.Insurance agencies need to stopstrong-arming their customers to taketheir car to a preferred shop which isan obvious conflict of interest. Steer-ing is detrimental to free enterpriseand doesn’t allow for the industry toreact naturally to the laws of supplyand demand. Just as the governmentcreated laws that regulate monopolies

that impede free enterprise, they canmandate changes to the auto insuranceindustry.

Steering creates a whole set ofproblems that are in the consumers’best interest to correct. Once a fair so-lution for all parties is reached, it mustbe followed up with enforcement. In-surance companies should be requiredto show full transparency when theircustomers report an accident. Moni-toring will follow to ensure no shop isreceiving unfair advantages and dealsthat exclude other shops or discouragefree enterprise and will eventually belooked back upon as archaic, unjustand unhealthy.

You can contact your local Rep-resentatives to let them know you careabout this cause and ask what they aredoing to fix the problem. Action muststart from within, awareness needs tospread, and solutions need to be dis-cussed.


For Your Next Repair Pick Only Original

TOYOTA PARTS!

HOURS:Mon. - Fri. 7am - 7pm / Sat. 7am - 5pm

9001 Camp Bowie W. • Fort Worth, TX 76116

[email protected]

Call Us Today!

866-295-8384817-916-1557Fax

817-560-3649PartsHotline

• 70+ Years Combined Parts Team Experience• 70+ Years Combined Parts Team Experience• Volume Discounts• Volume Discounts• 70+ Years Combined Parts Team Experience• Volume Discounts

Y ex R p r c On y O ginalY Next Repair Pick Only Origi al

TOYOTA OF FORT WORTHTOYOTA OF FORT WORTHTOYOTA OF FORT WORTH

A Shop Owner’s Suggestions to Control Steering and Worse to Comewith Domenico Nigro

The Community-Focused Body ShopDomenico Nigro is the president of Nigro’s Auto Body, a very progressive shop fortheir community in Philadelphia. In addition to many productivity innovations, Nigro’sinstalls equipment for disabled drivers, has developed several phone Applications,and represents products which directly support charities such as United Way and theNational Breast Cancer Foundation. Contact him at: [email protected].


and Sunnyvale with 8,000.The family trio works together well

and has common goals when it comesto the businesses. Matt handles much ofthe training, production flow, estimateaccuracy functions and daily manage-ment; Jason handles the accounting,HR, IT and daily management; andAdam handles the business develop-

ment, marketing, industry relations and“old guy” stuff, according to Jason.

All three shops are equipped withstate-of-the-art auto body repairequipment including Chief EZ-LinerFrame Machines and “Velocity”-Computerized Measuring Systems.Each shop is also equipped with mod-

ern downdraft SprayBake spraybooths, and uses only Dupont paint.

All three shops are currently incontract with VeriFacts, an independ-ent service company that analyzes,evaluates, trains and reviews ongoingwork on a monthly basis. VeriFacts as-sures that technicians maintain thehighest quality work through verifica-tion and authentication of repairs ac-cording to industry standards andoriginal manufacturers’ guidelines. Allthree owners feel that their contractwith VeriFacts helps them to maintainintegrity in their repairs.

“Using VeriFacts is a big part ofwho we are; we’re always raising thebar on quality by obtaining the mostrecent OEM standards,” said Jason.

FCC has archived the highestlevel within the Verifacts program,called Medallion status. This status isattained after a history of verified cer-tification, training, equipment, qualityand adherence to OEM standards hasbeen established. FCC is one of only ahandful of shops that have attainedthis status across the US.

“FCC utilizes AllData and re-searches OEM specifications on allstructural repairs to ensure strict adher-

ence to OEM standards. This ‘tool’ al-lows us to provide the best, safest repairfor our customers,” said Matt Piper.

All three locations are also I-CARGOLD certified. Management requiresthat all personnel enroll in any work-shops or classes offered by originalauto manufacturers or auto paint com-panies. The businesses are also cur-rently in a direct repair partnership withseveral large insurers. They also do

paintless dent removal, wheel align-ment, glass replacement, detailing andglass tinting, towing and rental cars.

Adam Piper has also been veryactive throughout the industry in hiscareer; including sitting on the Boardof Directors of the Santa Clara Chap-ter of the California Auto Body Asso-ciation since 1983, being Santa ClaraChapter President five times and serv-ing as Committee Co-Chair of the

newly formed Definitions Committeefor the Collision Industry Conferencein 1994-97. FCC maintains member-ship in the California Auto Body As-sociation, the Society of CollisionRepair Specialists, the National Fed-eration of Independent Businesses andthe Better Business Bureau.

“We aspire to always provide ourcustomers with a service and ownershipexperience that consistently satisfies theirneeds and exceeds their expectations,”said Adam Piper. The company’s logo is“Quality, Service and Dependability.”

For more information please visitwww.fcc-collision.com.

FCC Mountain View177 East Evelyn Ave.Mountain View, CA 94040(650) 965-1440

FCC Milpitas1416 S Main St.Milpitas, CA 95035(408) 263-9999

FCC Sunnyvale904 E. Arques Ave.Sunnyvale, CA 94085(408) 400-2440


4025 W. Loop 289,Lubbock, TX 79407

Gene Messer Hyundai

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

806-785-2238FAX

Call our Parts Department Today!

• Large Inventory• Exceptional

Service• Genuine Hyundai

Parts• Experienced

Sales Staff

Parts Department Hours:Mon. - Fri. 7:00am - 7:00pm

Sat. 8:00am - 6:00pm

We’re ready to serve you!

THESE DEALERS ARE GENUINEWHOLESALE PARTS SPECIALISTS.

TEXAS

Sterling McCall ToyotaHOUSTON

800-231-1440713-270-3942 FaxMonday - Friday 7am - 7pm

Saturday 7am - 4pm

Freeman Toyota ScionHURST

888-628-7626817-287-5349 FaxMon. - Fri. 7am - 7pm;

Sat. 8am - [email protected]

Toyota of LaredoLAREDO

888-818-5176956-718-4234 FaxMon. - Fri. 7:30am - 6pm;

Sat. 8:30am - 5pmwww.toyotaoflaredo.com

Toyota of Fort WorthFORT WORTH

817-560-3649817-916-1557 FaxMon. - Fri. 7am - 7pm;

Sat. 7am - 5pmwww.toyotaoffortworth.com

Continued from Page 11

FCC Collision

FCC’s newest location in Sunnyvale, CA

FCC’s first location opened in 1975 in MountainView, CA


There has been a longstanding recom-mendation to apply epoxy primer, aswell as anti-corrosion compound, onthe inside of rails and pillars androcker panels as a last step for struc-tural repairs.

Going back as far as theJuly/August 1988 I-CARAdvantage, in the article“Restoring Corrosion Pro-tection,” is the followingstep for providing corrosionprotection to enclosed inte-rior surfaces: “Apply primer.Two-part epoxy recom-mended. Then apply anti-corrosion compound.” Thereason given, is that on areaswhere the coatings havebeen entirely removed, this is a two-step process that is replacing the twooriginal coatings, zinc and E-coat.

During research for the recentlyupdated I-CAR course, Corrosion

Protection (CPS01), I-CAR askedseveral product and vehicle makers ifthis is still the most frequent recom-mendation. I-CAR was told it is not,due to several reasons. These includepossible primer adhesion problems

on these surfaces, the lower preva-lence of epoxy primer at repair facil-ities, the increased popularity ofself-etching primer, changing primerchemistries, and an increase in the ef-

fectiveness of anti-corrosion com-pound.

E-coat is the best corrosion pro-tection material that will ever be ap-plied to a vehicle surface, and aside ofthe weld backside, the enclosed inte-rior areas have E-coat.

Still, there is a concern amongrepair facilities for longevity of re-pairs, retaining corrosion warranties,and assurance that there is one morelayer of protection, especially in therust-belt areas. For these reasons, andmore, several facilities will continueto apply epoxy primer in addition toanti-corrosion compound to enclosedsurfaces as a standard operating pro-cedure.

Primer Requires a Cleaned SurfaceProduct makers have a concern withadhesion if these backside areas arenot cleaned properly. Any surface tobe primed must be cleaned, both me-

chanically and chemically.If applying epoxy primer inside

rails and other structural parts, thesurfaces must be cleaned before thepart is assembled. This requires sand-ing followed by a thorough chemicalcleaning, especially the joint areabackside to remove coatings. Theremight be access to a rail joint, if thejoint is near the very tip of the railand the rail is open-ended up throughthe joint location. Other than a situa-tion like that, there isn’t enough ac-cess for proper cleaning afterwelding, so it must be cleaned beforeassembly.

Anti-Corrosion Compound AloneThe recommendation from the prod-uct makers and vehicle makers that I-CAR communicated with duringresearch for updating the I-CARcourse, Corrosion Protection (CPS01),is to apply anti-corrosion compound


Corrosion Protection to Structural Part Interiors

I-CAR TechThis article first appeared in the I-CAR Advantage Online, which is published and distrib-uted free of charge. I-CAR, the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair, is anot-for-profit international training organization that researches and develops qualitytechnical education programs related to collision repair. To learn more about I-CAR, andto subscribe to the free publication, visit http://www.i-car.com.

Figure 1. Anti-corrosion compound is applied to enclosedinterior surfaces with a wand using access holes

alone. Anti-corrosion compound, ap-plied as a mist coat using a wand in-serted through access holes or fromthe end of a rail, is designed to protectenclosed areas from corrosion (seeFigure 1).

The proper application techniqueshould treat the backsides of the welds.Excess material should creep into theflange areas, sealing off those areasfrom moisture. At least one vehiclemaker, Chrysler LLC, recommends adouble application of anti-corrosioncompound (see Video at www.i-car.com).

Visit i-car.com to view the refer-enced video where Chrysler CollisionRepair Manager Doug Craig explainsthat Chrysler recommends applyingtwo coats of anti-corrosion compound.

Do Not Use Self-Etching PrimerIt is still recommended to not useself-etching primer inside enclosedareas, because it doesn’t form a bar-rier like epoxy primer and wouldeventually break down. Self-etchingprimer must be coated with anotherproduct, and it would be difficult tosee inside an enclosed area whetheror not the primer is completely coated

by the anti-corrosion compound.

ConclusionThe recommendation to apply epoxyprimer followed by anti-corrosioncompound inside an enclosed area isnot included in the updated I-CARcourse, Corrosion Protection (CPS01).

When using this two-stepprocess, the surfaces must be cleanedfor the primer to properly adhere. Themore general recommendation is ap-plying anti-corrosion compound alone.

The instructor-led (live) I-CARcourse, Corrosion Protection (CPS01),has been refreshed. It includes updatedmanufacturer recommendations, aswell as an updated presentation. Watchfor this course in your area. For coursedetails and to register, visit the I-CARwebsite.

For comments or suggestions onthe Advantage Online, please contactI-CAR at [email protected].


GIVE US 1% OF YOUR TRUST ANDGIVE US 1% OF YOUR TRUST ANDWE’LL EARN THE OTHER 99%!

GIVE US 1% OF YOUR TRUST ANDWE’LL EARN THE OTHER 99%!

» Our goal is to insure your body shop with the highest quality filters availableat competitive prices and timely delivery.

» We’ve been in business for 25+ years serving customers all over the UnitedStates with a centrally located distribution center.

» We offer high quality filters from many manufacturers such as AFC, Binks,Blowtherm CMC, Garmat, USI, etc.

» Filters are shipped in boxes via FedEx Ground Service, normally within 24 Hrs.Delivery is 1 to 4 business days on most orders. When ordering filters, unless youare ordering a large enough volume, your FedEx shipping cost is calculated inreal-time. (If you see the shipping option “Freight” then you can choose to let us find the best shippingprice to you and pay for the shipping after your order, this only happens on very large orders.)

All Filters are backed with a 1 year manufacturer warranty.

VISIT US AT:WWW.FILTERSFORBOOTHS.COM

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


what could have been a fatal rollover.The truck will tour the followingareas:● Bryan—February 14● San Antonio—February 15-16● Dallas—February 18● Rio Grande Valley—February 23● Huntsville—February 25● Houston—February 27-28● Austin—March 8● Arlington—April 1

Since September 2009, TexasLaw requires all occupants of a vehi-cle, no matter their age or location inthe vehicle, must be secured by asafety belt. Seat belt use by rear pas-sengers has been observed as lowerthan that of those in the front. Viola-tors risk fines of up to $250 and thoseon the Graduated Driver License Pro-gram could have their license sus-pended. This campaign also aims tocontinue increasing awareness of thislaw among teens. Teens are also in-vited to share their stories, win prizesand learn more at the website, Seat-BeltsRock.com.


Texas Seat BeltsSAAB Dealers Still Looking atOptions, Six Parties Still ContendSix parties are still reportedly consid-ering buying Saab Automobile, butSaab’s dealer base also has options.Saab’s demise is not necessarily cer-tain, a Bloomberg report suggests.While 200 Saab dealers worldwidehave chosen to close up shop duringthe last two years, but the remainingare turning to competing automakersto land franchises as Saab’s fate be-comes less promising, the report said.In fact, Saab National Dealer Councilleader Kurt Schirm said each ofSaab’s 188 U.S. dealers is consider-ing other brands. Connecticut dealerGuildford Saab’s general managerTom Backes is reported to havecourted both Maserati and Mitsubishi.“I’ve reached out to quite a fewbrands,” Backes was quoted as say-ing. “Some have said, ‘We’re not ex-panding,’ and others have said, ‘We’lltake a look at it.’ It’s a slow process.”

Garel Rhys, head of the auto-motive industry research center at theUniversity of Cardiff, said: “Thesedealerships have a loyal clientele whomight switch brands. They’re often invery good locations and well-estab-lished. So I’m quite optimistic aboutthe prospects of Saab dealerships”


®

+++


Bankston HondaLewisv i l le

800-344-8611972-219-0021

Dept. Hours:M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5

www.bankstonhonda.com

Benson HondaSan Antonio

800-727-8705210-340-0831


[email protected]

Cleo Bay HondaKi l leen

877-253-6229254-699-2478

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

Gillman HondaHouston

800-999-8309713-776-4834


[email protected]

Honda of FriscoFr isco

866-442-2711972-731-3176

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

Russell & Smith HondaHouston

800-833-0180713-663-4266


[email protected]

Wholesale Parts DirectAust in

800-234-4441512-458-2910

Dept. Hours:M-F 8-6

[email protected]

Don Carlton HondaTulsa

800-722-2379918-622-9670

Dept. Hours:M-Sat 7-6

[email protected]

Joe Marina HondaTulsa

800-722-0520918-491-0110

Dept. Hours:M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-4

[email protected]

Walker HondaAlexandr ia

318-448-8255318-445-6677

Dept. Hours:M-F 7:30-5:30

[email protected]

Patty Peck HondaRidgeland, MS800-748-8676601-957-3400


[email protected]

Superior HondaHarvey

800-943-4227504-368-5687

Dept. Hours:M-F 7-5:30

[email protected]

Garcia HondaAlbuquerque

800-677-6632505-260-5002

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

Santan HondaChandler, AZ

800-765-1353480-285-2804

Dept. Hours:M-F 7-5:30; Sat 7-5

[email protected]

Showcase HondaPhoenix , AZ

800-537-8236602-230-7306

Dept. Hours:M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5; Sun 9-4

[email protected]

TEXAS TEXAS OKLAHOMA NEW MEXICO

The Honda and Acura Dealers Listed Here are Subscribers:HONDA

LOUISIANA

TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS LOUISIANA

ACURA

Champion AcuraGul f Freeway

800-749-6227713-371-4700


[email protected]

David McDavid AcuraAust in

800-575-3553512-401-5976


[email protected]

David McDavid AcuraPlano

972-964-6044Dept. Hours:

M-F 7-7; Sat [email protected]

Mac Churchill AcuraFort Worth

888-824-9634817-806-0571


[email protected]

Sterling McCall AcuraHouston

713-596-2337713-596-2338

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

[email protected]

Don Carlton Acura of TulsaTulsa

888-550-7278918-664-2300

Dept. Hours:M-Sat 7-6

[email protected]

Acura of Baton RougeBaton Rouge

866-733-2861225-756-6166


[email protected]

Walker AcuraMetai r ie

800-359-8555504-465-8555


[email protected]

OKLAHOMA

OKLAHOMA

www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSService, Diagnostic

and MechanicalService, Diagnostic

and Mechanicalcci Di ii Di iService, DiagnosticService, DiagnosticS i i iService, DiagnosticService, DiagnosticService, DiagnosticService, DiagnosticS i i igService, DiagnosticgService, DiagnosticService, Diagnosticg, DService, DiagnosticDService, DiagnosticService, DiagnosticD cccccceeeeee sssoService, DiagnosticoService, DiagnosticService, DiagnosticService, Diagnosticoaaa tttggg iiinnnnnnaaService, Diagnosticaiiiiiirrrvvv ga tSSS DService, DiagnosticggService, Diagnostic

nda dda dddddaaa ddanddnnnnnnaaanda daandddandd hanicalech n caMd Mec a calllhanical Mechanicali Mechanical Mechanical Mechanicalicnhecg

Mechg

MMd Md cccccceee aaaaaa lllaa Mechanicalaiiinnnnnnaa MechanicalahhhhhhMM Mechanical MechanicalM aaMMechanicalgService, Diagnostic

MechanicalddandService, Diagnostic

and MechanicalAutobody News March 2012TEXAS • OKLAHOMA • LOUISIANA • NEW MEXICO


NSF International has certifiedPartsChannel Inc. under the NSF Au-tomotive Collision Parts DistributorCertification Program, a program thatcertifies distributors who sell auto-motive collision parts.

The NSF Automotive CollisionParts Distributor Certification Pro-gram requires that distributors havequality management systems in placethat address parts traceability, serviceand quality.

The program helps close the gapin the supply chain between partsmanufacturers and body shops andwas developed in response to theneeds of collision repair shops, insur-ers and ultimately consumers.

PartsChannel Inc., a distributorserving the collision repair industrysince 1985, is one of the first compa-nies to earn this automotive parts dis-tributor certification from NSFInternational.

To earn certification, PartsChan-nel Inc. demonstrated that it has ef-fective records systems and inventorytracking systems to track orders andparts through the supply chain.PartsChannel Inc. also met the fol-lowing criteria as required by the NSFautomotive distributor program:● an ISO 9001-certified quality man-agement system,● a parts traceability and inventorytracking system,

● a defective parts procedure includ-ing a customer part complaintprocess,● the ability to administer a manufac-turer’s recall, and● when necessary, a formal correctiveaction to complaints and an immedi-ate recall plan.

“Launched in July as an exten-sion of NSF International’s Automo-tive Collision Replacement PartsCertification Program, the NSF au-tomotive distributor certificationprogram certifies the ability of dis-tributors, including PartsChannelInc., to meet rigid performance stan-dards including having an effectivesystem to track orders and parts,”

said Bob Frayer, Director of NSFInternational’s Automotive PartsCertification Programs.

“We are honored to be amongthe first in what we see as the mostbeneficial industry-wide program tohelp increase the professional stand-ing of distributors,” said PartsChan-nel Inc. Chief Executive OfficerJohn M. Palumbo. “We feel NSFInternational’s unique program,which continually monitors the strin-gent quality assurance processeswithin any parts distribution opera-tion, will greatly benefit our cus-tomers.”

For more information visit ns-fautomotive.com.

NSF Certifies PartsChannel Under Automotive Collision Parts Distributor Certification Program

The National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration has opened an investi-gation into 2006 and 2007 ChevroletTrailblazers SUVs as well as 2007Toyota RAV4 SUVs and ToyotaCamry sedans for consumer com-plaints of the power windows switcheson the driver’s door melting or burn-ing.

According to NHTSA, therehave been 12 consumer complaintsand other reports from General Mo-tors of the master window switch onthe Chevy Trailblazer melting. Sev-eral of the consumer complaints re-

port the master power windowswitches have led to fires in the dri-ver’s door. The door fires occurredwhile the SUVs were running as wellwhen vehicles were left unintendedand “key off,” according to theNHTSA.

Engineers with the ODI and GMwill investigate the issue further anddetermine if an official recall for 2006and 2007 model year Chevrolet Trail-blazer SUVs is warranted.

Consumers can file a vehiclesafety complaint with the NHTSA’swebsite, www.SaferCar.gov.

NHTSA Investigating Chevy and Toyota Models for Power Windows

According to Consumer Reports,Subaru of America is recalling asmall number of its 2012 SubaruLegacy sedans and 2012 Subaru Out-back wagons due to an airbags issue.According to NHTSA, the cars haveside air bags that might not deployduring a collision and increase therisk of injury to drivers and passen-gers.

NHTSA says around 381 Sub-aru Outback and Legacy vehicleswere manufactured last Decemberwith side air bag components thatcontain the incorrect propellant mix-tures. The improper mixture in the

side curtain air bag initiators mayprevent the safety devices from de-ploying during a collision. Subaruplans on notifying owners of thesevehicles in early April. Owners willbe instructed to bring in their vehi-cles to a local Subaru dealershipwhere mechanics will replace one orboth side curtain air bag initiators,free of charge.

For more information, consumerscan call Subaru’s toll-free customersupport line (800-782-2783) and ref-erence Subaru recall number WVZ-36or visit NHTSA’s safety website:www.SaferCar.gov.

Subaru Recalling 2012 Outback and Legacy Models for Air Bags


During World War II the US used asecret type of language to send andreceive messages, so the enemycouldn’t find out what they were talk-ing about. They enlisted the help ofNavajo and Comanche Native Amer-icans as radio operators. These guysused a combination of their languageand relative terms as a way to dis-guise the real message over unsecuredradio waves during World War II.

Most of the coding was done byusing a native word for each letter ofthe message. Such as, if you weregoing to say the word “ARMY” theywould pick one of the native wordsthat represented a word in Englishwith the first letter “A” and the samefor each letter after that. In otherwords the letter “B” would be sentover the radio waves as, “Toish-Jeh”which means, “barrel” in English.

So the word “ARMY” wouldhave been transmitted something like

this: “Wol-la-chee” (Ant) – “Gah”(rabbit) – “Tsin-tliti” (Match) –“Tsah-as-zih” (Yucca)

Thus the word Army would havebeen spelled out and easily translatedat the other end. A lot of times an en-tire phrase could be stated with oneword, or a word that was often usedhad a selected native word that wasused as a substitute. Then on other oc-casions an English word was thrownin just to confuse the whole thingeven more. It was quite ingenious,and believe it or not, the code wasnever—ever—broken. To quote Gen-eral Howard Connor (while at IwoJima), “Were it not for the Navajos,the Marines would have never takenIwo Jima.”

Trying to sound out those fourNative American words (correctly)and translate it into the actual wordwas easy for these guys. They under-stood it, it’s their language and they

could send/translate and relay an an-swer faster than any machine avail-able back in the day. They truly werecode talkers.

So you might ask where am Igoing with all of this? Well, thinkabout it, doesn’t this sound somethinglike the codes we have with today’scars? It does to me.

I read a code, translate it intoworking data, and solve a problem, allwith a language that isn’t understoodby everyone out there. I guess youcould call me a modern day codetalker.

The big difference is you’ve gotpeople with hand held scanners theybought at a local store or from the in-ternet, and have the ability to “read” acode. Or some of them have been to arepair shop that has bought a scannerand read the codes for them. But, theycan’t break the code. They can’t de-termine what to do with the informa-tion they have in front of them.

Think about it… it’s World WarII, and you’ve just copied down amessage from your secret hiding spoton the side of the hill. You are aboutto relay the message to your superiorofficers. But, you still haven’t a cluewhat that gibberish means. It’s likereading a code on a car these days,and not having a clue what all that in-formation means. That’s where aqualified automotive technician, (akacode talker) is needed.

I have lost count of how manytimes a car has come into my shopwith a customer standing at thecounter. They have already beensomewhere else, and the other shophas given them an invoice with thecodes and the definition written downon it, and more than likely a big“goose egg” in the charge column ofthe invoice. And they still haven’t hadtheir problem resolved.

“Oh I see they didn’t charge youto read the codes… how nice of them(said a little sarcastically I might add).So, you need me to find out what it allmeans right?” I’ll ask.

“Yes, but I won’t need it diag-nosed; that’s already done,” the cus-tomer will tell me.

Of course it’s already diagnosed,and you know what is going to hap-

pen next. I’m going to tell them thereis a charge to trace out the actualproblem and determine the reason forthe fault code. Any tests that areneeded or extra equipment needed todiagnose the problem is all incorpo-rated into the diagnostic fee, which ofcourse ends up with a customer justabout to grab all their paper work andhead out the door. Because, oh youknow what’s coming next, “It should-n’t cost anything to find out what’swrong with my car, because I alreadyhad that done.”

This is when I break into my“code talker” story and inform thecustomer of what the process takes toactually find out what that particularcode means.

“There’s everything from a com-pression check to TSB’s that need tobe considered when it comes to diag-nosing a problem,” I’ll tell them.

Let’s face it, an oscilloscope ain’tcheap, and as far as I know they aren’tgiving away these scanners, not tomention the hand tools, meters, andspecialty equipment you’ll need toperform some of these tests.

I realize that the code informa-tion to them sounds more like “Co-manche” or “Navajo” lingo than itdoes plain English, but then, I’m amodern day code talker. I can read it,I can interpret it, and I can translate itinto English. That’s what I’m herefor.

The next thing to do is make thecustomer aware of the level of so-phistication that is needed to decipherthese coded messages from the car. Itstill amazes me that there are still a lotof people out there who assume re-placing a part will always solve theproblem, and that intensive researchisn’t necessary.

I don’t know about you, but thereare times when I have a car in theshop that looks like it is on life sup-port with the amount of gadgets I’vegot hanging out of the hood or fromunder the dash, and it all started offwith a simple code. (This is one ofthose times a cell phone or a cameracomes in handy and sending a shot ofthe owner’s car to them so they cansee what you’ve had to do to locate

Local: 972-202-2200Fax: 972-202-2195

800 955 53888888888888888880000000000000000-999999995555555555555555-55555555333333338888888888888888800-955-5388Toll Free:

Mon-Fri 7am - 7pm • Sat 8am - 5pm

• Wholesale Collision Specialist• One of the Largest Inventories

in the State• Free Delivery toTX, OK, LA

HYUNDAI PLANO

909 Coit Rd., Plano,TX 75075

Code Talkers: It Takes More Than Reading Codes to Be a Good Automotive Technicianwith Gonzo Weaver

Gonzo’s Toolbox This is a new story by Scott “Gonzo” Weaver as posted on his website, www.gonzostoolbox.com.Gonzo has been serving the Tulsa area at Superior Auto Electric for over 27 years. See his book“Hey Look! I Found The Loose Nut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age.The book is available at amazon.com. Contact Gonzo at [email protected].

See Code Talkers, Page 30


Checker Auto Body in Huntsville, ALis a small, neighborhood shop with abig reputation for quality and cus-tomer service. They like to know theircustomers by first name, and theyoffer pick-up and delivery services,

especially for their older customers,demonstrating their dedication tohelping members of the community.Their website offers a shop “dedicatedto providing the Huntsville, Alabamacommunity quality body repair withthe emphasis on integrity, honesty andvalue.”

The shop was founded in 2007 bySteve Locascio, Bill Goebel andAlan Andriakos when they pur-chased a long-running bodyshop after the owners decidedto retire. Checker Auto Bodyhas since built a reputation forquality repairs, superior cus-tomer service and dedication tothe community. Their websiteis filled with information to as-sist the consumer needing abody repair. For starters, it in-forms customers that they areable to choose the body shopwhere they want to have theirvehicle repaired and do notneed to allow the insurance companyto choose for them.

Checkerautobody.com offers in-formation about how auto body shopswork, what to do at the scene of an ac-cident and how to ensure great cus-tomer service from an auto body shop.They also offer free estimates and ad-vice to consumers who have been inan accident.

Additionally, the website detailsthe specifics of how they determinewhat repairs are necessary and whatthey offer with their collision repairs,frame repairs, automotive painting,auto rebuilding, doors/windows and

fleet body repair services.“Performing repairs to thehighest possible standards,with absolute integrity, whilemeeting demanding timelinesare the founding principles ofthe Checker Auto Body Re-pair business”, according totheir website.

Checker Auto Body is in-volved with repairs for theCity of Huntsville’s Handi-ride and bus depots,Huntsville utilities and theHuntsville city garage. Mean-while, Steve Locascio oftenteaches evening computer

classes at the local community col-lege, while Bill Goebel frequently vol-unteers as a chaperone and driver forthe local Catholic elementary school.The shop is also dedicated to preserv-ing the environment, recycling all ma-terials that are used in their shop.

In discussing current trends in thecollision repair industry, manager BillGoebel notes that a positive trend hasbeen the improvement in the quality

of aftermarket parts and the fact thatparts delivery has become morestreamlined. He is disappointed thatthe industry has not been keeping upwith material inflation.

“It seems that all the price in-creases seen in materials over the lastfive years have been left to the shopowner to absorb; however, on the flipside, DRP involvement has also been

more streamlined and less obtrusive.I think computer knowledge and im-proved communication has helpedthat aspect of our industry,” Goebelsaid.

Additionally, customer expecta-tions are quite high, even for low-cost repairs, while vehicles havebecome increasingly complex. An-other problem is that many manufac-turers are producing vehicles withproprietary SRS and ABS systems,leading to an increased cost for theconsumer. Bill also notesthat few young people areinterested in the auto bodyrepair industry. Noting thatit is extremely rare to see abody technician under theage of forty, he believesshop owners must activelypursue the younger genera-tion coming out of schoolor there will be a huge lackof qualified repair techni-cians in the future of theauto body repair industry.“Skilled labor is going to be verymuch in demand with no bodies tofill it.”

Checker Auto Body employsseven people, including office staff,who specialize in fiberglass, metalfabrication, custom paint and the re-pair of buses and motorhomes. Theshop is 5000 square feet. In additionto thirty to forty body repairs monthly,the shop supplements their revenuethrough their tow truck, storage facil-ity and paintless dent repair. As well,they offer a rebuilding service for to-taled vehicles, and they possess adealer license for wholesaling vehi-cles.

Huntsville, AL’s Checker AutoBody is ASE-Certified and I-Car Cer-

tified, and they are also current withtheir EPA certification. They partici-pate in direct repair programs withAlfa and State Farm Insurance com-panies. Their equipment includes a

Kansas Jack MagnaIII frame machine,Uni-cured infraredpaint booth, rotarylifts, Eagle II dentrepair, RobinairCool-tech A/C ma-chine and Lincoln140 mig welders.Bill also notes thatsmart phones havebecome a huge ad-

vantage during the past five years,providing help in regards to commu-nicating with customers and allowingthe shop to send photos and text in-formation quickly and efficiently.

The shop uses BASF Diamontpaint. They get a large mixture of ve-hicles, new and older models and var-

ious manufacturers. Bill Goebelclaims “paint match will always be achallenge in this industry. The con-sumer does not understand that painthas a definite ‘life’ to it. Today’s vehi-cles can expect about ten years ofpaint life if the vehicle is left outside.We always let the owner know thatthere is going to be a difference inbrand new paint and five, six or eventen-year-old paint. Once they knowthis up front, it is usually not anissue.”

Checker Auto Body Repair, Inc.6235 Mastin Lake Road NWHuntsville, AL 35810256-489-0962www.checkerautobody.com

Checker Auto Body: A Small-Town Shop Offering Big-Time Repairswith Chasidy Rae Sisk

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

Alan Andriakos of Checker Auto Body, a Huntsville, AL,shop that specializes in motorhome repair

Co-Owner Bill Goebel

Tech Josey Corum inside the shop’s paint booth

When I think of a manufacturer whohas had hard times over and over, andhas still survived, the first name on mylist is Chrysler. Of course we know

that Chrysler is back from the brink. Iwould expect these dealers to be hard-ened, efficient and frugal, but I wasn’texpecting to be surprised.

However, I was very pleasantlysurprised to encounter Jerry UlmDodge Chrysler Jeep of Tampa,Florida. This dealer is not only a sur-vivor; they are the largest auto partswholesaler I have ever interviewed.

This is a long term family opera-tion, with roots deep in the commu-nity. Jerry Ulm is the son of the

original owner, and knows parts andservice as well as sales. Rob Bren-neke, the fixed operations manager,has been there for fifteen years. Theirdealership philosophy is total serviceto their customers, and the service de-partment will work on any vehiclestheir customers own. This dealer hasearned the Chrysler Dealer of the Yearaward twice; and probably will again.

This parts department services itscustomers to the tune of about a hun-dred thousand dollars in businessevery day! This is a major operation,requiring forty-five employees in two

buildings, and two managers. Theirlevel of volume requires eighteen driv-ers, six days a week. But that’s not all;they also use an outside delivery serv-ice to take parts to their customers—not just in Florida, but also in Georgia,Alabama, and South Carolina.

I talked to Joe Galbraith, one ofthe two managers at Jerry Ulm. Hetold me that the secret to their successwas in a word: service. This dealerprovides a level of service to their cus-tomer that is amazing! They will pro-vide parts not just for Chrysler, Dodgeand Jeep, but for any vehicle, from anymanufacturer. They want their cus-tomers to have one-stop shopping, andwill pick up and deliver any requiredpart, no matter what it is or where it is.

Countermen use email and ALL-DATA systems to order parts. Theirdrivers will stop at other dealers ontheir way back after deliveries, andpick up orders to be dispatched on the

next run. I have heard of dealers pro-viding this type of service before, butnever on this large of a scale.

Fiat’s ownership of Chrysler hashelped this dealer, too. The new line


A Smart Solution THE CARCOONWORKSTATION

• Simple drive in access provid-ing a completely unique and fullyenclosed working environment.• Patented technology usesa massive 179 square ft. filterarea including Triple Layer PaintArrest filters.• High Volume Low Pressureairflow technology includingairlock access.• Meets the emissionrequirements of 98% captureefficiency. (EPA- RULE 6H)

CSS USA, Inc.Phone: (904) 567-3825

[email protected]

(866) 910-0889

Jerry Ulm Dodge Chrysler Jeep, a Truly Distinctive Florida Dealer

Parts Profileswith Larry Williams

Larry Williams is an innovative parts manager with national awards and over 30 years of experience increating and managing profitable departments. He can be reached for consultation at [email protected] read all his columns go to http://www.autobodynews.com/columnists/williams-larry.html

the cause of that simple code num-ber.)

I’m a modern day mechanic; I’mno grease monkey, nor am I the guywith a scanner who’ll read your codesand give you the definition. I’m theguy who will read the code, define it,and translate it into a solution. Thecars of today are not the car of yes-terday—nor are they the cars of thefuture. I’ve got to take care of what ishere now, and that requires some un-derstanding of the fundamentals oftodays’ cars. But in order to find outwhat that little service light means onyour dash keep in mind…you don’tneed a code reader, you need a codetalker.

of Magneti Marelli parts services allmanufacturers and all vehicles. Thisenables Joe to use his overnight or-dering service and provide almost anypart on a next day basis.

But no matter how good the sup-port might be, the strength of a dealer-ship is the people on the front line, andthe leadership of its managers. Thededication to provide service; and toretain customers is key to their success.

This parts department staff has over150 years of combined experience!The wholesale manager is RobertSpringer, his countermen are JoeLanzetti, Brian Garry, GeorgeMowry, Jay Springer, AaronSpringer, and Eddie Chiovetti. Themanager on the retail side is Joe Gal-braith, and his countermen are JohnPiparo, Scott Brenneke, AdamBren-neke, Joe Scholtz, and Bill Usewick.

Joe talked to me about his coun-termen, their loyalty to their long termcustomers, and the value of their rela-tionships. He describes them as multi-talented, and well-rounded. Theyalways want to do better, and domore. They know how important it isto be honest and up front, in order tomaintain the trust of their customers.

Obviously this dealer is not a secretin the Tampa area, anyone with this kindof volume would be well known. Thiskind of success in the parts aftermarketbusiness, however, is not common. It isthe result of long-term dedication andhard work; and takes years in the mak-ing. I would like to point out to those ofyou in the parts business the value of thewholesale market.

To those of you who have the de-sire, and the determination to be suc-cessful; and to grow your wholesalemarket, there is no limit to the successyou can achieve. Jerry Ulm is an inspi-ration to all dealers. All you need is adesire to provide the best service avail-able, and everything else will follow.

Jerry Ulm Dodge Chrysler Jeepis truly a Distinctive Dealer, and anexample of what hard work and dedi-cation to service can achieve.


WANT EVERYWANT EVERYJOB TO BE AJOB TO BE ABANG-UP JOB?BANG-UP JOB?

WANT EVERYJOB TO BE ABANG-UP JOB?These dealers are Genuine VWParts Wholesale Specialists.

WE WANT TO BE YOUR SOURCE FOR REAL VOLKSWAGEN PARTS.With your skill and our parts, every collision repair will be a bang-up job. And that will addup to more repeat business for both of us. Call your order in today.

CableVolkswagen

OKLAHOMA CITY11--880000--552222--66779933FAX: 405-789-3317

FowlerVolkswagen

NORMAN11--887777--773377--66998866FAX: 405-310-3719

www.fowlervw.com

BoardwalkVolkswagenRICHARDSON

11--880000--777777--99004477FAX: 214-453-5055

www.vwoncentral.com

Texas Oklahoma

Young ChevroletYoung ChevroletYoung ChevroletParts for Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac

• Same day shipping until 5:30 EST• Next-day air until 4:30 EST• 4.2 million inventory

Toll Free: 800-451-0108

Direct: 214-328-8381Fax (main): 214-328-6675

Fax (wholesale): 214-328-0716

Main: 214-328-9111, Opt. 5

Genuine GM Parts at Genuine GM PricesWe want your business!

9301 E. R.L. Thornton Fwy, Dallas, TX

[email protected]

Camaro 2010

• 60,000 part numbers• 13 parts pros eager to serve you• 15 radio-dispatched trucks

• 97,000 square-foot warehouse


Code Talkers

Search:

Autobody Newson Facebook

Erdrich Umformtechnik GmbH, aGerman company that producesmetal automotive parts, has chosen tobuild a metal stamping factory inDublin, GA, the company announcedon January 24.

According to GlobalAtlanta, thecompany plans to invest $39 millionin building this location.

Erdrich is a midsized, family-owned company that has been inbusiness for over 50 years. It cur-rently has two plants in Germany, onein the Czech Republic and one inChina. The company mainly suppliesautomakers from BMW AG to Mer-cedes-Benz.

“The company looked at severalGeorgia communities,” Jim Blair,the department’s director of ForeignDirect Investment, told GlobalAt-lanta. “Laurens County is very strate-gically located from a logisticsperspective, right on I-16 close to theSavannah ports and the transportationhub of metro Atlanta.”

The company plans to create178 jobs and invest $39 million tobuild the 130,000-square-foot metalstamping facility. The business plansto begin construction of the plant ineither May or June.

German Auto Parts StampingPlant to Come to Dublin, GA


Hit a HOME RUN!Hit a HOME RUN!with our Genuine Ford Parts

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

Use Genuine Ford Parts for your customers’ late model Fordvehicles.

You're always guaranteed thatthey will �t right the �rsttime, every time.

Hit One Out of the Park!Hit One Out of the Park!Call your local AuthorizedFord Wholesaler today!

ss

Shelby GT500 2012

Bob Tomes Ford,Lincoln, Mercury

McKINNEY

800-792-1155214-544-5081

214-544-5194 Fax

Casa Ford, LincolnEL PASO

915-490-8437915-775-8259 [email protected]

Champion FordGulf Freeway

HOUSTON

Wholesale Direct800-388-4005713-371-4111

713-371-4101 Faxwww.fordparts.com/champion

Five Star FordNORTH RICHL AND HILLS

Wholesale Direct800-895-7827817-577-2781

817-577-0558 Faxwww.5starford.com

Gene Messer Ford,Mazda, Lincoln,

MercuryAMARILLO

Wholesale Direct806-355-7417

806-352-9604 [email protected]/genemesser

Helfman FordSTAFFORD

800-634-8008281-240-0642 [email protected]

www.fordparts.com/helfman

Joe Myers FordHOUSTON

[email protected]

Kinsel FordBEAUMONT


866-339-7711 Fax

Lone Star FordHOUSTON

800-756-2293281-931-3300

281-931-3378 Faxwww.lonestarford.com

McRee FordDICKINSON

281-337-1529281-534-2009 Fax

[email protected]

North ParkLincoln, Mercury,Subaru, Isuzu

SAN ANTONIO

800-880-8846 Toll210-341-8846 Direct210-341-3904 Fax

www.fordparts.com/northparklm

Russell & SmithFord

HOUSTON

800-392-1983713-663-4222 Direct713-664-0965 Fax

[email protected]

Sewell Ford LincolnODES SA

800-592-4762432-498-0434 Direct432-498-0283 Fax

[email protected]

Tommie VaughnMotorsHOUSTON

800-944-4415713-869-4755

713-293-4309 Faxwww.tommievaughn.com

Waxahachie FordWAXAHACHIE

888-325-4947972-825-4578 Direct972-825-4576 [email protected]

Bob Moore FordOKL AHOMA CITY

877-831-4183405-246-2393

405-246-2348 [email protected]

United Ford PDCTULSA


800-676-8509 [email protected]/unitedford

www.unitedford.com

These dealers are Genuine Ford Parts wholesale specialists.TEXAS

OKLAHOMA

Lamarque FordKENNER

800-259-2881504-443-2500

504-712-5053 [email protected]

OKLAHOMA

Make us your one-stop shop today!

LOUISIANA

component part that is claimed in suchdesign patent if the purpose of such ar-ticle of manufacture is for the repair ofa motor vehicle so as to restore suchvehicle to its appearance as originallymanufactured; and after the expirationof a period of 30 months beginning onthe first day on which any such com-ponent part is first offered to the publicfor sale as part of a motor vehicle inany country, it shall not be an act of in-fringement of such design patent to useor sell within the United States any ar-ticle of manufacture that is similar orthe same in appearance to the compo-nent part that is claimed in such designpatent if the purpose of such article ofmanufacture is for the repair of a motorvehicle so as to restore such vehicle toits appearance as originally manufac-tured.”

“Competition is the hallmark ofour free market system,” Issa said.“Consumers have dozens of choices inelectronics, food, service, clothing andother products – this same array ofchoices, across all price points, should

also extend to automotive repair parts.”Major aftermarket distributors and

the Quality Parts Coalition have avested interest in being able to manu-facture and import aftermarket parts,however collision repairers in generalshould be leary of increasing the con-troversy over the quality of replace-ment parts specified on insuranceestimates. Proponents of the bill notethat car manufacturers currently con-trol 72 percent of the repair parts mar-ket and have been steadily increasingthe use of design patents. Competitionis reduced and consumers end up pay-ing more than necessary for parts theysay. Because of these elevated costs, in-surers will sometimes consider vehi-cles totals instead of paying for repairs.The result is that consumers are forcedto replace a repairable vehicle with adifferent car, an expense the QPC ar-gues can be avoided if the PARTS Actbecomes law.

The bill has also received the sup-port of the American Insurance Asso-ciation a property-casualty insurancetrade organization that representsnearly 300 insurers. Noted MelissaShelk, AIA vice president for federalaffairs, “Consumers deserve access to

high-quality alternative replacementparts. Increased competition means de-creased prices and greater choice forconsumers.”

The AIA says that “quality” re-placement parts for such collision partsincluding bumpers, fenders and hoodscan cost consumers approximately 26to 50 percent less. Insurance savingscan be realized when consumerschoose these alternative parts, but onlyif such parts are available. Shelk saysthat consumers pay an extra $1.5 bil-lion annually because of the currentpatent restrictions on replacement col-lision parts.

Not surprisingly, OEMs opposethis limitation on their design patents.In the past, groups opposing similarlegislation have said that “copycat”parts are harmful to OEMs and con-sumers alike.

At a March 16, 2010 hearing infront of the House Judiciary commit-tee, Damian Porcari, attorney and di-rector, Enforcement and Licensing,Ford Global Technologies, said, “Thecopyists want to eliminate designpatent protection because that’s whatthey make. As soon as their businessmodel includes engines, brakes and air

bags, we will likely hear the call for theelimination of patent protection on alltypes of replacement parts. And itwon’t stop with cars. The denial of in-tellectual property rights will alwaysreduce copiers’ costs.”

See Autobodynews.com for fulltext of Porciari’s 2010 testimony.


Your Source for Wholesale Volvo Parts

Right Part. Right Price.Right Now.

Trust your order to the collision parts specialists at these fine Dealers

volvo Genuine parts

Texas

Volvo of DallasDALLAS

800-498-7402972-963-9750

972-963-9749 Fax


PARTS Bill

The Society of Collision RepairSpecialists (SCRS) is offering colli-sion repairers its 2012 First QuarterDigital E-Catalog. It includes infor-mation regarding SCRS memberbenefits and information about someof the services repairers can accessat a discount as a member of SCRS.

“It is our hope that you willfind this material to be valuable andrelevant by providing you with in-formation on products and servicesavailable to SCRS members,” saidAaron Schulenburg, SCRS execu-tive director. “If you are a repair fa-cility, we encourage you to sharethis with your friends and col-leagues; if you are with an associa-tion, please pass it along to yourmembership.”

Repairers can access the direc-tory at http://www.zmags.com.

SCRS Offers Repairers DigitalMember Services E-catalog


SHOP & PRODUCTSHOP & PRODUCT SHOWCASE SHOWCASE

When you’re painting a substantialnumber of luxury cars every month ineight locations and many of them aretop-name brands such as Bentley,Jaguar, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin, you need touse the finest equipment and prod-ucts available. By working with thebest companies, hiring the best peo-ple and committing to best practices,Global Collision in Colorado is veryhappy with Garmat USA, a leadingmanufacturer of ecologically respon-sible, competitively priced, and codecompliant paint booths, paint mixingrooms and vehicle prep areas.

Global Collision’s Chief FinancialOfficer Tim Bator respects the Gar-mat booths for their reliability, versa-tility and easy maintainability, he toldAutobody News.

“We’ve established a great relation-ship with Garmat over the years. Wehave their downdraft booths and theirregular paint spray booths in all of ourlocations. In the past eight years, we’vepurchased a total of 16, so we’re obvi-ously committed to Garmat and appre-ciate their quality, service and support.”

The 3000 Series spray boothsthat Global Collision uses are Gar-mat’s top-of-the-line downdraft spraybooths. “We wanted superior airflowand the best lighting we could find.With ten foot-wide doors and a 27foot cabin, it’s easy to get even largecars in and out of the booth.”

Being proactive about maintain-ing and regularly servicing his Garmatequipment is a big endeavor with somany locations, but Bator knows theimportance of doing it right. “You’vegot to take care of your paint booths,just like you do with your car. We per-form our scheduled maintenance onall our paint spray booths on amonthly basis, to ensure the longevityof the equipment. We expect 20-25years of service out of these Garmatpaint spray booths, so it’s a big in-vestment and we want to protect it.”

Bator appreciates the fact thatwhen he has issues or questions withhis Garmat paint spray booths, he cancall directly on the manufacturer lo-cated in Englewood, Colorado to at-tain easy fast answers. “They’ve beenwith us from the beginning and they’vebeen very supportive in getting thepaint spray booths up and running andworking properly. When we ask themfor something, they step up and get itdone for us. You can’t really ask any-thing more from a vendor.”

Early in 2008 Global Collisionmade the decision to convert to wa-terborne paint after much thought and

consideration, George Lilley said.“This decision was not made lightlynor with great haste. The major con-cern to the environment is from theVOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)which include the kind of solvents thatare used in conventional paints.These solvents escape into the airthus contributing to air pollution.”

The switchover to waterborne hasbeen a big hit among Global’spainters. Bator explained, “We usedthe solvent for so many years becauseit was the industry standard. Weswitched for the environment and twomonths later we asked our painterswhat they thought. ‘We’re not evergoing back to solvent—we love thewaterborne!’ they told us. They werequickly up and running with the water-borne and the Garmat paint spraybooths have worked perfectly since.”

Global Collision prides itself onusing an internationally accepted wa-terborne paint system that adheres tothe strict environmental guidelines ofthe European Union and officially ap-proved by numerous automotive man-ufacturers. All eight shops are fullyadept at precisely mixing approximately23,000 solid, metallic, and pearlescentcolors while accurately matching allmajor current and classic vehicle colors.

Established more than 10 yearsago, Global Collision has grown rap-idly since George Lilley started thecompany in 2003. With an extensivecareer in the collision repair industry,he founded Lilley Group-UK, andworked with the Haggie Group inScotland, and the Royal AutomobileClub of Victoria to Australia, to es-tablish multiple shops.

One of Lilley’s signature creationsis his Flow Line production system,

which he used with great success in theUnited Kingdom and central Europebefore bringing it to Colorado. “The ef-ficiency of the shop is maximized withthe Flow Line system, because all ofthe space in the shop is utilized com-pletely,” Bator said. “This way we don’tneed a 40,000 square-foot body shopto produce what we’re currently doing.With the paint booths in the middle ofthe shop, it allows us to push more carsthrough the system, which gives us bet-ter cycle times and makes us more at-tractive to our insurance partners.”

“When I first came to America, Iperformed market research on thelocal repair industry and identified aconsiderable difference between thelevel of customer care; types ofequipment, training and technologybeing used here compared to Eu-rope,” Lilley said. “My goal was togain a greater understanding of theAmerican procedures and mentalityand combine the knowledge with Eu-ropean standards. I am pleased tosay that I have experienced a mag-nificent response from my Americancolleagues, and together we worksuccessfully as a team to provide thevery best the collision repair industryhas to offer from around the world.”

Above all, Bator explained, thekey factor to the system’s success isthe seamless, limited movement ofeach vehicle. “Strict quality controlprocedures are in place to ensurethat each stage of the repair processis documented and accounted for. Asa result of the Flow Line concept, ve-hicles are repaired more rapidly thanthe industry’s average downtime,providing customers with a more ef-ficient, timely repair without compro-mising quality.”

Operations Manager Tim Bator (left) and PainterDave Behlow of Global Collision. “In the pasteight years we have purchased a total of 16Garmat Spray Booths, so we’re obviouslycommitted to Garmat and appreciate theirquality, service and support.”

Global Collision8 locations in Colorado

Telephone: 303-442-2047www.globalcollision.com

Garmat USAPhone: (800) 442-7628email: [email protected]: www.garmat.com

Operations Manager Tim Bator. “When we ask (Garmat) for something, they step up and get it donefor us. You can’t really ask anything more from a vendor.”

Global Collision Uses Garmat USA Paint SprayBooths in All 8 Locations

Jake Shaw, Body Shop Manager (right) withpainter Anthony Romero in front of Garmat USA3000 Paint Spray Booth. Anthony says “Hereally likes painting in Garmat Paint Booths.”

by Ed Attanasio

Prestige Auto Body in Garwood, NJalways strives for excellence in theirrepairs and customer service. OwnerSam Mikhail’s efforts were recentlybrought to light when he was inductedinto the AASP/NJ’s Hall of Fame inNovember, 2011.

About this, Mr. Mikhail states “Itwas a surprise to me. I’ve been on theboard for a long time, but I am a mi-nority shop when it comes to DRPs.I’ve been active and vocal when it

came to DRPs and steering so I knowI am not the most popular guy amongthe DRP shop owners, so for me to getthe award never came across mymind. I appreciate the honor and thepeople that nominated me. I know thatmy effort and hard work did not gounnoticed.”

He is also happy with the fact thatseveral local newspapers publishedthe story where consumers can seethat he practices what he preaches.Sam Mikhail attends the AASP/NJtradeshow every year because he feelsit offers great information about theindustry.

As a veteran in the auto body in-dustry, Sam Mikhail sees many nega-tive trends occurring lately. Becauseshops are being squeezed by insurersresulting in a lot of shortcuts and theuse of inferior parts and materials, badrepairs are predominant in the indus-try. Many insurers overlook proce-

dures that need to be done, changingor altering data to fit their needs. Be-cause of this, he believes many exist-ing shops will go out of business.

New Jersey has seen a decreasefrom 1700 to around 1200 shops in thepast four to five years. Mr. Mikhailbelieves this is due to the need for up-

dated, high-priced equipment as wellas the conversion to waterborne paintand changes in car designs. Combinedwith depressed labor rates and under-payment for materials, this will make

it difficult for a lot of small to mediumshops to stay in business.

Mr. Mikhail also notes that littlenew blood is coming into this trade.Most young people are going intoother industries where they will bebetter compensated for their labor,leaving the auto body industry with anaging population. He believes insur-ance companies are driving this trendbecause they are looking to lowershort-term costs without worryingabout how this will affect the future ofthe industry.

Prestige Auto Body does not par-ticipate in any direct repair programs,and Mr. Mikhail has no plans to do soin the future either. He is very outspo-ken about his concerns with the waydirect repair programs dictate the ma-terials used and result in lower qualityrepairs. Prestige Auto Body works forthe consumers, not the insurance com-


O K L A H O M A

Mercedes-Benz of Oklahoma CityNationwide Toll Free

1-800-657-2582(405) 272-1737 FAX

Drop Ship Available

WHOLESALE COLLISION PARTSWHOLESALE COLLISION PARTS

Quali!edMercedes-Benz

Parts Prosare available now.

Pictured:2006

SL600Roadster

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.

Ingram Park Mazda6980 NW Loop 410San Antonio

800-580-7278Direct 210-681-6018Fax 210-543-0739

Kinsel MazdaBeaumont

800-454-6735Fax 409-923-5856

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

TEXAS

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

Mazda 3 ‘11

Prestige Auto Body in NJ—A Non-DRP Thriving in a DRP World

with Rick WhiteShop Management

with Stefan GesterkampPaint Management

with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox

with Richard ArnoldJobber Journal

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 Ed AttanasioCustom Corner

with Chasidy Rae SiskCompany Connections

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News

with Chasidy Rae SiskShop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Snapshot

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

(l to r): Bruce, Selvio, Frank, Sam, Chris,Morisio and Bill Prestige Auto Body owner Sam Mikhail

See Prestige Auto Body, Page 38



(214) 778-2814(214) 778-2814Fax:Fax:(800) 865-4269(800) 865-4269

Habla EspañolHabla Español

Mitch MitchellSandy PriesmeyerJavier Perez

Mitch MitchellSandy PriesmeyerJavier Perez

6800 Dallas Pkwy., Plano, TX 75024www.classicbmw.com

Monday - Friday 7am - 7pm / No Deliveries on Saturday

Classic BMW

Classic BMW

www.classicbmw.com800-865-4269

Call us for all your parts needs

Original BMW Parts & Accessories

Our parts team has 350+ years ofcollective experience with 200+of those BMW specific

We’re the Only BMW Dealer toreceive two shipments daily toboth an authorized and certifiedcollision repair center

We stock almost $2 million dollarsworth of Original BMW Parts

In a letter to State Farm CEO EdwardRust Jr., Don Harvey, of InternationalCollision Service in Englewood, NJ,questions why State Farm does notacknowledge cost accounting pro-grams and practices in setting paintallowance rates.

Harvey has previously contactedsenior State Farm management to noavail. His letter follows:

Feb 15, 2012

State Farm Insurance Co.Mr. Edward B. Rust Jr.One State Farm PlazaBloomington, IL 61710

Dear Mr. Rust,

Please take a moment to look at anissue regarding customer satisfactionand a “Good Neighbor” responsiblecommitment to proper repairs.

Paint material has been an issueoften questioned and not properly ac-knowledged.

Several years ago the Depart-ment [of Banking and] Insurance

Commissioner Steven M. Goldmanissued a Bulletin #07-20 (copy en-closed for your review) encouraginginsurers to utilize paint cost account-ing software programs and manuals.Just after the issuance of this bulletin,State Farm (Northern NJ) changedtheir paint calculation from a multi-plier of $23.00 per paint hour to$28.00 per paint hour. That was No-vember 2007. Since that time, as weall know, all oil-derived productprices have dramatically increased,however State Farm has not acknowl-edged (NJ office: Mr. CharlieHolmes) any legitimate paint costprograms or software, holding [in-stead] to their antiquated $28.00 perhour calculation with no deviation.

Automotive paints used ontoday’s advanced vehicles requiremany different tints to achieve thelook and appearance duplicating theoriginal finish. Therefore all pricingcannot be properly and FAIRLY de-termined by one multiplier, this iswhy the paint cost accounting soft-ware programs are so important:FAIRLY compensating the repairer

for materials used on the specific ve-hicle (color) being repaired.

Mr. Holmes has repeatedly statedthat State Farm holds true to their sur-vey studies. What is interesting aboutthat is twofold:

1) State Farm (northern NJ) has-n’t sent anyone out to survey theshops in many, many years, leaving itto the shops to call State Farm and getan authorization # before being ableto even get to the survey.

2) I find it interesting that if StateFarm only uses their survey to changerates and materials, why after a shorttime and no apparent survey, did themultiplier change in late 2007 afterthe Bulletin issued by the State ofNew Jersey, from $23.00 per hour tothe current rate of $28.00 per hour?

Most insurance companies areacknowledging the cost accountingsoftware programs plus a mark-up asthe programs use an average COST tothe repair from the suppliers.

In closing I hope that you will re-view this letter and change the wayState Farm, NJ, is conducting busi-ness and [have] The Good Neighbor

do the right thing, properly and fairlyreturning vehicles to pre-accidentcondition.

Respectfully,

Don W. HarveyInternational Collision ServiceEnglewood, NJ, 07631

(Copy of Mitchell Refinishing Calcu-lator Notes enclosed for your review.)

To see additional attachments: NJDOI Bullentin #07-20 and theMitchell Refinishing CalculatorNotes, search the article title at auto-bodynews.com.

If you have any relevant infor-mation submit it to Don Harvey [email protected], or write:

Don W. Harveyinternational collision service328 South Van Brunt St.Englewood, NJ 07631

Phone: 201.567.2124Fax: 201.567.6644

NJ Shop Questions State Farm’s Denial of Cost Accounting Based Paint Allowances


LOUISIANAKia of Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge5740 Siegen Lane

(225) 490-8000(225) 490-8014 Fax

OKLAHOMAFerguson Advantage

ImportsBroken Arrow

800-880-8815(918) 317-6280 Fax

Open M-F 7:00am - 6:00pm

TEXASArcher Kia

Houston1-888-983-1425(281) 983-1437 Fax

Capitol Kia13573 North US Hwy 183

Austin(512) 583-1900(512) 583-1899 Fax7:30am - 6:00pm M-F

Central KiaIrving

(972) 257-7602(972) 257-7650 Fax

M-F 7:30-7:00, Sat 8:00-5:00

Central KiaPlano

(972) 422-9320(972) 633-5761 FaxM-F 7:30am - 7:00pmSat 8:00am - 5:00pm

De Montrond KiaHouston

Wats 1-800-392-6704(281) 872-3909

(281) 872-3914 Fax

Fredy KiaHouston

Toll Free 800-883-1933Direct (713) 941-3600(713) 947-8053 Fax7:00am - 6:00pm M-F

7:00am - 12:00 Noon SatFree local delivery Free DSI shipping

Gene Messer KiaLubbock

888-786-8128(806) 785-2238 Fax

M-F 7:00-7:00, Sat 8:00-6:[email protected]

Huffines Kia DentonDenton

940-321-2504(940) 497-2920 Fax

M-F 7:00-7:00, Sat 8:00-5:00Local Delivery Available

www.Huffines.net

Huffines Kia McKinneyMcKinney

469-525-4450(469) 525-4459 Fax

M-F 7:00-7:00, Sat 8:00-5:00Local Delivery Available

www.Huffines.net

Moritz KiaHurst

(877) 651-4542(817) 595-8325 Fax

Southwest Kia39650 LBJ Freeway South

DallasToll Free 888-544-9249

Direct (972) 616-0069(972) 421-0294 Fax

M-F 7:30-6:00, Sat 8:30-5:00

panies, and their “number one concernis to restore cars to its pre-loss condi-tion as close as humanly possible.”

In May 1979, Mikhail openedPrestige in Garwood. He had owned a

franchised auto body shop for abouteighteen months in Roselle in a diffi-cult to locate area. The shop in Gar-wood was originally owned by a manwho charged $300 for nearly everyjob, and when he left the area, leavingthe bank with an unpaid $80,000 loan,the landlord bought the shop from thebank. Mikhail took the shop over from

the landlord, cleaned the shop, re-placed the old paint booth and added aframe machine. It took two years forpeople to really return to the shopsince many consumers were afraidthat the old owner was still in chargeof the shop, leaving Sam with a strug-gle to rebuild his reputation.

In order to do so, he wrote a de-tailed estimate on every car even if heknew he would not get the job, ex-plaining to the customer what neededto be done to get the job right. He re-fused to take any shortcuts and gaveevery car the same amount of care, re-gardless of age, model or value. Anycustomer problems were addressedpromptly; “we always gave the cus-tomer more than they paid for.” Pres-tige now has an excellent reputation inthe Garwood NJ community for supe-rior repairs and customer service.

This Garwood, NJ shop usesSpies Hecker paints on a mixture ofnew and older model cars. Mikhailnotes that many of the older cars endup being totaled, but if these same carsare sent to DRP shops, they will be re-paired many times until the cost ex-ceeds the car’s value, leavingcustomers with nothing more than

junk. When asked whether he has anycolor matching problems with SpiesHecker, Sam Mikhail insists “there isno such thing as a problem in colormatch; if you try hard enough, you canmatch any color.”

Prestige Auto Body boasts a11,000 square foot shop and six tech-nicians. The shop is complete with

two downdraft spray booths, two E-ZLiner frame machines, one ChiefGoliath frame machine and two Gen-esis Electronic Measuring systems.Additionally, the shop utilizes twoPro-Spot welders, three mig welders,one Hunter wheel alignment machine,a stationary lift, a portable lift and aflatbed. This shop repairs between fif-

teen and twenty vehicles each month,and additional revenue comes fromDV appraisals and offering an expertwitness service for local attorneys andconsumers. The shop also offers Di-minished Value Assessments. Thetechnicians and estimators at PrestigeAuto Body are ASE Certified, and theshop is I-CAR Certified.

Besides his involvement withAASP/NJ, Sam Mikhail was also thefirst president of the Garwood Cham-ber of Commerce and is currently thetreasurer. Prestige is also a member, aswell as the founder, of the GoldcarCollision Repair Network. Out of con-cern for the environment, PrestigeAuto Body is currently under contractto convert to solar power in the shop.

Prestige Auto Body7 South AvenueGarwood, NJ 07027908-789-2020www.goldcar.com/prestige


Recycled Parts Sourcingfor the Repair Shop

To learn more, call 1-888-828-0014 or visit www.realparts.com

Try RealParts.comNOW for FREE

Quick and EasySolicit live Internet parts quotesdirect from your choice of recycledparts vendors in accordance withyour guidelines and expectations. “RealParts.com is more

than just a parts locator.It’s also a productivityand cycle time tool!There are no multiplephone calls.Part searches arebroadcast direct viathe Internet to ourchosen vendor network.Recyclers respond liveknowing who we areand what we expect”

Richard FishFix Auto

Oceanside and Tustin, CA

No limitations• Any part• Any year, make & model• Collision or mechanical

No hassles• Your rules• Your vendors• Your program

No hold-ups• No questionable database information• No multiple phone calls• No busy signals• No hold time• No promised call backs

GM PARTS? You’re in good hands.You’re in good hands

ChevylandChevylandChevylandChevylandChevylandChevyland

gg yy nnnLLaarrggeesstt IInnvveennttoorryy iinnLLargestt IInventtory iinTTTrrriii-SSStttaaattteee AAArrreeeaaa!!!

Largest Inventory inTri-State Area!

Y

LLLLLargest Inventory inLLLLargest Inventory inLGift CertificateGift CertificateGift Certificatewith powertrain purchase.

Call for details.

We deliver to TX, OK and LA.

NEED

800-551-8189 (318) 425-3417 - (318) 425-1705 Fax

Bud Nelson — Customer Relations RepresentativeSkeeter Raney — Customer Relations Representative

7500 Youree Dr.,Shreveport, LA 71037

www.chevyland.com

Aftermarket Price MatchOrder in by 5pm, Arrives Next Day7:00am - 6:00pm M-F

Online Parts Look-upsJeral Lawler, Parts Mgr.We price match! Call for quote.


Prestige Auto Body

Prestige Auto Body is located in Garwood, NJ,on South Avenue Spray booths on the shop floor at Prestige

[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:

www.autobodynews.com

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 Newsletter



e-mail:[email protected]

800-699-8251

To advertisecall Advertising Sales at:



800-699-8251

To advertisecall Sean Hartman at:



www.russellsmith.com

713-663-4222713-664-0965

800-392-1983

Parts Direct

FaxToll Free

1107 S. Loop W.Houston,TX 77054

HOURS:Mon. - Fri.:7am - 6pm

Sat.:8am - 4pm

• Over 5 million in stock Ford Parts• Experienced personnel ready to take your call• Same day delivery in Houston and surrounding area through RLS• Free overnight delivery to most cities in Texas and Louisiana

FORDRUSSELL&SMITH

www.russellsmith.com

713-363-2218713-363-2219800-392-1983

PartsDirect

Toll Free

3440 S. Loop W.Houston,TX 77225

HOURS:Mon. - Fri.:7am - 6pm

Sat.:8am - 4pm

• $250,000 in stock Mazda Parts• Experienced personnel ready to take your call• Same day delivery in Houston and surrounding area through RLS• Free overnight delivery to most cities in Texas and Louisiana

MAZDARUSSELL&SMITH

GM is Back on Top As theWorld Number One General Motors said it is once againthe world’s largest automaker withglobal sales of 9.03 million vehiclesfor a record $7.6 billion in 2011. That’s11% higher than Volkswagen. In 2011,Volkswagen took second place withrecord global sales of 8.16 million, up14 percent from the year before. But, itseems GM included sales by affiliatesand VW did not. Toyota finishedfourth in 2011 with 7.9 million vehi-cles sold. Toyota said in December thatit plans to sell 8.48 million vehicles in2012.

Chrysler Reports First FullYear Profit Since CrisisChrysler Group LLC reported a net profitof $183 million for 2011, swinging backinto the black from a loss of $652 millionin 2010. Higher sales of Jeeps and othernew vehicles propelled Chrysler to itsfirst annual net income since 1997, cap-ping a pivotal turnaround that manythought would never happen. Chrysler’sU.S. sales increase of 44 percent lastmonth surpassed eight analysts’ averageestimate for a 32 percent sales gain. Thecompany’s free cash flow was $1.9 bil-lion last year, and has forecast a $1 bil-lion free cash flow for 2012.

Chrysler Recalls Police CarsChrysler Group LLC recalled nearly10,000 Dodge Charger police vehiclesbuilt last year due to overheating issuesthat may lead to headlamp and brake fail-ure. The recall affects 9,688 Chargers forthe 2011 and 2012 model years. Theproblems could lead to a loss of visibilityor braking ability, increasing the risk of acrash, according to a NHTSA posting. Insome police cars, the low beam headlightsmay fail because of an overheated bulbharness connector. In other vehicles, theantilock brake and electronic stability sys-tem may stop working due to an over-heated power distribution center.

RM Auctions were among six majorclassic and collector car auctions inArizona in January. Like the rest of thecar industry, collector cars are comingback. RM Auctions held its 2012 saleJanuary 19-20 at the Arizona BiltmoreResort in Phoenix, resulting in $25.6million in sales and a 90% sell-throughrate. Their top seller was a 1957 Ferrari410 Superamerica Scaglietti Coupe atover $1.8 million. Also a 1973 Ferrari365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder for$990,000, and a 1959 BMW 507 Road-ster for $990,000.

For years, Toyota, Ford, and Hondahave been the top names in ConsumerReports’ annual Car-Brand PerceptionSurvey. They are still at the top, but theyhave seen double-digit drops in theirscores. That has narrowed the gap be-tween the top names and other brands.Only two points behind Honda this yearwas Chevrolet, followed by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, Cadillac, Lexusand newcomer Tesla. “Dramatic eventsin the automotive industry seem to beaffecting how consumers view autobrands,” said deputy editor Jeff Bartlett.

Kelley Blue Book announced Feb. 14that president Paul Johnson has resignedfrom his position effective immediately.Taking on the role as president for KBBwill be AutoTrader.com vice presidentJared Rowe. Rowe is currently vice pres-ident of product management for Auto-Trader.com in Atlanta, Ga. Rowe’s newrole is effective immediately. KelleyBlue Book was acquired by Auto-Trader.com in October 2010. Rowe alsoheld positions at Autobytel in businessdevelopment and at Central AtlanticToyota Distributors as a service and partsmanager.

DuPont has launched the process to sellits automotive paint unit, according tothe Reuters news agency. DuPont is ac-cepting bids for its automotive paint di-vision. The report listed several privateequity firms as being interested. It alsoclaimed that Credit Suisse Group, serv-ing as advisers, distributed informationmaterial among possible suitors. Thebusiness unit could garner more than $4billion. It was reported in October thatDuPont had thought about such a sale,but the latest is that the company hasstarted taking bids. DuPont said it doesnot comment on rumors or speculation.

Phoenix Auctions ShowCollector Cars’ Comeback

Consumer Reports SaysBrand Perception Narrows

DuPont Paint Unit BiddingKBB Gets New PresidentNHTSA says 36,608 2012 Nissan Ver-sas failed to comply with the require-ments of federal motor vehicle safetystandard No. 114 titled “Theft Protec-tion.” NHTSA discovered that due to in-terference between the shifter rod andthe shift knob, the vehicles may beshifted out of the park position withoutdepressing the brake pedal. The agencyfears the operator can inadvertently shiftthe vehicle into gear without the brakepedal being depressed, increasing therisk of a crash or injury to a nearbypedestrian. Nissan told NHTSA it plansto begin notifying owners.

Nissan Recalls 2012 Versa


I was out at Barrett-Jacksonin Phoenix last month witha good buddy of mine, AlanTaylor, from EntertainmentRadio. I wrote about Alanin last month’s column (au-tobodynews.com/colum-nists/rich-evans.html incase you missed it) but thatwas about SEMA 2011. InPhoenix at the Barrett-Jack-son auctions Alan put together some-thing called A World of DIY (as in ‘Doit Yourself’).

Alan reached out to me and askedme to come there and show off sometools and demonstrate building a car. Isaid ‘yes’ without hesitation, “I’ll packup some tools and drive out there andsee what you guys have put together.”

He told me “we’ve got a12,000 square-foot DIYpavilion” inside a tent andwe’re going to have aproject car there. It does-n’t matter to me what carI’m working on becauseregardless I’m going to tryto do something cool withit. When I found out it wasan 1972 El Camino I sug-

gested a toned-down concept. Some-thing clean, more modern. You know,simplify the car and give it that oldschool look, a couple of rally stripesand choose a great color, add somerims, and we’ve got a car that bringsback that 70s feel and some muscle.

I put a concept together, sent itoff to Alan, and he’s got feedback

right away. “Dude, can you put thisblue color on?”, including a paintphoto. We collaborated on a conceptand a design. I like working this waybecause when I get there everybody’snot going to ask me whatI’m building (becausethey’ll already have seen theconcept.) I don’t like havingto sound like a brokenrecord answering the samequestion over and over andover.

So for the week outthere at Barrett-Jacksonwe’ve got participation fromCraftsman, Chevrolet in thetent with us, we’ve got E-bay Motorswith the modJOBS 2012 Mustang wedid last month and I’ve got my Solu-tion Finish. So this is a good chancefor me to get out there, build a car,show off some new tools, some newproducts and connect with the public

and the garage builders. I didn’t knowwhat to expect for a tool supply forDIY builders so I brought as much asI could cram in my truck and decide tofigure it out from there. When we get

there and see the El Camino I’m think-ing in my head, you know I’ve builtcars on TV in 72 hours in front of mil-lions of people, that’s already beendone (Car Warriors). This event willbe live, which is cool but I tell Alan “Iwant to shoot from the hip and see if I

Barrett-Jackson DIY Event Draws Fans and Future Body Techs

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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

Poster


can connect a little bit more with theend user and the garage builders byhaving the public work on the car.”

3M gave us some products whichis great because here’s a chance to putproduct in people’s hands who haven’tused it before. Craftsman’s also gottheir tools and equipment there. I’mthinking “what’s better?: someonewatching me use their tools or puttingtheir tools in a potential consumer’shands?” It just makes it that much morereal. A lot of people will never knowthey can or can’t do it if they don’t try.So I’m going to bring some process outhere and guide people through takingthe car apart, stripping the car down,modifying it, pulling dents, even weld-ing for beginners. I’ve got 8-year-oldgirls and boys that came up, got theirhands on a welder for the first time. Ofcourse I gave them safety equipment—which is also a great learning opportu-nity for them—and helped them do thejob. So they walked in the tent notknowing they were going to weld orpull a dent and they walk out knowingsomething about how to weld and pulla dent. The look on their faces was‘how cool is that’?

It really took me back to when Iwas young and somebody introducedsomething new to me. Exposure tonew processes is so important in ourbusiness. There are all kinds of waysto build a car and hundreds of differ-ent processes, but to learn from expe-rienced builders the process ofgrinding and feathering and strippingthe car down manually is invaluablefor someone who’s new to everything.Not just newbies but also connectingwith the garage builders. The messageto them: If you don’t have it, use whatyou have because you don’t have tohave all that expensive equipment tobuild a car.

Back to the event: The news cov-erage was over 45 minutes broadcast,with 10 minutes on Channel 3 live,and then they did a 6 minute piece atnight and then we did Channel 12, 5,CNN. If you search ‘Barrett-JacksonDIY Rich Evans’ on Youtube, you canwatch a 2-minute piece that they puttogether. If you go to DIYlive.tv,we’ve got many segments on there. Ifyou click through that site you can seeall the people that participated. Crafts-man, GM, 3M, Solution Finish, wehad new types of nail guns available,we had a panel bonding product outthere from 3M, different types ofsandpaper, Bondo™, the dynamicmixing system, all sorts of products.

We had a group of Wyotech guysout there. WyoTech provides studentswith repair training in automotivetechnology, autobody, diesel, HVAC,chassis fabrication and high perform-ance engines, street rod and custombuilds. John and his crew—therewere about five people from Wyotechthere—were all heavily involved withthe project.

Equipment was a factor. We onlyhad one air hose and one welder so wecould only go so fast, which was ac-tually good. We could control and

make sure everybody’s getting taughtand stay safe. The whole concept ofDIY at the show was a hit. I heardBarrett-Jackson’s head count throughthe door was 27% more than anyother year. So they set records.

The news coverage and the bighype about ‘hey come on out, get yourhands dirty, help build this car.’ Thecar really was being built by the pub-lic and everybody there was invited toget involved. Everybody who came bytouched or fixed a dent or welded ahole, or pulled a part off or sanded onit. They’re part of this build. It wasgreat to see them all building the car,not just me.

These photos tell the story too butto best appreciate this whole idea thatAlan made happen, you have to govisit DIYlive.tv to see video of every-one that was involved with this build.It was so successful we’re going to bedoing more of these. I’ll let you guysknow more about it, or just follow uson DIYlive.tv.

You can also go to richevansde-signs.com or huntingtonbeachbody-works.com. Also, go to solutionfinish.comor watch our video on Youtube by search-ing ‘Solution Finish Rich Evans.’

The types of projects I’m doingthis year are really connecting with theend-users and trying to bring myworld to their world. It’s just so re-warding to see an 85-year-old woman

pulling dents, or an older dentistjumping in and working on the car.Also, they’re able to go home and takethe techniques and steps that I taughtthem and actually be able to work ontheir own car. So with all that said, an-other great project, you’re going tohear more about it, we’re going tocontinue to tour this car to the nexttwo or three Barrett-Jackson shows. Idon’t have details on those yet butwe’ll definitely be in Orange Countyand Las Vegas. So if you guys get achance stop into the DIY PavilionCraftsman Experience and check usout on the road.

We’re going to be taking thiscar—stripping it down, cutting theroof off of it, painting it, cutting rustoff of it, dropping an LS9 motor in itthat Chevy has donated (the LS9 cratemotor costs about the same as a base2010 Ford Mustang) and Steel Rubberdonated the rubbers for the car. 3M do-nated the product for the car. Crafts-man provided the tools for the vehicle.We’ve got Woodward Fabricationteaming up with us along with a wholeother list of sponsors and equipment soit’s going to allow us to really travelaround and let people get involved andconnect with more garage builders. SoI’m really pumped up about this. I’mworking on a new TV show so staytuned. Go to Rich Evans Designs’Facebook page, and like it, that wayyou can keep up with everything I’mdoing. I went to the Grand NationalRoadsters Show, I did the NHRA, andI’m heading up to the Autorama inSacramento, which I haven’t been tosince I was 6 years old. I had sometime in Sacramento and last year whenI did CarWarriors I connected with ashop called Gearhead Garage. Theyactually beat us Allstars on theCorvette builds and I’m going to go upand visit them. They’ll have theCorvettes we did on the show there.That’s my old stomping grounds andI’m going to have a blast.

2012 is going to be a great year.I’m going to be traveling, buildingcars on the road, doing all kinds ofcool stuff. I never know what’s aroundthe corner for me. I’ll keep you guysposted on the DIY experience. Go toDIYlive.tv to learn more about it. Alsosearch ‘Barrett-Jackson DIY RichEvans’ on Youtube and watch that twominute clip. I think you guys will bestoked to see that. You can also see allthe news coverage on DIYlive.tv.Keep wrenching. Keep building. I’llsee you guys next month.

The Crew from Wyotech


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

QUALITY IS ALL WE THINK ABOUT. THAT

AND QUALITY.

Hyundai Sonata 2011

OKLAHOMATEXAS

Gene MesserHyundaiLUBBOCK

888-786-8128806-785-2238 Fax

Mon-Fri 7am - 7pmSat 8am - 6pm

[email protected]

Hub HyundaiHOUSTON

800-856-2212281-955-2311 FaxMon-Fri 7:30am - 6pm

Sat 8am - [email protected]

www.hubhouston.com

Allen SamuelsHyundai

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS

800-888-2079817-589-7882 Fax


[email protected]

James WoodHyundaiDECATUR

940-627-4607940-627-4653 FaxMon-Fri 7:30am - 5:30pm

[email protected]

Automax HyundaiNORMAN

866-619-6406405-364-3307405-364-6504 Fax


Van HyundaiCARROLLTON

972-512-4200972-512-4202 Fax


[email protected]

Don CarltonHyundai of Tulsa

TULSA

800-627-0705918-622-2843 Fax

Mon-Sat 7am - [email protected]

www.doncarlton.com

NABC Plans At Least One Vehicle Gift in Each State This YearThe National Auto Body Council’s(NABC) Recycled Rides® program,now in its sixth year, set a goal to giftat least one vehicle in every state in thecountry in 2012.

NABC member collision repairfacilities nationwide have providedhundreds of families and service or-ganizations with the gift of reliabletransportation. “So many of us take ourtransportation for granted,” notedNABC Executive Director Chuck Sul-kala, “but the fact of the matter is, re-liable transportation is more importantthan ever in these tough economictimes. A dependable vehicle literallycan provide a family a new lease onlife.”

In an effort to build upon Recy-cled Rides’ growth, the NABC isslightly refining its marketing ap-proach. “This year, along with work-ing directly through shops, we arereaching out to individual charities tohelp them meet their missions,” saidincoming Recycled Rides Chair JimOcampo of DuPont PerformanceCoatings. “You could say that we’reworking the program in reverse.”

Indicative of this new approach isthe fact that Donna Miller has joinedthe NABC’s Recycled Rides commit-

tee as the liaison between NABC andFamily Promise, a charitable organiza-tion with 172 affiliates across the U.S.that is committed to help homeless andlow-income families achieve sustain-able independence.

The year began auspiciously onJanuary 11, 2012 during the NationalAuto Body Council’s fundraising golftournament held in Palm Springs,Calif. Thanks to Pacific Collision andHertz Rent-A-Car, and workingthrough Variety Children’s Charity, Re-cycled Rides donated a 1999 FordFreestyle crossover wagon repaired atthe end of 2011.

“Participating in the RecycledRides program this year was a great ex-perience for our entire team,” saidSteve Vetel, owner of Pacific CollisionCenters. “Having the ability to help afamily in need gave everyone in our or-ganization a great sense of pride andaccomplishment. We look forward toparticipating in future gifting events.”

The first Recycled Rides vehiclerepaired in 2012 has been donated byGEICO Insurance and has landed atCaliber Collision Centers in RoundRock, Texas. It is being refurbished forthe Temple, Texas Family Promise af-filiate.

Toyota Industries Corp. announcedplans to open a $350 million automo-tive parts plant in Jackson County innortheast Georgia, creating 320 jobs,in early February.

The plant will create automotivecompressor parts and will be builtnear a related assembly plant off I-85in Pendergrass, GA. The automakerexpects the plant to be completed inlate 2013, according to the AtlantaJournal-Constitution.

“In opening this new Georgiamanufacturing facility, Toyota Indus-tries Corporation sends a very clearmessage about its confidence in ourstate’s ability to help them remaincompetitive in global markets,” Gov.Nathan Deal said in a news release.

“Projects such as this underscoreGeorgia’s record of success in at-tracting international investment toour state,” Chris Cummiskey, com-missioner of the Georgia Departmentof Economic Development, said tothe Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Courtney Bernardi, director ofeconomic development for the Jack-son County Area Chamber of Com-merce, expected the plant bolsters thearea’s manufacturing base and to payhigher than the county’s average.

Toyota to Build Compressor PartsPlant in Pendergrass, GA

Georgia Northwestern Technical Col-lege, a two-year technical college lo-cated in Rome, GA, is consideringbuilding another campus in Ringgold.Ringgold, near the Georgia-Ten-nessee border, is a small town ofabout 2,500 people.

According to the ChattanoogaTimes Free Press, college and countyofficials are considering building thecampus on 50 acres owned byCatoosa County across from RollinsIndustrial Park in the southwest areaof town. According to the AssociatedPress, College President Craig Mc-Daniel estimated it would take onlya year to 14 months to complete con-struction once land is available.

The technical college's focus ison careers in the automotive, aviationand other commercial industries. Cityofficials speculated that the Ringgoldcampus would be centered around itsautomated manufacturing lab, whichwould train students to work with ro-botics used in automotive factories.This campus would be the eighth lo-cation for the technical college, withseven locations already in Rome,Calhoun, Rockmart, Rock Spring andDalton. For more information pleasevisit www.gntc.edu.

Georgia Northwestern Technical CollegeConsiders Campus in Ringgold, GA


BUICKBUICKBUICK

THE PROFESSIONAL CHOICE FOR GENUINETHE PROFESSIONAL CHOICE FOR GENUINE

5901 Spur 327 • Lubbock, TX 79424

THE PROFESSIONAL CHOICE FOR THE PROFESSIONAL CHOICE FOR

GM PARTSGM PARTSGM PARTSManufacturer recommended parts are an important part of maintaining your vehicle’s optimum performance.We offer the same high quality parts your vehicle was built with and we keep a large inventory of these genuine parts in stock at all times.

BUICK LACROSSE ‘10

SALES:MON-FRI 7:30 am-6:30 pmSAT 8:30 am-12:30 pm

TOLL FREE: 800-888-4251DIRECT: 806-798-4103FAX: 806-798-4086

www.sdparts.com

CREF Sees Record $4.1 M in Industry Donations for 2011The collision industry came to the aidof its future workforce in 2011 by pro-viding a record $4.1 million in dona-tions to secondary and post-secondarycollision school programs and theirstudents through the Collision RepairEducation Foundation. Through mon-etary and in-kind product donations,the 2011 Collision Repair EducationFoundation donors helped to providestudent scholarships, student toolgrants, school equipment and supplygrants, the 3rd annual Ultimate Colli-sion Education Makeover schoolgrant, and much more. Since 2008,when the Collision Repair EducationFoundation became a purely philan-thropic organization, the organizationhas provided $7 million in school andstudent support through industrydonors.

“The fact that the Collision Re-pair Education Foundation providedmore support to collision schools andstudents in 2011 compared to the com-bined totals of 2008 through 2010 dis-plays that the collision industry is onethat cares for its future professionals,”said Scott Kruger, Collision RepairEducation Foundation Executive Di-rector.

“This announcement of support

was made possible exclusivelythrough our industry supporters anddonors. On behalf of our staff, Boardof Trustees, and the collision studentswe support, we would like to thankour continued supporters and donors.”

“The Collision Repair EducationFoundation has come a long way sincebecoming a purely philanthropic or-ganization in 2008. The donation re-sults of 2011 display that manyindustry members believe in the Edu-cation Foundation’s efforts to supportcollision schools and students,” saidDoug Webb, Chairman of the Colli-sion Repair Education FoundationBoard of Trustees. “I want to thank theStaff for all of their efforts during2011, all of the Board of Trustees, andof course, all the donors for their sup-port during the year.”

For a complete listing of the Col-lision Repair Education Foundation’sindustry supporters, visit www.Colli-sionEducationFoundation.org.

Inter-industry organizations andindividuals who are interested in sup-porting CREF in 2012 should contactCREF Associate Director of Develop-ment Brandon Eckenrode at [email protected] orat 847-463-5244.

Federal Trial of Baltimore Police Kickbacks Involves LocalBody Shop, About 60 Officers and Insurance Fraud Writing in the Baltimore Sun, JustinFenton has reported on the federal po-lice kickback trial in which testimonyimplicates a shop owner and about 60Baltimore police officers. Body shopowner Alex Moreno, of MajesticAuto Repair, has already plead guiltyto his role, said he was approached in2008 by a Baltimore police officerwith an idea to help boost sales at hisfledgling Rosedale business. The offi-cer said, in exchange for a cut, he andfellow officers would funnel cars tothe shop.

According to police and federalprosecutors, the officers were circum-venting the city’s system of authorizedtowing companies by referring cars toMoreno in exchange for payment.Majestic would often increase damageto the vehicles by smashing side pan-els with poles and breaking off mirrorsto increase payouts from insurancecompanies, Moreno testified.

Soon Majestic Auto Repair wasgetting customers almost exclusivelyfrom city police. Moreno testified Feb.14 in federal court that more than 60officers would ultimately get in on thescheme, receiving $300 for each re-ferral. Business grew so fast that he

had to expand to new lots to store allthe cars. In fact, growth was so fastthat Majestic struggled to stay prof-itable, Moreno said. They often paidofficers to bring their own cars in forrepairs, did not require other cus-tomers to pay deductibles, and paidfor rental cars.

Moreno said the idea to pay po-lice for referrals was hatched in 2008by Officer Jhonn Corona, his neighborand shop customer. Corona spreadword of the plan through the depart-ment, Moreno testified, and officerscalled when they encountered acci-dents. Corona pleaded guilty to con-spiracy and extortion last fall.

Moreno also testified that a cityofficer named Osvaldo Valentinefalsely reported that his personal ve-hicle had been stolen. Moreno said thevehicle was at his shop and that Valen-tine had reported it stolen because hecouldn’t make the payments. Valen-tine pleaded guilty to conspiracy andextortion last fall. Moreno testifiedthat at one point, his tow truck driversjoined another company and some ofthe officers started working with theminstead. Those drivers have not beencharged.


GeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGeGenununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununuininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininine e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e MiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMiMitstststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststsububububububububububububububububububububububububububububububububisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisishihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihi r r r r r r r r r r r r r r repepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepeplalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalacececececececececececececececececececececececececece----mememememememememememementntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntnt C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C Crararararararararararararashshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Pararararararararararararararartstststststststststststs a a a a a a a a a a a a a arerererererererererererererere c c c c c c c c c c c c clololololololololololosesesese a a a a at t t t hahahahandndnd t t thrhrhrouououghgh t thehehehe f f f folololollolololowiwiwiwiwingngngngng ququququququququalalalalititity y y dedededealalalerererershshshipipipipips.s.s.s. T T Thehehehey y y y y y o!o!o!o!o!o!erererererer exexexexexexexexexexexexexexexcececececececececececececeptptptptptptptptptptptptptioioioionanananal l l l cucucucucustststststststomomomomomererer s sererererervivivivivicecececece, , , , wiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwidedededededededededededededededededededededede s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s selelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelececececececececececececececececececectitititititititititititititiononononononononononon o of f ininin-s-s-s-stotototototockckckckckckckck papapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapartrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrts s s s s s s s ananananananananand d d d d d d d d d d ththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththe e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e exexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexexpepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepeperiririririririririririririririririririririririririririenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenencecececececececececececececece nececececececececececececececececececececessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssarararararararararararararararararararararararararararararary y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y tototototototototototototototototototototo e e e e e e e e e e e e e e ensnsnsnsnsnsnsnsnsnsnsurururururururururururure e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e yoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyourururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururur

nenecececececececessssssssssssssssssssssararararararararary y y y y y totototototototo e e e e e e ensnsnsnsnsnsnsnsnsurururururururururure e e e e e e e e e yoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyourururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururur rerererererererererepapapapapapapapapaiririririririrs s s s s s prprprprprprprococococococeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed d d d d d d d d d d smsmsmsmsmsmsmsmsmoooooooooooooooooooooooooothththththththththththththththlylylylylylylylylylylylylylyly....

Genuine Mitsubishi replace-ment Crash Parts are close at hand through the following quality dealerships. They o!er exceptional customer service, wide selection of in-stock parts and the experience necessary to ensure your repairs proceed smoothly.

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddddddddd...PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooooooooooooopppppppppppppppppppppppppppllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuusssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt...Parts you Need.People you Trust.

2011 Lancer

TTEEXXAASS OOKKLLAAHHOOMMAA

Don HerringMitsubishi - Irving866-375-4074(469) 443-1872 Fax#3 Volume Parts Dept.

in the Nation.$600,000 Inventory.

Cable MitsubishiOKLAHOMA CITY

866-751-1055405-787-6582(405) 789-8500 Fax

West LoopMitsubishi

SAN ANTONIO

800-224-1968(210) 681-4583 FaxM-F 7:30 am - 6:00 pm#1 Volume Dealer in

All of [email protected]

OUR PARTS IN THE TRAINED HANDS OF A PROFESSIONALTogether it’s a Masterpiece!TT

GM PartsFinish Second to None.

TTeexxaass

Ray Huffines ChevroletPLANO

800-955-6282972-202-2300

972-596-5571 FaxMon.-Fri. 7-7; Sat. 8-5

Call Us For Your Saturn Parts Also.

Reliable ChevroletRICHARDSON

866-754-3244972-952-8151 Fax

Mon.-Fri. 7:30-6:30; Sat. 8-5www.reliableGMparts.com

LLoouuiissiiaannaa

Banner ChevroletNEW ORLEANS

800-477-8603504-242-4624

504-253-8490 Faxwww.bannerauto.com

U.S. Auto Industry Bullishon 2012, Sales up 11%2012 is off to a good start for the U.S.auto industry as reported sales for Jan-uary outpaced the best industry fore-casts. Sales overall were up 11% at anannualized rate of 14.2 million units,the best since August 2009. ChryslerGroup was up 44% and Ford Motor up7.3%. GM sold the most units but salesdeclined 6%. VW Group was up 40%.The disasters in Japan seem to be di-gested with Mazda up 68%, Toyota up7.5%, Honda up 9.3% and Nissan up10%. Hyundai-Kia is up 20%.

Chevy Volt Sees StalledMomentum, Also OptimismThe Chevy Volt hasn’t quite caught onas expected by many. Although GMhas plans and could produce as manyas 60,000 Volts in 2012, GM will ad-just production at the Hamtramck plantin Detroit to meet demand. Of theplanned 60,000, about 75% or 45,000are for the U.S. and the rest for Europe,built as the Opel Ampera, and China.GM has said they still don’t have aclear sense of how much demand thereis for battery-electric vehicles. the gov-ernment closed its investigation ofpost-crash fires in Chevrolet Volt bat-teries after further testing proved thechanges General Motors has imple-mented better protect the batteries.GM announced in early January that itwould retrofit 14,735 Volts alreadybuilt and make permanent changes onthe Volt assembly line at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

In January GM boss, Dan Acker-son, faced Congress to defend the carand calm safety concerns. He alsofirmly stated that the car was engi-neered with plenty of technology andsafety but was “not engineered to be apolitical punching bag.”

GM is running full page newspa-per ads and TV spots in a reputation-rebuilding effort for the Chevy Volt.

California Law DemandsMore Low Emission VehiclesThe California Air Resources Board(CARB) called for a steep ramping up ofzero- or very low-emission vehicles soldin state from 2018 onward. The goal is forthem to comprise 15.4 percent of all ve-hicles sold by 2025, up from less than 1percent today. The ruling called for aslashing of tailpipe emissions from therest of the passenger vehicle populationbeginning sooner in 2015 and extendingthrough 2025. At least one of every sevenvehicles sold will be a plug-in hybrid, ex-tended-range electric vehicle or pure bat-tery-electric vehicle, or BEV.

MOPAR, Chrysler’s parts division, cel-ebrated it’s 75th anniversary at theirPerformance and Accessory Lab inCenter Line, MI with famous dragracer, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits blow-ing out the candles on the cake.MOPAR’s first branding was on an-tifreeze in 1937. Inspiring a great dealof loyalty, there are more than 400MOPAR clubs worldwide. Four newspecial edition Mopar vehicles were un-veiled, including the Chrysler 300, Fiat500, Jeep Compass and even the 2013Dodge Dart, not in showrooms yet.

The Jeep Liberty SUV is getting greaterscrutiny from Federal safety regulatorsafter 50 people reported they were hurtwhen the air bags inflated without in-volvement in a crash. The NHTSAstarted investigating Liberty SUVsfrom the 2002 and 2003 model years inSeptember. There have now been 87complaints, with 50 of them resulting ininjury. Chrysler hasn't been able to naildown a single cause of, or even a singleprotocol for the problem; the airbagshave deployed on startup and when thecar is running.

Honda is recalling certain 2011–2012Ridgeline vehicles for a discrepancy be-tween the spare tire and the informationon the vehicle’s tire information label.Honda Ridgeline trucks sold in theUnited States are fitted with a compactspare tire and, in some cases, placardsmay incorrectly indicate that the Ridge-line came with a full-sized spare tire.Honda will either provide Ridgelineowners with a spare that will match theinformation provided on the vehicle’splacard or it will install a new placardthat reflects the spare tire installed by thefactory. Tire pressure may not be correct.

Federal safety regulators are investigat-ing fires in the driver’s side doors ofChevy TrailBlazers, the second suchprobe within a week. The latest inquiryinvolves more than 309,000 TrailBlazerSUVs from the 2006 and 2007 modelyears. The fires began in the power win-dow switch or related electrical parts, theNHTSA said. U.S. safety regulators hadopened aninvestigation into consumercomplaints of driver’s side door fires in2007 model year Toyota Camry sedansand RAV4 crossover SUVs.

MOPAR Celebrates 75thAnniversay, 4 New Models

Feds Escalate Jeep AirbagInvestigation

Second Toyota Driver’sDoor Fire Probe Launched

Honda’s Ridgeline Recall


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

BMW of San AntonioSan Antonio(210) 732-7121(800) 880-1430

BMW of DallasDallas(800) 245-7269(972) 241-3953 Fax

BMW of Houston NorthHouston(888) 215-7431(281) 875-4021 Fax

Classic BMWPlano(214) 778-2673 Direct Wholesale(214) 778-2674 Direct Wholesale(214) 778-2814 Fax

Texas

BMW of TulsaTulsa(800) 331-3996(918) 665-1360 Fax

Oklahoma

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

Sandia BMWAlbuquerque(800) 642-2697(505) 217-0289 Fax

New Mexico

• Original BMW Parts& Accessories

Study: 96% of All Repair Shops Recycle Scrap MetalAuto repair shops are playing a keyrole in protecting the environmentwith 96 percent reporting they recyclethe scrap metal from automotive com-ponents, according to a study done bythe Automotive Aftermarket IndustryAssociation (AAIA).

Shops are recycling the scrapmetal from many auto parts, includ-ing alternators, brakes, engines andtransmissions. The volume of mate-rial recycled annually in the UnitedStates includes 74 million metric tonsof iron and steel, 4.7 million metrictons of aluminum and 1.8 millionmetric tons of copper, according tothe Institute of Scrap Recycling In-dustries (ISRI).

“Scrap metal recycling has an ex-tremely positive impact on our envi-ronment,” said Rich White, senior vicepresident, AAIA. “It conserves naturalresources, reduces greenhouse gasemissions and air pollution, saves en-ergy and minimizes the amount ofwaste sent to landfills.”

According to ISRI, recyclingone ton of steel conserves 2,500 lbs.of iron ore, 1,400 lbs. of coal and 120lbs. of limestone, and the energysaved using recycled materials versusvirgin materials is up to 58 percentfor iron and steel, 92 percent for alu-

minum and 90 percent for copper. Ifthe ferrous scrap that is recycled inthe United States were put into railcars, the train would stretch 11,349miles, nearly halfway around theworld.

In addition to recycling scrapmetal, automotive aftermarket compa-nies, including auto repair shops, man-ufacturers, distributors, retailers andjobbers, routinely recycle tires, batter-ies, used oil and oil filters, parts clean-ing solvents, plastics, cardboard andpaper, a/c refrigerant, dunnage andwood pallets.

The study is part of AAIA’s ini-tiative to illustrate the automotive af-termarket industry’s widespreadefforts on behalf of the environment.The information is presented inAAIA’s “Driving Toward a CleanerEnvironment: The Automotive After-market’s Green Story,” in the shortvideo, AAIA Green, and in a GreenSnapshot. For more information, visitwww.aftermarket.org/green.

AAIA is a Bethesda, Md.-basedassociation whose more than 23,000member and affiliates manufacture,distribute and sell motor vehicle parts,accessories, service, tool, equipment,materials and supplies. AAIA repre-sents more than 100,000 repair shops.

This Year’s Chicago Auto Show Used New Media TechnologyThe Chicago Auto Show (CAS) used aseries of unique and creative socialmedia events and formats to inform andengage attendees at the 2012 show,which took place February 10–19,2012. It is the first auto show in the U.S.to use such a complete package of so-cial and digital media, highlighting theimportance of these mediums for con-sumers and attendees.

“We’ve used various forms ofsocial media before, but we realizedthat we could do so much more thanany other show to engage socialmedia and excite consumers,” saidDave Sloan, President of the ChicagoAutomobile Trade Association. “Inorder to create this unique package,we hired Vivid Ascent, an integratedmarketing agency that specializes insocial and digital media. We havepartnered with them to leverage theirsocial media, video and creative skillsin a way we have not seen in otherU.S. auto shows.”

Some of the unique social and dig-ital media programs that were used inthis year’s show included:

1. Daily “Webisodes” that shareupdates of special programs, contestsand events that will be highlighted onthe CAS website and distributed to so-cial media

2. A “First Look for Charity” menutour for food bloggers and digital influ-encers that cover the Chicago food in-dustry previewing the show’s annualcharity event that is open to the public

3. A Blogger Sweepstakes specifi-cally designed for bloggers to invitetheir readers to win an exclusive autoshow experience

4. Facebook photo contest, called“How Sweet is Your Ride?” allowingfollowers to upload photos of them-selves with their favorite vehicles andvote for the winner, who received a VIPPackage

5. A special Foursquare page forchecking in at the show

6. A Social Media Day for digitalinfluencers and bloggers to preview theevent before the public

7. A Drive-In Program designedfor select digital influencers and blog-gers to evaluate new vehicles

8. Unique Digital Media Releasescontaining video and digital assets pro-viding news updates throughout theshow

9. Twitter updates providing real-time news and information throughoutthe show

“We wanted to make this year’sshow more exciting for the attendees,”Sloan continued.


AUTOBODY MARKETPLACE

POLYCRACKE

RWaterborne Wax andWaterborne Wax andGrease RemoverGrease RemoverWaterborne Wax andGrease RemoverSINCE 1985SINCE 1985SINCE 1985

Available fromAvailable fromYOUR local Jobber orYOUR local Jobber or

CALL: 973.335.2828CALL: 973.335.2828FAX: 973.402.7222FAX: 973.402.7222

Available fromYOUR local Jobber or

CALL: 973.335.2828FAX: 973.402.7222

[email protected]@[email protected]

WWHHEEEELLSS AAMMEERRIICCAANine Locations in the USA!

888-4-FIX-RIM$109 to repair with this ad

wwwwww..ff ii xxrr iimm..ccoomm

• Thousands of OEM Remanufactured Wheels in Stock

• Lifetime Guarantee• CNC Quality• Powder Coated

102

Search:Autobody News

on Facebook

Insurance Auto Auctions to Sell Salvaged VehiclesDirectly to China, Could Impact U.S. SupplyInsurance Auto Auctions (IAA), awholly owned subsidiary of KARAuction Services, announced anagreement with Chen Jia, which willimport U.S. salvage vehicles to Chinafor recycling. This is expected to im-pact the number of salvage vehiclesavailable to U.S. rebuilders and re-pairers. Chen Jia is a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Jiangsu Chenlong Re-source Recycling Development Co.Ltd. in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu, China.Chenlong Recycling is one of the firstcompanies to obtain one of only a fewrecycling permits from the Chinesegovernment, IAA said.

“This agreement helps usachieve our growth strategy by ex-panding our global buyer base in a re-gion with a fast-growing need forscrap metal,” said Tom O’Brien chiefexecutive officer at Insurance AutoAuctions, Inc. “We are pleased thatour long relationship with Chen Jiahas added tangible value for vehiclesellers at our auctions. Their initialpurchases at our locations along theWest Coast have already created in-creased competition for vehicles andmay eventually expand throughoutthe greater United States.”

In 2008, when IAA first met withChenlong Recycling in China, planswere drawn for them to build a multi-million dollar recycling center inZhangjiagang. Today, the recentlycompleted facility is capable of pro-cessing hundreds of thousands of tonsof scrap iron. They are the first inChina to complete the installation of ashredder built specifically for the pro-cessing of scrap steel that includes au-tomobiles coming from the UnitedStates and other countries. Throughthis new agreement, IAA has the abil-ity to be a major salvage provider tothis operation - specifically, lower-end vehicles for the purpose of recy-cling.

“There are several reasons whywe chose IAA, including their 30years of expertise in the salvage auc-tion business and their global out-look,” said Gu Long Sheng, Presidentof Jiangsu Chenlong Resource Recy-cling Development Co. Ltd. “Themanagement team at IAA has beendedicated to seeing scrap vehicleslegally enter the China market andtheir support of our efforts has beenboth encouraging and instrumental inhelping us shape our business modelin the U.S. Second, IAA is clearly amarket leader and our relationshipwith them will help ensure our abilityto source the salvage vehicles weneed to meet our production de-mands.”

One of the best results of recy-cling metal from salvage vehicles is

that it saves energy, conserves naturalresources, and enables steel produc-tion with low pollution levels. Ac-cording to the Institute of ScrapRecycling Industries, recycling onecar conserves 2,500 lbs. of iron ore,1400 lbs. of coal and 120 lbs. of lime-stone. Until recently, Chinese govern-ment laws prohibited the import ofsalvage vehicles from the UnitedStates into mainland China. Today,this recycling project is supported inChina by the environmental protec-tion body of the Chinese government.

For the past 30 years, InsuranceAuto Auctions has continued to de-velop and cultivate a mature andglobal customer buyer base in morethan 100 countries. Its buyers includeautomotive body shops, rebuilders,used car dealers, automotive whole-salers, exporters, dismantlers, recy-clers, brokers, and where allowed,non-licensed (public) buyers.

IAA buyers have access to sixlanguages through IAA's AuctionCenter including: English, MandarinChinese, Spanish, French, Polish andRussian. In addition, the IAA BuyerServices group is fluent in 10 lan-guages to assist global buyers. An es-timated 30 percent of IAA’s vehiclesare sold and exported to foreign coun-tries, which further strengthens itsphilosophy of choice and flexibilitywith “anywhere” access and mobiletechnology.

IAA’s business model includesin-person and online auctions. IAAoffers clients access to a comprehen-sive salvage auto auction network,and allow them to purchase in a man-ner that best suits their needs. IAAaims to offer end-to-end solutions andstandardized quality assurance prac-tices at its nearly 160 locations. IAAexperts are on hand at each branch lo-cation to assist buyers and sellers.

IAA follows strict regulatorycompliance at the federal and statelevels and is well versed in all state ti-tling laws as well as buyer and sellerlicensing.

For more information visitwww.iaai.com.

NHTSA Opened Ford and GM Van Investigations in JanuaryThe NHTSA opened separate investi-gations into vans made by GM andFord in January. GM is recalling some2012 Express and GMC Savana vehi-cles made from June 2, 2011, throughOctober 17, 2011. The second stage ofthe dual-stage air bag will not inflatein a severe frontal impact. The air bagsfail to conform to the requirements offederal motor vehicle safety no. 208,“occupant crash protection.”

Another GM investigation in-volves about 17,000 2003 ChevroletExpress vans with a door behind thedriver’s side. On these vans, the fuel-filler pipe is routed differently, goingthrough the rear wheel well, which theagency said apparently exposed it toroad debris and spray. The normal con-figuration for these vans is with sidedoor behind the front passenger.

The Ford investigation involvesabout 63,000 2004 Ford Freestar andMercury Monterey minivans. The

agency said it had seven complaints fromowners who said the rear-wheel wellsrusted so badly that in several cases theanchor mounts for the third-row seat belts“completely detached from the vehicle.”

Advertise in ourCLASSIFIED SECTIONfor $50 per column

inch!

[email protected]

Place an ad in ourAUTOBODY

MARKETPLACEsection of

Autobody News.

[email protected] us!write us!

Start Your FREEMail Subscription.

CALL 800-699-8251


body shop needs!e-mail:

[email protected]

800-699-8251

To advertisecall Joe Momber at:




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 Newsletter



800-699-8251

To advertisecall Advertising Sales at:




800-699-8251

To advertisecall Sean Hartman at:



Documents

Autobody News March 2012 Southwest Edition