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With Auto Rate Relief Promised, Michigan Gives New Scrutiny to Insurers by Jonathan Oosting
Michigan is giving new scrutiny to auto insurance rates, beefing up anti-fraud investigations and mounting a public education campaign in an effort to help drivers realize savings promised in a new law that takes effect this summer, a top state official said Wednesday. No-fault auto reforms pushed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will require insurers to reduce personal injury projection premiums for consumers
who choose to buy policies with limited medical benefits. To help ensure that happens, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services is contracting with six independent firms to review underlying risk assumptions insurers use to set their rates, director Anita Fox told reporters in a media roundtable. “It’s a big change for all of us after more than 40 years of the old system,” Fox said of the new law, which will prohibit insurers from selling policies without prior apSee New Scrutiny, Page 12
PF3 Paint Supply Opens Michigan’s First Independent Training Center by Ed Attanasio
There are a lot of body shops and product jobbers, as well as paint and equipment manufacturers all over the country that like the idea of using their facilities to provide things such as training, I-CAR classes, insurance agent continuing education, trade organization meetings and other industry events. It’s a potentially smart business move, because it brings a wide range of different industry people into your building. But it does involve a significant investment in both time and
money and that’s why some companies balk. In this case, Paul Fus, the owner of PF3 Paint Supply with three stores in Wixom, Grand Rapids and Detroit Mi decided that the value of establishing a 4,000 sq. ft. state-ofthe-art training center outweighed the costs. PF3 is a full-line distributor of paint and related products for the automotive, commercial fleet, and industrial markets serving more than 400 body shops. As an official distributor for Akzo Nobel and Valspar DeBeers
AUTOBODYNEWS.COM Vol. 9 / Issue 6 / March 2020
Detroit-Hamtramck to be GM’s First Assembly Plant 100 Percent Devoted to Electric Vehicles General Motors’ vision of an all-electric future is coming into clearer focus and gaining momentum with a $2.2 billion investment at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant to produce a variety of all-electric trucks and SUVs. GM’s first all-electric truck will be a pickup with production scheduled to begin in late 2021. This will be followed soon after by the Cruise Origin, a shared, electric, self-driving vehicle unveiled by Cruise in San Francisco last week. Detroit-Ham-
tramck will be GM’s first fully-dedicated electric vehicle assembly plant. “Through this investment, GM is taking a big step forward in making our vision of an all-electric future a reality,” said Mark Reuss, GM president, during a press event at the plant with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other local and state officials. “Our electric pickup will be the first of multiple electric truck variants we will build at DeSee Detroit-Hamtramck, Page 18
CIC Subcommittees Offer Competing Suggestions on How to Deal With “Opt-OE” Parts by John Yoswick
Heated exchanges that erupted during the “Parts and Materials Committee” presentation at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) in Las Vegas in November sounded “exactly what committee meetings feel like,” Aaron Schulenburg, committee co-chairman joked, and demonstrated, according to
See PF3 Paint Supply, Page 24
Ken Weiss said six definition labels his subcommittee defined help make clear the nuances among part types. Credit: John Yoswick
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co-chairman Ken Weiss, “why we ended up with two subcommittees.” The committee about a year ago inherited from another CIC committee the task of trying to resolve the is-
sue of a variety of types of parts being listed as “opt-OE” on parts platforms or estimates. Weiss and Schulenburg said the committee had been so polarized on the issue that they decided to break into two “more like-minded” work groups to each form a proposal on how to most clearly describe parts available in the marketplace for those making parts decisions. Weiss said his work group came up with six different categories of new parts that differentiate, for example, an “OEM dealer” part from the exact same part sold in the same packaging but outside the automaker’s dealer network (described by his sub-committee as an “OEM non-dealer” part). Two other of the six categories would differentiate a certified non-OEM part from one that is not certified. In between were two other categories for parts produced by the same manufacturers that produce the same parts for the vehicle manufacturer; Weiss’ subcommittee dubbed those as “Tier 1 OEM” parts if they bore the same branding as the See “Opt-OE” Parts, Page 22
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