Southeast June 2010 Autobody News

On May 18, the Federal Court of Appealsin Atlanta, GA, ordered State Farm Insur-ance to undergo mediation with Gunder’sin an effort to bring a satisfactory resolu-tion to Gunder’s claim against State Farmfor Tortious Interference and Slander.(Tortious interference of business occurswhen false claims and accusations aremade against a business or an individual’sreputation in order to drive businessaway.) The Appelant court order was inresponse to Gunder’s Auto Center’s re-quest for appeal of a Florida courts recentsummary judgment.

“If you read recent articles by someindustry writers, they’ve made it sound asif we lost our case against State Farm andthe matter was over and done with” saysRay Gunder, founder of the 42-year oldfamily owned and operated Gunder’s AutoCenter in Lakeland, Florida.

“It would appear that some writer’s in-tent is to vindicate Sate Farm’s actions andto discourage other repairers from steppingup and defending their good names and

their businesses. Ourcase is far from over!We got knocked backa bit, but not knockeddown or out.

“The slandercase (which was sum-marily discharged bythe lower court) al-lowed us a great deal

of discovery and through many hours of dep-ositions and review of acquired documenta-tion we uncovered extensive evidence tosupport our claims.

Says Gunder, “No, this is far fromover; we just need our day in court to allow

See Gunder’s Case, Page 12

SoutheastEdition

FloridaGeorgia

AlabamaMississippi YEARS www.autobodynews.com

282828VOL. 1 ISSUE 4JUNE 2010

by John YoswickSpecial to Autobody News

The fallout in recent months from con-cerns raised about non-OEM bumper andstructural parts raised by industry trainerToby Chess was clearly on the minds ofthe parts manufacturers and distributorsgathered in Indianapolis, Ind., this springfor the Automotive Body Parts Associa-tion’s 30th annual meeting.

At the Collision Industry Conference(CIC) this past November and January,Chess demonstrated key differences be-tween some non-OEM structural parts andthe OEM parts they are being sold to re-

place. The demon-strations have led atleast four insurers topull back from ask-ing shops to use cer-tain non-OEM parts,and has led to newtesting and certifica-tion efforts related tosuch parts. Chess’latest presentation

on such parts at CIC in April was halted atthe last minute after he said he was threat-ened with a lawsuit by LKQ Corporation,parent company of Keystone Automotive.

ABPA Conference Airs Aftermarket PartsCertification Issues Again

The U.S. Senate passed the “RestoringAmerican Financial Stability Act of2010” May 20. S. 3217, authored bySen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chair-man of the U.S. Senate Committee onBanking, Housing and Urban Affairs,aims to promote financial stability byimproving accountability and trans-parency in the financial system, to end“too big to fail,” to protect the Americantaxpayer by ending bailouts, and to pro-tect consumers from abusive financialservices practices.

S. 3217, which has been amendedsince originally passing the Senate Bank-ing Committee, establishes an Office ofNational Insurance within the U.S. De-partment of the Treasury. The office willbe headed by a director who is to be ap-

pointed by the secretary of the treasury.The office’s main functions will be:

• to monitor all aspects of the insur-ance industry, including identifying issuesor gaps in the regulation of insurers thatcould contribute to a systemic crisis in theinsurance industry or the U.S. financialsystem;

• to recommend to the Financial Sta-bility Oversight Council that it designatean insurer, including the affiliates of suchinsurer, as an entity subject to regulationas a nonbank financial company super-vised by the Board of Governors pursuantto Title I of the Restoring American Fi-nancial Stability Act of 2010;

• to assist the secretary in administer-ing the Terrorism Insurance Program es-

House Passes Financial Stability Act,Includes Office of National Insurance

See House Passes Act, Page 12

Gunder’s Case Not Over—Court Mediation Ordered

Ray Gunder

Eileen Sottille of QPC

Gulf Coast Oil Spill Causes Far More ThanJust Ecological HeadachesOn April 20th, an explosion on the Deep-water Horizon while drilling in an oil welloff the Gulf Coast of Louisiana left 17workers injured and 11 missing and pre-sumed dead. Since that day, oil has beenspilling from a BP offshore drillingwell in the Gulf of Mexico.

The leak is currently discharg-ing 200,000 gallons of crude oil aday, according to the official esti-mate, and efforts to manage thespill with controlled burning, dis-persal and plugging the leak wereunsuccessful. It is estimated thatmore than 6 million gallons ofcrude oil have spewed into the Gulf

so far.This oil spill is on track to be-

come the worst oil spill in his-tory, surpassing the damage done bythe Exxon Valdez tanker that spilled11 million gallons of oil into the eco-logically sensitive Prince WilliamSound in 1989. Unlike the ExxonValdez tragedy, in which a tanker helda finite capacity of oil, BP’s rig istapped into an underwater oil welland could pump more oil into theocean indefinitely until the leak isplugged.

The oil reached the Louisianashoreline May 14, posing a seriousthreat to fishermen’s livelihoods, marinehabitats, beaches, wildlife and humanhealth.

The slick has forced the shutdown ofthe gulf’s rich fishing grounds and couldalso spread to the busy shipping lanes atthe mouth of the Mississippi River, tyingup the cargo vessels that move millions oftons of fruit, rubber, grain, steel and othercommodities and raw materials in and outof the nation’s interior.

There’s no denying the impact thisspill will have on the seafood and fishing

See ABPA Conference, Page 18

See Oil Spill, Page 12

A worker shovels oil off Fourchon Beach in Port Fourchon,Louisiana, on May 24

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Southeast

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, Stefan Gesterkamp, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio,Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Dan Espersen, Tom McGee, Jeff Webster, Rich EvansAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Christina Shubert (800) 699-8251Advertising Sales Assistant: Stephanie BowlingArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the auto body industry. Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2010 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsP.O. Box 1400, Oceanside, CA 92051-1400(800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

Aegis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Autoland Scientech . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . 12

Chassis Liner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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

Crown Automobile Company. . . . . . . 8

Edwards Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

FL, GA, AL, MS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 10

Greenway Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep . . . . 3

Greenway Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Gus Machado Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Honda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 35

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 32

I-CAR Education Foundation . . . . . . 40

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers 29

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

Mercedes-Benz of Gainesville . . . . . . 6

Mercedes-Benz of Naples . . . . . . . . . 7

Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts

Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . 37

Mobile Lift Jack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Nalley BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Nissan Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 30

Reliant Finishing Systems . . . . . . . . . 7

Shoot Suits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Soft-Sanders from Style-Line, Corp . 25

Spray Gun Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Stivers Ford-Lincoln-Mercury . . . . . . 11

Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Taylor BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Inde

xofAdvertisers

16 Florida Worker’s Comp Insurers to Return $9.4M . . . . 352009 Historic Loss in Vehicle Population . . . . . . . . . . . . 19ABPA Conference Airs Aftermarket Parts Certification

Issues Again. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1AkzoNobel Honors Most Influential Women . . . . . . . . . 10AkzoNobel Honors Top Independent Distributors. . . . . . . 6AL Governor Announces Plan To Help Auto Suppliers

Go Green, Be More Efficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38AL Trucking Company in Fatal KY Accident: Poor Record 11Amaradio - Beating a Dead Horse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31ASA Offers Year-round and Nationwide Education. . . . . 21Auto Supplier Plasman Wants Fort Payne, AL, Plant . . . . 5AWRS and Ride-On Form Strategic Alliance . . . . . . . . . . 19BMW Expands Factory Tour at New Price . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Building a Custom Trophy for ‘School of the Year’- Evans 24California Shop Credits Mitchell’s Ultramate and

RepairCenter for Managing Growth- Attanasio . . . . . 15CARQUEST Returns to CARS 2010 as Exhibitor . . . . . . 21Chrysler Gets More Arbitration Wins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Chrysler Unveils 2011 Grand Cherokee . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Congresswoman Jackie Speier Wields Reciprocating

Saw on Rebar Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Equipment and Tool Institute Presents Founder’s Award 21Evans Partners With Ohio Technical School To

Create Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Experts: Gulf Coast Oil Spill Won't Affect Gas prices . . . . 5Ford Fiesta Now in the 40 mpg Category . . . . . . . . . . . 19Ford Promotes Favorable Repair and Insurance Cost

Data and Leads in Perceived Quality Gain . . . . . . . . . . 9Gesterkamp - Open Clearcoat Blends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Giant Toyota Teams with Tiny Tesla to Build Next

Generation Cars at Fremont, CA, Plant . . . . . . . . . . . 36Governor Barbour Rejects ‘Wind Pool’ Subsidy . . . . . . 35Gulf Coast Oil Spill Causes Far More Than Just

Ecological Headaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Gunder’s Case Not Over—Court Mediation Ordered . . . . 1High Schoolers Compete to be Top Auto Technician . . . . 5Honda Asks Repairers to Aid in Recall Checks . . . . . . . . . 34House Passes Financial Stability Act, Includes Office

of National Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Hurricanes and Oil Spills are a Bad Combination, or Not?. 11

Insure.com Figures Least Expensive to Insure . . . . . . . . 8Jackson, MS, Loses Fourth Police Chase Case . . . . . . 11Kniesel’s Collision Centers Hosts Extrication Class . . . . 36Lo Jack Device Credited with $45K Recovery in LA . . . 33Longtime Wrecker’s License Gone in Flowery Branch, GA 5Matrix System Teams with Miller Electric . . . . . . . . . . . 19Mercury Insurance Faces Accusations of Discrimination . . 34Mercury Insurance: Military Must Not Be ‘Responsible’

Drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Missippi Supreme Court to Hear Katrina Insurer Appeal . . 35Mitchell International and CCC Crash Course Highlight

2010 Industry Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Mr. Gorillalilla- Weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Negligence Language in AL bill Kills Anti-Texting Legislation11LA Collision Association Offers Estimating Courses. . . . 37Parts for Profit 3—Increasing Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27PBE Jobber: Friend or Ally?- Arnold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17PPG Says 10,000 Techs Converted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Randy A. Harris, Wins Flying Tiger Design Contest . . . . 25Rouse Named ABRA President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Save Marketing Money By ‘Piggybacking’- Franklin . . . 16Schroeder - Silsbee, TX Gets New Fasulo’s Shop . . . . . 30SCRS Giving Away Hotel Suite for 2010 SEMA . . . . . . . . 39Senate Exempts Auto Dealers in Regulations . . . . . . . . . 7LA’s Caddo School Named ‘2010 School of the Year’ . . . . 14So. Cal Shop Goes to DuPont™ Cromax® Pro- Attanasio 26Speaker Pelosi’s Statement Echos the President’s . . . . 39Spray Gun Repair Inc. Helps Get Full Value from Guns . . . . 13Sterling Autobody Earns BBB A+. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Storms Across N. TX and Oklahoma Leave Floods, Power

Outages and Millions in Damages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Students Apply For Grant From I-CAR in Record Numbers 7The Autoholics: A New TV Show Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . 23The CA Autobody Association: 43 Years of Representation 32Toyota Makes $2.2B Annual Profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Traffic Paint Shortage Threatens Roadwork in Texas . . . 37Tucson Student Wins Hyundai at Project Graduation . . . . 4TV News Station Investigates Insurance Consultant . . . 29U.S. House Committee Passes Auto-Safety Bill . . . . . . 38Was this Noise Caused by the Repair?- Espersen. . . . . 22Worker’s Comp Rates to Decrease in Florida . . . . . . . . 35

Contents

Lindsay Johnson, a 2010 graduate ofIronwood Ridge High School, capped offher high school career by riding off intothe sunrise in the early y morning afterher grad night in a bright red Hyundaifreshly refurbished by 911 Collision Cen-ters, a sponsor of Project Graduation.

Johnson was the lucky grand prizewinner in a drawing that highlighted Proj-ect Graduation, a drug/alcohol free, all-night evening of fun and safety ongraduation night. The national program’sgoal is aimed at keeping graduating sen-iors off the roads on one of the most dan-gerous nights of the year.

According to Sue Conto, chair ofProject Graduation, 95% of the seniorclass participated in the event this year

and its success “has everything to do withthe grand prize car giveaway, whichwould not have been possible without 911Collision’s generous contributions.”

“It is very rewarding to again be partof this important program to keep our kidssafe,” said Michael Quinn, co-founder of

911 Collision Centers, who has sponsoredProject Graduation since its inception in2004. “We want to thank all of our teammembers and DuPont Performance Coat-ings who poured countless hours and ex-pertise into refurbishing this vehicle.

“Most of all,” Quinn continued, “wethank the parent volunteers and the OroValley community for their tireless effortsand support to make Project Graduationsuch a big success.”

Tucson Student Wins Hyundai at Project Graduation

Lindsay Johnson, recent 2010 Ironwood Highgraduate, receives keys to newly refurbished carfrom Mike Quinn of 911 Collision Centers, whichhas sponsored Project Graduation since its in-ception in 2004.

A beaming Lindsay Johnson in the driver’s seatof her first ever car which she won at IronwoodHigh’s Project Graduation, an all-night drug/alco-hol free event aimed at keeping teens off theroad and safe on graduation night.


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A Canadian auto supplier has selectedFort Payne as the site of its first U.S.manufacturing facility and plans tobring hundreds of jobs to an area ofnortheast Alabama that has sufferedheavy losses in its hosiery-mill opera-tions.

Plasman Corp, part of A.P. Plas-man Corp. of Windsor, Canada, ex-pects to invest $14 million to $16million in the plant, which initiallywill employ 200 people and couldramp up to more than 350 in a fewyears.

The facility will do plastic-injec-tion molding, painting and assemblyof automotive exterior parts and toolrepair. Production is slated to beginnext year.

Plasman, a Tier 1 supplier thatworks directly with automakers in-cluding Nissan, Toyota, Honda andGeneral Motors, said the Fort Paynesite puts it closer to customers in thesouthern United States.

The jobs are desperately neededbecause the area’s once-prosperoussock-making industry has lost 6,000 to8,000 jobs in the past five years as thework moved offshore. In March,DeKalb County’s unemployment ratewas 13.9 percent.

Auto Supplier PlasmanWants Fort Payne, AL, Plant

While the jury’s still out on what theultimate damage to the Gulf economywill be, experts say the oil spill in theGulf of Mexico will not affect gasprices.

At a rate of 200,000 gallons aday, the spill would take more than208 years to deplete our nation’s oilsupply. In the days after the April 22oil rig explosion and spill, Tampa Baysaw a slight increase in gas prices.

“That’s been a big mispercep-tion,” said Jessica Brady of AAAAuto Club South. “When the oil spilloccurred, oil prices were increasingbut the increase had nothing to do withthe oil spill.”

In fact, Brady says while the spillis significant, it’s nowhere near largeenough to affect oil supply in the U.S.

Currently, U.S. oil reserves ex-ceed 362 million barrels. Each barrelcontains approximately 42 gallons ofoil.

That puts U.S. oil reserves at76,000 times the amount that’s esti-mated to be spilling into the Gulf eachday.

“Oil refineries in the U.S. are alsoonly running at 88 percent capacityright now, so supply is not a problem,”Brady said.

Experts: Gulf Coast Oil SpillWon't Affect Gas prices

Terry’s Auto Towing Service, a long-time fixture off Atlanta Highway, is nomore—at least for now, due to ‘cityhall’ and licensing requirements.

Flowery Branch yanked Terry’sbusiness license on April 7, after cityofficials expressed concerns that Terry’soperated on several properties but onlyhad a business license for one. Operat-ing without a business license carries afine of up to $1,000 per day and oneyear imprisonment. The matter has nowentered the legal realm.

Terry said he doesn’t feel his busi-ness has been given a fair shake, espe-cially as he has been at the samelocation for 18 years. He said he wentthrough proper steps in setting up hisbusiness, meeting both city and countyrequirements at that time.

Terry’s is now operating off WestRidge Road in Gainesville and also op-erates a wrecker service in Winder,Terry said.

He added that he is having troublewith the site plan required by the city,including a requirement that he blockoff a shared driveway with a neighbor-ing gas station.

His hope is to eventually return toFlowery Branch, but he’s uncertain howor when that might occur.

High school teams from across the statewere in Jackson, MS to face off in an au-tomotive challenge to becomeAmerica’snext top auto technician.

Twenty juniors and seniors repre-senting 10 schools competed in the FordTripleAStudentAuto Skills Competitionat the trade mart. The Ford/AAAStudentAuto Skills is a nationwide automotivetechnology competition for high schooljuniors and seniors interested in pursuingcareers as automotive service techni-cians. Each two-member team racedagainst the clock to correctly identify andfix intentionally installed bugs on identi-cal Ford vehicles.

The cars are “bugged” with 10 iden-tical defects. The competition tests theyoungster’s abilities to follow a proce-dure to solve the problems, fixing all tendefects without causing more and with-out fixing something that wasn’t broken.

Teams also had to pass a written andhands-on test before qualifying for the fi-nals in Dearborn, MI. After diagnosingand repairing the problem, teammatesdrove across the finish line. StacyWilliams and Christopher Corneliusfrom Clinton High School took firstplace. They will represent Mississippi atthe national finals in Dearborn, MI, June13–15.

Longtime Wrecker’s LicenseGone in Flowery Branch, GA

High Schoolers Compete tobe Top Auto Technician

Although I know better than being sur-prised about issues that never seem to goaway, it still puzzles me how we can holdon to some for as long as we do.

Open clearcoat blends have been at-tempted and discussed for many years andnot once since the departure of lacquer typetechnology has anybody with technicalknowledge decided that they are a reallygood idea. Granted, from a non-technical,purely financial point of view, they appearworth exploring. Fewer products appliedshould theoretically lower the cost of therepair, but the reality is quiet the opposite.

Let’s pretend, for the sake of conver-sation, that an open clearcoat blend withina panel would actually be durable enoughto last. Prepping the panel for a successfulspot repair is far more involved and laborintensive than a complete refinish of thesurface. As a result, it eats up more ex-penses in labor cost than the additionalclearcoat would ever be worth.

Let’s take a closer look into the preprequirement to make this repair happen.After you thoroughly clean the surface andremove any wax or grease, the body techmust repair the damage very carefully. It’scritical to not unnecessarily disturb anypaint film surrounding the repair. I knowthat it is frequently underestimated, butkeeping a repair small requires a bettertrained technician and a higher skill level.It also takes more time to keep it small.

The next step is key for this type of re-pair to stand a chance of success. It requiresthe shop to pre-polish the paint surface thatyou are going to blend your clear over witha heavy duty compound. This is followedof course by another round of surfacecleaning.

At this point the paint departmentwould prep and prime the repaired areaand, again, spend extra time in the processof keeping it small. After the primer iscured, the surface is being prepped for thepaint and blending process. This processrequires the painter to step the sanding griddown in size as you get further out into thesurrounding surface. The surface prepara-tion also requires the technician to knowexactly where his final blend is going to be.

The clearcoat blend has to be over asanded surface to give it a remote chanceof durability, but it must be fine enough tobe able to be buffed easily, without burn-ing the edge. A successful paint applicationfor this type of repair also requires a higherskill level on the painter’s part and actuallymore time to get it done right. The colormatch has to be closer; there is not muchroom to really effectively blend out a ques-tionable color. Keeping the surface cleanduring paint application is also more criti-cal and time consuming. The very thin, sol-vent-blended clearcoat edge is not givingyou much product to work with when itcomes to buffing out any particles.

Now, after you have successfullyovercome all these hurdles, it is back topolishing the panel for the second time. Inall honesty, clients everywhere have ex-pressed to me that it is sometimes hard toget properly paid for color-sand and buffthe way it is, what are your chances to getpaid twice? If you really take a close lookinto what it takes to perform an open clearblend within a panel, common sense woulddictate that you simply abandon this typeof procedure.

The second part of the equation is thatmost major paint manufacturers will not

warranty an open clearcoat blend. The fail-ure rate on this is too high. The more sunexposure a blend edge will get, the fasterthe deterioration of the edge.

We have all seen the clearcoat blendson sail panels breaking down. Car manu-facturers like Toyota and others clearly ex-press their opinions on this subject andrequire full-panel clear coating on all oftheir vehicles.

If you start thinking about it, it makesgood sense to avoid open blends for morethen one reason. Besides the obvious cul-prits, UV-ray-exposure and chemical fall-out, that continuously deteriorate thepaint’s surface, do you even know whattype of clear is on a vehicle you are tryingto repair?

If you are not sure if the clear coatedsurface of the car is either a pre-flexed, antiscratch, self healing, powder coated ornano technology type clear, then how canyou determine the proper technique orproduct choice?

Different clearcoat technologies havedifferent properties and they may require

customized solutions. Let’s just take a lookat one of those properties that is unique anddirectly related to the specific paint tech-nology on the vehicle. It is the expansionand contraction ratio of the paint film itself.This ratio can greatly impact the blendsdurability.

If the OEM clearcoat expansion andcontraction ratio differs during weather re-lated heat-up and cool-down from that of therefinish product, the super thin transition be-tween both coatings will not stand a chanceto overcome the ongoing physical stress.

By the way, these differences are not aproblem for surfaces that are going to becompletely clear coated! And even if youwould know the exact expansion and con-traction ratios, making this type of repairconsistently work for you will be challeng-ing.

Insurers and shops alike say that theywant the best possible repair and pre-acci-dent conditions for their clients’ vehicles.If this is the case, then why are we stillplaying with the idea of sub-standard re-pairs?


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Paint Management Stefan Gesterkamp is a Master Craftsman and BASF representative who has been inthe automotive paint industry for 27 years. He started his career in a custom shop be-fore turning to collision repair. Stefan graduated from the University of Coatings andColorants in Germany and is the author of “How to Paint Your Show Car.”

AkzoNobel Honors Top Independent DistributorsAccolades for the top 2009 AkzoNobel dis-tributors were given during the closing cer-emonies at the 2010 AkzoNobel IndependentWholesalers Conference. The RooseveltHotel in New Orleans, Louisiana was the lo-cation for the two day program which fo-cused on market trends and businessgrowth opportunities. Awards were given inthe following three key categories:

Outstanding in Winning New Customers:Color and Equipment – Pelham, AL, PF3 PaintSupply –Wixom,MI,Hyman’s Specialty Paint– Chicago, IL, Automotive Color Inc. - Jack-son,MS,Metro Automotive Paint –Miami, FL,Grinstead Group, Inc. – Louisville, KY

Outstanding CSI Achievement:Tri-State Coatings – Shreveport, LA, Ohio

Automotive Supply – Findlay, OH, C & DSupply – Bridgeview, IL

Outstanding Overall Sales Growth:PF3 Paint Supply – Wixom, MI, Profes-sional Automotive Paint – Atascadero, CA,Cajun Color Supply – Broussard, LA, Tri-State Coatings – Shreveport, LA, Automo-tive Color Inc. – Jackson, MS

“2009 marked one of the most chal-lenging years in the history of our indus-try,” noted Doug Holmberg, Director ofSales for AkzoNobel Car Refinishes NorthAmerica.

“Each of the businesses recognized ex-celled due to a high level of knowledge, in-tegrity and professionalism that aremainstays of their businesses.”


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As the two houses of Congress prepareto merge their financial overhaul bills,the Senate voted 60 to 30 to recommendthat the nation’s auto dealers be ex-empted from assisting on customerloans on May 25. Auto dealers havelobbied fervently to escape new regula-tions, arguing that existing regulatorsalready have power to crack down onabusive practices and that the Senatebill would still cover firms that issueauto loans.

The National Automobile DealersAssociation (NADA) President PhilBrady said in a statement, “Dealers acrossthe country are pleased that both the Sen-ate and House are now on record support-ing language which... preservesdealer-assisted financing as an affordable,convenient and competitive source ofcredit. Senators clearly understand thatdealers are not lenders—they do not un-derwrite, fund or service auto loans.”

The vote came as Senate leadersprepared to appoint conferees to meetwith counterparts from the House tohammer out differences between newfinancial rules approved by each cham-ber. The effort will be chaired by Rep.Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who has saidhe hopes to deliver a final bill to Presi-dent Obama by July 4.

Nearly 100 students applied for a Crafts-man tool grant through the I-CAR Educa-tion Foundation this spring, a recordnumber of applicants for a foundationgrant and/or scholarship.

Out of the student applicants, 17 wereselected to receive a set of Craftsman toolsvalued at $575 each. The donated tool kitsincluded a 268 piece Mechanic Tool Setwith Lift-Top Lid Case plus MicrotorkTorque Wrench, a Craftsman 20 pieceSuper-Duty Punch and Chisel Set, and aCraftsman seven-piece Fiberglass HandleBody and Fender Repair Tool Set.

The student winners of the springCraftsman tool grant include: BryceCollins, Daniel Garbee, Christian Garfio,Guy Groth, Tyler Henshaw, Ryan Kelley,Sophanara Khoeun, Michael Laue,Amanda Middlebrook, Brock Miner,

Nicholas Perez, Theodore Schuck, JohnC. St. Denny, Marissa Stegriy, CaraAsh-lyn Stevens, Steven James Tarnowski andEric Vazquez.

“We are thrilled to partner with I-CAREducation Foundation to arm these studentswith Craftsman tools and in turn help themon their journey to becoming professionalsin their trade,” said Laura Sardegna, branddirector for Craftsman.

I-CAR Edu-cation FoundationExecutive DirectorScott Kruger com-mented.

“We thankCraftsman for theirgenerous tool do-nation to the Edu-cation Foundationand joining us inhelping to equipthese future pro-fessionals of theindustry with the

proper tools and equipment. This was thefirst time the Foundation offered a ‘toolscholarship’and we were overwhelmed withapplications from deserving students fromaround country. This incredible responsehelps show students' need for tools for theireventual career within the industry.”

Students Apply For Craftsman Tool Grant From I-CAR inRecord Numbers

BMW has been welcoming visitors andtourists into its Spartanburg, SC, as-sembly plant since the 1990s. But itnow plans to offer a more upscale fac-tory visit for $99 a head.

“The Ultimate BMW Experience,”a reservation-only, three-day-a-weekfactory tour package will include a be-hind-the-scenes guided walk throughthe plant, a tour of the plant’s on-siteZentrum museum and theater, and atwo-hour driving experience at its Per-formance Center driving school acrossthe street.

The luxury-class visitors will haveaccess to rare-vehicle demonstrationsand what the factory is calling “uniqueculinary events.” Spartanburg alreadycharges $7 per person to take a tour intolimited areas of the plant, which buildsthe X5 and X6 models. Drop-ins cantour the Zentrum free of charge. Theplant hosts about 30,000 visitors a year,according to plant spokeswoman BunnyRichardson.

The new tours will provide aconcierge who takes guests into previ-ously restricted areas, like the paintshop and the door line. Richardson saysthe staff will tailor a tour for premiumvisitors; plan the event around speakers,receptions and catered meals

BMW Expands FactoryTour at New Price

Senate Exempts AutoDealers in Regulations

Amanda Middlebrook.

Sophanara Khoeun.


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In a fiscal year marred with recalls andlawsuits, Toyota still managed to re-port a substantial profit these last 12months and expects to earn even morein the coming fiscal year.

Toyota reported a $2.2 billion an-nual profit, up from a $4.4 billion lossthe previous year. This $6.6 billionswing happened despite the recall ofnearly 10 million cars and a 7.7% dipin global sales.

Toyota is still the world’s mostprofitable car company and expects itsnet profit to increase by 48% to $3.3billion in the fiscal year that ends inMarch 2011.

Toyota Makes $2.2B Annual Profit

Sterling Autobody Earns BBB A+

ABRA Auto Body & Glass announcedMarch 17 the appointment of DuaneRouse, currently Executive Vice President& Chief Financial Officer, to the positionof President & Chief Financial Officer.Rouse joinedABRAin 1996 as Vice Pres-ident of Finance, Chief Financial Officer& Treasurer. In 1998 he was promoted toExecutive Vice President, Chief FinancialOfficer, Secretary and Treasurer. Rouse isa Certified Public Accountant with a de-gree in accounting from the University ofWisconsin at LaCrosse. He was employedby Price Waterhouse and held senior man-agement positions in several companiesprior to joining ABRA.

Rouse Named ABRA PresidentBack in March, Insure.com released astudy that revealed the top 20 most- andleast-expensive vehicles to insure inAmerica. Now, more research has deter-mined the top 10 least-expensive vehiclesto insure by class, and Insure.com is nam-ing the least-expensive vehicles to insurein America today by class.

The Mazda Tribute I SUV is theleast-expensive vehicle to insure in theU.S. today when configured with a four-cylinder engine a FWD only. All told, itwill cost you an average of $1070.25 toinsure annually, just $25.01 than the run-ner-up Honda Odyssey LX. Splurging onAWD won't hurt you much, as the four-cylinder Tribute I with AWD is just$1103.29 per year on average and ranksthird. Interestingly enough, the top 20least-expensive vehicles to insure are allvans and SUVs.

Naturally, the Tribute also earns thedistinction of being the least-expensiveSUV to insure as well as the least-expen-sive vehicle to insure overall. In the Carcategory, the boxy Dodge Caliber takesthe win, costing just $1196.27 per year onaverage. The Buick LaCrosse CX andToyota Yaris hatch trail closely behind insecond and third place respectively.

As noted above, the Honda OdysseyLX came in second overall, costing just$1095.26 per year on average. That en-sures it a victory in the Van category as

well. It's followed by a one-two punchfrom Chrysler with the Chrysler Town &Country LX and Dodge Grand CaravanSE in second and third respectively.

Like the Car category, the winner ofthe Truck category didn't land in the topfive overall, or even the top 10. But whilethe Dodge Caliber didn't even make thetop 20, the Truck category winner justsneaked in at number 20 and it's the GMCCanyon Work Truck. When configured asa regular cab model with the four-cylin-der engine and RWD only, it'll run youjust $1152.39 per year on average in in-surance costs. Coming in second andthird are the two-door, RWD ToyotaTacoma and the four-door, RWD Chevro-let Colorado Work Truck.

Insure.com hired pollster QuadrantInformation Services to calculate the av-erage insurance premiums for a single,40-year-old male driver who commutes12 miles to work. This fictional driver hasgood credit, a clean record, a $500 de-ductible on collision and comprehensivecoverage and carries a typical coverageplan consisting of uninsured motoristcoverage, $100,000 of injury liabilitycoverage for one person, $300,000 ofcoverage for all injuries and $50,000 ofcoverage for property damage. Averageswere drawn from rates offered by sixmajor insurance companies for 10 zipcodes in each of the 50 states.

Insure.com Figures Least Expensive to Insure

Sterling Autobody Centers has earnedthe highest possible rating of A+ for itsnetwork of 62 stores repairing over79,000 cars a year from BBB. Busi-nesses are rated on 17 elements includ-ing the length of time in operation,overall complaint history with the BBB,and whether consumer complaints havebeen resolved in a timely manner and ingood faith. Said Nick Notte, SterlingAutobody President, “It is a great honorand privilege to lead a team of over1200 employees who keep customerservice and operational excellence at theforefront of all they do.”

PPG Says 10,000 Techs ConvertedMore than 10,000 technicians across theUnited States and Canada have attendedthe PPG “Convert with Confidence”training program to help their transitionto waterborne basecoat. PPG began theConvert with Confidence program in2007 to provide shop owners, managers,and technicians with training and sup-port before, during and after the conver-sions. Low VOC basecoats will also bemandated for twelve northeastern statesand the District of Columbia as early as2012. It is only a matter of time until wa-terborne systems will be recommendedor required throughout the country.


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Ford Motor Company is promoting thatits vehicles cost less to repair, after a col-lision on average, than all other vehiclesin their segments, according to a newU.S. government report based on insur-ance claims database. Auto insurancecompanies often factor in model-specificclaims data in setting premium costs. Ap-proximately 78 percent of Ford, Lincolnand Mercury models rated at or betterthan the industry average, says Ford.

The National Highway TrafficSafety Administration (NHTSA) 2010Relative Collision Insurance Cost Infor-mation Booklet shows more Ford, Lin-coln and Mercury vehicles lead theirsegments for the lowest collision insur-ance cost than any other automaker. Thereport will be available in all dealershipsthis spring to help consumers anticipaterepair costs that insurers rely on for set-ting insurance rates.

Ford has 10 segments leaders, in-cluding Taurus, Focus and F-Seriestrucks, from the 2007–2009 model years.The NHTSA ratings based on claim costsdata from the Insurance Institute forHighway Safety.

According to NHTSA, Ford’s 10 seg-ment-leading 2009 model year vehicles in-clude: Ford Focus – Small Cars (four-door),

Ford Taurus – Large Cars (four-door), FordF-150 – Large Pickups (two-door), Ford F-150 Super Cab 4WD – Large Pickups (two-door-plus), Ford F-250 4WD – Very LargePickups (two-door), Ford F-250 Super Cab– Very Large Pickups (two-door-plus), FordE-350 Econoline wagon – Cargo/PassengerVans (tied with Chevrolet Express 3500),Mercury Grand Marquis – Very Large Cars(four-door), Mercury Mariner 4WD –Small SUV and Lincoln Town Car – VeryLarge Luxury Cars.

In 2009, Ford opened a Paint andBody Technology Center to leverage thecombined expertise of Ford’s repair andsafety experts, auto repair technicians andinsurance companies to identify designsolutions and repair procedures that willlower repair costs.

“If your vehicle costs less to repair, itgenerally costs less to insure,” said GerryBonanni, Ford damageability collision re-pair senior engineer.

In another key area of vehicle af-fordability, Ford’s resale values outpacedthe industry by rising 23 percent accord-ing to the latest National AutomobileDealers Association auction data. Thegains resulted from stronger demand forFord’s new vehicles and improved qualityand durability ratings.

Ford Leads Industry in Perceived QualityGainsFord Motor Company achieved thelargest gain of any automaker in Auto-motive Lease Guide’s latest PerceivedQuality Score, bringing customer percep-tions more in line with Ford’s improvedvehicle quality.

Ford this month was ranked as themost improved brand in the ALGstudy, showing a 7.6 percent improve-ment since fall 2009, building on gainsover the past two years. Improvingperceptions of Ford’s quality has beena key driver behind Ford’s recent mar-ket share gains and improving resalevalue.

“We have made huge strides in vehi-cle quality in recent years but customerperceptions don’t change overnight – so itis gratifying to see our real-world im-provements begin to fully register withconsumers,” said Jim Farley, Ford’sgroup vice president, Global Marketing.“The benefits of improved perception ofquality are huge – from market share toresidual values and purchase considera-tions.”

ALG noted that Ford residuals haveseen a “huge upswing.” Ford’s averageresidual gained $2,420 (January-June

2010 residual guides) compared to theyear-ago period; the average brandchange was about $615.

“Ford’s goals have been supportedby an entire portfolio of all-new or re-designed products that have been well-re-ceived both in the marketplace andamong automotive critics,” said MattTraylen, chief economist for ALG.

ALG said Ford’s improvement inperceived quality likely can be traced toseveral factors:

* Ford has improved its vehiclequality and launched well-received newproducts

* Ford avoided bankruptcy and ataxpayer bailout unlike its domestic com-petitors

* Ford limited brand-damaging in-centive spending and daily rental fleetsales

ALG noted in particular that the newFord Taurus and Fiesta have been well re-ceived by the press and public.

“Customers want to see that you canbe reliable in your quality month aftermonth, year after year,” Farley said.“Demonstrating steady improvements ininitial and long-term durability over timeis helping us close the gap between per-ception and reality.”

Ford Promotes Favorable Repair and Insurance Cost Data and Leads in Perceived Quality Gain

Six industry leaders were honored at theeleventh annual Most Influential Women inthe Collision Repair Industry awards pro-gram held at the High Museum of Art in At-lanta on Wednesday, April 14, 2010.

Janet Chaney, Stevensville, Montana;Erica Eversman, Bath Ohio; KimberlyHicks, Highland Park, Michigan; Beth AnnMeckel, Glen Burnie, Maryland; LindaSommerhauser, Kansas City, Missouri; andMarcy Tieger, Irvine, California, were hon-ored as the 2010 Most Influential Womenin the Collision Repair Industry.

The awards ceremony marked theeleventh anniversary of the Most InfluentialWomen in Collision Repair. “In the spirit ofsustainability, AkzoNobel is proud to honoran exceptional group of leaders who areworking for the betterment of our industryand our global communities and to provideopportunities for future leaders through theI-CAR Education Scholarship Fund,” saidAkzoNobel Car RefinishesAmericas Direc-tor of Marketing, Tim Loden.

“As the Most Influential Women pro-gram begins its second decade, we continueto recognize the outstanding accomplish-ments of women in a traditionally male-dominated industry,” Loden notes. “Theprogram has helped to establish collision re-pair as an industry that respects diversity andrecognizes contributions despite gender.”

The Most Influential Women in CollisionRepair 2010 represent the leadership and in-fluence of women throughout the industry,including collision repair shops, industry as-sociations, manufacturers, distributors, andpublic affairs. The winners are as follows:

● Janet Chaney, owner of Cave CreekBusiness Development, brings a variety of ex-periences in the collision repair industry to herwork with collision repair shops, state associ-ations, and a group of auto recyclers. Chaneyis secretary of the NationalAuto Body Coun-cil and co-chair of the PRIDE award.

● Erica Eversman is founder and chiefcounsel of Vehicle Information Services, Inc.,

a company that pro-vides information ondiminished value ofautomobiles to insur-ance companies, fi-nancial institutions,government agencies,and consumers.Eversman is a nation-ally recognized indus-try advocate and anexpert on the legalrights and responsi-bilities of the collisionrepair professional.

● As presidentof Micro Rim, Kim-

berly Hicks manages the only U.S. ownedmanufacturer of automotive replacementbumpers, and she oversees more than 100employees at two plants. Active in promot-ing quality aftermarket parts, she serves asa board member of the Automotive BodyParts Association and Overseas AutomotiveCouncil, and other industry groups.

● Beth Meckel, body shop manager forMile One Collision Center in Glen Burnie,Maryland, has helped to increase the shop’sbusiness with her professional knowledgeand outstanding management skills.As a craftadvisor at area vocational/technical schoolsand segment leader and judge for Maryland’s

Skills USA competition, she is committed totraining and mentoring young students to pre-pare them for successful careers.

● Linda Sommerhauser, owner of Au-tobody Color Company, Inc., manages asuccessful auto paint business with four lo-cations. Her influence is felt nationwide asa founding member of Society of CollisionRepair Specialists (SCRS) and the firstwoman to serve on the board of Automo-tive Service Industry Association. A mem-ber of the Women’s Industry Network, sheis personally involved in bringing youngwomen into the industry.

● Marcy Tieger, managing director ofSymphony Advisors, LLC, consults withcollision repair shops, suppliers, and insur-ance claims organizations. A former attor-ney, Tieger frequently lectures andcontributes articles to industry publications.She is a founding member and board mem-ber of the Women’s Industry Network(WIN), a trustee and officer of the CollisionIndustry Foundation, and a member of theCollision Industry Conference (CIC), In-dustry Relations Committee.

Akzo Nobel continued its awarding ofa scholarship of $25,000 in the name of theMost Influential Women to the I-CAR Ed-ucation Foundation. The funds will be usedfor prospective female students pursuing acareer in the collision repair industry.


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Left to right in the photo are: Marcy Tieger, Irvine, CA; Kimberly Hicks, HighlandPark, MI; Janet Chaney, Stevensville, MT; Linda Sommerhauser, Kansas City,MO; Erica Eversman, Bath, OH; and Beth Meckel, Glen Burnie, MD.

Nearly two decades ago, Jeep invented thepremium sport-utility vehicle segmentwith the introduction of the Jeep GrandCherokee. Now Jeep delivers an all-newGrand Cherokee for 2011 and ChryslerGroup has released images of the all-new2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, as a flagshipsymbol of the new Chrysler.

“The production launch of the all-new2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee signals the re-birth of the Chrysler Group,” said SergioMarchionne, Chrysler Group LLC CEO.

“The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a signa-ture vehicle for Chrysler. It represents thebest of this Company, the direction we’removing toward producing high quality,technologically advanced vehicles. We areconfident the Grand Cherokee will receivethe proper recognition for what it stands forwhen it hits the road in June.”

Production began on May 21, 2010.

Capability highlights include a choice ofthree 4x4 systems, new Jeep Quadra-Lift™Air Suspension and Selec-Terrain™ sys-tems and towing capability of 7,400 lbs.There’s a new independent front and rearsuspension systems and a new body struc-ture that dramatically increases torsionalstiffness. The 2011 Grand Cherokee featuresChrysler’s all-new 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 en-gine with an 11 percent improvement in fueleconomy and delivers up to 23 mpg andmore than 500 miles on one tank of gas.The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is built atthe Jefferson North Assembly Plant (JNAP)in Detroit. The nearly 3-million-square-footassembly plant has been the site of GrandCherokee production since its introductionin 1992. JNAP went through a completetransformation as part of World Class Man-ufacturing (WCM), an extensive and thor-ough process to restore all Chrysler Groupfacilities. JNAP employees have plannedand executed hundreds of projects aimed atimproving the work environment, maxi-mizing quality, minimizing waste andpreparing for the new product. JNAP is pro-ducing the new Grand Cherokee in an all-new flexible body shop that will deliver themost precise body dimensions ever built.Chrysler Group invested $686 million onthe Grand Cherokee program. Chrysler isthe only automotive manufacturer still pro-ducing vehicles in the city of Detroit.

Chrysler Unveils 2011 Grand Cherokee

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is available in Laredo, Lim-ited and Overland models and arrive in Jeep show-rooms in the USA next month.


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For the fourth time in the last year, aHinds County, Mississippi circuit judgehas ruled against the city of Jackson incases involving a police chase. The lat-est ruling comes from a lawsuit filed bya former Richland police officer overinjuries he suffered in 2004 when a carbeing chased by Jackson police struckhis personal vehicle.

Senior Judge Swan Yerger, in anopinion filed May 7, awarded $375,000to Basil Thornton, 44, who said he wasforced to resign from the Richland Po-lice Department, where he had been apatrol sergeant, because of the resultinginjuries. The injuries included a frac-tured vertebra, a broken foot, ankletrauma, a concussion, lacerated facialmuscles and other cuts that left exten-sive scarring on his face.

But the city's delegal department isasking the judge to split the damagesamong two other parties involved in thecrash.

“The court finds, from a prepon-derance of the evidence, that the proxi-mate cause of the subject accident andthe plaintiff's injuries, resulted from theaforesaid reckless conduct of the Jack-son officers,”Yerger wrote, including“deliberate disregard of the unreason-able risk involved.”

Jackson, MS, Loses Fourth PoliceChase Case in past year

A horrific crash that killed 11 people inCentral Kentucky last March 25 wascaused by a tractor trailer owned by Hes-ter Inc. and driven by Kenneth Laymon,of Jasper, AL. The Federal Motor CarrierSafety Administration gave Hester Inc. a“deficient’’ rating in February based onthe company’s 30 drivers during the past30 months repeatedly failing roadside in-spections. The Motor Carrier Safety Ad-ministration’s “SafeStat’’ program ratesthe driver violations history of everytrucking line. The agency’s Web site saidthe SafeStat scores are used to identifywhich drivers and trucks should be in-spected, based on the safety history ofthe carrier.

The tractor-trailer Laymon wasdriving had been cited for problems withits lights, brakes and emergency equip-ment during six roadside inspectionssince 2008, according to the records. Thetruck had no citations in 2009 or 2010,including a clean roadside stop about amonth before the fatal wreck, recordsshow. Scott Hester, the owner of theFayette, AL., trucking company, declinedcomment, but Hester hadn’t had a fatalaccident since 2007, federal recordsshowed. During that time, the companyhad three wrecks, just one involving in-juries.

AL Trucking Company in Fatal KYAccident: Poor Safety Record

For all the productive work by the Ala-bama Legislature in the just-ended 2010session, a bill outlawing texting whiledriving didn't make it to the floor for afinal vote.

State Sen. Roger Bedford blamedthe conservative Alfa Alabama FarmersFederation insurance group, which sup-ported the original bill. Bedford and oth-ers had added a provision saying ifsomeone is texting and collides with an-other car, the texting driver is presumedto be negligent. Alfa officials said thenegligence language had never been inany Alabama traffic law and the com-pany was concerned about the legal im-pact. Officials with State Farm said theinsurance company would have pre-ferred to omit the language but was OKwith it for the "greater good" of passingthe bill.

The trial lawyer organization, Ala-bama Association for Justice, supportedthe negligence language but was willingto remove the provision if it would helpthe bill pass. The House sponsor, Rep.Jim McClendon said Bedford wouldn'tbudge. McClendon sponsored a simplebill that levied only a $25 fine on firstoffense. An amendment to allow asearch of the car after a stop for textingwhile driving was defeated.

Negligence Language in AL billKills Anti-Texting Legislation

The Gulf continues to brace for whatcould be the world's biggest ever oilspill the week of May 23. Alabama,Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana arebuffered by a string of barrier islandsthat provide the first line of defenseagainst Gulf storms but heavy tar iswashing up on Alabama's Dauphin Is-land while Mississippi and Louisianacoastal areas are beginning to see moreoil coming ashore. It’s natural to fear theupcoming hurricane season, usuallyJune through November. Heavy barri-ers that ride below the surface are beinginstalled but a tropical storm couldnegate the anchored oil booms on thefloor of Mobile Bay, allowing a stormsurge to penetrate to the coast.

However, some experts believe theoil could actually help slow the likeli-hood of a hurricane forming by puttinga barrier between the atmosphere andthe ocean.

“The oil would have the effect ofsuppressing evaporation of ocean waterinto the air,” said Dennis Feltgen, me-teorologist at the National HurricaneCenter. Tropical storms need warmocean water to fuel their development.But Feltgen emphasized the effectwould be only in the formation of astorm below 40-mph winds

Hurricanes and Oil Spills are a BadCombination, or Not?

industries, mainstays of the southLouisiana economy, but other industries

may bgin feeling the affects as time goeson. Undoubtedly the tourism industry ofhot spot summer vacation states will begin

to feel the impact of thisspill.

Though a total shut-down of the shippinglanes is unlikely, therecould be long delays ifvessels are forced to waitto have their oil-coatedhulls power-washed toavoid contaminating theMississippi. Some cargoships might choose to un-load somewhere else inthe U.S., possibly drivingup costs.


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tablished in the Department of the Treas-ury under the Terrorism Risk InsuranceAct of 2002;• to coordinate federal efforts and developfederal policy on prudential aspects of in-ternational insurance matters, includingrepresenting the United States, as appro-priate, in the International Association ofInsurance Supervisors (or a successor en-tity) and assisting the secretary in negoti-ating International Insurance Agreementson Prudential Measures;• to determine whether state insurance meas-ures are preempted by International Insur-ance Agreements on Prudential Measures;• to consult with the states (including stateinsurance regulators) regarding insurancematters of national importance and pru-dential insurance matters of internationalimportance; and• to perform such other related duties andauthorities as may be assigned to the of-fice by the secretary.

The Office of National Insurance isalso required to conduct a study within 18months of enactment and report to theCongress on how to modernize and im-prove insurance regulation:• In General - Not later than 18 monthsafter the date of enactment of this section,the director shall conduct a study and sub-mit a report to Congress on how to mod-ernize and improve the system ofinsurance regulation in the United States.• Considerations - The study and reportshall be based on and guided by the fol-lowing considerations:• Systemic risk regulation with respect toinsurance.• Capital standards and the relationship be-tween capital allocation and liabilities, in-cluding standards relating to liquidity andduration risk.• Consumer protection for insurance prod-ucts and practices, including gaps in stateregulation.• The degree of national uniformity ofstate insurance regulation.• The regulation of insurance companiesand affiliates on a consolidated basis.• International coordination of insuranceregulation.• Additional Factors - The study and re-port required under paragraph (1) shall

also examine the following factors:• The costs and benefits of potential federalregulation of insurance across various linesof insurance (except health insurance).• The feasibility of regulating only certainlines of insurance at the federal level,while leaving other lines of insurance tobe regulated at the state level.• The ability of any potential federal regu-lation or federal regulators to eliminate orminimize regulatory arbitrage.• The impact that developments in the reg-ulation of insurance in foreign jurisdic-tions might have on the potential federalregulation of insurance.• The ability of any potential federal regu-lation or federal regulator to provide robustconsumer protection for policyholders.• The potential consequences of subject-ing insurance companies to a federal reso-lution authority, including the effects ofany federal resolution authority- on the operation of state insurance guarantyfund systems, including the loss of guarantyfund coverage if an insurance company issubject to a federal resolution authority;- on policyholder protection, including theloss of the priority status of policyholderclaims over other unsecured general cred-itor claims;- in the case of life insurance companies, theloss of the special status of separate accountassets and separate account liabilities; and- on the international competitiveness ofinsurance companies.- such other factors as the director deter-mines necessary or appropriate, consistentwith the principles set forth in paragraph (2).

• Required Recommendations - The studyand report required under paragraph (1)shall also contain any legislative, adminis-trative, or regulatory recommendations, asthe director determines appropriate, to carryout or effectuate the findings set forth insuch report.• Consultation - With respect to the studyand report required under paragraph (1),the director shall consult with the NationalAssociation of Insurance Commissioners,consumer organizations, representatives ofthe insurance industry and policyholders,and other organizations and experts, as ap-propriate.

To view a complete summary of thelegislation, along with the full text, visitASA’s legislative website atwww.TakingTheHill.com.

a ‘jury of our peers’ to decide who did whatto whom and why. I believe this recent rul-ing by the Appellate court is telling StateFarm that our case has merit and you’d bet-ter make this go away or else.” They (thecourt) could have merely declined to address

it and they didn’t. We have a great deal oftime and resources invested and I’m not giv-ing up until we have exhausted every avenueof the legal system to reconcile the damagesand harm State Farm has caused our family,my business, my employees and our cus-tomers.”

The mediation is currently scheduled forJune 10th in Florida.

Continued from Page 1

House Passes Act


Gunder’s Case


Oil Spill

Oil is seen on an island near the Mississippi Riveron the coast of Louisiana on May 21

A map by infographic shows the extent of the oilspill in the Gulf Coast

Workers construct a dam to prevent more oil from entering wetlandson Elmer's Island in Louisiana, on May 20


STOP! DON’T THROWYOUR $$$$ AWAY

DON’T BUY A NEW SPRAY GUNDON’T BUY A NEW SPRAY GUN

Why replace your favorite paint gun because it’s not sprayingproperly. For a fraction of the cost to replace new you can haveit cleaned & rebuilt by professional spray gun tech’s. With over35 years of expertise in spray gun technology Paul MastersSpray Gun Repair will have you spraying again in no time. Forthe first time you can have what was once only available to Prosto take care of your $$$$ maker.

We stock hundreds of discontinued and very hard to find parts.Send your old spray gun in for a free no cost estimate. We alsosell new & used name brand spray guns and accessories atremarkable savings.

www.spraygunrepair.comwww.spraygunrepair.comwww.spraygunrepair.com

We accept: Visa, Mastercard & American Express

For brands servicedor free advice visit

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We are currently lookingto renew or establishnew jobber accounts.

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Step-1. Start by brushing theoutside of the air cap using theGP brush.

Step-2. Locate the needle in yourseven piece needle set that fitsthe air holes in the face of the aircap and make sure they are open.

Step-3. Locate the appropriatebrush in the five-piece mini brushkit and clean the center hole ofthe air cap (fluid passage).

Step-4. Using the same kit,clean the air horns of the cap(front and back).

Step-5. Use the 3/16-in. endbrush to clean the inside of thefluid tip.

Step-6. Using the five-piece minibrush kit, clean the needle seat(center hole) of the fluid tip.

Step-7. The same kit is used forcleaning all the air holes in thefluid tip.

Step-8 and 9. A brush in the same kit is also used to clean all the airholes in the baffle (front and back). Wipe your needle and lubricate. Besure to lubricate the needle packing, air valve and trigger stud. The besttime for this procedure is a Friday afternoon so your equipment is readyfor use at the start of the next week.

Paul Masters, the owner of Spray Gun Re-pair Inc. of 344 Chase Rd in Thompson,Connecticut, has been rebuilding andcleaning Spray Guns since 1976.

At that time, he was working at hisfamily-owned business, Masters AutoBody Supplies, where he learned to rebuildand properly clean spray guns to meet cus-tomer needs and to extend the useful lifeof their automotive paint spray guns.

Masters has heard the same storiesfrom spray gun users in applications as dif-ferent as furniture and cabinet refinishersto auto painters. He knows the prevailingattitude is “When my spray gun stopsworking properly, I toss it under my benchand buy a new one.”

This he knows to be a senseless wasteof time and money. He’s identified fourbasic levels of spray gun maintainance:daily lubrication, periodic maintainance(best performed at the end of the workweek), thorough cleaning (if the periodicmaintainance doesn’t prevent the problem),and eventually rebuilding the spray gun (re-placing all the gaskets, seals, and packings).

Masters views his business as bothlean and green, in the same way a shopwould view any more efficient, cost effec-tive process. But he sees even greater de-mands now given the new EPA regulations

for efficient transfer, whether a shop isspraying waterborne or solvent, or both.

Replacing a good gun that only needscorrect service is both expensive andwasteful. You can recondition a gun for afraction of the cost of replacing it.

Evolution of The CompanySpray Gun Repair Inc. has been in busi-ness since February 1995, and the com-pany has literally exploded in size. Startingwith only a few customers, Spray Gun Re-

pair now has well over 2200 customersthat request Paul Masters’ services on aregular basis. The great majority of thosecustomers are jobbers and warehouses thatneed a good and reliable high qualitycleaning facility that Spray Gun RepairInc. provides.

With his numerous skilled employeesand state of the art cleaning and repair fa-

cility, Paul Masters of Spray Gun RepairInc. is known throughout the industry asthe place to send your guns to be repaired.

State of The Art ServiceWith the requirements of the customer in-creasing, and speedy service a big part ofthose requirements, the company hasadapted to the demands of its customers.With the introduction of computers andstate-of-the-art software, Spray Gun Re-pair Inc. can handle any sort of request

with the professionalism and respect thecustomer is looking for. The advancedcomputer and diagnostic network systemsemployed at Spray Gun Repair Inc. canhelp the customer realize full value fromhis or her investment in the equipment.

Not unlike a comfortable pair ofshoes which fit better in the latter half oftheir life than when they’re being broken

in, a good and familiar spray gun performsbetter and more consistently than an unfa-miliar one, regardless of the new ones’quality.

With multiple workstations and startof the art shipping software, the companycan record when the spray gun was re-paired, shipped to, received by whom andwhat parts were utilized. This gives thecustomer a tremendous amount of infor-mation and the assurance that his or hercompany will receive the spray gun ontime and in good condition. If future re-pairs need to be made, this data is helpfulin diagnosing and forestalling any new re-pairs.

Over the years, Paul Masters hasshared his knowledge of spray guns inmany ways. He has been featured in avideo called How to Master your SprayGunwhich is an informative demonstrationof how to rebuild various Models/ Brandsof spray guns. Produced by Spray Gun So-lutions Inc. of Arvada, CO, and availableat his website: www.spraygunrepair.com.

Below is Masters’ recommended pro-cedure for periodic maintainance. To reada more complete version of “The ABCs ofSpray Gun Maintainance” contact PaulMasters at his website, or call toll free:888-452-1095.

Spray Gun Repair Inc. Helps Customers Get Full Value from their Guns


Caddo Career & Technology Center, a vo-cational high school in Shreveport, LA,was named the Tomorrow’s Techni-cian/Chicago Pneumatic 2010 School ofthe Year.

Students’ training begins outside theclassroom, where instructor Mike Falknerand other instructors greet them at thedoor with a firm handshake and a goodmorning. Shirts must be tucked in, nametags must be visible and they’re remindedto look people in the eye when theyspeak.

“We run our class just as though theywere going to work,” said Gary Weese,who with Falkner teaches students abouteverything under a car from bumper tobumper.

On hand to present the award andtools to the school were representativesfrom Tomorrow’s Technician, programsponsors Chicago Pneumatic and WIX Fil-ters and custom hot-rod designer, builderand painter Rich Evans of HuntingtonBeach Bodyworks.

More than 300 applications from sec-ondary and community colleges were sub-mitted for the contest, which recognizesthe top automotive technical schools andinstructors throughout the country. Thiswas the first time a high school has wonthe award.

Stevens said the selection committeereceived a four-inch binder full of heart-felt recommendations from students,teachers, parents and community membersabout the school’s program. Student-teacher ratio, graduation rates and awardsand recognitions also were considered.

“It’s impossible to get a job at a deal-ership without this (program),” said sen-ior Jacob Miller. His internship atMansfield Auto World will transition intoa full-time job next month as an automo-tive technician.

About 80 students are in the automo-tive technology program and, yes, thereare a few girls.

“They really want this program towork, and it has gotten better everyyear,” said Bobby Frugé, assistant serv-ice manager at Chevyland on YoureeDrive.

The dealership recruits and hires in-terns from the program every year, saidFrugé, who meets quarterly with nearlylocal 20 service managers to discussways to improve the training program.Students interview with local dealershipsand are selected for summer internshipsthat often lead to full-time jobs. Strong

relationships with the business commu-nity has led to more than $400,000 worthof equipment and cars being donated tothe school.

The program was the first in the stateto receive the National Automotive Tech-nician Education Foundation certification,and students have competed and placed invarious tournaments, including the FordAAA in Alexandria and the National Au-tomotive Technology Competition in NewYork.

Besides the bragging rights of beingnamed the nation’s best automotiveschool, CC&TC will also receive: $10,000in Chicago Pneumatic Tools; $5,000 inWIX Filters; one-day WIX FiltrationLearning Experience at the school; a tripfor 4 to Charlotte, NC; one-day WIX In-stitute of Filtration Technology and WIXFactory Tour; Joe Gibbs Racing Tour andChicago Pneumatic tool demonstration;and Chicago Pneumatic and WIX Filtersgear.

See also Rich Evans’ column this issue.

Shreveport, Louisiana’s Caddo SchoolNamed ‘2010 School of the Year’

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


Precision Body Shop & Detail, with twolocations in Colma and San Rafael, CA,has grown rapidly, with more and morecars coming through every month. Havinglots of work can be a blessing or a curse,because organizational and productionbottlenecks can arise in minutes within abusy work environment.

Precision has not only survived, butthrived during a recession. They give alot of credit to Mitchell InternationalInc. and the decision to adopt their mar-ket-leading business management sys-tems.

Precision Body Shop & Detail wasstarted 10 years ago with just three em-ployees detailing cars primarily for newcar dealerships throughout the Bay Area.In 2004, Precision’s dealerships started in-quiring about doing minor body work ontheir fleets and the company jumped at theopportunity.

“We started out doing primarilypaint, panel and hanging bumpers to gowith our detailing for dealerships,”Caprini said. “Then, we realized weshould do it all. So, starting in ’06, webegan pursuing all forms of collision re-pair and it’s been a great business modelfor us.”

Caprini and his partner Lou Hanhanhave tapped into their complementaryskills to create a company that makes aprofit and is poised for expansion.

“I’m more of a numbers person and aproduction process guy and Lou is veryconnected to the car dealerships in thisarea, so we make a very effective team. Ontop of that, we have an excellent crew.They’ve definitely played a major role inour success,” Caprini said.

Today, Precision does nearly $4 mil-lion in sales annually and employs 59people working out of two locations to-taling 22,000-sq.-ft. The Colma locationwill be expanding with an additional ad-

jacent 6,000-sq.-ft of space within theyear.

Precision’s relationship with Mitchellhas been highly beneficial for controllingand monitoring the company’s productionflow.

“You can’t store 120 cars everymonth in your head. You’re going to losetrack of where each vehicle is in the repairprocess, if you can’t accurately keep thisinformation in one location that you canaccess and alter easily. That’s what theMitchell’s RepairCenter brought to ourbusiness and it’s proven to be invaluable,”Caprini said.

Precision initially purchased the Ul-tramate Estimate program then added Re-pairCenter last year, and the shop hasalready seen some significant improve-ment on several fronts.

“We’ve used their RepairCenternow for about seven months and it’sbeen a great experience. They helpus manage the entire day-to-day re-pair process and give us real-timecontrol and analysis of everythingwe do. It’s quickly become a big partof our lives around here and it’s pro-vided us with a shop’s single inte-grated access point. That’s maybethe most important thing. Every tech,painter and estimator accesses iden-tical updated information, so we’reall on the same page all the time,” hesaid.

According to Mitchell, “TheRepairCenter is the collision repair in-dustry’s first single shop workspace tomanage the repair, the customer and thebusiness—and just about everything inbetween. RepairCenter’s repair and op-portunity management capabilities helpshops to capture more business, identifyworkflow bottlenecks and improve func-tionality.”

When Precision added Mitchell Re-pairCenter in order to access all of the pro-gram’s additional features the shop

wanted to incorporate, it proved to be awise decision. Caprini feels that the Re-pairCenter is indispensible to his opera-tion.

“It’s been a huge part of everythingwe’re doing here,” Caprini said. “I look at

it a minimum of 6–10 times every day. It’sour lifeline and we love it because it’s al-ways on. The most important things itdoes for us are by acting as a virtual real-time whiteboard; the parts management

and vendor management aspects are alsovery important, because it helps us to ef-fectively order, receive and track parts. Bymaking our daily lives easier, Mitchell hasallowed us to concentrate on otherthings—like acquiring new business andcutting our cycle times.”

One of the main benefits Caprini ap-preciates about Mitchell includes thetraining his shop received when they con-verted to RepairCenter.

“Mitchell’s trainer came here forthree full days and made an extremelyprofessional presentation. He was easy towork with as he trained our entire front of-fice staff. He answered all our questionswhile he was here on-site, and was avail-able for follow-up questions for severalweeks afterward. We can call them any-time and they’re quick to get back to us. Ifwe ever have an issue, they’re right there

to help us and that’s so important.”A series of how-to videos produced

by Mitchell also provided Precision withvaluable ongoing education.

“Their videos are excellent. You canget a grasp of what they’re doing quicklyand easily. We refer them to them all thetime and our estimator and office managerdon’t have to deal with that whiteboardever again, because everything is rightthere on the RepairCenter. Their lives areeasier now thanks to Mitchell,” he said.

Three months ago, Precision alsoadded Mitchell’s Shop Clock, adding fur-ther track ability to its shop.

“Now we’re able to see how long ittakes take to do each job. If a repair takes10 hours, for example, I can see wherewe’re at right there on the computerscreen. If we’re ahead or behind on anyrepair, we can make changes on the fly,because the Shop Clock feature keeps uscurrent and allows us to anticipate whatwe need to do to get it done within the al-lotted hours.”

“Our cycle times are much im-proved and we’re able to better manageour shop overall. We’re doing 25% morework, yet we haven’t had to hire anyonenew. Our efficiency is up and our pro-ductivity is the best it’s been. So, we’refeeling more confident about pursuingmore business, because we know we cando it and do it well. Instead of spendingall our time dealing with problems,we’re producing great work and Mitchellhas played a significant role in our suc-cess.”

Precision Body Shop & Detail245 Collins AvenueColma, California 94014

2nd location: 623 Irwin StreetSan Rafael, California 94901(650) 992-9775

California Shop Credits Mitchell’s Ultramate and RepairCenter for Managing Growth

Precision Body Shop & Detail Co-owners Anthony Caprini(left) and his partner Lou Hanhan attribute improved pro-duction to adopting Mitchell’s RepairCenter system.

Precision’s Body Prep Techs (from left) Robert Lucero, Manuel Lucero and Alejandro Perez.

The detailing crew at Precision processes approximately 300 vehicles per month.

with Ed AttanasioShop and Product Showcase Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in

San Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

A local collision shop recently set up atable at a Volvo dealer’s Customer CarCare Clinic on a Saturday. While not theexclusive authorized repair facility for theVolvo dealer, the shop does a fair amountof repair work for the dealership’s cus-tomers. The cost for the body shop for pig-gybacking on the Volvo dealer’s event wasvery little. Two people attended to pass outT-shirts, pens, and other specialty items.They also prompted questions from atten-dees on the condition of their vehicle’s au-tobody, and offered a free diagnosis forpaint wear, structural problems and more.Several potential jobs came out of thesediscussions.

With business volume and profitsdown these days, shops need to look forways to cut costs and this includes mar-keting. Generally when business is slowthe last expense a shop should cut is mar-keting, but piggybacking is a great wayto stretch those marketing dollars. Thissame shop took advantage of another op-portunity to share in an inexpensiveevent at a local high school. The schoolheld a driver awareness day sponsored bythe Department of Motor Vehicles, theAuto Club and a local TV station. A per-sonal connection enabled the shop to setup an information table during the event.Since schools in this state no longer offer

driver training programs, there is a goodopportunity for collision shops to pro-mote opportunities for events like this inlocal high schools. An insurance partneris likely to participate, and it shouldn’t betoo difficult to recruit a local drivingschool and possibly even a towing com-pany to join in.

Another shop has capitalized on astrong relationship with the owner’schurch congregation. The church has ahigh school and the shop provided freerepairs on a school bus as a contributionthat resulted in an invitation to share in achurch’s community event and to belisted in the church bulletin. Other localcommunity events like parades and fam-ily fair days can provide a shop with anopportunity to have an information boothand to be listed in any event literature.Most of the costs of attracting attendeesto these events have been covered by thehosting organization, and these are thebiggest costs in putting on any event. Iknow of one dealership where about$10,000 was spent on a one-day openhouse. The cost of catering was far lessthat the promotional costs. The shop pig-gybacking on such events incurs practi-cally no costs by comparison.

Another way to do an inexpensiveevent is to put on a co-op event with an-

other vendor with a similar customerbase. This might be a tire dealer, a glassvendor or an accessory shop, or it mightinclude three or four vendors. The cost-saving advantages are many but mostvaluable of all is the breadth of the com-bined databases for promoting the event.A typical tire shop probably has a data-base of several thousand prior customersand the body shop easily has as many ifnot more. As long as the vendors are notin competition with one another, a singlemailing piece can include every businessparticipating. Bulk mail can keep mail-ing costs down and if the businesses havebeen collecting e-mail addresses, pro-moting the event can be much cheaper.

While piggybacking and co-opevents are by far the least expensive wayto approach marketing events, a shopshouldn’t overlook the advantages to put-ting on its own event. At the Volvo Cus-tomer Car Care Clinic many of theproblems customers asked Volvo techs toaddress were issues easily addressed at acollision center. Headlight alignment,

windshield wiper fixes, tire adjustmentsand other problems with the car’s bodyrather than the motor or mechanical partswere most frequently requested. A bodyshop putting on a Customer Car CareClinic could actually expand to includeprotective coatings, upholstery fixes,dash repairs and other elements generallyaddressed during autobody repair and re-finishing.

As the number of collisions dimin-ishes and other elements reduce the vol-ume of straight repair and refinish workcoming to many shops, a shop ownermight be wise to begin to create animage of the shop as more than just aplace for autobody paint and repair. Au-tomotive shops press customers to comein for an annual mechanical checkup. Aforward looking autobody shop ownercould make a good case for customerscoming in for an annual vehicle interiorand exterior finish evaluation, and witha little creative sales effort turn thoseevaluations into some added annual rev-enue.


On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

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

Save Marketing Money By ‘Piggybacking’

More favorable news for Chrysler Groupon the dealer arbitration front rolled inlast week, with the automaker announc-ing it won three cases and three otherswere dismissed.

Chrysler revealed late last week thatthe arbitrator ruled in Chrysler's favor incases involving Hinckley Dodge inUtah, Tenafly Chrysler Jeep in New Jer-sey and Midway Motors in Massachu-setts.

The cases involving GanleyChrysler, Ganley Dodge and Ganly Eastin Ohio were dismissed.

Thus far in the process, only twodealerships—Deland Dodge in Floridaand Crain Chrysler Dodge Jeep inArkansas— have won their arbitration

cases, Chrysler spokesperson MikePalese told Auto Remarketing.

"Chrysler Group is pleased the arbi-trators agreed with the difficult dealer de-cisions made during the bankruptcyproceedings," officials said in a state-ment. "Chrysler presented evidence dur-ing the arbitration hearings thatdemonstrated the Company employedsound business judgment in restructuringits dealer network.

They added: "Chrysler is confidentthe difficult decisions made during bank-ruptcy will continue to position the com-pany for sustainable success and,ultimately, will enable the company torepay the U.S. taxpayer in a timely man-ner."

Chrysler Gets More Arbitration Wins, Only Two Have Won

at www.autobodynews.com

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This month we begin a new column in Au-tobody News which we’re calling JobberJournal. Our first columnist/contributoris Richard Arnold. In future months we’llbring you additional opinions and invitecontributions from readers.

In my many years of working with a majorPBE Jobber in the Southeast, I have ob-served that many of their shop customersundervalue them. Granted, a small minor-ity of their customers totally understoodthe value jobbers brought to their shop.Over time I watched how this small mi-nority of shops communicated with theJobber sales reps and tech reps and usedtheir knowledge and experience to growtheir businesses. All the while the largemajority of customers just kept on doingthe same bad things over and over and get-ting the same poor results. Albert Einsteincalled insanity the act of “Doing the samething over and over again and expectingdifferent results.” I’m no Einstein, but Ihave to agree on his definition.

I believe a good PBE Jobber is a

friend and ally. A PBE Jobber can be ashop’s best friend or vendor partner. I don’tmean “friend” because they give you thebiggest discount on paint and materials. Imean “friend” in the true sense of theword. A true friend wants to see you suc-ceed, prosper and be happy. The best PBEJobbers want to see all of their customerssucceed, prosper and be happy. When theirshop customers do well, they do well.Make your Jobber your ally and partner.

The collision repair industry is chang-ing at a faster pace now than ever before.New metals, waterborne coatings, leanproduction process, and multi-media mar-keting, just to name a few changes. A goodrelationship with your Jobber can pay bigdividends. Consider them a member ofyour board of business advisors. Ask themfor their thoughts and advice. Their an-swers may surprise and benefit you.

What if your shop could get one morerepair job out per week or even increasethe output by just one more RO permonth? More work should equate to moreprofit. A good PBE Jobber team can help

you increase your business. So instead ofbeating him up for more discounts, listento what he is telling you about how to in-crease your business and productivity.

A good PBE Jobber has many value-added programs to help their shop cus-tomers succeed. Many programs are incoordination with the paint manufacturer(s)they represent and some are straight fromtheir own minds and experience.

Most Jobbers are staffed by experi-enced and knowledgeable personnel whohave worked in and around the collisionrepair industry for years. The one I workedfor had a total combined work experienceof over 1000 years. Why not tap that re-source to your advantage? Just about anyquestion you have related to your shop op-eration can usually be answered by yourJobber. If they don’t know the answer rightaway, a good Jobber will get the answerback to you.

They know how a shop operates andwant to help you cut operating expensesand increase productivity. You just have tolet them help you. Ask questions. My dadalways told me: the dumbest question isthe one not asked. And yes, ask for yourdiscount on paint and materials, but don’tmake this the main issue. If you utilizeyour Jobber properly, the discount will bethe last thing on your mind when you seethe improved bottom line numbers.

According to the latest 2009 industrydata, collision shops (including both DRP& non-DRP) spend on average $2500 permonth just on paint. The average ticket(RO) is right at $2300. The average shopwrites 19 estimates per week, converts67% of them to actual jobs and performs12 jobs per week.

What if a Jobber can show you howto go from 12 to 13 jobs per week? Or helpyou increase the closing percentage from67% to 70% or higher? And what aboutupselling? How much could you increaseyour sales and profits if someone showedyou the many different ways to increaseeach RO just by asking the customer theright questions? A good PBE Jobber cando all of this and more.

As the marketing guy for the Jobber Iworked with, I often went on sales callswhen a shop showed interest in improvingtheir marketing efforts. As we all know,marketing for the majority of collisionshops consists of an ad in the YellowPages. We also know the world is movingfaster than a big, thick paper book is now.

According to the latest data, shops re-port that 77% of their business comes fromword-of-mouth advertising and only 45%

from their DRP. OK, I already admittedI’m no Einstein, nor brain surgeon, norrocket scientist, but this statistic tells me alot. When it comes to advertising, there isnothing better than a word-of-mouth rec-ommendation from a satisfied customer.And you know something else? A goodPBE Jobber can provide you with accessto seminars and training that will show youhow to improve your overall marketingstrategy to increase word-of-mouth adver-tising which will in turn increase yoursales and profits.

The average busy shop will see hisJobber sales representative about once aweek and if you’re a really busy shop,probably more often. These visits fromyour Jobber are your (and your staff’s) op-portunity to ask questions and tap thisvaluable resource. Anything you want toknow about new products, new and betterprocedures, technical questions and more.And the Jobber sales rep can help in thefront office, too. From improving yoursales and marketing efforts to increasingyour closing ratio and improving insurancerelations; your Jobber can help your shopbe the best at what it does.

We’re into baseball season now and Ilove my Atlanta Braves. Just as a majorleague baseball team tries to put togetherthe best talent in spring training to hit thefield in April to win it all, you’re alwaystrying to make sure you have the best teampossible at your shop to win, too. Andwhen the owners/managers of a baseballteam see they have a deficiency, they goout seeking additional talent to shore upwhere they are weak.

Think of your Jobber as a free agenttalent just waiting to be called upon to helpyour team. Whether your shop is weak inproduction, painting, front-end office,sales, marketing or other areas, your Job-ber has the experience and knowledge tohelp improve your team. Just like any greatfree agent in baseball, that talent does notcome at a big discount. But, just like a bigslugger or dominant closer will draw morefans to the ballpark and increase revenuesfor the baseball team, your Jobber is com-pensated by your increased purchases be-cause your shop is growing and improvingits bottom line profits.

So the next time your Jobber sales repvisits your shop, look at him like the acehurler you picked up to be your closingpitcher. Make him feel welcomed in yourclubhouse because you know he’s going tohelp you win. Utilize his talent and experi-ence to the fullest. The Jobber is your friendand he can help make your shop a winner.


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PBE Jobber: Friend or Ally?with Richard Arnold

Jobber Journal Richard Arnold is owner of Key Concept Services, a marketing firm based in Millerville,AL. He has provided marketing services to the collision industry since 1994 and servedas the Marketing Director for Auto Color, Inc., now Finishmaster, in Atlanta, GA. He maybe reached at [email protected] or 256.276.9389.


In an unsuccessful bid for a seat onthe ABPA board, Rob Wagman, of LKQCorporation, told attendees if elected hewould push ABPA to be more proactive onsuch issues.

“I reached out to the association inNovember after the first CIC demonstra-tion, and quite frankly, I didn’t think ABPAdid enough to get out in front of this thing,”Wagman told the 150 people attending theABPA event. “I think on the board I wouldpush to get the association out there, de-fending its membership and really gettingin front of these guys who are coming afterthe industry. If we don’t act soon, I thinkwe’re in a lot of trouble as an industry. If Iwas on the board, I’d want to make sure...that everyone knows we’re a quality in-dustry that’s trying to help the [rest of the]industry and not bring it down.”

Wagman and another potential newABPA board member were defeated in theelection for three open board seats by cur-

rent board members winning reelection.Like Wagman, ABPA Treasurer Jim

Smith, a consultant in the non-OEM partsindustry who was reelected at the meetingto his position on the association’s board,told those at the ABPA meeting that thenon-OEM parts industry is under attacklike at no time since the State Farm partslawsuit a decade ago.

Smith pointed to the Automo-tive Service Association’s meet-ing this spring with seniorofficials from the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Admin-istration (NHTSA) at whichASA reiterated its request that

the agency regulate non-OEM crash parts.“Of all the things that can happen to

our industry, being regulated by the gov-ernment has to be right there at the bottom,”Smith said. “It’s a shame that ASA wouldtry to take our industry in that direction.”

Smith also said the non-OEM parts

industry—even those that sometimes re-sent LKQ/Keystone for its dominant posi-tion in the market—owes the companythanks for its actions in preventing Chess’planned demonstration at CIC about prob-lems with non-OEM hood latches.

“I don’t care if you like LKQor not, but what they did in quiet-ing Toby Chess was absolutelynecessary for our industry,” Smithsaid. “While you may want tokick them in the butt when they’redoing things in your market thatmake you scratch your head, you need topat them on the back when they spend themoney to do the things that make yourbusiness survive,” Smith said.

CAPA’s Gillis addresses distributorsAlso speaking at the meeting, Jack Gillisof the Certified Automotive Parts Associ-ation (CAPA) said he titled his remarks,“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.” He said thecurrent controversy over non-OEM struc-tural parts could have been avoided if dis-tributors had refused to accept anythingbut quality parts.

“Imagine the position you would bein right now if 10 or 15 years ago, you sim-

ply said to your vendors thatyou wanted only CAPA-certi-fied parts,” Gillis said. He saidcomplaints by manufacturersthat getting a part certified by

CAPA is too time-consuming and expen-sive are unfounded.

“What has it cost you that you haven’tinsisted on CAPA certification?” Gillisasked distributors in his address. “What isthe expense to this industry of the contin-

uing attacks against the aftermarket partsindustry?”

Gillis said CAPA began testing non-OEM bumpers over a year ago and pre-sented to its board “data showing significantinconsistency between car company brandparts and aftermarket bumper parts.” He said

“the majority of partswe reviewed did notcompare favorably tothe car companybrand parts,” evensome non-OEM partsthat appeared visuallyto match the OEM.

“The bottomline is that none of uscan look at these

parts and make an informed decision aboutwhether or not they will perform the sameas car company brand parts,” he said.

Gillis said that as CAPA finalizes itsnew certification standard for non-OEMbumper parts, it is working with the Insur-ance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)to perform low- and high-speed crash tests

“what they did in quieting Toby Chess wasabsolutely necessary for our industry”

—Jim Smith of ABPA

“... none of us can look at these partsand make an informed decision aboutwhether or not they will perform thesame as car company brand parts”

—Jack Gillis of CAPA

“of all the things that could happen to ourindustry, being regulated by the govern-ment has to be right there at the bottom”

—Jim Smith of ABPA


ABPAConference

Jack Gillis of CAPA

Autobody News has been reporting for yearson what shops are doing, plan to do and needto do to be both “Lean and Green.” Can amodern shop really be one without the other?

We are about to walk the walk, not justthe talk, in our upcoming issues.

Starting next month,Autobody Newswillbe doing special country-wide coverage on the“lean and green” issues that shops are imple-menting both now and in the future. Our sum-mer theme is “what does it mean to be leanand green?” and we will explore the businessconsequences of what we see as the new normin collision repair and in business in general.

Future cars will be more sensitive to re-pair procedures both in efficiency, safety, andperformance aspects. Safety will involve boththe owner-customer and the shop employees.More attention will be required on how to makeyour shop operate at peak efficiency. To keepup and make a profitable business operate,will be a challenge and an opportunity for shopowners and managers.

As Green as we can beTo reinforce our shared commitment with theindustry we’re going to do the newpaper equiv-alent of going waterborne for our next two is-sues, July and August. All 21,000 shops andrelated businesses will be getting an ultra-green copy of our papers in the mail. We’regoing to change our newsprint to the highestpractical recycled content and make corre-sponding changes in the printing inks we use.No penguins, seals, or additional trees will beharmed in the process.

That’s the green phase, not the lean, andit’s not permanent because we have a betterlong term solution.

Lean and GreenIn September 2010 (our 29th anniversary)we will be making a more permanent changeto Autobody News’ print editions which maymake us look like more of a newsmagazinethan a newspaper. We’re not reducing theregional coverage we offer—quite the oppo-site, we want more regional emphasis.We’re just changing the way it is printed. Atthe same time we will adjust our design totake advantage of a newer, higher tech print-ing process.

We’re going to a slightly smaller formatwith a glossier paper stock to make the paperlighter and brighter.

Come September Autobody News willbe a bit smaller in its page area (trim size). It’sstill going to be environmentally friendly but wewant to take advantage of new technology tomake photos and advertising graphics crisperand higher resolution. Because the paperstock will be lighter in weight we will be able tooffer more pages, and more news items to ourreaders.

Truth be told, we’re also responding toour own regulators—in our case the U.S. PostOffice—which is making “required recommen-dations” (a phrase only a government agencycould coin) to the kinds of publications that gothrough the main mail channels.

Mailing our current editions’ format iseventually not going to be in compliance withthe Post Office’s guidelines so we are facingour expected future now.

We are making our changes in a coordi-nated way so that readers, advertisers, mailcarriers and—yes, business owners—can co-exist profitably. We want you, our readers, toshare in the benefits of a brighter publication.

Autobody News to Walk the WalkAUTOBODY NEWS

SPECIAL ISSUES

Exhibiting at NACE, SEMA, CARS or AAPEX?They are in our backyard!Make sure body shops know where to findyou. Advertise in the leading regional collisionrepair publication, and be seen in the showissues — Free copies distributed at each show.

(July & August)

Exhibiting

at

NACE

,

SEMA CARS

or AAPEX?

(September, October, November & December)(September, October, November

&

NACE & SEMA issuesNACE & SEMA issuesNACE & SEMA issues

Promote how your products and services arehelping body shops do business and prosperin this new Green environment.

What does it to be

ugust)(J

u

J l & A(J

u

and ?

See ABPA Conference, Page 28


www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

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Autobody News June 2010

Three forces combined to reduce the num-ber or cars and light trucks in the U.S. lastyear.

First, new vehicle 2008 and 2009 vol-ume dropped more than 25% from 2007.Second, Cash-for-Clunkers mandated thecrushing of over 700,000 vehicles andeliminated hundreds of thousands of carsand trucks that would have remained inoperation for many years. Finally, the lightvehicle scrappage rate is near record-highlevels.

As a result, U.S. vehicles sufferedtheir first peace-time decline during 2009,and prospects are strong for a further dropthis year.

Vehicle Mileage StrugglesEven with rising numbers of cars and lighttrucks on U.S. roads, annual mileage strug-gled for growth over the past three years.

Notwithstanding the 1.6% increase incar and light truck population during 2007,mileage by all types of vehicles in the U.S.inched-up only 0.5%.

The dramatic 3.4% drop in 2008mileage was recorded despite a 0.5% gainin cars and light trucks on U.S. roads.

Last year, as the light vehicle popula-tion suffered its first decline in more than65 years, mileage by all types of vehiclesincreased a razor-thin 0.2%.

Prospects for mileage growth are notstrong for 2010, given stubbornly-high un-employment rates, low consumer confi-dence, and the likelihood that cars andlight trucks in operation will recede furtherduring the year. Through March 2010,year-to-date mileage by all types of vehi-cles sank 0.7%.

Age Growth Fueled by New Vehicle DropThe average age of cars and light trucks inthe U.S. is soaring.

Light vehicles of all types reachedrecord-high age levels at the beginningof 2010. Domestic car age is skyrocket-ing, driven by new domestic car salesplunging almost 40% during 2008 and2009.

At the beginning of 2010, average ageof domestic cars in the U.S. topped 12years, up one-fifth since 2000.

Rapid growth of vehicles 12 years andolder is generating high rates of vehiclescrappage, which is exerting downwardpressure on the light vehicle population.

Foreign and Domestic Vehicle MixAs the average age of cars and light trucksin the U.S. increases, the age gap betweenforeign and domestic models continues togrow, reflecting the expanding foreign ve-hicle share (imports and transplants) ofnew car and light truck sales.

While domestic vehicles (not includ-ing transplants) currently comprise only45% of 2010 new vehicle sales throughApril, domestic cars and light trucks rep-resent over 75% of vehicles in the highestage groups.

Just as vehicle-crushing mandated byCash-for-Clunkers claimed a much higherpercentage of domestic than foreign mod-els, a disproportionate share of vehicles

currently being scrapped are domestic carsand light trucks.

More Miles on Older VehiclesWhile the possibility of fewer vehicles onU.S. roads during 2010 will create chal-lenges for car and light truck aftermarketproduct growth, more miles accumulatingon older vehicles will help boost light ve-hicle 2010 product volume.'From Aftermarket Insight™ by Jim Lang, President of LangMarketing Resources, Inc., www.langmarketing.com.'

2009 Historic Loss in Vehicle Population

e-mail:[email protected]

800-699-8251

To advertisecall Advertising Sales at:

www.autobodynews.com

Matrix System Teams with Miller Electric to Sponsor Jet Dragster

The 2011 Ford Fiesta, with its the six-speed automatic transmission, has beencertified by the EPA at 40 mpg highwayand 29 mpg city. The five-speed manualtransmission model is rated 23 city and37 highway. Ford is projecting a price of$13,995 when Fiesta hits showroomsthis summer.

At 40 mpg, Ford says Fiesta is fivemiles a gallon better than Honda Fit andfour miles a gallon better than ToyotaYaris.

“The new Fiesta is yet another carin Ford’s lineup that delivers class-lead-ing fuel economy,” said BarbSamardzich, Ford’s vice president ofglobal powertrain engineering. TheMexican-built Fiesta has a 1.6-liter Du-ratec engine with with variable camshafttiming, good for 120 horsepower andthat impressive mpg.

Others in the 40-mpg club are AudiA3 diesel, Ford Fusion Hybrid, HondaCivic, Honda Insight, Mercury MilanHybrid, Smart ForTwo, Toyota Prius,Volkswagen Golf diesel and VolkswagenGolf diesel. All get at least 40 mpg onthe highway.

Ford Fiesta Now in the 40mpg Category

Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists, Inc.(AWRS), the world’s largest mobile wheelrepair company, and Inovex Industries,Inc, the manufacturer of the only provenhigh-speed tire sealant, Ride-On Tire Pro-tection System, announced their strategicalliance givingAWRS the exclusive rightsto introduce Ride-On into the automotivedealership market place. The companywill also distribute to the retail tire, quicklube, and mass merchandiser market seg-ments. “The automotive retail marketplace represents an enormous opportunityfor sales growth,” says Mark Farkhan,CEO of Inovex, “and due to the vast na-ture of this marketplace and the resourcesrequired to penetrate it, we decided that itwas in the best interest of our company toform a strategic alliance with anothercompany that already has sales, market-ing, and distribution channels established.We are extremely excited that we wereable to form a partnership with a companyas committed to providing quality serviceand cutting edge technology as AWRS tohelp expand Ride-On’s reach into this$2.4 billion dollar market segment.”

AWRS and Ride-On FormStrategic Alliance Matrix System Automotive Finishes an-

nounced its shared sponsorship of the jetdragster with Miller Electric and LarsenMotorsports. The vehicle was unveiled onMay 10, 2010 and is expected to draw theattention of the racing community for itsvibrant colors and intricate details.ElaineLarsen, the highly regarded jet car driver,has been a part of the drag racing commu-nity for over a decade. She began racingjet dragsters in 2004 and hasn’t lookedback since. She is one of only a fewwomen in the world who currently drivejet dragsters for a living. Regarded as oneof the nation’s leaders in turbine-poweredrace vehicles, Elaine and Larsen Motor-sports are among the most requested exhi-bition jet dragster teams in North America.

The Miller Jet Dragster features aGeneral Electric Model J-85 engine thatgenerates 2,500 horsepower and a LarsenMotor Sports custom designed afterburnerthat adds another 2,500 horsepower.

The biofuel-powered jet dragsterwill make its debut May 15 – 18, 2010 atthe Cavalcade of Stars located in Nor-walk, OH. This Miller Electric dragsterwas custom designed by Larsen Motor

Sports, fabricated by Worthy Motor-sports, and custom painted by MatrixSystem Automotive Finishes. Overall,the dragster will appear in 11 RegionalRace Events and 4 National Events.

According to the Matrix SystemTechnical Department, they could not waitto start spraying its waterborne basecoat,Aqualution, on the Miller dragster. AsChris Butler, Technical Advisor stated, “IfMatrix System products can be put to thetest to withstand 5,000 horsepower alongwith speeds over 300MPH in less than 5seconds our products can handle any-thing.” This experience has been one thatwe will all remember for a long time.

About Matrix SystemMatrix System Automotive Finishes,headquartered in Walled Lake, MI, hasgrown to become one of the industry’smost successful aftermarket manufactur-ers of high quality clear coats, primers,hardeners, and reducers. With an excel-lent product line, Matrix System has beenable to convince body shops once loyalto a particular brand to convert and expe-rience huge cost savings.


Mr. Gorillalillawith Gonzo Weaver

Gonzo’s Toolbox Excerpted from Scott “Gonzo” Weaver's Book, “Hey Look! I Found TheLoose Nut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age. Thebook is available at amazon.com. Contact Scott Weaver [email protected] and see his website at www.gonzostoolbox.com.

With all the talk about the cars with pushbutton starting systems and the runaway ac-celeration problems it made me think ofwhat everyone has been talking about as thebest method to safely stop a vehicle in theseinstances.

Most everyone will agree that turningoff the ignition is NOT the best solution,however, not everyone can agree onwhether or not a driver in a panic situationwill remember to put the car in neutral in-stead of reaching for key, or that theyshouldn’t turn the key back to the “steering”lock position.

And for those vehicles with push-to-start, would an operator remember that youhave to hold the “start” button down forseveral seconds before the car will shut offunless it’s in park position.

So a lot of these conversations I’m in-volved in cycle back to the steering lockmechanism, which, in a panic situation isthe deadly “lose control” factor. Let’s notforget that during this so-called emergencysituation you might be traveling at close to100 miles per hour, which could be scaryenough without having to worry about shut-ting the car off.

The conversations I get involved in usu-ally end up with whether or not the “generalpublic” will remember and follow the proce-dures each and every time they are in anemergency situation.

This made me think of a situation I hadwith a customer a few years ago. Let’s callhim “Mr. Gorillalilla.” Gorillalilla is a nice

guy and all, but he was a huge musculardude and as strong as an ox. His mid-80’sJeep CJ was equipped with a key and locksetup that allowed you to turn the key offwithout it going all the way to the steeringlock position. There was a lever that had tobe pushed down in order to rotate the keyback to the off position. You could then re-move the key from the ignition lock.

Mr. Gorillalilla had brought his CJ inbecause he couldn’t get the key out of theignition lock. Examining the problem led tothe linkage arms inside the steering columnthat had been bent, which allowed the keyand tumbler to rotate around the lock-outmechanism. No parts were really needed; Ijust had to take it apart and straighten thebent section of the mechanism, then rein-stall everything. He was relieved that theproblem was nothing major and was soonoff on his way.

The very next day he was back, but thistime he wasn’t a very happy rock crawlerlike he was the first time.

“It’s doing the same thing,” he angrilyyelled back to me.

“Hmm, I wonder how that could be,” Isaid, curious as to how it left in perfectworking order but now it’s back they way itwas.

“Let me get it into the shop and checkit out.”

Once I had pulled the steering columnback down to where I was the day before Inoticed the same parts were bent in thesame manner as they were when I first seen

them. Now how can that be? Not knowingthe whole story I went ahead and put every-thing back to working order again.

“Here ya go, I haven’t a clue how inthe world that happened sir, sorry aboutthat,” I said.

Mr. Gorillalilla thanked me for mytime and proceeded to leave. Before he leftthe parking lot he tried it several times tomake sure it was working. It wasn’t long be-fore he was back through the door yellingat me again.

“What do I have to do to get you guysto fix this right?” he shouted at me.

I was totally taken by surprise. I wentout to the parking lot and looked at his prob-lem again. This time he followed me out tohis car. Just a few minutes ago I had person-ally seen the switch move just like it was sup-posed to and I tried it myself several times.

This time, I’m not moving the car. Iwent back into the shop and grabbed mytools. Right there in the parking lot I pulledit down as he watched me perform the op-eration on his steering column. I tried it sev-eral times myself before I let him try it. Assoon as Gorillalilla got behind the wheeland grabbed the key, I knew right awaywhat the problem was. He wasn’t using thelever to release the key mechanism!…Somehow, someway his vice grip handswere strong enough to rotate the key overthe lever mechanism and that was what wascausing all the problems.

The astonishing thing was he couldn’tsee that he was the cause of the problem and

insisted that it was a defect in the column.After all the debating I told him that I couldremove the “safety” and then he could turnthe key off without using the lever anymore.That was fine with him. I tore into the col-umn for a fourth time and removed thelatching arm that was attached to the out-side release lever. Now I want to complain,but complaining about it doesn’t do anygood. This big brute had such strong handshe could pull the tumbler back across thestops. The whole thing could have beenavoided if the vehicle operator was evenslightly aware of how to operate his vehiclecorrectly. It seems no matter how manytimes I run across a problem like this I’mthe one that ends up putting the labor hoursin even though the whole time the problemwasn’t my workmanship but this Gorilla’sbrute strength.

My point about this whole affair?This was a personal experience of a

safety system that failed because the ownerdidn’t follow the procedures, and didn’tseem to notice that the key might feel a tadhard to turn. This wasn’t even a panic situ-ation. I’m glad I’m not the engineer becauseI don’t know how I would solve these issueswe are having with these latest designs andtechnologies (drive by wire). But, when itcomes to adding or changing the systems inthe cars to alleviate problems from the dri-ver’s seat, I hope they go all the way andmake the designs and procedures “Gorilla”proof.

Mitchell International and CCC CrashCourse both produced industry updates inMay and both comment on the impact ofthe declining economy on the insurance in-dustry, among other issues.

In Mitchell International’s secondquarter 2010 edition of its IndustryTrends Report (ITR), Mitchell's VicePresident of Industry Relations, GregHorn, delves into insurance deductibledata from 2003 through 2009 for collisionand comprehensive (excluding glass-only) losses.

“Let’s face it, many of us reason withourselves that we really don’t think we’llfile a claim to justify increasing our de-ductibles because of the concrete benefitwe can see in a lower insurance premium,”said Horn.

Mitchell’s analysis shows that thetrend to light-comprehensive deductiblesis rising at a 160 percent faster rate thancollision deductibles.

In CCC Crash Course’s report moregeneral economic terms over the lastdecade are drawn upon for analysis.

During the first eight years of the lastdecade, the average repair cost for collisionlosses had always increased at a higher ratethan that for liability according to CCCCrash Course. That changed in 2008 and2009, when liability repair costs increased ata higher rate than collision in 2008, and de-clined less in 2009 than collision. These dif-ferences may imply that during a recession,a consumer whose vehicle was damagedduring an accident where another driver wasat fault may opt to handle his/her claimthrough the other insurer versus their own.

How consumers are marketed to byinsurers, shop for auto insurance, purchaseit, and experience the claims process havechanged over the last decade as insurerscompete for market share.

The last decade has also posed signif-icant challenges for the collision repair in-

dustry. Declining accident frequency, moretotal losses and lower dollar repair ordershave meant fewer dollars coming in. Theintroduction of new materials, technolo-gies and regulation has required significantinvestment in new equipment and training.

The recession has further impactedmiles driven, and more consumers are opt-ing to own and/or insure fewer vehicles.Despite the potential for rising employ-ment numbers to increase miles driven,claim frequency declined early in the lastdecade while miles driven were still in-creasing, suggests the industry will not seemuch if any increase in claim frequency inthe coming decade.

Automakers introduced numerousnew technologies in areas such as telemat-ics, crash avoidance, materials, fuel econ-omy and ‘green’ technologies recently.Most of these technologies have been pos-itive contributions to the driving experi-ence, although some are being blamed for

driver distraction and increasing the costof vehicle repair.

As for vehicle sales during the recenteconomic recession, a total of 10.4 millionnew vehicles were sold in the U.S. in2009. The $3 billion government spon-sored program ‘Cash for Clunkers’ gave amuch needed boost to new vehicle salesin August, with consumers exhausting thefunds in a matter of weeks. Auto analystsbelieve the program led to 346,000 addi-tional sales that otherwise would not havehappened in 2009. Also, last year was thefirst in which more vehicles werescrapped than sold. Assuming new vehi-cle sales in 2010 will reach 12 million an-alysts predict, and if the scrappage ratestays steady or drops slightly, we may seescrapped vehicle counts exceed sales fora second year.

The latest Industry Trends Reportmay be downloaded for free by visitingwww.mitchell.com or www.ccc.cccis.com.

Mitchell International and CCC Crash Course Highlight 2010 Industry Changes


CARQUEST returns as a CARS 2010 ex-hibitor, having not exhibited since 2007. Inkeeping with the CARQUEST philosophyof being committed to helping professionaltechnicians stay on top of the latest trends,components, techniques, skills andtools—CARS provides the perfect plat-form. Along with 400 square feet of exhibitspace, CARQUEST will be presenting twotechnical training sessions within theCARS Conference Program. Thesecourses will focus on Domestic Vehicle Se-curity System Diagnosis and ElectronicallyControlled Transmission Diagnosis.

“We are excited to once again sup-port our customers by providing a qualitylearning experience at CARS,” said ChrisChesney, Director, CARQUEST Techni-cal Institute. “Events such as CARS givethe industry the chance to experience thevalue that CARQUEST Technical Institutedelivers on behalf of our CARQUESTAuto Parts Stores. We will also be show-casing our TECH-NET Professional andCARQUEST eServices programs as wellas CARQUEST Virtual Vehicle.”

Bill Haas, ASA vice president, edu-cation and training, added, “It is always apleasure to work with Chris Chesney atCARQUEST Technical Institute. Chrisand his team have a reputation for devel-oping technical training designed to solveproblems technicians are confronted within the service bay. CTI instructors some-

how always manage to make complexsystems simple enough for everyone tounderstand. The addition of CTI techni-cal classes to the ASRW conference willbe a great value for the attendees.”

The ASRW 2010 events will takeplace Oct. 10–13 at the Mandalay BayConvention Center in Las Vegas (no longerduring AAIW). ASRW is a stand-aloneevent specifically created for all automo-tive service and repair professionals, en-abling even more industry segments to joinunder the umbrella. The high-quality edu-cational program is scheduled Oct. 10–13,a Sunday through Wednesday day pattern;and the comprehensive exhibits will beopen from Oct. 11–13, Monday throughWednesday. ASRW currently features theInternational Autobody Congress & Expo-sition (NACE), sponsored by the Automo-tive Service Association (ASA), the onlyevent of its kind designed for the collisionrepair professional, and the Congress ofAutomotive Repair & Service (CARS),also sponsored by ASA, the premier eventfor automotive service professionals.

Many new show features and industryforums are currently in development forASRW 2010. Online registration is sched-uled to open in May and will offer variouspackage options starting at $210 and Exporegistration available for just $15 until theAugust 17 early cut-off. Online housingwill open in early-May for low hotel rates.

CARQUEST Returns to CARS 2010 as ExhibitorEducation opportunities provided by theAutomotive Service Association (ASA)are delivered to repair professionals atthe national, regional and local level.With its affiliate and chapter groups,ASA is the leading provider of educationamong associations of its kind. To helpmembers and nonmembers alike stay in-formed about ASA-hosted education of-ferings in their area or nationwide, ASAhas enhanced the education section atwww.ASAshop.org /smart. Student in-formation, a directory of ASA educa-tional members, shop owner/technicianinformation, a calendar of educationalevents and a list of ASA sponsored ben-efit providers who provide educationand training products and services toASA members are just a few of the en-hancements made to the education sec-tion of the ASA website. The May issueof AutoInc., the official publication ofASA, contains a sneak-peek of the manyeducation sessions scheduled to be of-fered at the association’s annual tradeshows—NACE and CARS—which willbe held during Automotive Service andRepair Week (ASRW) Oct. 10–13, 2010,at the Mandalay Bay Convention Centerin Las Vegas. Additional informationabout ASRW events will be availablesoon. “ASA delivers more education andtraining to automotive service and repair

professionals than any other organiza-tion in the industry,” said Ron Pyle, ASApresident. “We understand that it canoften be taken for granted, but as vehi-cles become increasingly more complexand the business model becomes morechallenging, the need for training andeducation resources will continue togrow.” The ASA Web site also includesconsumer tips, shop locator, and the newASA Marketplace, the association’smember benefits portfolio. Visitwww.ASAshop.org or (800) 272-7467,ext. 295.

Greg Potter, of Dearborn Group Technol-ogy, has been awarded ETI’s 16thFounder’s Award at this year’s ToolTech2010 in Napa Valley, California. The ETIFounder’s Award was established to honorthose individuals who have made numer-ous contributions to the Institute. As withmost trade associations ETI thrives onvolunteerism from its members as well asits business partners. Greg Potter hasdemonstrated unselfish dedication to theprinciples that drive ETI since he beganhis involvement with ETI over 16 yearsago. Potter is currently on ETI’s Board ofDirector’s and Chairs ETI’s Scan ToolVertical Group. He has also served asPresident of ETI’s Board of Directors.

ASA Offers Year-round andNationwide Education

Equipment and Tool InstitutePresents Founder’s Award


Almost everyone in the collision industryhas experienced this scenario: You repaira vehicle – in this case, a Chevrolet® Sub-urban® – to the highest standard possible.The owner takes delivery and drives offsmiling. A few days later, he brings it backwith a noise that he insists was not presentbefore the repair. He describes a buzzingnoise from the right-hand fender.

What do you do? If you have OE in-formation, including technical service bul-letins (TSBs) available to you, you do alittle research. Technical service bulletinsare published by automobile manufactur-ers primarily to identify factory defects,safety related problems and recognized is-sues for which the manufacturer has pub-lished a solution.

As it turns out, the General Motors®

had already issued a TSB describing theexact situation I just described.

Body - Buzz/Rattle From R/H Front Fenderon AccelerationSubjectLoud Buzz or Rattle Noise from RightFront Fender Area on Moderate to HardAcceleration and/or Braking TorquingAround 1800-2000 RPMs or Before 1-2 or2-3 Shift (Install Closed Cell Foam toRight Front Fender)Models:2007-2008 Cadillac® Escalade®, EscaladeESV®, Escalade EXT®

2007-2008 Chevrolet® Avalanche®, Silver-ado®, Suburban®, Tahoe®

2007-2008 GMC® Sierra®, Yukon®, YukonDenali®

ConditionSome customers may comment on abuzz or rattle noise from the right frontfender area on moderate to hard acceler-ation and/or brake torquing around1800-2000 RPMs or just before the 1-2or 2-3 shift.CauseThe radiator surge tank and/or the innerwheelhouse liner may be contacting theright fender.CorrectionAlways refer to ALLDATA® Collision forsafety procedures, identification of mate-rial types, recommended refinish materi-als, and removal and installationprocedures. Always refer to the vehiclemanufacturer for questions relating to ap-plicable or non-applicable warranty re-pair information.Install closed cell foam to the right frontfender using the steps below:Verify the condition.Open the hood.

Remove the air cleaner assembly.Remove the four bolts from the air cleaneradapter bracket.

Remove the air cleaner adapter bracket.Remove the plastic retainer (1) from theright front center inner wheelhouse liner(Figure 1). Cut a piece of closed cell foam,P/N P46510, to 32 mm (1-1/4 in) length.Make a hole in the center of the foam witha 6 mm (1/4 in) drill bit by hand.Install the piece of foam between thewheelhouse liner and the fender from in-side the engine compartment at the re-moved retainer location.

Tip: Line up the hole in the foam with thehole in the fender and wheelhouse liner.Install the plastic retainer into the rightfront wheelhouse liner, foam (1) and thefender (Figure 2).

Mark the two locations on the right fenderwhere the radiator surge tank mountingtabs contact the fender, (Figure 3). Re-

move the nut and bolt from the radiatorsurge tank.Do Not disconnect any hoses or drain thecoolant.Remove the radiator surge tank from thefender retaining slot by pulling upward.Reposition the radiator surge tank awayfrom the fender.Cut three pieces of closed cell foam, P/NP4615, to 50 mm (2 in) lengths.Clean the area above the marks on theright front fender with glass cleaner.

Start by installing the center piece offoam vertically at the hole (1) in the fender20 mm (3/4 in) above the right fender re-taining slot (Figure 4).

When attaching the foam, try to keepthe foam uniform and even across the topfor appearance purposes.

Attach the other two pieces of foam verti-cally with no gaps to the left side and rightside of the center piece of foam as shownabove (Figure 5).

Tip: Use a plastic putty scraper to help pre-vent the rolling of the foam when installing

the radiator surge tank (Figure 6). Install theradiator surge tank plastic tab into the match-ing retaining slot inside the right inner fender.Install the air cleaner adapter bracket whilealigning and centering the front mountinghole for the radiator surge tank. Install thefour bolts for the air cleaner adapterbracket and tighten.Tighten the bolts to 10 N.m (89 lb in).Install the nut and bolt securing the radia-tor surge tank.Tighten the nut and bolt.Tighten the nut and bolt to 10 N.m (89 lb in).Install the air cleaner assembly.Close the hood.Verify that the condition has been corrected.

Written by Dan Espersen, ALLDATACollision Program Manager. Dan is a GoldPin Member of the Collision Industry Con-ference (CIC) and holds an AA Degree inAutomotive Technology. He has 17 yearsof experience in the collision industry and17 years of experience in the automotiveindustry.

©2010 ALLDATA LLC. All rights re-served. All technical information, imagesand specifications are from ALLDATACollision. ALLDATA is a registered trade-mark and ALLDATA Collision is a markof ALLDATA LLC. All other marks are theproperty of their respective holders.

General Motors, Cadillac, Escalade, Es-calade ESV, Escalade EXT, Chevrolet, Ava-lanche, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe, GMCSierra, Yukon and Yukon Denali are regis-tered trademark names and model designa-tions of General Motors. All trademarknames and model designations are being usedsolely for reference and application purposes.

with Dan EspersenALL OEM Information Dan Espersen is ALLDATA® CollisionSM Program Manager. Dan is a Gold Pin

Member of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) and holds an AA Degree inAutomotive Technology. He has 17 years of experience in the collision industryand 17 years of experience in the automotive industry.

Was this Noise Caused by the Repair?

Part Number Description

P46515Adhesive Back Shim Stock

(25 mm x 30 ft roll)[15 mm (9/16 in) thickness]

P46510Adhesive Back Shim Stock

(25 mm x 30 ft roll)[8 mm (5/16 in) thickness]

PART S I N FORMAT I ON


by Ed AttanasioSpecial to Autobody News

Get ready for the craziest, most outrageoushighly addictive automotive show on tele-vision. That’s if and when the pilot for TheAutoholics hits the air in the near future.

Crash Element Entertainment, in LosAngeles, the producers of the new show, istouting The Autoholics as a combination ofthe “Best Damn Sports Show” meets“Martha Stewart,” and is preparing to pitchit to the major TV networks, Creator, Co-Producer, and Co-Host Diggity Dave toldAutobody News.

“We think this show would fit verynicely on Saturday right after the automo-tive racing. We think it’s worthy to be onone of the major networks where it can hitits prime audience every week. We feelthis would be a perfect time of the week-end for automotive fans to watch The Au-toholics.”

Each week, The Autoholics will fea-ture a panel consisting of some top namesin the automotive and entertainment field,including Diggity Dave (credits includePimp My Ride, Battleground Earth); RichEvans (Chop Cut Rebuild, MonsterGarage); Comic Billy Gardell (King ofQueens, My Name is Earl); Bo Butner(NHRA world champion driver), and“Flames” (Host of Ford Motors MustangAlley/Gilpin Auto Sports).

This assemblage of automotive ex-pertise will hold court every week on theirnew and amazing set at HuntingtonBeach Bodyworks, Rich Evans’ shop,that’s been transformed into a rock ‘n rollromper room.

Co-producer Joe Burk has co-createda show designed to entertain, inform, andinstruct its viewers.

“Passion for anything automotive canbecome addictive and this show will pro-vide an array of subjects—from new carson the market, to celebrity car junkies, af-termarket gadgets, to bargain hunting forcars and car parts and accessories—and allthe way to focusing on the best dealershipsin the country. We want to offer informa-tion that car enthusiasts can use and bringvalue to their car building projects,” Burksaid.

Crash Element Entertainment be-lieves this show is both different andgroundbreaking.

“As a production company, we try toapproach things from a fresh perspectiveand coming from Pimp My Ride, I’ve al-ways been looking out there for somethingthat hasn’t been done yet. Joe and I aremajor car guys and we’ve always been try-ing to find a way to explore the idea of ashow that hasn’t been there before. Plus,we both agree that the moment is right fora show like this. The car industry is grow-

ing despite the recession and there will al-ways be an interest in cars, in the after-market and in tricking out cars. So weplanted a seed and now it’s grown into thisshow.”

The format of the show opens with aspirited roundtable discussion called “Rat-tle Off.”

“We kick around topical news bitsand talk about how we feel about thingslike the Toyota recall, for example,” Dig-gity Dave said. “Everyone has their ownopinion on the issues of the day, and we’llbe tackling the automotive news in a bigway that’s also fun.”

After the opening back-and-forth, theshow will bring out its VIP guest star todiscuss his or her automotive career or his-tory as a car aficionado.

Other segments featured in The Auto-holics will include Billy Knows Bling, inwhich the show’s guest star interacts withBilly Gardell to explore the coolest cargadgets out on the market and another seg-

ment, DumpsterDriving withDiggity Dave,Diggity digsdeeply into thesubject of high-quality car partsfound cheaply.

Spokesper-s o n / m o d e lDaniela Panewill also host asegment calledHouse of Pane,where she’llpresent a uniquefemale perspec-tive on the auto-motive world.

“We knowthat a lot of women out there are into cars,so we want to help them and educate themwhenever we can. Imagine being a soccermom and learning how todo your own basic oilchange? We’ll teach themon this show. The ladiesrepresent a significant partof our market and we rec-ognize their role in the in-dustry,” Diggity Daveobserved.

The show will enter-tain, but teaching its view-ers how to do vehiclecustomizations and reveal-ing the tricks of the trade isa main theme of the show.

“We’ll also build a dif-ferent car on every episode. It will be theultimate do-it-yourself project each andevery week. We’ll be teaching our viewerson how to do every aspect of body workand upholstery. This show will cover itall,” Diggity said.

Crash Element Entertainment wasthrilled to get Rich Evans involved in TheAutoholics.

“Rich Evans is the hottest thing outthere right now. He’s like a new ChipFoose and we’re really happy to be work-ing with Rich. Doing the show at his shopprovides a setting that’s ideal for what wewant and working with Rich is a no-brainer,” said Burk.

Evans is understandably enthusedabout the concept of the show.

“Autoholics will be a success, I be-lieve, because it has a great storyline andoffers a ton of useful information that theaudience can implement right away,” saidEvans.

“We built a 1964 Lincoln Convertiblewhile filming the pilot over eight days. Alot of people told me that they couldn’t doit, because it’s a very involved and ex-tremely difficult build, but we did it and

the end result is amazing. My goal withthis show is to use the small screen to helppeople with their projects and that’s whatwe’ve achieved with this show,” Evanssaid.

The process producing the pilot hasbeen a three-month journey, but both Burkand Diggity Dave are very happy with thenearly-finished product.

“We’re just coming to the finishline right now. This is the biggest thingCrash Element Entertainment has everdone as a company. But we wanted tocreate a show that’s filled with usefulinformation, so that people can watchThe Autoholics and learn something thatthey didn’t know before. Implementingthose two worlds—educational and en-tertaining at the same time—that’s a lit-tle tricky. We strived to make a showcontaining aspects that are balanced andwill appeal to a wide range demo-graphic.”

A big complement to the show will bea robust Autoholics web site.

“Viewers will be flocking to the site,because all of the behind-the-scenesvideos will be there, along with the proce-dures for building these cars. It will becomplementary aspect of the show, sowe’re going to be using all of the technol-ogy available to us, with a Web site thatwill attract car fans from all over theworld,” Burk said.

Stay tuned for The Autoholics. Itshould be appearing very soon on a sta-tion near you, according to some of themost engaging names in the automotiveindustry. If Autoholics need a differentkind of program to get into, and a net-work distributor steps up, this showmight be exactly what the public isrevved up for.

The Autoholics: A New TV Show Concept that might be Addictive

The Autoholics discussion panel includes (from left) Flames, Rich Evans, DiggityDave, comedian Billy Gardell and NHRA world champion driver Bo Butner

During each episode of The Autoholics, a car willbe built from start to finish

A 1964 Lincoln Convertible was built during the pilot of The Autoholics

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!

This month we’re going to cover a littledifferent category than repair steps andprocedures or building hot rods or repair-ing vehicles We’re going to talk about get-ting creative and using your mind to buildwith car parts. I wrote a column in Auto-body News (Sept. 09) about building a tro-phy for a Long Beach car show which wasa big charity event last year. Ed Sunkin, aneditor from Tomorrow’s Technician (aBabcox company), contacted me saying “Iread that article on that trophy you built.We’ve got this school of the year awardcoming up and we wanted to know if youwant to build a trophy?”

I said “You know what, I’m into it. Idig stepping away from everyday routineand trying out something different. I actu-ally had fun when I built the trophy for theLong Beach Car show.”

I started wrapping my head around itand with help from Chicago Pneumaticsand Tomorrow Technician, also WIX hadjoined us for this, our third year into thisevent and contest. This year there weremore than 300 applications nominatingmore than 163 schools, the four finalistswere Arapahoe Community College, Little-ton, CO; Caddo Career and Technical Cen-ter, Shreveport, LA; Spokane CommunityCollege, Spokane, WA; and Carroll CountyCareer & Technology Center, Westminster,MD.

We wanted to build something cool asa trophy so instead of something made outof plastic, we used car parts; parts that arejunk and ready to throw away. I just lookedaround the shop, found a couple pistonslaying around, found a brake shoe, foundsome cut coils, scavenged up some spark-plugs, and then had a traditional RichEvans logo, or Huntington Beach Body-works shield, cut out of metal that hyper-therm had cut out at a previous SEMAshow. I found an old generator that wasstripped out, has the pulley on it and thepulley is made out of cast so I had to think

‘how am I going to weld that?’ Then Iscrounged up a few drill bits and headedover to a local metal material shop andbought a metal ball and some design metalstamp feather-looking leaves that wouldlook good in a trophy. Then hunted in mygarage to see what kind of toy cars that Ihad laying around, had a ‘51 Merck. I alsohad a Chicago Pneumatics 7740 impactwrench and I called John from Ray Wardand asked him to get a hold of a WIX filter.I wanted to incorporate that into the trophyas well as the traditional logo for Tomor-row’s Technician School of theYear/Chicago Pneumatics and so I got acopy of the artwork and a piece of stainlesssteel. I blew up the photo of the artworkand got it symmetrically proportioned forthe size of the trophy I was going to buildand cut a half-inch piece of stainless steel toweld it to the trophy. Obviously I wouldneed to weld it to the trophy before I couldpaint on the face of it so that’s the last stepof the project. So accumulating all theseparts, I’ve got to figure out what my base isgoing to be, and when I did the other buildfor the Long Beach car show I used the pis-tons. I didn’t want to make the same trophy,but I liked the platform and I incorporatedthe two pistons for the back part of the tro-phy so it would be the base, and also incor-porated the pulley with thegenerator/alternator hardware—so that itwould spin. I had a few obstacles to figureout. I knew I wanted the trophy to spin atthe top, right above the leaf spring but I hadnothing to weld onto the pulleys so what Idid is I drilled some holes in the pulley,found some bolts that I could weld to andfound the positions where I needed to weldto stabilize everything. I took the logos,welded them to the bolts so it was the fac-ing of the of the trophy and then I was ableto take two half-inch drill bits and weldthem to the other two bolts that I drilledthrough the pulley and use that to stabilizethe base to the pistons. Then I used a brakeshoe to wrap around the back to stabilizethe two pistons, so it kind of anchored themtogether. Then I welded the coil spring tothe additional pulley that I had on top, andbrought a half of a circle which I coveredthe top of the coil spring with. I took fourspark plugs; I thought it was cool to incor-porate those on the inside of the coil spring,welded those in, and from that top I took apiece of fence decorative metal and use thatto gain a little bit more height. I placed theball on top of that, welded it, secured it, sawanother place for the other spark plugwhich would be a single one that would gobetween that decorated piece of metal.

Then I made a stand for the ‘51 Mercand placed that using two mounting points.I took a piece of stainless steel, mounted itto the car and then took a piece of stainlesssteel round tubing tacked it, then took theplate back off the car, re-welded it. The

model car is plastic on the bottom so if youweld it, it’s going to heat it up and causeyour mounting bolts to melt. Then youwon’t have a secure base to mount to. Soafter going back and forth with tha,t I tookthese feathers, which only come one wayso I twisted them to complement the carand centered them in front of the car aftermounting the car on the top of the trophy.One’s a little lower than the other, butthey’re both centered, if you look at it side-by-side. They kind of complemented thecar and made it look more trophy-ish.

Then I searched and found a lug nutfrom a semi-truck where the washer turns,so I thought I wanna see the WIX filter beable to be manually turned and so I weldedthe base of the head of the lug nut to half ofthe metal ball and welded the washer por-tion to the filter first so that it would havea pivot so you could move it. I took theChicago Pneumatics 7740 and welded thatto the ball so it displayed. What this trophyrepresents is Chicago Pneumatics, andWIX. I welded my stainless steel plate tothe front of the trophy. I painted the face


Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

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

Building a Custom Trophy for ‘The School of the Year’

Phone: (360) 687-3451

Rich gets a grip on Caddo Career and Tech Center’sSchool of the Year award

The finished trophy ready to ship

Writes Randy: “I was born in ClevelandOhio, and grew up in a small city calledWickliffe where four siblings, a nephewand I were raised by my single mother.Since I can remember I’ve had a pencil inmy hand, drawing. I couldn’t get enoughof it and had a passion for cars.

Nothing can beat old American Mus-cle cars: Camaros, Cudas, Mustangs, etc.While looking for a way to implementboth of my passions into one for a career,I found OTC. Here is where I developedthese passions through the collision andrepair and custom paint courses.

One day my class was told about acontest to design a picture for a tigerstatue for the 2010 Year of The Tiger Cel-ebration. The Year of The Tiger public artproject celebrates Cleveland’s AsianTown community. St. Clair Superior’sblossoming arts district and its thrivingbusiness community. The project is in

commemoration of the Chinese Year ofthe Tiger which began with the new moonFebruary 14, 2010.

I knew I wanted to do somethingnoble, strong. A protector. The tiger statuewas given to me where the first thing Istarted ground off the main under the jaw.The second thing was laying out my de-sign. Third, start sculpting the armor outof a material called magic sculpt. Thisproduct gets rock hard and needs to besanded. The wings have a metal framethat is welded together and actually sitover the tiger’s shoulders like a saddleand then I put magic sculpt over theframe. And fourth, I painted and cleared itand the finished product is what you seehere.

of that logo black. I used my plotter to cutout the art and basically I just had to usewhite and I used a little bit of red for theCP logo.

I shot two coats of clear over that andadded my name and logo for Rich EvansDesigns. Then I did a little bit of work withthe CP engraver and engraved “Buildingfor Life” on the front of the trophy andsigned it. At this point I had a three-and-a-half-foot trophy.

Looking back on it, it doesn’t take alot of time but it’s the creativity you putbehind it. It tells a story without words.

I’d like to see some of you guys getout there and gather up some scraps, someold car parts and create your own trophyand submit them to me. Email photos [email protected].

The first two people that send mephotos of a trophy they attempted will re-ceive a traditional billet Huntington BeachBodyworks logo, which you can place as agrill or pretty much anywhere. I’m sureyou’ve seen it on the front of my vehicles,It’s worth over 100 dollars.

I will present this to you as a contestof creativity of you putting your efforts inand taking the time to build somethingcool. I just want you guys try it and just toset aside all work and just have fun with it.

I’m interested in seeing you guys getcreative and also having fun doing it. I had

a blast, you know I’ve put maybe threehours into this trophy, counting an extrahour for the art, but you don’t have to go tothat extent. Just gather up some old parts,tools, whatever and create something. Iwant to see you guys get creative.

I’d like to write about it in one of myupcoming columns. It’s a good way to geta little recognition for yourself and a goodway to have fun at doing something be-sides just fixing cars or building hot rodsand just kind of think outside the box.

I’m looking forward to seeing coupleguys step up. Hopefully I get more than afew, and I’ll be more than glad to displayany trophies that that have been built byany individual out there on my website andalso in one of my future columns.

The best part is that this was shippedout to the school of the year winner, CaddoCareer and Technology Center in Shreve-port, Louisiana. Caddo Career and Tech-nology Center took home $10,000 worthof Chicago Pneumatic Tools as the winnerof the 2010 School of the Year competi-tion.

Caddo is a high school and this is thefirst time a high school has won theaward. When I went out there I was very,very impressed with the setup that theyhad and their instructors. I told these guysthat they’re definitely one step ahead ofthe next high school I’m aware of and

that’s due to having a well-organized fa-cility. Gary Weese and Mike Falkner arethe instructors and they founded the pro-gram at the Caddo center. They built thefoundation of their award-winning pro-gram on real-life experience which iswhich is phenomenal and that is whateverybody needs.

So hats off to you guys. They’re not acollege. They’re a high school and I’mvery impressed with everything they’vegoing over there. The kids there are defi-nitely very fortunate to be one step ahead

of going to college and getting all this real-life experience.

I had to build a crate to ship it off tothe school. I flew back there on the 27th ofApril for a one-day visit and enjoyed my-self.

Any schools or colleges that are notfamiliar with the school of the year go toChicagopneumatics.com and then look forthe school year or get yourself Tomorrow’sTechnician magazine and that will giveyou all the details about it. I’d like to seemore students sign up for that. It’s a verygood program. You get to get out and seeall the different schools and colleges andwhat they’re doing and be involved withthe colleges as well.

Next week we will be back to stepsand procedures of repairing or hot-rod. I

think we’ll get backon the Thunderbird. Ishould finalize thatproject so you guyscan see the final re-pair, completed proj-ect.

I’d like tothank my sponsors,Chicago Pneumatics,MicroFlex, all theguys who give methe tools I need to doand create safely. 3M

is a big part of my daily routine. Every-body picks up a 3M product almost everyday so I’m thanking the companies outthere for putting better products in ourhands and saving us time. Time is money.Take Care.


Rich congratulates the winner, Randy A. Harris

Randy A. Harris, Collision Student at Ohio TechCollege Wins Flying Tiger Design Contest


Doug Albin, owner of Body Works Colli-sion Center in Murietta, California, knowspaint. He’s been painting cars since he wasin high school and has owned a body shopfor nearly a decade, so he knows what he’stalking about when it comes to paint andpainting systems.

Body Works Collision Center operatesout of a 5,000-square-foot shop, generates$250,000 per month in sales, and performs65–70 repairs monthly. The company em-ploys 12–15 people depending on work-load and seasonal spikes in business.Body Works specializes in repairing Toy-otas, Hondas, Acuras and Mazdas, butthey’ll work on any non-exotic vehicle onthe road.

Albin, 41, has been in the body shopbusiness for his entire life, as a mastertech and a painter. He’s a second-gener-ation shop owner who worked everysummer with his father’s body shopwhile in high school and also completedtraining to be a master painter shortlythereafter.

“My dad’s shop was called Albin’sClassic Cars in Newport Beach, and heworked restoring high-end expensivecars,” Albin said. “It was a great education,because I was allowed to step in and workon different types of vehicles. Some peo-ple are born to follow their parents’ careerpath and I gravitated toward the body busi-ness from day one.”

By doing rather than simply delegat-ing every aspect of collision repair overthe years, Albin has a unique and invalu-able perspective of how to run a bodyshop from top-to-bottom and front-to-back.

“I know how to hang a bumper andpaint a car, so I know what’s expected.Natural progression in this industry does-n’t really exist anymore. Many body shopoperators don’t have those abilities. As aresult, there’s a growing separation be-tween the front office and the back shop ina lot of shop environments. I’ve learnedevery aspect of this business hands-on and

that’s undoubtedly been a big part of oursuccess.”

After working with the same paintvendor for nine years, Albin made achange to DuPont™ Cromax Pro® when heran into problems with his long-standingpaint vendor during his switchover to wa-terborne last year. DuPont stepped in to de-liver a system featuring their Cromax Pro®

waterborne product. And the results areexemplary, Albin said. He’s saving money,matching every color, reducing waste, andproducing more vehicles in less time thanever before. Albin was almost instantly en-amored with Cromax Pro’s exceptionalcoverage ability.

“When our conversion to water-borne began, there was an issue with ouroriginal paint company, so we inquiredabout other vendors and DuPont stoodout in a big way. They came to the shopand sprayed a car and we were instantlyimpressed. Our original vendor’s paintwas requiring 3–4 coats per vehicle and itwas taking us way too long. With Cro-

max Pro, we can paint a car in a maxi-mum of two coats without a flash and inmany cases we’re doing the job with justone coat. Their wet-on-wet proceduremakes our lives so much easier,” saidAlbin.

“With DuPont’s waterborne product,we quickly discovered that every color hasone-coat coverage capability and that’snever happened before ever in this indus-try, I believe. They told us it would happenand we were a bit skeptical. Then theyshowed us they were right and we werevery impressed. I went from painting threecars daily to 12 vehicles with the changeto Cromax Pro®.”

Albin says he has saved a significantamount of money and time since he signedon with DuPont, but the overall quality ofthe finished product is what he values overeverything else.

“We’re producing more finished carsmore quickly now since we switched toDuPont. The products, their system and

the support people who helped us somuch—they offered us the complete pack-age and we’re happy we made the move.It’s costing us less now, but it’s not allabout the money. The performance of thepaint system is more critical and the qual-ity of the finished product is the top prior-ity.”

Increased productivity is one of themajor reasons why Albin’s so enthusedabout DuPont’s Cromax Pro®.

“Time is money in any business andanything that will save time is invaluable

to my operation. I have one painter whoworks with four helpers and they get all ofthe cars done fast and efficiently, with aperfect uniform paint color and optimumcoverage every time without fail.”

Another one of the benefits Albincited about Cromax Pro® is the accuracyof the computerized color-matching sys-tem.

“It’s incredible. Color matchingwas always an issue with our formersystem. It didn’t provide matching for

certain types of vehicles, but DuPontclimbed to the top of our list when wegot a chance to use it. It’s extremelyuser-friendly and my crew adapted to itright away.”

Albin’s customer service approach isfairly simple.

“Our main customer service goal is todo the repair right the first time, which

means that the vehicle is returned back tothe manufacturers’ standards and nothingless,” he said.

“We don’t cut corners; we never takeshort cuts and we avoid comebacks as a re-sult.”

DuPont’s New Accounts SpecialistKevin Harrington was pleased whenAlbin adopted Cromax Pro®, after beenworking with another vendor for severalyears.

“Doug is what I call a raving fan forCromax Pro® . He went from doing 3–4

coats per car to approximately 1.5–2 coats,without a flash when he switched. He sawa spike in his productivity right away andhe was using less paint, so the savingswere immediately evident.”

Harrington has converted hundreds ofbody shops to the DuPont Cromax Pro®

system throughout Southern Californiaduring the rush to change to waterbornelast year, and he normally witnesses arapid learning curve when shops are firstexposed to his products and his system.

“It’s a relatively simple process andmost painters can adapt quickly,” Harring-ton said.

“We didn’t have to re-educate Dougvery much, because he’s a painter and hisstaff was onboard all the way. Embracingthe new system with waterborne wasn’teasy with every shop I worked with, but

So. Cal Shop Goes to DuPont™ Cromax® Pro for One-Coat Coveragewith Ed Attanasio

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

See Body Works Collision, Page 39

Body Works Collision Center operates out of a 5,000-square-foot shop, generates $250,000 per month insales and performs 65–70 repairs monthly

Body Works Collision Center is a second-generation shop that stresses quality and customer service

Body Works is now painting more vehicles in less time since adopting DuPont’s Cromax Pro and its matchingsystem (right)


by Larry Williams

This is Part 3 of a se-ries of articles forparts managers di-rectly managing em-ployees handlingboth mechanical andcollision parts. Thesame principlesapply to parts man-

agement in a body shop. To read Parts 1and 2, see Autobody News, April and May2010 editions or go online: www.autobo-dynews.com, Menu: Content > DistinctiveDealerships > Special Interest Articles.

By now, you should have accomplishednearly everything I suggested in order tocreate the most efficient parts departmentpossible. Your bins are spaced and num-bered for fast access; and the bins closestto your front and back counters hold yourfastest moving parts. You have no obsoleteor unnecessary inventory; since you havecleared out the “trash.” You have a neatshipping/receiving area, and a holding areafor cores and returns. All “hot” incomingparts for service and wholesale accountshave their own locations. Inventory countshave verified the location and quantitiesfor all of your parts on hand.

Your people are working in the loca-tions and jobs that are best suited for them.All of your employees are knowledgeablein all aspects of paper flow and controls.Your training schedule assures full certifi-cation. Every work station is fullyequipped, and set up to cover every need.

You have created a parts departmentthat will return profits of 50% or more, andwith proper leadership, it will be a happyworkplace. This should be the goal ofevery parts manager. These guidelinesapply to all automotive dealerships.

Your next area of focus should be toincrease your sales.

You have four areas in which to dothis: Retail sales, internal sales, the serv-ice department, and wholesale customers.

Retail sales are made directly to theowners of your automotive brand. Very fewowners work on their own cars anymore.New car technology has gone far beyondthe mechanical expertise of your averagevehicle owner. Therefore, you must con-centrate on selling your accessories. Yourfront counter is your display area, or“showroom.” Take the time to walk in thefront door. Does what you see have eye ap-peal? You must be proud of what you see.Pride of ownership is what you are selling.Your customers want to let others knowabout their cars. Everything needs to haveyour logo on it. You will be amazed at whatpeople will buy if it has a logo. Stay awayfrom the ordinary. You don’t want to look

like every other parts house; you want tolook your best, because you offer the best!

Use a retention or bonus plan to rewardcustomers for returning to buy from you.(Possibly a “permanent customer discountcard,” can be given to them when they buya new or used car, with their name and VINfor easy identification). Use your customersfor referrals, and give them “Friend ofMine” cards good for bird-dog rewards.Use all good ideas from any source, andread Carl Sewell’s “Customers for Life,” fortried-and-true examples. Remember, themore positive contacts a customer has, theless likely any negative experiences or de-

lays will affect his relationship with you.Internal sales are often neglected. The

assumption here is that you have no con-trol of this area. I have increased sales inthis area by convincing sales managersthat accessories will increase their ownprofits. Make up some promotional pack-ages. Dress up one vehicle and display iton the showroom floor. The eye-candy willappeal to the ego-motivated buyer. It is dif-ferent. It’s special! This also allows thesales department to discount from the newcar total without affecting their originalprofit margin. Include your sales depart-ment in all of your promotions, and givesmall gifts to all new car customers whenthey are brought into your department.

Service sales are the backbone ofevery parts department. You must give yourservice department and body shop priorityin all of your decisions. Your most impor-tant job is to provide service technicianswith the parts they need in the quickest andmost cost efficient manner possible. Everyeffort should be made for same day servicefor all needed parts. However, it is nearlyimpossible to anticipate every need.

A suggestion for a busy service de-partment, when your customers do notleave their vehicles, would be to scheduleall service customers for one week fromthe original date of the order. You mightsuppose that if the customer is in yourshop on a Tuesday, then the followingTuesday might also be convenient for him.Alert your service department only to anyparts backordered. With fill rates of 90%,this system reduces your necessary cus-tomer calls nine fold, allowing you tospend more of your time with any dissat-isfied or unhappy customers, and processthe bulk of your customers with your reg-ular business. Instruct the service advisorsto never, ever, tell any customer that theirparts are “out of stock.” This phrase im-plies a poor level of service, and a defec-

tive product. Whatever you say must implythat their situation is unique and unantici-pated, and that you will obtain whatever isneeded for them as quickly as possible.

These three areas are common to allautomotive dealerships, and if you workhard for a short while, and lay the propergroundwork, you will find profitability anda happy workplace is the natural result. Fora few dealerships, however, there is an-other opportunity to increase your profits:Wholesale marketing.In my opinion, the parts department has ad-vantages over every other department.

Your parts department is the onlysales area that doesnot require customersto actually come tothe dealership; andrepeat sales can bemade with greater

frequency than any other department.These two facts make yours the only

department which can increase sales signif-icantly; in a relatively short period of time.

Not every automotive dealership cansuccessfully sustain a major wholesale op-eration. Yes, every dealer can sell parts at adiscount. This results in sales, but seldomany profits that will exceed your expenses.Aprofitable wholesale venture requires an ef-fort that goes aboveand beyond the norm.Wholesale marketingrequires a financialcommitment from thedealer principle, and patience from the en-tire management team. The parts departmentis essential to the operation of service andsales. A shift of effort into wholesale mar-keting will occasionally require other de-partments to wait, while outside customersare served. If properly presented, this ideashould not cause any resentment within yourorganization. Your dealer principle is re-sponsible for keeping the peace between allof the departments. Everyone should realizethat in order to survive, they must be able toadapt to changing situations. With everyoneworking together, every department con-tributes its share to the overall profit margin.

Reliable information is a must forsuccessful planning. There are proceduresto follow in order to create a successful

wholesale operation.First, take a look at your available

market. You must have a minimum oftwenty customers within a ten mile radiusof your dealership, and most of your cus-tomers need to be body shops. I have foundonly a few independent mechanical shopsthat use only factory parts. These shops,

however, were the best, and always gavetheir customers quality service. Sales percustomer will be greatest with body shops;and an average of $5,000 per customer permonth can be easily obtained. I would wanta minimum market of $100K available tome before making the investment requiredof any good wholesale operation.

Second, you should check out yourcompetition. There are some manufacturerswho support large dealers with volume dis-counts. Trying to compete with these largewarehouse operations will be very difficult.They have a pricing advantage that you can-not overcome. A high volume operation willbe impossible. You will be successful hereonly if you have customers who value serv-ice above price. You will be giving un-matched service, and that will be your edge.

Third, you must expand your inven-tory. This is where the dealer principle mustmake an investment and temporarily acceptreduced profits. You must be able to sup-ply your customers with same day serviceon some body parts. These parts will notmeet your normal stocking criteria, but youmust have them available. I use a “12-inch”rule for these parts. Any part inside the firstand last foot of the body of the car needs tobe available on your shelf. These parts willbe used for “quick repairs,” that take only

one day. Damage beyond one foot will re-quire more than one day to repair, allowingyou to order those parts and still meet yourcustomer’s needs.

Your survey is complete. Everythinglooks good. You have enough customers,there is little competition, and you have abasic inventory. Now you need motivation.

The best tool for motivating your peo-ple is their pay plan.

A pay plan is not just a means of com-pensating your employees. A pay plan willinfluence attitudes and help you accom-plish your goals. Remember, it is humannature for your staff to use any pay plan totheir own advantage. I have found that mypersonnel work more effectively whenthey have all been told about our depart-

ment goals, and are re-warded for theirperformance in keepingthose goals. In order tokeep your employees

working as a team, devise your pay plansso that everyone shares in the profits. Aplan that rewards individuals only in onearea of sales will isolate your employeesand keep them from helping one another.

Keep your pay plan focused on whatyour employees can control. You should bepaid on your department’s net profit, but

Parts for Profit 3—Increasing Sales

Larry Williams

Take a look at your available market. You musthave a minimum of twenty customers within a tenmile radius of your dealership, and most of your

customers need to be body shops

Next, check out your competition. Trying to com-pete with manufacturer’s discounts for very largedealers is difficult. They have a pricing advantage.

To compete you need to expand your inventory.Dealer principle must make an investment and

temporarily accept reduced profits


your staff should be paid on gross profits.When you pay your counter help on grossprofits, their pay is based on sales from theareas where they have the most control.Use bonus plans to reward performance indefined areas. For wholesale profits abovea certain amount, reward with increasedpercentages on further sales. Use an in-creasing percentage plan which is based onincreased profits.

Example: $1–$10,000 = 10%,$10,001–$20,000 = 15%, $20,001–$30,000 = 20%, etc. Notice that this re-wards all increases, without encouragingreduced efforts.

Warning: Do not use exact figures forspecified goals. For example; a bonus of$1,000 for sales of $20,000, results in em-ployees working to attain that particulargoal, and then “taking it easy,” because anyfurther effort has no future reward. Also,do not pay your employees on sales if youwant to make any real profits, since sales-based pay plans encourage deep discounts,placing volume ahead of profit.

Your next area of focus should beyour attitude, and it needs to be serious. Tofunction efficiently, any group of employ-ees must have faith in their leader.

Business is war!War may be Hell… but it’s good in busi-ness. When you decide to expand into thewholesale market, you must realize thatyou are declaring war on all of your fellowdealers. You must prepare as if it were awar; a war with no quarter given, no pris-oners taken, and only complete victoryyour goal.

Every one of your troops must betrained and equipped to the best of your abil-ity. Only then, with your victory assured, doyou go into battle. If you follow this philos-ophy, you cannot fail. You will gain thehearts and minds of not only your employ-ees, but those of your customers as well.

Ninety percent of any business trans-action is selling yourself. You only haveone chance to get that special customer. Ifyou fail, he will not give you another op-portunity to gain his trust. The only way toachieve this goal is with service. Your serv-ice should not just be head and shoulders,but miles above everyone else!

First impressions, being the longestlasting, are of the utmost importance. Your

key to this success is to exceed any expec-tations on the very first call. You must notjust be better than your competition, youmust destroy them. After your customer’sfirst experience with you, he should neverconsider your opponents again. You neednot only impress him; you must change hisperception and alter his world. Every oneof your troops, and every contact with yourcustomers, must rise above the level ofyour enemies. Your aim is to win everybattle, and be the obvious victor in the warfor your customer’s consideration.

When your customers think of yourbrand name, they must think of you.

You have prepared yourself. You haveadhered to your plan. Your inventory is or-

ganized, and your personnel are welltrained. You and your staff are motivated,and eager to generate more business. Salescan now be made to those extra customers;the ones who never see you. These are yourwholesale garage and body shop accounts.Here is my secret for increasing those sales:

Ask for their business!

You can increase this area of yourbusiness just by asking for it! Almost anyprogram of phone calls, post cards, or drop-by visits will be successful, if you just keepat it. Unless a shop is completely satisfiedwith their current supplier, they will giveyou a chance. In my experience, very fewshops were completely happy with all oftheir suppliers. The reason for this is thatmost automotive dealers do not have a verygood wholesale attitude. Your competitionwill be, by comparison; lazy, untrained, andbasically unappreciative of most of theircustomers. Most of these shops will bewilling to give you a chance. But remem-ber, you cannot disappoint new customersand expect them to come back to you forany repeat business. You must be ready fortheir business before you ask for it.

In most cases your only contact withthese customers is over the phone. Your“best” counterman must be the one who an-swers their calls. A smile in his voice,knowledge of his inventory, and years of ex-

perience will get those customers, and keepthem calling back. Your service is more thanjust the initial phone calls, however. Yourinventory and your delivery must back upyour sales. Everything needs to work in har-mony, to give your customers an experiencethat is unmatched, anywhere else.Build on your existing customer base.

Research shows that keeping your oldcustomers happy is the best way to increaseoverall sales. A major reason for my successwas keeping down customer “churn”. In ayear-and-a-half, I only lost one customer;and that individual valued his cost over myservice. Service should your selling point,not price, since no matter how low yourprice might be they can always find it some-

where else cheaper. Giv-ing away your product isnot the way to increaseprofits.Stay in touch with all ofyour customers. Use a

customer contact plan that suits your cus-tomer’s needs. Remember, your typical in-dependent garage or body shop is busiestin the morning and late afternoon; at the be-ginning and end of each day’s work. Timeyour calls so that you don’t interrupt yourcustomer’s day. Call every customer youhave not heard from in over two weeks.Tell him you are calling to make sure he’scompletely satisfied. He will appreciateyour consideration and your concern.

It’s useless to try to plan for the unex-pected, so well-trained and motivated em-ployees are essential! Reliable informationis a must. Given the opportunity, your baseof loyal customers will expand beyondyour wildest imagination. I know this for afact, since that was how I became the num-ber one wholesaler in the nation, for onemanufacturer.

How we did it…I want to tell you the story of Don Valdez;possibly the best salesman I have ever hadthe pleasure of working with. When I firstdiscovered Don, he was attempting (as bestas he could), to fill in for a dealership that hadlost its parts manager. Don absolutely hatedorganization, and was the best example of a“free spirit” that I have ever seen. He waspositively ecstatic when I came along; andfreed him of the burden of administrative du-ties and paperwork. In the beginning, I had

no idea what the results would be when I puthim in charge of our retail and wholesalesales. However, it did not take long for me torealize that Don was a “natural.” He justloved to sell, and enjoyed talking to all of hiscustomers. Free of time-consuming house-keeping tasks, he devoted all of his energy toproducing more sales. I soon installed a di-rect telephone line, (just for his use), and onlymonths later, a second line. We started withone part-time driver, and soon added moredrivers, and more trucks; as our volume ofdeliveries grew.

Eighteen months later I learned thatwe were our manufacturer’s leadingwholesaler, in the nation! This happenedas the result of Don’s inner drive, and be-cause of his joy in selling. It didn’t comewithout a price, however. Don’s aversionto organization controlled his workspace.An unbelievable pile of mismatched paperand notes filled every available surface,nook and cranny. He was also uncompro-mising with his delivery men; driving themto be fast, faster, fastest! I hired two addi-tional men; in order to help him, and toldthem ahead of time that Don was the onlyemployee I allowed to work in such amess. In fact, I asked them to help meclean up after him. He never ceased toamaze, however, when asked about a par-ticular order, to be able to reach into thathaphazard “nest” of his, and pull out thecorrect note. His drivers were warnedahead of time of the pressure he wouldplace on them, and that they could alwayscome to me when things got to be just toomuch. Eventually, all of my staff came torealize that Don never drove anyone harderthan he drove himself. I never had to lighta fire under him, because he had his ownfire, within. And I knew we would neverhave experienced the results we were ableto achieve, without him.

I hope you have as much good fortuneas I have had, and the pleasure of creatingand managing a profitable parts depart-ment. I hope you too will find those peoplewho will make your job easier, and rewardall of your efforts with success.

Larry Williams is a former parts managerand consultant with national awards andover 40 years of experience in creatingprofitable departments. He can be reachedfor consultation at [email protected].

Ninety percent of any business transaction isselling yourself. You only have one chance toget that special customer... The only way to

acheive this goal is with service.

on non-OEM bumper parts. The testing, hesaid, will include angle-barrier tests to de-termine whether such parts “impact onkeeping the two frame rails together.”

Gillis said the involvement of theIIHS is an indication of insurer’s interestin the issue. “The bottom line is: If thesebumpers do not protect occupants or

(allow) more damage to vehicles, it’s in-surers that are going to pick up the cost ofeither the personal injury associated withthe problems, or the additional damage as-sociated with poor-performing bumpers inlow-speed collisions,” Gillis said.

Fighting OEM patent protectionAlso speaking at the meeting was EileenSottile of the Quality Parts Coalition(QPC). She said that organization hasamassed $713,000 to use in its effort to

enact federal legislation (HR 3059) thatwould nullify design patent protections onautomotive and other repair parts.

The coalition, made up primarily ofinsurers and non-OEM parts manufactur-ers and distributors, says automakers areincreasingly seeking design patents oncrash parts to prevent non-OEM versionsof the parts from being produced andsold.

Dan Morrissey, a consultant in thenon-OEM parts industry and co-chairman

of the QPC, told distributors at the ABPAannual meeting that as of late April only14 businesses had contributed to the fund.The QPC, he said, now is asking more dis-tributors for a $50 donation for every ship-ping container they import into the UnitedStates.

“I hope everyone realizes this is a lifeor death issue for the aftermarket,” Mor-rissey said at the meeting, “If the OEMsare successful in patenting parts, it couldbe the end of our industry.”


ABPAConference

Channel 2 Action News investigates an in-surance consultant accused of “low-balling” crash victims on their wreckedcars. Consumer Investigator Jim Strick-land learned the company called CCC In-formation Services was involved insettling 66,000 Georgia crashes last year.

Paulding County businessman DonAnderson owns a glass repair franchise. Acrash in Chattanooga totaled one of hisservice vans. Anderson said his insurer of-fered him $5,924.34, which is what CCCadvised. He said he could not find a re-placement part for anything near that price.

“They offered me about two-thirds of

the fair market value of the van,” he said.John Velez's 2003 Jaguar crashed the nextday. He said CCC offered him less than$7,000 with the deductible included. “Iwas really upset. I just really couldn't be-lieve it.”

Independent appraiser AntoineRached came up with his own number onthe Jaguar. He said the difference is morethan $2,000. “They should compensateyou for the full value of your car,” he said.

Strickland found records that show, in2005, CCC and the 15 insurers it worksfor, settled a class action lawsuit. They ad-mitted no wrongdoing, but paid $92 mil-

lion to crash victims from 16 years worthof wrecks.

Georgia Insurance CommissionerJohn Oxendine summoned the company'sCEO to Atlanta. Oxendine said it was toaddress a new crop of complaints. “Iwouldn't be telling the CEO to come to At-lanta unless I had a suspicion and I wasconcerned.”

CCC did not respond to Strickland'srequest for an interview, so he went toCommissioner Oxdendine's office too.Strickland asked CEO Githtesh Rama-murthy if his company gave low-ball fig-ures on totaled vehicles. Ramamurthy said

CCC believes in transparency and usesprice information from multiple sources.He also said the company does not havefinal say on what insurance companies pay.

“CCC is not an insurance adjuster. Wedo not adjust claims,” Ramamurthy said.“That's what our customers do, and wesupply information.”

Oxendine said he's investigatingwhether CCC has too much influence overwhat insurance companies pay on claims.

Anderson's insurance company calledin a different valuation consultant whocame up with $8,678.60 on his totaled van.That's 40% more than CCC's value.


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Fasulo’s Paint and Body Shop unveiledtheir second Texas location in Silsbee, TX,20 miles north of their flagship shop inBeaumont, this April and was able to re-ceive over $70,000 in repair jobs duringjust their first month.

David Fenner, the owner of both lo-cations, couldn’t behappier with the pro-ductivity of bothshops during thischallenging eco-nomic period. TheFasulo family origi-nally approachedFenner about buyingFasulo’s Paint andBody a few yearsago; Fenner has beenrenovating and grow-

ing the business ever since he purchased itin 2005.

“We’ve actually been growing inBeaumont as well as in the Silsbee loca-tion,” said Fenner.

Fenner and his wife, Lisa, have man-aged to preserve the family-run shop feelwhile still growing the business and evenopening a second location.

“Usually if I’m in one shop, she’s inthe other so one of us is always at each lo-cation,” said Fenner.

The decision to start up another loca-tion during a declining economy cameeasy to Fenner, who said several insurance

companies he works with expressed to hima need for a good repair shop to serviceclients in the Silsbee area.

The Beaumont location boasts a22,000 square-foot facility, employing 18people and pulling in about $2 million inrevenue per year. The Silsbee location op-erates out of a 7,500 square-foot air-con-ditioned facility and employs 6 people;Fenner hopes this location will be able todraw in about $1 million annually once itgets going.

Both Fasulo’s locations are allabout making the customer’s experienceeasy and enjoyable; including their useof insurance Direct Repair Program(DRP) referrals and trying to keep aneat, clean, organized facility at all

times. Fenner said the shop really caresabout their repairs and they want to getthem done as quickly and precisely aspossible to accommodate customer

needs. The Beaumont location employs2 estimators while the Silsbee locationemploys 1 to better service incomingcustomers.

“We care, we do good work, and wetreat the customer right,” said Fenner.

Fasulo’s has a lot of great female em-ployees, which is somewhat out of charac-ter for a local body shop. IncludingFenner’s wife, Lisa, who has been work-ing with both shops’ finances since Fennerbought the company, Fasulo’s also em-ploys two female customer service secre-

tarial employees, Pamela Cooper inBeaumont, who has been with the com-pany for 3 years and Betty Jo Fertitta inSilsbee who has been with them for 3months; Johnna Lea, who has been aparts orderer with Fasulo’s for two-and-a-

half years; and Jimmie O’Brien, an auto-body painter who’s been with them forthree years. Jimmie and her husband Rus-sell, who also works at Fasulo’s as a bodyman, are a husband and wife team andoften work together on repair jobs.


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Silsbee Texas Gets New Fasulo’s Paint and Body Shop

Painter Jimmie O’Brien

Estimator Chris Swan-son at Fasulo’s Beau-

mont location

See Fasulo’s, Next page

with Erica SchroederShop Showcase Erica Schroeder is a writer and editorial assistant

for Autobody News in Oceanside, CA. She can bereached at [email protected].

Body Technician Damon Smith at the Beaumontlocation

Body Technician Matt McGlothin at the Beaumontlocation

Parts Orderer Johnna Lea

Pamela Cooper at the Beaumont front desk

Betty Jo Fertitta at the Silsbee front desk Owner David Fenner and estimator Bill Slocum atthe Silsbee location.

I try to write articles to help others out; ar-ticles that try to motivate shop owners andmanagers to do a better job. I have comeunder attack many times from some in ourindustry for voicing my opinion and beingthe person that is willing to speak up andsay the hard truth.

Our industry wants “Change” but noone can agree what that change should beor what direction we need to go to getthere. I have shop owners that hate me be-cause I have DRPs and stand up for thoseinsurers that I think are doing a good job.Some shop owners think we need to hateall of the insurers and saying anything lessthan that makes me a hypocrite.

Some think DRPs are the problemwhile others think they are fine. Some thinkthe insurance company is our customerwhile others think the vehicle owner is thecustomer. Some like aftermarket partswhile others stand against them. Somethink the insurers are responsible for the re-pair process while others think it’s theshops liability for the repair. We cannoteven agree on some of the simplest things.

The truth is that nothing has changedand it never will because we can’t even de-cide what change we want. If I were acommanding officer heading to battle andI ordered the troops to go in one directionand they just chose to go their own wayand started fighting each other we wouldcertainly lose any battle we were to fight.To win any battle the troops need to all beon the same page and they all need to sup-port one another and have each other’sback, not stab each other in the back. Thisis why things will never change; we are notin agreement on anything as an industry.

Here’s what I believe:I believe that DRPs are nothing more

than a way to process claims and DRPs arethe most efficient way to expedite the repairs.

I believe the repair shop is the repairexpert and is responsible for the repairprocess (not the insurer).

I believe the repairer carries the entireliability for the repair of the customer’s ve-hicle.

I believe the vehicle owner is my cus-tomer and the repair contract is between

the shop and the customer.I believe the insurance company is a

third party payer and their contract is withthe policyholder to perform to the terms ofthe policy.

I believe that due to the fact that wehave a term called “industry standards”those standards need to be defined as“OEM collision repair requirements.”I believe that cost should never be the pri-mary driver dictating the repair process.

I believe aftermarket parts defraud theconsumer and should never be consideredin the cost of settling a claim.

I believe that the vehicle should be re-paired exactly as the final bill states andthere should be no cost shifting.

I believe that each shop should chargewhatever they think is necessary to make afair profit.

I believe that if a shop wants to giveconcessions it is their business and othersare under no obligation to offer the samediscounts.

I believe DRP’s can be good or baddepending on the insurer and or the con-cessions involved.

I believe it is up to each shop owner tonegotiate the rates that they expect to getpaid.

I believe that a lot of shops would bepaid a higher rate if they only negotiatedfor the higher rate and proved why it isnecessary.

I believe I am the only one responsi-ble for making a profit. It’s my business.

Now that I have made some things

clear about what I think you will find that afew will agree with me and many will dis-agree with me. This is exactly my point andthis is the reason that nothing will change.

If you want to change the industry I sug-gest that you change the way you do busi-ness and let the industry take care of itself.

One would think that if enough shopsunited that they would be able to gatherenough support for a major change to fol-low, not true!

We are in an industry that continuesto pass the buck and pass the blame on toothers whether it be some shops or the in-surers. The sad thing is that because wehave always been able to blame someoneelse we fail to take the necessary actions tomake anything different.

It’s just easier to blame someone elseand say “its not my fault”, this thinkingdominates our entire industry. Everyone isvery quick to complain and very slow toget involved.

Take care of your own backyard andwatch your own bottom line if you do thisyou will see the change you have beenlooking for.

If you work with profit as your pri-mary goal you will make a profit.

If you work to produce quality youwill produce quality.

If you negotiate for a higher labor rateyou will get a higher labor rate.

If you change things will change.If you keep beating a dead horse you

will get the status quo, a beaten horse thatis no less dead.


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Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

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

Beating a Dead Horse

Fasulo’s has been working with wa-terborne paints as of late; they decided tomake the switch from solvent-based to wa-terborne paint when thenew Silsbee locationopened to coincide morewith factory paint stan-dards. Fenner said thatsince factories are nowusing waterborne paintswhen they manufacturecars he wanted to workwith it as a repair shop.

“It’s just the newestthing, they’re putting iton all the new cars,” said Fenner.

David Fenner has had a diverse autobackground; he graduated from TexasState Technical College and started outworking as a technician. Fenner then made

the switch to teaching high school paintand body courses. He also worked as an in-surance claim adjuster shortly before mov-ing in to the shop side of the industry.Fenner’s diverse background has helpedhim to become very knowledgeable in theindustry.

In addition to starting up a new web-site for the business in the coming months,Fenner also said he is planning to shoot acommercial to promote Fasulo’s and thenew Silsbee shop.


Fasulo’s

David Fenner in front of his new Silsbee shop.

by David M. BrownSpecial to Autobody News

The largest state collision association in theU.S., the California Autobody Association(CAA), formed in 1967 by merging two or-ganizations in Glendale and Long Beach,making it the first group to represent the in-dustry throughout all of California. Now, atage 43 and based in Sacramento, the CAArepresents 1,000 members in 18 chaptersfrom San Diego to Eureka.

“Some of our members do have mechan-ical facilities, and we have dealership bodyshops as members, but primarily, most mem-bers are independent collision repair shops,”explains David McClune, executive directorand chief operating officer for the association.

Six state board members represent theCAA executive committee. The 2010 presi-dent is Gigi Walker, owner of Walker’sAutoBody in Concord. She notes: “An associationis a place for knowledge, camaraderie andkeeping up to date with legal issues facing anindustry—and the CAA is fulfilling all ofthose roles admirably.”

McClune explains that the organizationhas been consistently involved in the issuesfacing the country’s most populous state—forcars and people.

In the ‘70s, the CAAwas involved whenthe Bureau ofAutomotive Repairswas startedin 1972. BAR oversees automotive repair op-erations in the state.

Six years later, the CAA wrote the Cal-ifornia Motorists Bill of Rights — providinga template for other states, and, when I-CARwas formed in 1979, Gorden Holcomb, along-time CAA member, represented the as-sociation.

The CAAstarted an industry trade showin 1980—the largest collision expo in thecountry before NACE began four years later.The Collision Industry Conference alsostarted in 1984; former CAA state president,Al Estorga, helped with the CIC formation.

In 1991, CAA formed CARPAC, a po-litical action committee supporting candi-dates supporting the industry. Five years later,the BAR created a committee to create auto-body repair standards. This group comprisedCAAmembers, insurance representatives andBAR officials.

Later, in 1999, CAA helped reverse aState Board of Equalization position regardinga sales tax on “new part paint labor”—a sav-

ings of thousands of dollars for every shop inCalifornia, McClune says. He adds: “TheCAAhas sponsored numerous legislative billsover the years that have improved the colli-sion repair industry and consumers’ rights.”

The organization provides a variety ofbenefits, says Ted Stein, service director/man-ager at Drew Ford in San Diego, where he isa member of the city’s CAA chapter.

“CAA offers everything from memberbenefits to the best lobbyist in Sacramento[Jack Molodanof], who keeps a watchful eyeon the bills that affect our industry,” says Stein,who has served on the state board for CAA. “Iam very proud to be a current member.” Hebelieves that the personal friendships gener-ated from volunteering with CAA are one ofmany membership perks. “I have made great,really great, friendships that will last a lifetime,up and down the state that would have neverhappened if not for the CAA,” he says.

Stein adds: “These are people that I cancall at any time for advice or just to bouncesomething off of them. I have referred cus-tomers to other members when they have re-located out of the area, and the same hashappened for us. It’s the best ‘fraternity’ thatyou could be in.”

Gigi Walker, CAA’s current president,believes that the services the CAA chaptersoffer the community is another benefit ofmembership.Aparticipant in the collision re-pair industry for 30 years, she started as anauto painter and has owned Walker’s AutoBody in Concord since 1988.

From 1998 to 1999, she was the pastpresident of the East BayAutobodyAssocia-tion, which joined the CAA as a chapter in2001. “The EBAA felt the need to join be-cause of some legislation issues in Sacra-mento regarding steering and labor-rate

setting,” she recalls.The EBAA also saw the benefits the

CAA offered such as pooled workers com-pensation and garage keepers liability insur-ance. What’s more, the EBBAboard liked thequality of guest speakers the CAA regularlybrought into its chapters.

The CAA sponsors scholarships foryoung people to enter collision repair programsas well as supports Regional Occupational Pro-grams—tuition-free job training—at the highschool level. Another outstanding CAA-sup-ported program which promotes the industry toyoung men and women is Careers with Cars,held annually in various locations statewide.

One of the larger CAA-sponsoredevents, Gigi notes, is the East Bay ChapterToys for Tots Model Truck CustomizingCompetition, held at the prestigious BlackHawk Auto Museum in Danville, CA.

Some CAA chapters have scheduledevents supporting new technologies such asintroductions to waterborne paints, legal is-sues that affect the collision repair industryand proper handing of hazardous materials.

“Ongoing education is a large part ofwhat the CAA is about,” she notes. Eventhough we have a legislative arm, we prideourselves in being diversified in many waysas a true trade association should be.”

The CAAis both sword and shield at thecapitol. “It puts itself between its membersand the issues, so that no one member can be

singled out for retribution on unpopular issueand gives a voice to all— from the smallest ofrepair facilities to the largest,” says Don Fee-ley, owner of City Body & Frame in River-side and twice CAA president, 2000 and2009.Amember of the Inland Empire Chap-ter, he also helped develop the CAAWeb sitein ‘94 as well as SCRS-CIC.

Feeley adds that CAA also helps to fa-cilitate better pricing for its members on manybusiness items such as insurance products,credit card processing—even sandpaper.“This association has been fighting for itsmembers for more than 40 years on all fronts,”he notes. “Wherever there is an issue in thecollision repair industry, you will find a mem-ber of the California Autobody Association.”

As a result, Feeley isn’t just lukewarmabout his 20-year CAA association: “I amdamn proud,” he says, “to be part of an or-ganization with such a rich history.”For more information search:www.autobodynews.com andwww.calautobody.com.

To contact CAA:555 UniversityAve, Ste 236, Sacramento, CA95825State Office: (800) 454-3368Fax: (916) 646-8113www.calautobody.com

The California Autobody Association: 43 Years of Representation

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Louisiana State reported that informationfrom Lo Jack Inc. related to a stolen 2006Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle in the LaPlacearea aided in the recovery of $45,000 worthof stolen property.

The Suzuki was reported stolen fromShreveport, La. By using the Lo Jack track-ing device, Troopers located a Ford F-150and a Haulmark motorcycle trailer parked inthe Home Depot parking lot in LaPlace.

Troopers obtained a search warrant forthe F-150 and trailer. Inside the trailer, Troop-ers found the stolen Suzuki and two othermotorcycles (2006 Kawasaki Ninja and 2004Yamaha R1) that were also reported stolenfrom Shreveport onApril 29. The F-150 wasstolen from Lafayette, La., on April 10 andthe Haulmark trailer was stolen from PassChristian, Miss., on Feb. 15, 2010.

No arrests have been made and theinvestigation is on-going.

Leading automotive trade school OhioTechnical College is excited to announceThe Rich Evans Academy; a three-monthadvanced collision repair and customizingprogram where students will learn fabri-cation, welding, water-borne painting andfiberglass molding, among other advancedskills.

Rich Evans, is an Autobody Newscolumnist and owner of Huntington BeachBodyworks in California, is a custom carbuilder, painter and TV personality whohas appeared on such shows as “MonsterGarage” and “Pimp My Ride.”

As part of the new partnership, hewill work with OTC to develop a real-world curriculum based on decades ofexperience designing and building one-of-a-kind vehicles. Evans will also assistOTC in outfitting the Rich Evans Acad-emy shop with the tools, training aidsand equipment needed to facilitate theprogram.

“The new Rich Evans Academy is anadvanced, concentrated course designed togive students employable skills that manyof their peers will not have after gradua-tion. We are excited to partner with Rich,who shares his years of experience withour students as well as our instructors,”

said Tom King, director of Enrollment,OTC.

Evans will periodically visit theschool to interact with students and con-duct personal instruction. He will alsoteach a one-day training program at OTC’sSummer Seminar, an event that attractshundreds of high school instructors fromacross the country. Last year, the school’senrollment grew 22%, and more than1,000 students are currently enrolled incourses like automotive, diesel, classic carrestoration, alternative fuel vehicles andhigh performance and racing.

The first Rich Evans Academy classwill begin in Fall 2010. As with all its pro-grams, OTC will provide career placementassistance for students upon completion ofthe three-month course.

Ohio Technical College (OTC) is anaccredited private, proprietary technicalschool dedicated to providing premiertechnical training in the world of modernmechanics by pursuing industry al-liances, providing outstanding trainingequipment and focusing on the needs ofindividual students. An AccreditingCommission of Career Schools and Col-leges of Technology (ACCSCT) college,OTC and its PowerSport Institute branch

campus encompass nearly 800,000 sq.feet of classroom and workshop space.Drawing students from all over theUnited States, OTC offers techniciantraining programs in Automotive, Diesel,Auto-Diesel, Collision Repair, ClassicCar Restoration, High Performance andRacing, Welding and PowerSport Tech-nology as well as specialization inBMW, Alternative Fuel Vehicles, Cus-tom Paint and Graphics, CDL TruckDriver Training, and Power GeneratorSystems. Motorcycle technician trainingis provided through the PowerSport In-stitute, a branch campus of OTC in NorthRandall, Ohio. For more information,write to Ohio Technical College at 1374E. 51st St. Cleveland, Ohio, 44103; call800.322.7000 ext. 163; or visit ohiotech-nicalcollege.com and psi-now.com.

Custom Car Builder Rich Evans Partners With Ohio Technical SchoolTo Create Rich Evans Academy; Classes to Begin in Fall 2010


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Earlier this month Congresswoman JackieSpeier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo)launched her own exploration of the struc-tural differences between certain vehiclesafety parts by sawing through an after-market reinforcement bar in her SanMateo district office. The reciprocatingsaw she used reportedly didn’t dent the barfrom the vehicle manufacturer.

Speier, author of California’s originalanti-steering law, stated, “I’m concernedthat vehicle owners who’ve been in an ac-cident are unaware that replacing a rein-forcement bar with one not designed bythe manufacturer may compromise thesafety of vehicle occupants in a subse-quent collision. Airbag deployment can bethrown off by a reinforcement bar thatdoesn’t absorb shock in the way intendedby the vehicle manufacturer.”Speier conducted the test with the help oftwo well known collision industry experts:Lee Amaradio, president of the CollisionRepair Association of California (steadyingthe saw) and Allen Wood, the association’sexecutive director (holding the rebar).

Amaradio stated, “CongresswomanSpeier has always taken time to hear ourindustry’s concerns. The issue of after-market safety parts is of national impor-tance. Hundreds of thousands of vehicleowners are driving around in repaired carsthat won’t withstand a collision the waythe manufacturer intended.”

Speier said that the use of vehiclesafety aftermarket parts have been pushedby certain insurers that apparently want tosave money without regard for passengersafety. “I am opposed to reengineering a ve-hicle through the claims process,” she said.“Parts such as reinforcement bars that affect

the vehicle safety restraint system shouldnot be replaced by parts of inferior quality.”

She said she would be contacting theappropriate regulators to determine whatis being done to inform consumers about

the installation of aftermarket safety parts.She said she was also concerned about re-ports that many inferior aftermarket partsare made overseas and shipped to theUnited States without adequate manufac-turer information stamped on the parts, asrequired by California law.

“My first step will be to assess howwell California and federal laws coveringvehicle repair, including insurance bene-fits for collision work, are being en-forced,” stated Speier. “Additionally, Iwant to determine the extent to which un-safe parts made overseas are finding theirway into shops in this country.”

Speier invited interested parties tocontact her district director, Richard Stef-fen, at 650-342-0300 or [email protected] if they haveinformation they wish to share with her onthe prevalence of unsafe vehicle parts inthe collision repair business.

CA Congresswoman Jackie Speier WieldsHer Own Reciprocating Saw on Rebar Parts

Lo Jack Device Credited with$45K Recovery in Louisiana


The campaign against Prop 17 re-leased documents May 20 revealingthat Mercury Insurance, the initiative'ssole sponsor, required its agents towithhold auto insurance policies frommilitary personnel, diabetics, womenmarried to younger men, and driversthought to be of Middle Eastern de-scent even if they had good drivingrecords.

The declarations from three for-mer insurance agents, obtained byConsumer Watchdog, corroborate keyfindings regarding discriminatorypractices at Mercury from a series ofCalifornia Department of Insurance(CDI) investigations released earlierthis year.

"Every week there's a new revela-tion about how Mercury illegally dis-criminates against its customers andtargets Californians with higher car in-surance rates. Now Mercury wantsvoters to pass Prop 17 and give insur-ance companies new power to raiserates," said Doug Heller with the StopProp 17 campaign.

Two of the agents were employedby Auto Insurance Specialists (AIS),which was one of the largest Mercuryagencies at the time and is now ownedby Mercury. A third was employed byanother Mercury agency. The insuranceagents' declarations were made in the

late 1990s at about the same time theCalifornia Department of Insurance(CDI) was investigating wide-rangingdiscrimination by Mercury. Lastmonth the CDI filed an administrativelawsuit against Mercury for approxi-mately 35 illegal practices as well asfor failing to correct the unfair ratingpractices over the past 15 years despiteprior agreements to do so.

According to one of the agents,Michael Feldman:

[Mercury Insurance underwritingmanagers] Ms. Norris and Ms. Harrisdirected [AIS Agency branch manager]Mr. Heywood to instruct me that Icould not write "poor caliber risks"such as diabetics, salvaged cars or mid-dle easterners for any Mercury insur-ance policies, including Proposition103 good driver policies... with regardto middle easterners, they stated that ifI could not pronounce a name, I shouldnot write that person.

California law prohibits auto in-surance companies from consideringthe national origin or medical condi-tion of good drivers when decidingwhether or not to sell an insurance pol-icy. Under the 1988 insurance reformmeasure Proposition 103 insurancecompanies are required to offer theirbest-priced policy to any customer whoqualifies as a good driver.

Mercury Insurance Faces Accusations of DiscriminationMercury Insurance, the sponsor of Prop17 is peppering the state’s voters withnew mailers that tell military servicemenand women that they are not responsibledrivers if they serve their country state-side without a car. Consumer advocatesfighting Prop 17 said the flier, whichpromises “Lower rates for responsibledrivers,” denigrates our nation’s military,only because they don’t bring their car tobase while on duty.

“The insurance company backers ofProp 17 are saying that people like ser-vicemen and women who don’t drivewhile on base are irresponsible if theydrop car insurance during their service,”said Brian Van Riper, Iraqi war veteranand retired Lance Corporal, US Marines.“What’s irresponsible is this insurancecompany initiative to punish good driverswho have done nothing wrong.”

Prop 17 would create an insurancesurcharge on drivers, including soldiers,who have had a lapse in car insurance cov-erage for virtually any reason during thepast five years, or whose policy was can-celled after missing a single payment.Under the measure, people who stoppeddriving and didn’t need insurance for atime would be required to pay up to a thou-sand dollars more for car insurance whenthey sought to restart coverage. Currently,insurance companies are prohibited fromimposing such a surcharge in California.

Prop 17 is opposed by military, con-sumer and citizen groups includingVoteVets.org, USAA, Consumers Union,Consumer Watchdog, Consumer Federa-tion of California, and California Allianceof Retired Americans.

The San Diego Union-Tribune in itsrejection of Prop 17 wrote:

...there are two reasons to have sharpdoubts about Proposition 17.

The first is that Proposition 17 is aperfect example of the deplorable way thestate initiative process is used by privatecompanies for their own benefit.

The second has to do with the factthat a member of the U.S. military wouldnot be protected from losing his or her“continuous coverage” discount if trans-ferred within the United States. The pro-tection extends only to those transferredabroad. This is why the United ServicesAutomobile Association, an insurer whichspecializes in military families, stronglyopposes Proposition 17.

Especially in a time of war – and es-pecially as the newspaper of a communitywith such a rich history and relationshipwith the U.S. armed forces – we find thisvery difficult to accept. For this reason, werecommend a “no” vote.

The campaign in favor of Prop 17 is99% funded by insurance companies, withMercury Insurance having spent over$10.3 million to date.

Mercury Insurance: Military Must Not Be ‘Responsible’ Drivers

American Honda is urging all colli-sion shops, independent repair shops,used car dealers, or any non-Honda ornon-Acura auto repair facility tocheck for any applicable safety recallseach time a Honda, or Acura vehicleis serviced, repaired, or inventoried attheir facility.

To that end, the company has is-sued a position statement in which itstates.

“Although American Honda noti-fies the current registered owner (asidentified through state vehicle regis-tration data) each time it conducts asafety recall, not all owners receivesuch notices (due to change of addressor ownership or lack of current regis-tration) and even when notices are re-ceived not all owners respond to suchnotices. If all sales and service facili-ties were to check for applicablesafety recalls for all vehicles thatcome into their facilities together wecan ensure that necessary safety re-pairs are made to all vehicles ownedby our joint customers.”

Honda suggest that customerswill view this effort on the part ofother body shops as a value-addedservice and says that finding if there

is an applicable recall is easily doneby visiting www.recalls.honda.comand entering the vehicle VIN number.Any recall for that VIN will be noted,including the status of the repair, openor fixed.

In the event that a recall opera-tion is required, Honda asks that theshop not attempt to service the vehi-cle but refer the owner to a local au-thorized Honda or Acura dealer wherethe service will be performed free ofcharge.

Honda is concerned about safety.That's why Honda Owner Link pro-vides up-to-date recall informationabout your Honda car, SUV, or mini-van. Because Owner Link recall list-ings are based on your Honda'sVehicle Identification Number (VIN),when you look for recalls on Honda’swebsite they are specific to your ve-hicle.

Customers with additional ques-tions may be referred to Honda Cus-tomer Service at 1-800-999-1009,select option 4, or Acura Client Serv-ices at 1-800-382-2238, select option4; or customers may visit www.re-calls.honda.com for more informa-tion.

Honda Asks Repairers to Aid in Recall Checks


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Florida Insurance CommissionerKevin McCarty announced the Na-tional Council on Compensation In-surance (NCCI), the ratemakingorganization that files workers' com-pensation rates for all carriers inFlorida, made a filing with the Officeof Insurance Regulation on May 7,2010, which included a proposed 4.2% decrease in rates. This is the eighthdecrease in workers' compensationrates since 2003. The cumulative over-all statewide average decrease in work-ers' compensation rates will be 64.7percent since the 2003 reforms. NCCImade the rate filing due to a change inthe Special Disability Trust Fund as-sessment, a change that ultimately re-duces the insurance company'soverhead expenses. The assessmentrate has been reduced from 4.52 per-cent to 1.46 percent. This lower ratewill be evident on new and renewalpolicies, effective July 1, 2010.

“This reduction in rate will pro-vide rate relief for Florida's businessowners,” said Insurance CommissionerKevin McCarty. “The rate reductionfollows a consistent trend of decliningworkers' compensation rates in Floridathat began following the legislative re-forms in 2003.”

Worker’s Comp Rates toDecrease in Florida

Florida Insurance Commissioner KevinMcCarty has ordered 16 workers com-pensation insurance companies to returnmore than $9.4 million in excessiveprofits to their policyholders. Understate law, workers compensation insur-ers are required to return excess profits.The law says “an excessive profit hasbeen realized if underwriting gain isgreater than the anticipated underwrit-ing profit plus 5 percent of earned pre-miums for the 3 most recent calendaryears.” According to the Office of In-surance Regulation (OIR), a recentaudit determined that 16 different work-ers compensation companies or groupsrealized excess profit as defined bystatute for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 cal-endar/accident years.

The companies have 60 days fromthe date of the order to return the pre-miums or provide policy renewal cred-its to policyholders.

“These results confirm the impor-tance of the workers compensation in-surance reforms enacted by the FloridaLegislature in 2003, which continue toyield positive results,” said McCarty.“These premium refunds contribute tolowering costs for Florida businessesand in contributing to our state's futureeconomic growth.”

16 Florida Worker’s CompInsurers to Return $9.4M

Adispute between an insurance companyand a retired Navy admiral over coverageof damages from Hurricane Katrina hasmade its way to the Mississippi SupremeCourt. The case is among dozens theSupreme Court will hear during its May-June term.

The lawsuit involving AdmiralJames W. Lisanby and his wife, Gladys,and United Services Automobile Associ-ation was the first Katrina-related case togo to trial in Jackson County.

In 2008, a Jackson County jury re-turned a $900,000 verdict for thePascagoula couple.

Lisanby had sued USAA, of SanAn-tonio, Texas, for damage to theirPascagoula beach front home, as well astheir rental cottage, garage and otherlosses. They also asked the jury to awardan unspecified amount for emotional dis-tress. Circuit Judge Billy G. Bridges de-clined to allow the jury to considerpunitive damages. USAA has appealedthe jury award. USAA lawyers arguedcompany did not owe more than the ap-prox. $45,000 it had already paid becausethe Lisanbys' insurance policy did notcover water, even wind driven water. TheLisanbys' attorney said USAA failed toproperly and fully investigate the claimbefore denying coverage.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour onMay 14 rejected a proposal to put a $20million subsidy into a wind pool insur-ance fund. Barbour vetoed part of thestate Department of Insurance budget.He said the $20 million is part of aHurricane Disaster Relief Fund thatmight have to be tapped to repay $400million in federal hazard mitigation ex-penses.

The Mississippi Windstorm Un-derwriting Association, often called thewind pool, is the insurer of last resortfor homeowners and commercial prop-erty in high-risk areas.

After Hurricane Katrina struck inAugust 2005, rates by many private in-surance companies increased sharply.Some property owners have relied onthe wind pool because they've been un-able to find affordable private insurance,but some officials want to nudge peopleback into the private insurance market.

Democratic state Rep. BrandonJones of Pascagoula said Friday thatBarbour's veto of the subsidy couldcause coastal insurance rates to jumpby 2012.State Insurance Commissioner MikeChaney, a Republican, said he expectswind pool rates to remain steady thisyear and possibly next.

Missippi Supreme Court to HearKatrina Insurer Appeal

Governor Barbour Rejects‘Wind Pool’ Subsidy

A $50 million investment will create apartnership between Toyota Motor Corpo-ration and Tesla Motors to produce elec-tric vehicles and bring jobs back to theformer plant owned by GM-Toyota calledthe New United Motor Manufacturing(NUMMI) plant in Fremont, CA, said thesmiling CEOs on May 21.

CEOs Elon Musk of Tesla and AkioToyoda of Toyota were joined for the an-nouncement by Governor Arnold

Schwarzenegger, who also spoke, sayingthe deal was aided by tax incentives.

“What we are witnessing today is anhistoric example of California’s transitionto a cleaner, greener, more prosperous fu-ture,” Schwarzenegger said.According to the deal, both giant Toyotaand tiny Tesla will be working together to

manufacture Tesla model S sedan, whichis a high performance electric sedan, com-peting with cars like the BMW 5-series.

Initially, the automakers are expectedto produce 20,000 vehicles. The partner-ship could create 1,000 jobs initially andeventually as many as 10,000 worldwide.Half of the jobs are expected to be atNUMMI and the other half would be withsuppliers, Musk said. Less than a day afterthe announcement, United Auto Workers(UAW) was urging Toyota to hire workersthat were laid off at the old GM-Toyotaplant.

UAW president, Ron Gettelfinger,said in a statement, “Our union’s hope isthat this venture will give first hiring pref-erence to former NUMMI employees whoare already trained and highly skilled.”

Toyota President Akio Toyoda gotmisty-eyed about his first drive in a TeslaRoadster in Southern California six weeksago. He enthused, “Not only was I im-pressed by Tesla’s technology, but I alsofelt their energy, seeing that they made thevehicle in an extremely short time. “I feltthe wind—the wind of the future,” Toyodasaid.

“Through this partnership, by work-ing together with a venture business suchas Tesla, Toyota would like to learn fromTesla’s challenging spirit, quick decision-

making and flexibility. That is a big part ofthe reason we decided to partner withTesla.

Musk said Tesla is purchasing theNUMMI plant for an undisclosed sum.Toyota and GM closed the plant in earlyApril and terminated 4,700 workers, butthousands of others who worked for partssuppliers—as many as 25,000 by some ac-counts—were also affected.

Tesla will begin production of itsModel S electric sedan in 2012. A 300-mile range, seven-seat SUV will also bemanufactured at NUMMI, he said. Once itreaches full production, Tesla expects toproduce 20,000 vehicles a year at theNUMMI plant.

Initially only a small corner of the5.4-million-square-foot plant will be used,but Musk said he expects the entire facilitywill eventually be utilized.

No mention, yet, of an IPO forTesla, but some in the industry havespeculated that this announcement couldspeed that process, perhaps enabling iteven before GM’s likely offering earlynext year, and Chrysler’s—expected tofollow GM’s.

Chrysler Group LLC said it is consid-ering a public stock offering sometime in2011, Sergio Marchionne said on May 20.Marchionne said there is enough demandin the marketplace to support initial pub-lic offerings for Chrysler and GM, both ofwhich were restructured in government-funded bankruptcy protection cases lastyear. He said he never wants to see thecompany lose money again.

“I expect 2010 will be a much betteryear than we originally forecast,” he said,predicting that U.S. vehicle sales to top 11million this year and 12 million in 2011.


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Giant Toyota Teams with Tiny Tesla to Build Next Generation Cars at Fremont, CA, Plant

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (r) listens to ElonMusk announce the partnership

Toby Chess staged a free advancedextrication class for 44 Sacra-mento, CA, Fire Fighters and FirstResponders May 12, 2010. It washosted by Kniesel’s ColllisionCenters, at 4680 Pacific St. inRocklin, CA, run by Robert andTom Kniesel.

Progressive Insurance fur-nished two vehicle that were 2007and later and Kniesel’s furnishedthe other three cars.

Kent Automotive supplied lunch foreveryone and Captain Jason Martin of theCFD taught the hands on extricaton part ofthe class (assisted by Mr. Chess).

Holmatro Rescue Equipment furnishedthe latest extrication tools. Class started at

8:30 am and lasted to 3:30 pm. If anyonewould like to host this class this summer andfall, call Toby Chess at 310-995-7909.

About Kniesel’s:Kniesel’s has three locations in the greaterSacramento area. The original Kniesels

were a family of small business own-ers who lost nearly everything duringWorld War II. From a refugee camp intheir native Austria, the Kniesel fam-ily headed for America. Within fiveyears of emigrating, they had starteda mechanical and auto body repairbusiness. In 1968, Richard Knieselopened what is now Kniesel's Colli-sion Centers. His wife Lilo and eachof his five children joined him at theshop daily. In 2003, Kniesel’s openedtheir second shop in Rocklin. A thirdshop was opened in Natomas in 2008.

Kniesel’s Collision Centers Hosts Extrication Class

A well-simulated collision realistically depicts the crashscene.

Forty-four Sacramento fire fighters took the extrication class.

Musk (l) and Toyoda (r)


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Northwestern Louisiana Collision Repair Association Offers Estimating CoursesThe Northwestern Louisiana CollisionRepair Association (NWLCRA) heldseveral estimating courses May 11, 12and 13 at the Louisiana Technical SchoolCollision in Shreveport, LA.

Mitchell International sponsored thecourses which were taught by Dave Gau-thier and provided basic as well as ad-vanced techniques in the collision repairestimation field.

Two Best Practices beginners’courses were taught for free as well as anAdvanced Estimating course which car-ried a $25 fee.

Bill Burnside, NWLCRA past pres-

ident and coordinator of this event, said,“It went fairly well, we had a goodturnout.” He also said that the associationwould not object to holding the coursesagain in the future if interest was ex-

pressed from industry people in the area. The Northwestern Louisiana Colli-

sion Repair Association helps to promotethe automotive collision industryas a whole as well as educatingthe public and people in the in-dustry about proper repairs.

The association also tacklesindustry issues and news duringtheir meetings to inform mem-bers. The NWLCRA meetsmonthly to talk about news events

and learn from industry speakers. Moreinformation can be found on their web-site at www.nwlcra.org.

(L to R): Bill Burnside of Tri-State Coatings (past president of association and coordinator ofthe event; Chris Fielder of Fielder Paint & Body, current President of association; ChrisShepherd, Louisiana Technical College which hosted the event and immediate past presidentof association; Dave Gauthier, who has 50 years in the industry (photo credit: Debbie Hooge)

The computers at the school are in the class so shop owners who use Mitchell Estimating toolscan help Doug, displaying a common goal that you seldom see anywhere: (L to R) KevinAdams, Krystal Auto Collision, Butch Naar, Moffitt VW; Chris Fielder, Fielder Paint & Body;Doug England, Doug’s Paint & Body Shop, Doug Revit, Shouse Collision (photo credit: Debbie Hooge)

A shortage of traffic striping paint hasleft road crews and transportation de-partments without the paint they need todo their spring roadwork.

Spring is when roads lose that layerof winter snow and a mass of repairs andrepainting needs to be done to maintainroadway safety. In an industry whose fa-vored medium is acrylic on pavement,the paint shortage is gumming up theworks.

The Associated General Con-tractors of America, a major industrytrade group, warned state and federaltransportation officials last week thatthe shortage has had “very signifi-cant ramifications for completion ofhighway projects this summer,” andasked them not to penalize contrac-tors and suppliers if they are unableto finish projects on time because ofa paint shortage that is beyond theircontrol.

The scarcity stems in large partfrom the shortage of an obscure chemi-cal compound called methyl methacry-late, one of the key ingredients inroadworthy paint, which must besturdy, long-lasting and reflective. Amajor producer of the compound, DowConstruction Chemicals, had produc-

tion problems this year at a plant inDeer Park, Tex.

Other companies scaled back pro-duction during the economic down-turn, said Phil Phillips, the managingdirector of the Chemark ConsultingGroup, which analyzes the coatings in-dustry.

The want of the chemical hasstarted a chain reaction. Aexcel, a com-pany outside Cleveland that makes traf-fic paint, just used up its supply and maybe unable to make additional trafficpaint until it gets more in mid-June.

“I think we emptied our tank yes-terday,” John Milgram, Aexcel’s presi-dent, said Friday. He said he had beenscouring the country to replenish hisstock.

In Texas, officials say the shortagecould delay plans to recoat the surfaceof some roads if there is not enoughpaint around to safely mark the lanesonce the work is done. In some cases,officials said, the state may experimentwith using raised reflective buttons tomark lanes if there is not enough paint.In others, workers may decide to paintthe center dividing lanes on two-laneroads, but not the lines on the shouldersof roads.

Traffic Paint Shortage Threatens Roadwork in Texas


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Alabama Governor Announces Plan To HelpAuto Suppliers Go Green, Be More EfficientGov. Bob Riley, seen here on April 22,announces a pilot program to help Al-abama’s auto suppliers operate more ef-ficiently.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, on May26, announced the launch of a pilot pro-

gram intended tohelp the state’s au-tomotive industrysuppliers reducepollution, adopt“green” manufac-turing technologyand gain eco-nomic advan-tages.Speaking at the

Mercedes-Benz assembly plant inVance, Riley said the program, calledAlabama E3, will coordinate technicalassistance programs offered by federal,state and local agencies.

“In this challenging economy, wemust use innovation, collaboration andall available tools to help our manufac-turers gain a competitive advantage,”Riley said in a prepared statement.The initiative is supported by five fed-eral agencies, several state agencies, Al-abama Power Co., the Alabama GasCorp., the Alabama Automotive Manu-facturers Association and the BusinessCouncil of Alabama, according to astatement. In addition, the cities ofHuntsville, Montgomery andTuscaloosa have signed on as partners. Alabama E3 will initially focus on 15automotive suppliers around thesecities, with more suppliers to be addedlater.

“This will make Alabama standout as a leader among states in this newera that demands economic and re-source efficiency,” Riley said.

A U.S. House committee May 26 passeda sweeping auto-safety bill with a num-ber of changes in the original legislationthat had been sought by the auto industryand Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

The new House Energy and Com-merce Committee bill, which now goes tothe floor of the House, would require in-stallation of brake-override systems andevent-data recorders, or black boxes, inthe wake of Toyota's unintended acceler-ation problems.

Regulators also would have to con-sider standards for foot-pedal place-ment, electronic systems, push-buttonignition systems and transmission con-figuration.

The bill leaves it to the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administrationto decide on the timetable for industryto carry out many of the requirements.The original legislation outlined a timeframe that automakers said was burden-some.

The committee also dropped a re-quirement that black boxes record crashdata for 75 seconds, leaving it to NHTSAto decide on the technology provisions.

In addition, the legislation would in-crease maximum fines on automakers forsafety defects from $16.4 million to $200

million, amending an earlier version ofthe bill that would have eliminated a capon penalties.

More transparencyNHTSA also would receive increases infunding and an expansion of its authority,and auto-safety information would be-come more transparent to consumers.

“The committee addressed a lot ofour concerns,” said Michael Stanton,president of the Association of Interna-tional Automobile Manufacturers.The panel divided strictly along partylines in a 31-21 vote.

Stanton predicted that Congresswould pass a bill by the fall and send it toPresident Barack Obama, who has en-dorsed the thrust of the legislation.

The congressional push follows Toy-ota's worldwide recalls of 10.6 millionvehicles since the fall for sudden acceler-ation. U.S. regulators are investigating re-ports of 89 deaths in the United States.Toyota already has paid a record fine of$16.4 million.

A similar Senate bill has been intro-duced with at least one notable differencefrom the House measure: It would elimi-nate the cap on automaker fines. No dateshave been set either for a vote by the Sen-

ate Commerce Committee or by the fullHouse.

Doubling fundingThe House measure would beef upNHTSA funding by phasing in fees onautomakers of $9 a vehicle and by dou-bling federal funding to $280 millionover three years.

“This bill will dramatically improvethe safety of motor vehicles,” said Rep.Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman ofthe energy and commerce panel.

The Transportation Department alsowould have the authority to order recallsif it determines that there is an “imminenthazard” of public danger. But the agencywould have to give notice to the manu-facturer and offer the automaker the rightto appeal.

This appeal right, which was not inthe original bill introduced by Waxman,had been sought by Dingell.

“The bill is going to be a hard onefor the industry to accept, but I believe it'sin the public interest and is good overall,”Dingell said.

Although Waxman bowed to Dingellon a number of provisions, he got thecommittee to add a revolving-door re-striction. It would impose a one-year pro-

hibition on lobbying of NHTSA by for-mer NHTSA officials who join the indus-try.

The bill also contains a new require-ment for an alert sound on electric or hy-brid vehicles that allows detection byblind pedestrians.

Although the auto lobby got many ofthe changes it sought, the new bill stillleft many Republicans dissatisfied.

“I think this is a very bad, bad bill,”said Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the seniorRepublican on the committee. “It's cer-tainly not good for the automotive indus-try in America.”

Honda takes actionIn a related development, Honda MotorCo. today formally announced plans toinstall brake-override technology inHonda and Acura models.

“We are committed to applyingbrake priority logic on 100 percent ofHonda and Acura passenger vehiclesproduced for the North American marketby the end of calendar year 2011, withour first application coming to market inlate August 2010,” Honda said in a state-ment.

A spokesman had outlined the initia-tive earlier this month.

U.S. House Committee Passes Auto-Safety Bill To Install Brake-Override Systems In Vehicles

Gov. Bob Riley

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Storms across Texas and Oklahomawreaked havoc on the states with tornadoesand large hail; damages are still being cal-culated.

Fierce winds and heavyrain caused thousands ofpower outages across theTexas Metroplex area FridayMay 14. While the May 10tornadoes in Oklahoma pro-duced insured losses in thetens of millions of dollars,the May 16 hail stormscaused monumental damageto windshields and struc-tures across the state.

“Tornadoes are kind ofhit and miss,” said Jerry Johns, presidentof the Southwest Insurance InformationService in Austin, Texas. “With a hail-storm, it’s a very concentrated weatherevent that affects block after block afterblock.”

Phones at the weather service office inFort Worth were “ringing off the hook” Fri-day afternoon with reports of storm damage,said Dan Shoemaker, meteorologist.

Shoemaker reported that roads had tobe barricaded in the Wise County commu-nity of Chico and in Mineral Wells. Shingleswere blown from a roof in Saginaw, he said.

The weather serviceposted a flash flood watchthrough Saturday morningbecause thunderstorms andpossible runoff remained inthe forecast.

Preliminary claims fig-ures from the May 10 torna-does in Oklahoma projectlosses in the millions, saidMarc Young, Oklahoma as-sistant insurance commis-sioner. Johns believes theinitial storm will produce losses in the “tensof millions of dollars.”

Johns said the two storms likely willbe the second- most expensive in the 25years he has been in the insurance businessin Oklahoma. Johns, who tracks the insur-ance industry in Oklahoma and Texas, saidthe storms probably will be topped only bythe destruction of Hurricane Ike, whichripped through Galveston and Houston in2008.

The auto repair business is still reelingfrom the slew of hail storms that continue tohit the state.

Body Works Inc., a mobile auto glassrepairer in Oklahoma City, told customersto wrap damaged car windows in plastic be-cause it could be a couple weeks beforethey'd get to them.

“We’re not scheduling at this point, wejust have a waiting list and are calling peo-ple from that,” said Chris Donnelly.

A second hail storm rained down golfball to baseball-sized hail on Sunday May 16,causing further delays in windshield repairs.

“It just peppered everything in sight,”said Chris Donnelly, “it is absolutely blow-ing us up.”

Body Works is seeing a lot of completewindshield replacements and paint less dentrepairs, but about 50% of cars coming in arebeing totaled.

At Eskridge Lexus, tents made to with-stand hail stones protected some of thenewest cars on the lot. But about 200 othervehicles had cracked windshields and dents.

“Our plans are to repair everything andthen disclose that to customers,” said gen-eral sales manager Doug Berryhill.

Storms Across N. Texas and Oklahoma LeaveFloods, Power Outages and Millions in Damages

A car’s back windhsield was completely broken out by hail inOklahoma

Hail caused baseball-sized dent in the roof of this vehicle

The Society of Collision Repair Special-ists (SCRS) introduced a new programas an enticement to register early for theevents taking place in conjunction withthe SEMA Show in Las Vegas in No-vember.

Everyone who registers for the as-sociation’s Repairer Driven Education(RDE) series prior to August 31st will beentered into a drawing to win a compli-mentary hotel suite for the week of theSEMA show at the Las Vegas Hilton,SCRS’ headquarters hotel. The winner ofthe lodging giveaway will be contactedin September, and an announcement willbe made to the industry.

The SCRS educational series willfeature over 21 seminar offerings, manyof which are uniquely designed andbeing offered for the first time at the2010 SEMA Show. The series will be of-

fered as a package, and registrants willhave the option to attend six seminarswhich will be delivered between thehours of 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. onThursday and Friday of the show.

“This drawing is only one of manyreasons to attend this year’s show,”added SCRS Chairman Barry Dorn.“The excitement stemming from SCRS’involvement at the SEMA Show seemsto be compounding, and is reconfirmedby the tremendous amount of positive re-sponse we are seeing and hearing fromour membership.”

To register for the SEMA Show andSCRS’ RDE Series prior to August 31st,2010 and be entered into the drawing forthe hotel suite giveaway, or to get moreinformation about the events, please visitwww.semashow.com/scrs or contactSCRS at [email protected].

SCRS Giving Away Hotel Suite for 2010 SEMA

Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the followingstatement on the Obama Administration’s an-nouncement on new auto emission standardsfor our nation’s fleet of cars and trucks:

“The announcement by the Obama Ad-ministration builds on the work of Congressto reduce our dependence on oil and increase

our energy security. Every year, we send bil-lions of dollars overseas to countries that arehostile to U.S. interests in order to feed ouraddiction to oil.

“Increasing the fuel efficiency of all ve-hicles on the road, including trucks andbuses, enhances our national security, re-

duces global warming pollution, and savesfamilies and small businesses money. It willalso encourage American entrepreneurship,as innovators race to create the next genera-tion of energy-efficient vehicles. And it willenable consumers to buy technology madein America.

“The Administration’s efforts will alsobuild upon the American Clean Energy andSecurity Act, passed by the House last June,which will create clean energy jobs here inAmerica, protect consumers, reduce our de-pendence on dirty and foreign fuels, and helpensure our national security.

Speaker Pelosi’s Statement on Auto Emission Standard Echos the President’s

The Education Foundation is once again of-fering “The Ultimate Collision EducationMakeover” grant in 2010, which will awardone school with a $50,000 grant to overhaultheir school’s collision repair program. Thewinning collision repair program will be ableto utilize this $50,000 grant to purchase equip-ment, curriculum, instructor training, andsupplies. The I-CAR Education Foundationwill also work together with industry partnerswho will provide in-kind product donations tothe winning and non-winning schools. Theapplications of the non-winning schools pro-vided information on their specific needs andthrough the generosity of industry partners,the Foundation has arranged for over$130,000 in donations for these schools. Thisgrant is open to collision repair schoolsacross North America. Applications are cur-rently available at www.ed-foundation.org.

MMaacc TToooollss DDoonnaatteess $$1100KK iinn TToooollss ttoo KKCCsscchhoooollMac Tools has come to the aid of the KansasCity Kansas Community College’s TechnicalEducation Center by donating $10,000 in newtools and equipment through the I-CAR Edu-cation Foundation. Mac Tools provided theschool’s collision program the opportunity toselect tools they needed and the school se-lected over 60 pieces of tools, equipment andsupplies from Mac Tools that are on theNATEF required tool list. Kansas City KansasCommunity College Technical EducationCenter Instructor Ron Bales said, “On behalfthe school and students I would like to thankthe Mac Tool company for the grant to myclass. The quality tools that Mac is providingmy students will greatly enhance their labwork and will save time because they won’tbe required to share tools quite as much.”

BBaassff DDoonnaatteess WWaatteerrbboorrnnee EEqquuiippmmeenntt TTooTToolleeddoo SScchhoooollOwens State Community College in Toledo,Ohio received a waterborne technologyequipment upgrade through the generosityof BASF. The donation was made through theI-CAR Education Foundation and includedpaint and related equipment to convert towaterborne refinish technology. This mate-rial combined with the existing primers, clearcoats, etc., will enable the school to keeppace with the collision industry by offeringtraining in the latest repair paint technology.

RReeppaaiirr FFaacciilliittiieess RReenneeww AAnndd JJooiinn AAss FFoouunn--ddaattiioonn IInndduussttrryy LLeeaaddeerrsshhiipp CCiirrccllee MMeemmbbeerrssSeveral repair facilities displayed their com-

mitment to supporting the Foundation’s ef-forts in assisting school’s automotive colli-sion programs and their students at theFoundation’s Industry Leadership Circledonor designation level: Seidner CollisionCenters renewed their 2009 support at an In-dustry Leadership Circle member for theFoundation with their recent donation. Jerry’sBody Shop also renewed their Industry Lead-ership Circle donor designation with their2010 donation. Erie LaSalle Body Shop & CarCare Center is a newly added Industry Lead-ership Circle donor. The Education Founda-tion would like to thank these repair facilities

for supporting the Foundation at an IndustryLeadership Circle level!

AAnnnnuuaall FFoouunnddaattiioonn GGoollff FFuunnddrraaiisseerr IInnCChhiiccaaggoo TThhiiss JJuullyy The ninth annual I-CAR Education Founda-tion golf tournament fundraiser will takeplace July 22nd in the Chicago-land area dur-ing the Collision Industry Conference(CIC)/industry meetings week. Golfers willenjoy an afternoon at the AAA Four Diamond

award winning Eaglewood Golf Resort inItasca, IL followed by a relaxing evening,post-tournament reception at TopGolf inWood Dale, IL, one of only three facilities inthe country. An anticipated sold-out crowdof 150 automotive professionals from NorthAmerica and the local Chicago-land area isexpected. “The industry showed its strongsupport for the fundraiser in 2009, which wasthe highest grossing Foundation golf tourna-ment to date,” stated I-CAR Education Foun-dation Executive Director Scott Kruger. “Withthe 2010 tournament taking place in ourbackyard, we will be doing all that we can to

match and surpass last year’s results.” Thisevent is open to all industry professionalsand is not limited to those attending the CICand other industry meetings that week inChicago. Registration forms for the event areavailable through the Foundation’s web siteat www.ed-foundation.org. Questions aboutthe tournament and sponsorship opportuni-ties can contact the I-CAR Education Foun-dation at 888-722.3787, Ext. 282 or [email protected].

EEdduuccaattiioonn FFoouunnddaattiioonn AAnnnnoouunncceess 22001100BBooaarrdd ooff TTrruusstteeeessThe Education Foundation announced theslate of Trustees and Executive Committee for2010. The Education Foundation honors thefollowing representatives on the ExecutiveCommittee: Chairman - Doug Webb; ViceChairman - Bill Daly; Secretary - Terry Fortner;Treasurer - Chris Northup; Member-At-LargeGeralynn Kottsch-ade; Member-At-Large TimO’Day; Member-At-Large Joseph Allen; Im-mediate Past Chairman Chris Evans; In addi-tion to the Executive Committee, theFoundation Board of Trustees are: Mark Algie,Terry Angell, Guy Bargnes, Stacy Bartnik,Domenic Brusco, Mary Knapp, Nick Notte,John Saia, Rick Tuuri and John Ward. TrusteeEmeriti are: J. Laurence Costin, Lirel G. Holt,Frank D. McGiboney, Chuck S. Sulkala and thelate Russell Verona. Chairmen Emeriti consistof: Clark Plucinski. Foundation recognizes In-dustry Leadership Circle donors The Educa-tion Foundation would like to thank andrecognize the 2009-2010 Industry LeadershipCircle members for their support: 3M, ABRAAuto Body & Glass, ABRN, AkzoNobel, All-state Insurance Company, Audatex, Bar’sProducts, BASF Corporation, CCC InformationServices Inc., Chicago Pneumatic, Collision-Week, Craftsman, Erie-LaSalle Body Shop &Car Care Center, FenderBender magazine, Fin-ishMaster, Inc., GEICO, Hi-Tech Collision &Glass Centers, Jerry’s Body Shop, Mac Tools,Mercedes-Benz USA, Inc., Minutillo, Michael,PPG Industries, Inc., Seidner’s Collision Cen-ters, State Farm Mutual Automobile InsuranceCompany, Sterling Autobody, Taylor, Roy andThe USAA Foundation.

FFoouunnddaattiioonn RReelleeaasseess 22001100 MMaakkeeoovveerrSScchhooooll GGrraanntt AApppplliiccaattiioonn

The 2010 SkillsUSA Championships willtake place in Kansas City, Missouri thisyear; the event expects over 5,000 contest-ants for the 96 contest competition.

The SkillsUSA Championships is thenational-level competition for public highschool and college/postsecondary techni-cal students enrolled in career and techni-cal education programs. Each SkillsUSAChampionships contestant is a state-levelgold medalist.

Begun in 1967, the SkillsUSA Cham-pionships has grown from 54 competitorsin three contests to more than 5,400 com-petitors in 96 contests this year. SkillsUSAaffiliated instructional programs represent130 different occupational areas and aregrowing every year. Contests are brokendown in to; skilled and technical sciences,occupationally-related, leadership devel-opment and demonstration categories.

942 medals will be awarded and 163recognition awards will be given duringthe competition; all prizes will support stu-dents’ employment or further education.

In the interest of maintaining a work-force with the skills needed to repairhomes and vehicles, State Farm continuesto support SkillsUSA. In addition to fi-nancial contributions, the company is pro-viding hundreds of hours in time donatedby employee volunteers. State Farm be-lieves these bright, young people are ourfuture workforce that will repair the vehi-cles and homes of our customers. So it isin our interest and our policyholders’ in-terest to help bring new talent, creativityand innovative minds to the skilled tradesthat support our industry.

The competition will begin onWednesday, June 23, and continue on toThursday, June 24. Some contests run twodays, while all contests run Thursday.

SkillsUSA Championships Coming in June

Documents

Southeast June 2010 Autobody News