January 2018 Northeastern Edition

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36

YEARS

VOL. 8 ISSUE 10 JANUARY 2018

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Industry Associations Pledge 2018 Resolutions

Year in Review: The Collision Repair Industry in 2017

Most folks view New Year’s Eve as a time to reflect on the recent year and make resolutions for the next as they strive to improve themselves or their lives.

Collision repair industry associations have also begun preparing for 2018 by beginning to focus on their goals for next year and how they can help their members, advance their organizations and improve the industry for everyone. Several association leaders shared their 2018 New Year’s Resolutions with Autobody News.

In 2017, a lot of associations focused on membership growth, bringing educational value to members and pursuing legislative initiatives to improve

Starting with the inauguration of the 45th President, moving on to the solar eclipse and three devastating hurricanes, 2017 has been a year to remember with many major changes impacting the United States.

The collision repair industry has continued to change as well, with evolving technology and raging legal battles, including the now-famous John Eagle lawsuit in Texas. Associations around the country offered a variety of educational opportunities through meetings and conferences, and as the New Year crept up on us, Autobody News spoke with several association leaders about the best and most memorable things they did in 2017.

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

the industry. Industry professionals can expect to see these endeavors continue into 2018, though industry leaders anticipate taking their efforts to new heights.

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) spent a great deal of this past year on legislative endeavors, and plans to continue these initiatives into the New Year.

ASA Executive Director Dan Risley shared, “ASA resolves to be represented, engaged and vocal in as many meetings, conferences, hearings, summits and alike in Washington D.C. and around the country that will influence the future direction of this industry, specific to new vehicle technology (telematics, (ADAS) advanced driver See Industry Associations, Page 14

The Sad Pathway to Airbag Injury: The Last 3 Years

See Airbag Injury, Page 12

P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018

As Takata Corp. and its creditors continue to grapple with bankruptcy proceedings in tandem with a continuation of the supply chain for badly-needed replacement airbag inflators, it’s instructive to look back from whence we came with regard to airbag injuries, lawsuits and recalls.

In November 2014 Bloomberg News (11/14/17) undertook an exhaustive investigation of defective airbags associated with the Takata airbag recall.

At the time, about 11 million vehicles

had been recalled in the US over exploding Takata airbags and the sometimes catastrophic injuries that occurred in association with airbag failure. Globally, the recall count was 17 million in November 2014.

Just over three years later that number has jumped to nearly 70 million. Hundreds have been injured. As for loss of life, there had been a handful of deaths reported globally in 2014.

That number has jumped to 16 as of today. When compared to the massive recall of vehicles that carry the potential for danger, 16 appears to be a sta-

Change Service Requested

by Gordon Gibb, LawyersAndSettlements, Pub. 12/15/17

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

From getting associations off the ground to establishing a broader member base, several associations focused on growth this year.

Stephen Regan, Executive Director of ASA-MA/RI, shared, “The most memorable thing ASA-MA/RI has done in 2017 is open its doors.

We have brought back to the region an entity dedicated solely to the advancement of collision and mechanical repair shops and those who serve them. Unlike many state trade associations in the industry, ASA-MA/RI has a fully staffed, dedicated office location. Our sole purpose is the professional operation of the association on behalf of its members and supporters.”

See Year in Review, Page 15

Happy New Year! from all of us at Autobody News

Mike Orso Speaks on Lawsuits Against Nationwide and Progressive After Court Sends Them to Trial

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

In November, New York’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision of a lower court, ruling that Nick’s Garage in Syracuse, NY, had presented sufficient evidence to defeat summary judgment as it related to its allegations against Nationwide and Progressive in two separate cases.

The court’s reversal was based on it finding that the insurers may have committed deceptive practices and breached contracts with customers through their failure to pay sufficient amounts on repair claims.

Although the court has not yet made a final finding, it determined the shop had provided enough evidence to proceed to trial.

Originally, both cases (Nick’s Garage, Inc. v. Progressive and Nick’s Garage, Inc. v. Nationwide) were dismissed due to lack of evidence, but in addition to basing the decision on the legal standard for summary judgement motion, the court determined that the insurers failed to prove that Nick’s Garage could not support its claims and also examined some of the shop’s evidence, presenting several findings that could significantly impact the future of the collision repair industry.

Talking to Autobody News about the cases, Mike Orso, owner of Nick’s Garage, Inc., states, “First, I want to say my attorneys did a fantastic job explaining a very difficult See Lawsuits, Page 20

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AASP/NJ Teams With WMABA for Educational

Slate at NORTHEAST 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

AASP/NJ to Host Seminar with John Eagle Attorney Todd Tracy; Crash Tests

Completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Standardizing in the 1920’s . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Phillips - The Basics of Blueprinting:

Better Cycle Times, Improved Efficiency,

More Accurate Estimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Sisk - AASP Holds Webinar on Problem

Employees with 180BIZ’s Rick White . . . . 50

AASP-MO to Hold Meeting on Safety Systems

Yoswick - Database Enhancement Gateway

Auto Body Repair Classes in Painted Post,

Yoswick - Recent ‘Who Pays for What?’

and Alignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 NY, Receive Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

BASF Customer Andrew Lee and Driven To

Cure Receive State of Maryland Award . . . 67

Berger Dealerships Now Blaise Alexander

in PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

CARSTAR Eastern Hills in NY Joins Progressive,

Got its Start 10 Years Ago . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Survey Looks at Scanning, Frame,

Mechanical Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

NATIONAL

Auto Care Association Announces New

Director, Data and Innovation . . . . . . . . . . 62

NABC for Keys to Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

AWDA Announces New Leadership With

Cruiser in PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Axalta Announces 2018 Custom Finishes

Auto Parts, NYC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CARSTAR Offers Tips on How to Keep

Technical High School in MA . . . . . . . . . . 27

Children Receive a Special Christmas through

Nationwide and Progressive After

CIECA Calls for 2018 Speakers. . . . . . . . . . . 62

Greene CTC Students Paint Donated Police Icahn Automotive Group Acquires BS&F

Improvements Emerge at Holyoke’s Dean Mike Orso Speaks on Lawsuits Against

Court Sends Them to Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PA Shop Owner Pays Restitution for Taxes . . . 3

Phillips - NJ Body Shop Stands up to Insurance Companies to Ensure

Three Officer Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Calendar Competition Winners . . . . . . . . . 60

Your Car Safe and on the Road . . . . . . . . . 64 Toys for Tots, The Collision Centers of NY. . . 4

Collision Industry Foundation Assists

Industry When Disaster Strikes . . . . . . . . . 10

Hurricane Vehicle Replacements, Increased

Advertising Drive Truck Interest . . . . . . . . 67

Vehicles Are Properly Repaired . . . . . . . . . 38

I-CAR, ASE Present Annual Master Repair

Training to Members. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Industry Associations Pledge 2018 Resolutions . 1

Sisk - LIABRA Brings OEM Repair

Supreme Auto Body Sold after 85 Years

in Lehigh Valley, PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

& Refinish Technician Award . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Mitchell 1 Has Enhanced Its Prodemand

Auto Repair Information Software . . . . . . . 60

Suspect Hits Police Cruiser with Stolen

Polyvance Releases New Headlight Tab

Tesla Strikes New Partnership with OCC’s

‘Replacement Demand’ From Hurricane

Ulster BOCES Auto Collision Program

Six Detroit Cops Charged With Extortion for

Vandals Strike Decorations Outside

SVP of BASF Coatings Discusses Changes

Work on Car Dealership Draws Complaints

Takata Airbags Special Master Announces

COLUMNISTS

The Sad Pathway to Airbag Injury:

Vehicle After Burglarizing CT Auto Shop . . . 4

Auto Tech Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

in NY Earns I-CAR Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Westfield, MA, Auto Body Shop . . . . . . . . . 4

in N. Strabane, PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Attanasio - Employee Sharing—Does it

Repair Online Training Course . . . . . . . . . . 62

Harvey Overhyped. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Taking Bribes From Repair Shop Owners. . . 8

Ahead for Collision Industry . . . . . . . . . . . 58

$850 Million Restitution Fund Allocation

Program for OEMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

The Last 3 Years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Really Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Warning: Key Fob System Hack for

Invents Photo Estimating App . . . . . . . . . . 22

Year in Review: The Collision Repair

Attanasio - Former Body Shop Owner Ledoux - Training, Certifying and

The owner of a Philadelphia auto body and collision repair business was charged with failing to pay nearly $286,000 in sales tax to the state.

Edward A. Hildebrandt III, 48, owner and operator of the defunct University Collision Center Inc., was sentenced to seven years of probation and ordered to pay the remaining $235,208.71 he owes to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

“This was money collected in trust and owed to Pennsylvania,” said Dan Hassell, PA revenue secre-

Thieves to Steal Your Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Industry in 2017. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

tary. “Failing to pay those taxes is a crime that hurts all Pennsylvanians.”

Hildebrandt had pleaded guilty to 26 counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received involving sales tax collected from his customers between October 2006 and March 2011. He repaid $50,700 prior to sentencing.

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst General Manager: Barbara Davies Contributing Writers: John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy Sisk, David Luehr, Stacey Phillips, Victoria Antonelli, Gary Ledoux Advertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Bill Doyle, Norman Morano (800) 699-8251 Office Manager: Louise Tedesco Digital Marketing Manager: Bill Pierce Art Director: Rodolfo Garcia Graphic Designer: Michelle Lucas Online and Web Content Editor: Rochelle Beckel Accounting Manager: Heather Priddy Editorial/Sales Assistant: Randi Scholtes

A Few Old Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Acura of Westchester . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Amato Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Atlantic Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Audi Fairfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 63 BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56-57 Cadillac of Mahwah . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 CarcoonAmerica Airflow Systems. . 28 Central Avenue Chrysler-JeepDodge-Ram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA). . . . . . . . . . . 17 ChemSpec USA, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Colonial Automotive Group . . . . . . 33 Dent Magic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Dominion Sure Seal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ECS Automotive Concepts . . . . . . . 38 Empire Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Equalizer Industries, Inc . . . . . . . . . 15 Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 48 Fred Beans Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Fuccillo Kia of Schenectady . . . . . . 47 GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 65 GYS Welding USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Healey Brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-35 Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Infiniti of Norwood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Insta Finish Car Care . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Island Clean Air, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Long Automotive Group . . . . . . . . . 32 Lusid Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Lynnes Auto Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Malouf Chevrolet-Cadillac. . . . . . . . 22 Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 58

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UPDATED DAILY Serving New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Northern Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont 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. ©2018 Adamantine Media LLC. Autobody News P.O. Box 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018 (800) 699-8251 / (760) 603-3229 Fax www.autobodynews.com editor@autobodynews.com

Northeast

REGIONAL

PA Shop Owner Pays Restitution for Taxes

Index of Advertisers

Contents

McGovern Chrysler-Jeep-DodgeRam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Mercedes-Benz of Atlantic City. . . . 43 Mercedes-Benz of Fairfield . . . . . . . 49 Mercedes-Benz of Fort Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Mercedes-Benz of West Chester . . 43 Mercedes-Benz of Wilmington . . . . 45 Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 50 Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers. 40-41 Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Nucar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Ourisman Chrysler-Jeep-DodgeRam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Porsche of Fairfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 61 ProLine Tool & Supply, Inc.. . . . . . . 20 Providence Lacquer & Supply Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Robaina Industries, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . 11 SATA Dan-Am Company . . . . . . . . 23 Schultz Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Security Dodge-Chrysler-JeepRam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Spanesi Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 54 Symach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Tasca Automotive Group . . . . . . . . 39 Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 64 Valenti Audi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Valenti Volkswagen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 VIP Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Westbury Jeep-Chrysler-DodgeRam-SRT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Wizards Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Vandals Strike Decorations Outside Westfield, MA, Auto Body Shop

by Amanda Keane & Ryan Trowbridge, Western Mass News

It’s a staple in the Westfield community—the Cloots Auto Body truck.

It’s a rusty mascot that is decorated every holiday, but after vandals ruined the displays for a third time, Cloots Auto Body called off its seasonal cheer this year.

The Grinch really did steal Christmas at Cloots Auto Body when vandals ruined the Thanksgiving display, which was all caught on camera.

Both the night before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving night, the display was attacked.

It’s something Gary Cloutier and his wife love to do every holiday:

decorate the truck for the season.

“We decorated it as usual for Thanksgiving, and we picked up a few more inflatables and put them out there. Then, over the holiday, they de-

cided they were going to come out and get a razor or whatever they had and slash all the inflatables and jump in the car and drive away,” Cloutier said.

This is not the first time this has happened to Cloots, and Cloutier is

sick of it. Two Halloweens in a row, decorations were vandalized just a few years back.

Now, the Cloutiers told Western Mass News that they are out a total of $1,000 from all of the combined damage.

“We’re just trying to do something nice, put a smile on people’s faces, and this is the respect that we get,” Cloutier added.

Now, the spirit that inspires all these decorations is no longer in Cloutier and his wife.

“She’s like, ‘I don’t even want to do this anymore. This is ridiculous,’” Cloutier noted.

They are taking a break from decorating this Christmas, and that

Tesla Strikes New Partnership with OCC's Auto Tech Program

by Staff, WSYR-TV/LocalSYR.com

Onondaga Community College has reached an exciting agreement with the electric vehicle maker Tesla.

The partnership will lead to an internship program to train technicians to be able to service these unique vehicles. OCC President Dr. Casey Crabill says, “I think it’s a wow fac-

tor. I really think that it takes our automotive tech program and broadens it out.”

Tesla is just as excited to be able to train more people to work on their electric vehicles.

“Whenever we expand, we need a ready workforce.” Says Kate Burson, Northeast Market Development Lead for Tesla.

Children Receive a Special Christmas Through Toys for Tots, The Collision Centers of NY

The Christmas season is all about joy, love, and giving, but unfortunately not everyone feels that during the holidays. Many children can go without presents because their family must use their funds on necessities, but that does not take away from the fact that all children want and deserve that special toy.

The Toys for Tots organization goal is to bring the joy of Christmas to each child in the United States by uniting the community for a single cause and collecting unwrapped toys.

The Collision Centers made a promise to live up to the Toys for Tots goal to “deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them into becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.”

The Collision Centers of New York has partnered with Toys for

Tots to help bring awareness and provide those underprivileged children with the toys they so desperately want that they may not be able to afford. The Collision Centers has 5 locations spread throughout Suffolk County from Huntington to Riverhead. Each location had a collection box at their shop and was a designated drop off center for those customers that wanted to drop off toys.

With the help of the employees and customers, The Collision Centers were able to fill the boxes up and ship them out to Toys for Tots. With the gifts they were able to collect, Collision Center believes they have made a small impact in a child’s Christmas.

www.autobodynews.com

Icahn Automotive Group Acquires BS&F Auto Parts, NYC Icahn Automotive Group announced BS&F Auto Parts, and its team are now part of the Icahn Automotive Group.

Icahn acquired the company on Nov. 29. Based in the Bronx, owner Joe

Ferrer, who started working in his father’s auto parts business at age 11, said he owes his success to his commitment to his customers. Ferrer said he lives by the credo that his customers always

4 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Tesla is looking for a change in New York State statute to allow them to grow around the State.

Right now, the company is capped at only 5 brick and mortar locations in all of New York, and that’s what they have and all of them are Downstate.

Legislation is pending in committee in both the State Assembly and

news has broken hearts all over the Westfield area.

Many people drive down Route 202 just to see the display.

“We’ve heard from people we don’t even know, total strangers, [saying] ‘Please don’t stop doing it,’ so I have a little tug of war [over] ‘Do I do it’ or ‘[Do I] not do it.’ We don’t want to disappoint people,” Cloutier said.

The Cloutiers said they really love doing the display and hate knowing that the vandals have won for now, but they will regroup after the holidays.

Anyone with any information about these incidents can contact Westfield Police.

We thank Western Mass News for reprint permission.

Senate to raise the cap by 15 shops and calls for geographic provisions to allow Tesla to open here in Syracuse.

Dr. Crabill says as soon as legislation passes to up the cap OCC is ready to accept students into the auto tech program that will lead them to the internship with Tesla.

She adds that could be as early as next Fall.

Suspect Hits Police Cruiser with Stolen Vehicle After Burglarizing CT Auto Shop

by Matt Mahoney, Fox 61

A New York man caught burglarizing an auto body shop struck a responding police cruiser while trying to escape.

Southbury police were dispatched to Parsell’s Auto Service, located at 616 Main Street, after receiving reports of an alarm around 8 p.m. The responding officers noticed footsteps in the snow leading up to a large garage door that was slightly opened. Upon reaching the door, one officer noticed a work utility van in the garage had started up with its reverse lights on.

The van smashed through the garage bay and struck the cruiser before fleeing the area.

The officer quickly got back up and engaged the stolen vehicle in a police pursuit. Meanwhile, debris from the garage door and detached ladders started falling off the vehicle.

come first. Ferrer has become the Regional Vice President of Commercial for Icahn Automotive Group in the New York City metropolitan area. Pep Boys, Auto Plus and BS&F have an excellent

The suspect fled down South Main Street towards Route 172 when he suddenly lost control and went careening into the bushes, rolling over multiple times and crashing into a large tree. Eric Feye, 34, of Putnam Valley, New York, was extricated from the vehicle and sent to Waterbury Hospital for treatment of minor injuries. He was later arrested on a slew of charges, including 1st-degree vehicular larceny, 3rd-degree burglary, vehicular assault on a police officer, engaging police in a pursuit and evading responsibility.

Feye was processed and released from the Connecticut State Police Troop A barracks on a $75,000 bond.

His arraignment is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday, December 27, at Waterbury Superior Court.

We thank Fox 61 for reprint permission.

opportunity to drive commercial growth in the region, according to Icahn. Ferrer and his business were featured in the Amazon Prime reality show, “Hard Parts: South Bronx.”

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 5

Work on Car Dealership Draws Complaints in N. Strabane, PA

by Gideon Bradshaw, Observer-Reporter

Several neighbors of a site in North Strabane Township, PA, where construction on a new car dealership is underway, showed up at a meeting with questions and concerns Nov. 28.

Construction equipment can be seen between houses along McClellan Road in North Strabane Township. Credit: Holly Tonini/ObserverReporter

At least four residents who live near the site of the planned dealership owned by Bobby Rahal Automotive Group complained about the work, which has included clearing most of the trees on the hillside between their property and the planned dealership that previously served as a visual and noise buffer between their homes and a nearby busy state highway.

“On Friday of just last week, they

started clearing out the buffer zone behind our house, all along Clare Drive,” said Adam Gross, who lives on that street. By his property, only one tree remains behind his shed, he added, “so there is a clear view of Route 19 from our home.”

Township engineer Joe Sites of Gateway Engineers said he walked the property with representatives from Rahal Automotive and contractors involved in the project during mid-November. At the request of Rahal Automotive, he’d provided the names and addresses of people who live on Clare Drive and the other abutting properties on Chambers Lane.

“They sent out a letter, I believe, to the residents, opening up a line of communication, letting you know that they’re available to talk with you about the project and want to be a good neighbor,” Sites added.

Reached by phone Nov. 29, Rahal Vice President of Operations Rick Speicher said the company is “developing the property in compliance with the township regulations for a commercial development in North Strabane. All the formal permitting has been applied for and granted to cover the scope of the roughly $12 million project.”

The township planning commission recommended approval of the plans Nov. 21, 2016. Supervisors signed off on the project the following day.

The dealership is considered a permitted use in the commercial dis-

what has happened here,” said resident Gary Scott. “We found out about two weeks ago when bulldozers came in.

It would have been very, very nice if someone from the township or from Bobby Rahal sent the letter out before they demolished everything.”

Speicher said the company hopes to have the new Jaguar and Land Rover dealership up and running by the end of next year.

Zoning rules require Rahal to replant a buffer consisting of a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees along the perimeter of the property.

Siffrinn said zoning rules Trees have been cleared from property along Route 19 are “pretty cut and dry,” but in North Strabane Township to make way for an auto officials “will do everything dealership. Credit: Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter we can to allay the concerns of the residents.” trict where the property is located.

Speicher said Rahal is “committed Township manager Frank Siffrinn to being a good, active partner in the said there is “no legal requirement” local community.” for officials or a developer to provide “At the end of the day, it’s going advance notice for a project of that to be beautifully landscaped and it’s type. going to be beautifully bordered by Still, some at the meeting com- indigenous trees, just like Joe stated plained they didn’t learn about Rahal’s last evening,” he said. plans before work at the site began.

“Obviously, everybody on Clare We thank Observer-Reporter for reprint Drive has been pretty surprised by permission.

Supreme Auto Body Sold after 85 Years in Lehigh Valley, PA

by Tim Silfies, WFMZ-TV 69 News

You may have taken your car to Supreme Auto Body in Allentown, PA, or seen their classic ads for the “fender dent-ist”.

“I’ve always had Supreme in my veins,” Tina Mellenberg said.

She and her sister have been operating the auto shop since taking over from their brother in 2011.

“Our uncle, Joe Fonzone, started the business in 1932 at this location, and in ‘55 passed it on to our father, Mike Fonzone,” she said.

Now, after all that time, they’re selling to a growing national chain called Caliber Collision.

“What’s really important to Caliber is being part of the community,” said Caliber Chief Information Officer Janet DeBerardinis.

Deberardinis is from the Valley, but now works at Caliber’s headquarters in Dallas. The company is growing fast.

“Six years ago, when I joined Caliber, we had 86 locations and were in two states. With the acquisition of Supreme, we’ll have 539 locations in 17 states,” she said.

She says they plan to keep the same location and the same employees, which is important to people like Harry Mericle.

“Some kids had yards to play in; I lived upstairs. This was my yard,” Mericle said.

That was in the 1950s, and since then, he’s worked at Supreme on and off.

“There’s always been changes in our industry,” said Mericle. “Cars have changed, metals have changed, the way we repair has changed. And Supreme’s always been on that forefront.”

Now [comes] another change, one that’s bittersweet for Tina Mellenberg and her family.

“There really isn’t a third generation that has interest, so I think the time is very appropriate,” she said.

The goal, still, is to keep the business at the forefront.

“With the partnership of Caliber, I think they’ll be able to take it to the next level,” said Mellenberg.

The official day of the acquisition is Dec. 1.

We thank WFMZ-TV 69 News for reprint permission.

6 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 7

AASP-MO to Hold Meeting on Safety Systems and Alignments

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

On Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, AASPMO’s Gateway Collision Chapter will hold a meeting and training session on vehicle safety systems and how they are affected by alignments. The meeting will be sponsored by Hunter Engineering Company and held in its facility in Bridgeton, MO. At 6 p.m., attendees will have a chance to talk to peers during the Meet and Greet, followed by dinner and training at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will focus on vehicle safety systems, including adaptive cruise, collision avoidance, lane departure and how it relates to alignment and repairs. Attendees will then enjoy a tour of Hunter’s Classic Car Museum before engaging in some social time with their industry peers.

Those interested in attending should RSVP to AASP-MO Executive Director Ron Reiling at aaspmo@aol .com. “Hunter Engineering has graciously invited you and your employees to attend this event. Get it on your calendars, and RSVP so there will be adequate food and beverages,” Reiling said. For more information about the association, visit www.aasp-mo.org.

Six Detroit Cops Charged With Extortion for Taking Bribes From Repair Shop Owners

by Violet Ikonomova, Detroit Metro News

A half-dozen current or former Detroit police officers have been charged with extortion for taking bribes from auto repair shop owners in exchange for referring stolen and abandoned vehicles recovered in the city to their shops.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says four retired officers have pleaded guilty to the charges and are awaiting sentencing while two current officers have been indicted.

“The charged defendants should have put the people of Detroit first, rather than lining their own pockets,” U.S. Attorney Daniel Lemisch said in a release.

Current DPD officer Deonne Dotson, 45, has been indicted on six counts of extortion, while officer Charles Wills, 52, is facing four counts of extortion. Retired officers James Robertson, 45, and Martin Tutt, 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of extortion. Retired officers Jamil Martin, 46, and Anthony Careathers, 52, pleaded

8 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

guilty to one count of extortion.

Each extortion count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to the Detroit Free Press, former officer Martin admitted to taking a $500 bribe in 2014 from an auto body shop owner in exchange for referring an abandoned vehicle to that shop for repairs. The paper reports that Martin’s plea deal said he would locate abandoned vehicles through his role as a cop, have them towed, and tell the car owners about where they could send their vehicles for repairs. Under the plea agreement, he faces 24–30 months in prison.

Robertson, who the Freep reports admitted to accepting two $1,000 bribes, and Tutt, who admitted to taking two $500 bribes, also face 24–30 months in prison.

Careathers, who admitted to pocketing one $1,500 bribe, faces 18–24 months. The retired officers will be sentenced in the new year, while the current officers are due to be arraigned tomorrow.

“While these allegations are troubling, we are relieved that this [is] bringing closure to a long standing issue that has plagued this department,” Detroit police Chief James Craig said in the joint-agency release announcing the charges.

Last year, six Detroit cops were suspended for allegedly taking bribes from a tow company owner in exchange for funneling him work, that included towing stolen cars. It’s not clear if the officers accused of extortion involving auto body shops are the same officers at the center of the towing allegations.

Two months ago, ex-Detroit police deputy chief Celia Washington, who resigned in March, was indicted for accepting bribes for helping the owner of multiple towing companies get more business from the police department. The owner of the towing companies was unnamed, but local towing mogul Gasper Fiore has been charged as part of the public corruption probe as well.

We thank Detroit Metro News for reprint permission.

Greene CTC Students Paint Donated Police Cruiser in PA the Greene County Career and Technology Center.

Greene County Regional police were Todd Kieffer, who leads the auto thrilled to receive a donated DARE body program at the technical school, car to add to their fleet. said senior Tavis Lund performed But while the bright orange flames most of the work on the project Nov. may have worked in their past life, they 20. PPG also donated the paint. didn’t really fit on a patrol car.

“It seemed like a perfect match,” Natale said of how students were able to learn on their car and Natale was able to put a new cruiser in his fleet for next to nothing.

Kieffer hopes participating in the project will The Greene County Regional police department received a make the community more free DARE car from Patton Township, a department near aware of his program’s efState College. Students at the Greene County Career and forts. Not only did they Technology Center are repainting the cruiser want to give back to the deGreene County Regional Police partment, but the department also alChief Michael Natale said they inher- lowed GCCTC to put its logo on the ited the car from Patton Township, a car. Kieffer hopes to make local body department near State College. It’s a shops aware that he’s graduating qual1999 Crown Victoria in relatively good ity students and future technicians. shape for its age. Since it was free, NaLund is participating in a co-op tale said, it was worth it, despite need- program with Wade’s Body and ing a paint job.

Frame Shop. He gets both graded and But he didn’t want to invest a lot paid for his work outside the classof money into a car that already had room. But an overall paint job like the quite a few years and miles on it. cruiser is a big task, so Kieffer pulled For a standard black and white him back into the classroom to work police cruiser look, Natale sought out on it.

by Trista Thurston, Observer-Reporter

Lund said he’s happy to give back. Growing up, he always enjoyed working on cars, but had more experience with the mechanical side of it.

He didn’t know much about painting and auto body. Kieffer gets a

Tavis Lund, a senior at the Greene County Career and Technology Center, paints a police car for Greene County Regional Police Nov. 20. Credit: Trista Thurston

grade for Lund’s work at Wade’s, and said that in all his years teaching at a school in Pittsburgh, he never had a student receive a grade of 100 percent like Lund has.

Since he’s been back in Greene

County, Kieffer said he’s been trying to get the local industry more involved in what his students are doing.

“This is your future,” he said, adding he’s proud of the students coming out of the program. “We’re all in it together. It’s a win-win for both sides.”

Having students work in area body shops helps them recruit qualified people, and the students gain valuable, hands-on experience.

He’s from the area and has been teaching at GCCTC for about two years.

“I wanted to come home,” he said.

He added that projects that give back to the community like this would be impossible without companies like PPG Paints donating materials. Kieffer also said director Mark Krupa has been instrumental in making changes in the school, ensuring materials and equipment are both up to date.

He added that there’s been a push to get grants to make sure students have the items they need.

We thank the Observer-Reporter for reprint permission.

www.autobodynews.com

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 9

Collision Industry Foundation Assists Industry When Disaster Strikes

by Stacey Phillips

When a natural disaster occurs, people often don’t know where to turn.

The Collision Industry Foundation (CIF) provides financial support to those in need within the collision repair industry.

During Hurricanes Irma and Harvey a few months ago, a body shop owner in a Houston suburb experienced devastation to his business and home, both of which happened to be located next door to each other. Three days later, he died from a heart attack.

His wife and family were devastated, and were left trying to pick up the pieces.

In another part of Houston, a new home that had just been built by a body technician was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. He hadn’t even paid his first mortgage payment and had no insurance coverage.

“In both of these instances, CIF was able to provide funds during a very difficult and stressful time for our industry’s brothers and sisters,” said Michael Quinn from AirPro Diagnostics and chairman of the Disaster Relief taskforce for CIF. Quinn is no stranger to this work, having volunteered for a year to serve those affected by Hurricane Katrina in CIF’s first industry-wide disaster response.

Autobody News spoke to Quinn about CIF and how it assists those in the collision repair industry who have had the unfortunate experience of being part of a catastrophe.

Can you tell us about the ColliQ: sion Industry Foundation (CIF)?

Prior to the creation of CIF, A: members of the collision repair industry came together to raise money

to benefit needy organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the Ronald McDonald House. The volunteers eventually decided to create a foundation, which was named the Collision Industry Foundation, or CIF. CIF was incorporated on April 26, 2001 and officially became a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization the following month. The original founders were Marco Grossi, Dan Greenwald, Doug Webb, Glen Funk, Chuck Sulkala, Jeanne Silver and Mark Claypool.

Those who are involved in the or-

ganization volunteer their time to assist those in need when natural disasters strike. Our mission is to raise and distribute funds that provide emer-

Financial support for CIF comes from body shops, trade groups, equipment companies, paint manufacturers, insurers and other industry organizations.

gency relief to those in the collision industry. Bill Shaw from PPG is our current president, and we have approximately 12 volunteers who all serve on CIF as trustees.

How is money raised by CIF Q: volunteers, and how is an annual goal set by the organization?

A:

Financial support comes from body shops across the country as well as trade groups, equipment companies, paint manufacturers, insurers and other industry organizations. After catastrophes like Harvey and Irma, major corporations such as Mitchell and CCC donated money to positively impact collision repair professionals in those areas.

We also hold a gala event every January to raise money for CIF. This year, our eighth annual fundraising event will be held on Jan. 18 in Palm Springs, CA, during the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting.

Last year, we raised approximately $50,000 during our gala event from donations, a raffle and a silent auction.

We could not fulfill our mission without the help of our supporters.

Our 2017 goal was to build up our reserve fund to $125,000. We need to have a reserve that we can tap into immediately in order to respond during a disaster.

Once a request is made for Q: funds, how are they disbursed?

All donations are specifically A: for individuals and companies in the collision repair industry. We

make sure to validate those applying,

10 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

as we receive a wide range of calls from others who aren’t associated with collision repair. They are not people who are trying to defraud us, but are just grasping for a life preserver. When a disaster strikes, people are looking for any possible help they can get. We’ve had to turn some people away, which is never easy.

We have a dedicated group of volunteers who work hard to identify those in need from within our industry— whether that’s a body tech, painter, CSR, estimator, adjuster or other professional—and get them the help they need.

The Disaster Relief committee members meet every week to discuss the status of those who requested aid.

We approve the disbursements as a group. CIF uses the donations for emergency living and/or tool replacement expenses. We give individuals in need up to $500 and businesses up to $2,000. Rather than sending cash or a check, we distribute gift cards to stores like Wal-Mart or Home Depot.

As the current chairman of the Relief taskforce, can Q: Disaster

you share some of CIF’s recent relief efforts?

With the strong hurricane seaA: son this year, over the last few months our relief efforts have centered on victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. We’ve served over 80

Those who are involved in CIF volunteer their time to assist those in need when natural disasters strike.

families, three repair facilities and one vocational-technical school. The votech school was in need of equipment and all its refinish materials and toners to reopen their program. The school district funds were stretched, and the program was in jeopardy. The instructor told us 48 students could have deSee CIF Assists, Page 12

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Continued from Cover

Airbag Injury

tistically low number. However, safety advocates correctly say that even one death is one death too many—especially in view of the events that led to how we got here.

In the last year or two, in the face of increasing incidents and press reports associated with the alleged (at the time) Takata wrongdoing, public awareness over the defective airbag issues has intensified in kind. However, in 2014 Bloomberg reported that Takata and some of its automotive clients were doing everything in their power to keep things under the radar.

Bloomberg found that five, out of 12 lawsuits reviewed by the news agency were settled out of court. “It’s very murky,” said Ralph Nader, who has been advocating for auto safety since the mid-1960s. “There’s a lot there that escapes NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), escapes Congress, escapes the media, escapes the consumer groups.

The best information is usually coming out of product-liability suits, but they’re settling out. There haven’t been

any public trials yet.”

That was in 2014. Today the lawsuits are mounting, Takata is a disgraced corporation and both vehicle owners and their manufacturers continue to scramble over replacing defective airbags in millions of vehicles before there are any additional injuries, or deaths. As Takata goes through the various motions and machinations of bankruptcy, the focus is also on maintaining the capacity to manufacture replacement airbag inflators for those millions of recalled vehicles.

It’s a ticking time bomb for anyone who drives, or rides in a recalled vehicle.

Back in 2014, when the issue broke wide open, The New York Times (11/19/14) detailed the circumstances that saw Takata favor the much lessexpensive, but more volatile ammonium nitrate. “It shouldn’t be used in airbags,” said Paul Worsey, an expert in explosives engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, in comments to The New York Times in 2014. The compound, he said, is more suitable for large demolitions in mining and construction. “But it’s cheap, unbelievably cheap,” he added.

See Airbag Injury, Page 16

‘Replacement Demand’ From Hurricane Harvey Overhyped

by Wolf Richter, Seeking Alpha

The total damage Hurricane Harvey inflicted on parts of Texas, particularly the vast Houston area, may never be fully known. In terms of vehicles, the estimates were all over the place. But one thing is known: Before the flood waters had even begun to recede, the entire industry was salivating over that huge “replacement demand.” This would come just in the nick of time, as total new vehicle sales in the US had already fallen by about 300,000 units for the year through July, despite record incentives, historically low interest rates and muscular all-encompassing marketing. The industry’s elements on Wall Street propagated the idea that post-Harvey “replacement demand” would boost auto sales in 2017, turn the year around, and possibly create another record year, with more booming sales in 2018. The estimates I came across at the time ranged from 300,000 vehicles at the low end to more than 600,000 vehicles that would need to be replaced. Much of this replacement demand would occur over the remaining months in 2017 and early 2018. These sales would be so big that they would boost US sales overall to new highs. But now, the first real numbers are emerging. Turns out, even the low-end esti-

mates of replacement demand were too high, and all that salivation over the projected sales boom based on the larger estimates was wasted. Harveybased sales increases of new vehicles are real, but they won’t be able to pull out 2017 unit sales. New vehicle sales in the Houston metro, battered by the oil bust, had already plunged to Financial Crisis levels before the hurricane.

In the 12 months through July, dealers sold 284,000 new vehicles, down 25 percent from the levels in late 2015 and early 2016, according to TexAuto Facts, published by InfoNation at the time. Hurricane Harvey brought sales to a halt in late August, and new vehicle sales plunged 45.5 percent from the already beaten-down levels last year to just 15,473 vehicles for the month. In September, the first few days of sales were essentially zero. But then dealerships reopened and the mad scramble began, and in the remaining days of the month, Houston-area dealers sold an astonishing 28,246 vehicles, up 22 percent from the beaten-down levels a year earlier. The rolling 12month total, at 277,621 vehicles, was still down 10 percent from the same period a year earlier.

We thank Seeking Alpha for reprint permission.

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Continued from Page 10

CIF Assists

cided on other trades had CIF not stepped in and helped the school get back on its feet. We greatly appreciate the help of CIF partners Dedoes Industries LLC, Mettler Toledo, DeVilbiss, and Sherwin-Williams Automotive Refinishes. They stepped up in a big way to assist the school. We are also in the process of reaching out to those affected by the fires in California, as well as those who suffered hurricane damage in Puerto Rico to lend assistance.

CIF was there after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy—and other natural disasters—to deliver aid to professionals in our industry who were impacted.

Twelve years ago, I chaired the collective effort to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. We raised more than $250,000 and served about 130 families specific to the collision repair industry.

How does CIF benefit the colrepair industry?

Q: lision Before Thanksgiving, I reA: minded all of our committee members about the positive impact

they have had made on people’s lives who had been affected by disasters. I told them when they gathered at Thanksgiving they could be proud of the collective work we have done. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do this work on behalf of our industry.

You never know when you could be in a circumstance like that. It’s very difficult to envision, but many are just one catastrophe away from needing help.

It’s important for people to know that we exist and offer assistance that can support us. We take our job very seriously. I made three separate trips to the Gulf area after Hurricane Katrina took place and saw the damage firsthand. It left an indelible mark on my mind and changed me—-I’ll never forget it.

How can others donate to the Disaster Relief Fund or apply Q: for assistance?

For more information about doA: nating to the Disaster Relief Fund or to apply for assistance, visit

http://www.collisionindustryfoundation .org, or contact CIF by email: collision industryfoundation@gmail.com or phone (855) 424- 3243; (804) 4276982.

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Continued from Cover

Industry Associations

assistance systems, autonomous vehicles and the connected car).”

ASA-MI President Ray Fisher told us, “Many folks see legislation as a negative, and I understand that, but what I don’t understand is when someone does not take the opportunity to remove ‘gray areas’ that legislation may provide and turn it into a positive.

I would like to see our industry professionals here in Michigan understand what has been done for them over the last few years by ASA Michigan by being supportive as a member and seizing the opportunity to be properly reimbursed according to the law. In 1974, the State of Michigan enacted the Motor Vehicle Service & Repair Act to protect consumers. We updated the law in 2016, but the law actually stipulates that the technician is the expert here in Michigan, and often times during negotiation, tactics are used that may go against the law here in Michigan; I want to see the repair industry abide by the law.

“For example, if you performed an operation on a vehicle, such as ‘Pre-

Scan’ and/or ‘Post-Scan,’ the MVSRA requires that you have that documented on your final invoice, no exceptions.

In accordance, these procedures vary by vehicle manufacturer and so too does the time necessary to perform such functions. I mentioned earlier about being a member, but if we are not around, who will do it for you? Happy New Year and let’s start it off together as the professionals that we are!”

Tony Ferraiolo, President of the Auto Body Association of Connecticut (ABAC), agreed that legislation is imperative, but the CT association will place a lot of emphasis on educating legislators in its state.

“We are working on educating the state agencies, legislators and representatives on the importance of OEM repair procedures and recommendations, and to recognize who should make repair decisions,” he said.

The North Carolina Association of Collision and Autobody Repair (NCACAR) is a newer association that has been making a huge difference in its area and hopes to gain momentum in 2018.

According to NCACAR President Brian Davies, the association wants to “make a statement in our industry by

14 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

submitting (and passing) legislation in the state that has a positive effect on the collision repair industry. One of our main goals from the beginning was to become one of the strongest associations in the U.S., and I believe this would help put us with the greats.”

Increasing membership is another important goal for many associations.

Risley noted, “ASA also resolves to grow our membership in 2018 by delivering the most relevant and current tools, resources, information and training to the collision and service repair industries.”

Petra Schroeder, Chair of the Women’s Industry Network (WIN®), said, “Our 2018 goals are all about our members. Increase membership, increase actively engaged members, create a connection to lapsed members, expand our local presence, create member connection tools and broaden industry events’ presence. All of this will be supported by a complete change of our technology platform to manage WIN’s day-to-day operations, so that our valued Board and committee volunteers can focus on strategic outcomes.”

Many associations also see a lot of value in encouraging cooperation amongst shops and other industry part-

ners.

ASA-MA/RI Executive Director Stephen Regan hopes the affiliate chapter will be able “to convince as many industry stakeholders as possible that cooperation will bring more success to all of us, rather than competition and confrontation. If we spent more time seeking common ground through cooperation and less time seeking individual advantages through denial of repair information or insurer steering, for instance, we would all be better off for it.”

Auto Body Association of Texas (ABAT) President Burl Richards agreed, adding, “Every shop should share their successes and failures with others. That in itself will lead to strengthening our industry and educating all of us on a daily basis.”

With these associations at the helm of changes in 2018, the New Year should be exciting for everyone in the industry. My personal resolution for 2018 is to attend as many industry events as possible and meet more industry professionals face-to-face, but if I don’t make it to your area, I’d still love to hear from you with feedback and suggestions to make 2018 the best year yet! Happy New Year!

Continued from Cover

Year in Review

Brian Davies, President of the North Carolina Association of Collision and Autobody Repair, said, “2017 was our first full year of existence. It is a broad statement, but we made ourselves relevant to the collision industry in North Carolina and made a significant impact by bringing the collision industry closer together, learning how to work together, and helping each other improve while improving the industry in North Carolina. Another big move was being accepted as an affiliate member to the SCRS. With their support, we all feel more confident knowing we have others all over the U.S. that have our back. In addition, having the support of the largest U.S. paint manufacturer, PPG, has been invaluable, and without them, we would not be where we are now.”

The Women’s Industry Network (WIN®) has surpassed its goals, but continues to focus on growth.

“After a very successful and exciting 2017, it is challenging to focus on just one thing… besides encouraging,

developing and cultivating opportunities to attract women to collision repair, the WIN Board of Directors considered how we might move our organization to the next level of impacting women,” said Petra Schroeder, WIN’s Chair.

“We reflected on our industry-atlarge and surveyed our board leaders, our members and our sponsors to assess their satisfaction with their WIN affiliation. This was followed by a board retreat to reflect on our current position and to dream about WIN’s contributions to our industry in the future. Finally, we charted the course to get there through our 2018–2020 strategic plan. It sets out a bold and ambitious vision for the members of WIN and all women in the collision repair industry. It will also provide direction for the ongoing growth and sustainability of our organization in a rapidly changing industry.

“In our first strategic plan (2008– 2011), we envisioned a 500-memberstrong national network, recognized as a key contributor to our industry’s success. We surpassed the 500-member mark in 2016. In addition to ensuring that we continue to provide value for our growing network of members, the new plan looks beyond

our membership to identify ways that WIN can have a greater impact on industry diversity and sustainability.”

Education, for both repairers and consumers, was also a major area of concern for many associations.

According to Auto Body Association of Connecticut (ABAC) President Tony Ferraiolo, “I think the best thing our association did in 2017 was bring educational meetings to our members. We also took a stand on photo estimates, informing consumers and shops that, in our state, the customer has the right to have their vehicles physically inspected in person by a licensed appraiser if they choose to [do so].”

Ray Fisher, President of ASAMI, shared, “There were many things that were quite memorable in 2017, but the one that I think stands out for the collision repair industry here in Michigan is the session that we created from scratch, titled ‘The Relationship between Structural Repair and Vehicle Calibration.’ The reason that it stands out was because it came about from a conversation at the PF3 Paint Supply Open House and [came to] fruition within a few months. The training was intense, and it combined

collision and mechanical technology and teachings, creating awareness for not only what is ahead, but also what is on the road currently. I am proud that ASA represents the professionals within the automotive independent collision repair industry, and I think it is important to keep that attribute at the forefront as we move into the future. Today, not only is our reputation of craftsmanship at risk, but the lives of our customers and their families are in our hands every time we make a decision to repair a vehicle. I believe that 2017 served as a ‘wake-up call’ to the repair industry reflecting on this very point via a major settlement. Just as the cardiologist does what their previous or their required annual training taught them to do during open heart surgery, the technician also has to apply their knowledge to repair the vehicle properly within the guidelines of the vehicle manufacturer to ensure safe and proper repairs. I understand keeping the cost of repairs down— that is the art of negotiation between two businesses—but it should never be used to pressure anyone to compromise proper and safe repairs being performed by the expert.”

See Year in Review, Page 17

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 15

Ulster BOCES Auto Collision Program in NY Earns I-CAR Grant The Ulster BOCES Auto Collision Technology program recently received a grant from the I-CAR Collision Repair Education Foundation.

This year, the program received $1,000 that will go toward purchasing the tools and equipment needed to prepare students for post-secondary edu-

donations from industry partners and local I-CAR committees, was one of 162 grants awarded to schools in 38 states. The Foundation has been awarding the Career & Technical Center program grants for six years, including a $5,000 grant in 2014.

The grant was the result of a team effort between Ulster BOCES Grant Coordinator Bonnie Meadow, Auto Collision Technology instructor Dave Rosenberg, and Ulster BOCES Video Specialist Kristine Conte.

“While our Auto Collision instructor is an expert at doing more with less, I am always happy to see this program get more tools, consumables, and support to give the students From left to right: Dylan Brainard, Saugerties Central the best experience and prepaSchool District; Christian Mendez, New Paltz Central ration for the field that is posSchool District; Dakota Newton, Onteora Central sible. I am grateful to the School District. Credit: Tammy Cilione/Ulster BOCES Collision Repair Education cation or to enter the workforce after Foundation for providing us with this they graduate high school. In addition, opportunity,” says Meadow. the Foundation will provide students Auto Collision Technology stuwith miscellaneous supplies through- dent Christian Mendez of the New out the school year, including consum- Paltz Central School District appreciables such as tape, sandpaper, mirror ates the continued financial support adhesive, rust preventative spray, and from I-CAR. The senior, who intends more, thanks to corporate sponsors. to pursue a career in the auto collision The grant, which is supported by industry and aspires to one day open

Continued from page 15

Year in Review

Burl Richards, President of the Auto Body Association of Texas (ABAT), said, “The most memorable things ABAT did in 2017 were related to Todd Tracy, who allowed us to visit his law firm in Dallas. It was unlike anything we had ever seen, with hundreds of wrecked vehicles in warehouses at his facility. It was eye-opening to see the amount of time and expertise that was being used to inspect these wrecked vehicles. Then, we invited him to speak at our tradeshow. His presence was met with a little resistance from the industry, but once everyone heard the message, ‘Repairing vehicles has consequences, so you better follow OEM guidelines,’ it was a message well-received, and I believe it made us all better for it.”

For the Automotive Service Association (ASA), the most important experience in 2017 was related to legislation.

ASA Executive Director Dan Risley shared, “We have invested several thousand man hours representing

our members and the industry in Washington D.C. We have been working tirelessly with legislators, other industry partners and the OE’s on new vehicle technology relative to telematics, (ADAS) advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles and the connected car. ASA has been extremely vocal and visible representing the best interests of the collision and service repair industries. Our goal is to ensure that our members continue to have access to the information necessary to repair their customers’ vehicles without having to enact legislation. As cybersecurity and data ownership continue to take center stage, we are ensuring that the independent repairer is part of the solution and equation.”

A lot of momentum was begun and carried through into 2017, and 2018 is gearing up to be an even bigger year for the collision repair industry as these associations and others continue to educate members, expand their offerings and fight for the rights of shop owners and consumers.

Autobody News looks forward to continuing to bring you all of the latest association news in 2018. Happy holidays!

16 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Continued from Page 12

his own collision repair shop, wants to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible from the program.

“I think this (grant) gives us the opportunity to work on more projects,” Mendez said.

Ulster BOCES Auto Collision Technology student Carli Booth of the Wallkill Central School District uses a 3M Cut-Off Wheel while working on one of the program’s cars. The wheel was part of a $1,000 grant from the I-CAR Collision Repair Education Foundation.

Credit: Tammy Cilione/Ulster BOCES

Rosenberg says the grant and donated items allow the program to grow by improving the curriculum, providing access to essential tools and equipment and building critical relationships in the local business community.

To learn more about the Ulster BOCES Auto Collision Technology program, go to www.ulsterboces.org.

Airbag Injury

The New York Times articulated the concerns of two former Takata engineers, who told the newspaper in 2014 that they, together with some other employees of Takata had reservations about the use of ammonium nitrate.

“It’s a basic design flaw that predisposes this propellant to break apart, and therefore risk catastrophic failure,” said Mark Lillie, a former senior engineer with Takata at its propellant plant in Moses Lake, Washington.

“It was a question that came up: Ammonium nitrate propellant, won’t that blow up?” said Michael Britton, a chemical engineer who worked with Lillie at the Moses Lake plant. “The answer was: not if it stays in the right phase.”

That reference to “the right phase” is telling, which we’ll get to in a moment. But first, as the Takata airbag injury issue continues to heat up, it’s instructive to drill down to the point at which Takata began to venture down the wrong path.

Back in the day, airbag manufacturers based their airbags on a propelSee Airbag Injury, Page 18

We’re Looking for a Few Old Shops!

Do you think you have the oldest, continuously-operated body shop in your area? Would you like to see your shop’s colorful history in print? If so, we want to hear from you.

A Autobody News and collision industry journalist Gary Ledoux are working on a joint project to find, and highlight the oldest continuously operated body shops in America. Some shops may have sstarted out in the early 1900’s as a blacksmith or carriage shop.

Some may have started as a mechanical repair service at a parking garage in New York or San Francisco during the 1920’s, and then turned to body work. In the latter part of the 1940’s, many ex-servicemen started body shops with skills they learned working on GI trucks and equipment.

There are so many unique and interesting stories out there that should be recorded and preserved for posterity.

Each qualifying shop submitted will be highlighted in Ledoux’ forthcoming book; YesterWreck: The History of Collision Repair in America. The estimated publishing date is the first quarter of 2019.

No book of this sort has ever been published for the collision industry. This is a unique opportunity to be part of something special. Ledoux will provide a signed, first-edition copy of the book, upon its publishing, to any shop whose photos are used in the book.

In addition, Ledoux will contact one shop from each of the five regions served by Autobody News for a complete interview and a feature story to be run in that region’s edition of the magazine.

What To Send If you think you have the oldest continuously-operated body shop in your state please send us: • Shop’s Name • Address / City State and Zip • Phone number • Email address • Current owner’s name • A brief history of the shop, most importantly what year the shop was founded.

Include the month if you know it. • Two to three photos of the shop, especially from its earliest days with any recognizable persons identified. These could be a picture of the front of the building, a group shot of everyone that worked in the shop at the time, people working on cars in the shop, etc. All photos should be scanned as a JPG with a minimum of 300 DPI. (Please do not take a telephone picture of a photo. The quality of such a photo cannot be satisfactorily reproduced.) All people in the photos should be identified if possible.

Please send all information via email to yesterwreck@yahoo.com.

For any questions, please contact Gary Ledoux @ yesterwreck@yahoo.com

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 17

AASP/NJ Teams With WMABA for Educational Slate at NORTHEAST 2018 The Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ), hosts of the country’s largest and fastest-growing regional automotive trade show, NORTHEAST®, is proud

to announce a partnership with the Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association (WMABA) to produce an exciting new educational series at its 2018 show.

Following the 40th anniversary of NORTHEAST in 2017, AASP/NJ is excited to build on the tremendous success of the show in recent years.

NORTHEAST 2018 (March 16–18, 2018 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus) is already on pace to be another historical, recordbreaking event, as the association recently announced the expansion to a second level. Now, NORTHEAST is growing even further with AASP/NJ’s commitment to bringing a top-of-the line educational forum to NORTH-

EAST attendees by collaborating with one of the nation’s most prominent automotive repair associations, WMABA. “Education is so important to what we do every day,” says AASP/NJ President Jerry McNee. “Providing industry members with high-quality education has always been one of our main priorities, and teaming up with an association like WMABA, who has many decades of experience providing a high standard of industry training, is helping us do just that.”

“To keep up with the changes in technology and our industry, associations

repairers need this event, and they need it to be great,” comments WMABA President Mark Schaech, also of Mark’s Body Shop in Baltimore, MD. “It takes a lot of effort and dollars to get techs, managers and owners to an event, and we know what they gain here will be worth it. I’m very excited to have WMABA making these strides.”

“We want everyone at the show to have the opportunity to better themselves and better their businesses, and having WMABA’s energy and expertise at the helm of our seminar offerings will undoubtedly accomplish that goal,”

need to get together to provide relevant education,” states Jordan Hendler, Executive Director for WMABA. “Our association’s 50-year history has shown that we are repairer-centric and thrive only when they are successful. The goal of this partnership for us is to provide a quality, lasting educational experience.”

“As a fellow repairer, I know that

McNee adds. “We are well on our way to another incredible NORTHEAST show.”

For more information on the NORTHEAST Automotive Services Show, visit aaspnjnortheast.com.

CARSTAR Eastern Hills in NY Joins Progressive, NABC for Keys to Progress

Recently, CARSTAR Eastern Hills joined Progressive Insurance and the National Auto Body Council to pro-

vide two restored vehicles to U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant John Powell and U.S. Army Sergeant Candy Varvel.

Both sergeants are facing tough life circumstances and are in desperate need of vehicles.

Progressive-Buffalo partnered with CARSTAR Eastern Hills, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and others for

this event.

On top of the new cars, the two veterans received six months of free motor insurance, a year’s warranty and a stash of gift cards.

The donation is courtesy of Progressive® Insurance and the National Auto Body Council (NABC).

This November, Progressive Service Centers and CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts honored veterans across the country in this fifth annual vehicle giveaway event. In association with the NABC’s Recycled Rides® project, the Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, along with several national and local partners, donated vehicles to these heroes in appreciation of their service.

In addition to CARSTAR Eastern Hills, three other CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts locations in Connecticut, Illinois and Ohio participated in the giveaway.

Keys to Progress is one of the single largest donations of vehicles in the history of the Recycled Rides program.

18 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

For more information on AASP/ NJ, visit aaspnj.org. To learn more about WMABA, visit wmaba.com.

Continued from Page 16

Airbag Injury

lant called sodium azide, which was volatile and toxic. Airbag manufacturers, including Takata, were looking for a safer alternative.

They found it in a compound known as tetrazole, which was safer and environmentally friendly as well.

Engineers at Takata saw it as the breakthrough they had been looking for, and they readied the updated product for their automotive manufacturing clients for the 1998 model year.

But then economics began to conflict with sound engineering principles.

Tetrazole could only be manufactured in limited quantities, and tended to be expensive. Using tetrazole as an inflator compound may have met with a sound engineering profile, but at the same time was squeezing the margins too tight for the Takata bean counters. In the face of increasing competition for market share, Takata resumed the search for an alternative to sodium azide that would be less expensive than tetrazole and found one in ammonium nitrate.

Engineers at Takata, however raised red flags, and they only had to go See Airbag Injury, Page 27

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 19

Continued from Cover

Lawsuits

topic. And the court got it!”

First, the court pointed out that the insurance company’s contract with the customer requires them to provide sufficient payment “to return the specified vehicles... to pre-accident condition” based on “the lesser of the amounts for which the claimant can reasonably be expected to (1) repair the property to its condition prior to the loss; or (2) replace it with an item substantially identical to the item damaged” (Second Circuit Docket #15-1445-cv).

The key word here, as the court asserted, is “claimant.” The court clarified that “prevailing labor rate should not be measured based on the amounts insurers can negotiate due to the high volume of claims that they process. Instead, the prevailing competitive rate should be determined by ascertaining what a one-time customer could expect to pay for the repair. The actual prevailing rate is one of the things that will be determined during trial.

When asked about this finding, Orso shared, “In my experience in the

profile section?”

“These concessions—either in the form of lump sum payments or allotting additional labor hours for repairs—had the disguised effect of paying repair shops more money for labor, while maintaining the appearance (in estimate summaries and subrogation data) of paying the lower labor rate it included in its estimates to Garage. By presenting this evidence, Garage raised a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Insurer’s offers to Garage were based on a labor rate at which the claimant could reasonably expect to have a damaged vehicle repaired,” according to the court document.

The court determined that a trial was needed to decide whether the insurer “engaged in materially deceptive practices in violation of § 349 by purporting to offer reasonably expected, market labor rates in accordance with its policy obligations while systematically offering lower-than-market rates.”

Nick’s Garage, Inc. v. Progressive (Second Circuit Docket #151426-cv) also explored the issue of non-OEM parts, finding that, though the insurance policy explicitly permits

shop, insurers think they are a wholesale buyer—the customer. In reality, they are not. Just because they can cut a deal with certain shops does not require all shops to accept it. In NY, caps on anything are against regulations. Negotiation is supposed to take place if the shop is authorized or inclined to do so.”

In Nick’s Garage, Inc. v. Nationwide, the court considered whether the rates offered by the insurer were the reasonably expected rate in the marketplace, based on evidence that suggests insurance companies have a practice of masking the true effective labor rate by offering labor rate when unable to agree on prices with the shop.

Orso notes, “It’s pretty common, based on what I’ve seen in my shop, for insurers to use a one-line concession to add dollars to labor rate or hours to estimates in order to get closer to a shop’s requested target settlement, if they are inclined to, but they almost never change the rates in the profile of the estimate. Nick’s has submitted a lot of examples of this occurrence to the Court from our own files, and I don’t think we were an isolated case. You have to ask, why not just change the rates in the summary

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their use, it does not indicate that the insurance company could pay only for non-OEM parts on every repair. Orso expresses, “The insurer may propose an aftermarket part, but it’s the shop’s duty to inspect and approve or disapprove of the part based on fit form and finish as well as application, safety and acceptance of liability and warranty. Very rarely after test-fitting an aftermarket collision part did we see acceptable fit or gaps aligned with adjacent panels or mounting points.

Sheet metal was lighter gauge and parts weighed less. Some parts were missing mounting holes and supports.

The Court got it that the shop and the insurer have to go through a process where non-OEM parts are proposed for the repair.”

The court pointed out that nonOEM parts must at least be equal to the OEM part in terms of fit, form, finish, quality and performance, citing evidence that this is not always the case. The trial will serve to determine whether this requirement was met for each vehicle in question.

Progressive and Nationwide had successfully argued that there was no claim for breach of insurance contract since they had operated in good

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faith, but the Second Circuit Court rejected this defense because the policies and NY regulations also require the insurers to pay the amount necessary to restore the vehicle to its pre-loss condition or to replace it.

Sine one of these independent obligations were not met, the court found that the insurer could not prove satisfaction of contractual obligations based on meeting the other obligation to negotiate in good faith.

Of course, the concept of good faith negotiations is a subjective idea to begin with.

As Orso points out, “In my experience, many insurers viewed offering

any concession at all as meeting their ‘good faith’ requirement. I remember one appraiser offered us $5 on his estimate for caulking. The two-part product we were using was $89. He offered us $5 more. When I refused to accept, he said, ‘Well, I made a good faith offer.’ So, what insurers view as good faith negotiation may often be less than the true costs of the repair.”

The court also found that the claims presented by Nick’s Garage were not barred by NY Insurance Law 2601’s existence, even though only the NY Attorney General has the right to sue insurers for unfair claims settlement practices. Orso will still need

to prove his cases in a trial, but these rulings from the appellate court reinforce rulings across the country that show insurers are not in control of the collision repair industry as much as the industry has been led to believe.

Insurers have more factors to consider than their own costs and concerns.

Safe vehicles for the consumer must be at the heart of every repair, but the collision repair industry still has a long way to go.

“I would not expect utopia tomorrow. There are players out there that have bought into the business model that insurers are the customer.

The wrongful death suit in Texas

Auto Body Repair Classes in Painted Post, NY, Receive Donations

Junior and senior students in Brian McDonnell’s auto body repair classes at the Coopers Education Center in Painted Post, NY, received new uniforms, thanks to a generous donation.

Michael Cassata Jr., owner of Hammer Insights in Wayland, NY, donated $800 through the Collision Repair Education Foundation to provide Cintas work uniforms for each student.

The goal of the foundation is to add a new level of professionalism to school collision programs during the 2017–18

school year. According to McDonnell, Cassata has been a strong supporter of

the Coopers Auto Body program by joining the advisory committee, helping students prepare for skills competitions and helping organize a fundraiser to send a student to the national Skill-

sUSA competition.

“I am a strong proponent for students learning vocational and technical skills,” Cassata said. “Students can make a good living if they choose to go into this field, and this program gives them a jump-start toward that.”

Cassata’s son, Mike, is the General Manager at Copart in Rochester, NY, a company that sells total loss vehicles for insurance agencies. He arranged the donation of a 2013 Honda Accord to the program.

shows the responsibility is squarely on the shop for repair quality and safety,” Orso says. “The companies that truly want to settle claims, by negotiating all elements of the claim, will respect the shop’s intentions and move on.

They will see these cases as an ‘I told you so’ or ‘a-ha’ moment. Others that have bought into the fight song, ‘delay, deny and defend’ should consider this Second Circuit decision as a wake-up call. I think it remains to be seen what happens. I really don’t know why it takes a nuclear war to correct bad behavior. In the end, it should be about fair negotiations with a goal of claims settlement.”

“Being able to work on a late model vehicle like this will allow my students to see the various types of vehicle construction and understand newer model repair methods,” McDonnell said.

“This is a great program for students, and I am glad that we at Copart could help them with this donation,” Cassata said.

Delivery of the vehicle was donated by Salazar Towing and Recovery in Canandaigua, NY.

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 21

Product Innovation

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.

Former Body Shop Owner Invents Photo Estimating App with Ed Attanasio

Ryan Taylor, 37, has 20 years of experience in the collision repair industry—which means he started his career when he was a teenager.

In fact, he said, he opened his own shop in Vancouver, Canada with a little knowledge and a passion to succeed when he was just 17.

“I started fixing dents when I was 14 and left home at 16,” Taylor said. “I began working for a dealership doing entry-level tasks in a service depart-

Ryan Taylor, a former body shop owner, invented Bodyshop Booster in 2009, an app that streamlines the estimating process for both customers and shops

ment, and after a while I began a little operation in the back of the dealership doing PDR and minor collision repair on cars, and it grew from there.”

Taylor was waiting for school to start at the University of Victoria to pursue a business degree, but in the interim he decided to further pursue his modest business.

“I needed a facility, so I got one, and then when the time came for me to go to school, I thought, ‘Why do I need a business degree [when] I own a business?’ So, I never did get that business degree, but things worked out anyway,” he said.

The lack of a college degree didn’t dissuade Taylor, because by 2010, he had eight locations performing collision repairs and a catastrophe-response division performing hail PDR throughout Canada. In addition to the shops, the niche he and a partner developed involved repairing large fleets for car manufacturers in huge numbers, ranging from 500 all the way to 20,000.

In 2014, Taylor had an opportunity to sell the business and began working on Bodyshop Booster, a concept he began back in 2009 when he started using it at his shops.

“We were looking for a tool that would give us a competitive advantage and provide convenience for our customers,” Taylor said. “The best way to describe it is Netflix vs. Blockbuster.

For the average person today, to get an estimate from a body shop, you have to do it during business hours and take half a day off from work. So it’s a big commitment to get an estimate, but it really does not have to impede the [repair] process by using our very intuitive photo estimating app.”

The timing was right—The technology and the need for Taylor’s app fortunately converged.

“The rise of the photo applications started when some of the insurers (State Farm and AllState, for example) came out with their own, and we saw that there were issues with many of them,” he said. “One of the main problems is the fact that customers inherently had no idea how to take a good photo with their phones.

Invariably, they take a photo from 2–3 inches away and then the people at the shop are trying to build an estimate based on these poor-quality photos.

What ends up happening is that the estimator will write a sheet that is lower than it should be. If you talk to any shop in this situation, you will hear their complaints about how low the estimates are based on these photos.

“Shops ask us all the time about what they should do when customers walk in and say that they just want an estimate. So, we instruct them to say, ‘I’ve got your VIN number and I’ll look up all your information, but to save time, did you use an insurance estimate app to settle the claim on your vehicle?’ Since we have their VIN number, the customer is going to be forthright in most cases. We then tell [shops] to explain to the customer that if we find more damage, we can supplement the claim. So we’ve opened up that conversation, and now the shop has the information it needs to do a fair estimate.”

Bodyshop Booster is all about making business easier, so Taylor created a “frictionless system,” he said.

“Since I am in Canada, I often use an example by comparing some shops with beaver dams,” he said. “You have

22 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

a river flowing and there are beaver dams all along all the way. All that does is restrict the flow, so at the very bottom of the stream, you have a trickle where you should have a river.

It’s no different when customers are looking for an estimate. The shop is only open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and many people work; the customer has to drive to the shop and wait to get the estimate. All of these obstacles are being put in front of the customer and making the process more difficult. So, the concept behind Bodyshop Booster is to eliminate the beaver dams, resulting in a better flow of customers.”

From the very beginning, Taylor and his team have done everything they can to make the app easy for shops and their customers to use, he said.

“In just seconds, we can switch them over to Bodyshop Booster,” he said. “There are no downloads, passwords, you don’t need to go to the app store—it’s instantly in there within 2–

3 seconds. This tool uses a system called ‘guided discovery’ that takes the customer through the process of taking a series of photos of their vehicle in a way that [allows us to] accurately assess the damage. It allows us to evaluate the damage remotely and in most cases, we are able to get the customer in for a repair appointment without ever having to come to the store first.”

By using Bodyshop Booster, a shop can also qualify a customer quickly, Taylor said.

“A shop that uses our app can tell upfront from their photos whether it’s a job they want to do—such as a rust job, a restoration or a total loss,” he said. “By using the app, they can know right away and it allows them to cherry pick the marketplace. It becomes a very powerful tool as a result.

No one has ever used Netflix and then said, ‘I can’t wait to go back to Blockbuster.’ Bodyshop Booster is the Netflix of the collision business.”

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www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 23

Northeast Associations with Chasidy Rae Sisk

Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware, who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family of NASCAR fans. She can be contacted at crsisk@chasidyraesisk.com.

LIABRA Brings OEM Repair Training to Members On Tuesday, November 21, the Long Island Auto Body Repairmen’s Association (LIABRA) and the Autobody Craftsman’s Guild (ABCG) held a general meeting at the Eagle Auto

LIABRA Executive Director, Ed Kizenberger opened the meeting with industry updates

Mall (Eagle Auto Mall or Riverhead Auto Mall) in Riverhead, NY. As part of LIABRA’s ongoing effort to provide association members with OEM repair training, the meeting included a General Motors structural repair training seminar in addition to association information and industry updates. Before the meeting began, attendees enjoyed a buffet dinner provided courtesy of Eagle Auto Mall, and the event was hosted by Eagle Chevrolet Parts Manager Mike Migliore.

Christopher Peace, Technical Training Instructor for General Motors, presented a twohour Structural Repair seminar

At 7:30 P.M., LIABRA Executive Director Ed Kizenberger started the meeting with an overview of current events and news in the collision repair industry. Referencing the TX lawsuit against John Eagle during which Todd Tracy’s law firm relied upon experts’ testimony that proved the severe injuries incurred by the occupants of the vehicle were due to the improper installation of the roof, Kizenberger stressed, “By now, you are all aware of the $41 million lawsuit for a 2010 Honda Fit where the roof was improperly installed using adhesives and not welding it on. Now, more than ever, you must repair the vehicle using the OEM-recommended repair procedures and not deviate from them even if the insurer wants you to. You are the repair experts, not

the insurance company, and you are liable for the repair. This is a wake-up call for the industry – DO NOT deviate from the OEM recommended repair procedures!”

Kizenberger then discussed the recent ruling by the Second Circuit Court that reversed a lower court’s decisions against Nick Orso’s Garage as it pertained to labor rate and nonOEM parts. Finding that non-OEM parts are not always appropriate for the repair and that the supposed prevailing rate is not always accurately portrayed by insurance companies, the court has agreed that the case should go to trial.

When Kizenberger introduced Eagle Auto Mall Parts Manager Mike Migliore, Migliore reminded attendees, “This is not the auto body industry of the 1980s and 1990s; the construction of today’s vehicles and the repair procedures are changing rapidly.” Migliore recommended the use of genuineparts.com to research any GM recommended repair procedures and also offered the assistance of his staff to assist LIABRA members with any GM repair questions.

Reminding attendees of GM’s Bump the Competition program, Migliore noted that Eagle Chevrolet will try to match prices for non-OEM GM parts on any insurance appraisal.

I-CAR Instructor Bill Vallely next discussed the launch of 13 new diagnostics courses, informing attendees that many I-CAR repair courses are now being created in collaboration with the OEMs. He also announced that a number of new I-CAR training facilities will be available in 2018 on Long Island.

The evening’s final speaker was Christopher Peace, Technical Training Instructor for General Motors, who presented a two-hour Structural Repair seminar. According to Peace, “The reason that construction materials and repair procedures are changing so rapidly is the manufacturer’s drive to adhere to new CAFE gas mileage standards mandated by the government that increased to an average of 34.5 miles a gallon in 2016 and will reach 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025.”

Peace reviewed the correct in-

24 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

stallation of doors and door panels, including welding and bonding of door panels, as well as the correct anti-corrosion treatment to use on all replacement panels and the proper torque of fasteners. He explored the various

I-CAR’s Bill Vallely discussed the launch of 13 new diagnostics courses

types of steel used in GM vehicle construction and provided instruction on the correct methods of sectioning and welding structural repair panels such as rocker panels and A and B pillars.

After concluding with the proper installation and removal of GM quarter panels, Peace recommended that repairers visit genuineparts.com with any repair questions related to GM ve-

hicles.

The evening concluded with coffee and dessert, provided by Eagle Auto Mall, and LIABRA’s 50/50 drawing prize was won by Cliff of Corwiths Autobody. John Calabro from Motor Coach Collision won the grand prize of a $200 Best Buy gift certificate. Kizenberger ended the meeting by offering holiday wishes to all members, advertisers, associates and friends.

LIABRA’s OEM training program will resume on January 9, 2018 at Competition BMW with a BMW Technical Training Seminar. Additionally, the meeting will feature guest speaker Todd Tracy of John Eagle lawsuit fame as he discusses his landmark verdict, how shops can avoid getting sued, and how the collision repair industry can stand up to insurance companies.

For more information about LIABRA, visit www.liabra.org.

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Improvements Emerge at Holyoke’s Dean Technical High School in MA

by Mike Plaisance, Mass Live

The sign at Dean Technical High School facing Main Street read, “97 percent attendance keep coming.”

The public display about the rise in attendance from last year’s 87 percent, along with a drop in suspensions, upticks in the graduation rate and passing grades for all of the current seniors

Collision repair class. Attendance and graduation rates have risen in a sign of improvements at Dean Technical High School in Holyoke, MA. Credit: Mike Plaisance/The Rebublican

in all of their courses have educators in a Dean-boasting mode—kind of.

“I think it’s important that we get the word out about how things are

going so well at Dean Tech,” Principal Jeffrey Peterson said.

First-quarter report cards showed that 95 percent of the school’s 190 students passed all of their courses, and none of the current seniors failed any grades, he said.

The new administration of the city’s vocational high school at 1045 Main St.—this is Peterson’s second year as principal—has emphasized a combination of enforcing rules and building relationships.

“And we came in and just changed the culture,” Peterson said.

But he understands the climb continues. The graduation rate for the class of 2017 is still being calculated because of summer school and other factors. It probably will rise to the area of 50 percent, but that still means over 40 percent failed to graduate, he said.

“Which is still very low. We have a lot of work to do, but we are keeping students in school and we are giving kids opportunities that they haven’t had in the past,” he said.

Stephen K. Zrike, the state-appointed receiver in charge of managing the Holyoke public schools, said

26 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

he likes what he sees at Dean under Peterson’s administration. More students are staying in school and are learning more than in recent years, he said.

Principal Jeffrey Peterson in the hallway at Dean. Credit: Mike Plaisance/The Rebublican

Such progress should be recognized, along with the reality that too many students are still not being helped by the system, he said.

“They really rebooted the culture and climate, which was the goal. By no means am I claiming victory. By no means,” Zrike said.

Senior Dannysha Medina, 17, said she thinks the reboot is working.

She wasn’t just saying that because

Peterson was present, she said.

“All the teachers and students, they get along more. They have better relationships,” Medina said.

Dean’s ascent comes as the public schools continue through the third year under state receivership. In April 2015, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education took the extraordinary step of placing the schools in receivership because students’ academic abilities—reading, writing and doing math—as reflected in test scores barely improved despite years of warnings.

Zrike, formerly Wakefield schools’ superintendent, has been the state-appointed receiver in charge of the public schools here with complete decisionmaking authority since July 6, 2015.

Among the challenges: Threequarters of the public schools’ enrollment is made up of Latino students, many of whom come from households where English is usually the second language, and often a distant second.

As recent years’ graduation rates provided by Peterson show, the majority didn’t graduate: 2012, 27.5 percent; 2013, 39.3 percent; 2014, 41.5 per-

cent; 2015, 39.5 percent; and 2016, 40 percent.

But Peterson appears to have embraced the job. The former superintendent of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton told the Daily Hampshire Gazette in June 2016 that he was leaving that job and eager for this one.

“It is an opportunity to turn around a school that is struggling. It’s a challenge that I couldn’t turn down,” Peterson said.

In late November, Peterson said, “I love it—I love these kids.”

Politeness is emphasized at Dean and the focus is aimed at learning.

Students are prohibited from using cell phones, wearing hats or hoods, or letting pants drop below the waist. Peterson asked a few guys wearing baseball caps in the machine shop to remove them, and they did.

If a teacher sees a kid on an iPhone or wearing a baseball cap, he or she will ask the student to put it away, but teachers don’t engage the student beyond that. If the phone stays out or the hat stays on, the procedure is to inform the principal and then parents are called, he said.

Talking with students and building relationships are emphasized over punishment, he said.

Fights or rude and disrespectful behavior are reasons students get suspended from school, but suspensions are down.

“They’re just not happening. In fact, we haven’t had a fight in this school in 14 months,” Peterson said.

The ban on using cell phones and dressing inappropriately is part of the pursuit of an atmosphere of professionalism. That, in turn, is part of Zrike’s redesign of the high school experience here to focus those years on getting students into colleges and careers.

“We stress that professional behavior is critical to success,” Peterson said. “You can’t walk around this school with your headphones on. You can’t walk into a job with your pants below your waist.”

The redesign has included removal of freshmen from Dean. All first-year students attend the city’s other high school, Holyoke High School at 500 Beech St. The freshmen who take vocational courses are bussed to Dean a few times a week, he said.

Enrollment in the sophomore, jun-

ior and senior classes at Dean totals 190 with a staff of 40, including teachers, he said.

Shop classes to help students learn skills at Dean include auto collision repair, culinary arts, cosmetology, diesel, carpentry, electrical, machine, health assisting and computer programming and web design.

Chaquina Douchette, 18, removed her protective head gear and said she’d been machine-scraping paint off a car in collision repair class.

“I’ve wanted to do it since I was in the fifth grade. I wanted to paint cars and redesign them and make them all new again,” Douchette said.

She likes that the shop classes at Dean offer hands-on work instead of sitting in class for hours, she said.

However, she dislikes having to learn different teachers every year after she’s gotten used to them, a change that affects her deliberate pace of learning, she said.

Jennilee Espada, 16, cooked potato pancakes in the culinary shop.

“It’s just something I like to do. I have a passion for it. It’s fun, it’s busy, it’s fast-paced,” she said.

She likes that Dean is organized, has fewer people with the freshmen

placed at Holyoke High School and that people are kind, she said.

She said Dean is well-run, and she was unable to think of anything she dislikes about the school.

We thank Mass Live for reprint permission.

Continued from Page 18

Airbag Injury

so far as to quote explosives manuals and journals to make their point as to the volatility of ammonium nitrate, which “tended to disintegrate on storage under widely varying temperature conditions” with “irregular ballistic” consequences said Lillie, the former Takata engineer.

According to The New York Times in its report of three years ago, ammonium nitrate cycles through five solid states. As the vehicle goes from receiving the heat of sunshine to the cold of night, the temperature swing is large enough for the ammonium nitrate to change from one phase to another.

Remember Lillie’s earlier comment above, with regard to the acceptability of ammonium nitrate provided See Airbag Injury, Page 44

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 27

Tips for Busy Body Shops with Stacey Phillips

Stacey Phillips is a 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.

The Basics of Blueprinting: Better Cycle Times, Improved Efficiency, More Accurate Estimates By implementing the blueprinting you’re finished with the blueprinting process, collision repairers are find- process, you will want to have a really ing that hidden damage can often be clear definition of what’s going to hapuncovered before the vehicle is re- pen to that vehicle and how all the paired. pieces come together.”

John Shoemaker, business deHe said there are five main objecvelopment manager for BASF, said tives to blueprinting: developing an acthat blueprinting can lead to better curate plan of repair that identifies all cycle times, improved efficiency and a labor operations; communicating the more accurate estimate. Durrepair requirements to all deing the SEMA show in Las partments; devising a schedVegas, Shoemaker shared ule for repair; putting together blueprinting tips with body a plan for resource utilization; shop owners and managers and eliminating work stopwho attended his Society of page.

Collision Repair Specialists Some of the useful tools to (SCRS) seminar: “The Basics consider having on-hand durJohn Shoemaker, of Blueprinting.” ing the blueprinting process business develop“Hidden damage is the ment manager for include a point of use cart, number one reason for delays which eliminates errors as well BASF, shared tips on blueprinting in the repair process,” said as trips back and forth to the during the SEMA Shoemaker. “Blueprinting is a office; a camera; a tread depth show in Las Vegas team effort that involves the gauge; measuring and blend estimator, the body technician, the tools; dent viewer boards; system scanpainter and your parts people. When ners to verify trouble codes and diag-

nose restraint system codes; and parts carts.

15 Steps for Successful Blueprinting: 1. Review initial estimate Shoemaker stressed the importance of reviewing the initial estimate to triage the repair and determine if tear-down is really necessary.

“You can find out quickly what the vehicle needs by scanning the estimate,” he said.

2. Map the vehicle Different marker colors can be used to map a vehicle. For example, use a green marker to indicate operations that have been approved for repair; a yellow marker to show supplement operations; and a red marker to note areas not approved to repair or that are identified as pre-existing damage.

Shoemaker said shops can visually enhance the repair plan using circles, arrows or short notes and write cus-

tomer requests or repair messages on the windshield.

3. Verify vehicle information and take preliminary photos When verifying the vehicle information, Shoemaker said to look at the make, model, trim level decoding, mileage, production date, exterior and interior color of the vehicle. He said that one of the most critical things to do during the process is verify the preliminary photos, which should include four separate shots that capture each corner of the vehicle in a photo, as well as photos of the license plate, the instrument cluster, one with the engine running, dash warning lights and mileage, VIN plate and production date.

4. Pre-scan diagnostics A pre-scan of the vehicle will locate any diagnostic trouble codes with the vehicle.

Th The Carcoon A W Features: tttur The T Th he C Carcoon Ca C arcoon America arco Amer Am A America eriiica ca Workstation W Workstation orkk ork ksttati kst ati tiion io i nF Fe F ea e eat atures: a tu es: tures: es

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• Additional stand lights can be placed outside the booth.

28 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

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The The Carcoon Car arco co oon on America Am A meric rica Workstation Wo orksta atio on works work wo orks ks the the he same sam sa me and and just ju ust as effectively eff ffecctivvely as as a cross-flow ccrros rosss--fl flow flo fl w paint paiint booth. ootth The Th T he Carcoon Ca C Carrco oon America oo Am me erricca Workstation Work W Work kstation kst ation n is is EPA E A Certified.

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“That’s where you are going to pick up your time, by finding issues in front of the repair” said Shoemaker.

“Through the OEM process, you’re going to find a ‘tree.’ Some people call it a rabbit hole. The time you’re going to bill for is based on how far down that rabbit hole you’re going to have to go to correct the trouble code.”

He recommends having fully charged batteries before conducting any scan. In addition to a pre-scan, Shoemaker said a post-scan of the vehicle will verify the need for recalibration.

5. Damage review When conducting a damage review, Shoemaker recommends starting at the end with the most damage and working panel by panel to the opposite end of the vehicle to identify the repairs needed. Part of the repair process includes a review of the Procedural Pages (P-pages), which describe the included and non-included labor operations. The Society of Collision Repair Experts (SCRS) Guide to Complete Repair Planning is a free resource available on the SCRS website and includes operational reminders for the collision repair in-

dustry.

6. Disassemble for repair First, Shoemaker recommends positioning your parts cart to store all the parts removed and separate the usable from the unusable. Place the clips in labeled bins and identify any that are broken.

“Disassemble with reassembly in mind,” said Shoemaker. “We want to disassemble completely so when you go to put it back together, you’ve got every single thing you need.”

7. Perform the R&I (remove and install) process Repair access can include headlamps, mounting brackets, windows and Interior trim while refinish access includes door handles, weather strips and fender liners.

“Make sure to include this information in the line notes,” said Shoemaker. “The estimate is a communication device that tells everybody what you are doing and why.”

8. Inspect lighting and wiring The number one CSI complaint, according to Shoemaker, regards lamps.

As a result, he recommends inspecting

all wiring harnesses for kinks/breaks, looking for broken bulbs and identifying the number of broken wires in the line note. A parts line can be added for connectors, tape and solder.

9. Inspect inner vehicle structure When reviewing the structure composition, Shoemaker said to pay close attention to the metals you are working with. OEM websites, AllData and ICAR guidelines are all resources that can help shops determine steel type and ultimately, the reparability of the vehicle.

10. Structure measurement and repair: “Similar to scanning, any vehicle that has considerable damage needs to be measured,” said Shoemaker.

Establishing torque box measurement includes measuring select points, determining the damage, reason (squash or mash) and severity.

Shoemaker recommends shops itemize each repair required.

“Document exactly what you replace,” he said. “We live in a litigious society. We own the repair—we give everyone a lifetime warranty.”

11. Determine additional damage

This includes associated damage to adjacent panels, mechanical repairs and interior repairs from secondary impact and restraint systems. Some of the websites that can be accessed to verify the repair process in respect to restraint systems include: OEM procedures, ICAR, AllData and OEM1stop.

12. Refinish requirements During this stage of the process, Shoemaker said to determine blend requirements, the multi-stage process, paint times, as well as any clear and stripe requirements. When looking at identifying the paint type for a certain vehicle, use your paint manufacturer’s system, such as BASF’s SmartTrak system.

13. Address other requirements Checking the fluid and tires are also important parts of the process.

“Any fluids removed should be measured,” said Shoemaker. “This allows for adequate replacement and billing.”

After identifying the specific OEM requirements, reusable fluids can be stored in a sealed container and any Freon recovered should be documented. Regarding tires, note the tire See Blueprinting, Page 45

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 29

Shop Management

Employee Sharing—Does it Really Work?

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.

with Ed Attanasio

lose their best employees, but if there is no business, profitability suffers.”

We all know that finding and retainThe biggest question is this—will ing top technicians is not as easy as it competing body shops be willing to used to be. share their employees?

In fact, in some parts of the coun“If you look at any company, estry, they’re calling the shortage of pecially startups, their success really qualified people an epidemic. Shops happens when they partner with other are working hard to bring in cars to companies,” Massabki said. “By colfix, but what do they do when there is laborating and creating a network of no one to do the job? peers or partners, small companies beThe idea of job sharing isn’t any- come bigger and more successful, and I thing new. In fact, in 1972 the New believe that this will be the same case Ways to Work Foundation was cre- with auto repair and body shops. The ated to “establish a work world that key to a successful partnership is to find responds to the changing a win-win formula and viable needs of individuals and ormeans to execute the partnerganizations,” according to ship. the San Francisco Business “The auto repair industry Times. It became even more is plagued with mistrust and prevalent two decades later risk-averse small business when more and more people owners with limited rebegan looking for alternative sources to figure out how to Elie Massabki is work arrangements. make an employee-sharing the founder and Two important factors owner of mechanics transaction work in a legal, that began to push the job marketplace.com, a efficient and risk-free manner. site that will help sharing movement were the This is the big value that our birth of the World Wide Web, shops lend out and app brings. We don’t simply borrow their which made it easier for both connect shops together. The employees companies and job share parapp and legal agreement that ticipants to share information through our members agree to formalize the web tools. These web tools enabled transaction between the shops to avoid employees to share work in a more misunderstandings. It sets rules for ethcollaborative environment in an asynical behavior and employee safety; chronous manner, while the everprovides step-by-step guidance to shop changing demographics also drove the managers on what they need to do to job-sharing arrangement even further. conduct a transaction; goes through a So, here comes a company called process to ensure best fit between what Skill-Loan LLC, based in San Carlos, the job requires and the employee’s CA, that operates Mechanics and Body skills; and provides an efficient and Shops Marketplace, a website accomreal-time way of communicating bepanied with a mobile application. The tween the shops.” owner and founder is Elie Massabki, It’s job sharing taken to a whole who has extensive experience working new level, Massabki said. for Silicon Valley high-tech startups.

“Borrowing and loaning employ“Our idea originated from the fact ees is a new concept in this industry that small businesses are in constant that addresses the ups and downs of the need of help, and auto repair shops, business and helps business owners opboth mechanical and collision, do not timize their operations to the market have a local marketplace that addemand,” he said. “This is where the dresses their daily need for skills, servskill loan concept originated, and that’s ices, equipment and parts,” he said. why we filed a patent on it. We are “The brick and mortar business is building regional trusted networks for cyclical, which makes it very difficult auto repair shops to collaborate forfor a small business to balance its mally, ethically and efficiently. In order changing demand for personnel with for shop owners to feel comfortable the ups and downs of the business on a loaning their best employees, every weekly basis. Employers don’t want to shop that borrows an employee has to

by Ed Attanasio

30 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

agree to our terms and conditions, which state that they can’t hire a borrowed employee for a period of 12 months. If they need a full-time employee, we help them find one. This is the peace of mind and legal protection we help provide every shop owner, because we know that poaching has become a problem in this industry.”

With the collision repair industry being like a roller coaster, Skill-Loan is making the concept of employee sharing a viable solution. By providing convenient alternatives for shops of all sizes, they can call plug in technicians when they need them the most.

“We are enabling shops to fill in the gaps, so that it won’t impact their production or cycle time,” Massabki said. “If they need a tech to cover for one of their permanent employees while they go on vacation or are out on leave, we can help them. Or if a shop does not have enough work, they can loan out their employees for a pre-

determined period.”

In addition to the employee marketplace, Massabki and his team have designed a portal where shops can resell parts they’re not using for repairs.

“We discovered that collision repair shops often get stuck with used body parts that they can’t use for whatever reason,” Massabki said. “Often, they sit for years, but now we’ve created a portal where shops can sell these parts and maximize their profits. With auto dismantlers, used parts suppliers and specialty suppliers connected to the platform, all of our members are able to expand their networks, find and buy what they want, sell their excess inventory, as well as outsource their unique capabilities to other shops in a very efficient manner. They can also borrow tools and equipment from other shops through the Mechanics and Body Shops Marketplace app.”

As the website and applications See Employee Sharing, Page 46

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Powered by: www.nucarparts.com www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 31

—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in the family and 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.

Industry Insight

Recent ‘Who Pays for What?’ Survey Looks at Scanning, Frame, Mechanical Operations with John Yoswick

More shops are charging and getting procedures they bill for, and about paid for post-repair “health scans” of how frequently each of the largest vehicles than they are pre-repair scans, auto insurers pays for those procebut both procedures are increasingly dures. The surveys, which have been being done and being paid for, accordconducted since 2015, consistently ing to recent “Who Pays for What?” find that more than 85 percent of participants say they are using the sursurvey findings.

The first of the 2018 quarterly veys to improve their business.

Last summer’s frame and me“Who Pays” surveys, which is focused chanical “Who Pays for What?” suron refinish operations, is being convey found that about 1-in-5 shops said ducted throughout the month of January. Click here (https://www.crash they have never charged for (so pernetwork.com/collisionadvice) for more haps haven’t performed) a pre-repair vehicle scan, compared to only 1-ininformation or to take the survey.

10 shops who said they have Each of the quarterly never charged for a post-resurveys, conducted by Collipair scan. sion Advice and CRASH “In previous surveys, we Network, focuses on a differasked more general question ent aspect of collision repair. about scanning, not differenOne of the 2017 surveys tiating between pre- and looked at frame and mechanpost-repair scans,” Mike Anical operations, including veMike Anderson derson of Collision Advice, hicle scanning. Nearly 800 shops across the country responded to co-creator of the “Who Pays for that survey, which asked shops what What?” surveys, said. “So while a di-

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rect comparison to previous results isn’t possible, it’s interesting to note that in 2016, more than one-third of shops said they had never asked to be paid for any vehicle scan. This year,

or “most of the time” for scanning the vehicle pre-repair. A year earlier, only about 41 percent of shops said they were paid “always” or “most of the time” for either pre- or post-repair

The “Who Pays for What?” surveys have found that while ALLDATA continues to be the most widely used source of OEM repair information for collision repair shops, the automaker websites and I-CAR’s “Repairability Technical Support Portal” have gained in usage over the past two years

only about 12 percent of shops said they have never asked to be paid for a post-repair scan.”

Among those shops that have negotiated to be paid for performing these scans, 64 percent are paid “always” or “most of the time” by the eight largest auto insurers to perform the post-repair scan, and 51 percent are paid “always”

scans.

In terms of other frame and mechanical labor operations, about 51 percent of shops say they are paid “always” or “most of the time” to pressure test and purge a vehicle cooling system when necessary as part of a report, yet more than 40 percent of See Who Pays for What?, Page 48

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Colonial Ford of Marlboro 428 Maple St., Marlborough, MA 01752 Ph: 888-617-3599 / Fx: 508-460-3464 wtrottier@buycolonialfordmarlboro.com

Colonial Buick-GMC 66 Galen St. Watertown, MA 02472 Ph: 888-560-5337 Fx: 617-489-6875 Hours: M-F 8-5:30 Sat 8-4

North End Mazda 747 Chase Rd. (Rte.13) Lunenburg, MA 01462 Ph: 800-322-1241 Fx: 978-582-9841 Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30 Sat 8-4

Colonial Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram 24 Coolidge St. (Rte. 62), Hudson, MA 01749 Ph: 978-568-8000 / Fx: 978-562-1213 Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat 8-4 www.buymoparpartsnow.com Colonial South Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram 42 State Rd., Dartmouth, MA 02747 Ph: 508-984-1900 / Fx: 774-328-9915 Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat 8-3 parts@buycolonialsouthcjd.com www.buymoparparts.com

Colonial Honda of Dartmouth 225 State Rd., Dartmouth, MA 02747

Toll Free: 888-240-2773 Parts Dir: 508-997-2919 Fx: 508-730-6578 Hours: M-Th 7-7; F 7-5:30; Sat 8-4:30 jdelcolle@buycolonialhonda.com www.hondapartswholesaledirect.com

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Colonial Cadillac of Woburn 201 Cambridge Rd., Woburn, MA 01801 Ph: 781-935-7009 / Fx: 781-933-7728 Hours: M, T, Th, F 7-5; W 7-8; Sat 8-4 www.buycolonialcadillac.com Colonial Chevrolet 171 Great Rd., Acton, MA 01720 Ph: 978-263-3994 / Fx: 978-263-8587 Hours: M-F 7-5; Sat 8-4 parts@colonialchevrolet.com

Colonial VW of Medford 340 Mystic Ave., Medford, MA 02155 Ph: 781-475-5208 / Fx: 781-391-3506 Hours: M-Th 7-7; F 7-5; Sat 8-4 nmedeiros@vwmedford.com

City Side Subaru 790 Pleasant St., Belmont, MA 02478 Ph: 617-826-5005 / Fx: 617-489-0733 Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-4 parts@citysidesubaru.com

Wellesley Volkswagen 231 Linden St., Wellesley, MA 02482 Ph: 800-228-8344 / Fx: 781-237-6024 Hours: M-F 7:30-5; Sat 7:30-4 wellesleyvwparts@aol.com Contact: Dan Bettencourt / Wholesale Parts Manager

North End Subaru 757 Chase Rd. (Rte.13), Lunenburg, MA 01462 Ph: 888-686-4387 / Fx: 978-582-9843 Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-4 parts@northendsubaru.com www.northendsubaru.com

Colonial South Chevrolet 361 State St., Dartmouth, MA 02747 Ph: 508-997-6711 / Fx: 508-979-1219 Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat 8-4 parts@colonialsouthchevrolet.com Colonial West Chevrolet 314 John Fitch Hwy., Fitchburg, MA 01420 Ph: 978-503-7480 / Fx: 978-345-1152 Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat 8-4

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 33

H ONDA C ON NEC TI CU T

Lia Honda of Enfield E n fie l d

800-221-3131 860-741-3401 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-4 jdoucette@liacars.com

Manchester Honda M a nch e ste r

800-442-6614 860-645-3115 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5; Sat 8-4 gabe.llantin@manchesterhonda.com

Schaller Honda N ew Br i tai n

800-382-4525 860-826-2080 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5; Sat 8-1 jkiniry@schallerauto.com MAI NE

Berlin City Honda So u th P or tl a nd

800-640-6685 207-774-6685 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30 mmmparts@berlincity.com

Prime Honda Saco

207-391-7910 207-282-0900 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Th. 7:30-7; Sat 7:30-4 klavalle@driveprime.com MAR Y LA ND

Criswell Honda Ge r m a n town

866-738-2886 Dept. Hours: M-Thu 7-9; Fri 7-7:30; Sat 8-6 hondaparts@criswellauto.com AC URA MAR Y LA ND

Tischer Acura Lau rel

800-288-6983 301-498-3322 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 8-4 wholesaleparts@tischerauto.com MAS SAC HUSET T S

Acura of Boston Brig ht on

800-254-1169 617-254-5400 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5:30; Sat 8-5 bruce.fisher@acuraofboston.com N EW JE RSEY

Acura Turnersville Tu r ners ville

888-883-2884 856-516-6060 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat 8-4 kristen.powell@penskeautomotive.com 34 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Please contact these dealers for your Honda or Acura Genuine parts needs.

M AR Y LAN D

NE W J ERSE Y

N EW YORK

P EN NSY LVAN IA

O’Donnell Honda

Madison Honda

Dick Ide Honda

El li co tt City

Ma dis on

R o che st e r

Wex ford

410-461-5000 410-461-9654

800-648-0293 973-822-1710

800-462-0056 (N.Y.) 585-586-4919

724-940-2006

Dept. Hours: M-F 8-6; Sat 8-5 bshortt@odonnellhonda.com

Dept. Hours: M-Thu 7-8; Fri 7-6; Sat 8-6; mschumer@madisonhonda.com

Dept. Hours: M-Thur 8-8; Fri 8-5:30; Sat 8-5 parts@dickide.com

Ourisman Honda of Laurel

Rossi Honda

Lamacchia Honda

Lau re l

Vin elan d

S y ra cu se

800-288-6985 301-498-6050

800-893-3030 856-692-4449

315-471-7278

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-7; Sat 7-4 julio.cruz@ourismanautomotive.com

Dept. Hours: M-F 6:30-5; Sat 7:30-3 dave@rossihonda.com

M AS S AC H U SE T T S

LIA Honda Northampton No r thamp to n

800-369-7889 413-586-6043 Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-4 dstanisewski@liacars.com NEW JERSEY

Clinton Honda Ann a ndal e

877-657-2787 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5 chrish@clintonhonda.com

Honda of Turnersville Tur ne rsvi l le

800-883-0002 856-649-1584 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-6; Sat 8-4 sbaptist@penskeautomotive.com

Hudson Honda We st Ne w Yo r k

Route 22 Honda Hi lls id e

973-705-9100 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7:30; Sat 8-5 rt22hondaparts@route22honda.com

VIP Honda

Lia Honda of Albany A l ba ny

800-272-6741 518-482-2598 Dept. Hours: M, T, W, F 7:30-5:30; Thur 7:30-8; Sat 8-5 apersaud@liacars.com

No rt h P lai nfi e ld

Lia Honda of Williamsville

908-753-1680

W il l ia m sv il le / B u f f al o

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-3 kevinh@viphonda.com NE W YO RK

Babylon Honda Wes t B a by l o n

631-669-5800 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7:30-3:30 babylonparts@aol.com

Brewster Honda B re ws t er

845-278-4177 Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat 8-4 kbennett@liacars.com

866-483-6917 201-868-9500

877-659-2672 716-632-3800 Dept. Hours: M-Thu 7:30-8; Fri 7:30-5; Sat 8-5:30 liaparts@liacars.com

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877-860-3954 610-967-6500 Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5; Sat 8-5 mustafa@vinart.com

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 35

Historical Snapshot

—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in the family and 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.

Database Enhancement Gateway Got its Start 10 Years Ago with John Yoswick

20 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (January 1998) One insurance company is not only calling for the use of non-deployed airbags from salvaged vehicles, but is actually selling the units to repair shops.

At the Collision Industry Conference in Las Vegas, Earl Cameron of Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) said his company has been selling airbag units to repairers from SGI’s salvage vehicles for about a year. SGI insures all of the 860,000 vehicles in the Canadian province. Like insurers in other provinces, SGI meets regularly with auto dealer and repair shop associations to reach agreements on REITs, repair practices, etc. But unlike most other insurers that sell salvage vehicles whole, SGI dismantles its salvage vehicles and sells parts, including airbags.

“Because of our unique position of having these parts available, be-

cause of the concerns of controlling our claims cost, when we met with the repair industry, we made an agreement that for vehicles where the airbag had been deployed, we would provide recycled airbags that we were in possession of for the exact make and model of that vehicle, including color match,” Cameron said. “We started that at the end of 1996, and it was well-received by the repair industry. What we are trying to do is repair as many vehicles as possible. The more total losses we have, [the more] our costs go up. The more vehicles we repair, the happier our customers are, and certainly the happier the repair industry is. It’s a win-win situation.

“One of the other reasons that we wanted to use these up is that the airbags that were undeployed had been sold, and SGI had no way of knowing where they were going, whose vehicle they went on, and whether the customer actually knew they were getting

a used or undeployed airbag. So by doing this, we provide the airbag to the repairer. The industry acceptance of that is because we’re providing the airbag, we know which vehicle it came off of, how many miles are on it [and] what type of accident it was in.

That was the control they wanted from us to make sure they weren’t getting an airbag that may have been damaged or not properly stored.”

Cameron admitted that his company has not done any crash testing of vehicles in which the undeployed airbags were installed.

– As reported in Collision Expert.

No major U.S. auto insurers have moved toward calling for the use of salvage airbag modules.

15 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (January 2003) Auto recyclers had to cringe at the results of a Collision Industry Conference (CIC) committee’s latest demonstra-

tion.

As it did earlier this year, the CIC “Parts and Airbags Committee” had a local shop order the same type of part—in this case, a decklid with taillights for a 1990 Honda Civic— from three different salvage yards. The shop was asked to use yards it normally does business with, and not to disclose that the parts were being used in a CIC demonstration.

All three of the parts that arrived and were displayed at CIC would pose challenges for the collision repairer, according to Jeanne Silver, co-chair of the committee. One was a 1998 Honda decklid, which would’ve fit the vehicle, but was not the same model year or newer as required by some insurers. It also took two business days to arrive at the shop, and while the auto recycler described the part as [being] in “good condition,” many at CIC described it as having “light damage.”

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One of the other parts, which arrived the day after it was ordered, was in good condition but was even older (1997), arrived with no taillights, and was identified on the invoice as a 1998 part with taillights and hinges (also missing).

Based on the lack of a VIN sticker and its significantly lower mill thickness of paint, the third part was determined to be an OEM service replacement part that had been previously repaired. Also described by the salvage provider as being in “good condition,” the decklid had a damaged taillight, and collision repairers used such words to describe the overall condition as “moderately damaged” and “junk.” On the upside, it arrived at the shop just two hours after it was ordered.

Silver said any number of problems with the decklids – their age, condition missing parts – could’ve created cycle time delays for the shop.

– As reported in Autobody News

10 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (January 2008) Three collision repair associations are jointly launching what they foresee as a key tool in helping the industry im-

prove the accuracy and fairness of the estimating databases.

After more than a year of planning and development, the Database

Collision Industry Conference (CIC) attendees 15 years ago had a chance to compare three salvage decklids that a shop ordered from three different suppliers and brought to CIC for review

Enhancement Gateway (DEG) is going live with its website, providing a single place for anyone in the indus-

try to submit requests for reviews of labor times or operations in any of the “Big Three” estimating databases.

“This is to help people who use these products when they have a question about a labor time, missing parts or inaccuracies that they feel are in a database,” said Lou DiLisio, an industry consultant who helped create the DEG. “This is for everyone in the industry: insurance companies, repairers, whoever uses the products.”

The DEG also announced at the recent Collision Industry Conference (CIC) that it has hired a full-time administrator to track and follow up on requests submitted. Aaron Schulenburg, who has experience as an insurance field appraiser and collision repair shop manager and consultant, has been named to lead the DEG. The DEG has been created and funded to date by three associations: the Automotive Service Association (ASA), the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers (AASP) and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS).

Although users of the estimating databases have always been able to submit “requests for review” to the database providers, the process has not

always been simple or easily accessible.

The idea behind DEG, DiLisio said, grew out of an effort by March Taylor, a Hawaiian shop owner who died this past August and who had begun using the CIC website in 2001 to assist with the submission and tracking of requests for reviews to the three information providers.

“We’ve basically picked up where the efforts of March left us,” DiLisio said at CIC. “He would spend countless hours going through database inquiries, making sure they were valid and sending them on to the information providers, following up on them and getting back to the people who sent them in. All in all, it helped improve the accuracy of the database.”

The DEG has worked with the information providers to develop a common electronic form that all three will accept for request for reviews. The website will assist shops in submitting the necessary information, and responses and any responses or resulting changes will be tracked, published and logged.

– As reported in Directions. Ten years later, the DEG (www.DEGweb See Retro News, Page 45

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 37

Shop Strategies with Stacey Phillips

Stacey Phillips is a 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.

NJ Body Shop Stands up to Insurance Companies to Ensure Vehicles Are Properly Repaired Prior to opening Exclusive Auto Collision in 2003 in Ramsey, NJ, Tony Lake was an auto damage appraiser for 20 years.

“I saw that high-end vehicles were not getting repaired the way that I thought they could be repaired back to OEM manufacturers’ standards,” said Lake. “There was a big gap between a quality repair and a non-quality repair going on in the industry.”

A body shop was for sale in an exclusive area of New Jersey, so Lake decided to purchase it and build a specialty business. He now repairs high-end vehicles such as Audi, Mercedes and Porsche. Autobody News talked to Lake about the importance of OEM certifications and the steps he is taking to stand up to insurance companies to ensure vehicles are repaired back to pre-accident condition.

Q: tions?

A:

Why do you recommend body shops invest in OEM certifica-

Hands down, the OEM training you get for your employees is the most important thing that the certifications offer.

Soon after I opened my business, Mercedes-Benz had a certified collision program that I joined. I became one of the first certified collision centers for Mercedes in the state of New Jersey. Now, I’m certified by Acura, Audi, Cadillac, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Infinity, Kia, Mercedes, Nissan, Porsche and Volkswagen.

I tell the shops that are not certified and not thinking about getting certified to consider moving into a different career. There’s no way they will be able to repair these cars properly without having OEM training of some sort, especially on specific vehicles. They are way too complicated, and there are too many different metals and plastics utilized now. You can see by the recent lawsuit in Texas that you are putting your family, your customers’ family and your livelihood at stake if you don’t repair the car back to OEM manufacturers’ standards.

How do you stay up-to-date with Q: training?

We’re affiliated with all these A: vehicle manufacturers and they have training classes. As soon as they become available, I send my technicians. I also employ Larry Montanez, who was an I-CAR instructor

back to OEM manufacturers’ standards. They also recognized that I’ve taken on the insurers because they are not willing to compensate the auto collision centers for the procedures, parts and OEM manufacturers’ repair methodologies.

What steps have you taken Q: with insurance companies to ensure vehicles are repaired properly?

Like many shops, I’ve found A: that the insurance companies are dictating more and more what we

Tony Lake was awarded the Stan Wilson/New Jersey Automotive Body Shop of the Year Award in 2015 by the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ)

and owns P&L Consultants. Larry is able to pass along a lot of the training to the guys in the shop. We’re currently working together to share OEM techniques and methodologies with all of our employees.

A few years ago, I ran seminars with Larry at my shop on a regular basis, and invited the insurance industry to show them the new methodologies that the OEM manufacturers had come out with and the new equipment you need to fix these cars properly, and to try and educate them to what is coming down the road.

Congratulations on being named Q: Stan Wilson/New Jersey Automotive Body Shop of the Year Award in

2015. Can you tell us about this honor?

Thank you. The yearly award is given out by the Alliance of A: Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ) to recognize the shop they feel has gone over and above to try to become a quality repair shop. Two years ago, they selected Exclusive Auto Collision, primarily because of the dedication I have to the industry [regarding] repairing cars

38 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

should be compensated for. As a result, I started initiating lawsuits against the insurance companies in order to get compensated properly for the repairs I’m doing. Over the last five years, I’ve sued several insurance companies and will continue to sue to ensure that proper and safe repairs are done.

Many times, I’ve found that the insurers refuse to pay you for the pro-

cedures and parts that are necessary to put the car back to pre-loss condition.

I’ve felt that they force you into a corner, to do either one of three things: do the work for free, charge the customer or repair the vehicle improperly. I refuse to do any of those. The contract of insurance states that once an insurance company decides to pay the claim and money, that can’t tell a shop how to repair a car. It’s in every insurance policy from New Jersey to California, Texas to Utah.

That needs to be known by the collision centers. Once an insurance company decides that they won’t take the car and repair it themselves—which they have the right to do, according to the contract of insurance—and they pay with money, they give up their right to fix the car because they are not liable.

The only person liable for that repair is the repairer. If you do the repair improperly and something happens, you See Properly Repaired, Page 46

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 39

40 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 41

In Reverse

Gary Ledoux is an industry veteran with 48 years’ experience in the automotive and OEM collision parts industry. His column appears exclusively in Autobody News.

He can be reached at YesterWreck@yahoo.com

Training, Certifying and Standardizing in the 1920’s with Gary Ledoux

Training Providing a steady stream of automotive technicians, both mechanical and body, is a challenge today, not unlike the 1920’s. At least today we have I-CAR, Automotive Management Institute, and others. In the 1920’s we had the “University of Uncle Sam.” On November 9, 1917, the Federal Board for Vocational Education authorized payment of funds to public school for the purpose of providing technical training, including that of auto and truck repair, for military personnel and the “University of Uncle Sam was born. In Los Angeles, for example, five highs schools trained 675 soldiers in twentynine different trades, including auto mechanics. After the war ended, many schools bought the equipment outright, including mechanics tools and equipment, and kept the classes going for the high school students. Thus, the advent of high school auto shop got a “jump start.”

Many educators saw auto shop as a way to keep boys interested in school and as such, encouraged and supported such curriculum. Auto shop, and related vocational classes became the domain of boys who were “good with their hands” rather than “college bound.” In some respects, it stigmatized those boys in the “auto shop” strata as something “less” than the college bound boys. On the other hand, it made high school more meaningful and pragmatic for those students who probably would not have gone to college no matter what their financial or social standing may be. In the 1920’s and 30’s, high school auto shop opened the door for many boys to something other than farming, or the drudgery of a factory job. It prepared many would-be mechanics, auto refinishers, auto upholsterers and future shop owners.

Prior to WWI the auto industry was focused on selling people their first car. It was sell, sell, sell, with not a lot of emphasis on maintenance and repair.

When the war ended, auto dealers anticipated a return to the selling mentality but instead, the country went into a downturn and new cars were not selling. In what may have a been a first in what would be a recurring cycle throughout the years, dealers turned

their focus to servicing the cars they sold, both as a way to create revenue and to show customers how good their service was so that when they needed another new car, they would remember who took care of them. This created a need for even more repair mechanics, and more support for vocational training at the high school and secondary school level.

High school auto shop evolved into to pre-auto-shop classes at the junior high school level and post-highschool auto shop night classes for those people not ready for secondary school but seeking a better understanding of auto mechanics. As cars got more sophisticated, educators broke auto mechanic classes into several distinct categories including engine rebuilding, transmissions, electrical and so forth.

This, it was thought, would better prepare a young mechanic for what they would likely find in the real world of auto repair if they worked for a large garage or auto dealer. A full page newspaper ad for a large Washington, D.C. garage in the late 1920’s reveals 11 different departments including body and fender, paint, auto upholstery, electric, tire, battery, blacksmith, general repair, and more. Both Ford and Chevrolet encouraged their dealers to departmentalize for greater efficiency and customer service. This likely gave rise to the dealer body shop.

Despite all the classes and varying regimens, one thing the schools didn’t teach, was business management. Graduates of these automotive schools, and those that took auto shop in high school were prepared to work a wrench or a spray gun, but not a pencil or an adding machine. Business classes were virtually non-existent. This created a longstanding problem whereas many mechanics and body men went to work for large garages and after they became adept, decided they would strike out on their own and start their own business.

Working a wrench or a hammer and dolly is not the same as running business, paying bills, meeting payroll, and dealing with customers. Subsequently, many failed. True business management training for the collision repair industry would need to wait until February 1983 when the ARMS training was estab-

42 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

lished.

Certified Technicians Today, in the 21st century, the issue of licensed or certified body technicians continues to periodically bubble to the surface of the industry kettle. The trouble is, there is no universally accepted way of denoting who is, and who isn’t a qualified, competent mechanic or body technician.

ASE offers testing for mechanical as well as body technicians and is generally perceived as valid inasmuch as an industry standard for testing goes. But no law exists that says everyone, including industry people and consumers, has to accept ASE testing as valid.

I-CAR is the training arm of the industry and is generally accepted in the collision repair industry as a premier training entity providing technicians with a “Platinum” status for completion of prescribed training. However, there is no law that codifies the training and

designates that someone completing the training is qualified to perform safe and complete repairs. I-CAR training provides the knowledge, but not necessarily the skill.

But the concept of licensing, or certifying mechanics or body men or shops to ensure competency is nothing new. As far back as pre-WWI when the idea of the personal chauffeur/mechanic began to wane and the independent auto repair industry was in its infancy, anyone and everyone who thought they could repair a car was getting into the business. Some were competent or at least gave the repair an honest try. Many were inept, and some were just simply con-artists. This soon led to a public outcry for honest and ethical “garagemen” and competent mechanics who could make a satisfactory repair. Legislators and industry observers agreed something needed to be done, and the move was on to license or certify auto repairers.

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At first, it seemed that everyone was behind it. But along with certification went unionizing. Mechanics calculated that if they unionized, then became certified, they could command higher wages. Garage owners and car dealers quickly made the same calculation. The garage owners and car dealer owners quickly used their influence to kill the first attempt at licensing or certifying.

By the mid-1920’s the issue was dead… for the time being. The issue of certification, not technicians but shops, would not gain much traction for almost 100 years when the OE’s began certifying shops that met their criteria.

began to evolve in the 1920’s, the public perception of the auto repair business was not so savory. Many mechanics and garages were honest and provided value, some did not. And those that didn’t gave a black eye to everyone.

Garage service managers and automaker engineers and service related executives wanted to clean up the industry and reform the motorist-mechanic relationship. To do this, standard times were established for standard procedures. In effect, “flat-rate time” was invented.

Advocates thought that customers seeking to have work done, should be able to go into a shop, be quoted a price, have the work performed, and pay the price quoted. Advocates calculated that this simple procedure would remove mo-

torists worry and anxiety when having their car repaired and thus, provide a more friendly and cordial atmosphere.

The basic concept was sound. The problem was, who would create the flatrate times? Ford Motor Company established some of the first flat rate times for their dealership mechanics. These were based on elaborate time-motion studies in controlled settings, removing brand new parts on brand new cars and replacing them with other brand new parts on the same brand new car. No time allowance was made for rusty bolts, broken bolts or other work impediments.

Ford also created some flat-rate times for body repair with a similar problem – but worse. It was easy to re-

move a fender or running board that was brand new and clean. It was quite a different job when the parts were mangled and twisted.

As with anything new, some people liked the system, some did not.

Good mechanics who could meet or beat the times had no problem. Other, less talented mechanics simply moved to another garage that did not use flatrate time. Some garages lost half their work force when flat-rate times were implemented.

Training, certifying and standardizing—concepts that started in the 1920’s and may have changed over the years, but still challenge the auto repair industry, both mechanical and collision, today.

Continued from Page 27

ilar climatic profile.

Other airbag manufacturers stayed away from ammonium nitrate amidst the compound’s risk for volatility.

Takata, however allegedly saw dollar signs with this cheap compound, and ran with it.

The cheaper airbags powered by ammonium nitrate were a hit economically with automotive manufacturers, and Takata’s market share for airbags quickly grew, eventually help-

ing Takata to become the largest single supplier to the automotive industry.

It is alleged however that Takata never shared with anyone the reason as to why their airbags were less expensive, and no one apparently bothered to ask. The reservations of those engineers who spoke out against the use of ammonium nitrate were ignored.

The sheer success of Takata supplying what turned out to be defective

airbags that could lead to airbag failure, has contributed to the size and depth of the massive recall, and the near-impossible task of replacing millions of defective and potentially dangerous ammonium nitrate inflators.

Until those inflators are replaced, the risks for airbag injuries will only continue—as well as airbag lawsuits.

Standardizing Repair Costs As the independent repair network

Airbag Injury

it stayed in the same phase?

As it turns out, that’s doubtful—especially in areas of high humidity. That’s one of the reasons why the defective airbag injury recalls have been focused on areas such as Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Southern California and other areas with a sim-

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during reinspections of repaired vehicles to see the destructive test welds a technician made, but they rarely can produce them.

“That’s one of the things we see as well,” said Mark Olson of VeriFacts Automotive, which conducts inshop technical audits and training.

“The destructive tests are just not there. It’s not being done.”

– As reported in CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com), January 14, 2013. Peevy is now with the Automotive Management Institute, and Olson is now with Vehicle Collision Experts, LLC (VECO Experts).

A 2017 “Who Pays for What?” survey (www.crashnetwork.com/collision advice) found that 22 percent of shops that perform and invoice for “set-up and perform test welds” say they are paid “always” or “most of the time” by the eight largest auto insurers; about three-quarters of shops said they have never asked to be paid for that procedure.

Continued from Page 37

Retro News

.org) has processed more than 11,500 inquiries. Schulenburg left his position with the DEG after about a year to become executive director of SCRS.

5 Years Ago in the Collision Repair Industry (January 2013) I-CAR welding trainers say one of the first and most important steps to good welding may be the most-often skipped: making some practice or test welds each time.

I-CAR’s Jeff Peevy said conducting some practice welds on the same type of material as on the vehicle helps ensure the welder is dialed in properly. The practice welds can be destructively tested—the only sure way to check if a weld is proper.

Clifton Meaders, a claims supervisor with California State Automobile Association (CSAA), said he has asked

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Continued from Page 29

Blueprinting

size and depth in the line note, as well as the brand.

14. Complete repair plan and take final photos When completing the repair plan, Shoemaker said to verify the “Incl” labor and conduct a P-Page audit for all the vehicle parts and procedures. When in doubt, he recommended consulting the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG) database found at degweb.org.

Funded by the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers (AASP) and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), DEG was developed to help improve the accuracy of collision repair estimates. The repair plan can be used as a checklist for final photos.

“Take the photos in the order of the estimate and label them for clarification,” said Shoemaker.

15. Vehicle value and reparability When determining a vehicle’s value, Shoemaker said shops can conduct thorough research on the NADA website and indicate the exact make, model and trim as well as the current

mileage. The reparability of a vehicle can be determined by taking the appraisal total and dividing it by the vehicle value as a percentage. For example, if you take the appraisal total of $8,695 and divide it by a vehicle value of $12,025, the repair percentage is 72%.

Shoemaker said that by comparing the repair percentage to your local laws, it will help you determine if a vehicle should be repaired or considered a total loss.

“Overall, when you are blueprinting, be thorough and descriptive, itemize all repairs, take photos and document, document, document,” said Shoemaker. “Use line notes whenever possible. They’re free—they don’t cost a thing. If the insurer says, ‘No,’ you haven’t given them enough information.”

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Continued from Page 38

Properly Repaired

can wind up like that guy in Texas with a $42 million lawsuit.

I see it getting worse and worse every day—the insurance industry trying to be so competitive with cutting prices and their advertisements about how much money they can save the consumer.

It seems that there is nobody in the governmental agencies that is taking a look at them because they have such a strong lobby group.

Many shops feel that they don’t pay for the proper repair procedures, and people are getting hurt or killed every day on the highways. It’s sad that nobody is stepping in from our government.

Over the last 15 years in the state of New Jersey, I believe that most of our insurance commissioners have gone to work for insurance companies after they finished their term. From what I noticed, most of the employees that worked for the insurance companies wind up either working at a state level or back in an insurance company.

Continued from Page 30

Employee Sharing

begin to gain momentum, Massabki is hoping that his creation eventually becomes the go-to site for job sharing, borrowing and swapping.

“We have more than 400 shops and suppliers in the California Bay Area onboard, and the marketplace is now open and fully operational. We are also actively recruiting independent reps to promote our solution nationwide, and recently added Indianapolis, IN, and Las Vegas, NV, to our markets,” he said.

One of the early adopters of this concept is Tony Olea, operations manager at Dynamic Auto Body in San Jose, CA. “The Mechanics Marketplace app is a greatly needed resource for us in many ways,” Olea said. “It will help us quickly find temporary technicians to cover for some of our techs, give us an additional resource to locate used parts for some of our cars and help us outsource some of the mechanical work we don’t do here. I am also very happy that we can now sell our used

How can collision shops stay Q: educated about this industry?

First, I would tell them that A: they need to become businessmen. Most of the people in our indus-

try aren’t businessmen. They were body laborers who wound up owning a shop. They need to know what it costs to run their businesses, and I believe they should stop bowing down to insurance companies to do these direct repair programs and put themselves in jeopardy for getting sued, such as the recent case in Texas. They need to educate themselves about the repair procedures necessary to fix the cars properly. The most important thing they need to do after they become businessmen is learn who their customer is. The customer is not the insurance company. It’s the person who owns the car.

What will happen if shops Q: don’t take the time to make education a priority?

Time is running out for them.

A: By 2020, there will be a lot of companies out there that are going to

do post-repair inspections. My facilbody parts and increase our profits with the app.”

Another value-added feature that was recently added to the Mechanics Marketplace is a job posting portal.

Imagine a CareerBuilder or Job.com that caters specifically to the automotive repair industry where collision professionals can post their resumes and shops can search for new prospects.

To connect to his members on an ongoing basis and build on his concept of trusted networks, Massabki is going to conduct a series of quarterly meetings. The meetings will help create closer relationships with them and allow Massabki to learn from them as well.

“We want to brainstorm with our members and find out what their needs are, so that we can provide solutions that will become the norm in the automotive repair industry,” he said.

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ity has conducted about 10 post-repair inspections to date, and the re-repairs have been about double the amount of the original repair cost. The body shops have had to repay the insurance company for my bill. I’m in the process of opening a business that primarily focuses on post-repair inspections.

Why do you believe shops band together?

Q: should A lot of body shops are afraid A: to talk to each other because of antitrust laws. In this industry, if we

don’t start standing together as one and fight together, we’re going to continue falling on our face because the insurance industry is going to win every time.

There are a few shops across the country that are doing what I am in terms of taking on the insurance companies, and every year more and more of us are starting to sue insurance companies. The shops that are doing the work for insurance companies the way they are doing it is only hurting the industry. They need to move out of the way.

The last thing I want to do is re-

inspect a car and charge another body shop $15,000–$20,000, or possibly total loss a car that is $50,000 and make them write a check out of their account. I don’t want to do it, but they are forcing me to because they are the ones who are causing the problem in the industry. Everyone likes to blame the insurance company. It’s not the insurance company’s fault. It’s our fault for allowing them to do what they are doing.

I encourage other shops to join associations, and stand together rather than pick each other’s pockets. My business philosophy is that I want to fix fewer cars and make more money.

I don’t want to fix 100 cars and make no money; I want to fix 50 cars and make some money I really hope that our brother shops across the country—about 40,000 of them—start standing together, because together, we’re strong.

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Continued from Page 32

Who Pays for What?

shops acknowledge never having billed for this not-included procedure.

Anderson said it’s become increasingly important to check the OEM repair procedures in relation to testing and purging cooling systems.

mates. But what sometimes seems like a basic operation from the estimator’s perspective can turn into a project out in the shop. If the technician must remove trim panels to gain access to the battery, that adds more “not-included” time to the job. There also can be other model-specific procedures that must be followed when a battery has been disconnected. On some Toyota

About 51 percent of shops report being paid “always” or “most of the time” for “pressure test / purge a vehicle cooling system,” up from 45 percent in 2016, yet the “Who Pays for What?” survey also found that more than 2-in-5 shops say they’ve never billed for that procedure when it was necessary and completed

“Many automakers are now using electronic check-valves on their cooling systems,” he said. “You can’t just manually bleed those cooling systems any more. You need to use a scan tool to initialize an electronic check-valve. So the labor time for this may vary based on whether this procedure can be done manually, versus requiring a scan tool.”

trucks, for example, reconnecting the battery also requires correcting the steering angle neutral point.

That’s why it’s a procedure that was asked about on the “Who Pays for Survey?” While 80 percent of shops nationally are paid “always” or “most of the time” to disconnect and reconnect the battery when it is necessary

Two-thirds of shops sublet out wheel alignments, according to “Who Pays for What?” surveys, but among those who perform them in house, almost 70 percent bill for them using a flat-fee while the rest use estimating system time billed at the shop’s mechanical rate

The cooling system procedure was among those for which more shops reported being paid regularly compared to the previous year’s survey (a 5.9 percentage point increase).

More than 40 percent of shops said State Farm always pays for this procedure when it is necessary, performed and billed for; among the top eight largest insurers, Progressive is the least likely to pay for the procedure, but still 28.5 percent of shops reported that Progressive pays for it “always.”

Anderson said it might be easy to overlook a seemingly simple “not-included” procedure, like disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, on esti-

and included on the invoice, about 10– 12 percent of shops acknowledged they have never even negotiated to be paid for this procedure. This is despite the fact that it is clearly often required by the automaker, such as when welding on a vehicle.

“Every vehicle manufacturer says you must disconnect the battery for welding,” Anderson said. “Some shops believe that if they’re using a ‘memory saver,’ that is sufficient. That’s not accurate. You still need to disconnect the battery cable. Once again, it is important to research the OEM procedures on battery disconnect/reconnect.”

Interestingly, the survey found

48 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

some variation by region in the billing/payment practices for the procedure. In the Midwest, more than 20 percent have never charged for it, and only 64 percent are paid “always” or “most of the time.” But in the Northeast, 88 percent are paid “always” or “most of the time,” and only 5 percent have never charged for it.

The survey did find some uptick in shops’ research of OEM repair methods. Nearly half (48.8 percent) of shops responding to the survey said they research OEM procedures all or most of the time; this was up from 42.7 percent two years ago. Only 18.2 percent of shops said they either “never” or “only occasionally” research OEM procedures, an improvement from two years earlier when more than 25 percent said they rarely or never did.

According the survey data, ALLDATA remains the most popular source of OEM information, but I-CAR’s “Repairability Technical Support Portal” and the automaker websites have each seen a steady increase in usage over the past two years, with nearly half of shops now reporting they use those sources.

“Some shops think if they fix the same type of vehicle frequently, they don’t need to check those procedures

PARTS BUILT FOR THE ROAD AHEAD

every single time,” Anderson said.

“But at one point last year, when you replaced a quarter-panel on a Ford Mustang, the procedure required replacing the roof as well. Today, Ford has a sectioning procedure. So it’s important to research the procedures every time because things change.”

Anderson said that while he is pleased to see more shops researching the proper repair methods, “at the end of the day, this should still be done 100 percent of the time.”

Shops can take the current “Who Pays for What?” survey (or sign up to be notified about future surveys) at https://www.crashnetwork.com/collision advice. The four different surveys, conducted one at a time per quarter, each take about 15–25 minutes, and should be completed by the shop owner, manager or estimator who is most familiar with the shop’s billing practices and the payment practices of the largest national insurers. Individual responses are not released in any way; only cumulative data is released.

At the website, shops also can download the results of previous surveys, reports that break the findings down by region, by insurer and by See Who Pays for What?, Page 54

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National Associations

Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware, who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family of NASCAR fans. She can be contacted at crsisk@chasidyraesisk.com.

AASP Holds Webinar on Problem Employees with 180BIZ’s Rick White with Chasidy Rae Sisk

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, AASP hosted shortcomings—meaning cost goes up a webinar titled “How to Handle Prob- and profit goes down. This is no fun for Chasidy Raeanyone, Sisk including your customers, who lem Employees,”with presented

by Rick White, lead coach at 180BIZ. won’t stick around. But there’s a better White explained that the webinar way!” was necessary because many shop White believes that everyone wants owners feel “they’re stuck with no op- to do well at their job, and encourages tions. The shops are busy, owners and managers to foland they believe there are no low the five C’s: Create clarqualified candidates so Ed theyAttanasio ity, Communicate, Coach, with deal with current employees Care and Compensate. out of fear that they can’t be Creating clarity requires replaced. Shop owners think defining what you want from some performance is better your business and setting than none, but the staff is setstandards for quality, experiRick White ting the standards of quality ence, process and pricing. and performance,with which Ed isn’tAttanasio the same White noted, “You need to underas the owner’s standards.” stand who will be a great fit and add to Discussing who is currently avail- your culture, and then figure out what able, White noted that, as of Nov. 3, results you need. Determine perform2017, the national unemployment rate ance indicators for each position, crewas at 4.1 percent (compared to the ate stretch goals and determine what norm of 5 percent) whichEd means com- the minimum level of acceptable perwith Attanasio panies are hiring people who were formance is in each area.” considered unhireable in the past.

Communication means telling “It’s difficult to get people to apply the story of your shop, including why for jobs, and even worse when you add you started and where you’re going. in the technician shortage. The average Communicate the attitudes and bereplacement time is 4–7 months for a haviors you desire, and identify goals with Franklin decent employee, and Thomas the associated and minimum results. Discuss how costs can easily add up to one and a this benefits customers and your team, half times their annual pay!” White and get your team’s buy-in. Establish said. an honest assessment of your staff’s White believes it’s more effective current performance, and create an and efficient for shops to focus on corachievement action plan, which should recting behavior whenever possible, be a catalyst that creates change and Ed Attanasio rather than firingwith and replacing em- growth. ployees. He began by exploring why The third C stands for Coach, and owners and managers are stressed, cit- owners/managers should inspect what ing a lack of clarity in their expecta- they expect to see, determine if team tions, the reactive hiring of “Mr. Right members are meeting expectations or Now” instead of “Mr. Right,” low perunderperforming, and then provide daily formances, broken promises and lack feedback. with Chasidy Rae Sisk of accountability.

White explained, “Coaching is not “Your team members will hold a monologue; it’s time for a conversayou accountable for promises, and you tion, an opportunity to question and need to hold them accountable,” White understand. Be positive, consistent and explained. “Your stress increases, [and] encouraging. Expect the best.” quality and production go down. You White warned against confusing feel trapped withwith no hope for improveconfrontation with conflict. ConThomas Franklin ment, and then you start to micromanfrontation attacks an issue, is immediage activity, which is easy because ate and collaborative, and engages the you’re not getting the results you want. team member, while conflict attacks This only stresses your team, which the person and pushes them away. Efmakes the shop a toxic environment, fective confrontation is the best choice and then you keep things bottled [in] and involves demonstrating current until you blow upwith or youEd hireAttanasio unnecesperformance or behavior with examsary people to make up for staff’s ples, discussing and gaining agree-

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ment, asking for insight into the team member’s thoughts and creating an improvement plan.

“Confrontation is effective. It makes all the difference in the world,” White said.

Within the next concept, White recognizes six R’s of coaching tools.

Recognize when expectations are met or exceeded by applauding the effort and rewarding the behavior. Redirect team members who don’t meet expectations, but are learning and developing their skills, by showing what you want and why you want it.

White suggested, “Recognize the right, and redirect the wrong.”

Sometimes, an employee may be incapable of achieving what is expected, and it could be time to Reassign them to a role where they are a better fit. Reprimands are necessary for folks who know how and just didn’t do it, but White urged, “Deal with it immediately, because attitudes are

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contagious. But reprimand them in private, being specific and saying how you feel. Pause, and then tell them how much you value them. Reaffirm the plan, and then it’s over.”

When Reprimands don’t work, it’s time for Repercussions, such as verbal and written warnings or a day off without pay. This applies to team members who have potential, and is a last effort to save them. If all else fails, it’s time to Release.

White shared, “When you’re clear about who and what you need to succeed, you’ll see a bad fit earlier. If your team member isn’t a good fit, they’re not happy either. Help in any way you can by putting the word out, finding them a job, or just wishing them well. Unless they misrepresented themselves, it’s not their fault; YOU hired them.”

The fourth C is Care, and White reminded attendees that their staff is

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AASP/NJ to Host Seminar with John Eagle Attorney Todd Tracy; Crash Tests Completed The Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ) is excited to be hosting an exclusive seminar presented by Todd Tracy—the lead attorney who won the plaintiffs in the recent John Eagle Collision case $42 million.

Scheduled for January 8 at the Gran Centurions Banquet Hall in Clark, NJ, Tracy will be presenting “The Anatomy of A Lawsuit: The Crucial Details for the $42 Million Verdict,”

where he will give attendees a behindthe-scenes look at the famous lawsuit that reached every corner of the collision repair industry. Throughout the session, Tracy will share the ins and outs of the depositions and trial, and what eventually led to their precedentsetting $42 million verdict.

With all the buzz following the verdict, Tracy’s session will arm participants with invaluable knowledge to bring back to their own shops. Attendees will not only gain insight into how they can avoid $42 million verdicts of their own, but will also find out what pushed the jury to ultimately decide that OEM procedures were more than just a suggestion for repairers—when the shop manager at John Eagle (Boyce Willis) believed otherwise. Tracy will also examine the effect business decisions can have on the outcome of a repair, as well as on the shop’s liability.

Additionally, to demonstrate to attendees just how imperative it is to follow OEM repair specifications and why aftermarket parts

52 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

are unsuitable for customers’ safety, Tracy will review the results from a KARCO Engineering test. KARCO performed three identical crash tests: One with a glued-on roof (as the procedure was performed in the John Eagle case), one repaired with aftermarket parts and one repaired with

OEM parts. The results provide concrete evidence that reinforce the error in John Eagle’s ways, in addition to benefitting shop owners in future negotiations with insurers.

Lastly, Tracy will leave attendees with the importance of standing up to insurance companies who work to cut costs at the expense of their customers’ safety.

The seminar will be held from 12-3:30PM, beginning with lunch and a cash bar. Preregistration is required for this can’t-miss event. Admission is free to AASP/NJ members, and is $100 for non-members.

For more information on AASP/NJ, visit aaspnj.org.

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Takata Airbags Special Master Announces $850 Million Restitution Fund Allocation Program for OEMs

The Special Master in the United States v. Takata Corporation criminal case in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan announced that on Friday, Dec. 1, he launched the $850 million restitution fund for automobile manufacturers (OEMs) that purchased airbags with PSAN Inflators from Takata Corporation and its subsidiaries.

The Special Master, Eric D. Green, a Boston law professor and mediator, stated that he is sending notice to more than 50 auto manufacturers around the world who purchased the Takata airbags that are subject to widespread recall programs, and who may be eligible for compensation from the OEM Restitution Fund set up as part of Takata Corp.’s plea agreement in February of this year.

According to the Special Master’s notice sent to the auto manufacturers, Takata pled guilty on Feb. 27, 2017 to one count of wire fraud, and the Court entered the Restitution Order requiring Takata to, among other things, pay restitution in the amount of $481,848,850 to the OEMs who were defrauded in connection with their purchase of airbags with PSAN inflators and additional restitution in the amount of $368,151,150 to

all OEMs who purchased airbags with PSAN inflators from Takata (collectively, the “OEM Restitution Fund”), for a total amount of $850 million in restitution to OEMs. On July 31, 2017, the Court appointed Professor Eric D. Green as Special Master to oversee the OEM Restitution Fund. His responsibilities include developing a formula or formulas, subject to Court approval, for distributing funds to eligible claimants, making determinations regarding allowed claims, and making a recommendation to the Court regarding allocation of funds from the OEM Restitution Fund.

A significant majority of Takata’s OEM customers (the “Consenting OEMs”), which collectively purchased approximately 90 percent of the PSAN Inflators sold by Takata as of Dec. 31, 2016, agreed upon a Proposed Allocation and presented it to the Special Master for consideration. Following a formal presentation on the proposal for allocation of the OEM Restitution Fund, several discussions with the Consenting OEMs about the proposal, and an independent review by the Special Master of the proposal, the Special Master provisionally determined that the Proposed Allocation

provides for an equitable distribution of the OEM Restitution Fund. However, to ensure that all eligible OEMs have a chance to be heard, an opportunity is being provided for them to object to the Proposed Allocation or comment in writing to the Special Master prior to final determination by the Special Master and submission to the Court for final approval.

The Special Master is also in charge of a separate $125 million Individual Restitution fund designed for persons who suffer personal injury or wrongful death as the result of a Takata airbag inflator defect. Professor Green stated that the proposed allocation of the Individual Restitution fund will be announced at a later date.

The Proposed OEM Restitution Fund Allocation: Under the Proposed Allocation, the restitution monies directed to the OEMs will be combined into a single global fund. All OEMs that purchased PSAN inflators, regardless of jurisdiction of sale, will be eligible to participate in the combined fund without the need for determining whether a particular OEM was defrauded by Takata. Each OEM’s allocation will be determined by the percentage of all PSAN Inflators sold by Takata glob-

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ally that was purchased by that OEM as of Dec. 31, 2016. The Special Master has independently analyzed the verified third-party Takata PSAN inflator sales data utilized to determine the percentage for each OEM, and determined it reliable.

The Proposed Allocation governing the distribution of the OEM Restitution Fund is set forth in the Direct Notice that was mailed electronically or otherwise to all identified OEMs that are eligible to participate in the OEM Restitution Fund. A copy of the Direct Notice and the Proposed Allocation schedule can be found and accessed on the Special Master’s website, www.takataspecialmaster.com.

Any remaining funds attributable to checks that are not cashed or to wire transfers that cannot be completed will be redistributed by the Special Master pro rata to all participating OEMs. To receive an allocation from the OEM Restitution Fund, each eligible OEM will be required to provide a release in favor of the Special Master and his professionals, advisors and agents.

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I-CAR, ASE Present Annual Master Repair & Refinish Technician Award

I-CAR® announced it has awarded the I-CAR Platinum™/ASE Master Collision Repair & Refinish Technician of the Year award to Kurt Money of Shotwell’s Auto Body in Santa Rosa, CA. Money has more than 42 years of experience as a collision repair technician. He was selected from hundreds of individuals who hold both I-CAR Platinum recognition and ASE Master Collision Repair and Refinish certification for demonstrating superior commitment to the industry and the importance of training. The award was presented on Nov. 15 at the annual ASE Technician Awards banquet in San Diego.

He has been an I-CAR live and hands-on instructor for more than 25 years and won two Instructor of the Year awards during that time. He was recognized in 1998 as 3M/ASE Collision Repair Technician of the Year. He is currently a technician at Shotwell’s Auto Body and is Platinum Recognized as a Steel Structural, Electrical and Mechanical, Refinish, Aluminum Structural, and Non-Structural technician.

Money has always enjoyed working on cars. He opened up the

Utah Valley Trade Tech class catalog one day, and auto body was the first thing he saw. He hasn’t looked back in more than 40 years.

“No two accidents are the same— the work is different every day,” Money said. “The cars are changing with new metals and materials, and I love coming to work every day and doing the work.”

Learning has been important to Money his entire career.

“When I started, I just learned from the guy next to me. I would ask why things worked a certain way and couldn’t get an answer. I don’t want to do work just because I’m told that’s the way—I want to know the reason. Training and education have given me those answers. It’s what people need,” Money stated.

“I-CAR is thrilled to recognize the value Mr. Money places on continuing education and technical knowledge, along with his unwavering commitment to the industry and to I-CAR,” said I-CAR CEO & President John Van Alstyne. “It is a testament to the quality of his work and his ability to pass knowledge and skills along to other technicians.”

Think Genuine Subaru Parts.

Continued from Page 48

Continued from Page 50

DRP vs. non-DRP. The reports also include analyses and resources to help shops better understand and use the information presented.

made up of human beings with lives outside of work.

“Get to know them. Be a mentor to them. The way you see and treat them is how they will see and treat you. If you want loyalty, be loyal to them.”

Finally, there’s Compensation.

Pay competitively, but don’t use the money as a Band-Aid. “Make your goals their goals by tying compensation to performance and results,” White suggested. “Increase compensation as skills improve.

“Today is very different from yesterday. It’s not as easy to replace employees, but you can’t let anyone hold you hostage. If you want to keep them, treat them better than the competition, and always be recruiting so you aren’t reacting to someone leaving. Don’t wait for someone to leave—always have a pipeline that is eager to work for you. Thanks AASP for letting us hold this webinar.

We have believed in this association since its creation, and love being a part of it.”

Who Pays for What?

Berger Dealerships Now Blaise Alexander in PA

A historic automotive dealership in the Hazleton, PA, area has a new owner.

Berger Family Dealerships in Hazle Twp. was sold to Blaise Alexander Family Dealerships. The sale brought together businessmen who have known each other for a quarter-century through the Pennsylvania Automotive Association. Owners Earl C. Berger and Blaise Alexander met Thursday in the offices of the 12-acre property on Route 93 to complete a deal through which the 62 employees will retain their jobs. Berger started working at the dealership in 1967 and purchased it nearly 25 years ago. “It’s time to retire at my age and move on,” he said. His business has won the Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award and contributed to local events and charities.

Berger Family Dealerships sponsors the Athena Award given annually to a businesswoman by the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce.

MASSACHUSETTS

NEW JERSEY

Framingham (800) 982-2298 (508) 879-1212 Fax

Flemington Subaru

Long Automotive Group Mon.-Fri. 7:30-5 tschube@longauto.com

Subaru of Wakefield Wakefield (781) 246-3331 (781) 587-0743 Fax

Mon.-Thur. 7-8; Fri.-Sat. 7-6 jbrown@subaruofwakefield.com www.subaruofwakefield.com MARYLAND

Herb Gordon Subaru We’re focused on getting you the Genuine Subaru Parts you need — fast and competitively priced. Put us to the test on your next Subaru repair or service job.

54 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Problem Employees

Silver Spring (877) 609-2747 (301) 890-3065 (301) 847-2239 Fax

Mon-Fri. 7:30-6:30 Sat.7:30-3:00

Flemington (877) 657-2787 (908) 782-1795 Fax

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Mon.-Fri. 7:30-6 parts@libertysubaru.com www.libertysubaru.com

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Lumberton (609) 261-7844 (609) 261-7843 Fax

Mon.-Fri. 7:30-5 dseward@millertransgroup.com

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South Attleboro

Easton

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8am-8pm Mon, Wed; 8am-5pm Tue, Thu, Fri 8am-4pm Sat frank@courtesyma.com www.courtesyma.com

NEW JERSEY Liberty Kia Ramsey

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8am-5pm Mon-Fri 8am-3pm Sat nissankiaofmiddletownparts@yahoo.com www.kiaofmiddletown.com

Brown Daub Kia

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Kia of Coatesville Coatesville

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Kia of West Chester West Chester

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RHODE ISLAND Bald Hill Kia Warwick

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advantages of Genuine

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Kia Parts. Your local Kia retailer has all the parts you need.

Outten Kia Hamburg

610-562-4166

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7:30am-5pm Mon-Fri 8am-12pm Sat jhenne@outtencars.com www.outtenkia.com www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 55

Original Thought #78

YOU ONLY GET ONE CHANCE AT THE FIRST REPAIR.

MARYLAND

BMW of Catonsville Catonsville 855-996-2906 410-818-2600 Fax M-F 8am-5pm

www.bmwofcatonsville.com

BMW of Silver Spring Silver Spring 301-890-3015 800-288-6982 301-890-3748 Fax M-F 7:30am-5pm wholesaless@mileone.com www.bmwofsilverspring.com

MASSACHUSETTS BMW of Sudbury Sudbury 800-338-3198 508-881-7578 Fax M-F 7am-5pm

wholesaleparts@herbchambers.com www.bmwofsudbury.com

NEW HAMPSHIRE BMW of Stratham Stratham 800-989-5200 603-772-9436 Fax

jmaxwell@group1auto.com www.bmwofstratham.com

NEW JERSEY

BMW of Freehold Freehold 732-462-6286 732-577-0518 Fax M-F 8am-6pm Sat 8am-4pm

www.bmwoffreehold.com

BMW of Morristown Morristown 866-9-BMW PARTS 973-796-3146 Fax M-F 8am-6pm

wholesaleparts.bmw@openroad.com www.bmwofmorristown.com

56 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

BMW of Newton Newton 973-579-6020 973-579-6702 Fax M-F 8am-5:30pm

bmwofnewtonparts@gmail.com www.bmwnewton.com

Flemington BMW Flemington 877-NJPARTS 877-657-2787 908-782-1795 Fax www.NJPARTS.com

Circle BMW Eatontown 732-440-1238 732-440-1239 Fax M-F 7:30am-6pm Sat 8am-3pm

Wholesale@circlebmw.com www.circlebmw.com

Park Ave. BMW South Hackensack 888-349-5168 201-291-2376 Fax M-F 8am-5pm Sat 8am-4pm al@parkavebmw.com www.parkavebmw.com

NEW YORK

BMW of Bayside Bayside 516-304-3733 516-570-4268 Fax M-Sat 8am-5pm

bmwparts@bmwbayside.com www.bmwbayside.com

BMW of South Albany Glenmont 518-465-1724 518-463-2422 Fax M-Th 7:30am-5:30pm Fri 7:30am-5pm Sat 8am-4pm

bmwparts@bmwofsouthalbany.com www.bmwofsouthalbany.com

• Original BMW Parts & Accessories Competition BMW St James 631-724-3322 631-265-0501 Fax M-F 8am-5pm Sat 8am-4pm

asolla@competitionbmw.com www.competitionbmw.com

Habberstad BMW Huntington Station 631-271-7488 631-271-7931 Fax M-F 7:30am-5:30pm Sat 8am-4pm

parts@habberstadbmw.com www.habberstadbmw.com

PENNSYLVANIA

Apple BMW York 717-849-6597 717-843-2948 Fax M-F 7am-5pm Sat 8am-4pm

RHODE ISLAND

BMW of Newport Middletown 401-847-9600 401-841-0680 Fax M-F 7:30am-5:30pm

gromani@metromotorgroup.com wwwbmwofnewport.com

When you repair a BMW, use the parts

that are identical to those used in Series production and just as reliable. Choose Original BMW Parts and Accessories.

Because you can’t repair your reputation.

applebmwparts@appleauto1.com www.applebmwofyork.com www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 57

SVP of BASF Coatings Discusses Changes Ahead for Collision Industry rience to vehicle owners.”

The all-female build was led by The BASF Automotive Refinish CoatBogi Lateiner, co-host of All Girls ings booth stayed busy throughout this Garage on the Velocity network. year’s four-day SEMA Show in Las Lateiner gathered more than 90 women Vegas, serving as the location for events throughout the country to build the 1957 ranging from exclusive autograph sesChevy Montage that was unveiled at the sions to the unveiling of an all-female BASF booth on Oct. 31. The Montage vehicle build. project was created to bring women in the automotive industry together to work on building a unique vehicle, giving some women their first opportunity to work in a garage next to another woman. The R-M Onyx HD fan-voted color, created by Lateiner with the help of BASF’s color experts, in addition to the fan-submitted color The booth also included new color name “Tenacious Teal,” selected by offerings, premium builds, business soLateiner, were also revealed at the lutions and KC’s Custom Colors by BASF booth.

BASF R-M, launched by KC Mathieu “I absolutely appreciate all of my of KC’s Paint Shop. Additionally, fans and everyone who helped make BASF exhibited the Time Merchant, a this happen,” Lateiner said. “BASF has been a huge supporter of this build from the very beginning.”

Autobody News reached out to Chris Toomey, SVP of Coatings Solutions at BASF, during the SEMA Show to learn more about BASF’s plans for the future and some of the industry changes he foresees.

Can you share information Chris Toomey, SVP of BASF Coatings, standing at the about your role at BASF and BASF Automotive Refinish Coatings booth at the SEMA the current focus of the comShow with the 1957 Chevy Montage pany?

1932 Ford Roadster by Goolsby CusI started my career at BASF in toms displaying a custom color devel2011 with a background in the chemoped with the BASF Color Ideation ical industry, and became SVP of process, and the Roadster, a 2017 Garia Coatings Solutions in 2014. Within Gold Car featuring BASF Coatings. my responsibility, there are two main Chip Foose’s Custom 1971 Ford focuses. One is providing paint for the Mach One Mustang, the most recent OEMs, and the other focuses on the creation by renowned designer/builder refinish business.

Chip Foose, was also unveiled at the BASF booth. The unique vehicle was a 2010 Mustang GT inside of a 1971 Mustang body, and featured Glasurit 90 Line.

“BASF offers our customers a complete partnership, starting from before the car is even built, through every repair or improvement it undergoes,” said Marvin Gillfillan, BASF Bogi working with BASF and her team to create the Vice President, Business Man- custom color for the Chevy Montage agement, Automotive Refinish.

“Our focus is to put customers first, imBASF is the largest chemical inproving productivity and profitability dustry supplier to the automotive into help deliver the best customer expedustry. We have a substantial amount

by Autobody News Staff

58 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

of time and money invested in various elements of automotive. We’re involved with the OEMs regarding topics such as light weighting, autonomous vehicles, energy reduction and processes. We are looking at how we can help the OEMs operate more efficiently and assist them as

they are developing the technology in the cars of the future. BASF conducts a lot of research and development on that side.

How does this relate to the collision repair industry?

There are probably three big impacts: First is the surface on the cars. You are starting to see the lightweight materials and synthetic materials coming in.

From a coatings standpoint, there are a lot of challenges in this area.

Second is the electronics.

I believe it’s going to apply to the industry overall as repairers become more specialized and familiar with high tech equipment on the vehicles.

There is going to be a different expertise required for that than what has existed traditionally.

Third is the business model. Technology, the use of Bogi Lateiner, co-host of All Girls Garage on the Velocity big data and integrated sysnetwork, gathered more than 90 women throughout the tems are all going to affect the country to build the 1957 Chevy Montage that was unveiled at the BASF booth at SEMA on Oct. 31

See Changes Ahead, Page 61

The Right Parts. A Perfect Fit.

Order Genuine Mazda Parts from these Parts Specialists in your area

DELAWARE

Nucar Mazda Wholesale Parts Distributors New Castle

800-633-6606 www.nucarparts.com

VIRGINIA

Brown’s Fairfax Mazda Fairfax

703-385-3994 Fax 703-591-5348 M-F 7:30-6 thy.kong@brownscar.com www.brownscar.com

MARYLAND

Ourisman Mazda Of Rockville Rockville

855-417-4511 Fax 240-499-2488 M-F 8-5:30; Sat 8-5

rockvilleparts@ourismanautomotive.com

www.rockvillemazda.com

CONNECTICUT

MARYLAND

MASSACHUSETTS

Curran Volkswagen Stratford

King Volkswagen Gaithersburg

Volkswagen of North Attleboro North Attleboro

203-378-6516

240-403-2300

Fax: 203-380-3732 M-Th 8am-6pm; F 8am-5pm Sat 8am-2pm

Fax: 240-403-2398 M-F 7am-6pm Sat 8am-4pm

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Valenti Volkswagen Watertown

860-274-9846 Fax: 860-945-4987 M-F 8am-5:30pm Sat 8am-12pm

dprunner@vwking.com www.vwking.com

Ourisman VW of Laurel Laurel

301-498-6050 Fax: 301-498-0157 M-F 7:30am-7pm Sat 7am-4pm

VWParts@valentiauto.com www.valentivw.com

julio.cruz@ourismanautomotive.com

Prestige Volkswagen Stamford

Ourisman VW of Rockville Rockville

203-352-4656 Fax: 203-973-2900 M-F 8am-6pm Sat 8am-4pm

508-695-7131

Open Road Volkswagen of Bridgewater Bridgewater

908-685-1068

Fax: 508-695-0321 M-F 8am-5pm Sat 8am-2pm

kenr@driveavw.com www.driveavw.com

Fax: 908-685-1547 M-F 7:30am-5pm Sat 8am-3pm vwb.parts@openroad.com www.openroadvwparts.com

NEW JERSEY

NEW YORK

Flemington Volkswagen Flemington

877-NJPARTS 877-657-2787 Fax: 908-782-1795 M-F 7:30am-5pm

Platinum Volkswagen Hicksville

516-822-4800 Fax: 516-822-4831 M-F 7:30-5:30

parts@platinumvw.com www.platinumvw.com

www.njparts.com

855-417-4511 Fax: 240-499-2488 M-F 8am-5:30pm Sat 8am-5pm rockvilleparts@ourismanautomotive.com www.rockvillevolkswagen.com

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 59

Axalta Announces 2018 Custom Finishes Calendar Competition Winners

Glen Mills, PA – December 11, 2017: Axalta Coating Systems announced the winners of its Custom Finishes Calendar Competition. The vehicles chosen are some of the most prestigious automotive builds in the United States fin-

ished with Axalta brands, including Cromax®, Spies Hecker®, Standox® and Imron®. Axalta representatives selected winners that demonstrated superior use of color, finish quality, technical difficulty, design originality and artistic merit.

The twelve winners featured in Axalta’s 2018 Custom Finishes Calendar are: Cover and April: Gil LeBlanc, 1959 Chevrolet Corvette (Cromax) January: Brenda McDaniel, Heath Hoover, 1948 Chevy 3100 (Spies Hecker) February: Mike and Linda Jo Mitchell, Abe

Zigan, 2016 Harley Davidson Road Glide (Spies Hecker) March: Bob Garwood, 1965 Buick Riviera (Cromax) May: Jeremy Miller, Grant Brown, 1955 Ford F100 (Spies Hecker) June: Greg Nuss, Matt Jasperson, Chuck Badour, 1937 Mack Jr (Imron) July: Wayne Hunter, 1970 Plymouth Superbee (Cromax) August: Dwayne Roberts, Jerron Settles, 2016 Dragster Sinister Series (Cromax) September: Gary Alexander, Kevin Zwgart, 1965 Chevrolet Nova (Cromax) October: Mike Moss, Rob Deming, Derek Morawski, 1966 Gerhardt Indy Car (Cromax) November: Wayne Davis,1955 Chrysler Imperial (Spies Hecker) December: Richard Broyles, 1941 Ford Roadster (Cromax) Axalta Coating Systems 50 Applied Bank Boulevard Glen Mills, PA 19342, USA

Axalta selected Des Kleineibst, award winning automotive photographer to capture the winning vehicles.

Kleineibst’s experience in lighting, studio and on-location photography combine to highlight the quality of workmanship and unique characteristics of each vehicle.

For more information visit axalta .com.

Mitchell 1 Has Enhanced Its Prodemand Auto Repair Information Software With The Addition Of 1search Plus

This new interface streamlines the user experience with an easy-to-use graphical design and intuitive workflow to help auto repair technicians work more efficiently.

“We are delighted to introduce a new user interface in ProDemand that follows the same logic that auto repair technicians use when diagnosing and repairing vehicles,” said Gary Hixson, senior market manager for ProDemand

at Mitchell 1. “This advanced search technology returns all of the repair information that technicians need in a single lookup, helping them improve both efficiency and accuracy.”

The new interface takes repair information to a whole new level of intelligence with advanced search technology that scans the vast database of Mitchell 1 content and returns only the specific information the technician needs. OEM and SureTrack®

real-world information are more tightly integrated and returned together in a single location, with no switching between tabs or scrolling through long lists of articles.

The user selects a vehicle, enters a search term, and 1Search Plus returns information in a unique graphical layout, organized in the same flow that auto technicians use when approaching a diagnosis and repair. Key features and benefits include: • The graphical card format is intuitive and easy-to-navigate.

• Cards are returned in workflow format, following how technicians would naturally work on a job, making their process easier to complete.

• Results are more targeted, so technicians can spend less time scrolling as data is now categorized into more specific cards.

• OEM and real-world information are now classified at the same level, not separate “buckets,” streamlining navigation between ProDemand modules.

• Cards populate only if there is relevant information, so technicians only see information for the results they need.

For more information visit: www .mitchell1.com.

Finish it like a Masterpiece THESE DEALERS ARE MERCEDES-BENZ GENUINE PARTS SPECIALISTS. DELAWARE

è USE GENUINE MERCEDES-BENZ PARTS.

Mercedes-Benz of Wilmington Wilmington

800-800-1949

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MARYLAND

Mercedes-Benz of Annapolis Annapolis

888-801-2369

443-875-0290 443-875-0315 Fax

NEW YORK

PENNSYLVANIA

Mercedes-Benz of Goldens Bridge Goldens Bridge

Mercedes-Benz of New Rochelle New Rochelle

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M-F 8am - 6pm; Sat 8am - 5pm parts@mbnewrochelle.com

M-F 7:30am - 6pm; Sat 7:30am - 5pm mbpartswholesale@yourmercedes.com

914-232-8146

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Mercedes-Benz of Smithtown St. James

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Mercedes-Benz of Atlantic City Egg Harbor Township

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M-F 7:30am-6pm Sat 8am-1pm rhamilton@mileone.com 60 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

NEW JERSEY

609-645-9310 215-540-0263 Fax M-F 7:30am - 6pm; Sat 7:30am - 5pm mbpartswholesale@yourmercedes.com

Mercedes-Benz of Fort Washington Fort Washington

267-419-1414

Mercedes-Benz of West Chester West Chester

800-220-7278 215-540-0263 Fax M-F 7:30am - 6pm; Sat 7:30am - 5pm mbpartswholesale@yourmercedes.com

Continued from Page 58

Changes Ahead

whole value chain of the collision industry once a car is involved in an accident. This includes the information transmitted up front until the car is finally delivered to a customer, and how that is managed and communicated.

What were some of BASF’s highlights during the SEMA show?

This year, we had two main focuses.

One of them is that we’re certainly promoting all of our brands more broadly than we have in the past— brands that fill the lower-cost niche in the industry. We tended to rely on, and still rely on, Glasurit and R-M brands, and now we are really bringing our full brand portfolio to the marketplace— Limco and Norbin.

The second thing is that we’re always very proud of our builds and our car unveilings, especially the allwomen build this year. It’s very exciting.

There is a need to have more people in the industry. We need more diversity; we want to raise the profile that there is a great place for women in

itself—is to make the shop profitable.

We want to get involved in conversations with shops about what drives profitably—sometimes it’s operations, sometimes it’s human resources and sometimes it’s something else. We can play a role in all of this.

That means being integrated with all of the partners—working with the distributors and the shops to figure out how we can deliver solutions that the shops really require.

We have great products, but I think the biggest change to BASF in the last few years is driving to the shop what it is that it needs, and how we Women traveled from around the U.S. to Phoenix, AZ, to provide solutions for them. contribute their talents to the creation of the Chevy Montage Service levels, dependability, manufacturer level. This is not a surengagement with our partners—they prise. At some point, we are going to all build off the base of great products. reach the end point of consolidation.

This year, we’ve introduced cusWhat really needs to happen is a greater tom colors. We’re working with shop degree of integration between the difowners and car enthusiasts when they ferent value partners in the chain. I want a certain special color that is not think you’re going to see the manufacstocked, or they need help designing turers more closely integrated and see a color. We bring in BASF designers the distributors partner more closely from the OEM side and work with with the shops. them to design that perfect color, beAt the end of the day, our job— cause they are artists. and this is where BASF differentiates The trend is going toward custhis industry.

What types of changes do you foresee in the future?

Consolidation is happening all over the industry, and it’s going to continue to happen, whether it’s at the shop level, the distributor level or the

tomization. We’re seeing it with OEMs as well. It allows that specialization and helps drive retention and awareness by the industry.

What is your advice to collision repairers?

Choose your partners wisely. There are some companies that are very forward-thinking about this, and there are some companies that are a little late to the game. Collision shops really need to understand their own business model and how they need to evolve into what they want to become.

How are BASF performance groups helpful to repairers?

There are a couple of different levels. The first level is that they provide an opportunity for shops to get a perspective on their own data in a collective form. We share comparative data with them on what really good shops are doing and how they are driving efficiency, and help them understand and see where they may have opportunities. It’s really an opportunity for education development at a business level for shops to help them increase their performance.

For more information on BASF, visit https://www.basf.com/us/en.html.

Genuine Porsche Parts...

Only The Best.

The Dealers Below are Genuine Porsche Parts Distributors.

MARYLAND Porsche Silver Spring

Flemington Porsche

Porsche of Southampton

800-288-6982

800-216-5124

631-204-2565

Silver Spring

301-890-3015 301-890-3748 Fax M-F 7:30am - 5:00pm

wholesaless@mileone.com www.porschesilverspring.com

MASSACHUSETTS Porsche Norwell Norwell

781-261-5230

NEW JERSEY Flemington

908-782-9397 Fax M-F 8:00am - 5:00pm rmuir@flemington.com www.njparts.com

NEW YORK

Southampton

Tue-Sat 8:00am - 5:00pm

gspano@porscheofsouthampton.com www.porscheofsouthampton.com

Porsche of Princeton Lawrenceville

609-945-1500 609-945-0501 Fax

www.princeton.porschedealer.com

Porsche: There Is No Substitute

781-261-5274 Fax M-F 8:00am - 5:00pm

www.porschenorwell.com www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 61

CIECA Calls for 2018 Speakers

CIECA is seeking experienced thought leaders and industry professionals to share their knowledge and expertise as it works with the industry to explore emerging issues, promulgate leading practices and advocate for the collision repair industry.

CIECA currently has the 2018 Annual Symposium and 2018 Monthly CIECAst speaking opportunities available for you to get involved.

CIECA events bring together all segments of the collision repair industry to discuss current trends, forecasting for the future, and how to prepare for the road ahead. CIECA’s goal is to offer content that will help with solutions to pain-points and challenges facing the industry at this very moment and in the coming year.

If interested in presenting at a CIECA event, please submit a proposal. http://www.cieca.com/info .php?pnum=85a0b123a93bda&pre view=1

Auto Care Association Announces New Director, Data and Innovation The Auto Care Association recently announced the addition of Daniel Zenko as director, data and innovation under its strategic development department.

Zenko brings nearly two decades of expertise in data analysis and enterprise research to the association, having most recently served as the senior director of research operations at RainKing Solutions for more than 10 years.

During his time at RainKing, Zenko pioneered the company’s first research development department, which expanded to a team of more than 200 employees. Under Zenko’s direction, RainKing developed new and sophisticated data analytics tools for IT sales, and was featured on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest revenue growth USA companies five times.

His primary focus was on building

Polyvance Releases New Headlight Tab Repair Online Training Course

Polyvance’s new PR-03 Headlight Tab Repair course is an online training course designed to teach technicians and estimators how to repair broken headlight tabs with the nitrogen plastic welder.

The course is an interactive video-based training program that takes roughly one hour to complete.

The course will teach technicians how to evaluate whether a damaged headlight is repairable, how to identify the type of plastic from which a headlight housing

is made, how to fusion weld broken headlight tabs with the nitrogen plastic welder, how to finish a repaired headlight to original appearance, and much more. The course is broken up into small segments, and can be stopped and started whenever necessary.

Polyvance hopes this new course will help body shops repair these parts instead of replacing them. Shops that perform plastic repairs can reduce their cycle time, reduce their average cost to repair, and make increased profits by keeping the labor dollars in the shop.

The course is approved as part of I-CAR’s Industry Training Alliance and is redeemable for one I-CAR credit hour.

Those interested in the training course can sign up at polyvance.tortal.net. The price of the course is $99.00.

For the benefit of its clients, Polyvance has uploaded a promotional video that highlights a few of the repairs covered in the course.

The video can be found on their YouTube channel.

Contact Kurt Lammon at 800633-3047 for inquiries.

62 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

the research coverage universe, data analytics and quality assurance, as well as integration of internal data with external, vendor-provided data.

He also built the foundation of RainKing’s research design and processes, led the development of research tools, as well as the analysis, evaluation, and reconciliation of vendor data.

Before his role at RainKing, Zenko was the research director at Bigdough.com, a provider of financial markets intelligence (now integrated with Ipreo). Zenko was the architect of key research department workflows, where he created and led both data integration and quality assurance teams. Zenko designed a groundbreaking tool to measure trading commissions generated by asset management firms, with ranking and trading volume and trading commissions per each brokerage.

Zenko will bring his experience and skills to the strategic development team, where he will lead the Auto Care Association’s efforts in category management data collection and reporting, as well as revamping how the association’s members interact with its industry-leading data in real time.

Zenko will also play a key role in working with the association’s market Intelligence team to harmonize its in-house research and identify new industry data sources, in addition to leading the development of new member-facing research and analytics tools.

“Bringing Daniel on board with the association was an easy decision,” said Bill Hanvey, president and CEO, Auto Care Association. “His phenomenal track record of developing and implementing real-time data solutions for market intelligence-centric organizations made him a perfect fit for what we’re working towards at the Auto Care Association for our members.”

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The RIGHT

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888-240-3495 978-534-9933 Fax

Mon-Thu 7:30am - 7:30pm Fri-Sat 7:30am - 6pm parts@rte2hyundai.com www.rte2hyundai.com

West Islip 193 Sunrise Hwy.

631-587-1628

Mon-Fri 8am - 5pm Sat 8am - 4pm www.AtlanticHyundai.com

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Flemington 877.NJPARTS 908.782.1795 Fax

Latham 518.783.5554 518.213.8182 M - Sat 7:30am - 6pm

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jpooler@bbmcc.com

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Maplewood 800.553.9250 973.762.2381 Fax M-F 7:30am-6pm Sat 7:30am - 4pm ddipalma@dchusa.com www.dchmillburnaudi.com

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Paul Miller Audi Parsippany 800.356.4553 973.575.7793 973.575.5911 Fax M-F 8am-6pm; Sat 8am-5pm www.paulmilleraudi.com Audiparts@paulmiller.com

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Cockeysville 410.630.3174 410.628.6030 Fax M-F 8am-6pm Sat 8am - 3pm umbergers@autonation.com www.audihuntvalley.com

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 63

CARSTAR Offers Tips on How to Keep Your Car Safe and on the Road Cold weather can create some of the harshest driving conditions of the year.

The months between October and February top the list for accidents, vehicle damage and injuries.

are free of ice before heading out on the road—and consider updating with new flexible windshield wipers before the snow hits • Make sure all mirrors are clear and properly adjusted for visibility

the front wheels to go. If your rear wheels are sliding left, steer left. If they’re sliding right, steer right

“Advanced safety technology is a great development, but it’s no match for Mother Nature with her icy roads and snow drifts,” says Dean Fisher, COO for CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts. “With proper preparation, some preventative driving measures and an eye on the weather report, drivers can protect themselves and their vehicles during the winter months.”

Slow Down and Stay Back: • When there is snow or ice on the ground, drop your speed to a safe limit

• If you have standard brakes, pump them gently

CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts repairs thousands of vehicles damaged in snowy, icy accidents each year.

Here are a few helpful tips to make winter driving safer.

Check Your Visibility: • Add de-icer to your windshield wiper fluid •

Make sure your windshield wipers

• Clean your headlights and check the bulbs in all of your vehicle lights—front and rear

• Leave extra distance between your vehicle and the car in front of you for additional safety

• Do not use cruise control on icy roads

• Use caution on bridges, overpasses, and infrequently travelled roads because they may be slippery from ice

• Use extra caution when driving on one-lane roads

Skidding Safely If your rear wheels skid…

• Take your foot off the accelerator • Steer in the direction you want

AWDA Announces New Leadership With Three Officer Appointments

On Nov. 27, the Automotive Warehouse Distributors Association (AWDA), a community of the Auto Care Association, announced the election of several new officers to the association’s executive committee, who began their terms on Nov. 3.

Mauro Cifelli, vice president, sales & marketing, Vast-Auto Distribution Ltd., Montreal Quebec, has been named AWDA’s vice chairman. Previously, Cifelli served as secretary of AWDA and as a member of the Council of Governors.

Cifelli replaces out-going vice chairman, Don Bickle, Jr., president, Warehouse Inc., Hays, Kan. Moving into the position of secretary is William (“Henry”) Slack, CEO, Slack Auto Parts Co., Gainesville, GA. Slack served a three-year term on AWDA’s Council of Governors and is active on the Auto Care Association’s Emerging Technology Committee.

Tim Trudnowski, president, Automotive Jobbers Supply, Spokane, WA, has been named AWDA’s incoming treasurer. Trudnowski, a former AWDA Chairman, follows in

the footsteps of long-time treasurer Richard Beirne, Automotive Parts Headquarters. Beirne will remain on the AWDA Executive Committee as treasurer emeritus.

AWDA Chairman Bobby Segal, CEO, Automotive Supply Associates, Concord, NH, will continue in this position and complete his two-year term in November 2018, whereupon Cifelli will step into the chairman’s position.

In order to provide long-term consistency within AWDA’s leadership, both the secretary and treasurer positions are appointed by the board to open-ended terms.

Commenting on the new appointments, Larry Northup, executive director, community engagement, Auto Care Association, and liaison, AWDA, said, “All these individuals have a deep commitment to AWDA and the Auto Care Association, having served in many diverse capacities.

The vast institutional and industry knowledge they bring to the table will be invaluable as AWDA deploys its many resources for the benefit of traditional distribution and the auto care industry at large.”

64 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

• If your rear wheels start sliding the other way as you recover, ease the steering wheel toward that side. You might have to steer left and right a few times to get your vehicle completely under control

• If you have anti-lock brakes (ABS), do not pump the brakes. Apply steady pressure to the brakes. You will feel the brakes pulse—this is normal If your front wheels skid…

• Take your foot off the gas and shift to neutral, but don’t try to steer immediately.

• As the wheels skid sideways, they will slow the vehicle and traction will return. As it does, steer in the direction you want to go. Then put the transmission in “drive” or release the clutch, and accelerate gently.

Prepare for a Snow Day: • If your vehicle has rear wheel

drive, add bags of sand or kitty litter to help make your vehicle easier to control

• Pack a snow day kit just in case you get stuck. Important items to include are a blanket, gloves, hat, water, granola bars, flashlight and extra batteries, extra cell phone battery, flares, wooden matches in waterproof container, compass, scissors, rope and first aid kit

• Prepare a toolbox for digging your car out with foldable shovel, 2×4 planks to put under tires, ice scraper and snow brush, reflective triangles, flares and exterior windshield cleaner

If the unfortunate winter accident does occur, CARSTAR recommends having a collision plan in place so you aren’t stranded on the roadside waiting for assistance. CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts offers high-quality, reliable repair service in 32 states and 10 Canadian provinces. Just call 1-800-CARSTAR when you have an accident and they will send the tow truck, contact your insurance company, arrange for a rental car and repair your car. For information and store locations, visit http://www.CARSTAR .com.

Shift into Genuine Nissan and Infiniti OEM Parts

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Downeast Toyota / Scion 800-432-0220 BREWER

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INSIST ON GENUINE GM PARTS ONLY ORIGINAL PARTS PROTECT THE VEHICLE’S VALUE.

Call Call Any Any of of These These Wholesale Wholesale Parts Parts Dealers Dealers Below Below

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M-Th 7:30 - 7:30; F 7:30 - 6 Sat 7:30 - 5 wholesale@mastria.com

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Balise Chevrolet Buick GMC Business Elite SPRINGFIELD

413-233-2185 413-733-8617 Fax M-F 8 - 5

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brucem@martysbuickgmc.com

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877-657-2787 908-782-1795 Fax www.NJPARTS.com

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315-437-5464 315-437-0878 Fax

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732-821-1517 Fax

M-F 8 - 5 kdiperi@malouf.com

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973-366-5867 Fax

M-F 8 - 4:30 jmorena@potamkincadillac.com

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M-F 8 - 5; Sat 8 - 4 david.connell@openroad.com

212-708-3127 Fax

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M-F 7:30 - 5 parts@depaula.com www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 65

AUTOBODY MARKETPLACE VACANCY NOTICE - AUTO BODY TECHNICIAN

Stop wasting valuable time

Precision Auto body Design (1278 Lincoln Ave SW/Huron, SD) is currently looking for a professional trained in repairing damage to vehicles. Prior experience in auto body repair and refinishing preferred but would be willing to train the right individual. Modern 15,600 square foot, air-conditioned shop with the latest equipment .. down-draft bake booth, PPG waterborne paint, Chisum 5-tower frame rack, Chief laser-lock measuring system, and all the equipment needed to repair the aluminum F150.

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Clean Sheets® Mixing Boards are used by thousands of repair shops to mix epoxies, body filler, fiberglass, plastics, gel, putty and touch-up paint.

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Call or e-mail now for rates: 800-699-8251 or ltedesco@autobodynews.com 66 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Warning: Key Fob System Hack for Thieves to Steal Your Car

by Lynn Walford, Auto Connected Car News

Drivers with electronic key fobs— watch out!

Car thieves are using a system to collect your key fob signal, save it and use it later. It’s called a “relay attack unit or box.” People who park their cars outside their homes on public streets can have their key fob signals copied and saved, then amplified to gain access to the vehicle.

Thieves take the code and send it to the signal booster, and then the booster works on the car to open the doors or start the vehicle. If you have a key fob, it can be copied and used by thieves, says Tim Dimoff, President of SACS Consulting and Investigative Services, who reports that the two-box system copies the codes and then sends them to another person further away.

To secure your car, don’t use the key fob to lock it or unlock it—the signal can be copied. Use the button on the door to lock the car and read your car manual to see if standing near the door with the fob and then tapping the button on the door will unlock your car. To be extra sure, you can use a steering wheel or pedal bar lock on the vehicle.

As we reported earlier, if you live near a public street, you can keep your key fob in a tin, Faraday bag or the freezer. It will block the signal from going out into the street.

“The fact that thieves can not only open the car, but start it, is very frightening,” said Roger Morris from the National Crime Bureau (NICB).

The devices have been tested on 35 cars, and 18 vehicles were vulnerable.

In December 2016, NCIB reported on a series of unscientific tests at different locations over a two-week period. Thirty-five different makes and models of cars, SUVs, minivans and a pickup truck were tested. NICB partnered with NICB member company CarMax, because it is the nation’s largest used car retailer and has nearly every make and model in its inventory. Tests were also done at a new car dealership, an independent used car dealer, at an auto auction, on NICB employee vehicles and ones owned by private individuals.

The NICB was able to open 19 (54 percent) of the vehicles, and start and drive away 18 (51 percent) of them. Of the 18 that were started, after driving them away and turning off the ignition, the device was used to restart 12 (34 percent) of the vehicles.

Hurricane Vehicle Replacements, Increased Advertising Drive Truck Interest

by Staff, Auto Remarketing

Jumpstart Automotive Media’s latest path to purchase report released Nov. 28 shows that in October, month-overmonth shopper interest was up 14 percent for full-size pickups and 11 percent

The 2018 Ford F-150. Recent data from Jumpstart shows the model saw shopper interest increase by 27 percent compared to last October. Photo courtesy of Ford

for three-quarter-ton and 1-ton pickup trucks. In addition to advertising that typically spotlights trucks during sporting events such as football games and the World Series, Jumpstart suggests that shopper interest in trucks this October was particularly strong due to remaining vehicle replacement activity stemming from Hurricane Harvey and Irma damage. “Between increased advertising focus, truck replacement needs and continued low fuel prices,

shoppers had many reasons to turn their attention toward pickups and SUVs during the month of October,” Jumpstart senior analyst of strategic insights Colin Thomas said in a news release.

“However, what’s curious today is that shopper interest continues to wane for smaller utility vehicles, which have been very popular for versatility, functionality and value.” Among trucks, full-size pickup trucks and both threequarter-ton and 1-ton pickups had the highest share of shopper interest in October. Full-size pickup trucks and 3/4 and 1-ton pickups saw interest increases of 4.8 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, compared to the rest of the year. The Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado led October’s truck interest with increases of plus 27 percent and 13 percent, respectively, compared to last year.

Larger trucks, such as the Ford F-250 Super Duty and RAM 2500, both had month-over-month growth in interest of plus 22 percent. Additionally, October was also the fourth consecutive month that share of interest declined for the subcompact SUVs/CUVs segment, which has seen a shopper interest decrease of 29 percent since June.

We thank Auto Remarketing for reprint permission.

NICB reports different devices are offered for sale to thieves. Some use different technology, and may work on different makes, models and ignition systems. More expensive models may have a greater range and better capabilities for opening and starting a vehicle.

While there may not be an effective way of preventing this kind of theft at this time, NICB advises drivers to always lock their vehicles and take the remote fob or keys with them.

Drivers should also be on the lookout for suspicious persons or activity, and alert law enforcement rather than confronting a possible thief.

It’s also a good idea to never invite a break-in by leaving valuables in plain sight. And once thieves get inside, they can easily steal a garage door opener and valuable papers, such as the vehicle registration, that could lead them to your home. So take the garage door opener with you and take a picture of your registration on your cell phone, rather than keeping it in the glove compartment.

This hack is different from the Nick Bilton signal amplifier hack, where the signal of the key fob is amplified to open the car door and steal expensive goods.

This is not the only way to hack into cars. Hacker/researcher George Hotz, who was stopped from testing his self-driving autonomous car system, released a car reverse-engineering tool/hacking device, “panda,” for $99. Comma.ai, a company founded

by Hotz, is offering software and hardware so that developers can use it to create their own car hacks and/or see how car software operates.

Using the cabana can reverse-engineer the raw CAN messages from a Honda with a live USB connection to panda. There is even a deeper hacking device called giraffe that pulls signals from the advanced driver safety systems and radar.

We thank Auto Connected Car for reprint permission.

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BASF Customer Andrew Lee and Driven To Cure Receive State Of Maryland Award

BASF customer Andrew Lee and the charity he founded, Driven to Cure, recently received the William Donald Schaefer People Helping People Award from the Maryland Comptroller. The award was presented at the National Institutes of Health in Washington D.C. on November 17.

Andrew was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer when he was 19. Now 21, Andrew chose to fight his cancer and raise awareness of rare kidney cancers by creating the charity. He has raised more than $400,000 and shared his story of hope to thousands with his Driven to Cure custom 2015 Nissan GT-R. “We’re honored to support Andrew and Driven to Cure,” said Dan Bihlmeyer, BASF Marketing Director, Automotive Refinish. “His spirit and determination are an in-

spiration for all.”

BASF provided the custom DTC orange Glasurit paint with a pearl effect for the GT-R and has continued to support Andrew and Driven to Cure at various events including the Cars & Fight Cancer event October 14-15 in Virginia and at the SEMA Show n 2016.

“Andrew was chosen because of his amazing passion and commitment to raise awareness and money to help find a cure for rare cancers,” said Peter Franchot, Comptroller.

“His dedication and bravery are inspirations to all Marylanders. The work he’s doing brings hope and improves the quality of life for people around the world.”

The award, established in 2012, honors the public service of former Maryland Mayor, Governor and Comptroller, Schaefer. The award is presented to Maryland residents in each of the 23 counties and the city of Baltimore who demonstrate an unwavering dedication to helping others.

For more information visit: www .driventocure.org.

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS 67

68 JANUARY 2018 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com