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Arlington, TX, Body Shop Owner Warns Consumers About Insurance Steering by Amber Trent, Arlington Voice
One Arlington, Texas auto body shop owner is joining collision repair facilities nationwide in taking on insurance companies. After an auto accident, car owners face navigating the options of what auto body shop to use. Many times insurance companies will offer a list of preferred repair facilities. But according to Don Harris of Arlington’s G & M Collision Center, this type of steering from the insurance companies is not allowed. The issue itself is not new. It dates
Don Harris, owner of G&M Collision, wants consumers to know they are not required to use an insurer’s “preferred provider” when it comes to auto repairs. Credit: Zack Maxwell / ArlingtonVoice.com
back to before the 1963 Consent Decree, which came from a court case. The case originated from how insurance See Steering Warning, Page 21
Body Shop Owner in Arkansas Building ‘Great Wall of Van Buren, AR’
See Great Wall of Van Buren, Page 15
P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018
A Van Buren auto body shop owner is building a large concrete wall on his property at the bottom of Log Town Hill to give the community a tidier appearance. Tim Hazlewood, who co-owns Tim’s Auto Body at 17 Fayetteville St. in Van Buren with his wife, Jane, is in the process of constructing a 400 foot long concrete wall on the site of his shop facing south and east towards the nearby Old Frisco Train Station. Hazlewood said he conceived this project as a means to make Van Buren look nicer for people using the train station.
“We have a wrecked vehicle sitting on our backlot,” Hazlewood said. “I do not want anybody to see anything but a gorgeous wall when they come in and out of Van Buren on that Excursion Train. The other thing is that I’ve been successful in Van Buren. (The wall is) my way of giving back to the community.” The project officially started in October. The wall is being built with precast concrete Redi-Rock wall units that were prepared at Industrial Precast Inc. in Fort Smith, according to Hazlewood. He received considerable assistance
Change Service Requested
by Thomas Saccente, Times Record
VOL. 34 ISSUE 5 MAY 2016
From Tiny Dallas Body Shop to 299 locations, Service King’s Made an Impact in 40 years
a hose from the business behind him to his bare-bones corrugated metal Forty years ago, Eddie Lennox would building on Hardwick Street. throw a piece of scrap wood onto the The nearest restroom was at a service station a block or two away. “Most people wouldn’t even drive down there, it was so rough,” said Lennox, 62, the founder of Service King Collision Repair Centers. “I had four guard dogs killed in four years.” But Lennox, who learned Founder Eddie Lennox didn’t even have running water in the basics of bodywork at the metal building where he started Service King. Today it Grady Spruce High School, has 299 shops in 23 states. Early on, he saw the trends of insurers steering the business and of industry consolidation. had dreams that no tin shed in Credit: Brandon Wade/Special Contributor a rough corner of Dallas could contain. fire in a 55-gallon oil drum to warm As Service King celebrates its his tiny body shop in West Dallas. See Service King at 40, Page 18 If he needed water, he would run by Terry Box, Dallas Morning News
March 23 D-FW Hailstorms May Have Damaged 50,000 Vehicles
cars and trucks at new-car dealerships, mostly in Plano and Lewisville. Hundreds of homes sustained broSwirling bands of hail damaged an es- ken windows and skylights and damaged roofs. timated 50,000 vehicles in Collin, Mark Hanna, a spokesman for Denton and northern Dallas counties on the night of March 23, and the the Insurance Council of Texas, said the group is still gathering information from insurance agents and did not have a preliminary estimate of damage on the afternoon of March 24. “I’ve talked to a half-dozen agents in the Plano area, and some say it looks as bad as the storm on March 16 in Tarrant County that caused $600 milMiles Johnson took photos of storm damage to his lion damage,” Hanna said. nephews car on Thursday in the 2300 block of Choctaw Drive in Plano. An early spring hailstorm in North Texas “Agents say they are just inunhas broken windows in some homes and vehicles. dated with calls.” Credit: David Woo/The Dallas Morning News The storm system hit damage will probably keep area body Lewisville before moving east to Plano between 10:15 and 10:40 p.m. on shops filled for months. March 23, National Weather Service The storms also broke windshields See March Hailstorms, Page 16 and dented bodies on several thousand by Terry Box & Liz Farmer, The Dallas Morning News
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