On April 3, 1982, Karl Adams’ family of three became a family of two. A head-on traffic collision with a truck killed his 25-year-old wife that spring evening. It also changed the life of his 21-month-old son forever.
AASP-MO and MWACA have worked together over the years to ed ucate the Missouri State Legislature on various industry-related issues. Their joint work included working to prevent the elimination of Missouri’s vehicle safety inspection legislation. Seeing the benefits of merging to make the numerous bene fits, services and programs available to AASP-MO members, Ron Reiling, AASP-MO executive director, reached out to Sheri Hamilton, executive director of the Auto Care Alliance and the Midwest Auto Care Alliance, to dis cuss the possibility of joining forces once more, but this time on a perma nent “Bothbasis. associations are on the same page and our members are our top priority,” Reiling said. “MWACA is just a great fit for AASP-MO mem bers and that is why we had no prob
Dozens of industry leaders and experts will take the stage at the 2022 SEMA Show Education Program, where attendees will have the opportunity to learn about current and future trends, proven business strategies and new opportunities while at the annual event taking place in November in Las Vegas.
Aaron Schulenburg, executive director of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), said the company contacted him, after speak ing with one of SCRS’s state affili ate groups, to see if SCRS might be interested in acquiring data it has on recently-written collision repair quotes.The company, which Schulen burg did not identify by name, told him the information could be used by SCRS member shops to contact consumers who received a recent es timate to say, “Hey, I know you’ve gotten a recent quote, and our busi ness could do the work for you.” Schulenburg asked what type of information was available. The company told him, “through our data aggregation partners and pro by Tess DeGayner, Midland Daily News
Lake, MI, resident Karl Adams, right, encourages his son, Lance, left, to raise his thumb while the camera snaps for a portrait on July 14 in Downtown Midland. Lance faces long-term recovery from an auto crash in 1982. Credit: Tess EducationandandandSEMADeGayner/tess.degayner@hearstnp.comShowattendeescanlearnaboutcurrentfuturetrends,provenbusinessstrategiesnewopportunitiesfromindustryleadersexpertsaspartofthe2022SEMAShowProgram.
New this year are four sessions focused on challenges and opportunities associated with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. The first DEI session, “Diversity and Inclusion: How You Can Advance Equal Opportunity in Your Workplace,” Michigan Auto Reform
The ongoing discussion about auto body shop data privacy at the quar terly Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meetings took a new turn this summer when an association lead er described what a data aggregator company had recently offered to sell to his organization.
The members of AASP-MO (Al liance of Automotive Service Pro viders of Missouri), in a unanimous vote, elected to merge with the Mid west Auto Care Alliance. Effective Nov. 1, AASP-MO will close its doors and members will become part of the MWACA organi zation. MWACA will add the Gate way Collision Chapter to its long list of active chapters in the Midwest, as well as merge the organization’s two St. Louis mechanical chapters.
Company Says it Has Recent Auto Body Shop Estimate Data for Sale
SEMA Show to Feature Educational Program Focused on Personal and Professional Development
IL / IN / IA / KS / KY / MI / MN / MO / NE / ND / OH / SD / WI MIDWEST E DITION YEARS40 AUTOBOD YNEWS.C OM Vol. 11 / Issue 12 / September 2022 EPRESORTEDSTANDARDU.S.POSTAG AIDP PERMIT CA8#28ANAHEIM, P.O.BOX1516,CARLSBAD,CA92018 ChangeServiceRequested
, Page 22See Vote to Merge, Page 13
“I couldn’t recognize him,” Karl said, recalling his arrival to the hospital, after he was contacted by officials via phone. “It just looked like someone beat the hell out of him…It did everything but kill him.”
Beginning Oct. 31 the day before the official opening of the four-day SEMA Show the 2022 SEMA Show Education Program will include more than 70 free and premium sessions within 14 tracks. Showgoers may choose individual sessions across different tracks, mixing and matching the offerings to create a personalized agenda that meets one’s individual needs.
“The Education Program is one of the SEMA Show’s key pillars, and it’s always been highly rated by participants,” said Pamela Brown-Matthis, SEMA director of education. “We challenged ourselves and pushed to make the program better than ever. We focused heavily on bringing in elite subject matter experts and high-profile industry leaders. SEMA Show attendees are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to hear from industry experts while at the show.”
by John Yoswick
See Data for Sale, Page 26 See SEMA Show, Page 20 See
AASP-Missouri Members Vote to Merge with Midwest Auto Care Alliance
Impacted Crash Survivors Continue Fight for Michigan Auto Reform
2 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com ROLLING CREEPER SEAT FROMCONVERTSHIGHTOLOW WORKCOMFORTMEETS LOCKINGHEIGHTSUPTO 6 1-800-253-2363 • WWW.BENDPAK.COM ©2022 BendPak Inc. All rights reserved. The ergochairTM is the adjustable height rolling work seat which will make performing awkward work tasks ergonomically easier and safer. This comfortable creeper seat offers a full range of mobility, increased productivity, and reduced fatigue. To Learn more visit www.bendpak.com/ergochair FROMCOMFORTABLYCONFORMSCREEPERTOUPRIGHTSEAT
autobodynews.com / SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS 3 CONTENTS REGIONAL AASP-Missouri Members Vote to Merge with Midwest Auto Care Alliance ......................... 1 ABRA Rapid City Hosts Open House Event 6 Car Center’s Four Locations in Michigan Join 1Collision 10 CARSTAR Auto Boutique Collision Opens Columbus, OH 6 CARSTAR Jeff’s Garage Opens in Fairport Harbor, OH 12 Carvana Loses License to Sell Vehicles in Illinois for Second Time 10 Gas Stolen from Fuel Tanks at Louisville, KY, Area Collision Centers 13 High-Tech Auto Electronics Manufacturer Gentex to Expand in Zeeland , MI 8 Impacted Crash Survivors Continue Fight for Michigan Auto Reform 1 Stellantis Plans $83M Investment at Dundee Engine Plant for Hybrid-Electric Models 16 Toyota Responds to Critical Needs Following Unprecedented Kentucky Flooding 14 With Excessive Heat, North Dakota Auto Repair Shops Busy Fixing Broken AC Units 8 COLUMNISTS Anderson - Don’t Let Higher Sales Take Your Eye Off the Ball 28 Attanasio - Forward-Thinking Program Creating Great Auto Body Techs of the Future 46 Attanasio - How is Your Auto Body Shop Dealing with the Great Resignation? 38 Attanasio - Mike’s Auto Body Gave Away 100 Cars in 21 Years, Changing Countless Lives 50 Phillips - How to Profit from ADAS Services and Calibration—It’s Not Just About the Targets 30 Phillips - Lemonade to Use Mitchell’s Claim Solutions for Newest Product 56 Phillips - OEM Roundtable Working to Improve Quality of Collision Repair 42 Phillips - Repairify’s New Partnership with ATG Will Provide Industry with Advanced Diagnostic Training 48 Phillips - Technician/Painter Recovering from Severe Burns Recognized During 11th Annual CIF Gala 54 Strandberg - Build Your Collision Repair Business with a Buyer in Mind 40 Yoswick - Gerber Collision CEO Talks Parts, Personnel Challenges 36 NATIONAL 3M, CREF Donate Products to 300 Schools 63 Agenda Announced for CONNEX 2022 16 AirPro Diagnostics, CCC Partner 62 Appeals Court Rejects GM’s Attempt to Overturn FCA Racketeering Lawsuit Ruling 44 Audi, VW Vehicles Recalled Airbags 10 Average Collision Repair-Related Rental in Q2 Decreases by Half a Day from Q1 58 BendPak Announces Leadership Plan 14 CIECA Forms AI Committee 60 Collision Repair Association Conducting Study of Blend Time Formula 52 Company Says it Has Recent Auto Body Shop Estimate Data for Sale 1 CREF Invites Collision Industry to Fall 2022 High School & College Transportation Student Career Fairs 63 CREF Raises $100,000 at Golf Fundraiser 61 Ford Testing Robot EV Charging Station 12 Ford’s July Sales Up 37% Compared to Same Month a Year Ago 62 GM Offering EV Education 4 Hyundai Gets $19.2 Million Penalty for Tarnishing Millions of Customer Credit Reports 63 KECO Donates to Schools in MT, IL 20 Kia Recalls 258,000 Optimas Following Injury Lawsuit 39 Lightning Strikes Across America: Customer Deliveries Now Stretch Across All 50 U.S. States 4 Lordstown Reaffirms Endurance Pickup Production for Q3 4 Lucid Cuts Production Goals by 50% Once Again 20 Ohio Groups, Lawmakers Praise CHIPS Act Passed to Boost Intel Investment 53 Rivian Amazon Vans Delivered 430K-Plus Packages During Pilot Program 57 SEMA Show to Feature Educational Program Focused on Personal and Professional Development 1 Tesla Cybertruck Prices, Specs to Change, Probably Be Worth It 16 The Gas Price Limbo: How Low Will It Go? 44 TikTok’s Latest ‘Kia Challenge’ Encourages Users to Steal Cars 14 YANG Announces TopGolf Fundraiser 6 ADVERTISERSOFINDEX Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst General Manager: Barbara Davies Contributing Writers: John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess, Ed Attanasio, Stacey Phillips, Eric Murphy, Ron Liesch Advertising Sales: Joe Momber, Norman Morano, (800) Office699-8251Manager: Louise Tedesco Digital Marketing Manager: Bryan Malinski Art Director: Rodolfo Garcia Graphic Designer: Vicki Sitarz Senior Editor: Abby Andrews Accounting & HR Manager: Heather Priddy Permissions Editor: Randi Scholtes Office Assistant: Dianne Pray Serving Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and adjacent metro areas. Autobody News is a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Permission to reproduce in any form the material published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher. ©2022 Adamantine Media LLC. Autobody News P.O. Box Carlsbad,1516CA92018 (800) 699-8251 (760) 603-3229 Fax www.autobodynews.com editor@autobodynews.com ABRA 21 American Icon Automotive Finishes 10 Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers 61 Auto Data Labels 64 Axalta Coating Systems. 5 BendPak 2 BMW of Des Moines 42 BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers 57 Borton Volvo 28 Byers Imports 43 Car-O-Liner. 17 Carworx Distribution, Inc. 11 Certified Automotive Parts Association 16 Classic BMW MINI 38 Classic Chevrolet 49 Classifieds 62 Columbia Hyundai 22 Dominion Sure Seal, Ltd. 12 Eagle Abrasives 15 Equalizer Auto Glass Tools 8 Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers 58 Gandrud Parts Center 27 GM Wholesale Parts Dealers 55 Hawkinson Kia 28 Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers 32-33 Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers 53 Industrial Finishes and Systems 37 Jake Sweeney Chevrolet 30 Jordan Ford 50 Kelly BMW 34 Ken Ganley Subaru North Olmsted 39 Kia of Lansing 36 Kia Wholesale Parts Dealers 59 LaFontaine Buick-GMC-Cadillac 40 Launch Tech USA 31 Laurel Auto Group of Westmont 47 LKQ Corporation 35 Luther Bloomington Acura-Subaru 45 Luther Brookdale Mazda 38 Luther Kia of Bloomington 46 Maplewood Toyota 20 Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers 60 McGrath City Hyundai 44 Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts Dealers 60 MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers 56 MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers 24-25 Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealers 54 Patrick Hyundai 48 Platinum Auto Trends 6 PPG 9 SATA Dan-Am Company 7 Sears Imported Autos, Inc 22 SEMA Trade Show 29 Shaheen Chevrolet Parts Warehouse 23 Shoot Suit 13 Spanesi Americas 41 Steck Manufacturing Company 26 Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers 52 Sunmight USA 18-19 Symach 14 The Sharpe Collection of Automobiles 51 Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers 60 Varsity Ford 46 Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers 56 Willis Volvo 50
“From the time we watched it at the reveal, we knew that we wanted it,” Tam my Head said. “We had no doubt that this truck will have trademark Ford quality which gave us the confidence to transition to an electric vehicle.” “And the guy in me likes having the baddest truck on the planet,” Jeff Head added. Among the most popular and most-photographed features of the F-150 Lightning so far is the Mega Power Frunk. Owners are using the 400 liters of space1 to store gear and are taking advantage of the 2.4 kW of Pro Power Onboard in the frunk to help power their campsite or charge their power tools while driving.“This truck is a workhorse. We have driven more than 3,000 miles already and towed and carried hun dreds of pounds of concrete in the frunk,” said Emre Gol of Texas, who uses his F-150 Lightning Lar iat pickup for work at his kitchen and bathroom remodeling business. Recently, he helped his neigh bor’s wife, who was away from home with only six miles of charge left on her electric sedan’s battery. Gol connected his F-150 Lightning with the sedan’s charging adapt er and provided enough energy to safely get her back home.
That was quick lightning quick. In just two months, Ford has delivered electric F-150 Light ning trucks to customers in all 50 U.S. states, from the shores of the Kenai River in Alaska to Houston and even
“The Lightning is the best thing I have ever purchased,” said Chris Ashley, a resident of Maryland and a first-time electric vehicle buyer. “With this truck, I can enhance my love of tailgating while at the same time play a small role in creating a better planet for my children.”Ashleyhas contemplated pur chasing an EV for the past couple of years before his wife, Emily, convinced him to buy the F-150 Lightning.
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As part of its mission to make EV ownership accessible to all, General Motors on July 25 launched EV Live, an immer sive, virtual experience that al lows participants to interact oneon-one with EV specialists and learn everything about electric vehicles for free.
Lordstown Reaffirms Endurance Pickup Production for Q3
EV Live allows anyone to connect with an EV specialist from any internet-connected mo bile or desktop device. These EV specialists will answer EV-re lated questions in real time and give virtual tours of the EV Live studio, which houses real EVs and dynamic displays of home charging, public charging, bat tery technology, sustainability, commercial applications, EV apps and more. EV specialists can also guide participants through the home charging installation pro cess and refer them to certified installers.Formore information, visit evlive.gm.com.Source:GM GM Offering EV Education
In
Source: Ford Lightning Strikes Across America: Customer Deliveries Now Stretch Across All 50 U.S. States
Jeff and Tammy Head, owners of both an F-150 and now an F-150 Lightning, who have pri marily used their new electric truck to tow a boat from Anchorage to Kenai River, about a three-hour drive, for salmon fishing.
4 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com
“In Q2, we made signif icant progress towards our plan to launch the Endurance in Q3 of 2022 and begin sales in Q4. We look forward to getting the Endurance into customers’ hands, as we think they are going to love it,” — Edward Hightower
“This truck is a workhorse. We have driven more than 3,000 miles already and towed and carried hundreds of pounds of concrete in the frunk,” — Emre Gol by Joey Klender, Teslarati Lordstown Motors reaffirmed its plans to start production of the En durance all-electric pickup during the third quarter of 2022, while re porting its earnings for Q2 in early August. the company’s Q2 Sharehold er Deck, it listed several outlooks for the future, as Lordstown has struggled to begin production of the pickup. Struggling with cash flow and having trouble keeping its doors open, Lordstown formed a joint venture with Foxconn, with the au tomaker becoming the company’s primary development partner for EV development in North America. Lordstown expects Q3 to see the start of commercial production, while deliveries should begin in Q4, it said. However, the company only expects to produce around 500 units through early 2023. “In Q2, we made significant progress towards our plan to launch the En durance in Q3 of 2022 and begin sales in Q4. We look forward to getting the Endurance into customers’ hands, as we think they are going to love it,” said Edward Hightower, CEO of Lordstown Motors.Hightower also hinted that Lordstown and Fox conn’s first project as a joint venture is currently undergoing “pre-devel opment work.” terms of financials, Lord stown CFO Adam Kroll noted the automaker will need to raise more money to support the 500-unit pro duction goal. However, Lordstown only requires between $50 million and $75 million to accomplish this, a substantial reduction from the $150 million it said it would need earlier this year.Lordstown reported an operating profit for the first time in its history, but it did not come from the sale of any vehicles, obviously. Instead, Fox conn’s acquisition of the company’s Ohio production facility is where the realized gains came from.
Take for instance
truck capital of America and California the EV capital of America lead the way with the highest number of F-150 Lightning deliveries through late July. Early customers have discov ered F-150 Lightning can handle a variety of needs, regardless of where they are located.
In
Ford has sold more than 4,400 F-150 Lightning electric trucks in the U.S. and Canada (YTD).
Ford’s newest truck is winning EV fans. Nearly 80% of early reser vation holders said in a survey that F-150 Lightning will be the first full EV in their household.
CARSTAR, North America’s pre mier network of independently owned collision repair facili ties, announced the opening of CARSTAR Auto Boutique Collision, located at 1037 E. 5th Ave., Co lumbus, OH 43201. The owners of CARSTAR Auto Boutique are Victor Polishuk and Peter Grammatikakis. Pol ishuk entered the business with his father at the age of 19, where he learned the collision repair in dustry through experience. In his 30s, he expanded the operations and partnered with Grammatika kis, who has worked with cars his whole life, whether it was as a hob by or through his towing company. This duo was the perfect match to partner and open CARSTAR Auto Boutique Collision, pairing Poli shuk’s knowledge of the industry and Grammatikakis’s experience in owning and operating a company.
“Peter and I opened this lo cation in 2016 and it has grown exponentially since then,” said Polishuk. “From large renovations to hiring a sophisticated team, we have seen a lot of change within this facility. We are excited to join the CARSTAR family as it will give us additional opportunities to grow our business through their training and
“The attendees loved having the Ogala Pet Project volunteers onsite during the event, especially the dogs,” said McKie. “We can’t thank our community enough for donating toward this cause and we thank the OPP organization for all they do.”
Associ ation YANG TopGolfAnnouncesFundraiser 6 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com We Are The America’s Leading Supplier of Opt OEM Parts Reduce Cycle Time – Maximize Pr ofits • Comprehensive Inventory Over 20,000 + OPT OE Collision Parts • Attended by Team of Experienced and Knowledgeable Sta s • Fast Shipping Nation-Wide • PLATINUM Warranty on All Parts Sold Toll Free: 877-727-8890 Local: 972-313-7373 24 Hr. Fax: 972-313-0190 www.oegenuineparts.com5430FAABlvd.Ste. 170, Irving, TX sales@oegenuineparts.com75061 Established since 2002 Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Lexus, Scion, Honda, Acura, Nissan, Infiniti, Subaru, Mazda, Mitsubishi Brand names or logos and vehicles names shown are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and Platinum Auto Trends Inc is not associated or representative. Any registered trade mark(s) shown herein are solely for reference purposes only
Peter Grammatikakis, pictured here, opened CARSTAR Auto Boutique Collision with Victor Polishuk
CARSTARresources.”AutoBoutique is an 18,000-square foot facility, with 12 employees equipped with the industry’s latest in collision repair standards and tools. Almost the en tire team is I-CAR Gold certified and the facility is well on its way to earning OEM certifications soon.
For more information on ABRA, visit ABRAauto.com. Source: ABRA ABRA Rapid City Hosts Open House Event
ABRA Rapid City in Rapid City, SD, a leading premier collision repairer, recently welcomed more than 150 attendees into its facility for an open house event.
ABRA Rapid City enhanced its facility in 2020 to include a 15,000-square foot addition, 11 body stalls, six refinish stalls, double estimating bay capacity, double de tail bay capacity, additional outdoor parking and a second story for addi tional parts and equipment storage. After two long years, guests were able to tour the incredible fa cility, learn more about ABRA, en joy free food and mingle with others in the“Wecommunity.havebeen waiting pa tiently to host a community event in our updated facility and showcase all the updates we made to better serve our valued customers,” said Mark McKie, owner, ABRA Rapid City. “The event far exceeded our expectations, and we look forward to continuing to host events like this for years to come!”
Auto Boutique Collision 1037 E. 5th Ave. Columbus, OH 43201 (614) 299 9915 Monday to Friday: 8 a.m.–5 p.m. For more information on CARSTAR, visit Source:CARSTAR.com.CARSTAR
Source:information.Auto
The Young Auto Care Network Group (YANG), an Auto Care As sociation community of young in dustry professionals, is partnering with the Automotive Aftermarket Charitable Foundation (AACF) to raise support for the foundation through a nationwide TopGolf event Sept. 8. In continuing its ef fort to provide support to members of the auto care industry, YANG is proud to once again partner with AACF to bring the auto care com munity together while raising funds that will provide resources, guid ance, financial support and more to those in need. Six major TopGolf locations across the country will host events for the fundraiser, with the support of industry sponsors: Atlanta, GA, Midtown location; Denver, CO, Thornton location; Detroit, MI, Auburn Hills location; Houston, TX, Katy location; Oma ha, NE; and San Antonio, TX Contact Danielle King at danielle.king@autocare.org for more Care
CARSTAR Auto Boutique Collision Opens Columbus, OH
“We are thrilled to bring the CARSTAR Auto Boutique Col lision team into our family,” said Dean Fisher, collision group pres ident, Driven Brands. “The dedica tion and eagerness to learn has giv en us confidence that this team will accomplish great things. We are excited to see what they can bring to the Columbus area!” Polishuk and Grammatika kis are looking to grow their team through bringing in new, young talent to the facility. They plan to visit and become involved with local trade schools to help teach, encourage and eventually hire the next generation of collision repair professionals.Pleasejoin us in welcoming CARSTAR Auto Boutique Col lision to our growing CARSTAR CARSTARfamily.
The ABRA Rapid City team chose a local animal rescue, Ogala Pet Project (OPP), as its charity of choice for the event. The OPP vol unteer group was in attendance at the event with a few adoptable dogs. OPP received $350 in donations and ABRA Rapid City matched the do nations for a total of $700 to go to ward the cause. In addition, several applications to adopt were submit ted, one adoption is currently pend ing and the organization was able to recruit a few new volunteers.
autobodynews.com / SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS 7 SATA®RPS™ #02 CLEAN #03 SAFE #04 REFILLABLE Firm connection between lid and cup (thread). No accidential detaching of cup from lid. The *SATA RPS cup can be safely tilted by up to 45° forward, right and left to facilitate easy access to almost any painting situation. The cup can be easily, cleanly and safely separated from the spray gun without making a mess! The cups can be easily be refilled. The paint strainer can be exchanged by a spare strainer at any time. #01 BENDABLE tonothowevercups,standardRPSSATAalltoapplies* series.olderand3000SATAminijet The exclusive independent distributor of SATA products in the US and Puerto Rico 800-533-8016 email: satajet@satausa.com www.satausa.com SATA, SATAjet and/or other SATA products referenced herein are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SATA GmbH & Co. KG in the U.S. and/or other countries. ScanINFO for more info on the SATA RPS Cups SATA RPS Sept.indd 1 8/8/22 2:28 PM
With Excessive Heat,
“We’re excited to announce that after two years of analyzing our manufacturing and R&D footprint, we’ve reached an agreement with the State of Michigan that supports our long-standing commitment to the state and provides the incentives necessary to facilitate our future growth initiatives in Michigan,” said Gentex Corporation President and CEO Steve Downing The Michigan Strategic Fund today approved the following in support of the project:
“Make sure your condens ers are clean, not full of bugs, dirt, grime because the condenser is what cools the Freon, and if that gets plugged, your AC runs at high er temps, which causes failure,” said Hoffman. While it’s not quite as refresh ing, you can travel with your win dows down for free. North Dakota Auto Repair AC
Sometimes there is no way to beat the heat. One local auto repair shop has reported an increase in air con ditioning repairs as temps soar into tripleEmployeesdigits. at Bismarck Tire Center can feel the rising temps and they also see the effects of the heat.
Gentex plans to construct a new high-tech manufacturing facility and distribution center in Zeeland Char ter Township, and also expand its existing manufacturing facility in the City of Zeeland. The project will provide the company with increased capacity for glass processing, the manufacture of auto-dimming inte rior and exterior mirrors, displays and electronics for automotive and aerospace applications, and the de velopment of new technologies for the fire protection industry. Michigan was chosen for the project over competing sites in Al abama, Ohio, South Carolina, Ten nessee and Virginia.
If you’re trying to keep your car out of the shop and pumping out cool air, there is preventative main tenance you can do yourself.
Developmentsearch-jobs/https://www.gentex.com/careers/visitSource:MichiganEconomicCorporation
“Gentex’s $300 million invest ment creating 500 good-paying jobs will grow Michigan’s economy and help us continue leading the future of mobility and electrification,” said Whitmer. “We can attract bold in vestments from cutting-edge firms like Gentex because of our bipartisan collaboration on economic develop ment legislation last year, which has already led to billions of dollars in investment in Michigan and thou sands of jobs. Gentex is a longstand ing Michigan company, and we are grateful to them for expanding their presence in GentexMichigan.”Corporation, head quartered in Zeeland, is a high-tech supplier for the global automotive, aerospace, and commercial fire pro tection industries. Gentex ships its products to automakers worldwide and currently employees more than 5,000 Michigan residents.
“With the hot weather, the air conditioning parts are starting to fail, and we’ve been staying quite busy with it,” said Eric Hoffman, service manager at Bismarck Tire Center in downtown Bismarck, ND.
High-Tech Auto Electronics Manufacturer Gentex to Expand in Zeeland , MI
“Gentex’s $300 million investment creating 500 good-paying jobs will grow Michigan’s economy and help us continue leading the future of mobility and electrification,” — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Shops Busy Fixing Broken
Gentex, a manufacturer of hightech electronics for the auto, aero space and fire safety industries, is investing $300 million to expand in Zeeland, MI, with support from the Michigan Strategic Fund, creating 500 jobs. The announcement was made July 26 by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with the Michigan Eco nomic Development Corporation (MEDC).
“And now our great debate is whether it’s worth the money or not because.... summer’s almost over again,” said Nicole Schumaker. Shumaker is currently sav ing up for a trip to take her kids to Disneyland. She said she’s had her AC fixed twice before and with the end of summer in sight, that money could be better used for the vacation fund. “Two hundred and fifty dollars goes a lot further at Disneyland than $250 on an air conditioning unit that’s already been fixed twice,” she said.
• A $5.5 million Michigan Busi ness Development Program perfor mance-based grant • A $1.89 million Jobs Ready Michigan grant • A 15-year, 100% State Essen tial Services Assessment exemption valued at $3.8 million The project contributes to the MEDC’s ongoing efforts to strength en Michigan’s leadership in automo tive manufacturing and builds on the state’s work to position itself as the epicenter of autonomous and electric vehicle manufacturing in the U.S. Gentex also offers a variety of training opportunities and partners with Michigan Works! and Lake shore Advantage to reach local tal ent. The project will also bring im mediate job growth with a large and growing auto supplier and further cements the company’s manufac turing presence and future growth in Michigan.Both Zeeland Charter Township and the City of Zeeland anticipate approval of property tax abatements in support of the project, and MEDC also authorized a State Education Tax abatement to be used in conjunction with the local Individualsabatement.interested in ca reers with Gentex should
Units UPDATED DAILYwww.autobodynews.com 8 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com
by Christa Kiedrowski, KFYR TV
For some people, the decision to fix a broken AC unit isn’t very easy, especially when there are oth er things to spend money on.
Given that refinishing most often calls for blending, how efficient a system can perform an accurate repair and eliminate chances for redos is especially critical to achieving maximum cycle time performance.
Color ID and Matching Efficiency
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
Since color variants to OEM prime colors are an everyday challenge for identifying a correct formula, those identified by PPG’s color variance team are quickly incorporated into PPG’s comprehensive color formula database. Formulas are updated daily through PPG’s PAINTMANAGER® XI color software. In the long run, the daily update of the database saves the technician valuable time searching for the right color formula.
autobodynews.com / SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS 9
This fast blend process is aided by a very thin film build, enabling the basecoat to dry fast. Only 2-3 minutes flash time is needed between coats and the clearcoat can be applied in 10-15 minutes. The system’s EN-V® Series clearcoat line offers fast bake times as short as 10 minutes.
The throughput of a refinish system must include its color-matching ability. Afterall, if the color doesn’t match, how fast the repair was achieved won’t matter. In this regard, PPG has heavily invested in ensuring the ENVIROBASE® High Performance waterborne basecoat system delivers color-matching excellence. Its color variance program is one example of this commitment.
The number of color coats required to make a refinish repair is one primary consideration for evaluating the throughput performance of a refinish paint system. Yet, as most know, the most accurate way to vet a system’s productivity is to evaluate the entire refinish process from color identification, right on through to the final clearcoat. As example, PPG’s waterborne refinish system incorpo rates a host of features designed to speed cycle time performance.
To ensure color accuracy, the basecoat’s latex particles orient metallic flakes smoothly to accurately match the color travel from face to flop. Painters won’t find any evidence of mottling or halos around the repair, which can appear using conventional basecoats. Any dirt or specks can be easily de-nibbed, further facilitating a fast blend repair.
Another real time saver is the Chromatic Variant Deck since it can significantly reduce sprayouts. Comprised of thousands of variant and prime color chips, each chip is sprayed with actual waterborne paint. “The color deck is ‘dead-on’,” says Jeff Smith of Pro Collision, Grand Rapids, Michigan. “If the color is in the deck, there’s no need to do a sprayout, like we always had to perform with our previous system.”
Blending Performance
How Waterborne Technology Can Improve Cycle Time Performance
PPG’s waterborne system employs an easy, one-gun process designed to achieve a fast, tight blend and accurate match the first time out. In fact, in a 2-3 coat application, it’s possible to perform a spot repair in less than an hour.
To summarize, when evaluating throughput performance— from color identification to final clearcoat—the Envirobase High Performance system covers all the bases to achieve the cycle time performance demanded by today’s high-production collision centers.
Bill Edwards, Nick’s father, opened Greenville Car Center in 1997. Four years later, he changed the business’s name to Car Center and added a full-service mechan ical shop. Over the years, Car Center expanded to include four locations. Nick grew up working in the shop, washing cars and sweeping floors. After graduating with a business degree from Ferris State University in Michigan, Nick be came involved in the company and eventually purchased all four locations.“What sets us apart is our intense passion for our core values,” said Nick. “That’s what sets our culture internally. We’re not perfect but I think we’re a leg up when it comes to customer ser vice and giving people a different experience.”As an I-CAR-certi fied facility and ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognized business, Nick said they take pride in mak ing sure all repairs are done cor rectly the first time. Recently, the Greenville team moved into a new 20,000-square foot facility across the street from the previous location, which has been set up as the Car Center headquarters. “We’re pretty proud of it,” said Nick. 1Collision
letters are mailed Sept. 23. Owners may contact Volk swagen
or Audi
and
1Collision proudly announced the addition of Car Center’s four lo cations in Michigan.
Volkswagen’s and Audi’s recall numbers are 69DY and 61C1. Audi, VW Vehicles Recalled Airbags 10 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS
Car Center’s Four Locations in Michigan Join 1Collision
The
“The deal closer was prob ably the rebates that 1Collision was able to negotiate and knowing we could get those resources at a pretty affordable price.”
Source:
Established 30 years ago, Car Center operates collision repair facilities in Big Rapids, Burton Heights, Cedar Springs and Green ville. The company prides itself on offering quality auto body repair and exceptional customer service.“We are delighted to be bringing on a quality MSO like Car Center,” said John Hollingsworth, 1Collision’s director of new location develop ment. “Their owner, Nick, strives to always better their operation while taking care of their No. 1 priority, providing them value and helping them reach their goals.” Nick Ed wards, owner of Car Center, said the MSO joined 1Collision for the support and rebates offered. “The support 1Collision of fers was very attractive to us,” said the second-generation body shop owner.
By Brad Anderson, CarScoops Carvana has had its license to sell cars in Illinois suspended second time in as many months. company first nois license suspended in early May following some 90 complaints title and registration issues, with some Carvana customers having to wait four to six months to receive proof of ownership documentation. However, this suspension only lasted for two weeks before the Il linois Secretary of State’s sued a stay on its order, allowing Carvana to resume sales under a number of strict requirements. Fast forward to mid-July and Carvana’s license has been suspend ed once again. The state alleged the Carvana Loses License to Sell Vehicles in Illinois for Second Time by David A. Wood, CarComplaints.com Audi Volkswagen passenger airbags have caused a recall of more than 1,200 of these vehicles. owner recall at 800-893-5298 customer service at 800253-2834.
Exploding
2016 Audi TT Roadster 2016 Audi TT Coupe 2016 Audi S3 Sedan 2016 Audi R8 Coupe 2016 Audi A3 Sedan 2016 Audi A3 e-tron 2016 Audi A3 Cabriolet 2016 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen 2016 Volkswagen Golf R 2016 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2016 Volkswagen Golf A7 2016 Volkswagen e-Golf Dealers will replace the passen ger airbag modules once
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CARSTAR Jeff’s Garage Opens in Fairport Harbor, OH
CARSTAR Jeff’s Garage is a 10,500-square foot facility and home to a team of seven employ ees. The facility is equipped with up-to-date tools and resources to provide the best quality col lision repairs to its community. maintain their strong culture even through the busy times,” said Dean Fisher, collision group president, Driven Brands. “We are always excited to welcome another long standing family business that holds the same values as our CARSTAR family and we’re thrilled to wel come this premier team to our growing network.”
CARSTAR Jeff’s Garage prides itself in supporting the com munity it serves, having contribut ed to the local educational system, Fairport Village, as well a variety of other local charities.
Jeff McKinney, owner of CARSTAR Jeff’s Garage, is a sec ond-generation industry leader. The location itself was owned by McKinney’s father and was opened over 50 years ago. McKinney was around the collision repair industry throughout his childhood and be gan to take interest in the industry at the age of 10. After helping out around the facility through high school, McKinney went to college can help us keep it that way.”
Ford has developed a prototype robot charging station that drivers operate via their smartphone from inside their electric vehicle. The technology could enable disabled drivers to stay in the car while charging, or they could leave the car while the robot does all the work. Disabled drivers have al ready identified ease of charging as a key purchase consideration for electric vehicles. Ford is testing the robot charging station as part of a research project to develop handsfree charging solutions for elec
CARSTAR announced the open ing of CARSTAR Jeff’s Garage at 1199 East St., Fairport Harbor, OH 44077.
Ford Testing Robot EV Charging Station
lem presenting the merger for the members to vote to accept and they did just that.”
Continued from Cover Vote to Merge
— Ron Reiling by Katrina Nickell, WDRB News
Addington said the collision center has notified both St. Matthews Police and Louisville Metro Police about the problem. LMPD said an Eighth Division detective has been assigned to the case and it is an open and active investigation. What shocks Addington the most is the time thieves take to steal the gas.“In order to get any kind of measurable amount, four or five gallons, it would have to take 10, 15 or 20 minutes to get only four or five gallons of gas,” he said. The general manager is also surprised at the lengths some thieves have gone.
“At our other location, they’ve cut the chains off the gate twice,” he said. But, he said, the crews are doing everything possible to deter thieves from stealing gas, from parking the cars inside the building to getting cam eras set up as soon as possible. spending an extra 30 or 40 minutes every afternoon to pull in every car we can physically fit in the building,” Addington said. Louisville, KY, Area
“We’re
Gas Stolen from Fuel Tanks at
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“We look forward to working with Ron and the AASP-MO leaders and members as we join together to form a united voice for our industry. Together we can make a difference for collision and mechanical repair shops within Missouri and beyond,” said Hamilton.MWACA and its national par ent organization, the Auto Care Alli ance, continue to grow daily with this merger being an excellent example of its growth and future opportunities.
A collision center in St. Matthews, KY, said it is facing a problem never seen before: gas being stolen from fuel tanks parked on the lot. Jump starting cars and driving them behind locked gates is what the crew at Joe Hudson’s Collision Center is now forced to do after falling victim to a crime they’ve never“Peopleseen. come on to the lot at night and drill a hole in the fuel tank, drain fuel into a pan and then take it away,” said Douglas Addington, gen eral manager at the collision center’s St. Matthews location. Addington can’t figure out why exactly it’s hap pening, but believes it might have to do with the rising costs of many neces sities, from groceries to gas. “When ever the economy is a little, you know, tense or whatever, you’ll see kind of things happen that normally don’t happen, especially in the St. Matthews area,” he Addingtonsaid. said it has also hap pened at the collision center’s east Louisville location. He doesn’t think they’re the only ones dealing with this problem.“It’s just kind of new and not widespread yet, or not common knowledge, yet,” he said.
Reiling, with his 23 years of ex perience as AASP-MO’s executive director and more than 50 years in the industry, will be joining MWACA as the St. Louis Area liaison and leg islative lobbyist, and will monitor the legislative activities that affect the industry. Reiling will continue to work closely with the Gateway Colli sion and St. Louis Mechanical chap ters. He will also represent MWACA on the many secondary and post-sec ondary school advisory boards and industry committees for both me chanical and collision.
Source: Midwest Auto Care Alliance
“MWACA is just a great fit for AASP-MO members and that is why we had no problem presenting the merger for the members to vote to accept and they did just that.”
TikTok’s Latest ‘Kia Challenge’ Encourages Users to Steal Cars
Toyota Responds to Critical Needs Following Unprecedented Kentucky Flooding
The Foundation for Appa lachian Kentucky–Flood Relief Fund will receive $500,000 to help support families throughout eastern Kentucky struggling for access to shelter, food, water and other basic needs.
Source: BendPak, Inc.
Toyota Financial Services is offering payment relief options to its impacted customers. This broad outreach includes any Toyota Fi nancial Services (TFS) or Lexus Financial Services (LFS) customer in the designated disaster areas. Impacted lease and finance customers residing in the affected areas may be eligible to take ad vantage of several payment relief options, some of which include extensions and lease deferred pay ments, redirecting billing state ments and arranging phone or on line payments.Customers who would like to discuss their account options are encouraged to contact TFS or LFS.
Toyota on Aug. 3 announced $750,000 in donations to assist with immediate needs and long term recovery efforts following catastrophic flooding in Eastern Kentucky. Toyota employees are also rallying to support immediate needs through donation drives.
Toyota Financial Ser vices customers: Call 800-8748822 or contact TFS via email us ing the Mail Center function after logging into ToyotaFinancial.com. Lexus Financial Services cus tomers: Call 800-874-7050 or contact LFS via email using the Mail Center function after logging into Source:LexusFinancial.com.Toyota by Brad Anderson, CarScoops A viral challenge across TikTok and YouTube has led to a spike in thefts of Kia and Hyundai models through out theTheU.S.“Kia Challenge” shows so cial media users how to steal certain Kia and Hyundai models by simply removing the plastic cowl under the steering column and using a USB cable. The issue has become partic ularly prevalent in Milwaukee, WI, where there is a group of young teen agers known as the “Kia Boys” who have become notorious for stealing cars and taking them on dangerous joyrides.It’s not just in Milwaukee where car thefts have surged though. In St. Petersburg, FL, the police depart ment said 23 of the 56 cars stolen on local streets since July 11 have been Kia and Hyundai models model year 2021 and older. Writing on Twitter, authorities encouraged Hyundai and Kia owners to be cautious. “Anyone with a Kia/Hyundai that uses a key, please #lockitup,” it wrote. Speaking with the Tampa Bay Times, police said Kia models produced from 2011 and 2012 and Hyundai models from 2015 to 2021 have a vulnerability that means the ignition can be easily bypassed. Most of the individuals stealing Kia and Hyundai models are aged between 14 and 17. St. Petersburg Police Depart ment Sgt. Cody Lance said the ma jority of the cars stolen are unlocked and encouraged owners to always lock their vehicles. He also encour aged the use of steering wheel locks and said parking vulnerable Hyundai and Kia models behind other vehicles can make them more difficult to steal.
SBP, Toyota’s longstanding disaster resilience, response and recovery partner, will receive $250,000 to help guide survivors as they navigate the federal fund ing application and appeals pro cesses, share online recovery tools and work with high-risk commu nities on how to mitigate and pre pare for future disasters.
The trend is spreading across the country. Authorities in St. Paul, MN, have reported a more than 1,300% increase in Kia thefts from last year and an 854% increase in stolen Hyundais. In Grand Rapids, MI, Hyundai and Kia models also made up roughly 45% of the city’s auto thefts in June. Spikes in thefts have also been reported in St. Louis, Memphis, Cincinnati and Columbus.
BendPak, Inc., a global man ufacturer and marketer of ve hicle service equipment and specialty consumer products, announced changes to its ex ecutive team, effective Aug. 3. President Don Henthorn, who has led the company since establishing it in 1965, will take on a more limited role in its daily operations as chair man emeritus. Jeff Kritzer will be promoted from execu tive vice president to succeed Henthorn as president and CEO.At the same time, Rudy Diaz will step up from vice president of information tech nology to executive vice presi dent and chief operating officer (COO). Jim Fornear moves from financial controller to chief financial officer (CFO). Rounding out the leadership team, Javier Arias continues in the critical role of vice pres ident of operations.
The two car manufacturers said they were aware of the in crease in thefts and noted all of their current models are fitted with engine immobilizers.
“When disasters like this oc cur, it’s important that we do ev erything possible to help ensure Kentuckians have the support and resources needed to recover and rebuild,” said Tellis Bethel, group vice president, chief social inno vation officer, Toyota Motor North America. “Our hearts go out to all of thoseToyotaimpacted.”isproviding dou ble-matching contributions for all donations made by U.S.-based em ployees to support The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, SBP and The American Red Cross. Additionally, Toyota will match all contributions made by its dealer partners as a part of the effort.
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“The Michigan plant will con of 2023,” the company said. The investment is not expected to have any impact on the number of full-time positions at the plant, according to company spokeswom an Jodi Tinson. As of June, Dundee had 987 workers (853 hourly and 134 salaried), according to the company.
The new 1.6-liter, inline-four cylinder turbocharged engine will be based on a current Stellantis engine in Europe and will have “flexibility” for hybrid-electric, or HEV, vehi cle applications, the company said, noting this will be the first HEV engine for the company in the re gion. Stellantis owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands.
CIECA announced its agenda and speakers for the upcoming CIE CA CONNEX Conference, to be held Sept. 13-14 in St. Louis/St. Charles, MO. In addition to a line-up of top industry speakers, there will be networking opportunities, a gifting ceremony by the National Auto Body Council® (NABC) as part of its NABC Recycled Rides® program, CIECA’s open annual meeting and a tour of Hunter Engi neering.This year’s theme is “CIE CA Next Gen: Evolving to Meet the Needs of the Collision Indus try.” All industry stakeholders, including CIECA members and non-members, are invited to attend. Conference attendees are el igible to receive credit toward a professional designation from the Automotive Management Institute (AMi).The day prior to the confer ence, NABC will be holding Boone Valley Golf Club Fundrais er in Augusta, MO.
The Dundee Engine Plant will be retooled to become the final assem bly location for a new four-cylinder engine for two future hybrid-electric Stellantis models coming to North America, the company announced Aug. 1.
Source: CIECA Agenda Announced for CONNEX 2022 16 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com YOUR ASSURANCE OF QUALITY www.capacertified.org
by Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press
The plant, which is southwest of Detroit, MI, will see an invest ment of $83 million, with engine production slated to begin in ear ly 2025, according to a news release.
“This investment in a new four-cylinder engine will add job security for the members who continue to build ICE products as the industry transitions to electrification” — Cindy Estrada
The announcement for Dundee is the largest piece of a total $99 mil lion investment announced Aug. 1, which the company tied to its Dare Forward 2030 business plan. The re lease said the company would also invest more than $14 million at the Kokomo Casting Plant in Indiana to convert die cast machines and cells ed the announcement in a statement, saying “when companies invest in UAW facilities, they are recognizing that UAW members add value to the company’s success.”
by Maria Merano, Teslarati Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted at the 2022 Annual Meeting holders that Cybertruck prices will change. However, a lot has changed since the cyberpunk truck’s unveil ing. Tesla might make the price change worth it. The all-electric pickup truck was unveiled in 2019, before pandemic. Prices have gone up across the board, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the price of the Cy bertruck went up as well. Tesla has increased the price of its other vehi cles as“Cybertruckwell. pricing, it was un veiled in 2019, and the reservation was $99,” Musk reminded at the meeting. “A lot has changed since then, so the specs and the pric ing will be different. I hate sort of a little bit of bad news. But I think there’s no way to sort of an ticipate the inflation that we’ve and the various issues.” Initially, the Cybertruck was available in three trims with start ing prices ranging from $39,900 Tesla Cybertruck Prices, Specs to Change, Probably Be Worth It
UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, who leads the Stellantis Department for the union, called it great“Thisnews. investment in a new four-cylinder engine will add job security for the members who con tinue to build ICE products as the industry transitions to electrifica tion. The hard work and dedication of the UAW Stellantis membership to build great products with world Stellantis Plans $83M Investment at Dundee Engine Plant for Hybrid-Electric Models
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All sessions are held in meeting rooms at the Las Vegas Convention Center, making it easy and convenient for attendees to schedule seminars between meetings with exhibitors. Registrants can sign up for the education program while applying for SEMA Show credentials at www.semashow.com/ register.Those who are already approved for credentials can add education sessions by going into their SEMA Show dashboard. Sessions will also be able to be added through the SEMA Show mobile app. This year’s information will be updated in the mobile app in August, but the app can be downloaded now from the appThestore.SEMA Show is the world premier automotive trade show, featuring new products and trends in vehicle customization. Complete details about the Nov. 1-4 SEMA Show taking place in Las Vegas, NV, are available at www.semashow.
“Celebrity Insights,” moderated by African American Racers Association co-founder Chris Harris, features automotive celebrities, legends and luminaries with diverse backgrounds and experiences. The one-hour discussion will give attendees a glimpse into the lives of some of their favorite personalities.
Source:com.
Continued from Cover SEMA
The first recipient, nominat ed by Julie Lombardo, execu tive director for the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Illinois (AASP-I), was College of Lake County-Grayslake Campus (CLC) automotive collision repair program.The second recipient, nomi nated by Mariah Litton, executive director for the Montana Collision Repair Association (MCRA), was City College, MSU Billings, colli sion repair and refinishing technol ogy program.Source:SCRS
takes place Nov. 1, and will be presented by James Pogue, Ph.D., president and CEO of JP Enterprises. Part of the Business Management Track, each DEI session will feature thought leaders, skill-building seminars, networking, inspiring role models and action-oriented content.
Also continuing in 2022 are comprehensive programs from partners, including the Society of Collision Repairers (SCRS), the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) and the Tire Industry Association (TIA).
The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) announced a collaboration with KECO Body Repair Products to gift a tool and training package to one collision industry educational institution per quarter.Schools are nominated by SCRS affiliate associations, who were encouraged to nominate schools in their market. The recip ient schools will be awarded the KECO Level 2 Glue Pull Repair System + On-Location Training.
KECO Donates to Schools in MT, IL
Lucid shares were trading at $18.74, down 8.9% the morning of Aug. 4 in New York.
“The SEMA Show has a lot to offer, from seeing new products and vehicle builds, meeting with manufacturers, learning from experts and developing meaningful relationships that you can only get from an in-person event,” said Tom Gattuso, SEMA vice president of events. “We encourage showgoers to take advantage of all the elements of the SEMA Show, so that they get the greatest ROI.”
SEMA Show by Joey Klender, Teslarati Lucid Group cut its 2022 produc tion outlook to between 6,000 and 7,000 vehicles after citing “extraordinary supply chain and logisticsLucidchallenges.”initiallyprojected its 2022 production goal as 20,000 units last year. This was quickly revised in February to between 12,000 and 14,000 vehicles. As automakers across the world struggled with supply is sues and parts shortages, startups began to reconsider their goals for the year. Rivian also slashed production goals considerably in early 2022, citing supply issues and other challenges as the rea soning.Lucid’s situation is no dif ferent. Struggling with cash flow, the company lost nearly $5 billion in 2021, and took an other $220 million loss in Q2, it disclosed in its Shareholder Deck. Only 679 Lucid Air vehi cles made their way to customers in Q2. When asked about a week ly production rate, CEO Peter Rawlinson said it would be best not to start “cherry-picking spe cific weekly production rates.” Meanwhile, CFO Sherry House said customers and investors should see deliveries begin to pick up substantially through the next few “Ourquarters.revised production guidance reflects the extraordi nary supply chain and logistics challenges we encountered,” Rawlinson said. “We’ve identi fied the primary bottlenecks, and we are taking appropriate mea sures…We continue to see strong demand for our vehicles, with over 37,000 customer reserva tions, and I remain confident that we shall overcome these nearterm challenges with a relentless tenacity and a steely determina tion.”Rawlinson also said Rivi an has brought logistics opera tions in-house and is working to strengthen its executive team.
“Celebrity Insights” takes place Nov. 4, along with five other sessions that comprise the brand-new Enthusiast TrackReturningprogram. by popular demand is the Leadership Essentials Track, presented by Dale Carnegie. Consisting of six courses spread out over three days, the program can be taken as a whole or individually. Each course features acclaimed trainers from Dale Carnegie Training. Known for having a leadership, communications and sales program that improves both individual and business performance, Dale Carnegie Training focuses on core human relations principles and is said to transform lives.
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Lucid Cuts Production Goals by 50% Once Again
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It is difficult for Karl to think back on that time. His memories take him back to that Saginaw hospital watching his infant son lying in the intensive care unit. Since the ‘80s, Karl has fought to maintain some form of normal as he parented his son alone and fought battles to get him quality care. In 2019, lawmakers responded to Michigan’s highest-in-the nation auto insurance premiums by passing legislation giv ing drivers the option to choose their level of personal injury protection, re placing the state requirement that driv ers buy unlimited lifetime coverage. That legislation took money away from the care traumatic injury survivors like Lance rely on to sur vive.It’s just another battle, Karl said, and he’s not alone in the fight. Across Michigan, there’s 18,000 residents in similar vulnerable and crisis situ ations.“With the way the law is written right now,” Karl said reflecting on care his son received for his injuries, “he wouldMichigan’sdie.” auto insurance re form went into effect July 1, 2021. One change in the law allows drivers the option to choose their preferred level of personal injury protection coverage. Another change was the new fee schedule that cut reimburse ment from insurance companies for health care services provided to ac cident survivors not covered under Medicare by 45%. The reform has had profound consequences for crash survivors and health care providers. More than 100 care providers have closed or no longer accept nofault clients they can’t offer the care their clients need and keep their doors open due to the lower reimbursement rates. Nearly 18,000 seriously injured survivors are losing necessary care services. Several bills have been offered to address the fee schedule. Bills large ly have died in insurance committees since the 2019 reform bill. Current ly, the following bills offer alterna tives, but are stalled in both the House and Senate: HB4992, HB4486 and SB314.
In May, Gov. Gretchen Whit mer encouraged those who did not “receive their share” of the $3 billion catastrophic fund surplus to contact their insurance company. Members of We Can’t Wait feel the refunds are used as deflection from an insidious problem about seven people have died since the auto reform law went into effect, according to the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault, or CPAN. At the time of the crash, the 29-year-old Karl had unlimited auto insurance. He said those funds were not the state government’s money to spend. That was supposed to cover medical care for life, if there was a catastrophicBecauseinjury.ofthis, Karl referenced the $400 refund checks as “blood money.” However, Whitmer’s office released a mid-July statement cele brating putting “money back in peo ples’ pockets.”
Grassroots advocacy group We Can’t Wait has a list of more than 20 legislative drafts that they would ad vocate for, but there is a clear under standing of the state’s lack of interest in helping those struggling families. The stalled possibilities are listed as legislative items on the advocacy group’sThewebsite.Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association is a private un incorporated, nonprofit association created by the Michigan Legislature in 1978. Catastrophic claims involve injury to the brain and/or spinal cord, which results in serious and perma nent disability. Some examples are paralysis and a Accordingcoma.toWe Can’t Wait, there was about $27 billion in the fund, prior to $3 billion in total re funds out to Michigan drivers with registered vehicles via $400 checks.
“Now, what happened is, your grandparents, parents and you ev eryone you know have been paying into this catastrophic fund for over four decades,” Karl said. “That mon ey was invested by all of us, that is the peoples’ money. They (govern ment officials) severed it; they did not grandfather any of the existing claims in. They have come up with all sorts of excuses why they are not in there, but they still haven’t corrected it.”
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A resident of Lake, MI, Karl couldn’t believe the state followed
“It’s either what a provider nor mally charges based on their market rate, or whatever is agreed as a rea sonable service, whatever is less of those two,” he continued.
“He is happy, but we’re dealing with a brain that we can’t see,” Karl said. “Every one of those brains were healthy brains until they were injured. I’m real conscious of his self-es teem.”
The lack of participation from legislative and executive lawmakers is not slowing down those who rep resent the people impacted by auto crashes across Michigan. There has been protests across the state, cen tralized in Lansing and Detroit areas. Most await pending results from the class action suit in the Michigan Ap peals Court system.
through with the 2019 reform.
“I can’t believe they even did it,” he said.Itis summer break for Michigan representatives in Lansing. Discus sions that could have potentially led to any form of change were tabled for the term. The courts are hearing argu ments that could open the door, sev eral months from now, for those who are facing the retroactive debate.
Care provider Brian Harrison worked with the Midland County rep resentatives to call on the state. Under the representation of his organization, AdvisaCare Home Health and Hos pice, Harrison spent time developing plans in 2021 with Nick Long, anoth
Karl expressed a deep sense of pride in his son’s recovery gains, such as opening doors and entering vehi cles. His son is gentle, serious and expressive with both smiles and tears. The pair collaborate through Lance’s life, with the father’s focus on incor porating consistency and repetition into routine, with Karl being an inten tional guide throughout interaction.
We Can’t Wait in Michigan has a Facebook group created on behalf of catastrophically injured auto crash survivors and families. There are more than 8,670 Facebook users who are members of the online forum. It is made of up loved ones, care provid ers, friends and political advocates to share information and seek advice re garding a fix to the 2019 auto no-fault bill. Through thousands of letters and emails, phone calls, demonstrations, protests and visits to the Capitol, We Can’t Wait has become a recognized advocacy group and voice of survi vors.Hope, MI, resident Terri Lee struggles to access affordable care for her mother. She gave an emo tional testimony to Midland County commissioners about her mother’s experience facing ongoing impacts from a serve auto crash. The county board approved the resolution, 4-2, to be shared with lawmakers at the state level.“This is a humanitarian crisis born from a government-mandated price fix, that only the legislature can undo,” the resolution approved in Midland County reads. Across the state, about 30 coun ties have passed similar resolutions.
“It’s an interesting battle,” Harrison said. “Our hope is that could be a solution that hasn’t been talked about, but I think most folks would see it as an option. To say the system works for one and not the other, in terms of a claimant, seems incongruent with the messaging that the insurance companies are sending.
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er care provider who often visits Lan sing in an effort to invoke any kind of amendment or discussion towards action that would support those not grandfathered in. He does not support completely rewinding the However,legislation.Harrison supports addressing wages for care providers after reimbursement rates were slashed to 45%. One of the solutions Harrison said has been explored, without sponsorship from the legislature, could mirror Michigan workers’ compensation. He said this may address the hourly home/ health aid support by erasing the 45% reduction and offer an authorization period for care rates.
The 2019 auto-reform act passed on Lance’s birthday, which left a sting of pain in Karl’s tone.
Lance, an infant at the time, couldn’t blink, cry, roll over or rec ognize familiar faces following the 1982 crash. He faced cortical blind ness, commonly caused by a traumat ic brain injury to the occipital lobe of the brain.Itwas clear to Karl that he’d become his advocating voice. Lance requires 24/7 attentive care.
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Though some believe estimate data finds its way to CARFAX or vehicle history reports after the VIN and other information is sent to “live” parts locating services during the es timating process, Tagliapietra blamed thousands of “data pumps” running on shop computer systems, scraping estimate data sometimes without a shop’s knowledge or consent.
The leaders of the CIC com mittee, knowing Schulenburg’s long-standing work on data privacy issues, noted the irony that a data aggregator selling such information would contact him.
cesses, we collect 86% of all quoted collision repairs in North America, whether the quote is taken through a body shop or any insurance carri er.” Even if that quote doesn’t reach an insurer, Schulenburg said he was told, “that data goes into our system within 24 hours.”
“The point here is not that they have this data, but it’s where they are getting it from,” Schulenburg said.
During the committee’s panel discussion following Schulenburg’s presentation, Connecticut attorney Steven Bloch said while issues re lated to shop estimates resulting in entries on vehicle history reports is troubling, the detailed estimate in formation being offered for sale pos es even greater risks.
The revelation was of interest to a CIC committee that, like SCRS and other organizations, has been looking into how shop estimate in formation sometimes ends up as entries on vehicle history reports. Schulenburg said the company of fering to sell the data was not one he, nor anyone else he has talked to about it, has heard of.
The 40-plus data fields the com pany said it has include on a daily basis more than 62,000 VINs and 135,000 quotes---written by shops or insurers. It includes customer name and contact information—ad dress, phone and email—where the collision occurred and where the re pair quote was generated. It includes nearly $72 million of quoted parts per day, and the year, make, model and mileage of vehicles along with body, trim and engine descriptions.
He confirmed it was not coming from public registries, DMVs or po lice reports, Schulenburg said.
“It was a complete shock to us that something like that would fall into Aaron’s lap,” said Dan Risley of CCC Intelligent Solutions, cochair of the committee. “I’m glad that it did, though, because I think more discussions will be had.” Risley said it may be a good reminder that vehicle history report ing companies such as CARFAX “shouldn’t be viewed as ‘public ene my No. 1.’”
“What’s of great concern is that a VIN, certainly in combination with personal identifiable information such as Aaron was ticking off—the [cus tomer] name, address, insurance com pany, plate number—all combines to potentially run afoul of various state and federal [data privacy] legislation, which is only getting stricter, with more scrutiny being paid to every body in the supply chain,” Bloch said. Panelist Pete Tagliapietra of DataTouch, LLC, agreed.
“The information going to the vehicle history companies is the ice above the waterline,” he said. “What’s below the waterline? For you shop owners out there, what’s below the waterline is all of your DRP relationship information: who you have DRP relationships with. What your negotiated labor rate is. Who you buy parts from. What dis counts you offer. Anything that can be gleaned off that estimate is being taken, compiled and aggregated, and being used for other purposes.”
The founder of the company, who Schulenburg said he spoke to after the initial call, said a non-dis closure agreement prevented him from revealing the source of the data; he told Schulenburg he couldn’t say more because “if I answer too many questions, you’ll figure it out.” He said it was a company Schulenburg would know because their primary business model “has something to do in collision,” and that licensing the data to be sold is “just a side stream of revenue.”
“It is coming from a data aggre gator, who is selling it,” Schulenburg said. “There’s a lot of good compa nies out there that are utilizing data to do the right thing for this indus try. And there’s at least one compa ny who is not doing the right thing. There’s at least one company that is turning it into a separate revenue stream to take the information you shared with them for one intended purpose, and selling it to someone else to sell for an entirely different purpose that you didn’t intend.”
Virginia shop owner Barry Dorn asked the panel how a shop can know a company that says it is only pulling limited estimate data needed for a specific purpose---like parts locating or customer satisfac tion indexing—is actually doing only just that. “You can’t. Not yet. But you will,” said Tagliapietra, whose com pany is developing a service to root out data pumps on shops’ computers systems.Panelist Tom Allen of Condi tion Now said he understands body shops’ frustration with their esti mate data resulting in an entry on a given vehicle’s CARFAX or other history“Thereport.shop becomes the face of this incident,” Allen said. “The offi cer directing traffic [at the accident scene] may come and go. The insur ance company may be just a voice on the other end of the line, or the other side of the app. But the first human we see in this instance is the shop. I believe they get the brunt of things, right or wrong.”
“Our goal is to actually docu ment that stuff in a way that is help ful to Mrs. Jones, the customer,” Allen said. “To show, not only did we fix your car properly, it was done with OEM certified repair proce dures.”
Allen said his company for about a decade has offered a way for body shops “to control the negative,” a way to use a vehicle history report to “show the good, not the bad,” by playing up the use of OEM parts in the repair of the vehicle, for example.
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From the Desk of Mike Anderson
Mike Anderson is the president and owner of Collision Advice, a consulting company for the auto body/collision repair industry. For nearly 25 years, he was the owner of Wagonwork Collision Center, an OEM-certified, full-service auto body repair facility in Alexandria, VA.
There’s an expression I’ve been thinking about in relation to the col lision repair industry: “Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.” As it applies to business, I think it means if you end up being greedy or taking the good times for granted, it’s going to catch up with you. It reminds me of another ex pression I use a lot: “Lots of sales cover lots of sins.” You can substi tute “mistakes” for the word “sins.” I hear from a lot of body shops about how much their sales are up, some times to record levels, and I’m con cerned a false sense of security can settleItin.can be easy to take your eye off the ball when work is plentiful. Let’s start with the higher sales number. At least some portion of that is likely attributable to more parts per repair order. CCC Intelli gent Solutions reported there were almost 12 parts per claim on aver age last year, a number that has been climbing since 2011, and especially in more recent years. I’ve seen some other statistics that suggest there’s anywhere between seven and nine more parts per repair now. Add to that the increased price of those parts. Again, CCC data shows parts prices increased 5% in the first quarter of this year alone, after a 7.4% overall increase last year. I’ve seen other statistics show ing some parts prices have gone up between 18% and 23%, depending on the type of part. So if there are more parts per repair order, and the prices for those parts have gone up, then of course your sales should be up. But remem ber, as a repair order includes more parts and less labor, your overall gross profit as a percentage starts to decline.
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Don’t Let Higher Sales Take Your Eye Off the Ball
with Mike Anderson
I’m not saying that’s bad or good. All I’m saying is looking at just your increased sales may be giv ing you that false sense of security. Remember the start of the pandemic, when work temporari ly stopped coming to the door? So many shop owners and managers told me during that time they real ized they needed to get back to ba sics, in terms of making sure SOPs were being followed, focusing on selling and capture rate, and offering great customer service. That’s what I’m suggesting to you here, that your increased sales may have led you to stop keeping your eye on the ball. Maybe your estimate quality isn’t as good as it should be, but the higher parts dollars are masking that. Are you continuing to watch your profit margins on labor, parts, materials, sublet, etc.? Is the backlog of work leading to any customer service “sins”? It can be easy to get complacent when you know if one customer gets mad at you, you have 20 more lined up at the door. But you still need to care about that customer not going some where else. Make sure your custom er service isn’t slipping. Maybe your outstanding parts credits are stacking up. Maybe your receivables have started to slip. Maybe you’re not closing out ROs in a timely manner. Are you still watching your efficiencies? There are a lot of things to still make sure you’re keeping an eye on. I’m not an economist. I don’t know what the future holds. But in every recession, I’ve seen shops wish they had stuck to the basics. Take some time right now to make sure lots of sales are not masking a lot of sins in your business, and that you’re not going to suffer the fate of the hogs.
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Shop
The floor should be painted in a neutral tone, be pristinely clean and be able to be written on. He also stressed the importance of having evenly-diffused lighting with minimal shadows. LED bulbs should be 300-400 lumens that can be adjusted based on the seasons, weather and time. “These are moving variables depending on the shop’s location and time of year,” said Terlep. Ideally, the facility’s walls should be a matte color. He rec ommended a solid color coating in beige, grey, light grey or white with no patterns.
The
“If you are going to do calibra tions properly, you can’t do them in a parking lot, under a tree or in space where there isn’t enough room for targets to be the proper distance,” he explained.Terlep recommended setting up three work bays and outfitting the facility to ensure all calibration pro cedures are performed indoors with out obstructions or uneven surface shadows.Each calibration bay needs a floor space of at least 33 feet wide by 17 feet in length to perform the calibrations, and the floor should be level within four 10ths of an inch from one side of the workspace to the other.“Aslight incline along the floor of the space could result in the miscalibration of a camera or radar sensors, thus skewing the vehicles’ reactions,” Terlep explained.
recommends a properly outfitted ADAS services and calibration business fa cility should ensure all calibration procedures are performed indoors without obstructions or uneven surface shadows. Credit: Courtesy of LaMettrey’s Collision, Glass & More See How to Profit from ADAS, Page 34 30 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com 2033 S. Wadswor th l Lakewood, CO 80227 www.jakesweeneychevy.comcscott@jakesweeney.com Jake Sweeney Chevrolet For All Your GM Collision Parts Needs • 1M+ Onsite Inventor y of GM Genuine Parts & ACDelco par ts Updated Daily • Dedicated Team of GM Wholesale Parts Professionals Ready to Help You • Fleet of 4 Delivery Vehicles Throughout the Greater Cincinnati metro area and Kentucky • Competitive Pricing and Discounts Mon-Fri 7:30am-6pm Sat 800-582-5258am-2pm3513-782-2829513-782-284624Hr.Fax 33 West Kemper Road Springdale, OH 45246
“Targets are patterns and you don’t want to confuse the sensors you are calibrating with patterns be hind the targets,” explained Terlep. “Ensure there are no reflections or shadows and there are no reflective surfaces that might interfere with the calibration equipment.”
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Frank Terlep
For owners/operators consider ing opening a mobile business, Ter lep said to consider the skills person nel will offer, the cost of insurance and equipment, space availability, lighting, who will be checking the alignments and how documentation will be collected.
The Facility For businesses planning to perform 10 or more calibrations or ADAS repairs per day, Terlep advised fa cilities allocate at least 4,000 square feet.
OEProductAttanasioInnovationGaryLedouxShopCertification with
How to Profit
Frank Terlep
said lighting should be diffused with minimal shadows
Stacey Phillips is an award-winning freelance writer and editor for the automotive industry. She has 20 years of experience writing for a variety of publications, and is co-author of “The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shops.” She can be reached at sphillips.autobodynews@gmail.com.
statistics show nearly 50% North American car parc will be Advanced Driver Assistance Sys (ADAS)-equipped by 2025. the percentage of ADASequipped vehicles will be more than 75%. With the overwhelming growth in this area, Frank Terlep, co-found er of Auto Techcelerators, said col lision repair facilities are currently faced with many challenges conduct ing ADAS services and calibrations. first is location. Based on industry data, Terlep said 80% of collision repair facilities do not have the required space to perform these services. They also need a business operating system, trained person nel and equipment, which includes targeting systems, diagnostic tools, alignment systems, vehicle lifts and more.One of the biggest challenges is identifying a vehicle’s ADAS tech nologies and required calibrations, which Terlep noted most shops do He shared a February finding from Honda that identified 80% of appraisals processed through CCC Intelligent Solutions that needed a calibration did not include a line item related to calibration. During a recent webinar spon sored by Auto Techcelerators, Terlep shared some of what he believes are the requirements to run a properly outfitted ADAS services and cali bration business. in 2019, Auto Tech celerators assists the automotive, collision, glass, insurance and truck industries to properly estimate, cal ibrate and validate ADAS systems, repairs and calibrations. The compa ny’s Test Drive CoPilot™ platform was chosen as one of 15 semifinalist solutions in the 10th annual Special ty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Annual Launch Pad Com petition.
Tools One of the essential tools for a cali bration center to acquire, according to Terlep, is an OEM and/or after market diagnostic tool and/or soft ware.“You probably need both,” said Terlep. “You need multiple after market tools because they all have limitations.”Theyalso need to be kept up to date. “You aren’t going to do a 2022 calibration with 2021 software,” he from ADAS Services and Calibration—It’s Not Just About the Targets with Ed Victoria Antonelli Strategies with Stacey Phillips
Established
autobodynews.com / SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS 31
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Because most collision repair facilities don’t have the required space to prefer a calibration, Terlep foresees the industry will operate in a “hub and spoke” model in terms of calibrations, where several stores in a certain area will use a central loca tion for these services. As a result, ADAS/calibration software should ideally include this business model.
For shops planning to enter this side of the business, Terlep said it is critical to have a software platform. However, he believes there isn’t one on the market to meet all of the cur rent needs.“I’vetalked to a lot of business es and most are using five to seven different systems to manage and op erate their companies,” he said. He said the ideal software would help identify and locate ADAS technologies, calibration triggers and required calibrations, educate customers about what needs to be done with their vehicles, and assist shops to create better, fast er and more accurate repair plans. The software would also help the business manage all workflows processes, generate, share and store detailed documentation, and operate an efficient and profitable business.
The Investment When determining the investment to begin offering ADAS services/ calibration, Terlep said to consid er the cost of the facility, targeting systems, targets, the alignment sys tem, diagnostic tools and business software.While he estimates a mini mum investment might be around $150,000, it could easily reach $250,000-$300,000. Return on Investment (ROI) To be successful in the ADAS repair and calibration business, Terlep ad vised facilities to focus on process and volume.“Thekey to success is to cap ture three to 10 customers who re pair 100 vehicles a month where you can expect to receive 25-40% of those vehicles,” he said. For shops doing 4,800 calibra tions annually, he estimated $773,577 annual gross profit. For more information, visit www. Toautotechcelerators.com.watchthewebinar, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbhttps:// f5Css50Hk www.autobodynews.com
He noted five of the largest or ganizations in North America cur rently manage calibrations in this way. Documentation and Liability Terlep recommended facilities doc ument every aspect of the ADAS service/calibration process as if the shop were going to court tomorrow. This includes the vehicle com ponents, calibration triggers and required calibration types, pre- and post-scans, repair order/lines, a health scan and images of a vehicle. It should also include a calibration results report, post-calibration safe ty system verification test results, a detailed invoice and a workflow re port.“How can any organization look at a customer and give them the keys to the vehicle without provid ing them with validation and docu mentation that they accurately test ed and validated the systems work properly?” said Terlep. He advised shops to remember that ADAS systems directly affect acceleration, braking and steering.
“If one is off and doesn’t work, the outcome is not good,” he pointed out.
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noted.One of the costliest pieces of equipment required is the targeting system, which is typically rectangu lar with black and white patterns.
Continued from Page 30 How to Profit from ADAS
“It’s critical to have the right size targets,” said Terlep. “Be pre pared to purchase additional targets when new ADAS systems or com ponents are introduced.”
Terlep highly recommended having OEM tools on hand for the vehicles the facility typically repairs or subscribing to a remote diagnos tic service. He said there are current ly five of these types of businesses available today.
Organizing
“If an ADAS system fails, who is to blame? The driver, the OEM, the shop or the insurer?” Without documenta tion, Terlep said, you don’t know.
Pricing and Getting Paid Although some shops organize pric ing by service category, Terlep and his team have found organizing by manufacturer is preferable. He also recommended shops take steps to ensure they have an ac curate and detailed billing system.
ADAS repairs and calibrations also require additional tools such as reflective metal sheets, metal cones, window calibration tools, floor mat calibration targets, doppler simula tors, HUD systems and more.
ADAS/Calibration Software
Terlep shared what he referred to as the “seven moments of truth” when repairing/calibrating ADASequipped vehicles. They include identifying and locating the tech nologies and needed calibrations; communicating with the customer; preparing an accurate repair plan; ordering and scheduling the ser vices; documenting all pre-calibra tion requirements; documenting calibration actions and results; and performing, managing and docu menting the test drive.
Workflows and Processes
Not only do remote diagnos tic companies perform pre- and post-scanning, but many also offer remote calibration services. In some cases, Terlep said they provide free targets or a low dollar amount and split the revenue with the facility. He recommended owners/op erators compare the remote cost vs. the cost of purchasing OEM soft ware.Another consideration he not ed is related to alignments. With 11 auto manufacturers requiring a calibration following a wheel align ment, Terlep said in most cases, a vehicle needs an alignment check before a “Alignmentscalibration.and calibrations are like peanut butter and jelly sand wiches,” he said. “If the vehicle isn’t aligned correctly, there’s a good chance the ADAS systems aren’t going to work.” As a result, he said facilities must be in the alignment business or have an alignment company nearby.
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—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon who has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contact him by email at jyoswick@SpiritOne.com.
“I think if you talk to a parts manager or estimator at one of our stores, if price and margin were equal, they would buy the OE part because it tends to be reliable a high percentage of the time,” O’Day said. But he noted the gross profit margin on non-OEM parts is better, so “our motivated both in terms of how we get measured by our insur ance partners, and in how it drives our profitability, to identify and source higher-margin, lower-cost al ternativeO’Dayparts.”said the company is working toward centralized parts or dering for its more than 800 shops in North America.
When asked to compare suppli er service levels, O’Day said “prob lems with parts that come in incor rectly is much, much lower with OEM than it is with the aftermarket.
Collision CEO Talks Parts, Personnel Challenges with Ed Attanasio Shop Showcase with Ed SocialAttanasioMedia for Shops with Ed MediaAttanasioand Publicity for Shops SEMAAttanasioShow Goes On Industry Insight with John Yoswick with Stacey Phillips Shop Strategies with Victoria Antonelli Shop Strategies with Stacey Phillips Tips for Busy Body Shops with Stacey Phillips Body Shops Giv ing Back with Stacey Phillips My SEMA
See Gerber Collision CEO, Page 52 36 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com 517.393.6767 Fax 5737 S. Pennsylvania Ave. Lansing, MI 48911 517.393.5700Mon-Fri7:30am-6pmKiaof Lansing www.kiaoflansing.com Competitive Prices Large Warehouse Fast Free Delivery Perfect Fit Everytime Dedicated Wholsale Staff ALL the Genuine Kia Parts You Need2020 GOLD ELITE STATUS
“Because what’s going to happen is you’re going to deliver the part. I’m going to put it on the car, and I’m never going to charge my customer for it. And 60 days from now, you’re going to come back to me and say, ‘You owe me for that part, because you didn’t get it in your payables system and you haven’t paid for it yet.’ “So it’s a huge loss for me when we do that. So we want to do busi ness with suppliers that are connect ed electronically,” with ordering, invoicing and payment all handled electronically.O’Dayalso discussed the tech nician shortage impacting all colli sion repair businesses. He serves on the Board of Directors for I-CAR, and said the segment of the industry renewing its I-CAR Gold Class des ignation in 2019 averaged 9.5 tech nicians per shop. “In the most recent round of renewals, the average shop has 7.5 technicians,” O’Day said. “So about a 17 or 18% reduction in workforce. It’s just a highly disruptive environ ment. And there’s really no shortterm“Mysolution.view, and most of the re pairers I’ve spoken to share it, is the only way we’re going to build our workforce is by paying more money to that workforce, pulling them from other industries,” O’Day said. “The only way we can do that is through pricing. It’s going to cause increased premiums for vehicle owners. But otherwise we’re not going to solve our customers’ problem and get their cars repaired on a timely basis.” He said the industry lacks “a formal, universal way” to work with students coming out of collision re pair training programs to build their skills.“They come into our industry, and because we don’t train them properly to move them to the next level, we lose them to other indus tries,” he said. To that end, he said, Gerber created an 18-month technician ap prenticeship program for students coming out of school or for internal candidates working as a porter or car-washer.“Wespend tens of thousands of dollars per trainee, but they come out with pretty good skills after 18 months,” O’Day said. “We’ve made a commitment to more than double the size of that program this year. But I think in the long run, we can’t do it alone. We really need the ma jority of collision repair shops to make the same type of commitment, and do it in an organized way so these students grow and are success ful in our Anotherindustry.”“area of opportunity”
“When we leave the buying de cision at a local level, there’s some times influences that aren’t consis tent with what our objectives are,” O’Day said. “It could be something as simple in the old days as ‘I got tickets to the ballgame tonight, so I’m going to buy parts from this sup plier,’ to something worse than that, that may not be good for our busi ness. The direction we’re moving is to establish contractual relationships in writing with a supplier.” Part of that agreement will be all electronic parts ordering.
“We’re going to get to the point where if you do business with us, and one of our stores calls you and says, ‘Deliver me this part, I need it this afternoon,’ if you don’t get the order electronically, I don’t want you to deliver it,” O’Day said.
“Last year, we probably thought maybe the beginning of the second quarter of this year, but I haven’t seen it,” he said. “I’ve heard tem porary positive signs, but nothing that’s systematic that’s going to drive the change we need. So I think we’re probably in for a couple of years of challenging times.”
Tim O’Day, president and CEO of Boyd Group Services, parent com pany of Gerber Collision & Glass, referred to his company as “one of the better users of alternative parts” in a presentation this spring at the Automotive Body Parts Association annual“Butconvention.rightnow, we’re more re liant on OEM parts than we’ve ever been, which is unfortunate,” O’Day told the non-OEM parts manufactur ers and distributors at the event. “It negatively impacts our profitability, and it drives repair costs up for our customers. So hopefully the after market will figure out how to bal ance out supply so that we can buy the parts from you that we want to O’Day acknowledged that cur rently even OEM parts are often un available, and he doesn’t foresee a quick end to supply chain issues.
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How is Your Auto Body Shop Dealing with the Great Resignation?
One of the smartest ways to do this is to start inviting employ ees outside the leadership team and closer to the rest of the crew to par ticipate in the decision-making pro cess.Some body shop owners said communication improved tremen dously during the pandemic because it became mandatory. “People were no longer in the same room, so im parting communication changed,” one owner said. “We became a Zoom culture, and in many cases, we became more comfortable with it and adapted.”Thepandemic created a virtu al world, but unfortunately it won’t have much of an impact down the road in collision repair, because you can’t fix cars via Zoom. It means some employees who were sitting home for more than a year are going to undergo major changes, like commuting and spend ing less time with their families. Some people won’t adapt well and it may take a month or two to re-en gage, so patience but accountability should play a role. During the pandemic, many shop owners and managers decided to push employee communication to the sidelines. The idea was they should not focus on engagement, saying “We can’t ask our manag ers, techs, estimators and painters to do one more thing!” Stressed out employees were on their own and forced to navigate it all solo. Some quit and many were laid off, and even a few took early retirement or sold their shops to an MSO. a
Poaching employees is a prob lem, especially in states like Cali fornia and New York, and it will un doubtedly get worse within the next year or so, I believe. So, with moti vating your crew and strengthening them more important than ever, here are some methods to help you retain your best employees.
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The pandemic caused body shop owners and managers to cen tralize decision-making to be more efficient, pulling it into the leader ship team without feedback from key stakeholders, like top techni cians or the head painter. This was essential during the pandemic, but this will need to change to ensure long-term effectiveness and contin ued employee engagement.
Regardless of whatever your employees think will happen next, body shop owners and managers are just happy to return to some level of normalcy after these 30 months. But, are things really back to nor mal—and what is normal now, any way?In many parts of the country, the shortage of qualified people got even worse during the pandemic.
by Ed Attanasio You thought we would be done with the pandemic by now, but like Al Pacino’s character, Michael Corle one, said in The Godfather II, “Just when I thought I was out, they drag me back in!” Will the effects of the pandemic always be a part of our lives? It sure looks like Thereit.are still many questions we never had to deal with before, and many things we thought would be in our rearview mirrors by now. Are you prepared for the postCOVID work environment? Are you ready for a majority hybrid-remote office model? Are other shops try ing to hire away some of your top people? Will some of your upper management take this opportunity to retire? Is it time to sell? These are life-changing deci sions and the time to make them is here.We’re now entering the post-pandemic world and many of your employees have different opin ions. While some of your crew is en thusiastically returning to work, oth ers are reluctant and have concerns about hours, safety and other issues.
An MSO owner told me recently he could put 80 collision professionals to work immediately, if they existed. I would bet any shop out there right now could use a few more qualified people, as car counts rise and cus tomers who were reluctant to bring their vehicles for repairs start show ing up at their doors.
38 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com ©2022 MINI,
Optimas manufactured in Korea have a different supplier and dif ferent adhesive application process to the headliner plates compared to Optimas manufactured at a Kia plant in TheGeorgia.oneknown case occurred in the Optima built at Kia Georgia, and Kia is unaware of any other in cidents.Kia dealers will add an in dustrial-grade adhesive tape over the left and right headliner plates to further secure the plates to the headliner.KiaOptima recall letters will be mailed Sept. 26. Owners of 2012-2013 Kia Op timas may call 800-333-4542 and refer to recall number SC245.
A Kia Optima recall has been an nounced for 2012-2013 Optimas with right and left headliner plates that may detach when the side cur tain airbags deploy. Kia said the fault is found in how the headliner plates are se cured in 258,000 cars, placing oc cupants in danger of being hit by the plates.The Kia Optima headliner plates are used for the energy ab sorbing structure of the headliner, but a lawsuit let Kia know there may be Theproblems.legaldepartment learned of a product liability lawsuit alleg ing a metal bracket injured a driver during the deployment of the side curtain airbag in a 2012 Kia Op tima equipped with a panoramic sunroof.Kia engineers inspected the Optima and determined the driv er’s side headliner plate may have detached from headliner during de ployment of the side curtain airbag. The automaker opened an in vestigation and learned 2011-2015
by David A. Wood, CarComplaints.com
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“The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on households, and women are bearing the brunt of it,” the NPR study said. “Not only have they lost the most jobs from the beginning of the pandemic, but they are exhaust ed from the demands of childcare and housework—and many are now see ing no path ahead but to quit working. Keep Millennials in your discus sions. They’re focused on things such as diversity and inclusion, so keep them in the loop. The worst thing is to have them feeling like they’re not being heard. Let them play a role and watch them excel as people and lead ers. To accommodate your younger crew members, keep your meetings short and sweet and create mecha nisms to enable them to contribute. It’s a whole new game out there and those shops that can adapt will succeed, while others might encoun ter a never-ending carousel of new and returning employees. The pandemic changed the rules, but many principles of em ployee communication are still the same. Try to keep stress levels low, keep your eyes open for changes within your team and proceed care fully, and you will be able to retain your people and avoid the pitfalls of the Great Resignation.
So now is the ideal time to re connect with your top talent if you want to retain them. Post-COVID, your disengaged employees will start looking for a better deal else where. Will the return to normal tempt your best people to pursue otherTheoptions?best thing to do is to step up employee engagement and keep everyone in the fold. Turnover can seriously impede a body shop, and poaching can spread quickly. Joe Technician is happy at his new shop and the word is out they’re looking for more people, so a strong bond with your employees is more im portant now than ever. Focus on retaining your female employees, because they are the most likely to switch or quit alto gether. According to NPR, 865,000 women left the U.S. workforce— four times more than men—in just September last year.
Build Your Collision Repair Business with a Buyer in Mind with Cole Strandberg Guest Columnist
cians to train apprentices, and more. This industry puts a premium on talent. Therefore, if you have a lot of talent within your organiza tion, it will help your business get a premium valuation. Validate this by having I-CAR certifications, both at the shop and technician level, as well as original equipment manufac turer (OEM) certifications. So how do you build like a seller? In terms of working your way backward, determine what you want your eventual exit value to be. Once that’s determined, you’ll know what you must do in order to get there. The focus, ultimately, is on scal ability and avoiding roadblocks to achieving that scale, such as limited space and poor shop flow. While you might not be a seller today, tomorrow or even five years from now, everyone is in business to make money. Modeling your busi ness after some of the best opera tions in the industry is a good thing. Chances are, building your business by regularly taking a step back and looking at it through the lens of a po tential buyer will pay off in both the short and long term.
Cole Strandberg is a principal with FOCUS Investment Banking, specializing in automotive aftermarket mergers and acquisitions. Cole works closely with automotive equipment providers, paint jobbers and collision centers. For more information, contact him at cole.strandberg@focusbankers.com or (561) 400-1015
Most entrepreneurs start a business based on one or two of many poten tial reasons—it could be to exploit a unique skillset or access to talent, pursue a passion or simply meet a need otherwise not being met in the marketplace.Mosttimes, though, new entre preneurs start businesses with the beginning in mind, but not the end, building a business that meets their immediate personal needs without giving much thought to the long term. As a result, many business owners fall into the trap of limiting their business’s growth, and subsequent options for the long term, based on short-term-minded decisions.
Cole Strandberg is a principal with FOCUS Investment Banking, specializing in automotive after market mergers and acquisitions. Cole works closely with automotive equipment providers, paint jobbers and collision centers. For more in formation, contact him at cole. strandberg@focusbankers.com or (561) 400-1015.
By contrast, many of the most successful people in the collision repair space have started their busi nesses with one goal in mind: to sell it. How can you build your business by thinking like a seller? First, let’s discuss what buyers are looking for, and work our way backward.What do buyers want? Footprint and layout: As you might expect, the more space you have, the better. While each poten tial consolidator’s footprint desires vary, a safe sweet spot is 10,000 square feet of shop space or larger, though not a hard and fast require ment. Additionally, parking and storage is equally important. If you fall short of that square footage, don’t fret. Maximize the space you have. Maximizing shop space via a well-thought-out equip ment layout and shop flow allows for more revenue per square foot. If you’re just building a new location, or considering upfitting an existing location, reach out to one of the quality paint booth manufacturers, most of whom will offer a no-charge designRevenue:consultation.You want to maxi mize your space because consol idators care about revenue, plain and simple. While most businesses I work with are valued based on a multiple of adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, de preciation and amortization, the collision repair industry places sig nificant importance on revenue as well. This is because, for the most part, if a consolidator can generate a certain amount of revenue within a footprint, they believe they can make that revenue profitable.
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Talent: As you likely know firsthand, there’s a theme in the col lision industry as it relates to con stant challenges: talent—much less good talent—is hard to come by. This is evidenced by some of the largest consolidators in the country investing millions in training pro grams, incentivizing—aggressively, I might add—experienced techni
Again, while there is no hard and fast rule on revenue require ments for consolidators, $2 million in annual revenue seems to be an entry point, with $5 million being a common sweet spot. Anything over that, and you should have some compelling regional and national interest when you eventually go to market.It’s important to note purchase price as a percentage of revenue typ ically goes up as revenue goes up, just as EBITDA multiples increase when EBITDA increases. Obvious ly, becoming a small multi-shop owner with two, three or more shops can help that revenue scale more quickly, and make you even more desirable to a potential acquirer. Val uation multiples vary significantly based on a multitude of factors, so if you’d like to discuss situation-spe cific valuations, feel free to reach out to me Communitydirectly.and relationships: While there is no quantifiable value placed on your shop being a pillar within its community, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Many consolidators are very charitable, so a culture of giv ing in your shop will make it more attractive. Not to mention, local re lationships with the customer base, direct repair programs (DRPs) and dealers will only serve to add value to your business. It never hurts to do good things within your community.
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Allen talked about some of the OEM Roundtable’s frequent topics of discussion, which have included improving access to and use of repair procedures independently devel oped by some auto manufacturers, bringing awareness to the techni cian shortage, addressing challenges faced by repairers and parts sellers, as well as researching new industry programs and technologies.
Twenty-five years ago, many auto manufacturers found they were ex periencing similar non-competitive issues in the industry. George Gil bert from Ford and Rick Sherwood from Campbell & Co. suggested meeting to discuss these issues.
During
The following year, six explor atory meetings were held with nu merous OEMs to find out if it would be helpful to form a more formal group and convene regularly. 1999, the OEM Roundtable was formed. Since then, the group has held quarterly meetings along side the Collision Industry Confer ence (CIC). the April 2022 CIC meeting in Oklahoma City, OK, rep resentatives from the OEM Round table shared some of the history and guiding principles of the group.
They included Mark Allen, colli sion programs and workshop equip ment specialist at Audi of America; Dan Ducharme, wholesale parts se nior manager for Volkswagen of Amer ica; and Devin Wilcox, collision certi fication manager at Subaru of America. 13 major member companies are involved in the OEM Roundtable, including Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mer cedes-Benz, Nissan, Stellantis, Sub aru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo. Many of the representatives are ac tive participants in industry organi zations and committees as well as events and panel discussions. is the 2022 president of the OEM Roundtable. Prior lead ers include: 2013–2014: Paul Massie, Ford 2015–2016: Gary Ledoux, Honda 2017–2019: John Eck, General Mo 2020–2021: Rossana Alvarez, Hon 2021: Mark Zoba, Nissan The group’s mission is to continuous ly improve the quality of collision re pair available to vehicle owners.
Working to Improve Quality of Collision Repair
Ducharme
•
In addition, the group discusses in dustry programs and legislative and legal updates. Allen said the OEM Roundtable operates under strict an ti-trust“Weguidelines.wantto help the partici pants in our programs do better,” said Allen. “By offering support, we hope to build better success quicker for shops.”Wilcox said some of the guest presenters at the quarterly meetings may include information providers, industry associations, training or ganizations, service and equipment providers, MSOs, dealers and shop owners, and insurers.
•
da •
•
The OEM Roundtable and its member companies are in volved in the industry in many ways. This includes financial sup port and engagement with nu merous organizations, such as the Automotive Service Association (ASA), Collision Industry Confer ence (CIC), Collision Industry Elec tronic Commerce Association (CIE CA), Collision Industry Conference (CIF), Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF), Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Re pair (I-CAR), National Auto Body Council (NABC), Society of Colli sion Repair Specialists (SCRS) and Women’s Industry Network (WIN).
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* Active participation by all par ties in the collision repair pro cess is necessary if the quality of collision repair available to ve hicle owners is to continuously im
by Stacey Phillips
In
OEM Roundtable
Currently,
To support these principles, Allen said OEMs constantly enhance the availability and functionality of re pair information developed by each of them.“The information is there to document the file and repair the car the right way,” he said. “Some of us include what the equipment is that the repair procedures were devel oped with to get the achievable out come of repairing the car.”
*prove.Open discussion among those in volved in the collision repair process and reliable sources of collision re pair data are paramount if the qual ity of collision repair is to continu ously improve.
“We want to be available for the
* The interests of all parties in volved in the collision repair process are best protected when vehicle own ers are allowed to make informed de cisions regarding collision repairs to their vehicles.
“We’re always open-minded to meeting and discussing what pro grams and offerings could be benefi cial to us as a network and an indus try,” he Thesaid.group adheres to three guiding principles:
tors •
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Looking ahead, the OEM Roundtable hopes to help the indus try move forward by increasing col laboration and transparency among all industry segments, providing greater use of tools and continuing to learn from all stakeholders.
GM has long believed it had a strong case, a federal judge in mid-2020 ordered General Mo tors CEO Mary Barra and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Mike Manley to meet and resolve the lawsuit. The judge noted there were more urgent issues facing the U.S. and the lawsuit was a “waste of time and resources.”
by Andrew Gross, AAA
GM claimed this cost it billions of dollars.While
The
An appeals court in the U.S. has upheld a 2020 ruling tossing out the racketeering lawsuit that Gen eral Motors filed against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. General Motors filed the racketeering lawsuit against FCA in November 2019. It claimed its rival had bribed United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials to corrupt labor talks to its advantage.
GM tried multiple times to have the lawsuit reinstated but ear lier in August, the three-judge pan el of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the attempt, Auto News reported.
FCA
“We want to make sure ev eryone has the knowledge and the ability to keep up with all the latest advanced technologies that, as man ufacturers, we’re putting into these vehicles,” said Ducharme. “We’re trying to get feedback from all seg ments so we can make informed de cisions and provide a great experi ence to our mutual customers.”
“Even accepting GM’s theo ry as true, the chain of causation between FCA’s bribes and GM’s injury is still too attenuated,” the three-judge panel said in its ruling. The lawsuit alleged FCA cor rupted the contract bargaining pro cess between GM and the UAW in an attempt to force a merger be tween the two car manufacturers. The lawsuit claimed late FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne was responsi ble for conceiving, executing and sponsoring the wrongdoing.
industry at these conferences and be accessible,” said Wilcox.
Appeals Court Rejects GM’s Attempt to Overturn Racketeering Lawsuit Ruling
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by Brad Anderson, CarScoops
The
In 2008, the roundtable launched the www.OEM1Stop.com website to respond to the industry’s request for easier access to OEM repair procedures and information. Auto manufacturer position state ments were added in 2016. By 2021, there were more than 300,000 total visits to the website and more than 120,000 unique visitors that year alone.“The number of visits has jumped over 300% since 2016,” said Wilcox. “Many body shops are referencing the site now on a regular basis.”Another resource available is www.CrashRepairInfo.com, launched in 2014. This website provides direct outreach to customers and guides vehicle owners through the collision repair process with a focus on proper repairs.Ducharme explained individu al OEMs work internally with their engineers to determine what needs to be done pre- and post-collision to streamline repair procedures. At the same time, the group is increasing engagement with body shops and insurance partners.
“As OEMs, we are here to sup port the industry and make sure ve hicles are being taken care of and repaired properly,” said Wilcox. “We’re always looking to make it better,” said Allen. “Let’s become professional and agree that we are going to take a look at these repair procedures, have the conversations with customers and insurance part ners, and get the car repaired the right way.”
FCA had long called the law suit “meritless” and said GM’s recently amended complaint was “full of preposterous allegations.”
The national average for a gal lon of regular gas fell 10 cents in the previous week to $3.95 as of Aug. 15, due primarily to stable oil prices and fewer drivers than usual fueling up. “Falling pump prices may eventually lead to more drivers hitting the road again,” said Andrew Gross, AAA spokesperson. “But that hasn’t happened yet. Instead, many drivers are waiting for prices to fall further before reverting to their typical driving habits.”AAA found drivers are mak ing significant changes to cope with high pump prices. In a re cent survey, almost two-thirds of U.S. adults have changed their driving habits or lifestyle since March. Drivers’ top two changes to offset high gas prices are driv ing less and combining errands.
According to data from the Energy Information Administra tion (EIA), gas demand rose from 8.54 million b/d to 9.12 million b/d. However, the rate is 307,000 b/d lower than last year. Also, to tal domestic gasoline stocks de creased by 5 million bbl to 220.3 millionAlthoughbbl. gasoline demand has risen and supplies have tight ened, easing oil prices have helped lower pump prices. If oil prices edge lower, drivers will likely see falling pump prices. Aug. 15 national average of $3.95 is 62 cents less than a month ago, but 77 cents more than a year ago. nation’s top 10 largest weekly decreases: Maine (-19 cents), Colorado (-18 cents), West Virginia (-16 cents), Arizona (-15 cents), Il linois (-15 cents), New Mexico (-14 cents), Florida (-13 cents), Nebraska (-13 cents), Arkansas (-13 cents) and Kansas (-13 cents). nation’s top 10 least ex pensive markets: Texas ($3.45), Ar kansas ($3.47), Tennessee ($3.50), Oklahoma ($3.50), South Carolina ($3.50), Georgia ($3.51), Missis sippi ($3.52), Kansas ($3.53), Mis souri ($3.53) and Alabama ($3.54). How
The
Source: AAA The Gas Price Limbo:
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Forward-Thinking Program Creating Great Auto Body Techs of the Future
See Techs of the Future, Page 54 46 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com
A: I personally think our colli sion instructors are excited that the students are highly interest ed about technology. Our students have grown up with technology. They are technology natives. So anytime we can include those hightech pieces—either tools, equipment or concepts that the students are likely to engage with—that is ideal. We want to enable the body techni cian of tomorrow to be adept at us ing technology and that’s one of our main goals here at SCC.
Spannagel stays busy as she oversees the school’s entire CTE division and works closely with fac ulty and area employers to ensure SCC provides top-notch, indus try-level education to its students. Her role within SCC’s auto and col lision repair programs is only one small part of everything she does at this forward-thinking institution.
A: We receive an annual al location of funding that is called ACE (Accelerated Career Education) funding. The whole pur pose of that money is to reinvest in infrastructure, so that we can pro vide more classes and accommodate more students. One of the things that we chose to do with the mon ey was to remodel our auto collision facilities, and it has worked out very well. We are confident that this will lead to more enrollment down the road, which is obviously the goal. It shows that we are open and commit ted to collision repair and ready to pivot if needed.
Q: While other CTE programs in the country have stepped back during the pandemic, you have stepped up in many ways for your collision repair department. Can you tell us about that?
The college’s goal is to enable and empower the body techs and painters of the next 30plus years
Q: How can you stay current in an industry that is changing at a rapid rate?
Q: It’s a huge job and a big school, so how are you able to do it all?
In the summer of 2019, Southeast ern Community College (SCC) in West Burlington, IA, hired Dr. Ash lee Spannagel as its new dean of ca reer and technical education (CTE) and workforce development.
A: My biggest concern now is that we have a lot of staff on my team who are eligible for retire ment in the next five years. There is a lot of talent, knowledge and expe rience that is highly skilled and in valuable to our programs. So, in the next five years, we’ll have to figure out how to replace it. I think the way that we’ve handled the pandemic and our instructional continuity has really helped us retain our staff. But now I’m growing concerned about the fact that they’ll be retiring here shortly.
Q: How do you find, hire and maybe most importantly re tain good instructors?
Q: How has establishing mutu ally beneficial partnerships with local shops and vendors helped Dr. Ashlee Spannagel is the dean of career and technical education (CTE) and workforce development at Southeastern Community College in West Burlington, IA Southeastern Community College recently remodeled all of its classrooms and labs and invested in a wide range of new tools and equipment
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A: Yes, I am responsible for 47 certificate, diploma and degree programs, and collision is just one them. I’ve been involved in technical education and post-sec ondary education 13 years now. The technology in the collision repair industry changes so rapidly that we can’t possibly keep up with the changes that are occurring. We need to do our best to keep pace with what’s going on, and then bring in other learning opportunities to help students to be up to date. We have been working very hard to align with industry-recognized cre dentials and what our local shops need in our graduates, so we rewrote the curriculum and pursued ASE accred itation to match the newly remodeled shop. We’ve rewritten the curriculum to where we’re actually going to be aligned with I-CAR more, so that our students now will graduate from the program with far more credentials than they would have been qualified to earn previously.
Spannagel entered the job excit ed and ready to take on the world— and then the pandemic hit. It’s been a “work around” project ever since, but she hasn’t been dissuaded one iota, taking the position and making it her own as the school’s collision repair department benefits in many ways.Spannagel came to SCC after working in education for nine years. One of the first things she did was to build relationships with established area educators, industry leaders and workforce and economic develop ment partners to continue building opportunities for students. This in cluded local body shops, car deal erships, vendors and companies that manufacture collision repair-related products, tools and equipment.
by Ed Attanasio
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“Bringing ATG alongside what we’re doing on the collision side re ally allows us to leverage our exist ing content, so our internal team of technicians and remote techs can be better prepared to help our custom ers,” said Chesney.
With the growing need for collision repair technicians to understand the mechanical components of vehicles, Repairify is taking steps to equip them with the skills they need to re pair vehicles properly.
by Stacey Phillips
“Up until now, the primary fo cus has been to rightsize and enable the internal training team so that our own people can be best prepared to serve our customers in their remote services that that we have made tremendous headway with,” he ex plained.Future training will be present ed in what Chesney refers to as an adaptive learning model in which online course materials are custom ized to the learner for an experience not available in a traditional class room“Imaginesetting. the instructor of a vir tual classroom knowing the skills gap of every student on the call,” said Chesney. This will allow in structors to better focus content during the lessons and interact with students.Hesaid Repairify will be work ing with I-CAR to align ATG con tent with I-CAR standards to count towardTrainingaccreditation.willbedeveloped with a diagnostic approach, combining OEM support information with re al-world technician experience us ing actual case studies where possi ble. What sets ATG apart from oth er training, according to Chesney, is the company’s specialization in OEM repair information and its ap proach to “Whatlearning.ATGdoes is take that factory information and dissect it,” explained Chesney. “When it’s a competency around a standard that’s used by all brands, then they level the terms and the diagnostic ap proach so that it’s brand agnostic.”
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In 2002, Chesney moved to Ra leigh, NC, to build out an automo tive training team. When he left that organization in 2021, it was hosting 150,000 active learners who were taking self-paced online courses or participating in the 3,000 to 4,000 in-person or live virtual classroom events held each year. About three months after Chesney’s retirement, Cris Holling sworth, president of Repairify, asked him to join the company in 2021 to head up its training arm. Most of Repairify’s training is currently targeted to internal trainers and technicians and is offered both virtually and in-person. The com pany also offers product-oriented training to customers in a virtual set ting.
In July, Repairify announced it acquired the Automotive Training Group (ATG) to create and offer advanced diagnostic training for the industry focused on both mechani cal and collision repair. “Their content and workbooks are the best in the industry,” said Chris Chesney, Repairify’s vice president of training and organi zational development. “I’m really looking forward to bringing them on board and integrating them into what we do.”
“Partnetworks.of that network might have been damaged or had corrosion or resistance in connectors or what ever that are not a part of the of the collision but affect the overall re sults or capabilities of that one net work,” said Chesney. “It’s important for [technicans] to know how to tri age those and validate that they’re actually working as designed.”
Working in this field for the ma jority of his career, Chesney under stands the importance of connecting with technicians so they have a full picture of what needs to be done to be successful on the shop floor. He has worked as a shop owner, service advisor, trainer, training manager and training program owner. All these roles have focused on the me chanical side of the business.
An important aspect of the training will include learning how to find OEM service information.
“The big myth in the industry is the belief that OEM service infor mation is hard to get a hold of,” said Chesney.Hestressed the importance of checking the repair information on every“Invehicle.the case of things like ADAS, it changes daily and you need to go look at it for every re pair or calibration,” recommended Chesney. “Otherwise, it can catch you by surprise and get you in trou ble.”Repairify’s ultimate goal is to help prepare technicians to repair future vehicles and present informa tion in a way they will understand.
“We look forward to enabling technicians with skills and technolo gy so that what happens in the class room sticks more and it gives them the ability to apply it when they get back to the shop,” he said.
For additional information about ATG, visit www.atgtraining.com.
Don’t Miss the Weekly Industry
Founded in 2004, ATG offers live and virtual technical training worldwide. Chesney has a long his tory of working with the ATG team over his career and has great respect for the company and team of in structors for presenting excellent in formation in an understandable and interesting format. As a result of their new part nership, Repairify will support ATG in such a way that they can produce and deliver meaningful content to a wider audience. This includes offer ing classes that focus on scanning and calibration, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and electric vehicles, as well as vehicle data
The company also plans to offer career paths for potential collision and mechanical technicians that are appropriate for their roles.
Repairify’s New Partnership with ATG Will Provide Industry with Advanced Diagnostic Training
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“When we gave away our 100th vehicle, we did not realize that it would be the last within our program, but now it is fitting and a number that all of us can easily re member!” Ortland-Rose concluded.
by Ed Attanasio
“We feel very fortunate to be involved with such a wonderful pro gram and are very excited to be able to give back to the area communities that have supported us for the past 50 years,” owner Mike Rose said. “After receiving hundreds of appli cations over the years and reading the heartbreaking stories, we only wish that we could do more. But hopefully, with increased publicity of our Benevolence Program, other shops will adopt a similar program of their“Asown.”afamily-founded company, we have always prioritized philan
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In 2001, Mike’s Auto Body be gan giving refurbished cars to peo ple in need. The very first recipient was a single mom with two children. Reporter Wayne Freedman from Channel 7 ABC News reported on the presentation and broadcast the story on the evening news. It quick ly became an annual tradition, as Freedman and his news team report ed on every presentation throughout the years during the holiday season, along with more and more media that flocked to the feel good story. Over the years, Mike’s Auto Body got more people involved in its Benevolence Program, includ ing vendors, technicians, car rental companies and insurance partners. The vendors donated products and their services, the technicians at Mike’s Auto Body donated their time and skills, and the insurance and car rental companies donated the vehicles.Thevehicles donated were con sidered totaled, but by refurbishing them and returning them to their pre-accident condition, they looked brand new.
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“Thanks to everyone involved, in cluding employees, insurance part ners, vendors and the nonprofit orga nizations that helped us find worthy recipients over the years.”
Over the years, Mike’s Auto Body got more and more people involved in its Benevolence Program, including vendors, technicians and insurance partners. Sal Contreras, Benevo lence Ambassador, is pictured far right E-Newsletter.
thropic initiatives, in particular those that most impact our neighbors and the community organizations they rely on,” said Brennan Rose, CEO of Mike’s Auto Body. “To this end, we could not be prouder to celebrate our 100th vehicle donation as part of our Benevolence Program. For more than two decades, this program has been a staple of our charitable giv ing, and as we transition under the Crash Champions name and banner, we look forward to finding new and creative ways to give back to the communities where we operate.”
When Crash Champions announced it was acquiring Mike’s Auto Body (MAB) in June, many people throughout the Bay Area thought about MAB’s nationally acclaimed Benevolence Program. It became part of the brand at Mike’s Auto Body as the company and its owners, the Rose family, gave away exactly 100 vehicles to deserving families, individuals and nonprofit organizations over the past 21 years. The goal has always been to give people a hand up as opposed to a handout with the gift of transpor tation, and the MSO achieved that mission with every vehicle it pre sented to a deserving recipient.
Mike’s Auto Body made its first presentations from 2001 through 2006 at its Concord, CA, location, with a one-year exception in Brent wood, CA. Since then, it has held car presentations at some of its shops in the East Bay, as well as at other locations, including in conjunction with the U.S Coast Guard’s CPOA in Alameda, CA, on the pier in front of the USS Hornet Museum.
Mike’s Auto Body Gave Away 100 Cars in 21 Years, Changing Countless Lives
The Rose family made the Be nevolence Program part of their lives, and it was quickly ingrained into their DNA.
“Other body shops reached out to us and started their own pro grams, so the giving spread, and to day our program will live through other shops all over the country,” Ortland-Rose continued. “We know that Crash Champions will continue our legacy in some form because they share our passion for helping others. My father and my mother stressed that this is important, and that’s why we did it every year for 21 years.
“We always say that at Mike’s, we are providing ‘a gift of chari ty wrapped in dignity,’” Contreras said. “These deserving people are working towards making a better life for their families; all they need is reliable transportation to make it happen.
The Benevolence Program di rector at Mike’s Auto Body is Sal Contreras, who has been involved with every car presentation since the program’s inception and is consid ered the Benevolence Ambassador.
“Early on, Mike [Rose] said he wished he could give 100 cars to families; well, we achieved Mike’s dream in December of 2021,” Con treras said. “We presented the 100th car to a single mom who had been struggling to raise her family with out a car. The Benevolence Program came full circle, as our first recipient was a single mom raising her fami ly.”
CFO Ragen Ortland-Rose was a major force behind MAB’s Benev olence“WeProgram.never imagined that the program would grow as it did,” she said. “Our people and the commu nity rallied around it, as the power of giving grew exponentially. We’ve always stressed quality in everything we do, and the program illustrates that. We enabled so many worthy people to improve their lives, and that’s why it gained so much mo mentum.
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association’s open board meeting in late July in Pittsburgh, Executive Director Aar on Schulenburg noted the three estimating system providers each
“We will actually be using a systematic approach where we do complete refinish on doors, fenders and hoods, and then blend on doors, fenders and hoods, to evaluate the delta between the full refinish task and the blend tasks,” Schulenburg said. “We’re not doing a refinish time study. Our goal is not to estab lish a refinish time on those panels. We will just be evaluating what percentage of the full refinish value blendHerepresents.”saidthestudy will use pan els for a high-volume Ford truck, waterborne products used in all U.S. markets, and color codes that repre sent a solid, a metallic and a tri-coat.
by John Yoswick The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) has provided a few more details about its study be ginning in August into the accuracy of the blend time formula commonly used in the
“The refinish time for a fender in Audatex will look different than the refinish time for that fender in CCC, which will look different from the refinish time in Mitch ell,” Schulenburg said. “Which is fine, they’ve each done their own research on it. All three companies identify 50% as a blend value; de spite the fact that they don’t have the same refinish values, all identify blend time as 50%.
“This has been an issue for a long time,” Schulenburg said. “We hope to put a punctuation mark on this one.”
“Our members have long chal lenged that,” Schulenburg said. “We don’t believe 50% is reflective of what we’re actually doing, because there are a lot of tasks associated with [blending] outside of just the application of the base coat, which, for a large part, is the task that is be ing adjusted.”Schulenburg said given the lack of “positive movement” SCRS has seen on the issue based on its long-standing discussion with the estimating system providers, the association is working with the five primary refinish companies on a study taking place at Global Finish ing Solutions’ Center of Excellence facility in Wisconsin.
Collision Repair Association Conducting Study of Blend Time Formula
Speakingindustry.atthe
Aaron Schulenburg of the Society of Colli sion Repair Specialists said shops have long challenged the accuracy of the estimating systems’ blending formula he said Gerber is “pursuing pretty aggressively” is improving the “di versity of our industry,” working to attract more women, Black or Asian Americans and other minority groups.“We’re doing a lot to create an inclusive environment that will al low us to successfully recruit people who don’t look like me, and build our workforce with greater diver sity,” O’Day said. “Because if we go after the same group that we’ve always been targeting, we’re nev er going to solve the problem, and we’re not going to be as good of a company. So we have a very strong commitment to improving diversi ty.”
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Opponents argued the bill serves as both $250 billion in taxpayer subsidies to multi-billiondollar companies and would subsidize construction of factories in China.
“Right now, our country has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen U.S. manufacturing and ensure it consistently competes and wins on the world stage,” said Ryan Augsburger, president of the OMA. “Just as it has since its earliest days, Ohio will play a key role in the next chapter of American innovation. It is time to finally enact this game-changing investment.”
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Ohio Groups, Lawmakers Investment
by J.D. Davidson, The Center Square The lack of federal subsidies Intel said was holding up its planned $20 billion chip plant in suburban Columbus, OH, cleared the U.S. Senate on July 27. It was signed into lay by President Joe Biden on Aug. 9. The CHIPS Act, which passed the Senate 64-33, will provide $52 billion to U.S. semiconductor manufacturers to help build plants to makeAftermicrochips.announcing in January plans to build and create 3,000 jobs at a microchip facility in Ohio, Intel pulled back over the summer, canceling its July 22 groundbreaking while the federal money remained in limbo.
Business and manufacturing groups throughout the state praised the Senate“Ohio’spassage.economy stands to benefit even more from the transformational nature of Intel’s investment in semiconductor manufacturing in our state thanks to the CHIPS Act, which will bolster American manufacturing and national security,” said Steve Stivers, president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association called passage and Intel’s planned investment a unique opportunity for the state and country.
Portman, though, said July 26 in a CNBC interview that language was inserted into the bill he believes can avoid China concerns.
“Today’s passage of the CHIPS Act is critical in the effort to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States, protect our na tional security and create thousands of high-paying jobs in Ohio,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH. “I was proud to help lead efforts in the Senate to pass this legislation and ensure that Intel’s planned semi conductor plant in central Ohio re mains on track and reaches its full potential. Intel’s announced invest ment is already the largest in Ohio’s history and the company has indi cated that with this CHIPS legisla tion its record investment will grow even larger over time.”
“We did insert some language that I supported on the so-called guardrails to avoid just what you had talked about. I think that’s important. China is very interested, as you know, in investing a lot of money in chips and providing huge incentives, far more than what we are talking about in the CHIPS legislation here, and so are other countries, by the way, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan of course,” Portman said in theOhiointerview.Gov. Mike DeWine said in January an additional 7,000 construction jobs could come from the project that is expected to add $2.8 billion to the state’s annual gross project.
Praise CHIPS Act Passed to Boost Intel
An artist rendering of Intel’s planned $20 billion chip manufacturing plant expected to be built in central Ohio. Credit: JobsOhio
Ohio committed nearly $2 billion in incentives and tax breaks to Intel.“The best thing this does with the CHIPS Act is to make sure these jobs are brought home,”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a Twitter video statement.
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by Stacey Phillips
Miller, his fiancé, Kassi Nellett, and his cousin, Steve Legg, attended the gala to show their appreciation for the assistance provided by CIF and the industry to help him recov er from his injuries and get back to work.“I want to go back to work right now! It’s my passion; I feel blessed to have found a career that’s given me a sense of pride to be able to tell people what I do for a living. I just love everything about my job,” said Miller in an article written by Joel Gausten.
Members of the collision industry gathered at the 11th Annual Col lision Industry Foundation (CIF) Gala in Pittsburgh, PA, on July 20 to show their support for Bryan Miller, an Ohio-based technician and painter recovering from severe burns he suffered from an in-shop fire in September 2021. The fundraising event, held at the Howl at the Moon restaurant, was the first time CIF has hosted its annual gala since the pandemic. The nonprofit organization is committed to assisting those working in the col lision repair industry through crises and tragedies.“I’mhappy to report we had re cord attendance,” said Petra Schro eder, “Collisionista” and secretary of CIF. “About 163 individuals from all segments of the industry were present, of which 41.7% were firsttime Earlierattendees.”inthe year, CIF put out a call to the industry at large for the first time looking for volunteers interested in joining the organiza tion’s committees. The following individuals became part of the gala volunteer committee: Tracy Dar rington, Enterprise; Matt Hamer ling, Enterprise; Paul Hill, I-CAR; Tom Julius, Car-Part.com; Stacey LaViola; Cherlyn Schultz, Enter prise; Scott Stiber, Enterprise; Ann Swayka, AirPro Diagnostics; and John Webb, TenPointComplete. “I want to give a big shout-out to those gala committee volunteers,” said Schroeder. “What they did to help us was incredibly valuable and their support was outstanding.”
For more information about CIF, vis it .org.www.collisionindustryfoundation
CIF Trustee Jim Ocampo presented Bryan Miller with a $15,000 check. Pictured, left to right, are CIF President Michael Quinn, of AirPro Diagnostics; Jim Ocampo, Axalta; Bryan Miller and Kassi Nellett your collision repair department?
Schroeder said the assistance from the volunteers was instrumen tal in preparing the gala to help Mill er and raise money for others in the industry who might need assistance in the
Technician/Painter
“Thefuture.event provided the oppor tunity to bring industry individuals together as well as the opportunity for additional fundraising through event ticket sales, raffles and silent auctions,” said CIF President Mi chael Quinn, president of AirPro Diagnostics. “At the gala, we were able to bring one of our most recent recipients of CIF support, Bryan Miller, to meet with and thank in person many individuals from orga nizations who provided direct sup port to Duringhim.”the event, CIF Trustee Jim Ocampo, strategic accounts sales manager at Axalta Coating Systems, presented Miller with a $15,000 check. Approximately 40% of the amount was donated by the in dustry to a campaign specifically to help Miller, and CIF contributed the remainder.Miller began working in the auto industry in 2016 and has spent time since then as a collision techni cian/painter. Last September, he was working on a motorcycle at the shop he was employed at, and a fire broke out. When Miller’s body caught on fire, he was trapped in his work area before escaping out of a window. He was transported to a hospital by he licopter.Although he survived, Mill er had third-degree burns covering most of his body and multiple sur geries and skin grafts. He said he lives in constant pain and expects it will take at least a year to regain full mobility.
Recovering from Severe Burns During CIF Gala
A: Within the past 18 months, we have been working on bolstering the relationships we have with our local body shops. We have a lot of body shops in our service area that are actually owned and op erated by former students of the pro gram. We also have a couple dealer ship repair centers in our area, and we have been able to partner with them as well. I realized we had an opportunity to strengthen our program when six local businesses approached me questioning the skills they were see ing in our students who had entered the workforce. So, I personally built relationships with these companies, and their managers have partnered with us in the work we have done to strengthen our program. We have worked to bolster our relationships with local body shops. The shops have been very receptive, very helpful and very engaged. We also work with vendors like PPG that come and do special paint class es for our students. This is just one great example of the learning oppor tunities we provide our students.
11th Annual
Recognized
In addition, we did just receive ASE accreditation that we have been working on for the past 18 months.
autobodynews.com / SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS 55 Call Any of These Wholesale Parts Dealers BelowCall Any of These Wholesale Parts Dealers Below INSIST ON GM GENUINE PARTS Indiana Schepel Buick GMC MERRILLVILLE 800-588-7757 219-755-0339219-769-7757FaxM-F7:30am-5pmparts@schepel.comIllinois Piehl Motors PRINCETON 800-845-8964 p.lenhausen@piehlmotors.comM-F815-875-4293815-875-4411Fax7:30am-5:30pmSat7:30am-12pmIowa ShottenkirkAutomotive FORT MADISON 877-310-0513 888-945-3729 Fax M-F 7:30 am - 5 gmparts@shottenkirk.compm Michigan BettenBakerChevroletBuickGMC ALMA 888-229-2336 989-463-0456 Fax M-F 7:30 am - 6 dsitts@bettenbaker.compm Ed RinkeBuickChevroletGMC CENTER LINE 586-497-4100 586-754-5030 Fax M, Th 8 am - 9 pm T, W, F 8 am - 6 pm LaFontaine Buick GMC Cadillac HIGHLAND 877-552-2580 734-793-1101734-793-6000/1102 Fax M-F 7 am - 6 pm Sat 8 am - 2 kmason@lafontaine.compm Shaheen Chevrolet Parts Warehouse LANSING 800-452-2828 877-900-0718 Fax M-F 7 am - 6 shaheenparts@shaheenchevrolet.compm Minnesota Rosedale Chevrolet ROSEVILLE 800-247-0585 651-639-2192651-639-2120FaxM-F7am-5pmrosedalechev.com Ohio Jake Sweeney Chevrolet SPRINGDALE 800-582-5253 www.jakesweeneychevy.comcscott@jakesweeney.com513-782-2846513-782-2829FaxM-F7:30am–6pmSat8am–2pm Joseph Chevrolet CINCINNATI 800-752-1423 josephgmparts@yahoo.comM-F513-741-3814513-741-6735Fax7:30am–5:30pmSat7:30am–Noon Sweeney Chevy Buick GMC YOUNGSTOWN 800-476-0760 330-726-0709330-726-2297FaxMon-Thu7am-6pm Fri 7am-5:30pm Sat mattf@sweeneycars.com7am-3pm Mills Parts Center WILLMAR 800-247-1158 866-235-6700 Fax M-F 8 am - 5:30 pm Missouri Bob McCosh GM COLUMBIA 800-800-8071 gmparts@bmcmail.com573-441-5632573-449-4103FaxM-F7am-6pmSat7am-3pm Lou Fusz Buick GMC ST. LOUIS 800-325-1492 pontiacparts@fusz.com314-595-2790314-595-2795FaxM-F7:30am-5pmOhio Classic Chevrolet MENTOR 800-951-7282 800-352-7275 24-HR Fax M-F 8 am - 6 pm Sat 8 am - 1 pm Wisconsin IvanChevroletGandrud GREEN BAY 800-242-2844 920-468-3673920-468-3658FaxM-F7am-7pmSat7am-2pmparts@gandrud.com
Lemonade to Use Mitchell’s Claim Solutions for Newest Product
by Stacey Phillips Mitchell, an Enlyte company, re cently announced Lemonade, the insurance company powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and so cial impact, has chosen Mitchell’s claims management platform for the insurer’s newest product, Lemonade Car. The company will use Mitch ell’s claims workflow, automation and total loss solutions to help streamline and optimize claims han dling.“At Lemonade, we’ve set out to make the most lovable car insurance available, and part of that is creat ing the best experience possible,” said a Lemonade spokesperson. “By collaborating with Mitchell and us ing the company’s comprehensive claims management technology, we’re able to build efficiencies into our product to make it as seamless and easy for our customers to file a claim following an accident, as well as share necessary information with third-parties including auto body shops and medical facilities.”
Launched in November 2021, Lemonade Car uses telematics to measure how much and how safe people drive. It provides 24/7 on-location roadside assistance, re al-time crash detection and dispatch of emergency services, and offers perks for safe and environmentally conscious customers. These include discounts for low-mileage drivers and those who own electric and hy brid Aftervehicles.being introduced in Illi nois and then expanding to Tennes see and Ohio, plans are in place to continue rolling out Lemonade Car across the Mitchell,country.aleading technology and information provider for the property & casualty (P&C) claims and collision repair industries, will support Lemonade in delivering an efficient, digital claims experience for consumers purchasing auto pol icies.Lemonade is a full-stack insur ance carrier built to provide the best, most delightful and most transparent insurance experience in the world, according to a company spokesper son. A Certified B-Corp, Lemonade gives unused premiums to nonprof its selected by its community, during its annual Giveback campaign. Rozint explained Mitchell’s solutions provide Lemonade with the technology needed to streamline key steps in the claims process, in cluding loss reporting and damage appraisal.“Mitchell is committed to help ing our customers—both automotive insurers and collision repairers— simplify and accelerate claims man
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“We’re extremely proud that Lemonade—a top-rated insurer with a focus on fast, efficient claims reso lution—has selected our technology to support their entry into the U.S. auto insurance market,” said Jack Rozint, senior vice president, repair sales, Mitchell Auto Physical Dam age division. “Their decision to do so validates Mitchell’s leadership position in claims processing tech nology.”“We’re honored to support Lemonade,” said Debbie Day, ex ecutive vice president and general manager of Mitchell’s Auto Physi cal Damage division. “At Mitchell, we continue to invest in the devel opment of innovative, cloud-based solutions that are designed to allow our customers to work more effi ciently while meeting consumer ex pectations for an automated, digital claims experience. Our auto physi cal damage and casualty solutions help carriers like Lemonade scale quickly as they bring best-in-class offerings to market.”
Rivian Amazon Vans Delivered 430K-Plus Packages During
“A close development partner ship with Amazon and its delivery drivers enabled us to optimize the EDV features and design for last mile delivery,” Rivian said in its Q2 Shareholders Letter. “This pro cess included delivering more than 430,000 packages through multiple pilot deployments that began in early 2021 these pilots enabled a rapid refinement of a range of features.” Rivian explained each EDV fea ture, providing a reason behind each design decision. For instance, the EV automaker equipped the electric delivery van with rear roll-up doors so it would be easier to load bulky warehouse items. Rivian’s Amazon Delivery Van also has a tall roof, so drivers can easily walk through it. Plus, Amazon EDV vehicles work with Rivian’s fleet management sys tem, called FleetOS. The EV automaker also high lighted how closely Rivian engineers worked with Amazon employees to optimize EDV features. “To ensure optimal temperature, Rivian engineers spent time in the vans during delivery routes, which helped the development of an HVAC system optimized for driver comfort and efficiency,” noted Rivian. One Amazon delivery driver already provided his first impression of Rivian’s EDV via his YouTube channel, Friday Adventure Club. He was impressed with the EDV and list ed its advantages over ICE delivery vehicles.
“Lemonade is advancing the auto insurance market with sophis ticated technology and Mitchell, being an auto casualty technology leader, is happy to support those goals with our specialized casualty technology and service solutions,” said Norman Tyrrell, vice president of product management, Mitchell Casualty Solutions Group. “Lem onade will be leveraging Mitchell’s DecisionPoint Medical Bill Process ing software as well as a number of our Technology Enabled Solutions.”
For more information about Lemon ade Car, visit www.lemonade.com/ Forcar. property casualty and collision repair updates and perspectives, fol low Mitchell on Twitter @Mitchell Claims and @MitchellRepair. by Maria Merano, Teslarati Rivian reported delivering more than 430,000 Amazon packages with its Electric Delivery Van (EDV) during the vehicles’ pilot deployments, which rolled out in July. In July, Am azon announced Rivian EDVs would be deployed in locations across the U.S., including Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoe nix, San Diego, Seattle and St. Louis. Rivian and Amazon worked closely together to design the EDV vehicle.
agement,” said Rozint. “Lemonade presented an excellent opportunity to apply our industry-leading solu tions with a partner that is poised for rapidThroughgrowth.”the collaboration, Ro zint said Mitchell can assist the in surer with settling claims seamlessly while delivering an exceptional cus tomer“Theexperience.integration of Mitchell’s solutions with Lemonade’s existing technology stack will support an automated, digital claims process— from first notice of loss (FNOL) to settlement,” he said. Lemonade is also leveraging Mitchell’s auto casualty injury claims processing solutions to automate both first-party auto and third-party liabili ty claims.“Automating these functions is intended to align with the insurer’s goal for Lemonade Car: to use tech nology to handle emergencies and settle claims seamlessly, providing the best possible experience for cus tomers,” according to a press release.
Several years ago, Mitchell de cided to rebuild its core platform around key concepts that included an open, cloud-based architecture, and support for proper and safe repairs.
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“With each new customer, we believe that the market is validating this direction,” said Rozint.
Amazon deployed Rivian EDV 700s in July. Rivian has two other variants for its electric delivery van: the EDV 500 and the EDV 900. The EV automaker announced it started production validation for the EDV 500 in Q2 2022. Pilot Program
“We look at the median plus two standard deviations to properly cap ture the impact of delivery days for all parts on the repair,” Horn said. “Part sTrader’s Q2 2022 median of 14.9 days, compared to the Q1 2022 me dian of 15.6 days, represents a reduc tion of 0.7 days, which aligns with the quarter-over-quarter LOR reduction. OEM parts availability is still driving many delays, but the good news is there are fewer brands show ing big delays,” Horn continued. “Six OEM brands had median (plus two standard deviations) delays of more than 20 days in Q1 of this year, while the same was true for only three OEM brands in Q2 2022. As we head in the second half of 2022, aftermarket and recycled parts supply and deliveries are returning to pre-COVID levels. Most OEMs have made significant improvements as well.”
Overall, LOR for rentals associated with non-drivable claims was 26.4 days, up 7.7 days from Q1 2021. In See Repair-Related Rental, Page 60
“More
Drivable Claims Drivable LOR was 15.2 in the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 3.7 days from Q2 2021’s 11.5 days.
The second quarter of 2022 saw the average length of rental (LOR) for collision replacement-related rentals at 17.7 days, a 4.5-day increase from the second quarter of 2021, according to a new report from Enterprise. This represents a decrease of half a day from the first quarter of 2022, when average LOR was 18.2 days. the overall totals in 2022 are much higher than previous years, this quarter-to-quarter decrease of a half-day fits historical trending from the first quarter of the year to the sec ond quarter. While trending seems to be reverting to historical normalcy, the results themselves continue to il lustrate a “new normal.”
As noted in Q1 2022’s results, there was little regional difference in the results, confirming the increases as a national occurrence resulting from many factors, including parts avail ability and delays, staffing, backlogs and processes.Regarding parts, Enterprise spoke with Greg Horn, PartsTrader’s chief innovation officer, who oversees their data analytics department.
Enterprise also spoke with Ryan Mandell, director of claims perfor mance for Mitchell International, who offered some additional observations that reflect on LOR and cycle time.
While
Average Collision Repair-Related Rental in Q2 Decreases by Half a Day from Q1
Louisiana had the highest LOR for rentals associated with drivable repairs at 19.0 days. The next highest state was Rhode Island at 18.6 days, followed by Georgia at 18.0 days. Three states had an LOR greater than 17 days. Eight more had an LOR of 16 or more days, and 13 states had an LOR of 15 days or more. North Dakota had the lowest drivable LOR at 10.1 days, followed by Hawaii (10.7), Iowa (11.2) and Nebraska (11.7). Rhode Island, Arizona, Colo rado, Washington and Georgia had the largest drivable LOR increases in Q2 all being five or more days higher than Q2 2021. Hawaii had the lowest year-overyear increase, with LOR only up 0.7 days. Non-Drivable Claims
Alaska recorded the highest LOR in Q2 2022 at 22.1 days, which is also the highest year-over-year in crease (7.0). Louisiana recorded an LOR of 21.9 days; Rhode Island was third highest at 21.0 days, followed by Oklahoma (20.7) and Georgia (20.4). Eight additional states had a re placement LOR of 19 days or higher, with nine more states recording LOR of 18 days or more. The states with the lowest LOR were Hawaii (13.1), North Dako ta (13.2), Iowa (13.3) and Nebraska (13.7). Hawaii also had the lowest in crease from Q2 2021 at 1.2 days. Ne braska (2.5) and Iowa (2.7) were the only other states to have increases less than three full days.
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“New
John Yoswick, editor of the weekly CRASH Network newsletter, also shared information regarding parts and repair backlogs. than 100 of the 650 shops responding to the latest CRASH Net work survey included a written com ment about backlog of work,” Yoswick said. “Of these shops, more than onethird cited a similar refrain: ‘Almost every car waiting on parts. Swamped with work,’” a shop owner in San Diego said, according to Yoswick.
“Luxury vehicle frequency in creased to 12.9% in Q2 2022 (com pared to 10.3% in Q2 2021),” Man dell said. “In addition, BEV frequency increased from 0.63% of repairable claims in Q2 2021 to 0.83% in Q2 2022. BEVs on average have 1.3 days longer keys-tokeys cycle times in the U.S.”Mandell also provided another interesting analysis: “Comprehensive claims involving a catalytic convert er increased from 1.9% in Q2 2021 to 3.5% in Q2 2022. Thefts of catalytic converters are being driven primarily by the increase in rare earth metal pric es, which have only been exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia conflict.”
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To forms.zohopublic.com/cieca1au/ form/AICommittee/formper ma/6aIyVdjmpAtfHmP0kiDY Ci05Tsp3jJzc3wTMRSDqhCg CIECA has 27 product and project standards development committees that focus on creating standards to address industry needs. For more information about joining a com mittee, visit com/committeeshttps://www.cieca.orcontact Pau lette Reed at paulette@cieca.com. CIECA CIECA Forms AI Committee
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According to the weekly CRASH Network newsletter, the national av erage repair backlog remains near re cord levels. While scheduled work at shops nationwide eased somewhat in the second quarter, it was not nearly as much as generally happens head ing into spring. The length of time a customer is likely to currently wait to get their vehicle repaired has not changed significantly from this past winter’s record-high backlogs. Shops on average are still sched uling work out a full month 4.3 weeks compared to 4.5 weeks in the first quarter of 2022. The decline of 0.2 weeks is only about half the usu al decline in backlog between the first and second quarter, when spring brings a seasonal drop-off in winter weather-related accidents and the av erage shop backlog has typically fall en by 0.4 weeks. General trending of repair vol ume correlates with historical trending of LOR. Yoswick said: “More than 13% of shops are still scheduling more than eight weeks out, a percentage that, until this past winter, hadn’t ex ceeded 2%. Shops with three months of backlog are not uncommon.” “Cosmetic work is 11 weeks out, non-drivers are four to five weeks out,” the manager of an independent shop in Fort Wayne, IN, told CRASH Network. An estimator in Georgia, when asked about current backlog in June, said simply, “Middle of July!” Almost four in five shops (79%) are scheduling two or more weeks into the future. Less than 3% of shops have no backlog and can start on a new job right away. Only two regions in the coun try South Central and West have an average backlog of less than four weeks. The shortest average backlog in the West, including California, is 3.1 weeks. Until this past winter, that region had never exceeded an average backlog of 1.5 weeks in the more than five years CRASH Network has been tracking the statistic. The longest backlogs are in the Pacific Northwest, where shops are scheduling work 5.2 weeks in ad vance, on Whenaverage.describing parts availabil ity’s impact to the repair backlogs, PartsTrader’s Horn agreed: “While there are parts availability improve ments in Q2 2022, delays still exist in the OEM parts supply chain and consequently, shops are scheduling farther out to protect themselves from potential parts delays.”
Repair-Related Rental CIECA has announced the forma tion of a new Standards Develop ment Committee focused on Artifi cial Intelligence (AI). All industry stakeholders, including CIECA and non-CIECA members, are in vited to Thejoin.new committee will be chaired by Raj Pofale, a found er and CEO at Claim Genius, and Jimmy Spears, head of automotive at Tractable. Both are active CIE CA committee members who have presented Conference. The committee chairs encourage all interested industry stakeholders to attend the meetings.
Iowa had the lowest non-driv able LOR at 22.1 days. New York was second at 22.5, followed by Nebraska at 22.8. Massachusetts had the lowest year-over-year increase of “only” 4.2 days.Given recent trending, Enter prise broke down LOR by first-party insureds and third-party claimants.
Overall, insured replacement rent al LOR was 17.1 days in Q2 2022, whereas claimant rental LOR was 18.7 days. Focusing specifically on non-drivable rentals, insured LOR was 24.1 days in Q2 2022, a six-day increase from Q2 2021. West Virginia’s insured non-driv able LOR was 28.6, followed by Delaware at 28.1. Sixteen additional states had insured non-drivable LOR greater than 25 days. Virginia came in lowest at 19.9 days. Claimant non-drivable LOR was 33.8 days, a 12.8-day increase from Q2 2021. Alaska’s claimant nondriv able results help explain some of the increase their LOR was 52.9 days in Q2 2022. This is a 25-day jump from Q2 2021. Vermont (43.8), Louisiana (42.5), Montana (41.4), Colorado (40.6) and West Virginia (40.2) were other LORs greater than 40 days.
Another consideration with non-drivable LOR is in the communi
Source:
the first quarter of this year, five states had non-drivable LORs 30 days or greater for the first time. In the sec ond quarter, that number rose to eight states: Alaska (34.7); Montana (32.9), Louisiana (32.0), Colorado (31.8), West Virginia (31.6), Oklahoma (30.9), Delaware (30.5) and Washing ton (30.0). Markedly, eight states had non-drivable LOR increases of 10 days or greater over last year, with Washington representing the highest increase (12.3). Fourteen states had year-over-year increases of 9.0 days or greater, and nine other states plus Washington, D.C., had increases of eight days or greater.
Source: CREF CREF Raises $100,000 at Golf Fundraiser leading source
cation process between shop and in surer. Enterprise spoke with Dominic Martino, owner of Gold Coast Auto Body in Chicago, who said: “We are consistently seeing seven to 10 business days elapse between initial estimate or supplement submission and repair authorization. And if the submission requires reconciliation, we could see an additional three to five days. When insurer staff are com ing into the shop in-person, we see reconciliation times drop to 24 to 48 hours.”
Washington was highest at 22.8 days, followed by Oregon (20.9), West Virginia (20.8), Alaska (20.2), Idaho (20.1) and North Carolina (20.1).
Total Loss Claims
“With used vehicle values reach ing new highs in Q2 2022, total loss frequency continued to decline to the lowest level in the past six years at 14.2%, compared to 17.1% in Q2 2021,” Mandell said.
The LOR for rentals associated with total loss claims was 17.3 days in Q2 2022, up 3.1 days from 14.2 in Q2 2021.
And with the complexity of vehicle repairs only increasing, for both ICE and BEV models, the en tire industry must play a part in en suring all collisionrelated businesses are aligned not just for procedural solutions, but to ensure our mutual customers receive safe and proper repairs, and excellent experience and peace of Enterprisemind. is committed to part nering with insurers, repairers and suppliers on each one of these issues. Through foundational support provid ed by the Enterprise Holdings Foun dation, Enterprise is spearheading the Collision Engineering Program, in partnership with Ranken Technical College. The program, designed to attract and develop entry-level talent to fill essential roles within the colli sion repair industry, is piloting at four schoolsFornationwide.moreinformation, visit
Source:www.beacollisionengineer.com.Enterprise
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The Collision Repair Education Foundation’s (CREF) 20th Annu al Golf Fundraiser, co-hosted by PPG Automotive Finishes, was a roaring success. Held on July 19 at the Edge wood Country Club in Pittsburgh, PA, the event sold out to capacity with 146 sponsors and industry supports enjoying a day on the green while raising over $100,000 to support collision repair pro grams, schools and students around the country. The winning team, with a score of just 56, consisted of Rich Finoli, PPG; Steve Morel li, community supporter; Derek Severns, Bowser Automotive; and John Parran, PPG. Participants also had the chance to win great prizes by competing in individual hole con tests.Helicopter ball drop winners included Linda Mazur, commu nity supporter; Charlie Jordan, Caliber Collision; and Mary Ma honey, Enterprise Holdings.
While Washington’s results were an increase of 8.4 days from Q2 2021, Hawaii (17.2) dropped 1.2 days, and Wyoming saw a small drop of 0.2 days. Notably, California (16.6) was only up 0.6 days.
Iowa was lowest at 14.2 days, followed by Wisconsin (14.5), Ne braska (14.5), Wyoming (14.6), Flori da (14.8) and Maine (14.9).
Summary The results for the second quarter of 2022 offer several items of note. As noted in the first quarter, the second quarter results are traditionally the lowest of the year. While the histor ical trending seems to have returned, the results themselves continue to be exacerbated by supply chains disrup tions, parts delays, collision repair backlogs, claims process challenges and technician shortages.
To date, 66,500 customers have purchased Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driver-assist technolo gy. Ford is expanding BlueCruise through Power-Up software up dates, adding nearly 15,000 2021 F-150 and Mustang Mach-E cus tomers in July, with another 35,000 in process. Ford BlueCruise cus tomers accumulated 11.4 million miles of hands-free highway driv ing since July 2021. For the fourth straight month, Ford reported a record pace of just over 50% of retail sales com ing from previously placed orders. Meanwhile, on Aug. 2, retail order banks re-opened for Bronco Sport, Edge, Explorer and Ranger. Retail orders for Ford’s hot-selling F-150 and Transit re-opened a few weeks earlier. Ford overall pickup sales, including F-Series, Ranger and Maverick, produced total sales of 74,034 up 27% over a year ago. Ford’s total pick up share for the month was 31.6% up more than 6 per centage points over last year and the highest share of any brand in the total pickup segment.
CCC Intelligent Solutions on Aug. 2 announced AirPro Diagnostics will become the newest member of the CCC® Diagnostics network. Through an integration with AirPro, collision repair users of CCC Diagnostics will soon be able to capture and document AirPro scan and calibration information in their CCC ONE® workfiles. The streamlined service with AirPro is expected to be available via CCC ONE in September. The integra tion does not require a physical connection between the AirPro device and CCC ONE. Informa tion is uploaded automatically, and the scan report is automatically at tached to the vehicle’s CCC ONE workfile.
Ford total market share hit 13.9% up 1.0 percentage point from June and 4.8 percentage points over a year ago. Gains come from higher EV sales and share, F-Series and high-end large SUVs. Ford electric vehicle sales were up 168.7%. With Mustang Mach-E up 74.1%, F-150 Lightning deliv ering its best-month since launch and E-Transit’s dominant share po sition, Ford grew more than three times the rate of the overall electric vehicle segment in July. Sales of Ford Hybrid vehicles continue to climb, increasing 35.3% in July, placing the Ford brand sec ond in hybrid vehicle sales to only Toyota. F-150 Hybrid sales totaled 4,364 vehicles, while Maverick Hy brid sales totaled 2,153 trucks.
Ford’s July Sales Up 37% Compared to Same Month a Year Ago
Ford brand SUV sales gained 70% over last year, totaling 66,266 SUVs. Combined Bronco family sales, including Bronco Sport, were up 227% over last year.
On improved inventory flow, Ford for the second month in a row is the only major automaker to produce sales gains, as its July sales grew 36.6% vs. an industry down 10.5%.
Source: Ford
Source: CCC
Activation is simple. Repair facilities using CCC Diagnostics select their preferred diagnostic provider(s) from those available through CCC’s network and pro viders send scan data directly to the CCC ONE workfile.
Intelligent Solu tions AirPro Diagnostics, CCC Partner 62 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com AUTOBODY MARKETPLACE Ditch the mask. Try our new line perfection tape. www.crashwrap.com | 888.264.3770 Our new and unique line perfection tape is abrasiveresistant and allows you to achieve crisp, sharp body lines. Sand directly on the durable tape surface without shredding. As tape wears, orange appears to warn of wear-through. • Works for blocking, sanding body filler and primer • Chemical resistant • Conforms to contours • Helps eliminate the need for constant reapplication of tape • Saves time and material Give it a try! We’ll send you a free roll of Perfect Line with any online purchase. (Expires 12/31/20) SAVES YOU TIME AND MONEY > EASY TO USE < Go toandwww.forkliftwrecker.comwatchourvideo. 877.593.6959 When all you need to do is move a vehicle , use: Looking for Good Collision Personnel? •1,262 Collision Techs resumes online •1,295 Painters resumes online •1,177 Estimators & Mgs resumes online •11,256 Mechanical Tech resumes online www.actautostaffing.com or 727-733-5600 Is availablenowforpurchase! by: Dave Luehr and Stacey Phillips www.bodyshopsecrets.com The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shops The Book That Will Challenge Ever ything You Know About the Collision Repair Business. For more information, contact the authors at info@bodyshopsecrets.com Order your copy today and join the Body Shop Secrets community! Don’t Miss the Weekly Industry NEWS Your Shop Needs. Sign Up Free Today! www.autobodynews.com FREE 4x Monthly E-Newsletter. Subscribe Today! AUTOBODY www.autobodynews.com
“Ford was America’s best-sell ing brand in July powered by strong demand across our lineup,” said Andrew Frick, vice presi dent, sales, distribution and trucks, Ford Blue. “Our overall sales rose 37% in July and electric vehicle sales grew at three times the rate of the EV segment. F-Series hit the 60,000-truck mark for the first time this year, with our all-new electric F-150 Lightning having its best sales month yet. Ford SUVs were up 70%, while E-Transit leads the electric van space with 95% of the electric van segment.”
Email Eckenrode,gramscollisionsecondaryportingeddation.orgTiffany.Bulak@ed-fountolearnmore.IndustrymembersinterestingettinginvolvedandsupCREF’seffortstoassistandpost-secondaryrepairtrainingproshouldcontactBrandonmanagingdirector, at 312-231-0258 or Brandon. madeEckenrode@ed-foundation.org.Monetarydonationscanbeonline.Source:CREF
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The scale of the problem was massive, as the Consumer Finan cial Protection Bureau found HCA furnished inaccurate information for more than 2.2 million custom ers on more than 8.7 million oc casions between 2016 and 2020. Even worse, “In many cases, Hyundai knew it was providing inaccurate information and failed to take reasonable measures” to address the issue. This hurt consumers as HCA would report customers delin quent on loans and leases, despite having been paid on time. In par ticular, the government found “in approximately 570,000 instances, Respondent (HCA) inaccurately inserted codes showing delinquent or no payments in the PHP (pay ment history profile) when the consumer had in fact made the re quired payments and the account was actually Unsurprisingly,current.”this lowered customers’ credit scores and im pacted their access to credit. It also subjected them to higher interest rates due to their lower credit Followingscore. an investigation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau determined HCA violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to report complete and accu rate loan and lease account information, failing to provide date of first delinquency information when required, failing to modify or de lete information when required, failing to have reasonable iden tity theft procedures, and failing to have reasonable accuracy and integrity policies and procedures.
Source: CREF 3M, CREF Donate Products to 300 Schools autobodynews.com
While $19.2 million sounds like chump change, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau not ed this was its largest Fair Credit Reporting Act case against an auto servicer. The bureau also revealed Americans owe $1.4 trillion in auto loans, making it the third largest consumer credit market.
CREF Invites Collision Industry to Fall 2022 High School & College Transportation Career Fairs
HCA will pay a $6 million civil penalty to the Consumer Fi nancial Protection Bureau, as well as $13.2 million in compensation to current and former customers who had inaccurate information furnished to credit reporting com panies saying they were “30 or more days past due on an automo bile retail installment contract or lease.”
The Collision Repair Ed ucation Foundation (CREF) invites industry businesses to participate in its Fall 2022 High School & College Transporta tion Student Career Fairs, being scheduled across the country to provide employers with an op portunity to get to know thou sands of incoming industry pro fessionals.“CREF’s Career Fairs pro vide a unique opportunity for collision industry employers to connect with hundreds of stu dents who have trained for en try-level positions and are ready to start their careers,” said CREF Program Manager Tiffany Bu lak . “Engaging with future transportation industry profes sionals is vital for all segments of the industry collision cen ters, dealerships and even paint, tool and equipment companies as a means of generating brand awareness for the business but most importantly, in order to showcase the diverse career paths available to the students in attendance.”
Fall 2022 High School & College Transportation Student Career Fair Schedule Oct. 4: 3M Headquarters, SaintPaul, MN Nov. 9: Kingwood Park High School, Houston, TX Nov. 10: Collin College, Dallas, TX Dec. 6: Suburban Showcase Conference Center, Detroit, MI To complement the physi cal career fair events and ensure CREF helps connect students with employers across the coun try, CREF also has an electron ic student resume database with contact information for over 600 collisionInterestedstudents.inparticipating in an event listed above, or in col laborating with CREF to schedule one in your market? Contact Bu lak at Tiffany.Bulak@ed-founda tion.org.Can’t attend a career fair but still anxious to get your com pany name in front of incoming technicians?
In a statement, Consumer Fi nancial Protection Bureau Direc tor Rohit Chopra said, “Hyundai illegally tarnished credit reports for millions of borrowers, includ ing by falsely reporting them to credit reporting companies as be ing delinquent on their loans and leases. Loan servicers must be complete and accurate when fur nishing information that affects a borrower’s credit report.”
Hyundai
Student
by Michael Gauthier, CarScoops Hyundai Capital America the captive finance partner of Hyund ai, Kia and Genesis in the U.S. has been slammed by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for “widespread credit re porting failures” that harmed mil lions of Accordingcustomers.tothe government, HCA repeatedly provided inaccu rate information to credit reporting companies and didn’t take proper steps once problems were identi fied. Furthermore, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau al leges the company used “manual and outdated systems, processes and procedures to furnish credit reporting information which led to widespread inaccuracies and resulted in negative inaccurate information being placed on con sumers’ credit reports through no fault of their own.”
As 2021 drew to an end, 3M do nated $889,719.50 in products and supplies to 300 schools around the country, through the Colli sion Repair Education Foundation (CREF). Equipping collision edu cation programs with the most upto-date supplies, materials, tools and equipment allows collision instructors to train students with the same products they’ll be using in their future positions in the in dustry—without maxing out the department’s budget. Each care package included several DA sanders, along with sanding/graining/finishing discs, sandpaper, repair glue and “all kinds of good stuff,” according to Jerry Goodson, collision repair and refinishing instructor at Chip pewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, WI. Since 2008, 3M has actively aided CREF’s efforts to assist collision students, instruc tors and schools, generously pro viding frequent in-kind donations, funding grants and supporting CREF’s Hire Our Heroes campaign.
Support local high school and college collision students by sponsoring work uniforms to ensure the future workforce recognizes the value of looking professional. For a donation of just $50 per student, companies can provide students with a brand new Cintas tech nician shirt, branded with your logo, work pants and a safety kit.
/ SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS 63
Gets $19.2 Million Penalty for Tarnishing Millions of Customer Credit Reports
64 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com VEHICLEEMISSIONCONTROLINFORMATIONConformstoregulations:2016 MY California: Not for sale in states with California emissions standards. TWC/HO2S/WR-HO2S/CAC/TC/DFIU.S. EPA:T2B4 FED2.3L-Group:LDVGFMXV02.3VJWEvap:GFMXR0125NBVNoadjustmentsOBDII Fuel: Gasoline ABZ VEHICLEMFD.BYFORDMOTORCO.INU.S.A. DATE: EXTPNT: RC: DS0: WB BRK INTTR TP/PS R AXLE TR SPR 114 4 GP K 45 V DB F05 UTC THISVEHICLECONFORMSTOALLAPPLICABLEFEDERALMOTORVEHICLESAFETYSTANDARDSINEFFECTONTHEDATEOFMANUFACTURESHOWNABOVE.01/03 VIN:TYPE:00000000000000000 MPV FRONTGAWR: 2735LB AT AT 205 kPa/30 240 kPa/35 1240KGP235/70R16SL16X7.0J REARGAWR: 3325LB 1508KGP235/70R16SL16X7.0JGVWR: 5880LB/2667KG WITHTIRESRIMSPSICOLD WITHTIRESRIMSPSICOLD F0085T0183 UA 13 3U51B TIRE SIZE COLD303kpa 44psi 303kpa 44psi 303kpa 44psiThecombinedweightofoccupantsP265/70R17P265/70R17P265/70R17FRONTREARSPARE ADDITIONALINFORMATIONSEATING CONTROLVEHICLEEMISSIONINFORMATION Conformstoregulations: 2015 Fuel: Gasoline U.S.EPAclass/stds: LDV/TIER2 Californiaclass/stds: PC/ULEVqualified Group: FGMXV01.80111.2L Evap:SFI/HO2S/TWCFGMXR0095805,OBD:II 00000000 FRONTREARSPARE 215/55R1697H215/55R1697HT125/85R1699 SEATINGCAPACITY TOTAL 4 FRONT 2 REAR 2 Thecombinedweightofoccupantsandcargoshouldneverexceed352kgor776lbs.240kPa,35PSI240kPa,35PSI420kPa,60PSISEEOWNER’SMANUALFORADDITIONALINFORMATIONTIREANDLOADINGINFORMATION TIRE SIZE COLDTIREPRESSURE COUSSINSRSSIDEAIRBAGGONFLABLELATÉRAL(SRS) TOAVOIDSERIOUSINJURYORDEATH:•Donotleanagainstthedoor.•Donotuseseatcoversthatblocksideairbagdeployment.Seeowner’smanualformoreinformation.POURÉVITERDESBLESSURESGRAVESOUMORTELLES:•Nevousappuyezpascontrelaporte.•N’utilizezpasuncouvre-siègequipeutbloquerledéploiementducoussingonflablelatéral.Voirlemanuelduconducteurpourdeplusamplesrenseignements. WARNINGAVERTISSEMENT VEHICLE MFD .BY: TOYOTA MOTOR MANUFACTURING, GVWR 4233LB GAWR FR 2668LB RR 2668LB THIS VEHICLE CONFORMS TO ALL APPLICABLE FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY , BUMPER , AND THEFT PREVENTION STANDARDS IN EFFECT ON THE DATE OF MANUFACTURE SHOWN ABOVE . PASS. CAR C⁄ TR : 4Q2 ⁄ LA43 ACV30L --CEPGKA A ⁄TM: --01A ⁄ U241E MADE IN U.S.A. 08270KENTUCKY,00000000000000000INC.02 ⁄ 04 THIS VEHICLE RAL MOTOR STANDARDSVEHICLEINEFFECTONSHOWNABOVE.V.I.N.:00000000000000000STKAAA5--NH737M --A --A GAWR Contact Us : Contact your LKQ/Keystone Local Sales Rep Upload your photos to the Website: www.AutoDataLabels.com Email your photos: Labels@AutoDataLabels.com DELIVERY IN 1-3 DAYS! SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES COSTING YOU TIME & MONEY? AUTO DATA LABELS ARE CUSTOM DESIGNED AND MADE IN AMERICA Place Your Label Order Via One of These 3 Easy Ordering Options: To Visit Our Website SCAN HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT AUTO DATA LABELS: visit our website at www.AutoDataLabels.com email us at labels@AutoDataLabels.com or call us at (631) 667-2382 ©2022 Auto Data Labels an LKQ Company. Visit us at Shop.LKQcorp.com and LKQcorp.com Vin Labels AC Labels Caution LabelsEmission Labels Tire Pressure Labels Paint Code Labels SRS SIDE AIRBAG COUSSIN GONFLABLE LATÉRAL (SRS) TO AVOID SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH: D not lean against the door.D not use seat covers that block side air bag deployment.See owner’s manual for more information. POUR ÉVITER DES BLESSURES GRAVES OU MORTELLES: Ne vous appuyez pas contre la porte. N’utilizez pas un couvre-siège qui peut bloquer le déploiement du coussin gonflable latéral. Voir le manuel du conducteur pour de plus amples renseignements. AVERTISSEMENTWARNING TIRE AND LOADING INFORMATION TIRE SIZE COLD TIRE PRESSURE 303kpa 44psi 303kpa 44psi 303kpa 44psi The combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed 505 Kg or 1114 Lbs. P265/70R17P265/70R17P265/70R17FRONTREARSPARE SEE INFORMATIONMANUALOWNERSFORADDITIONAL SEATING CAPACITY TOTAL 3 FRONT 3 REAR 0 VEHICLE EMISSION CONTROL INFORMATION Conforms to regulations: 2016 MY California: Not for sale in states with California emissions standards. TWC/HO2S/WR-HO2S/CAC/TC/DFI U.S. EPA T2B4 LDV 2.3L-Group: GFMXV02.3VJW Evap: GFMXR0125NBV No adjustments needed. FED OBD II Fuel: Gasoline ABZ VEHICLE MFD. BY FORD MOTOR CO. IN U.S.A. DATE:EXTPNT: RC: DS0: WB BRK INT TR TP/ PS R AXLE TR SPR 114 GP K V DB F05 UTC THIS VEHICLE CONFORMS TO ALL APPLICABLE FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARDS IN EFFECT ON THE DATE OF MANUFACTURE SHOWN ABOVE. 01 03 TYPE:VIN: 00000000000000000FRONTMPVGAWR: 735LB AT AT205 kP 30 240 kP 35 16X7.0JP231240KG570R16SL REAR GAWR: 3325LB 16X7.0JP231508KG570R16SL GVWR: 5880LB 2667KG PSIRIMSWITHIRESCOLD PSIRIMSWITHIRESCOLD T0183F0085 UA 13 3U51B
