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The Collision Associations Serving Ohio Shops by David M. Brown
In Ohio collision-repair facilities and vendors are represented by two associations: the Choice Autobody Repair Association and ASA-Ohio. In 2005, CARA, a nonprofit collision repair association, was formed in Cadiz in eastern Ohio. CARA represents approximately 50 body shops in various cities throughout the state. Members include former members from the disbanded Ohio Collision Repair Association and the Ohio Bodyshop Owners Association. “There were five shop owners who felt it was necessary to help educate consumers on their rights con-
cerning collision repairs, which led to the formation of CARA,” says Rick Finney, president of the association and owner of Finney Automotive Inc. and Finney Tire LLC, both in Cadiz. Finney felt that “too many companies in the insurance industry were steering consumers to specified repair facilities. Consumers needed to be made aware that they have the right to have their vehicle repaired at the shop of their choice.” “CARA does a great deal of consumer awareness but has no interest in promoting its own members shops through the association,” he says, adding: “We believe a well-educated See Ohio Associations, Page 38
ASA MI Hosts Webinar: Where’s the Work? Identifying Market Changes from 2007–2011 gan for auto insurance, but we could not inform our membership exactly by what volume nor did we know where the other carriers have placed, so we immediately worked Ray Fisher with reports from the State of Michigan, Office of Finance and Insurance Regulations (OFIR) and created this very informative and well received webinar addressing those questions,” Fisher said. The agenda for the webinar was See ASA MI Webinar, Page 20
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ASA Michigan hosted on Sept. 5 an exclusive collision member webinar titled Where’s the Work?—Identifying Market Changes from 2007–2011. “A couple of months ago we hosted a very informative meeting about the State Farm PartsTrader pilot program and realized that an important piece of information was missing for our members—market share and complaint ratios of the various insurance companies here in Michigan,” stated Ray Fisher, President of ASA Michigan. “As this new business model is being piloted, we knew that State Farm was the largest insurer in Michi-
VOL. 1 ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 2012
PartsTrader will Come to Chicago Market’s 450 State Farm Select Service Shops in December State Farm Insurance is planning to expand its Web-based parts procurement pilot through PartsTrader in Chicago, Dick Luedke, media relations specialist for State Farm, said Sept. 14. Luedke said State Farm’s Select Service shops in Chicago will begin using the program in December. A specific date has not yet been set. That means the program will be required in five U.S. markets, including Chicago; Tucson, AZ; Grand Rapids, MI; Charlotte, NC; and Birmingham, AL. About 600 State Farm Select Service shops exist throughout those five markets. State Farm selected Chicago as the next location for its pilot due to the city’s size, which will allow the company to test the program on a larger scale, Luedke said. Roughly 450 Select Service shops exist in Chicago,
while the other four markets where the pilot is currently active have about 150 participating shops combined, less those who dropped the program. “The reason we’re doing this is because that market is such a big metropolitan area. We want to test the scale and technology of the program in a larger metropolitan area,” Luedke said. “That allows us to scale the program and the technology in that unique environment. Obviously, Tucson and Birmingham are good size metropolitan areas, but Chicago is much larger so we want to do it there.” Luedke said State Farm does not currently have plans to launch the PartsTrader pilot in any other markets. State Farm has said its PartsTrader process should improve part availability, process efficiency, order accuracy and create a better experience for customers.
According to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a 10% reduction in vehicle mass increases fuel efficiency by 7% on average, so it’s clear what advantages lighter weight and stronger materials can bring to future vehicles. As the automotive industry absorbs CAFE regulations and consumer desire for fuel efficient cars, the goal of mass reduction has enabled some startling improvements in production time and costs for carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is emerging as a practical and cost-competitive alternative for mid-volume production cars, previously used only in exclusive lowvolume vehicles like the Corvette ZR1 pictured . Plasan Carbon Composites based in VT and owned by Plasan Sasa, an Israeli defense contractor, will be producing carbon panels for a midvolume production vehicle as early as January 2013 from its locations in Western Michigan. This means that by
early 2013, body shops could be tasked with carbon fiber repairs. “It will be the first time that carbon fiber has been used this extensively
Carbon Fiber Advances Enable Mid-Volume Production Vehicles from MI Factory by 2013
on a base production car anywhere in the world,” said Gary Lownsdale, Chief Technology Officer of Plasan Carbon Composites. The key enabler for this up to 50,000-units-per-year vehicle application is Plasan’s patented Pressure Press processing technology. A secrecy agreement prevents Plasan officials from naming the veSee Carbon Fiber, Page 18
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