Autobody News March 2011 Western Edition

JordanHendler, executive director ofthe Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan

Auto BodyAssoci-ation, averted a sui-cide attempt inJanuary by physi-cally interveningwhen she encoun-tered a teenage girlthreatening to jumpfrom a freeway

overpass. Hendler called 911 as she ap-proached the girl on the edge of theoverpass, then kept talking to her,pleading with her not to jump.

“I told her something my father(CIC Administrator Jeff Hendler) al-ways told me about suicide: “This is apermanent solution to a temporary prob-

lem.’” Jordan Hendler kept talking tothe girl as another by-passer approachedfrom the other end of the overpass. To-gether they restrained the girl and pulledher from the barrier she had climbedover. Hendler said it took both of themto hold the hysterical girl down untilemergency responders arrived aboutfour minutes after the call to 911. “Itseemed like an eternity, a lot longer,”Hendler said. She said she knows noth-ing about the girl other than she lookedto be about 14 or 15, and lives in a grouphome for teenagers. “You don’t knowthat one day you’ll be called upon to dothe right thing at the right moment, butwhen the time comes, if you have yourheart open, you will know exactly whatto do,” Hendler said.

CA Paint Jobber NDI Sues BMW North America Afterthe Automaker Implemented its own BMW Paint LineNicolosi Distributing Inc. (NDI), apaint jobber in the San Francisco bayarea, filed a lawsuit against BMW ofNorth America earlier this year alleg-ing intentional interference with acontract with a BMW-certified shop.

NDI accuses BMW of NorthAmerica of interfering with a contractthe jobber had with a BMW-certifiedshop for paint supplies. The suit per-tains to a contract signed betweenNDI and German Motor CollisionCenter, a BMW-certified collisioncenter connected to the BMW of SanFrancisco dealership in May of 2005.The contract was a multi-year agree-

ment that BMW of North Americawas aware of before German MotorsCollision Center signed it.

NDI contends that “BMW inten-tionally interfered with NDI’s con-tractual relationship with GermanMotors Collision Center... by the fol-lowing conduct: BMWhas decided toproduct its own paint line ... BMWrequires auto body shops painting aBMW automobile to only use BMWpaint. BMW forced German MotorsCollision Center to enter into a writ-ten agreement ... which requires Ger-man Motors to use BMW paint on

See Jobber Lawsuit, Page 6

Jordan Hendler Averts Teenager’s Suicide Attempt

Class Action Judgments: GEICO Wins Appeal vs.Greenberger & Progressive Wins 2/6 vs. Blue Ash Inc.Two collision-related class actionlawsuits against major insurers haverecently been decided in favor of theinsurers. In the GEICO case on appeal

partially due tolack of evidence(the vehicle).In the Progressivecase a summaryjudgment was re-turned on two ofsix counts charged.The plaintiffs inthe Progressivecase have decided

to drop the remaining existing chargesto facilitate an appeal of the summaryjudgment.

Don’t Give Away the EvidenceThe January 10, 2011 GEICO deci-sion pertains to a Chicago law profes-sor’s prospective class action suitaccusing the insurance company ofdeliberately omitting repairs from itsestimates. He lost the case in part be-cause he gave away the car (the evi-dence) before the case was resolved.

On July 4, 2002, Greenberger, aprofessor and administrator at aChicago law school, was involved inan automobile accident, and his 1994Acura sustained damage to its

bumper, steering box, suspension, andlower body. The next day, a GEICOinsurance adjuster inspected the car atGreenberger’s home and wrote him acheck for $3,284.69 ($3,784.69 minusa $500 deductible).

Greenberger cashed the checkbut did not repair his car. Five monthslater, a stranger approached Green-berger in a parking lot and expressedinterest in buying the car. Greenbergerpermitted this prospective buyer totake theAcura to a friend’s body shopfor an estimate of what it would costto repair it. The buyer’s technician,Sarkit Tokat of Lake Side Auto Re-builders, delivered an estimate of$4,938.65, about $1,150 higher thanGEICO’s estimate. The sale was notmade, however, and in December2002 Greenberger donated the car tocharity without making any repairs.

Exactly three years after accept-ing GEICO’s payment on his claim,Greenberger filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in Cook County CircuitCourt alleging breach of contract, vi-olation of the Illinois Consumer Fraudand Deceptive Practices Act, andcommon-law fraud. He claimed thatGEICO systematically underpays onits auto-accident claims by omitting

See Class Actions, Page 20

Jordan Hendler

Erica Eversmancomments onProgressive vs.Blue Ash et. al.

REGIONAL STORIES in this issue...CA Paint Jobber NDI Sues BMW North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 1Attanasio—Crozat’s G&C Autobody Seizes Opportunity . . . . . . .p. 48Second CAA Meeting Involving EEEC Coming in March . . . . . . .p. 12CAA San Diego Hosts Mitchell’s Greg Horn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 20AQMD to Workshop NOx Reductions for Spray Booths . . . . . . .p. 24

NATIONAL and COLUMNS in this issue...CREW Hosts New CIC Chairman Mike Quinn in Webcast . . . . . .p. 18Toyota Probe Finds No Electronic Flaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 26Danalevich—Insurance Appraiser Bootcamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 16Insurance Insider Talks DRP Referrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 32Amaradio—Setting the Record Straight on Parts Testing . . . . . .p. 53

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REGIONALAir Quality Management District to Workshop

NOx Reductions for Spray Booths. . . . . . . 22AZ Hail Storm Damage Tally up to $15 Million. 4AZ Insurance Dept Increases Auto Property

Damage Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10CA Insurance Commissioner Wants Insurance

Companies to Invest in Communities . . . . 23CA Paint Jobber NDI Sues BMW North

America After the Automaker Implementedits own BMW Paint Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CAA San Diego Holds First Meeting of 2011With Mitchell’s Greg Horn. . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

California Air Chief Blasts Auto Trade GroupOver Clean Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

California Expected to be Biggest U.S. Marketfor Plug-In Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

California, Colorado Consider Banning ‘CrashTaxes’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Copart Auto Parts Moving to TX . . . . . . . . . . . 9Findlay Automotive Group Acquires Flagstaff

Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Hyundai Sending 71 Orange County Jobs to

Texas, Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Move to Repeal 1099 Reporting Mandate for

Small Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Murietta, California May Donate Red Light

Camera Fines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Nevada Publishes Guides to Insurance . . . . . 23New ‘Smart City’ San Diego Partnership

Targets Electric Vehicles in Smart GridTechnologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Ringleader Arraigned on Conspiracy Chargesin a $1.2 Million CA Car Theft Ring . . . . . . 14

Roseville, Calif. Crash Tax Fails To DeliverRevenue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Sacramento Approves ‘Crash Tax’ on Non-CityResidents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Second CAA Meeting of 2011 Involving theEEEC Coming in March. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Sun Devil Auto Offers Expanded Services:Free Car Care Clinics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

COLUMNSAmaradio - Setting the Record Straight on

Ford vs. Aftermarket Parts Testing . . . . . . 53Attanasio - G&C Autobody Seizes Opportunity

to Expand in Northern California . . . . . . . . 48Danalevich - “It’s a Misunderstanding”—

Insurance Appraiser Boot Camp . . . . . . . . 16Franklin - ‘Consistency’ May be Boring—But

It’s Also Profitable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Insurance Insider - Not All “Referrals” are

Created Equal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32McGee - Using Manufacturer TSBs and

Recalls in Collision Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Schroeder - John Eagle Collision Center in

Dallas, TX, Focuses on Luxury Brands . . . 30Schroeder - Sal’s Premium Auto Collision in

Los Angeles, CA — A Lesson in Versatility. 44

The Rich Evans Designs-Mopar Kit forDodge’s Challenger, Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Weaver - When it Comes to Diagnostics,First, The Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Yoswick - New CIC Committee to Focus on ShopData’s Capture, Use, Sale, and Reports. . . . 34

Yoswick - Ten Things to Consider WhenDesigning a New Shop, Remodel, orExpansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

NATIONAL$7,500 EV Credit May Change . . . . . . . . . . . 24ABPA Says Aftermarket Bumper Outperformed

Ford Counterpart in Crash Test . . . . . . . . . 47AK Leg to Ban Cell Phone Usage in School,

Work Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Allstate Astrology Release a “Joke” . . . . . . . . 39Allstate to Add Hundreds of Agents in CA . . . 55ASRW Names New Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Audatex to Reintroduce Labor Times for

Unprimed Bumper Covers. . . . . . . . . . . . . 45BASF Official Show Sponsor of

NORTHEAST 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Chief Advises on High-Strength Steel in OEMs. 25Chrysler Group’s Mopar Division to Expand

Accessories Portfolio in 2011. . . . . . . . . . 27Class Action Judgements: GEICO Wins Appeal

vs. Greenberger & Progressive Wins 2/6 vs.Blue Ash Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CREW Hosts New CIC Chairman Mike Quinnin Webcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Diamond Standard Says All its Rear StepBumpers Are Now NSF Certified . . . . . . . . 36

Feds to Decide on Vehicle Grades byJuly 2011. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Ford to Ax Another 100 Lincoln Dealers . . . . . 6General Motors January 2011 Sales Rise

23 Percent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41George to Chair Insurance Institute for

Highway Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4GM May Undergo Dealer Overhaul on East,

West Coasts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10House Votes to Block E15 from Pumps Due to

Potential Engine Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Houston Auto Body Association Hosts

Legislative Breakfast for Texas Reps . . . . . 37Hyundai’s 25th Anniversary in U.S., Lifts

Southeastern Job Market Economy with Kia. 51J.D. Power Reveals Top Manufacturer

Websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Jordan Hendler Averts Teenager’s Suicide

Attempt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1NICB Issues 2010 Suspicious Claims Report. 39Repair Standards Advisory Committee Requests

Consultant to Help Draft Standards . . . . . . 51The Auto Body Guru Answers Questions on

Online Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Toyota Unintended Acceleration Probe Finds

No Electronic Flaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Contents

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst

General Manager: Barbara Davies

Editorial Assistant: Erica Schroeder

Contributing Writers: Tom Franklin, David Brown, John

Yoswick, Lee Amaradio, Rich Evans, Janet Chaney, Toby

Chess, Mike Causey, Tom McGee, Ed Attanasio

Advertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman

(800) 699-8251

Sales Assistant: Kristy Mangum

Art Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving California, Nevada and Arizona, Autobody News

is a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Per-

mission to reproduce in any form the material published

in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the

publisher. ©2011 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody News

P.O. Box 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018

(800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Fax

www.autobodynews.com

Email: [email protected]

Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . .49

Auto Body Guru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Autoland Scientech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Automotive ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . .31

British Motor Car Distributors . . . . . . . .34

California Superstores Chrysler-Jeep-

Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Carlsen Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Completes Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Crevier BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Downtown Motors of LA

(Audi, VW, Porsche) . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Drew Hyundai-Volkswagen . . . . . . . . . .47

DuPont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Elk Grove Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Enterprise Rent-A-Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

AZ, CA, & NV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Galpin Motors . . . . . . . . . . .25, 28-29, 35

Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Glenn E. Thomas Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge .11

Global Finishing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . .8

GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . .41

Harbor Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Honda/Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers .48

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . .45

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . .33

LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . .52

Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .54

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .21

Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealers .37

Power Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . . . . .17

PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

RBL Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Replica Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Riverside Metro VW-Honda-Hyundai-

Nissan-Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Sherwin-Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Sierra Chevrolet-Honda-Mazda-Subaru .24

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .12

Timmons VW-Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . .44

VIM Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers .42

Volvo Crash Wholesale Dealers . . . . . .46

Weatherford BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Inde

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Western

Legislators in both California andColorado have proposed laws thatwould prohibit communities fromcharging a fee when police and firepersonnel respond to an accident, ac-cording to Insurance Journal.

The city of Sacramento recentlyadopted just such a “fire recoverycharge” on out of town automobiledrivers. Sacramento’s “crash tax” im-poses a fee on out-of-town driverswho get into auto accidents in order tofund the fire department’s responseservices. The fee would be imposedon non-resident drivers if insurers findthem at fault in the accident. But busi-ness owners who live outside the citybut have property inside are exempt.

But Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, who introduced SenateBill 49, banning such crash taxes, said

“The availability and use ofemergency response resourcesthroughout the state is an issue ofstatewide concern and not a munici-pal affair,” he said, noting it is unfairto penalize residents who live in sur-

rounding communities but travel todown towns to work. Thus, his billwould prohibit a city, including acharter city, county, district, munici-pal corporation, or public authorityfrom charging a fee to any person, re-gardless of residency, for the expenseof an emergency response.

Colorado House Bill 1059,would similarly ban local govern-ments from imposing a fee or seekingreimbursement for costs incurred bypolice officers, firefighters, and otherfirst responders in connection with re-sponding to a motor vehicle accident,with exceptions for certain costs forcleaning up hazardous materials andcosts incurred in connection with pro-viding ambulance service.

A recent Harris Interactive pollon crash taxes for the Property Casu-alty Insurers Association of Americafound the majority of consumers be-lieve their taxes cover the time andservices provided by emergency re-sponse providers following a trafficaccident.

California, Colorado Consider Banning‘Crash Taxes’


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George to Chair InsuranceInstitute for Highway SafetyAAA Northern California, Nevadaand Utah, announced that SteveGeorge has been elected as the newchairman of the board of directors forthe Insurance Institute for HighwaySafety.

George is the executive vicepresident of insurance services at theCalifornia State Auto Group, a majorprovider of AAA-branded insurancein 23 states and the District of Co-lumbia.

The Insurance Institute forHighway Safety (IIHS) is a nonprofitorganization dedicated to reducingdeaths, injuries, and property damagethat result from crashes on the na-tion’s roads.

In his role as executive vice pres-ident of insurance services, George isresponsible for delivering a portfolioof relevant and competitive insuranceproducts and services to nearly 15mil-lionAAAmembers in states across thecountry, including members in North-ern California, Nevada and Utah.

Prior to joining AAA, Georgeserved as senior vice president forproperty and casualty underwriting atUSAAand worked at Nationwide In-surance for 21 years.

Murietta, Calif. May DonateRed Light Camera FinesMurietta may donate red light camerafines to local charities in an effort toconvince skeptics that safety is themotive behind the cameras, not amoney grab.

A recent red light camerastudy by the Insurance Institutefor Highway Safety said camerasindeed save lives, according toreports made by Insurance Jour-nal.

Murietta Councilman RickGibbs suggested the charity ideawhen the city leaders decided earlierthis month to expand the red lightcamera program from three intersec-tions to five.

Gibbs says the cameras have ledto complaints the city uses the cam-eras to make money.

Mayor Randon Lane told theRiverside Press-Enterprise that thecity would pursue the idea and do-nate any future revenue to localcharities that apply for federal Com-munity Development Block Grantmoney.

The Police Department saidthecity got $261,750 from the 8,500 redlight tickets issued during the five-year program.

Fresh on the heels of new data thatshows business leaders are prioritizingcollaboration as the gateway to inno-vation and growth, a new partnershiplaunched February 1 in San Diego,California to accelerate the rollout ofsmart grid technologies, clean energy,and one of the most comprehensiveelectric vehicle infrastructure plans inthe country.

The new Smart City San Diego,unveiled in February at UC SanDiego, is designed to position the SanDiego region as a leader in energymanagement, with the eventual goalof driving more efficient, reliable, andsustainable energy into everyday liv-ing.

The partnership is a collaborationamong theCity of SanDiego, utility SanDiego Gas & Electric, UC San Diego,nonprofit CleanTECH San Diego andGE.

The idea behind the initiative isthat by combining the skills of a mixof innovators—from government,business, education and non-profitsectors—the region can speed adop-tion of key technologies and benefitfrom the latest thinking.

At the heart of the partnership isa series of EV initiatives that includedemonstrating smart technologies that

better manage grid power loads inorder to enable rapid EV growth;streamlining home and public charg-ing permitting processes to speedadoption of EVs; and leveraging UCSan Diego’s extensive solar and fuelcell renewable energy work to findnew ways to draw on clean powersources.

The partners will also quantifythe economic impacts of the EV ini-tiatives—such as the business and jobgrowth that result—and they’ll studyconsumer behavior to better under-stand decisions and to identify otherpotential EV initiatives.

The new push comes just as Cal-ifornia set a target of generating 33percent of its energy from renewablesby 2020—and San Diego itself isprepping for one of the largest initialdeployments of EVs in the country.

On the plus side, EVs could re-duce U.S. oil importation by 52 per-cent, and electricity costs per mile areexpected to be approximately one-quarter to one-third the cost of gaso-line per mile.

However, grid reliability andconsumer acceptance and educationhave to be tackled first in order to en-sure that the integration happensseamlessly.

New ‘Smart City’ San Diego Partnership TargetsElectric Vehicles in Smart Grid Technologies

The House Small Business Commit-tee has held its first hearing in the112th session of Congress on the 1099reporting mandate of the new healthcare law. The reporting mandatewould require small businesses to filea 1099 form with the IRS for everyvendor they pay more than $600 in ayear. Sam Graves, R-Mo., HouseSmall Business Committee chairman,who led the hearing, said, “This new1099 requirement will cause an ava-lanche of additional 1099 forms to befiled, and affect more than 36 millionentities. At a time when we should bemaking it easier to create jobs, pro-mote growth and invest in our econ-omy, small firms don’t need yetanother costly and burdensome man-date.” During his testimony, Rep.DanLungren, R-Calif., said, “I would sug-gest to the committee that Section9006 conveys the worst possible mes-sage to the small business community.It reflects a disconnect with the day-to-day reality faced by the men andwomen involved with companies ineach and every one of our districts. Asone small businessman recently relatedto me, ‘This is what you would expectfrom someone who has never laidawake at night worrying about making

a payroll.’ He’s right, and we should-n’t be adding to the worries of thosewho run small business enterprises.”More at www.TakingTheHill.com.

Move to Repeal 1099 Reporting Mandate for Small Businesses

Arizona Hail Storm DamageTally up to $15 MillionDamage from last October’s hailstorm is costing the MaricopaCounty, Ariz., government and tax-payers millions, according to reportsmade by Claims Journal.

Officials say the storm thatdumped large hail in some areasdamaged about 450 county-ownedvehicles.

Some vehicles had cracked andbroken windshields.

The county says others haddamaged and dented hoods and mir-rors on cars, buses, vans and forklifts.

The county says the cost of re-pairs will be partially picked up byinsurance carriers but tens of thou-sands of dollars in repair costs willbe passed on to taxpayers.

TheArizona Republic reports thecounty estimates total real-propertydamage costs from the Oct. 5 stormrange from $15million to $20million.


any BMW car painted at German Mo-tors.”

“BMW North America told Ger-man Motors that they had to buy fromthem under this new program, no mat-ter what other contracts they had, orelse they would lose their certifica-tion” said NDI’s owner, Tony Ni-colosi.

German Motors Collision Cen-ter’s contract with NDI stated: “Allpaint materials, DPC products andsupplies will be purchased exclusivelythrough Nicolosi Distributing Inc.Materials purchased by BMW of SanFrancisco will not be bought throughany other vendor.”

Under this new program BMWNorth America does not allow any oftheir certified body shops or dealer-ships to paint BMWvehicles with anyother paints, blocking jobbers acrossthe country out of the market of sell-

ing paint supplies to these places.Nicolosi said that NDI sells

DuPont paints, and the BMW paint isalso made by DuPont.

“A lot of jobbers across the coun-try lost a lot of business because ofthis,” said Nicolosi.

NDI is also accusing BMWNorth America of interfering with aprospective economic advantage, vio-lation of California’s Anti-Competi-tion Act, Business and ProfessionsCode Section 17200 and violation ofBusiness and Professions Code Sec-tion 16727 in which a business’s ac-tions lessen competition and create amonopoly on a trade or line of com-merce.

Nicolosi is asking for damages of$75,000 for the first and second claim,exemplary damages from Federal

Court, injunc-tive relief fromthe third andfourth claims,attorneys fees,other relieffrom the Busi-ness and Pro-fessions Codev i o l a t i o n s ,court costs and

other relief as judged by the court.On February 7, 2011, BMW of

North America filed a motion forjudgment on the pleadings, whichsought to dismiss the entire action.The Court Denied the motion in

part, and granted the motion in part.US District Judge Susan Illstonruled that the intentional interfer-ence with a contract, interferencewith a prospective economic advan-

tage and unfair competition com-plaints would go ahead to court,while the claim for an unlawfultying agreement was dismissed withleave to refile, which Nicolosi willdo on February 25, according toNDI’s lawyer Herman Franck.

According to Franck, NDI willamend the complaint to describe theparticulars of an illegal tying arrange-ment whereby BMW of North Amer-ica coerces body shops intopurchasing BMW branded pain prod-ucts by withdrawing BMW certifica-tion unless they purchase BMW

branded paint products. This issue ap-plies only to BMW automobiles, anddoes not apply to non-BMW automo-biles.

Franck went on to say that the co-ercion in the industry is that it is “un-thinkable not to have that (BMW)certification” according to GermanMotors Collision Center, so the BMWcertification is really tied to usingBMW-certified paint.

When asked about the litigationby Autobody News, BMW NorthAmerica’s legal representativeStephen Bledsoe said, “It is BMW’spolicy not to comment on any pend-ing litigation.”

The trial date is set for October24, 2011 at 8:30 a.m.

Nicolosi is expecting other job-bers who feel they have lost businessbecause of this program to come for-ward and join the lawsuit.

Nicolosi Distributing Inc.San Jose location: (408) 573-7146San Carlos location: (650) 413-0150Email: [email protected]

Stephen Bledsoe- representing BMW(816) 561-7007


Ford to Ax Another 100 Lincoln DealersFord Motor Co. confirmed February6 it wants to cut another 100 Lincolndealers as it pares back its luxurybrand network.

In October, published reportsquoted dealers as saying Ford wantedto shrink its 500 dealers in 130 majormarkets to 325.Ken Czubay, Ford’sU.S. sales chief, said the companysaid the 500 dealers in 130 majormarkets had been reduced to 434 asof Dec. 31, and he confirmed the325-dealer target for the major mar-kets.

“That’s our evaluation of themarketplace,” Czubay said. Ford isoffering buyouts to Lincoln dealers.

“We’re working with everydealer to help them evaluate theirbusiness plan. We’re not forcing any-one out. This is strictly voluntary,”Czubay said. “It’s a tough personaldecision that they have to make.”

Most luxury brands in the UnitedStates have 250 to 300 dealers. Lin-coln has 1,200— and it has the oldest

average buyer among luxury brands— older than 60.

Lincoln is introducing seven newor refreshed products over the nextthree years. Sales were down 21 per-cent for Lincoln in January, but itsmarket share in the luxury marketgrew by 5.6 percent.

Czubay said Ford wants to be“well on our way to completion” ofparing its Lincoln dealer network byyear’s end. Ford says it is necessary toreduce the number of dealers to makethe remaining Lincoln dealers moreprofitable. Ford is setting higher stan-dards for dealerships and their staffs.

The Dearborn-based automaker isgiving cash to all Lincoln dealers as partof an effort to boost dealerships. Dealerswill start getting measured onApril.

After an Oct. 1 snapshot, if theydon’t meet a certain compliance per-centage, they will lose the new cashfrom Ford. Ford will send all of itsLincoln dealers details of the programthis month.

Nicolosi Distributing Inc.’s San Carlos location

German Motors Collision Center in San Francisco

Continued from Page 1

Jobber Lawsuit



The Sacramento City Council hasadopted a city ordinance approving a“crash tax” on out of town automobiledrivers.

The City Council voted 5-4 onTuesday night to join a growing listof cities across the state that chargeout-of-towners hundreds of dollarswhen they’re in an automobile crashthat requires a Fire Department re-sponse, according to reports made byInsurance Journal and the Sacra-mento Bee.

The “fire recovery charge” willimpose a fee on out-of-town driverswho get into auto accidents in order tofund the fire department’s responseservices.

The fee would be imposed onnon-resident drivers if insurers findthem at fault in the accident. But busi-ness owners who live outside the citybut have property inside the citywould be exempt from the tax.

The fee will be billed throughdrivers’ insurance companies.

TheAssociation of California In-surance Companies opposed the tax.“Given the difficult economy, it is un-

derstandable why the City of Sacra-mento is looking for new revenuesources.

However, putting this burden onout-of-town drivers is unfair,” saidSam Sorich, ACIC president.

Supporters of the fees say thecharges represent a fair piece of thecosts that cities incur responding tothousands of wrecks each year.

The fees are not taxes, city offi-cials said, because they will not pro-vide the city with revenue beyondwhat is spent on the Fire Department’sresponse.

City officials said they werehopeful the fees would help avoidsome future cuts to the Fire Depart-ment.

But critics – including a state sen-ator who has written legislation pro-posing to ban the fees – describe theprograms as “double taxes” leviedagainst out-of-towners whose salestax contributions already pay for fireservice.

Several states, including Floridaand Pennsylvania, have outlawed theprograms.

The city Fire Department re-sponds to 3,600 accidents a year, cityofficials said. One-third of those in-volve drivers who live outside thecity.

Under the city’s adopted feescale, nonresidents will be charged$495 if they are involved in a typicalincident in the city. Those crashes in-volve “scene stabilization” by the FireDepartment, as well as a cleanup ofgasoline or oil.

Crashes in which a helicopter isrequired to evacuate a victim will run$2,275.

All nonresidents involved incrashes in the city will receive bills forFire Department service.

Insurance companies will in turndetermine who was at fault in thosewrecks and then who will be on thehook for the fees.

While city officials are countingon insurance companies to pay thebills, Sorich said that the “typicalauto insurance policy was never in-tended to cover these fees.”

Sacramento Fire Chief RayJones told the council that the purpose

of the ordinance was “not to securerevenue, but rather to recover reason-able costs” incurred when the depart-ment responds to an auto wreck.

Still, Jones said the fees collectedthrough the program would helpmaintain the department’s service lev-els.

Budget cuts in the past two yearshave led to two Fire Department rigsgetting placed on rolling closures andJones said the department was “tryingto find ways not to have three, four,five.”

City officials projected the pro-gram will generate between $300,000and $500,000 each year.

The ordinance debated Tuesdaynight was similar to one first floatedlast summer.

But after the city attorney’s officequestioned the legality of only charg-ing nonresidents, a new ordinance wasdiscussed that would have alsocharged residents for Fire Departmentresponse.

That proposal was eventuallytossed out in favor of the latest ver-sion.

Sacramento Approves ‘Crash Tax’ on Non-City Residents


Hyundai Sending 71 OrangeCounty Jobs to Texas, GeorgiaHyundai CapitalAmerica, the Koreanauto company’s financing arm, istransferring 71 jobs from Irvine to itsoffices in Dallas and Austell, Ga., aspokesman has confirmed.

Chris Hosford, a HyundaiMotor America spokesman, saidHyundai Capital would maintain apresence in Irvine but that collectionsand customer service positions wouldbe moved.

“The jobs are being transferredbecause they are focusing more oftheir efforts in the South and South-west through Hyundai’s existing op-erations in those two cities,” Hosfordsaid.

He said the people in Irvine whoare affected have been notified andthose jobs will end March 31.

“All the employees who arequalified have been offered to applyfor the positions and encouraged to doso,” Hosford said.

He did not know how many peo-ple will make the move. HyundaiCapital’s website says it has about 500people in Irvine, Fountain Valley andAustell. The company provides fi-nancing to Hyundai and Kia dealersand vehicle buyers. Some of the Irvineworkers have applied for other jobswith the company in California.

“For some people, the opportu-nity to move to an area of the countrywhere housing costs are lower couldbe a good thing,” he said.

Hosford said the job transfers areunrelated to Hyundai Motor Amer-ica’s plans to more than double thesize of its North American headquar-ters off the I-405 in Fountain Valley.The company plans to begin hiringthis year and expects to double thestaffing at its headquarters to about1,400 people.

Roseville city leaders said they wantto ditch the city’s crash tax becauseit’s not living up to expectations, ac-cording to reports made by ABC10News Roseville.

In 2009, Roseville approved anordinance that allows the city to col-lect fees for emergency services fromnon-resident drivers found “at fault”in crashes.

But Roseville City ManagerRayKerridge said the crash tax has failedto deliver a promised financial wind-fall.

“The projections were that itwould produce $100,000 (a year) plusand more. And when we did the tally,it only brought in about $40,000,”

Kerridge said. Apparently emergencycrews and business owners also com-plained about the law.

Kerridge said the crash tax forcesfire fighters and paramedics to spendmore time at accident scenes.

“They have to go check insur-ances, licenses. What happens ifsomebody doesn’t have insurance ora license,” Kerridge asked. “It wastaking our rigs out of rotation whenthey should have been out answeringother calls.”

Kerridge contends the crash taxgenerated an anti-business climate.Chuck Bartlett, who owns BartlettFlowers & Gifts, agreed.

He said, “The economy is bad

enough. If there’s something elsethat’s causing people not to want toshop here or do business here, that’snot a good thing.”

The city of Sacramento recentlygenerated a firestorm of complaintswhen it approved a crash tax.

Officials from Yolo County andsurrounding cities have talked aboutpossibly boycotting Sacramento andsaid the emergency fee creates theperception that the city isn’t friendly.

Kerridge said Roseville doesn’twant to foster that kind of ill will andwill consider repealing the crash taxat next week’s city council meeting.He said, “It’s a failed experiment. It’stime to get rid of it.”

Roseville, Calif. Crash Tax Fails To Deliver Revenue Copart Auto Parts Moving to TXACalifornia auto parts company saidFebruary 4 that it plans to move itscorporate headquarters to Dallas, ac-cording to the Dallas Morning News.

Fairfield-based Copart Inc.’shead office and a divisional process-ing center will relocate to the Dallasarea next year.

“This change will position uscloser to our customers geographi-cally, resulting in improved customerservice and greater operational effi-ciencies,” said Jay Adair, Copart’sCEO.

Copart sells salvage vehicles andparts on the Internet.

The company, whichwas foundedin 1982, said it plans to set up three pro-cessing centers in Fairfield, GrandPrairie and Hartford, Conn.

General Motors Co.’s NorthAmericanPresidentMark Reuss wants to over-haul locations of some automaker’sdealerships that are in key markets onthe East and West coasts of the coun-try, according to reports made by theDetroit News Washington Bureau.

Reuss told reporters the au-tomaker could add additional dealer-ships in key markets on the east andwest coasts.

He said, “we know that our foot-prints on the coasts have been de-stroyed” through GM’s 2009bankruptcy, the 2008-09 financial cri-sis and what Reuss admits are “20years of bad product.”

GM’s strongest market in theMidwest and its sales on the East andWest coasts have suffered for decadesas imports have taken a growingshare.

But Reuss said the companycould opt to move dealers from un-derperforming areas to stronger areas,rather than actually open new dealers.

He said the first thing to boostsales in California was to make sure ithad the right size dealer network anddealers in the right places.

“Not in all cases is it adding deal-ers, it would be getting the dealer thatmay be in that place in the rightplace,” Reuss said. “There’s a lot ofwork to do there.”

Reuss and GM’s vice presidentfor U.S. sales Don Johnson said GMhasn’t been strong in California andother markets and both coasts.

“The message is clearly we haveto be in the right places if we’re goingto be successful,” Johnson said. “Weknow there are areas where we shouldbe that we’re not.”

Johnson said Los Angeles andSan Francisco were two markets “weneed to perform better overall.”

Reuss said his message wasn’tthat GM was about to add a bunch ofdealers.

“We’re saying we need to get theright distribution on these coasts andwe don’t have it right now…We mayhave enough but they are very poorlydistributed,” he said.

He named Long Island as anothermarket where GM doesn’t haveenough dealers.

Asked if GM had the right prod-uct mix to attract California buyers,Reuss said: “Not yet.”

“There’s some stuff that we needto have that we don’t have, but I’m notgoing to expose our future productportfolio,” he said.

Johnson said GM had turned offcustomers in the Golden State. “Wewere irrelevant in California. We’rebecoming more relevant,” Johnsonsaid.

Reuss also said more than 90 per-cent of the automaker’s 4,500 U.S.dealers are profitable.

Reuss praised the remarkableturnaround, noting that less than 40percent of GM’s 6,200 dealers at theend of 2009 were profitable.

Asked if GM had the right over-all number of dealers at present, John-son said it could still decline overtime. “We are doing a thorough as-sessment of our network,” he said,saying it was a priority to address thecoasts.

As a result of fewer dealers andGM’s increase in sales, average salesat dealers are up. GM is also using thesame advertising budget to tout itsfour remaining U.S. brands, comparedwith 8 brands in early 2009.

About 1,000 of its dealers thisyear are improving their facilities.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Mar-chionne said Friday more than 80 per-cent of its dealers are profitable today— the highest level since 2000.

Reuss also said GM has no plansto buy its own dealerships.

He said GM will build 10,000

Volt vehicles in this model year and40,000 in the 2012 model year.

Reuss said the company is target-ing growth in subprime lending for theless-than-optimal credit score that 40percent of Americans have.

About four percent of GM’s busi-ness was in leasing in 2010; lastmonth it was 14 percent.

GM acquired AmeriCredit for$3.5 billion late last year and renamedit GM Financial. It started a subprimeleasing trial in Ohio of the Cruze andis rolling it out to seven Northeaststates and will expand to Canada inthe second quarter.

“We have leases but we’re notcompetitive (in Canada),” Reuss said.

Johnson said GM Financial is sofar “only putting its toe in the water.”

Asked if GM will get a PR boostin withdrawing a request for up to$14.4 billion in Energy Departmentretooling loans, Reuss said he didn’tknow.

“I know that it will prevent ourcompetitors from making T-shirts thatsay things about it, which would behelpful perception wise,” Reuss said.


GM May Undergo Dealer Overhaul on East and West Coasts

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Findlay Automotive GroupAcquires Flagstaff HondaThe Findlay Automotive Group onJanuary 28 said it acquired FlagstaffHonda in Flagstaff, Ariz., and re-named the dealership Findlay HondaFlagstaff, according to reports madeby the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Financial terms weren’t dis-closed.

In a statement, the group said thedealership, at 5199 Test Drive in theFlagstaff Auto Park, consists of a23,000 square-foot sales and servicecenter that was built in 2008.

This is the third Findlay Au-tomotive dealership in Flagstaffand is adjacent to Findlay ToyotaFlagstaff and Findlay VolkswagenFlagstaff.

Findlay Honda Flagstaff is the23rd dealership owned by the Find-lay Automotive Group.

The organization has headquar-ters in Henderson also owns dealer-ships in Arizona, Nevada, Utah andIdaho.

For more information pleasevisit www.findlayauto.com.

Arizona Insurance DepartmentIncreases Property DamageThreshold for Autos to $2400The Arizona Department of Insur-ance has adjusted the thresholdamount of property damages insurersmay use to non-renew private pas-senger auto policies to $2,400, ac-cording to Insurance Journal.

According to the DOI, A.R.S.20-1631(E) governs the limits on aninsurer’s ability to cancel or non-renew a personal automobile policyafter it has been in effect for 60 days,and A.R.S. 20-1631(E) lists addi-tional conditions and limitations forcancellations and non-renewals, in-cluding a provision that: “An insurershall not fail to renew more than one-half of 1 percent of its policies annu-ally.”

For accidents occurring afterJan. 2, 2000, theADOI must annuallyadjust and publish the thresholdamount. Because the U.S. Depart-ment of Labor Bureau of Labor Sta-tistics Consumer Price Index forurban consumers is 1.6 percent,ADOI has increased the threshold.



Galpin SubaruVan Nuys

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Kearny Mesa SubaruSan Diego

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Subaru of GlendaleGlendale

(818) 550-1500(818) 549-3850 Fax

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(626) 359-8291(626) 932-5660 Fax

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Timmons SubaruLong Beach(888) 489-5001

(562) 426-3550 FaxTue. 7-8; Mon., Wed.-Fri. 7-6;Sat. 8-4, Sat. No Delivery

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Marin SubaruSan Rafael

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The Economic & Employment En-forcement Coalition (EEEC) willspeak at their second annual CAAMeeting this year in March. The meet-ing will be on March 10th, 2011 at theHoliday Inn in Torrance, CA.

Networking & Registration willrun from 6:00 -6:30 pm and the din-ner meeting will follow from 6:30 -8:00 pm.

The EEEC is going to begin mak-ing unannounced inspections of auto

body shops this year. They will reviewyour business records and interviewyouremployees. They will inspect your shopfor compliance of labor laws, health &safety regulations and tax compliance.

This meeting will cover what youneed to know about these inspectionsand the EEEC will explain to atten-dees what type of violations they lookfor and why.

The EEEC (Economic & Em-ployment Enforcement Coalition) is a

government enforcement unit com-prised of investigators and inspectorsfrom several state agencies includingEDD (payroll), OSHA (safety), LaborCommissioner's Office (employeerights) and more.

This year, they are stepping upthese unannounced inspections in theAutobody industry for compliance.

The cost for the meeting is$40.00 for members at the door and$100.00 for non-members.

RSVP to Cindy Shillito at [email protected] or call 714-944-4028.

See the next edition of AutobodyNews for more about this meeting.

Second CAAMeeting of 2011 Involving the EEEC Coming in March

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


Q: It’s a new year and I am evaluat-ing all my current marketing. Should Ibe investing more money in print Yel-low Pages?

A: Great Question! While its true thatprint Yellow Pages was a great way tomarket your business many years agothe marketing climate has changedand the way your potential customersare searching for auto body and paintservices has changed. In fact, just over70% of searches for local goods andservices are conducted online viamajor search engines and directorieslike Google, Yahoo!, Bing and manymore and usually at a fraction of thecost.

Q: I get mostly insurance work now.How can marketing my business on-line help?

A: This comes up a lot and onlinemarketing is actually a great comple-ment for your existing work. In mostcases when people are searching on-line for repair shops they are doing

this because they are not aware oftheir options. If you’re showing up intop results online you’re just increas-ing your exposure and also the num-ber of jobs that may be going to yourcompetition now.Also, you may havecomplementary businesses like tow-ing or auto repair that can also benefitfrommaking sure your business is vis-ible online.

Q: I have a website so I’m all setright?

A:Actually, No.Awebsite is a needlein a haystack unless its front and cen-ter on search engines and mobilephones. It’s like designing an amazingbusiness card and never passing a sin-gle one out. It doesn’t do you muchgood if nobody sees it. Making sureyou business and website is visible onsearch engines, directories, mobilephones, gps devices, plus other onlinevenues is the key for your business’sfuture growth.

Q: I have people calling me everyday

claiming to be from Google, Yahoo!,or Bing and trying to sell me onlinemarketing, is this for real?

A:Unfortunately, like other industriesthe online marketing industry can beplagued by companies who claimsomething they are not. The fact of thematter is that Google, Yahoo!, or Bingdo not actively market or solicit busi-nesses. In fact, they warn that anyoneclaiming to be them is a scam. EvenAuto Body Guru doesn’t have a directline to these search engines.

Q: I have companies who say they candeliver results in 24–48 hours. Is thisfor real?

A: Yes and No. They are using amarketing program called Pay PerClick. It means they can get yourbusiness on the first page quicklybut you are required to pay for

every click or view of your site.This can be a great method of mar-keting but it’s never going to be afixed cost that makes sense. Instead,organic or natural search engine op-timization is a much better return oninvestment. It takes 2–3 months togenerate real results in search en-gines but they are more permanentand have longevity.

For additional informationabout how to increase your businessthrough online marketing, contact:

Auto Body Guru(888) 335-2226rmirzaians@softlinesolutions.comwww.softlinesolutions.com

The Auto Body Guru Answers Questions on Online Marketing

This year, J.D. Power and Associatesthinks Honda’s site does the best jobdelivering the best information andproviding a consistently satisfying ex-perience across all points of entry.That’s the finding of J.D. Power’s 2011Manufacturer Website EvaluationStudy —Wave 1, which was releasedearlier this month.

The semiannual study now in its12th year measures the usefulness ofautomotive manufacturer websites dur-ing the new-vehicle shopping processby examining four key measures:speed, appearance, navigation and in-formation/content.

J.D. Power determined Hondaranked highest with a score of 836 on a1,000-point scale. Analysts thoughtHonda’s site performs particularly wellin the information/content, navigationand speed measures.

Rounding out the top five au-tomaker websites as ranked by J.D.Power:—Mazda: 818—Mini: 815—Porsche: 814—Acura: 813

“Certain brands that perform con-sistently well among users who enter atthe home page and through modelpages — such as Mini and Porsche —have navigation schemes that remainthe same throughout the website,” ex-plained Arianne Walker, director ofmarketing and media research at J.D.Power.

“This makes it possible for web-site users to access relevant informa-tion from anywhere on the site,”

Walker continued. “This certainly rein-forces the fact that automotive brandwebsites need to be intuitive andshould reduce the number of clicks ittakes for the user to get to their desireddestination.”

J.D. Power went on to reveal thatthe most improved brands in 2011 in-clude Cadillac—which jumped by 15rank positions — and Porsche —which climbed by 14 rank positions.

According to Walker, much ofCadillac’s improvement in 2011 comesfrom improved navigation, which wasadded on top of image and brandingupdates that were initiated early in2010. She pointed out Porsche’s im-provement from 2010 was primarilydue to changes in navigation and de-sign that provide users with clearer,more readable page layouts.

“Whenever a website incorpo-rates image and brand changes, it in-volves a certain amount of risk;however, taking these risks allowsmanufacturers and marketers to takeadvantage of the dynamic, change-able nature of the Internet,” Walkersaid.

“Compared with changing the de-sign of a vehicle model, changing awebsite provides a relatively low-costopportunity to experiment, and even al-lows for reversal of the changes if theexperiment doesn’t work,” she went onto say. “However, it’s important to keepin mind that changes should includesome reasonable payoff for the websiteuser. In fact, users will be more accept-ing of experimentation if the payoff is

J.D. Power Reveals Top Manufacturer Websites

See JD Power, Page 40

Martin Vasquez, 43, one of the ring-leaders of a million-dollar SouthernCalifornia car theft ring that employedphony DMV documents and stolendriver’s license numbers, was ar-raigned earlier this month in Los An-geles Superior Court.

All three men named in a com-plaint filed by the state Department ofJustice have now been taken into cus-tody and arraigned on multiple countsof theft and conspiracy in connectionwith the use of fraudulent DMV doc-uments to clear the titles of two dozenvehicles so they could be sold at auc-tion or to individuals. The estimatedvalue of the stolen cars was $1.2 mil-lion.

Luis Marroquin, 64, of Hunt-ington Park was also arraigned in LosAngeles County Superior Court. Mar-roquin’s bail was set at $700,000. Heis being held in Los Angeles CountyJail.

Marroquin and Kirsio Cruz, 46,of Norco were arrested after an inves-tigation by the California HighwayPatrol and the Department of MotorVehicles. Cruz was released shotlyafter on $150,000 bail after arraign-ment.

Vasquez was arrested at a coffeeshop in Southgate. His bail was set at$355,000.

Vasquez and Marroquin ran asmog shop and a fraudulent registra-

tion service called Latinos Smog inthe Boyle Heights section of Los An-geles, according to documents filed inthe case. To advance their scheme,they used fraudulent California dri-ver’s licenses, Social Security cards,notary stamps and CHP and DMVrubber stamps to “wash” vehicles oftheir lien holders.

Their use of stolen driver’s li-censes and Social Security numbersput innocent, and unwitting, citizensat risk of further identity theft abusesand loss of credit.

Here’s an example of how thescheme worked: In October 2007, aphony DMV release of lien holderform was filed, removing ToyotaMotor Credit as the lien holder for a2005 Toyota Camry registered to anInglewood man.

That “washed” a lien of$27,261.16 on the car, unbeknownstto Toyota Credit, which tried to repos-sess the car and then wrote off the ve-hicle when it could not be located. Itwas later recovered by Oakland po-lice.

In another instance, a 2005 BMW645i was purchased using a stolen dri-ver’s license and a stolen Social Secu-rity number belonging to innocentcitizens.

The company that financed thepurchase then had its lien removedthrough a forged document filed with

DMV, a process that allowed the carto be sold at auction by the carthieves.

A silver metal briefcase and othercontainers found in a Ford Taurusparked at Latinos Smog, according toa CHP inventory, contained at least125 stamps, including stamps forHawthorne, Pasadena and several

other DMV locations; notary public#48012714 stamp; a CHP stamp; astamp for Toyota Motor Credit;stamps for various other auto financ-ing agencies; and stamps for auto auc-tions in Fontana, Riverside andelsewhere in Southern California.

The investigation into the cartheft ring continues.


California is likely to become thebiggest U.S. market for new plug-inand electric cars, accounting for moresales of these high-tech, clean vehiclesthan the five next largest states com-bined, according to a new study, ac-cording to reports made by theDetroitNews.

The Center for Automotive Re-search in Ann Arbor said in its studythat demand for plug-in and electriccars, such as the Chevrolet Volt andNissan Leaf, is likely to follow a sim-ilar pattern to hybrid car sales.

The leading markets for thesenew, cleaner vehicles tend to be the

more populous states, but Californiaalso leads in density of hybrid owners,with more than 50 per 10,000 resi-dents, compared with fewer than 26per 10,000 in Texas or Michigan.

General Motors Co. and NissanMotor Co. are ramping up deliveriesand production of the Volt and Leaf,respectively.

Ford Motor Co. is expected tointroduce an electric Focus beforethe end of the year, while severalother carmakers are rolling out theirown electric offerings: the Mit-subishi i-Miev, a Tesla Model S, aFisker Karma, a Coda sedan, a Mini

E, Toyota RAV-4 and electric SmartFortwo.

“California is an initial launchstate for the Volt, Leaf and FocusElectric — likely due to its position asthe largest automobile market in theUnited States, as well as its relativelyhigh penetration of hybrids, and regu-latory environment conducive to elec-tric vehicle adoption,” the study said.

Fuel-cell vehicles, now leased intiny numbers, are expected to increasefrom 2015 as more models becomeavailable.

According to industry estimatescited in the study, combined U.S. sales

of electric, plug-in and fuel-cell vehi-cles is expected to nearly double from77,000 in 2012 to 140,000 in 2015. Bythen, the number of electrics and plug-ins on U.S. roads is expected to reachclose to 500,000.

According to the CAR report,key factors underpinning demand forthese new and cleaner technologies in-clude tax or other incentives, the pro-vision of priority parking spaces andthe installation of charging outlets.

States offering the biggest arrayof incentives include Florida, Col-orado, Massachusetts, Maryland, NewYork, Utah and California.

California Expected to be Biggest U.S. Market for Plug-In Vehicles

Ringleader Arraigned on Conspiracy Charges in a $1.2 Million CA Car Theft Ring


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Those of us who are active in the autobody industry understand there ismuch skill involved negotiating withinsurance company appraisers in ar-riving at an “acceptable” (profitable)repair bottom line.

During my 30 year auto body ca-reer, I have written thousands of autobody repair estimates mastering the“the art” of negotiating with a varietyof insurance appraisers. It’s only natu-ral to have a preference of which in-surance appraisers we welcome intoour auto body shops. Commonly wefind some insurance appraisers are con-sistently easier to work with and arriveat a profitable “bottom line.” Thenthere are those appraisers that make usfeel as though they are paying for therepairs out of their own pockets.

Recently, our body shop in SantaBarbara, Calif., had an insuranceclaim where the issuance of the sup-plement was an experience I havenever encountered in over thirty yearsof owning and managing a body shop.

On the day the insurance appraiserrepresenting a well known companyarrived, I noted this appraiser hadnever been assigned an appraisal in-spection at our shop before. ThereforeI had some concern we did not haveany history of a working relationship.

The insurance appraisal inspec-tion involved a 2002 BMW 323cic.Upon introducing herself the appraiserbegan taking photos of the claimant’svehicle and making notes pertainingto the damaged left rear door andquarter panel. I listened attentively tothe often heard we-can-only-pay-for-this-procedure speech.

Days later, we completed the re-pairs and submitted a supplement tothe insurance appraiser. During myfollow up on the supplement confir-mation, I received a phone call fromthe appraiser saying her supervisorhas now decided not to pay for therear $130 bumper molding she hadoriginally approved to be replaced onher preliminary insurance estimate.By the way, the “non returnable” parthas been installed on the customer’svehicle. My initial reaction was Icould not believe what I was hearing.If this was ten years ago I feel certainthis appraiser would have been on the

receiving end of some colorful lan-guage. Instead, I phoned the vehicleowner and informed him there is aninsurance delay in delivering his cartoday. I said it appears the insurancecompany does not mind paying for“additional” rental car expenses overthe weekend because of an unsettlednew policy which I never experiencedbefore. I explained the “we would payfor it yesterday but not today” re-sponse. The vehicle owner phoned theinsurance appraiser expressing hisconcern about the delay as he neededhis car returned for an upcoming trip.That same day I received a phone callfrom the insurance appraiser whostated I would need to call their com-pany’s supplement hotline to “negoti-ate” an agreement for full paymentconcerning the $130 molding.

I thought to myself there is noth-ing to negotiate here—the insurancecompany owes us full price for thepart! On Monday morning I thenphoned the insurance company’s 1(800) SCREW U hotline. I’m suremany of you know the supplementhotline which I am referring to. Thisparticular hotline did not have ahuman voice, only a voice recordinginstructing you to fax your supple-ment to 1(800) SCREW U 2. Feelingfrustrated, I then phoned the insuranceappraiser and learned she had thisMonday and Tuesday off, probably formeeting the insurance company’squota of withdrawing parts and laborfrom the original written estimates.

Near mid-dayMonday, I receiveda phone call from the insurance super-visor who appeared to be “shadowing”this claim. He told me the claimant hadphoned seeking his assistance to arriveat a settlement which resulted in un-necessary delays in releasing the vehi-cle to the claimant. I explained to theinsurance supervisor the problem initi-ated by their appraiser, specifically, the$130 bumper molding part which hadbeen withdrawn from their proposedsupplement. Upon further discussionthe claim supervisor replied his deci-sion of withdrawing allowance for thepart was based upon thinking the partin question was a door side moldingnot the bumper molding! Say What!?At that point, I had to ask how long his

appraiser, has been employed. Hereplied about “Twomonths”! Like, NoKidding!

According to the insurance su-pervisor’s explanation this was all a“misunderstanding”!

Is it a misunderstanding or amistake when hiring someonewho is not experiencedenough for the position tomake confident decisions?Asa result of my efforts in stand-ing up to the insurance super-visor we were paid in full($181) for supplement partsand labor pertaining to thewithdrawn bumper moldingfrom the original insurance re-pair estimate.Have you ever had a 1 800SCREW U 2 “misunder-standing”?If so, drop me a line I wouldwelcome you to share your

memorable insurance “misunder-standing” experiences.

Walter [email protected]


“It’s a Misunderstanding”—Insurance Appraiser Boot Campwith Walter Danalevich

Shop Strategies for Savings Walter Danalevich, AAM, has been the owner of Santa BarbaraAuto Refinishing since 1979. Contact him at:[email protected].

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The February webcast of the CollisionRepair Executive Webcast (CREW)hosted new Collision Industry Con-ference (CIC) ChairmanMike Quinn.Quinn also owns 911 Collision Cen-ters with 7 locations in Arizona.

The webcast detailed Quinn’sgoals for his 2011-2012 term at CIC

Chairman. Quinn’smain goals are toincrease attendanceand participation,increase trust, makeCIC a place forpeople to voice is-sues without fear ofcriticism, create a

process where committees can developwork product that is valued by the in-dustry and formulate processes to im-prove the overall effectiveness andefficiency of CIC as a body.

Quinn further explained what hemeans by process by using the class Astandard of a work facility that camefromCIC previously as an example. Healso mentioned the effectiveness ofCIECA and their work with electroniccommerce as a good process that was

brought by a committee before his term.Quinn said he would like to make

CIC helpful in creating a solution orfinished product that can help solve aproblem, not just a floor for people tovent their issues and opinions.

“We’ve paired down a few of thecommittees,” said Quinn. CIC steam-lined a few of their committees this termin order to make sure each committeehad a specific and attainable goal.

“We’re going to create a votingstandard for the adoption of prac-tices,” said Quinn. The hope is thatnew processes for solving issue withinthe industry can be voted on by com-mittees, presented to the whole CIC tovote, then to the entire industry beforeattempted adoption.

Quinn said he would like to see arepair standards committee take a sim-ilar route as compared to CIECA.

“We’ve worked very closely withThatcham... we’re hoping to discusstheir repair standard at the July meet-ing,” said Quinn.

Quinn also talked about promot-ing respect and new leadership at CICmeetings and in committees.

“All segments of the industryneed to be represented, respected andable to participate,” said Quinn.

New guidelines and a code ofconduct were released at the PalmSprings meeting held on January 12,13, 14 to increase respect and encour-age communication.

“We’re reaching out to a numberof the top 10 insurers and others toparticipate,” said Quinn, “And repair-ers as well as vendors.”

Quinn also spoke about the closevote during the Palm Springs meetingbetween whether to hold the Novem-ber 2011 meeting at NACE or SEMA;SEMAwon out by one vote.

“The vote was 99 to 98 in favorof SEMA, that really shows how di-vided this industry is over this issue,”said Quinn.

Quinn also spoke about how thissplit is the beginning of a big changein how people conduct business andwhether or not they attend tradeshows, largely thanks to technology.

Quinn was asked whether or notthe CIC meetings should be televisedor streamed live by webcast, and he

expressed that it was a good idea al-though CIC has some concerns aboutprivacy and people continuing to beopen with their opinions when theyknow they are being broadcastedworldwide.

“It’s inevitable for the mere rea-son we’re talking about it,” saidQuinn, who is positive technologywill influence future meetings.

Quinn also plans to engageyounger people in the industry to par-ticipate in CIC, he said that he is al-ready doing this through some of thepeople he has elected to chair certaincommittees and by reaching out to re-pairers to attend.

“The only way we’re going to getnew leadership ... is to have the lead-ers in the industry reach out to theyounger people and bring them for-ward to participate,” said Quinn.

Upcoming meetings for the CICare: March 17 in Newark, NJ, July 20in Salt Lake City, UT and November 2and 3 in Las Vegas, NV.

For more information please visitwww.ciclink.com or www.crewweb-cast.com.


CREW Hosts New CIC Chairman Mike Quinn in Webcast

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Mike Quinn

The new-year brought growth and ex-pansion to Sun DevilAuto, a leader inthe automotive aftermarket industry.

The Higginbotham family-ownedand independently operated chainboasts twenty-one locations inArizona,four in Nevada and three in Texas.

Sun DeviAuto is often referred toas the “alternative to the dealership”and since 1978 has successfully serv-iced tens-of-thousands of vehicles inthe retail and commercial fleet markets.

Given the current economic cli-mate, and with more people holdingon to their vehicles rather than buyingnew, the Sun Devil Auto teamlaunched a new Car Care Clinic pro-gram to 1) help consumers learn somebasics about their vehicle; 2) identifywhat could be the beginning of aminor mechanical issue, 3) get outinto the community and relate one-to-one with their customers.

The program has been well-re-ceived, and to-date, has been “tested”in a variety of settings such as Home-owner’s Associations, RV Resorts,women’s groups and organizations.

When asked about the relevanceto this program, veteran store managerand creator of the program Dave Mc-Combs stated, “I enjoy talking to peo-ple about their vehicles -- it’s that

simple. As automobile owners, weknow that when we take care of thesmall preventative maintenance issues,chances are, the major problems won’tnecessarily occur. In this economy,spending a little to prolong the life ofone’s vehicle makes good sense andeven if a key mechanical issue needsattention, in the long-run it’s still morecost-effective to replace a transmissionthan it is to buy a new vehicle.”

Any organization or communityinterested in Sun Devil Auto’s freeCar Care Clinic Program is encour-aged to contact one of the company’stwenty-one locations. Sun DevilAutois an Arizona-grown, family-ownedand operated auto-repair company of-fering complete repair in the automo-tive aftermarket industry. Establishedin 1978, the company has success-fully established an Arizona presencewith 21 locations and recently has ex-panded into the NV and TX markets.

Visit www.SunDevilAuto.comfor more information.

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The CAASan Diego Chapter kicked-off the New Year with their 1st 2011Chapter Meeting on January 25th atTom Ham’s Lighthouse in SanDiego.

The guest speaker at the eventwas Greg Horn, Vice President, In-dustry Relations, Mitchell Interna-tional.

The meeting was well attendedwith over 80 CAAmembers and guests.

The meeting started with theswearing in of the 2011 San DiegoChapter officers.

After the swear-ing in of the offi-cers, Greg Hornprovided an in-depth presentationthat presented in-formation on thestate of the colli-sion industry interms of auto acci-dent facts, the sizeof the US collisionindustry, trends inthe Property and

Casualty business, new vehicle de-signs and the changing technologiesthat will affect repairers in 2011 andbeyond.

At the end of the presentationGreg took numerous questions fromthe audience and invited attendeesto sign up for his free quarterly In-dustry Trends Report by going to:www.mitchell.com.

For additional information aboutthe CAA and membership benefits,contact Hop Sanchez at:[email protected]


CAA San Diego Holds First Meeting of 2011 With Mitchell’s Greg Horn

(l to r) San Diego CAA Leaders: Stacey Landry, Larry Houk, HopSanchez, Louis Pieper and Monty Etherton

necessary repairs from vehicle-dam-age estimates. This practice, he al-leged, violates GEICO’s contractualpromise to restore the insured’s vehi-cle to its preloss condition and consti-tutes statutory and common-lawfraud. GEICO removed the case tofederal court under the Class ActionFairness Act (“CAFA”).

The district court dismissed thestatutory consumer-fraud claim with-out prejudice. Greenberger amendedhis complaint and again the courtdismissed the statutory claim, thistime with prejudice (meaning itcould not be refiled), and also deniedGreenberger’s motion to file a thirdamended complaint. Greenberger’sother claims, however, were allowedto proceed. The court eventuallygranted GEICO’s motion for sum-mary judgment on the breach-of-contract and common-law fraudclaims, and accordingly did not ad-dress the issue of class certification.After an unsuccessful motion for re-consideration, Greenberger ap-pealed.

Greenberger’s suit seeking classstatus alleged, in the court’s words,that GEICO “systematically under-pays on its auto-accident claims byomitting necessary repairs from vehi-cle-damage estimates,” which Green-berger said “violates GEICO’scontractual promise to restore the in-sured’s vehicle to its preloss conditionand constitutes statutory and com-mon-law fraud.”

The court ruled that the fact thatthe one piece of physical evidence,Greenberger’s car, is long gone meansthat the suit cannot proceed.

“Greenberger gave away his car,and without it, he cannot prove thatwhat GEICO paid him was inadequateto restore the car to its pre-loss condi-tion,” the court wrote in its opinion.

The court cited Avery v. StateFarm, a decision out of the IllinoisSupreme Court, in ruling that Green-berger could not preclude on hisclaim. “Among other important hold-ings, Avery established the common-sense proposition that a policyholder’ssuit against his insurer for breach ofits promise to restore his collision-damaged car to its pre-loss conditioncannot succeed without an examina-tion of the car. Greenberger gave awayhis car, and without it, he cannot provethat what GEICO paid him was inad-equate to restore the car to its prelosscondition,” the court wrote.

Avery also made clear that fraudclaims must contain something morethan reformulated allegations of acontractual breach. Greenberger al-leged that GEICO never intended torestore his car to its preloss conditionand failed to disclose that it regularlybreaches this contractual promise.These are breach-of-contract allega-tions dressed up in the language offraud. They cannot support statutoryor common-law fraud claims.

Among the repairs not includedin GEICO’s original estimate were“masking openings to prevent over-spray,” “covering the vehicle to pre-vent overspray onto glass,” “checkingseatbelts to ensure they worked prop-erly,” and “cleaning the car for deliv-ery to customer.”

Though legally distinct, Green-berger’s contract and fraud claims areall premised on the same basic factualallegation: that GEICO systematicallyomits necessary repairs from its colli-sion-damage estimates in violation of

the promise to restore the policyhold-ers vehicle to its preloss condition.The district court sidestepped theclass-certification question, dismissedthe statutory consumer-fraud claim,and then entered summary judgmentfor GEICO on the breach-of-contractand common-law fraud counts.

Perhaps the most puzzling aspectof the case from the plaintiff’s per-spective, is that he should have knownbetter. Greenberger graduated fromYale Law School and currently worksas anAssociate Professor, andAssoci-ate Dean, at DePaul Law School inChicago. In addition, Greenbergeronce worked as a clerk for the SeventhCircuit, the court that eventually threwout his case.

Progressive vs. Blue Ash et. al.Prepped for AppealThe Progressive vs. BlueAsh case hasresulted in a summary judgment ontwo of the six counts filed against it bya group of independent body shops inOhio. The shops have also agreed todismiss the remaining four claimsagainst Progressive, but the suit willcontinue.

In 2009, Blue Ash Auto Body,Finney Automotive, and Valley Paintand Body filed suit against Progres-sive claiming that independent repair-ers (those not part of the insurer’sDRP program) are injured by Progres-sive’s claims handling practices. Theshops charged that Progressive’s ac-tions include illegally steering con-sumers to its network shops, illegalsuppression of price, interfering withprofessional collision repair judgment,misusing estimating database infor-mation (including the use of a specialversion of the Mitchell estimating sys-tem created by Mitchell specificallyfor Progressive’s use), and the refusal

to pay for necessary repairs on behalfof consumers.

The case is currently in the handsof Attorneys Bill Markovits andTerry R. Coates of Waite, Schneider,Bayless & Chesley. Markovits toldAutobody News that the gist of theclaims was Progressive’s failure topay for standard procedures as taughtin any auto body tech program or text-book. Essentially Progressive wassaying “we’ll pay for steps one, two,and five, but not for three and four.”

When the case was originallyfiled, plaintiff’s attorney Stan Ches-ley of Waite, Schneider, Bayless &Chesley, said, “This case is corporatearrogance at its worst. Progressive justwalks all over these independentshops, and is trying to prevent themfrom performing the repairs that anyreasonable consumer would expect.”

On January 19, Hamilton CountyJudge Steven E. Martin entered asummary judgment in favor of the in-surer on two of the six counts claimedin the suit. Those two counts, claim-ing breach of contract and unjust en-richment, primarily claimed thatProgressive increases its profits at theexpense of repairers by refusing topay, or severely underpaying, for spe-cific repair procedures that are com-monly required to repair collisiondamaged vehicles.

The judgment will be appealedby the shops however, and accordingto attorney Erica Eversman, somelegal maneuvering was necessary inpreparation for an appeal, includingdropping the remaining four countsagainst Progressive.

Eversman explained, “We wantedthe decision to be immediately appeal-able. A judge can put that language inan order, that it is immediately appeal-


Class Actions

See Class Actions, Page 45


The South CoastAir Quality Manage-ment District (AQMD) declared a no-tice of public workshop and CEQAscoping meeting about the proposedamended Rule 1147 – NOx reductionsfrom miscellaneous sources at theirJanuary meeting.

The AQMD has also scheduled apublic workshop regarding ProposedAmended Rule 1147 – NOx Reduc-tions from Miscellaneous Sources.PAR 1147 is scheduled for a PublicHearing before theAQMDGoverningBoard on May 6, 2011.

Rule 1147 – NOx Reductionsfrom Miscellaneous Sources is de-signed to reduce NOx emissions froma wide variety of combustion sourcesincluding, but not limited to, ovens,dryers, furnaces, kilns and most im-portantly to auto body shops, the gasheaters. Non-resettable gas meters onpaint spray booths deadline has beenextended to December 2011, for in-stallation.

Rule 1147 was adopted by theAQMD Governing Board on Decem-ber 5, 2008 and established nitrogenoxide (NOx) emission limits for newand existing combustion equipmentthat are not regulated by otherAQMDNOx rules.

Rule 1147 achieves emission re-ductions of 50 to 75 percent fromovens, dryers and furnaces by meetinglower NOx emission limits of 30 to 60ppm (at 3% oxygen).

Compliance dates for emissionlimits are based on the date of equip-ment manufacture and emission lim-its are applicable to older equipmentfirst.

Owners of equipment are pro-vided at least 15 years before theymust modify or replace existingequipment to meet the new emissionlimits. A time table may be changedafter the Rule 1147 workshop on thesedates.

Rule 1147 also established testmethods and provides alternate com-pliance options including a process forcertification of equipment NOx emis-sions through an approved testing pro-gram. Other requirements includeequipment maintenance, fuel and timemeters and recordkeeping.

Proposed amendments and ob-jectives to the rule caused the AQMDstaff to recommend delaying of theNOx emission limit compliance datesfor existing (in-use) permitted equip-ment.

The proposed rule also limitsthe requirement for gas fuel metersto equipment that comply with theNOx emission level using poundsper million Btu. Staff is also pro-posing to eliminate the require-ment for time meters if the gas lineis fed directly to the paint boothand has no other operating equip-ment on it.

PAR 1147 will result in delayedemissions reductions from equipmentsubject to this rule. PAR 1147 is ex-pected to result in a maximum of 1.4tons per day of NOx emission forgonein 2011. However, PAR 1147 wouldachieve the same reductions as the ex-isting rule by 2014.

Pursuant to the California En-vironmental Quality Act (CEQA)and SCAQMD’s Certified Regula-tory Program (Rule 110), theSCAQMD is preparing a Notice ofPreparation/Initial Study (NOP/IS)for the proposed amendments toRule 1147.

The NOP/IS serves two pur-poses: 1) to solicit information on thescope of the environmental analysisfor the proposed project, and 2) to no-tify the public that the SCAQMD willprepare a Draft Environmental As-sessment (EA) to further assess po-tential environmental impacts thatmay result from implementing theproposed project.

The proposed project may havestatewide, regional or area-wide sig-nificance; therefore, a CEQA scopingmeeting is required (pursuant to Pub-lic Resources Code §21083.9(a)(2)).The public workshop will serve as aCEQA scoping meeting for the pro-posed actions.

Comments received at the publicworkshop/CEQA scoping meeting onthe environmental analysis will beconsidered when preparing the EA.When released, the NOP/IS will beavailable for public comment and re-view for 30 days.

A sidebar coalition that has beendeveloped comprising representatives


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California Insurance CommissionerDave Jones is offering insurancecompanies $4.67 million in tax creditsto invest in underserved communities.

In a letter to company CEOs,Jones pushed for insurers to place aportion of the $4 trillion in invest-ments they hold into the CaliforniaOrganized Investment Network(COIN), administered by the Cali-fornia Department of Insurance(CDI).

Each year, the DOI allocates $2million in tax credits to support $10million in community developmentinvestments. Because this programhas been underutilized in recent years,CDI’s COIN currently has $4.67 mil-

lion in tax credits available to support$23.7 million in community develop-ment investments. Insurers have untilJuly 1, 2011 to place investments inthe program. After that date, the pro-gram is open to other investors aswell.

Under the program, investorsplace a minimum of $50,000 on de-posit with a Community DevelopmentFinancial Institution (CDFI) for 60months at zero percent interest. In ex-change, the investor receives a 20 per-cent state tax credit, with anapproximately 4.5 percent annual per-centage rate of return.

The CDFIs then provide loans tosmall businesses and non-profits that

serve economically disadvantagedcommunities. CDFIs help bridge thegrowing gap between the loans andservices available to the economicmainstream and those offered to low-income people and communities.

They provide access to credit ineconomically disadvantaged commu-nities by providing development serv-ices or technical assistance along withthe loans and investments they make.

These CDFIs include communitydevelopment loan funds, creditunions, banks, microenterprise funds,corporation-based lenders and venturefunds.

“This is a critical program thatbenefits some of California’s most

underserved communities, and so Iwant to encourage insurance compa-nies to give back by investing in thesecommunities,” Commissioner Jonessaid.

“The state tax credit to encouragethese investments has been underuti-lized in recent years, and it is longoverdue that we get this program backon track. I call on all California insur-ers to examine their investment port-folios and invest in this programbefore June 30.”

There are 81 CDFIs certified byCOIN and eligible to participate in thetax-credit program.

Through the CDFI Tax CreditProgram these CDFIs have investedmore than $100 million into some ofCalifornia’s most underserved com-munities from 1997 through 2009. Inthe recent past, CDFIs across the statehave made notable investments, in-cluding:• Amortgage loan for a nonprofit res-idential alcohol treatment facility;• Micro-loans of $500 to $5,000 toself-employed business owners;• Loans for six childcare centers toserve 500 low-income children;• Pre-development loans to Habitat forHumanity to construct affordablehomes;• A loan to a church to build a childcare center for lower income resi-dents;•A loan for 953 water hook-ups in twosmall, rural communities; and•A short-term loan to close escrow onhousing for low-income foster youth.

For information, visit www.in-surance.ca.gov/coin.


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CA Insurance Commissioner Wants Insurance Companies to Invest in Communities

Nevada Publishes Guidesto InsuranceThe Nevada Division of Insurancehas created a series of consumerguides to help make choosing home-owners, auto, etc. insurance easier,according to Insurance Journal. TheDOI also has published a “FrequentlyAsked Questions” list on the use ofcredit information in insurance pre-mium determination.

Commissioner of InsuranceBrett J. Barratt said it’s importantfor Nevadans to maintain an ade-quate amount of insurance coverage.The Auto Insurance Guide describescommon auto insurance coveragesand includes 30 Nevada-licensed pri-vate passenger automobile insurersfor each hypothetical example.

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The Environmental ProtectionAgencyplans to decide by the end of Julywhether to require vehicle emissionsgrades on all new vehicles, accordingto reports madeby the Detroit NewsWashington Bureau.

Margo Oge, the director of theEPA’s Office of Transportation andAir Quality, said the agency was sym-pathetic to concerns raised about theproposed “A” through “D” grades thatthe EPA and the Transportation De-partment may require on all new ve-hicles.

“We want to make sure we givethe auto industry plenty of lead time,no matter what the decision is,” Ogetold The Detroit News after a forum inWashington.

The timetable suggests that thenew labels won’t appear on new vehi-cles until the 2013 model year, whichwould begin in the fall 2012. Oge de-clined to confirm when the new labelswould appear on vehicles.

The labels — first proposed inAugust as one of two possible revi-sions — would give 40 percent of thevehicles on the roads C’s and D’s.

Automakers oppose the gradingsystem and back a more modest re-design that’s also under consideration.

The final decision is up to EPAadministrator Lisa Jackson andTransportation Secretary Ray La-Hood, Oge said.

Environmentalists back thegrades and say they will prod morepeople into buying more fuel efficientmodels. They compare them to gradesfor restaurant cleanliness in changingbehavior.

In December, more than 50 mem-bers of Congress sent a letter urgingthe EPA and Department of Trans-portation to stick with fuel efficiencylabels that highlight miles-per-gallonon stickers.

Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, called the grades “some loopynew green curve they’ve devisedwhere cars are graded from A+ to Dbased on fuel economy and green-house gas levels.”

“Those who live in planet realitymight need a minivan or SUV to haularound four kids in child and boosterseats, and have room for luggage and

a family dog. Thanks to the EPA,they’ll be lucky to find a vehicle thatgets a C.”

Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, saidthe grades would “tip the scales un-fairly against many fuel efficientSUVs and trucks, relegating them to aC or C+ grade.”

Separately, Oge noted that asEPA works with the National High-way Traffic Safety Administration on2017-2025 fuel economy and emis-sions requirements, she said the gov-ernment hasn’t made any decisions. Ithas said it’s reviewing a range of re-quirements— from setting a fleetwideaverage of 47 to 62 mpg by 2025.

“There are environmental groupson one side calling for 62 mpg, andthe last time I checked, they hadn’tdone any work to show why that’s thecase,” Oge said.

Gloria Bergquist, spokeswomanfor The Alliance of Automakers, thetrade association representing De-troit’s Big Three, Toyota Motor Corp.and eight others, said: “We all want toput the most fuel-efficient vehicles aspossible on the road, but for the 2017-

2025 rulemaking, policymakers stillneed to gather and analyze much datato determine the maximum feasiblefuel economy standards that avoidnegative impacts on affordability,safety, jobs and vehicle utility. No oneknows what the 2025 target should beyet, and the data needs to drive therulemaking.”

Feds to Decide on Vehicle Grades by July 2011

You might have heard it during theState of the Union address January 25,but President Barack Obama's want-ing 1 million electric vehicles on theroad by 2015 is more than just a talk-ing point.

January 26 the White House re-leased a plan to achieve this goal, andat the top of the list is a giant incen-tive for prospective EV buyers. TheObama administration wants to turnthe current $7,500 EV tax credit into astraight-up $7,500 rebate you get atthe point of purchase. That woulddrastically alter the confusion aroundhow the current tax credit is applied.

This new proposal would be a re-bate, similar to how Cash for Clunkersworked.

$7,500 EV Credit May Change

In their quest to make passenger vehi-cles even safer and more fuel-efficient,manufacturers continue to incorporateincreasing amounts of advanced steelin new car and truck designs. Andwhile the use of high-strength steel(HSS) makes the vehicles lighter andstronger, it can also make repairingthem more complex.

Many modern vehicles, regard-less of sticker price, are built withmore than 50 percent advanced steel.The Ford Fusion hybrid, for example,contains 55 percent HSS, and the FordFiesta uses more than 60 percent HSS.

After a collision, most advancedsteel can’t be repaired by traditionalpulling or heating methods. Themost efficient way to reverse the ve-hicle damage is through multiple, si-multaneous pulls using equalizedpressure. This technique applies thesame amount of pressure across mul-tiple points of the damaged area atthe exact same time, to prevent rip-ping, tearing, bending or rolling thesteel.

“In many cases, the advancedsteel components of a vehicle are

strong enough and peripheral to theprimary impact zone that they remainundamaged in a collision — theweaker steel around them absorbs themajority of damage,” explains Mike

Cranfill, vice president of collision forChief Automotive Technologies. “Byusing multiple, simultaneous pullswith equalized pressure, the centersection of the vehicle can be squared.Then the mild steel damage can becorrected or sectioned as defined by

OEM repair procedures. In contrast,pulling just a single area at a time, orpulling multiple areas without equal-ized pressure can actually put moredamage into the vehicle.”

Chief offers a range of pullingsystems that can be used for multiple,simultaneous pulling with equalizedpressure, including its Impulse™-E/VHT, Goliath™ and Titan™-360.Each of these products features anelectric-over-hydraulic system toequalize pressure to all towers in use.These Chief pulling systems also pro-vide 10 tons of pulling power at thehook. Since advanced steels make itnecessary for shops to use more pres-sure than ever before, this is an impor-tant differentiator. Other systems mayuse 10-ton rams, but by the time thepressure gets to the hook and the vehi-cle it’s attached to, the pressure couldhave dropped to as little as four tons.

The Chief Impulse-E/VHT, Go-liath and Titan-360 pulling systemsare compatible with Chief’s Vector,Velocity and VelocityMAXmeasuringsystems, featuring Chief’s exclusivevehicle measurement data.

For more information about anyof the pulling or measuring systemsavailable from Chief AutomotiveTechnologies, contact your local Chiefdistributor, call 877-644-1044 or visitwww.chiefautomotive.com.

About Chief Automotive TechnologiesChief Automotive Technologies, a Ve-hicle Service Group (VSG) brand, isone of the world’s largest manufactur-ers of high-quality collision repairproducts and services, including frame-pulling equipment, vehicle anchoringsystems, computerized measuring sys-tems, and vehicle frame specifications.Chief is also a leading provider of com-prehensive training on structural analy-sis, repair and collision theory.

VSG brings together several topbrands of vehicle service and repairequipment, including Chief and RotaryLift®. Based in Madison, Ind., VSGhas operations worldwide. VSG is partof the Industrial Products segment ofDover Corporation (NYSE: DOV), amulti-billion dollar, global producer ofinnovative equipment, specialty sys-tems and value-added services.


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An intensive 10 month investigationinto possible causes of unintended ac-celeration in Toyota cars found nofault with the automaker’s electronicthrottle control systems, the Depart-ment of Transportation announcedFebruary 8, according to reports madeby CNN Money and the Los AngelesTimes.

U.S. Transportation SecretaryRay LaHood said, “We enlisted thebest and brightest engineers to studyToyota’s electronics systems, and theverdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas.”

NHTSA enlisted the help ofNASA scientists and engineers. Theagency said their expertise in areassuch as computer controlled elec-tronic systems, electromagnetic inter-ference and software integrity wouldbe a big help.

Despite a string of recalls forother problems Toyota has long in-sisted that the electronic controls in itscars are safe.

Toyota recalled nearly 8 millionvehicles in 2008 and 2009 for defectsrelated to gas pedals — includingsticky pedals and floor mat obstruc-tion — as a result of complaints ofunwanted acceleration.

Some critics of the automaker, atthe time. were not satisfied that thosetwo problem were the only ones toblame for for the growing number of

reports that Toyotas were acceleratingout of control and pointed to the elec-tronic throttle control system as an-other possible culprit.

A common feature in newer ve-hicles, electronic throttle control usessensors and computer chips to passcommands between the vehicles’ gaspedal and the engine to control a car’sspeed instead of the simple mechani-cal connection used in older cars.

Congress ordered theDOT to investigatewhether there mightbe a problem withthose electronic con-trols. The study waslaunched last spring.

As part of the study, the agen-cies ran tests at a Chrysler GroupLLC testing facility in Auburn Hills,Mich. headquarters in which re-searchers bombarded Toyota vehicleswith electromagnetic radiation to seeif they could cause any malfunctionsthat might lead to unintended acceler-ation.

Toyota Motor Co. has also pro-vided NASA software engineers with“unrestricted access” to the computercode used to control the electronicthrottle control systems. The softwareengineers have been combing throughthe code looking for anything thatmight cause a car to accelerate out ofcontrol under any circumstances,NHTSA said.

Also, scientists at NASA’s God-dard Space Flight Center and NHTSAEast Liberty, Ohio, research centerhave been examining cars and Toyotathrottle systems, searching for any de-fects that might cause unwanted accel-eration.

This summer, NHTSA releasedthe results of some investigations intoToyota sudden acceleration incidents.Those investigations specifically

looked into 58 alleged un-intended accelerationcases. These investi-gations suggestedthat drivers them-selves may have been

partly at fault. At thattime the agency stressed that the re-

sults were preliminary.Although Toyota sales have suf-

fered much of the automaker’s salesdecline is due to an aging model line-up more than concerns over safetyproblems, analysts say.

Toyota now includes “brakeoverride” on all its new vehicles. Thissystem automatically cuts enginepower as soon as the brake pedal ispressed in order to prevent unwantedacceleration.

Toyota is currently facing hun-dreds of lawsuits over alleged unin-tended acceleration, most of whichhave been grouped together in a sin-gle California court. Toyota MotorCorp. will also use the results of the

study as evidence that a sudden ac-celeration class action suit against itshould be dismissed.

In a filing in federal court inSanta Ana this month, the automakerargued that the study is proof that itsvehicles have no defects and the law-suits are therefore without merit.

“Plaintiffs are chasing a phantomtheory of defect that only last weekNASA and NHTSA, after an exten-sive investigation, jointly confirmeddoes not exist,” Toyota outside coun-sel Lisa Gilford wrote in a motionfiled on Feb. 14.

She asked judge James Selna todismiss the suit, which consolidatesscores of claims from Toyota andLexus owners alleging that the pres-ence of defects in their vehicles neg-atively affected the value of theirvehicles.

Even if the NASA and NHTSAfindings hold up in court, plaintiff at-torneys argue that Toyota still could beon the hook for the lack of a brakeoverride feature in its vehicles, whichis designed to prevent sudden acceler-ation in cars with electronic throttle.

That technology has been em-ployed by other automakers, includ-ing Nissan and Volkswagen, for years,but Toyota did not begin adopting ituntil last year.

Ahearing to review the dismissalmotion is scheduled for April 29,court filings show.

Toyota Unintended Acceleration Probe Finds No Electronic Flaws

The U.S. House voted overwhelm-ingly to bar the Environmental Pro-tection Agency from moving aheadwith allowing a higher blend ofethanol in the nation’s gas tanks, ac-cording to reports made by theDetroitNews Washington Bureau.

February 19 the House voted286-135 to block the EPAfrom spend-ing any money to carry out a waiverto allow E15 to be sold at the nation’s

fueling stations. Currently, most gasstations sell E10 — which is 10 per-cent ethanol. The EPA has granted awaiver to allow a blend of 15 percentof ethanol to be sold for vehicles fromthe 2001 model year and newer.

Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla-homa, introduced an amendment tothe bill to fund government opera-tions through Sept. 30, to block EPAfrom moving ahead.

“The EPA has completely ig-nored calls from lawmakers, industry,environmental and consumer groupsto address important safety issuesraised by the 50 percent increase in theethanol mandate issued over the pastyear. Putting E15 into our general fuelsupply could adversely impact up to60 percent of cars on the road todayleading to consumer confusion at thepump and possible engine failure in

the cars they drive,” Sullivan said.Automakers have expressed con-

cerns about using a higher percentageof the ethanol blend that could cor-rode engines.

Before E15 can be sold, the EPAmust finalize a labeling rule to warnconsumers that the higher blend isonly for certain vehicles.

All major automakers filed suitin December in the U.S.

House Votes to Block E15 from Pumps Due to Potential Engine Failure


Vehicle buyers are spending more andmore to personalize and accessorizetheir rides. Consumer spending forMopar accessories on Chrysler,Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles nearlydoubled in 2010.

“More of our customers are driv-ing out of our dealerships with Moparaccessories on their vehicle,” saidPietro Gorlier, President and CEO ofMopar, Chrysler Group’s service,parts and customer-care brand.

Mopar currently offers more than8,000 proven, quality-tested acces-sories. Following is a list of Mopar’stop-10 selling accessories in 2010:1.Wheel Lock Kit: Wheel locks areavailable for most models and havean exclusive key code for maximumprotection.Available in one- and two-piece styles, kits include four or fivechrome-plated locking nuts, and oneexclusive Mopar key. The kit protectsagainst wheel and tire theft withoutaffecting wheel balance.2. Roadside Safety Kit: Safety kitincludes flashlight, fleece blanket,six-gauge jumper cables, safety trian-gle, screwdrivers, pliers, two bungee

cords and gloves.3. Mopar Portable Navigation Sys-tem: This Garmin nuvi® 1490T pre-mium system packs a ton of featuresinto a slim design with a 5-inchscreen. The system includes lane-as-sist with junction view, pre-loadedmaps, pedestrian navigation options,traffic alerts, ecoRoute™ that calcu-

late a fuel-efficient route, integratedhands-free Bluetooth® wireless tech-nology with a built-in microphone andspeaker, integrated FM traffic re-ceiver, and free lifetime traffic up-dates.

4.MoparElectronicVehicleTrackingSystem (EVTS): lMopar’s industry-firstElectronic Vehicle Tracking System(EVTS) works 24/7 with nationwidecoverage to keep track of your vehicle.This GPS-enabled real-time trackingsystem includes a $1,000 Theft Protec-tion Warranty and is transferable. Op-tional upgrade plans provideEmergency

Service Dispatch and anOnCall™on-board panicbutton. Features such assetting speed and distanceparameterswith text alerts,unlimited online tracking,and full concierge serviceare also offered.5. Premium CarpetFloor Mats: Thick,durable and color-matched for a strong, in-tegrated appearance.Front mats feature a rub-

ber-nibbed backing to keep themfirmly in place and are custom-con-toured for an exact fit.6. Slush Mats: Custom-fit mats fea-ture deep grooves that help preventwater, snow, and mud from ruining

vehicle’s carpet. Mats are availablefor front and rear compartments de-pending on vehicle model.7. Molded Splash Guards: Moparsplash guards offer long-lasting dura-bility. They are custom-contoured fora stylish flare and deflect gravel, saltand other road debris away from thevehicle.8. Mopar Bedliners: Skid Resistorbedliner’s ribbed construction helpskeep cargo from shifting and promotesdrainage from bed. Mopar liners aremolded of a high-density polyethyleneblend for added durability. Tailgatecover also included. Also availablefor Ram 1500 RamBox.9. Chromed Tubular Side Steps:Mopar’s heavy-duty premium stepsare built to last and are available inchrome or black depending on vehicle.Side steps feature slip-resistant steppads for easy vehicle entry and exit.10.Hitch Receivers and TowingAc-cessories: In addition to hitch re-ceivers for a range of vehicles, Moparalso offers hitch balls, receiver plugs,and ball-mount adaptors.

Visit www.mopar.com.

Chrysler Group’s Mopar Division to Expand Accessories Portfolio in 2011

Mopar Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS) works 24/7with nationwide coverage to track your vehicle


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John Eagle Collision Center in Dal-las, TX, was opened in 1962 by cur-rent owner John Eagle’s father. TheEagle family of industry services has

grown immensely since the originalcollision center opened, there are cur-rently several dealerships and anotherbody shop in Texas bearing the samename.

John Eagle Collision Center inDallas really focuses on repairinghigh-end, luxury brands to pre-acci-dent conditions.

“Our high-endservice is whatmakes us a littledifferent,” saidBody Shop Man-ager Brian Cun-ningham.

John Eagle’stechnical staff notonly has an aver-age of 20 years ofindustry experi-ence per techni-cian, they alsopromote continu-ing education for all employees.

“We train through I-CAR and we

also do some high-end training,” saidCunningham, “This year some of usare going to carbon-fiber training inEngland; we usually go once a year

for luxury training.”John Eagle Collision Center is amanufacturer certified repair fa-cility for Aston Martin, Bentleyand Jaguar, among other luxurybrands — as well as economybrands like Honda and Toyota.Being a certified repair center al-lows John Eagle to uphold factorystandards and have access to fac-tory structural parts.John Eagle Collision Center is avery large facility, totalling over

72,000 square-feet and containing 42employees, 52 bays and 10 Garmatspray booths.

The business also grosses $7.2million per year, some of their busi-

ness can be attrib-uted to the networkof John Eagle deal-erships locally thatrefer customers tothe body shop andthe 9 insurers theyare a Direct RepairShop for.John Eagle Colli-sion Center’s sec-ond location, calledJohn Eagle BodyShop, in Houston isa smaller facility

that does not specialize in luxury carrepair, but was opened in 1991 to as-sist the Dallas location with their highvolume of customers.

John Eagle Collision Center usesa Global Jig frame machine for the

luxury vehicles they service, and hasbeen spraying waterborne paint forover 5 years.

John Eagle also utilizes a ‘Qual-ity Check’procedure to ensure cars re-turn to owners with everythingrepaired correctly. Cars undergo qual-ity checks throughout the repairprocess and are also subject to a finalquality inspection after all work iscomplete before being returned totheir owners.

Onsite at John Eagle Collision isa Hertz rental car office, 24-hour se-curity and Wi-Fi equipped waitingrooms.

Customers can also enjoy a life-time warranty on all workmanship andrefinish work done at John Eagle.

John Eagle offers email and textupdates to customers through My Re-pair Tracker as soon as 24 hours afterthe vehicle is dropped off at the colli-sion center.

For more information please visitwww.johneaglecollision.com.

John Eagle Collision Center6125 Peeler StDallas, TX 75235214-353-3570

John Eagle Body Shop910 Highway 6 SouthHouston, TX 77079281-589-2639


John Eagle Collision Center in Dallas, TX, Focuses on Luxury Brandswith Erica Schroeder

Shop Showcase Erica Schroeder is a writer and editorial assistantfor Autobody News in Oceanside, CA. She can bereached at [email protected].

The front of John Eagle Collision Center

The massive bays area

Body shop managers Trace Conn, BrianCunningham and Boyce Willis

A technician works on alignment

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You only get one chance at the first repair.Original Thought #78


I want to thank everyone who took thetime to respond to my previous columnon steering. I hope to address some ofthose comments and questions in fu-ture columns.

A related issue is understandingwhat a referral is. “Referral” carriesmany meanings—positive or negative—depending on who you are talking to.Shops that participate in direct repairprograms consider referrals to be as nat-ural as the air we breathe. Simply stated,shops that are heavily-laden with directrepair work would die without the refer-rals, just as we would suffocate withoutair.With that dependence, they typicallyforget who their customer is, and how tomarket to consumers.

Shops that don’t rely on workfrom direct repair programs view re-ferrals as taking food off their table.They define a referral as a process inwhich the vehicle owner is potentiallyillegally steered to another body shop.

What’s ironic is that the insuranceindustry (health care providers in par-ticular) uses the word referral as ameans for a patient to gain prior ap-proval to see a particular doctor. Whydon’t we view that type of referral asillegal or unjust when it’s essentiallythe same thing? You are told whichdoctors you can see and if you want togo outside of the network it may costyou more money. Hmmmm, soundslike a direct repair program.

While there is a fine line betweenreferring and steering, the latest directrepair programs to hit the industry canbe viewed as referrals-on-steroids. It’sone thing to refer a customer to a par-ticular shop. It’s quite another thing tocompletely remove the shop from itsown business. Many insurance compa-nies have immersed themselves intothe collision repairer’s business like noother time in the industry’s history.

Why? The business of insurancehas become extremely competitive andcostly as evidenced by the ungodlysums of money spent to entertain uswith the gecko, Flo and Mayhem. Thebottom line is the button line: In ashrinking market, you better retain yourexisting customers and try to steal someof the competition’s policyholders.

All of that said, “If you want some-thing done right, do it yourself.” Insurersbelieve that they can do a better job ofservicing the customer’s needs than the

repairer. Having spent time on both sidesof this fence, I believe theremay be sometruth to that. But one fact that can’t be ar-gued is that there is a direct correlationbetween the vehicle owner’s experiencewith the body shop and their perceptionof the insurance company. This wasprobably a motivating factor forAllstate

buying Sterling. Allstate believed that ifit could control the customer’s repair ex-perience, they probably would see an in-crease in CSI and policyholder retention.

The Progressive (Concierge) andGEICO (RX) direct repair programshave taken things to a completely dif-ferent level. In the Progressive model,unless customers ask, they may nothave any interaction with the shop. TheConcierge program virtually eliminatesthe shop from the entire process otherthan the actual repair work.

This is not a typical referral. Thisis more indicative of slave-master re-lationship. We, the insurer, will giveyou the cars we want to and you willdo what we say. If you don’t agree, wewill give the work to another bodyshop that appreciates the work.

While many of you may say that’sthe case with all direct repair programs,I can assure you that this is different. Ifas a shop you don’t have the ability tobuild a relationship with the customer,you not only lose that person as a po-tential future customer, but also anyresidual benefit from their word-of-mouth advertising for your shop. I per-sonally would not recommend anyrepair facility building their businesson repairing vehicles through aConcierge-like program. Here today,gone tomorrow!

The GEICO RX program is a littlemore palatable. In this model, the cus-tomer actually drops his or her vehicle

off at the shop where there is a GEICOadjuster with a desk and office whohandles the GEICO customer fromdrop-off to pick-up. Although the in-teraction with the shop is limited, theintegrity of the shop and vehicle ownerrelationship is somewhat maintained.

The challenge with this model ishow quickly a shop becomesbeholden to GEICO. GEICOvirtually doubles the shops rev-enue overnight. Larger-produc-ing RX shops can expect to geteight or more referrals per day.This quickly creates an imbal-ance for most shops whereGEICO becomes greater than50 percent of their business.Asyou can imagine, the shop haslimited ability to negotiate withGEICO, and the master-slaverelationship becomes a reality.The shop is working for

GEICO and not the vehicle owner.What’s the answer? There isn’t

one. The fact is insurance companiesare going to continue to trend in this di-rection for several reasons. First andforemost, insurers are a copycat indus-try. Second, to be competitive you needto be innovative and change in ashrinking market as evidenced by theactivities of some of the industry’slargest carriers.

Repairers need to look at referralsas one means of growing their busi-nesses. I’m not advocating for oragainst direct repair programs. The ma-jority of the people reading this articlerely on referrals for business. But ifyou are going to live by the sword,make sure you don’t die by it. Refer-rals can be healthy for a body shopsbusiness. If you want referrals, makesure that you never forget who yourreal customers are, how to market toyour customers, and how not to loseyourself in the process.

More on direct repair programs inmy next column.


Not All “Referrals” are Created Equalwith The Insurance Insider

Inside Insurance The Insider is a corporate-level executive with a Top 10 auto insurerin the U.S.. Got a comment or question you’d like to see him addressin a future column? Email him at [email protected]


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Arizona shop owner Mike Quinnopened his first Collision IndustryConference (CIC) as chairman of thequarterly gathering, held in January inPalm Springs, CA, by asking outgo-ing I-CAR CEO John Edelen to in-troduce new I-CAR chair John VanAlstyne, who takes the helm of thetraining organization this month.

Quinn followed Van Alstyne’sbrief remarks by praising Edelen’s ef-

forts at transition-ing I-CAR overthe past threeyears. “If I’m ableto engage the in-dustry as much asJohn Edelen hasengaged the indus-try in the last sev-

eral years, I’ll be successful as CICchair,” Quinn said.

The first meeting of a new CICchairman’s term is generally set asideas a “planning meeting,” one in whichparticipants discuss the issues they’dlike to see CIC address in the comingyear or two, and form the committeesto which those issues are assigned.

In Palm Springs, about 10 com-mittees were approved to move aheadwith their proposals of what theywould work to accomplish in the com-ing year or two.

A “Data Privacy Committee,” forexample, was formalized based on a

taskforce that CICcreated last year toaddress issues re-lated to the use ofshop estimate andother data. Theissue has contin-ued to grow in im-portance as the

information providers shift toward“cloud computing” systems, in whichestimates and even shop managementsystem data are stored on the vendor’scomputers rather than the shop’s.

Tony Passwater, who chairs thenew committee, said part of what itwill do is identify how shop data isbeing “captured, used, distributed,sold or reported on.” The committee,he said, also would seek to recom-mend guidelines or standards to pro-tect the rights of shops, insurers and

vehicle owners when this informationis being captured or used in any way.

Currently, Passwater said, shopshave little in the way of choice aboutsuch issues, basically having to sub-scribe to an estimating system service,for example, under the terms offered.

“If they do subscribe, they reallydon’t have any control of whether ornot their data is used beyond their owninternal use,” Passwater said. “I thinkthe issue the collision repair industry

has is that there should be some rightsfor the individual subscriber that thisdata cannot be used outside of theirown internal use.”

Scott Biggs of Assured Perform-ance Network said he’d also like tosee the committee address the issue ofthe shop’s access to its own historicaldata once they no longer subscribe tothat particular vendor’s service, forexample, or if they want to accesstheir current data through anotherservice or application.

The CIC “Parts Committee”oversaw some of the most heated orcontroversial subject matter over thelast two years at CIC, particularly sur-rounding concerns about structuralnon-OEM parts. That committee con-tinues to have a long list of issues on

its plate for 2011. It will be co-chairedby Chris Northup, a former Keystone

Automotive exec-utive who contin-ues to work in thenon-OEM partsindustry, andChris Caris ofPCG Campbell, amarketing andcommunications

firm whose clients include several au-tomakers.

In a first for a CIC committee, theParts Committee will also have an“executive board,” that will consist ofa representative from various seg-ments of the industry (repairers, in-surers, automakers, alternative partsand paint/materials).

Several CIC participants offeredideas on issues the committee couldaddress. Aaron Lofrano of F. Lofrano& Son Collision Centers in San Fran-

cisco, said he’d like the committee toaddress the issue of insurers askingshops to code parts in ways that don’tcorrectly identify them, as is requiredin some states.

Biggs said he’d like to see thecommittee develop some industry“ground rules” on when it is and isn’tappropriate to use certain types ofparts. “Establishing some practicallogic instead of just arbitrary rules thatsomeone throws on you to use ‘X’amount of this and ‘X’ amount ofthat,” Biggs said.

Rick Tuuri, who last yearchaired the “Repairer-Insurer Rela-tions Committee” said that group hasalready been asked for revisions to the“digital imaging best practices” docu-ment finalized just last year.

Ron Guilliams, who hadchaired the CIC Definitions Commit-tee, received a standing ovation at the


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Mike Quinn

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has been writingabout the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of the weekly CRASHNetwork (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).He can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Scott Biggs

Tony Passwater

General CIC session with approximately 200in attendance

Outgoing I-CAR Chair John Edelen (l) andJohn Van Alstyne, the new I-CAR Chair


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Ron Nagy, president and owner ofNagy’s Collision Center, will serve asthe event chairman for the InternationalAutobody Congress & Exposition(NACE); and Mitch Schneider, ownerand operator of Schneider’s Automo-tive, will return for a second term as theevent chairman for the Congress ofAu-tomotive Repair & Service (CARS).

Each chairman is responsible forrepresenting his segment of the indus-try and its respective show during Au-tomotive Service & Repair Week(ASRW), which, is scheduled Oct. 6-8(with an education conference begin-ningWednesday, Oct. 5) at the OrangeCounty Convention Center in Orlando,Fla.

Nagy replaces Jerry Burns whohas concluded a two-year term asNACE chairman from 2009-2010. Hisdiligent service the past two years issincerely appreciated by the ASA andASRW staff.

About Ron Nagy, NACE 2011 EventChairman:

Nagy, an activemember of the col-lision repair industry, is a second gener-ation owner/technician whose industryexperience began in 1982when hewentto work in his father’s shop after high

school. He and his brother/businesspartner, Dan, purchased the shop fromtheir father in 1995 and today Nagy’sCollision Centers celebrate 38 years ofbusiness in six locations throughoutnortheast Ohio. Recognized for excel-lence, Nagy’s Collision Centers werethe recipients of the 2008Wooster SmallBusiness Award and the 2010 Fox 8Best Body ShopAward.

Nagy, who serves as presidentover the I-CAR certified gold multi-lo-cation shop, holds an I-CAR platinumdesignation, is certified as a masterASE collision technician and holds theAccredited Automotive Manager(AAM) designation from theAutomo-tive Management Institute (AMI). Hehas also served in various leadershippositions within the Automotive Serv-iceAssociation (ASA), including localchapter president, state president-elect,chairman of the government affairscommittee, crash parts subcommitteeand government affairs committee;ASA affiliate director, secretary andcurrent chairmen-elect to the nationalboard of directors. Additionally, Nagyis also a member of the Certified Au-tomotive PartsAssociation (CAPA) ITcommittee. Nagy has attended NACEsince 1996.

ASRW Names New NACE-CARS Chairs

from different associations includingthe California Autobody Association(CAA) was also present at the work-shop. The coalition is hoping to com-municate directly with members ofthe AQMD’s Board about their con-cerns with Rule 1147.

“Rule 1147 is just not going towork in its current form,” said LindaHolcomb, representing the CAA.

“The NOx that the autobody in-dustry emits is very minimal ... wefeel we should be exempt from thisrule,” said Holcomb.

Holcomb went on to say thatonly an estimated half of paint boothin the AQMD district have heaters,and maybe 10% of those are old paintbooths from the ‘80s (which wouldneed to be retrofitted to meet newguidelines). She also said that water-borne paint spraying systems havedrastically cut down the amount oftime body shops use their heaters forcuring cars, so in essence the shopshave greatly reduced their NOx emis-sions already.

“To me they’re really barking upthe wrong tree,” said Holcomb.

Upon completion of the publicreview and comment period for theNOP/IS, responses to comments re-ceived relative to the NOP/IS will beprepared and incorporated into theDraft EA that will be subsequentlyprepared and circulated for a 45-daypublic review and comment period.

Comments and suggestions re-garding the CEQA analysis for theproposed project should be directedto: Ms. Barbara Radlein - CEQASection Planning, Rule Development& Area Sources SCAQMD 21865Copley Drive Diamond Bar, CA91765. Phone (909) 396-3324. E-mail: [email protected].


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first meeting he has attended in morethan a year. Guilliams, who was se-riously ill and in a coma for a number

of months in2010, thankedCIC participantsfor the support heand his family re-ceived during hisillness and recov-ery. “I’m reallyglad to be here,”

Guilliams said, drawing laughterfrom CIC attendees. “I can guaranteeyou I wouldn’t be standing heretoday with the same outlook andview of life if it wasn’t for all thesupport from you in this room. I justwant to thank you from the bottom ofmy heart.”

He said he would serve as vice-chair of the Definitions Committee in2011, and that the committee plannedto review CIC’s long-established def-inition of a “Class A shop,” wouldwork to define a “green shop,” andwould review CIC’s glossary of in-

dustry terms. The committee also maydevelop some best practices or guide-lines for the communication to cus-tomers from shops and insurers.

“Is it, for example, right for theshop to be the one who informs some-one their vehicle is a total loss, or thatdamage is not related to this particularclaim,” Guilliams said. “In many in-stances, those lines of responsibilityhave been blurred. So one of thethings the committee has been askedto look at is to try to get consensus onboth sides on what really is the bestpractice, so we can standardize that.”

Other existing CIC committeesthat will continue in 2011 will include“Education and Training,” “Govern-mental and Regulatory,” and “HumanResources.”

CIC’s ad-hoc Marketing Com-mittee reported in Palm Springs thatits surveys after CIC’s last two meet-ings found that 87 percent of those re-sponding said the presentations at themeetings had “good” or “very good”value for their business. More than 91percent said the quality of the meetingcontent and the networking opportu-nities at the meetings were good orvery good.

Diamond Standard has announcedthat it is the only “U.S. manufacturerto have all its alternative primed andplated front steel bumpers certified.

“Specifically, 571 Diamond Stan-dard parts/applications have reachedCertification status in the NSF pro-gram,” says Geoff Crane, BusinessDevelopment Manager of DiamondStandard.

Additionally, all 280 DiamondStandard rear step bumper full assem-blies are now Certified as meeting theFederal Standard of VESC V-5 towa-bility byMGAResearch Corporation ofBurlington,Wisconsin, an independent,17025 accredited test facility to the au-tomotive industry. VESC V-5 func-tional performance testing is the onlyFederal requirement for step bumperassemblies. Diamond Standard’s Man-ufacturing Group also supplies USAmade replacement steel/aluminumhoods and bumper top pads which areCAPA certified.

“I am proud to announce thatCAPA certification of Diamond Stan-

dard bumpers is moving forward. Di-amond Standard Brand is poised toaccelerate the introduction of newmodel car parts across all categoriesbeginning this month and we’ll beadding new part categories within theyear,” said O’Neal.

“Dynamic and destructive com-parative testing by industry expertsproving equal functional performanceis a demonstrated core competency ofour Company and an assurance to theindustry and vehicle owner that use ofCertified Diamond Standard partsprovide an acceptable alternative partwithout compromising safety anddamageability.

Diamond Standard Structuralparts are available through limitedquality distributors nationwide in-cluding the AQRP program at Key-stone, an LKQ company.

For more information visitwww.diamondstandardparts.com orcontact Geoff Crane at [email protected], or (901)398-5759.


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CIC Committees

Ron Guilliams

The Houston AutoBody Association(HABA) hosted alegislative break-fast event on Feb-ruary 16 at theCapitol Grill in theTexas State Cap-tiol.

The event al-lowed attendeesfrom the collision

repair industry to meet and discuss is-sues with their state representatives.

The entire legislature was invitedto the event that ran from 8:30am to10:30am.

“The breakfast was a successwith around 200 in attendance, wealso visited all 150 State Representa-tives offices and all 31 State Sena-tors,” said HABA’s President JamesBrown.

HABA passed out individual let-ters to each representative that de-tailed HABA’s mission and code ofethics, along with gift bags containinga coaster and acrylic car with HABA’swebsite and logo on them.

“On a side note, the AutomotiveService Association (ASA) was thereand making their rounds trying to gainsupport for HB 429 concerning theFranchise Tax law revision which

would allow Inde-pendant Automo-tive and Collisionshops to be taxedat the same rate asDealer owned Au-tomotive and Col-lision Shops whichwe support aswell,” said Brown.

Breakfast wasincluded in the

event which was sponsored by HABAand theAutomotive Parts and ServiceAssociation.

For more information please visitwww.habaonline.org.


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As I continue to visit collision repairfacilities across the country, I see veryfew that are utilizing Technical Serv-ice Bulletins (TSBs) and recall noticesin their business. These can be veryimportant tools in the shop for a num-ber of reasons. For example, vehiclemanufacturers use technical servicebulletins to update service informationwhich can be beneficial when con-ducting repairs on a vehicle, post col-lision.

Collision repair facilities can useTSBs to diagnose problems on a vehi-cle that may not have been noticed bythe vehicle owners prior to a collision.Regardless of whether it was causedby the collision damage, the vehicleowner would expect for your facilityto make the repair and by having theTSB in hand, the repair would be rel-atively simple, rather than trying totrack it down.

Use TSBs to upsell additionalwork while the vehicle is in your busi-ness. ALLDATA organizes TSBs by“Customer Interest.” These are bul-letins that have symptoms that the ve-hicle owner can see, feel, hear, touch,or smell. Examples are wind noise,water leaks, console doors that don’toperate properly, glove box doors thatfall open, etc. Generally, these typesof problems annoy the vehicle owner,but they are not going to make a spe-cial trip, and not have access to theirvehicle, to take it back to the dealerfor correction. The great part withTSBs is they generally tell the shopthe symptom, cause, correction, re-quired parts, and sometimes the labortime. This is a great way for a colli-sion repair business to add some addi-tional revenue to the repair.

Recall notices are another keytool in collision repair facilities nowa-days that are not being used to theirfull extent. Recall notices inform thevehicle owner of potential problemswith their vehicle and if the vehicleowner is not aware of an issue whenthe vehicle comes into your shop,these notices can be a great way toboost the business’ credibility. Manytimes, a vehicle owner is not aware ofrecall due to a change in ownership inthe vehicle and recalls can then be an-other way to separate your shop from

the shop down the street that may notbe using these to educate vehicle own-ers.

Below is an example of a prob-lem that one of our customers en-countered that was solved using arecall notice. The problem was not re-lated to the collision, but was noticedonce the collision repairs had beencompleted and the vehicle returned tothe owner.http://collision.alldata.com/alldata/ar-ticle/display.action?componentId=610&iTypeId=100&vehicleId=42056&nonStandardId=783863&tocParent=true

2006 Pontiac G6 L4-2.4L VIN B

Lighting and Horns

TSB Title: 08317 02/10/2009 Recall -Brake Lamps Not Working Properly

# 08317: Product Safety - BrakeLamps Not Working Properly - (Feb10, 2009)

Subject:08317 -- Brake Lamps Not WorkingProperly

Models:2005-2006 Pontiac G6

ConditionGeneral Motors has decided that adefect, which relates to motor vehi-cle safety, exists in certain 2005-2006model year Pontiac G6 vehicles.Some of these vehicles have a condi-tion where the brake lamps may notoperate properly because of frettingcorrosion in a wiring connector. Fret-ting corrosion in the connector could

cause the brake lamps to illuminatewhen the brake pedal has not been

depressed, or the lamps may not illu-minate when the brake pedal is de-pressed. In addition, the cruise

control may not engage, or greaterbrake pedal force may be required toshift the vehicle out of PARK. Brakelamps that are not operating properlymay not warn a driver in a followingvehicle of the braking status andcould lead to a crash without priorwarning.

CorrectionDealers are to apply a dielectric lubri-cant to the connector to repair and pre-vent fretting corrosion.

Vehicles InvolvedFor dealers with involved vehicles, alisting with involved vehicles con-taining the complete vehicle identifi-cation number, customer name, andaddress information has been preparedand will be provided through the GMGlobalConnect Recall Reports. Deal-ers will not have a report available ifthey have no involved vehicles cur-rently assigned.

The listing may contain customernames and addresses obtained fromMotor Vehicle Registration Records.The use of such motor vehicle regis-tration data for any purpose other thanfollow-up necessary to complete thisrecall is a violation of law in severalstates/provinces/countries. Accord-ingly, you are urged to limit the use ofthis report to the follow-up necessaryto complete this recall.

Parts InformationService Procedure

1. Remove the right side front floorconsole side trim panel to access thebody control module (BCM).

2. Locate the C2 connector on theBCM.

3. Unlatch the C2 connector and dis-connect the C2 connector from theBCM.

4. Apply dielectric lubricant on theBCM C2 pins (apply with a one-inch (25 mm) nylon bristle brush) onall the C2 connector pins. This willtreat the pins against fretting corro-sion.

5. Reconnect the C2 connector backon the BCM and re-latch.

6. Reinstall the right side front floorconsole side trim panel.

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All customer requests for reimburse-ment of previously paid repairs for therecall condition will be handled by theCustomer Assistance Center, not bydealers.

Important:(For GM US Only) Refer to the GMService Policies and ProceduresManual, section 6.1.12, for specificprocedures regarding customer reim-bursement and the form.


Using Manufacturer TSBs and Recalls in Collision Shopswith Tom McGee

ALL OEM InformationTom McGee is National Account Manager for ALLDATA Collision. He has had a long career with I-CAR, in-cluding as President & CEO. Tom is an ASE certified Master Collision Repair/Refinish Technician. He hasalso run his own collision facility and been a career and technical school instructor. He can be reached [email protected]. For other Tom McGee articles in Autobody News, go to:http://www.autobodynews.com/tom-mcgee/index.php

See TSBs and Recalls, Page 40

Important: Dealers are to confirm vehicle eligibility prior to beginning repairs by using the GMVehicle Inquiry System (GMVIS). Not all vehicles within the above breakpoints may be involved.

Involved are certain 2005-2006 model year Pontiac G6 vehicles built within these VIN breakpoints:

Parts required to complete this recall are to be obtained from General Motors Service and PartsOperations (GMSPO). Please refer to your “involved vehicles listing” before ordering parts. Normalorders should be placed on a DRO = Daily Replenishment Order. In an emergency situation, partsshould be ordered on a CSO = Customer Special Order.

* One unit of lubricant will service 25 vehicles.


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Allstate Astrology Release a “Joke”Allstate Corp. retracted a press releasethis month that was meant to be ajoke, displaying the accident rates ofdrivers according to their zodiacsigns.

“We recently issued a press re-lease on zodiac signs and accidentrates, which led to some confusionaround whether astrological signs arepart of the underwriting process,” saidthe insurer, in its retraction. “Astro-logical signs have absolutely no rolein how we base coverage and setrates.”

Allstate (ALL, Fortune 500) alsosaid, “We deeply apologize for anyconfusion this may have caused.”

The insurance company’s origi-nal press release claimed that Scor-pios, who have a “perfectionistnature,” were the safest drivers in2010, because they were involved inonly 26,833 accidents. Virgos on theother hand, which Allstate character-ized as “worried and shy,” were in-volved with 211,650 accidents,making them the worst offenders, ac-cording to the company.

“Over the past year, Virgos werenearly 700%more likely to be in a caraccident when compared to the deter-mined and aware Scorpio,” said theoriginal press release, which de-

scribed Scorpios as having “overlycautious and timid driving habits.”

The press release was apparentlyinspired by recent revisions to the zo-diac calendar, which changed therange of birth dates for the differentsigns. Allstate declared Opiuchus, thenew sign added for people born Nov.29 to Dec. 17, to be the second-safestgroup of drivers.

The data that Allstate used wasreal, based on the birthdays of cus-tomers actually involved in accidents.But the company’s conclusion wastongue in cheek.

Unfortunately, enough peopletook the press release seriously to cre-ate a public relations mess for All-state. Company spokeswoman LauraStrykowski said the press release wasyanked from the company site and sherefused to provide a copy of the of-fending release to CNNMoney. Butthe document was available via theNexis database.

“Rating by astrology would notbe actuarially sound,” saidAllstate, inits retraction.

“Rating by astrology would notbe actuarially sound. We realize thatour hard-working customers viewtheir insurance expense very seri-ously. So do we.”

NICB Issues 2010 Suspicious Claims ReportThe National Insurance Crime Bureau(NICB) just released its 2010 ques-tionable claims (QC) referral reasonanalysis in which it cites auto glassfraud and inflated towing/storage billsas the top two reasons for claims toraise a possible red flag in vehicleclaims.

The NICB Vehicle QC analysisreports that glass fraud rose 450 percentand inflated towing/storage bills rose116 percent over their 2009 numbers.

Questionable claims are thoseclaims that NICB member insurancecompanies refer to NICB for closerreview and investigation based on oneor more indicators of possible fraud.A single claim may contain up toseven referral reasons. The analysis isbased only on these “questionable”claims referred to NICB from itsmember insurance companies, not onactual fraud found.

Questionable claims categorizedas Auto Repair/Body Shop rankednumber three by percentage rise since2009. NICB says 1,939 QC were sub-mitted in this category compared to1,480 in 2009, a 31 percent rise.

Overall, Vehicle Referral Rea-sons increased 4 percent from 2009 to2010. However, the NICB points outin its full report that all of the top three

reasons in 2010 (Auto Glass Fraud,Inflated Tow Bill/Storage, Auto Re-pair/Body Shop) are body shop re-lated and comprise 14 percent of thetotal referral reasons for the Vehicleinsurance category.

In 2009, a total of 84,407 QCswere referred to the NICB in all in-surance categories, an increase of 8.7percent.

AK Leg to Ban Cell PhoneUsage in School, Work ZonesThe Arkansas Legislature has givenfinal approval to a ban on driversusing hand-held cell phones inschool and work zones, according toreports made by Insurance Journal.

The House has approved thelegislation on a 52-41 vote. The pro-posal would exempt the use ofhands-free phones and GPS devices.

A violation would be a second-ary offense, meaning drivers couldonly be cited if they were first pulledover for a primary offense. It wouldapply to school zones duringschool hours when children arepresent, and highway work zoneswhen a highway worker is present.

The law would take effect Oct.1 is signed by the governor.


Customer Reimbursement - ForCanada

Customer requests for reimbursementof previously paid repairs for the re-call condition are to be submitted tothe dealer by February 28, 2010.

All reasonable customer paid re-ceipts should be considered for reim-bursement. The amount to bereimbursed will be limited to theamount the repair would have cost ifcompleted by an authorized GeneralMotors dealer.

When a customer requests reim-bursement, they must provide the fol-lowing:

^ Proof of ownership at time of repair.

^ Original paid receipt confirming the

amount of repair expense(s) that werenot reimbursed, a description of therepair, and the person or entity pre-forming the repair.

Claims for customer reimburse-ment on previously paid repairs are tobe submitted as required by WINS.

Important:

Refer to the GM Service Policies andProcedures Manual, section 6.1.12,for specific procedures regarding cus-tomer reimbursement verification.

Courtesy TransportationThe General Motors Courtesy Trans-portation program is intended to min-imize customer inconvenience when avehicle requires a repair that is cov-ered by the NewVehicle LimitedWar-ranties. The availability of courtesytransportation to customers whose ve-hicles are within the warranty cover-age period and involved in a productprogram is very important in main-taining customer satisfaction. Dealersare to ensure that these customers un-derstand that shuttle service or someother form of courtesy transportationis available and will be provided at nocharge. Dealers should refer to theGeneral Motors Service Policies andProcedures Manual for CourtesyTransportation guidelines.

Claim Information

Customer NotificationGeneral Motors will notify customersof this recall on their vehicle (see copyof customer letter in this bulletin).

Dealer Recall Responsibility -For US (US States, Territories, andPossessions)

The US National Traffic andMotor Vehicle Safety Act providesthat each vehicle that is subject to a re-call of this type must be adequately re-paired within a reasonable time afterthe customer has tendered it for repair.A failure to repair within sixty daysafter tender of a vehicle is prima facieevidence of failure to repair within areasonable time. If the condition is notadequately repaired within a reason-able time, the customer may be enti-tled to an identical or reasonablyequivalent vehicle at no charge or to arefund of the purchase price less a rea-sonable allowance for depreciation.To avoid having to provide these bur-densome remedies, every effort mustbe made to promptly schedule an ap-pointment with each customer and torepair their vehicle as soon as possi-ble. In the recall notification letters,customers are told how to contact theUS National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration if the recall is not

completed within a reasonable time.

Dealer Recall Responsibility - All

All unsold new vehicles indealers' possession and subject tothis recall must be held and in-spected/repaired per the service pro-cedure of this recall bulletin before

customers take possession of thesevehicles.

Dealers are to service all vehiclessubject to this recall at no charge tocustomers, regardless of mileage, ageof vehicle, or ownership, from thistime forward.

Customers who have recentlypurchased vehicles sold from your ve-hicle inventory, and for which there isno customer information indicated onthe dealer listing, are to be contactedby the dealer. Arrangements are to bemade to make the required correctionaccording to the instructions con-tained in this bulletin. A copy of thecustomer letter is shown in this bul-letin for your use in contacting cus-tomers. Recall follow-up cards shouldnot be used for this purpose, since thecustomer may not as yet have receivedthe notification letter.

In summary, whenever a vehiclesubject to this recall enters your vehi-cle inventory, or is in your dealershipfor service in the future, you must takethe steps necessary to be sure the re-call correction has been made beforeselling or releasing the vehicle.

© 2011 ALLDATA, LLC. All RightsReserved. Terms of Use (Version2.0.10164)

For more information on OE repair in-formation, please visit:www.alldata.com/collision.

NOTE: This Repair/Service Proce-dure is excerpted from a recall noticepublished by the vehicle manufac-turer, and is intended for use bytrained, professional technicians withthe knowledge, tools and equipmentto do the job properly and safely. It isrecommended that this procedure notbe performed by “do-it-yourselfers.”


TSBs and Recalls

Repair Performed PartCount

PartNo.

PartsAllow CC-FC Labor

OpLaborHours

NetItem

Apply Dielectric Lubricant to C2 Connector 0 N/A N/A MA-96 V2044 0.2 *

Courtesy Transportation for vehicles within the New VehicleLimited Warranties (US & Canadian GM Dealers)

N/A N/A N/A MA-96 ** N/A ***

Customer Reimbursement (Canadian Dealers/US CAC) N/A N/A N/A MA-96 V2045 0.2 ****

Submit a Product Recall Claim with the information indicated below:

* The amount identified in the “Net Item” column should represent the actual sum total of the current GMSPO Dealer net price forthe dielectric lubricant needed to perform the required repairs, not to exceed $0.33 USD, $0.40 CAD, plus applicable Mark-Up.

** Submit courtesy transportation using normal labor operations for courtesy transportation as indicated in the GM Service Poli-cies and Procedures Manual for vehicles within the New Vehicle Limited Warranties.

*** The amount identified in the “Net Item” column should represent the actual dollar amount for courtesy transportation.

**** The amount identified in the “Net Item” column should represent the dollar amount reimbursed to the customer.

Refer to the General Motors WINS Claims Processing Manual for details on Product Recall Claim Submission.

clear to them.”For the first time since its inception

in 2000, J.D. Power's study examineddifferences in satisfaction between auto

manufacturer website users who enteredthrough the home page and those whosepoint of entry was a model-level page.The firm discovered that, overall, web-site users who accessed a websitethrough a model page are significantlymore satisfied with their experience thanthose who entered through the homepage.

Walker also insisted websites thatachieve the highest levels of overall sat-isfaction and usability perform consis-tently well among both sets of shoppers.

In contrast, for some of the lowest-performing websites, J.D. Power no-ticed significant gaps in satisfactionbetween users who entered the sitethrough the home page and those who

gained entry through a model page.J.D. Power reiterated that its 2011

ManufacturerWebsite Evaluation Study—Wave 1 is based on evaluations frommore than 10,200 new-vehicle shopperswho indicate they will be in the marketfor a new vehicle within the next 24months. The study was fielded in No-vember of last year.


JD Power

Search:

Autobody Newson Facebook

General Motors dealers in the UnitedStates reported 178,896 total sales inJanuary, a 23-percent increase from ayear ago for the company’s fourbrands. The gain was driven by solidretail sales which were 36 percenthigher than a strong January a yearago.

For the month, overall GM fleetsales were down 7 percent with salesto rental fleets declining 11 percent,while sales to commercial customers

rose 7 percent. Retail sales of GM’scars, trucks and crossovers all rose 34percent or more during the month, up39 percent, 34 percent and 35 percent,respectively.

“January was a good month andsignaled a solid start to the new yearfor each of our divisions,” said DonJohnson, vice president, U.S. SalesOperations.

“Our results were driven by gainsacross the board in all segments, with

our newest models leading the way,”Johnson said.

Combined sales for GM’s newestvehicles – Chevrolet Equinox, Silver-ado HD, Cruze and Volt; BuickLaCrosse and Regal; GMC Sierra HDand Terrain; and Cadillac SRX, CTSWagon and CTS Coupe – increased 31percent, while retail sales surged 61percent for the month.

Month-end dealer inventory inthe United States stood at about

510,000 units, which is about 1,000lower compared to December andabout 124,000 higher than January2010.

For more information please visitwww.gm.com.


General Motors January 2011 Sales Rise 23 Percent

818-832-1660Fax: 818-832-1692

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www.gmgoodwrench.com©2010 GM Corp. All rights reserved


Anyone who has worked in a shop foreven just a matter of months can prob-ably quickly list a half dozen or morethings that work really well in thatshop in terms of its physical designand layout—and a equal number ofthings they’d change about it if giventhe opportunity.

Whether building a new shopfrom the ground-up, or preparing toexpand or remodel an existing facility,here are 10 things to consider whenmapping out your plans.

1. Think about the customer ex-perience. As early in the process aspossible, consider the entire designand layout from the perspective ofhow a customer will interact with it.Is the building situated on the site tomaximize visibility and “curb appeal”from the street? Is it clear where a cus-tomer enters the property and wherethey are to park or leave their vehicle?Can they drop-off or pick-up their ve-

hicle under cover or out of the ele-ments? Is there adequate customerparking close to the office?

The office and customer areasoften seem to be an afterthought inmany shops where production space isconsidered paramount. But in additionto staff office space, consider includ-ing a quiet area for customers to waitwith adequate furniture and amenitieslike a water cooler, television, cus-tomer-only restrooms, children’s playarea or work space for those wantinguse of a phone, computer or Internetaccess.

2. Take noise into account. Someshop processes—like grinding—andsome equipment—like air compres-sors—are particularly noisy. Try to sit-uate these processes in a way thatisolates the noise from the office andrest of the shop. A compressor room,for example, should be placed at therear or the building or if possible in anexternal space. Noise-deadening ma-terial should be included in the wallssurrounding these types of noisyequipment.

3. Get adequate lighting, air sup-ply and electrical sources. Techniciansrarely complain that a shop has toomuch light.

Consider the use of skylights andhigh-efficiency lighting that will re-duce power consumption and in somecases (if replacing existing lightsources) offer opportunity for taxcredits that offset part of their cost(check with your utility or state energy

department).Electrical and air supply drops at

each stall allow for maximum techni-cian efficiency—and far fewer trip haz-ards or potential damage to cords andhoses stretched across the shop floor.

In stalls where resistance spotwelding will take place, 3-phasepower is required.

For the office, dedicated electri-cal circuits for computer equipmentwill help protect computers and pe-ripherals from spikes, sags and otherpower fluctuations. High-end surgeprotectors are still recommended, with


Want every jobWant every jobto be a bang-up job?to be a bang-up job?Want every jobto be a bang-up job?

WE WANT TO BE YOUR SOURCEFOR REAL VOLKSWAGEN PARTS.

These dealers are Genuine VW Parts Wholesale Specialists.

We have the Real Volkswagen CollisionParts that make your job easier andyour customers happier. With your skilland our parts, every collision repair willbe a bang-up job. And that will add upto more repeat business for both of us.Call your order in today.

So. California

City VolkswagenSAN DIEGO

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Volkswagen ofDowntown LA

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Dirito Bros. WalnutCreek Volkswagen

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Drew VWSAN DIEGO

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Ten Things to Consider When Designing a New Shop, Remodel, or Expansion

with Ed Attanasio

Shop and Product Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Showcase

The Right Causewith Mike Causey


John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has been writingabout the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of the weekly CRASHNetwork (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).He can be contacted by email at [email protected].

an uninterruptible power supply(UPS)—which serves as a short-termbattery back-up, allowing for safeshutdown in the case of a power out-age—for key computer servers.

Keep in mind, too, that commu-nication cables for phones or linkingcomputer networks can be subject toelectrical interference, so such cablesshould not be run parallel with electri-cal wiring or near lighting fixtures.

Choose a compressor and air dry-ing system adequate for your currentair supply needs—plus a little more asgrowth or unexpected needs arise.Discuss with suppliers how it shouldbe set up to ensure that heavy use ofair—by a paint booth, for example,doesn’t lead to inadequate air else-where in the system.

4. Get the bay size right. Al-though the natural inclination is to getas many working bays or stalls in abuilding as possible, those bays needto give technicians adequate space tosafely and efficiently move them-selves and tools, equipment and partsaround the vehicle.

For bays with surface or above-ground lifts, a minimum bay size of 12feet by 25 feet is generally sufficient,but for work on larger vehicles, a 13-foot width is ideal. In-ground lifts cangenerally be accommodated in baysthat are 11 feet or wider. If your marketincludes a lot of full-size pick-ups, youmay want at least some larger bays,with a 14-foot width and 27-foot length.

Some equipment, like frameracks, generally require longer orwider bays, so get the specificationsof the equipment you plan to installand choose locations for this equip-ment accordingly.

Allow 24 feet wide by 27 feetlong for each paint booth.

5. Get the proportions right. Onepaint company shop layout consultantuses a 10-2-1 ratio: For every 10 bodystalls, there should be two paint prepstalls and one booth.

6. Leave room for parts. Shoplayout consultants recommend an areaequal to about 10 percent of a 15,000-square-foot collision repair center bededicated for parts. (This percentagecould drop for larger shops.)

7. Keep safety in mind. Em-ployee and customer safety must bekey considerations in planning anynew or expanded facility. Access tothe production area by customersshould be carefully controlled, andareas where customers can walk beshould be clearly delineated.

Adequate ventilation for exhaustand solvent fumes is required.

Many fire extinguishers are ratedto handle only two or three of the fourtypes of fires that could occur. Shopsshould have extinguishers rated forClass A (wood and paper), Class Band C (flammable fluids and electri-cal) and Class D (special agents, com-bustible metals). Make sure there’s anextinguisher no more than 50 feetaway from any point in the shop, thatsignage clearly indicates where theyare, and that they are easily accessible(mounted between 36 and 60 inchesoff the floor).

Also plan for smoke and carbonmonoxide detectors, and one or moreeye-wash stations.

8. Consider parking needs.When planning building size, con-sider how much external parking willbe needed for customers, vehiclestorage and vendors (for deliveries).If inclement weather or concernsabout theft or vandalism are issues atyour location, some outdoor parkingcould be sacrificed in order to havemore indoor space for vehicle stor-age. Or consider whether rooftopparking—or multi-level vehicle stor-age units—can help increase your ca-pacity without expanding yourproperty’s footprint.

9. Go with the flow. One of thekeys to shop efficiency is minimizingthe movement of vehicles that is nec-

essary. Time spent moving one car justto get another out of a stall or to an-other part of the shop is wasted time.

While more overhead doorsallow easier vehicle access in and outof the building, they also make it moredifficult to maintain a comfortableworking temperature in the shop dur-ing hot or cold weather. Where ade-quate aisle space within the buildingis available, fewer doors are needed.

A building width of at least 70feet allows the shop to have 23-feet-long stalls on one side, 26-feet-long

stalls (to allow for larger equipment,for example) on the opposite side andstill an adequate center aisle (21-feetwide) down the middle. A 25-footwide aisle will even more easily ac-commodate the turning radius oflarger vehicles.

10. Think green. A new shop orexpansion offers a great opportunityto incorporate “green building prac-tices” or equipment and systems thatwill help you tread easier on the envi-ronment—while saving money andproviding a potential marketing op-portunity.

Easy access to overhead door clo-sure switches, for example, can helpencourage technicians to reduce heatloss in cold weather. Tax incentivesoften are available that can help makeinstallation of solar or other alterna-tive energy sources competitive withtraditional sources. Waste water col-lection systems can not only meetlocal ordinances but also include oil-water separators, or allow reuse of“grey water” for landscaping or otheruses. Consider the energy-efficiencyof the various brands and models ofequipment you are purchasing.

Check the website of the non-profit Coordinating Committee forAutomotive Repair (www.ccar-green-link.org) for more information onbuilding and operating a “green” shop—and an opportunity for earning na-tional recognition for doing so.


Out-sourcing certain aspects of the jobwhen it comes to collision repair hasbecome a popular choice for manybody shops.

The cost of training and hiring in-dividuals capable of doing all aspectsof the job can seem daunting andcostly to some collision repair shops.

Unfortunately this leaves out a lot ofpotential opportunities for long-termrevenue as well.

Sal’s Premium Auto Collisionin Los Angeles has found that trainingemployees to be capable of doingevery aspect of acollision repair jobcan not only bevery profitable forthe shop, but it alsoallows them tooversee every as-pect of the job tomake sure the caris repaired to theirstandards in atimely fashion.

Sal’s has 7 em-ployees and owner

Sal Hurtado felt that training each ofthem to be able to do every aspect of thejob was better than hiring a technicianwho is only specialized in one area.

This also cuts down on their cycle-times and increases internal profits.

“Usually we get them all trainedthrough I-CAR or at Cerritos Col-

lege,” said Hurtado.Cerritos College is alocal community col-lege that offers courseson automotive collisionand mechanical repair.

Sal’s is I-CARgold certified and sev-eral of their employeesare also DuPont certi-fied paint technicians.Sal opened the shop in1999 with his wife,Elizabeth. The shopquickly grew to its cur-rent size at over 25,000

square feet and has grown revenues toabout $700,000 annually.

“I used to work with my dad, heused to have a body shop. Then in1999 I decided to go into business formyself,” said Hurtado.

Sal’s does everything from cos-metic collision repair, frame work,mechanical work, airbag work, ACcondenser repair and replacement,wheel alignment, factory and custompainting (including rims), upholsterywork on leather, vinyl and cloth, glassrepair and replacement, 24-hour tow-ing and on site rental cars.

“We do a lot of auto collision re-pair and custom paint work,” said Sal,“We do candies, pearls, graphics—we can really do anything.”

Sal’s also has a wide array ofequipment to provide their of services.Two Chief S21 frame machines and aVelocity by Chief straightening ma-chine in the Bay area. The DuPontcolornet mix system in their down-draft spray booth’s enclosed mixingand prep room help techinicans toserve as many customers as possibleusing their eight complete worksta-tions.

Hurtado’s motto is, “At Sal’s youdon’t have to pay extra for high qual-ity. You get high quality for the sameprice.”

For more information please visitwww.salspremiumautocollision.com.

Sal’s Premium Auto Collision4242 South Crenshaw BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90008323-299-4242


Sal’s Premium Auto Collision in Los Angeles, CA — A Lesson in Versatility

with Ed Attanasio


with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase




Erica Schroeder is a writer and editorial assistantfor Autobody News in Oceanside, CA. She can bereached at [email protected].

THESE DEALERS ARE GENUINE WHOLESALE PARTS SPECIALISTS.

CALIFORNIA

Elk Grove ToyotaELK GROVE

916-405-4700800-952-5307916-405-8045 FaxMon. - Fri. 7am - 7pm;Sat. 8am - 5pm

www.elkgrovetoyota.com

Sal’s Premium Auto Collision on Crenshaw Blvd in Los Angeles

Co-owner and Estimator Elizabeth Hurtado (l) starts an estimate

Inside the bays area

The front desk area

In September 2010, Audatex intro-duced new functionality in its esti-mating system to provide a refinishlabor time for raw, unprimed bumpercovers. The feature was short lived.After receiving feedback from the col-lision industry, the informationprovider removed the feature the fol-lowing month until further review.

Audatex is now getting ready tore-introduce the feature with slight

modifications to the version of the cal-culation introduced in September.

According to Rick Tuuri, VicePresident of Industry Relations, Au-datex will reintroduce the feature inMarch, 2011. The feature will be im-plemented as a pop up box to enterlabor time for refinishing an unprimedbumper cover. The box will be pre-populated with a labor amount equalto 20 percent of the refinish time for

the bumper cover, or a minimum of .3hours, whichever is greater.

The pop up box will appearwhenever a bumper cover is selectedthat will be supplied in an unprimedcondition, including those from Toy-ota and Lexus.

Tuuri also said that the box willonly show up in the cases where Au-datex knows the part comes from theOEM raw and unprimed. In cases

where the part sometimes comes un-primed and sometimes it does not, thepart will not automatically appear inthe edit box but can be manually en-tered.

“We know there are other rawand unprimed parts on the car,” saidTuuri. “This, we think, is a good astart, the way that we have started toaddress the raw and unprimed plasticparts,” said Tuuri.


See these Hyundai dealers below for all your collision parts needs!

QUALITY IS ALL WE THINK ABOUT. THAT

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Hyundai Sonata 2011

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Kearny Mesa HyundaiSAN DIEGO

800-469-9731858-300-3331 Fax

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[email protected]

Henderson HyundaiSuperstore

LAS VEGAS - METRO AREA702-565-9643

702-564-7756 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 6pm

Sat 7am - [email protected]

San Leandro HyundaiSAN LEANDRO

510-347-3010510-895-1027 Fax

Lithia HyundaiFRESNO

800-462-2231559-436-6041

559-436-0743 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 6pm

Sat 8am - [email protected]

SO. CALIFORNIA

NO. CALIFORNIA

Tuttle Click HyundaiIRVINE

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Harbor HyundaiLONG BEACH

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Mon-Fri 8am - 5:45pmSat 8am - 1:45pm

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Drew HyundaiSAN DIEGO

888-839-0777619-668-7782 Direct


www.drewhyundai.com

able, but the appellate court doesn’thave to accept that. Sometimes theydon’t and send it back down to the trialcourt and tell the appealing party towait until the entire case is over. So inorder to make those two claims imme-diately appealable, we agreed withProgressive that we would “voluntar-ily dismiss the remaining claims with-out prejudice” which means we canrefile them later, depending on the out-come of the appeal.

The four claims that were dis-

missed include: Count 1: DeceptiveTrade Practice (primarily involvingtactics used to steer customers); Count4: Tortious Interference; Count 5: CivilConspiracy, Use of Unregistered BodyShops; and Count 6: Civil Conspiracy,Unlawful Conduct with DRP Shops.

About the Avery vs. State Farm CaseAvery was a nationwide class actionagainst State Farm challenging thecompany’s practice of not using OEMparts to repair vehicles. The plaintiffsclaimed that using aftermarket partsbreached State Farm’s promise to re-store vehicles to their preloss condi-tion. The Illinois Supreme Court

reversed a lower court ruling in favorof the plaintiffs, holding that in orderto establish a breach of contract, theplaintiffs would have to show that theparts specified or used by State Farmdid not restore the vehicle to itspreloss condition.

That case was watched veryclosely by the collision industry at thetime, because the initial Avery verdictseemed to vindicate repairer concernsabout aftermarket parts quality andwould have established a more strin-gent standard for insurance companiesrelative to returning a vehicle to itspreloss condition.

In the GEICO case, the final

Avery verdict was used to refute all ofGreenberger’s claims, particularlysince his vehicle was no longer avail-able for examination. “Among otherimportant holdings, Avery establishedthe common-sense proposition that apolicyholder’s suit against his insurerfor breach of its promise to restore hiscollision-damaged car to its prelosscondition cannot succeed without anexamination of the car,” said the 7thCircuit ruling in the Greenberger case.

The court also noted that thehigher estimate issued by the bodyshop did not establish a breach of con-tract, although it would be admissibleas supporting evidence.


Class Actions

Audatex to Reintroduce Labor Times for Unprimed Bumper Covers

Let’s talk diagnostics. Do you followany kind of diagnostic procedure, ordo you just throw darts on a wall, orplay “pick-a-part” and hope you fix itbefore you or the customer runs out ofcash? I hope you don’t do that. Thatmight work some of the time, but it’snot a good way to get to the source ofproblems quickly or accurately.

One of the tire shops that I dobusiness with dropped off a 2003F450 with a 7.3 diesel for me to lookat. It’s one of their service trucks thatdied on the highway.

These guys are super, I’ve knownthem for years, and they’ve got a greatreputation and excellent work force.In fact, I buy all my tires there, andthey do all my alignments. They try tofix their own trucks “in-house” andsometimes, well…the repair/diagnos-tics are a little out of their comfortzone. This was one of those times.

Now, they don’t try to keep upwith the scanning or diagnostics onmost cars and trucks. It’s a tire shopthat specializes in tires. They stick towhat they do best, tires, wheels, andundercarriage stuff. The only “techy”stuff they get into is with the TPMsystems. Most generally, when itcomes to their vehicles they’ll go withthe tried and true… “throw a dart andwhatever it hits we’ll change.” Ofcourse they’ll ask around first, but youknow, second-hand informationhardly ever gets the job done thesedays.

They had it at one of their storesin another town for about three weekstrying to solve the problem. When thatdidn’t work they decided to tow it upto another one of their stores, and seeif the guys there had a better dart. An-other couple of weeks and severaldarts later, all they had were holes inthe wall and no truck running. Thenmy phone rang.

“Can you program a PCM on aF450?” the shop asked.

“No, sorry I don’t do those, but Iknow who does. I’ll call him and see ifhe can come over and do that for you,”I told them.

A day or two went by and thephone rang again. “Hey, this thing stilldoesn’t start. The guy that pro-grammed it said it sounded like an

electrical problem.” OK, somehow,I’m getting involved now.

“Sure, bring it over,” I told them.Well, they towed it over with a

strap pulled by an F250 diesel truck.The F250 looked like a toy truck com-pared to this behemoth. With a pushand a shove from the F250 the guysgot it lined up and into one of myservice bays.

The big concern was the IDMrelay, it kept chattering like a machinegun. Instead of checking codes Ithought it best just to start with a com-plete wire to wire check to determineif there was some lost signal that wascausing the problem, or a wire thatwas scraped and grounding out. Re-moving the inner fender on the driverside I could gain access to the Injec-tor module (IDM) and the PCM(Power control module). Seemed eas-ier to start here than any place else. Itdidn’t take long before I tracked downa problem. On pin #71 of the (new)PCM there should have been 12 voltsfrom the ignition. No voltage at theterminal.

Tracing the wiring diagramthrough its maze led back to the in-carfuse box on fuse #22. I grabbed mytest light and checked the fuse…(Rolling my eyes about now) thefuse,… oh man… the fuse is blown.Good grief… all this for a blown fuse.

Well, I better change the fuse, andsee if it starts. Sure enough; it firedright up… sounded great, good throt-tle response, and no service lights.

Now the big challenge, whatblew the fuse in the first place? Fol-lowing the wiring diagram again…. Itraced out all the components on thefuse circuit. There was one that caughtmy eye as the likely culprit. The brakecut-off switch mounted on the mastercylinder. (It’s the one that had the bigrecall a few years ago.)

The updated replacement piecewas in place but somebody forgot tosecure the wires. The replacementpiece has a newer style connector andan adapter connector to allow you toattach it to the original style fastener.Which makes it a little longer than itoriginally was from the factory. It washard to tell where the new wire andconnector started, and the old one

ended, because the whole thing waslying on the exhaust manifold, andhad melted down to a glob of wire andplastic.

Looking around under the hoodthere were all kinds of new parts in-stalled. The nicest part: they wereall installed correctly. There wereno other wires out of place, or anysigns of scraps or melted wiring.The important thing is that it runs,and the truck can go back to doingwhat it needs to do. I think thebiggest thing that threw everyoneon this job was the chattering relay.It sounded bad, sounded expen-sive… but, all it turned out to bewas a loss of proper voltage to thePCM, because a fuse blew from alead that grounded out. This wasdue to the improper installation ofone small component.

The PCM couldn’t spread enoughvoltage and ground signals to all the

necessary systems when it was miss-ing the voltage it needed. As the relaywould engage, the voltage drop wastoo much to keep the relay engaged.The IDM would pull more signal volt-age as the relay would come to life.Then the PCM would have to drop theground signal to the IDM relay tocompensate for the loss of voltage. Allthis was going on very rapidly … onand off, on and off… making the ma-chine gun sound coming from theIDM relay.

The guys at the tire store were ex-tremely grateful that I got the jobdone, so they could use the truckagain. For me, it’s another day at theshop. I’ve got nothing but good thingsto say about the guys at the tire shop.Hey they tried, I’ll give them that.

But one thing I wish they woulddo next time --- CHECK THE BA-SICS—BEFORE BUYING PARTS!It’s cheaper that way…


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with Rick WhiteShop Management

with Stefan GesterkampPaint Management

with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox

with Richard ArnoldJobber Journal

with Dale DelmegeAsk Dale

Mainstream Media

Automakers’ Actions and Analysisby Autobody News Staff

Shop Showcaseby Autobody News Staff

with Ed AttanasioShop and Product Showcase

with Ed AttanasioConsumer Callout

with Walter DanalevichShop Strategies for Savings

with The Insurance InsiderInside Insurance

with Ed AttanasioCustom Corner

with Chasidy Rae SiskCompany Connections


with Erica SchroederShop Snapshot

This is a new story by Scott “Gonzo” Weaver as posted on his website,www.gonzostoolbox.com. See his book “Hey Look! I Found The LooseNut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age. The bookis available at amazon.com. Contact Gonzo at [email protected]

When it Comes to Diagnostics, First, The Basics


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ABPA says a laboratory crash test per-formed in December 2010 by MGAResearch Corporation determined thatan aftermarket bumper reinforcementbar outperformed its original equip-ment supplied (OES) equivalent, theAutomotive Body Parts Association(ABPA) announced.

The trial involved sled-testing apair of 2007 Ford Mustangs into afront-end barrier at 5 mph (the sametest presented by Ford at the CollisionIndustry Conference last November),measuring the effectiveness of the re-inforcement bars and estimating thecosts of repair to the aftermarket andOES-equipped vehicles.

“We decided to incur the ex-pense of further testing to illustratecomparable performance and to dis-prove the claim that it costs more torepair aftermarket-equipped vehi-cles than those with only OEM orOES parts,” said Eileen A. Sottile,co-chair of the ABPA Legislation &Regulation Committee. “Tests haveconsistently demonstrated that after-market parts perform just as well as

original equipment components, andconsumers should feel good abouthaving these parts on their vehi-cles.”

While both parts effectively ab-sorbed the impact and protected thevehicle occupants, a piece of thebumper fell off of the Mustang outfit-ted with an OES rein-forcement bar. Thelow-speed test did notresult in the deploy-ment of the air bagsystems on either ve-hicle.

Two repair shops which ABPAsays are “highly regarded” were askedto calculate the costs of repair to thetest vehicles without knowledge of theparts used in the crash test. One of theshops gave an identical estimate forrepairs, while the other (a Ford dealerbody shop) estimated that it wouldcost approximately $200 less to repairthe aftermarket-equipped vehicle thanthe one with original equipment parts,which sustained more damage, ac-cording to ABPA.

“When aftermarket and OEMparts performed equally well in trialsat 35 mph, some industry memberscomplained that the tests were con-ducted at too high a rate of speed,making all rebars ‘toast’ even thoughthe government requires tests at 35mph in order to test for occupant

safety,” said Sottile.“Now that this

low-speed test hasvindicated the after-market in terms ofquality, safety and

damageability, the focusshould return to preventing more carsfrom becoming total losses, whichmeans everyone wins — the repairer,the insurer and, most importantly, thevehicle owner.”

Sottile has previously said “Theaftermarket industry is a thriving partof the American economy and willcontinue to be," declared Sottile."Consumers benefit when they havechoice about which parts they use forcar repairs, and competition preventscar company monopolies from charg-

ing excessive prices to line their pock-ets.”

The ABPA says it will performadditional testing and also make thoseresults public.

About the ABPAThe more than 150 members of theAutomotive Body Parts Association(ABPA) occupy more than 415 sepa-rate collision parts distribution,bumper sales, recycling facilities andmanufacturing plants. Collectively,they are responsible for distributingmore than 75 percent of independentlyproduced aftermarket collision re-placement parts sold to the collisionrepair trade. ABPA members warrantthe products they sell and endorse theconcept of Complete Customer Satis-faction which not only extends to thequality of the product lines but alsoencompasses product availability,product service, product price andservice after the sale. Visit www.au-tobpa.com.

See www.autobpa.com andwww.mgaresearch.com.

ABPA Says Aftermarket Bumper Outperformed Ford Counterpart in Crash Test

While many body shops in the countryare battening down their hatches fi-nancially, operating with skeletoncrews and going into survivor mode,Gene Crozat, the multiple locationowner of G&C AutoBody in Marinand Sonoma counties, CA, is buyingland, building new facilities, and sign-ing up more DRPs. Crozat is aggres-sively looking to gain more of themarket, while exploring further ex-pansion opportunities in areas wherehe sees potential for growth and prof-itability.

With six body shops, another onein construction and a large mechani-cal repair shop, G&C AutoBody isNorthern California’s largest collisionrepair chain north of the Golden GateBridge. G&C has been family-ownedand operated since 1972, and has be-come synonymous with quality re-pairs and exceptional service,according to G&C’s Director of Pub-lic Relations Peter Bizaca.

The company did $20 million in2010, up from 2009; employs 65 peo-ple and fixes more than 500 carsmonthly, Bizaca reported.

A good example of Crozat’s “ex-pand rather than contract” approachcan be illustrated by its newest loca-tion in the small town of Windsor, CA.Crozat bought the land at a recessionsale price and has built the 15,000square-foot facility from the groundup at an enormous overall savings, hesaid.

Some body shop owners consid-ered him insane for building newshops in a recession without any reliefin sight, but the 50-year industry vet-

eran knows that timing is everything.“Some see a recession as a time

to sit back, but I see it as an opportu-nity instead of an obstacle,” Crozatreasons. “You can sit around all day

long, frightened and paralyzed by thistough economy, or you can use it toyour advantage, and that’s what we’vedone. In 1999, we also went througha recession, and I opened new shopsduring that time as well.”

While many body shops have ex-perienced substantial downturns since2008, G&C’s volume is up and grow-ing. In the last two years, their busi-

ness is up 23%,while the nationalaverage in collisionrepair is down 30%across the board,Crozat said. Afterdoing extensive mar-ket research,Crozat’s team deter-mined that Windsorwas a prime situa-tion for their newestlocation.“There are 26,000

people in Windsorand it will double in

size within the next decade. We dis-covered that the entire town had justone body shop and many of our SantaRosa customers were coming fromWindsor. So, it was an ideal situa-tion—a growing area with a need andprime real estate available at a goodprice.”

Simply finding good locations fornew shops isn’t the only way to suc-ceed, Crozat says. By embracing thecommunities in which he operates,G&C is able to capture a lion’s share

of the available business in each re-gion.

While the business environmentis waning across the board, Crozatand his team are looking at the pos-

itives rather than the negative re-ports we hear almost every day inthe media.

“Other body shops out there arecutting costs and laying people off, so

we’re asking ourselves, who is goingto fix all these cars? Just because theeconomy is sluggish doesn’t meandrivers are going to suddenly avoidgetting into accidents.”

The prices of real estate, con-struction, labor and even advertisingare at all-time lows, Crozat has real-ized. “We’re saving 35–40% acrossthe board over what it would have costus to do the same thing four years ago.Interest rates are way down and theconstruction bids were extremelytight, because contractors are hungrierthan ever.”

Timing is everything in any in-dustry, but even more so in collision,Crozat said. “The best time to buy aboat is in January, not in June. Tighttimes are the perfect time to buy andbuild. It behooves us to take a chanceduring a down economy, because Iknow that if I can build a world-classshop in a prime location where the


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G&C Autobody Seizes Opportunity to Expand in Northern California

with Ed Attanasio


with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase




Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

G&C Autobody’s newest shop in Windsor, CA. is betting on a city that is poised for double-digitgrowth in the next decade

G&C has spent more than $6 million to buy the land and built theirnewest shop in Windsor, California

business environment is healthy, it’san easy decision.”

Part of the G&C plan involvesgetting onboard with each communitythey open a new shop in, for severalreasons, Bizaca explained.

“We are involved in a wide rangeof community groups in every city inwhich we operate, because we don’tjust want to be a business that takesmoney from the residents without giv-ing something back. We want to bepart of the fabric of the communityrather than a just a company doingbusiness there.”

To that end, G&C is already in-volved with several community or-ganizations, local schools, andplanning to sponsor Little Leaguesteams in Windsor, even thoughthey’ve only been open since Decem-ber, Bizaca said.

“We’ve already been out to theschools talking to the students and weinvited the band at Windsor MiddleSchool to play at our grand opening,”Bizaca said. “Seventy children andtheir teachers, as well as many of theirparents came to the event attended bymore than 400 Windsor residents.We’re also working closely with the

Rotary Clubs, the Chamber of Com-merce and doing other forms of com-munity outreach.

“Don’t just work in the town, bepart of the town,” Crozat advocates.“It’s just a philosophy. Everyone looksat life from a different paradigm, butI’ve always thought that if we don’t do

it, then who will? It’s good for us busi-ness-wise obviously, but it also givesour industry as a whole a bettername.”

“Get the best buying power in themarketplace and pass it on to the con-sumers and to the insurance compa-nies as well. If you do whatever

everyone else is doing, you’ll just beanother one of them. And that’s why Ihave always gotten the best equip-ment, top technicians and the bestproducts I can find. You can’t dotoday’s work with yesterday’s tools.”

Building top-quality facilitiesalso helps G&C to get DRPs and re-

tain them over the long run, Crozat ar-gues.

“People say they don’t likeDRPs, but they represent 90% of thework. Why wouldn’t you cater tothese insurance companies that aretrying to get the best prices they can,in order to keep their rates down? Wehave two full-time in-house reps whowork full-time dealing with the insur-

ance companies and their agents, be-cause DRPs are a big part of our busi-ness. I learned many years ago—don’tfight the direction of the DRPs. In-stead, provide them with the best dealin the marketplace, by providing thebest service, the best cycle times andthe best image you can establish.That’s why we have cycle times thataverage six days, while the nationalaverage is 14 days.”

Gene Crozat has always main-tained that if any other body shopowners want to visit his facilities tosee what he’s doing and glean infor-mation from his business model, he’sanxious and pleased to help them inany way he can.

“People don’t believe it when Isay it, but there have never been se-crets or closed doors around here. Iwon’t be in this business forever and ifI can make the industry better overall,it will benefit my children and mygrandchildren down the road. Give mea call and I’ll do everything and any-thing I can to help you. I’ve done itmany times before and that will neverchange.”

Call Santa Rosa shop: 707-525-3520.

E-mail: Peter Bizaca: [email protected].


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California Air Chief Blasts Auto Trade Group OverClean CarsCalifornia Air Resources BoardChairman Mary D. Nichols wrote toseven major automobile manufactur-ers, accusing their trade group, the Al-liance of Automobile Manufacturers,of misrepresenting the state’s effortsto cooperate with federal officials onrules to curb greenhouse gas emis-sions from cars and trucks, accordingto the Los Angeles Times.

She asked the companies to “dis-tance” themselves from the Washing-ton-based group’s efforts to“undermine ... standards that will pro-vide American consumers withcleaner and more efficient vehicles.”

“For the Alliance to suggest weare no longer committed to a cooper-ative effort is disingenuous at best,and incorrect,” she wrote in a letter tothe automaker CEOs, which wascopied to the leaders of the congres-sional committees that oversee autoregulations.

Nichols’ forceful rebuke comesas California, which has the rightunder the federal Clean Air Act to de-velop its own car emission standards,has pledged to coordinate its regula-tions for post-2016 car models with aparallel federal effort to hike fuel-ef-ficiency standards.

But the issue has become morehighly politicized than ever in thewake of the Republican takeover ofthe House of Representatives, withGOP members of Congress raisingdoubts about climate science andquestioning the need for stricter curbson carbon dioxide emissions.

Scientists say that C02 and othergreenhouse gases are trapping heat inthe atmosphere and changing Earth’sclimate, leading to rising sea levels,more intense droughts and extremeweather events. California in 2006passed the nation’s most sweeping lawto curb greenhouse gases, but federallegislation died in Congress last year.

In a Jan. 11 letter to Reps. Dar-rell Issa (R-Vista) and Fred Upton(R-Minn.), the auto alliance chargedthat California is undertaking “unilat-eral action” in a “rushed effort towarda state rulemaking” that “is not on thespirit of a collaborative effort to de-velop a single national program forfuel economy/ghg standards.”

California has also announcedthat it would delay issuing rules for2017-2025 model years until Septem-ber, rather than a scheduled Marchdate, to accommodate the federal reg-ulatory schedule.

With 15,000 square feet, G&C’s facility is hoping to fix 50-70 cars monthly at its new Windsor,Calif. location


This article is a continuation fromRich’s column last month. For anarchive of Rich’s columns please visitwww.autobodynews.com/colum-nists/Rich Evans.

A lot of times when I’m takingparts off the car and putting themback on, from mock up position I’llgo into the doors and the hinges anddrill two 1/8th inch holes. That way Ican stick two 1/8th inch dowels

through, tighten up the parts and thenthey’re right back to where I was be-fore so I don’t have to take the timeto re-line everything up. That waywhen I do my graphics, they’re goingto line up. So I do the same with thehood, deck lid; I really don’t have toworry about the fenders—on someprojects you do, but on this one Idon’t.

So after getting the graphicslayed out, it’s time to tear it backdown again. Now I’m ready for mygraphic color, True Blue Pearl partnumber PBC36AB.

On the silver I applied threecoats. I just do that on all my projects,I have a system and I apply it with aSATA 1.4 tip gun and I use 27 psi, 3heavy coats, then I seal it with aHouse of Kolor sealer. The reason forusing three coats is so if it ever got ina wreck and I had to redo this job Iknow how I did it so I do that rou-tinely on all my vehicles.

If for some reason I change mypatterns from normal spraying I’llwrite it on the back of the file so whenthe car comes back in I can repeat ex-actly what I did and get to as close ofa color match as possible.

With the True Blue, I’m going todo six light coats just for coverage so

I don’t get the blotchiness with a highbuild. I’ll do a half trigger using 27psi. I do six coats to get a nice, dark,even feel. I’m painting everything inpieces so it needs to match. You’vegot to remember how you’re applyingit, how close your gun is, to be able topaint cars in pieces. It gives me a bet-ter result.

After adding my six coats of theTrue Blue Pearl, now I de-mask

everything, and add sixcoats of House ofKolor’s clear. Six goodcoats allows me to cuttwo coats off and nothave any edges on mygraphics.

I’m ready forcolor, sand, and buff. Onmy color sanding methodI will use all 3M prod-ucts. I start with 800 gritsand paper, then 1000grit, 1200, then 1500,

2000, then to 2500.Also I am using Soft-Sanders

blocks along with their new sandpaper. All their sand paper is wetfrom 800 all the way on up, and it’ssticky-back so that is a great timesaver. Visit softsanders.com andcheck out the sandpaper products.They don’t wrinkle up, last a longtime, and you can get them all theway from 400 grit up. Their blocksare also great, good for sanding outscratches and unbeatable for gettinginto curves.

I use the combination of 3M andSoft-Sanders products. 3M doesn’thave the sticky-back sand paper allthe way up to 2500 grit so Soft-Sanders is the way to go. I burned

through a lot of sandpaper on thisproject.

I’m ready for buffing, I do use the1-2-3 step from 3M. That gives thefastest and best results that I havecome across to date. Check out3m.com and check out the 1-2-3 stepbuffing process. It’ll save you timeand give you best results.

We created a headliner and I’mgoing to send it over to Rivo atStitchcraft Interiors. I sent them adesign to use in Katzkin Leather.I’m looking forward to seeing howit comes out and they’re also goingto do the door panels. Katzkinstyled me out with doing RichEvans designed seats for this andKatzkin just does a phenomenal job.Visit www.katzkin.com and stitch-craftinteriors.com. They’re both

great individuals towork with.

I’m at the pointwhen I’m ready to putthis project together andget it over to SEMA. Icalled Mike Curtis overat Curtis Speed Equip-ment. I had him cut meoff some one-off wheels,created a center cap forit, and then gave it toMike. He’s just over thetop in his wheel cutting

experience. I collaborated with Mikeon the grill. You can just bolt thesegrills right on top of yours. It takesonly eight screws to and you canchange the whole look of your Chal-

lenger with just adding these inserts.They look cool and you can orderthem to color or just plain aluminumas you see them on my original.

Visit Richevansdesigns.com andget your grill inserts, your scoop, yourwing, your lower front spoiler, left andright rocker, left and right flares, yourrear bumper lower spoiler, your rear

wing and your hood scoop. Even yourheadliner and grill inserts can befound at huntingtonbeachbody-works.com and richevansdesigns.comand we’ll have these parts availablefor you.

At the Mopar booth at 2010SEMA, the Challenger was on stageon the turntable and people were lov-ing it. I had a great time workingwith the Mopar Aftermarket teamand I had a great time working withall the sponsors and utilizing theMopar parts on this build — it justbrought this Challenger to a wholeother level.

If you want to give this project aname it would be “modern muscle tothe max.” We ended up with a name,calling it the Beast; 451 CID HEMI,pushing over 550 horsepower. Visitmy site for more photographs or youcan visit Mopar’s site and find somephotographs on there.

The car is on tour with Mopar forthe next nine months. If you guyswant me to turn your car into a mod-ern muscle car, look me up. I hope youguys enjoyed the build, I definitely en-joyed every minute of the 3-monthbuild. See you next month!

The Rich Evans Designs-Mopar Kit for Dodge’s Challenger, Part 2

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney


Rich Evans is the owner of Huntington Beach Bodyworks and an award winning painter andfabricator. He offers workshops in repair and customization at his facility to share his uniquetalents. For contacts and design samples visit www.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com

Hyundai Motor America celebrated its25th anniversary in the U.S. the week-end of Feb. 19th. The automaker re-ports that it has sold 6,608,208 modelsin the U.S. in that time, and more than4,350,000 units still are on the roadtoday.

Last year, Hyundai recounted thatits sales surpassed 538,000 units,making the Korean company the sixthbest-selling brand in the country be-hind only Toyota, Honda, Nissan,Ford, and Chevrolet.

To handle demand, the companyhas expanded production capacity tomore than 400,000 units—specificallythe Sonata, Elantra and Santa Fe thatare manufactured in modern assemblyplants in Montgomery, Alabama, andin Georgia. Hyundai pointed out thatits engines and transmissions are pro-duced in the U.S., too.

U.S. employment now includesmore than 4,000 workers, with totalemployment including suppliers anddealers coming in at more than 45,000.Hyundai has declared that its commit-ment to the U.S. market includes engi-neering, design, testing, production,

sale and marketing. In all, Hyundai's in-vestments in the U.S. total $1.7 billion.

Local Presence Boosts SE EconomyFew people in Mongomery, AL, 800miles south of Detroit cared muchabout the auto industry until Hyundaiannounced it would build cars herenine years ago, according to reports

made by the New York Times.At Hyundai‘s Montgomery plant,

rarely do more than a few weeks passwithout word that another parts sup-plier has dozens of new positions tofill, typically offering good benefitsand double the pay that the averageAlabaman earns.

Hyundai and its sister company,Kia, which opened a plant last year

just across the Georgia state line, havebrought thousands of well-paying jobsto the region and even helped nurturea little Korean culture in Montgomery,the first capital of the old Confeder-acy. Hyundai is running its Mont-gomery plant almost nonstop. Rarelydo more than a few weeks pass with-out word that another parts supplier

has dozens of new positions to fill,typically offering good benefits anddouble the pay that the average Al-abaman earns.

Hyundai, which will observe its25th anniversary selling vehicles toAmerican drivers on Sunday, was lit-tle more than an ambitious, second-tier brand when it chose to build itsfirst United States car factory just

south of Montgomery. But during therecent recession, the South Koreancompany thrived as Americans soughtout cheap cars just as Hyundais wereimproving in quality.

In 2010, Hyundai and Kia eachposted their highest sales in the UnitedStates and, taken together, surgedahead of Ford Motor to becomefourth-largest automaker worldwide.Hyundai built 300,000 cars in Mont-gomery last year and sold most ofthem in the United States.

“If folks looked deeply at how farwe’ve gone so quickly, from havingno U.S. production five years ago towhere we are today, it’s amazing,”John Krafcik, chief executive ofHyundai Motor America, said. “Idon’t know that any company has got-ten to such a high level of local as-sembly as Hyundai that fast.”

While Michigan’s dependence onthe auto industry caused it to have oneof the nation highest unemploymentrates in recent years, the presence ofHyundai and Kia has helped Alabamakeep its jobless rate among the lowest


Repair Standards Advisory Committee RequestsConsultant to Help Draft StandardsThe Repair Standards Advisory Com-mittee, formed by the Collision In-dustry Conference (CIC) to addressthe desire for standards in the UnitedStates collision repair industry, an-nounced the next step it is taking toform the standard setting body pro-posed at the July 2010 CIC Meeting.

In support of this effort, thecommittee has posted a Request forProposal (RFP) for a consultant to as-sist the group in the preparation of abusiness case statement for the neworganization.

“As the committee is com-prised entirely of volunteers, thegroup believed the time was right toengage a consultant to assist thecommittee in its work to define andestablish the proposed standards or-ganization,” Russell Thrall III,chair of the Repair Standards Advi-sory Committee.

The business case will be usedby the organization to define the de-mand for repair standards based uponinterviews and research with collisionrepairers, insurers, equipment manu-facturers, paint system manufacturersvehicle manufacturers and others.The business case will also define thescope of the new organization andhow it will develop standards, how

the standards will be used by the col-lective industry and how the organi-zation will be staffed, governed andfunded.

The work will build upon the ef-forts by the previous CIC RepairStandards Committee.

“Many individuals, businessesand groups have expressed supportfor the formation of the proposed in-stitute and the committee believes thecreation of the business case willserve to define and help communicatethe benefits of collision repair stan-dards for both the industry and theconsumer,” said Thrall. “The businesscase will define the scope and goalsof the proposed collision repair stan-dards institute and build upon the ex-cellent work of the CIC RepairStandards Committee.”

The RFP is available to down-load from the CIC website at www.ci-clink.com. Questions can be directedto Russell Thrall III, [email protected]; 570-629-8010.

Hyundai’s 25th Anniversary in U.S., Lifts Southeastern Job Market Economy with Kia

See Hyundai, Kia, Page 54

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As we get rolling in this New Year, wesee a multitude of new ways to mar-ket the shop: A website, e-mail, Face-book and other social media sites, likeTwitter. Should we ignore these newways to reach potential customers?Certainly not, but there can be a ten-dency to discard tried and true wayswhen we jump on the bandwagon forthe new ones. And that can be a seri-ous mistake.

Customers who have been com-ing to your shop for years may nowbe getting a bit older. And they maynot all share the younger genera-tion’s enthusiasm for these new ap-proaches to communication andmedia. If they have kept comingback, they must have liked whateverit was you were doing to stay intouch with them. You may not knowimmediately what that was thatpleased them, but of course you canalways ask. You can also be fairlycertain that they are like consumersof other services. There are somestandards that never change.

What Keeps Customers Coming Back?As I noted in an article more than tenyears ago, if there’s one thing thatcustomers value in a business, it’sconsistency. We go back to the samerestaurant, the same hair-dresser, thesame mechanic over and over becausewe come to know what to expect ofthem. We know the level of servicewe’ll receive for the price we expectto pay. When a place changes hands,we dread the changes we’ll probablyencounter. The menu we enjoyed sud-denly no longer has the choice itemswe preferred. The barber or hair-dresser we liked best has moved onbecause he or she didn’t get alongwith the new owner. And the rep-utable mechanic we trusted to do anhonest job on our car has been re-placed by a fast-talking, slick salestype who wants to sell us unneededextras. The consistency that we val-

ued has gone and we must go insearch of a new place that will serviceus in the manner we have come to ex-pect.

Chances are that you can deliverconsistency. You’ve been there a longtime. You’ve built a good customerbase. They know what to expect fromyou. All you have to do is make cer-tain That you don’t change what yourclients or customers value most, andthat you let them know that, in aworld of fleeting consistency, you arestill here delivering the same pre-dictable message and quality you al-ways have!

Consistency: Promoting Your BusinessThink about the advertising power ofthe consistency of major brands. Howlong have we heard “You’re in GoodHands With Allstate” or “BMW, TheUltimate Driving Machine?” Eventhough the specific ad may change,these consistent messages are alwayspresent.

What is your consistent message?Do you have one? Shops that havebeen in business a long time are wiseto capitalize on that longevity in theiradvertising and promotion. A line thatsays “Quality Collision Repair Since1981” tells a customer at a glance thatyou have survived in business for 30years. The clear implication is thatyou must have been doing somethingright to be around that long. If you arerelatively new in business, it’s stillprobable that you have been some-where in the industry for a while. Youmay be able to use a line like: “Ser-vice by professionals with more than20 years of experience.” If you havesurvived in this industry for anylength of time, you must have someelement of consistency in how you ap-proach collision repair. That consis-tency may be the most valuablecommodity you have to sell. Now isthe time to capitalize on it in your ad-vertising and promotion!

More Than One Way To CommunicateConsistencyI was startled, one day, when I walkedinto an auto body shop office in anoutlying area. The walls were com-pletely covered with photos of beforeand after repair jobs. It would havetaken hours to examine the multitudeof before and after photos this shopowner had accumulated over theyears. While it’s unlikely there wouldbe many shop owners who wouldadopt this approach to displayingproof of consistency in repair, it is asound idea to somehow convey theenormous number of quality repairsthat a shop has done.

This is the idea behind the mes-sage that McDonald’s “has servedmore than five hundred million ham-burgers.” Publicizing a long history ofhigh volume seems to convey a mes-sage of consistency although it maynot necessarily be true. That wall cov-

ered with photos was one effectiveway to communicate that consistency.That same shop owner gives the cus-tomer a before and after photo whenthe job is finished as a reminder of thequality of work that has been pro-vided.

Some shops have a photo albumin the waiting area with before andafter photos. One shop I visited had analbum filled with impressive lettersfrom satisfied customers who owneda BMW, a Porsche, a Mercedes Benz,a Lamborghini or a Rolls-Royce. Theunspoken but obvious message was“we do a consistent, superior job onthe ultimate in high-end cars.”

Your website, e-mail, Facebookpage and Twitter feed can also be usedto communicate your consistencywithout neglecting to emphasize yournew qualities and awareness of thenew communication tools we have athand.










Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for fifty years. He has writtennumerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many businesses.He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected]. See Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin

‘Consistency’ May be Boring—But It’s Also Profitable



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I read about the aftermarket parts test-ing conducted by ABPA (ABPA SaysAftermarket Bumper OutperformedFord Counterpart in CrashTest—Page 47 this issue) and I have tosay that I expected as much. Not un-like CAPA certification, the resultswill always favor the aftermarket part.In the article they stated that is somecases the aftermarket performed “bet-ter than the OEM.”

Wow, I guess I will need to re-think my standards regarding all af-termarket safety-related parts, andmaybe we should all lobby to have theOEM’s recall their vehicles so we caninstall these superior aftermarketparts. We know that the consumers’safety is our primary concern so nowthat the cat is out of the bag whatshould we do? After all, I have beeninstalling OEM rebars that have been“proven” (?) to be inferior to the af-termarket rebars. I think we should

probably take it one step further andstart testing headlights and other partsbecause the poor consumer has beenduped into thinking that the manufac-turer’s parts are best for the safe repairof their vehicle.

There is only one problem thatwe still need to address and that is to“test” the actual test results. I meanbefore I go to the Insurance Commis-sioner’s Office and tell him that I havebeen wrong all along about the saferepair of vehicles today I better knowmy facts. So a couple of questionscome to mind that maybe the com-pany that did the testing should an-swer first.

1) Ford showed up at a publicgathering and came equipped withphotos, videos, sensor reading data.They even brought their engineers toanswer questions. Plus they broughtin the actual parts so we all could seewith our own eyes what was being ex-

posed. Ford was willing to answerquestions (and did a very good job),they also made their test results pub-lic and published them on CIC’s web-site (www.ciclink.com). Where isABPA’s evidence? I need to see thisfirst hand so I can quit making a foolof myself.

2) The article (this issue) said thatpart of the OEM-rebarred Mustang’sbumper fell off? This baffles me be-cause if they actually did the testing asthey claim then they should knowthere is no part that can fall off. Whatpart could fall off? There is nothing tothis part but a beam and two bracketsand the bolts go all the way through.This makes me question all the testingthey describe.

3) Ford ran two separate tests,both a set of 5-mph crash tests and aset of 8-mph test. Ford’s 5-mph crashtest showed there was more intrusiondamage and a higher cost of repairwith the Aftermarket verses the OEMvehicle, which contradicts the ABPAtest. Ford’s 8-mph test with the after-market bumper beam revealed themost dangerous evidence of “AIR-BAG DEPLOYMENT” when it“SHOULD NOT DEPLOY.” Whydidn’t ABPA do the 8-mph test? Thisraises concerns for me, (it’s not ‘ap-ples to apples’.) Does the term “likekind and quality” come to mind? It’suspicious at best.

4) Ford’s damage estimateswere very detailed, listing all of theparts used. The ABPA report glossesover these details completely, “the

truth lies in the details,” and whowrote the damage assessments?Some “highly regarded” shop? Whatkind of answer is that? Why aren’tthey identified?

5) Ford videotaped the entireteardown process and created someserious evidence which contradictsthe ABPA test. Where is their video? Iwant to see it made public. After all,they are implying that Ford is the onewith the skewed results. ABPA needsto put its money where its mouth is.

6) I know that Ford didn’t mod-ify anything but it is possible to mod-ify an entire vehicle to make it crashbetter (look at Nascar reinforcementsfor racing safety, for example).

We need to see this so-calledABPA evidence made public and giveFord and the other OEMs a chance torebut it. Maybe we should presentboth tests to Congress and let them de-cide. After all, this is a serious safetyissue.

What I have read in this articleseems like another effort to mask thetruth. The facts are the facts and I saylet’s compare apples to apples andbring everything out in the open.Then we can give the information tothe public and let them decide. Butthis question still remains: “Why arewe using these parts when we knowthey have not been tested nor provento be equal to the original manufac-turer’s specifications as the law “re-quires.”

We are assuming an awful lotwith respect to someone else’s safety.


Setting the Record Straight on Ford vs. Aftermarket Parts Testing



















Lee Amaradio, Jr. is the president and owner of “Faith” Quality Auto Body Inc. in Murrieta,California. Lee is president of the CRA as well as an advocate for many other industrygroups. He can be contacted at [email protected]

in the Southeast even as textile millscontinue to close.

“As far as the pay, nobody elsearound here can compete with them,”said Richard Watson, a former automechanic who was out of work for ayear and a half before getting a tem-porary job at the Kia plant in WestPoint, GA, last fall. He said some ofhis co-workers drove two hours eachway because the plant’s jobs were insuch demand.

Hyundai is running its Mont-gomery plant, which employs 2,650,around the clock on weekdays and oc-casional Saturdays to keep up with de-mand. Last summer, it movedproduction of its Santa Fe sport utilityvehicle 95 miles northeast to the Kiaplant to free capacity in Montgomery.Kia recently hired 600 additionalworkers to operate a second shift forthe Santa Fe and plans a third, with1,000 more jobs.

Both carmakers expect to easilytop their 2010 sales in the UnitedStates this year.

Hyundai’s sales were up 22 per-cent in January; Kia’s rose 25.6 per-cent, the highest among the industry’slarger players. Together, the two soldmore than 65,000 vehicles, about5,000 short of surpassing Chrysler.

Hyundai makes its own enginesin Montgomery, and transmissions forits cars come from a Hyundai-ownedcompany, Powertech, which is at-tached to the Kia plant. Alabama lists138 suppliers that support the Hyundaiplant, directly or indirectly. (Some alsodo business with the Honda and Mer-cedes plants near Birmingham and theToyota engine plant in Huntsville.)

“These jobs have good salariesand good fringe benefits, and are moreself-fulfilling” than the ones that haveleft the area, said Seth Hammett, di-rector of the Alabama DevelopmentOffice. “The automobile business hasreally been good for Alabama.”

Near the car plant on the southedge of town, a Hyundai subsidiarythat makes electrical transformers isbuilding a factory that was originallysupposed to create about 500 newjobs. Even before construction beganlast year, the company had doubledthat estimate, to 1,000.

The factory will undoubtedly re-ceive a crush of job applications,much as Hyundai did when it was firstincreasing production.

“It was like a rock star was com-ing to town,” said Ashley Frye, vicepresident of production for HyundaiMotor Manufacturing Alabama. Mr.Frye said that when he wore hisHyundai jacket or shirt around town,people often approached him to ask,“Are you hiring? What can I do to geta job out there?”

For more than a year, workers atthe Hyundai plant have been puttingin 10 hours of overtime a week as partof their regular schedule, plus occa-sional Saturdays. With an average reg-ular wage of about $20 an hour, theadditional overtime hours mean work-ers here are earning more than manyworkers at the unionized plants upnorth.

The United Automobile Workersunion has long tried to organize plantsin the United States operated by for-eign carmakers, most of which are inthe South, but has yet to succeed any-where.

For 2011, Hyundai is working toincrease the plant’s output by an addi-

tional 10 percent, or 30,000 vehicles,Mr. Krafcik, the chief executive, said.

The plant builds the Sonata mid-size sedan and the newly redesignedElantra compact car.

Hyundai is opening its new state-of-the-art headquarters in FountainValley, CA, late next year. Officialssaid the new campus doubles the sizeand capacity of the current building,“giving Hyundai and its employees anenvironment conducive to growth asit prepares to help write the next chap-ter of a great American success story.”

John Krafcik reminisced that “Asfar as we’ve come since 1986, we stillfeel we're in the early stages of con-necting the Hyundai brand to the U.S.consumer.

“We’ve always challenged con-vention—from our powertrain strate-gies, to our consumer partnershipprograms, to our unique Genesis andEquus retail approach,” Krafic stated.“It’s authentically Hyundai to ques-tion the status quo and pursue our ownvision of how things should be inorder to best serve our customers. Thiswillingness to challenge conventionwill continue to guide us these next 25years.”


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The Alliance of Automotive ServiceProviders of New Jersey (AASP/NJ)has announced that BASF AutomotiveRefinish has signed on as the officialshow sponsor of their 34th AnnualNORTHEAST(TM) Automotive Serv-ices Show at the Meadowlands in Se-caucus, New Jersey. NORTHEAST2011 takes place March 18,19, and 20.

“Having BASF come on board tosponsor NORTHEAST 2011 just addsto the national influence and percep-tion our show is gaining,” AASP/NJPresident Jeff McDowell said fromhis shop in Fords, New Jersey.

“BASF's decision to be the offi-cial show sponsor of NORTHEAST2011 was really an easy one,” ex-plained Darlene Eilenberger, Mar-keting Director for BASF AutomotiveRefinish.

“We have displayed at NACEand SEMA, but we're well aware thatthere is also a very important cus-tomer base who may not always beable to travel to Las Vegas. TheNORTHEAST show is an optimalplace for us to catch up with our cus-tomers in the Northeast region whileshowcasing our newest products.Given the increasing growth and in-fluence of NORTHEAST, we wantedto show our support of this year'sevent in a big way,” Eilenberger con-tinued.

BASF is also looking forward toparticipating in the educational por-tion of the show.

“With environmental legislationpending in the Northeast region,” Eilen-berger added, “we felt 2011 was theperfect year to actively participate inNORTHEAST — not only to increasevisibility on our line of waterborne re-finish products, but also to educate andnetwork with the thousands of repairprofessionals who will be directly im-pacted by it. We are very excited toshowcase our brands and meet withNORTHEAST Show attendees.”

“This is the first time in all theshow’s years that we have had a soleevent sponsor for NORTHEAST,”McDowell said. “We are honored thatsuch a prestigious company as BASFwould incorporate its brand withNORTHEAST 2011, and we hope thisis the start of a long and prosperoustradition.”

For more information on theNORTHEAST 2011 show andAASP/NJ, visit www.aaspnjnorth-east.com and www.aaspnj.org.

BASF Official Show Sponsor of NORTHEAST 2011


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Hyundai, Kia

Allstate Insurance Co. said February23 that it plans to add 120 new agencyowners throughout California thisyear, according to reports made by theSacramento Bee.

Northbrook, Ill.-based AllstateCorp. also said it is encouraging newand existing California agencies tohire more than 600 licensed sales pro-fessionals this year as the companyaims to expand its in-state presence.

Allstate signed on 44 new Cali-fornia agency owners in 2010 and 17in 2009.

“Our recruiters are looking for en-trepreneurial professionals with finan-cial and sales backgrounds interestedin making a career out of helping peo-ple,” said William Vasquez, strategicdeployment leader for Allstate in Cal-ifornia.

Allstate said candidates foragency ownership need a minimuminitial investment of $50,000 for op-erations.

Allstate agents own the businessand are charged with hiring sales andcustomer service personnel.

Allstate bills itself as the na-tion’s second-largest auto insuranceprovider.

It currently insures more than 2million motor vehicles in Californiaand has more than 4,000 agents, sup-port staff and employees throughout

the state.Prospective agents can obtain

more information by visitingwww.allstateagent.com, or contactingrecruiting consultant Linda Black at(916) 859-8804 or [email protected].


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