Autobody News October 2010 Southwest Edition

NACE/CARS’ 2010 keynote speakerKelly McDonald—a recognized ex-pert on multicultural marketing and aformer dealership sales execu-

tive—will addressincreasing diver-sity in the work-place and achanging work-force and cus-tomer base duringthe Opening Gen-eral Session. Spon-sored by DuPont,the General Ses-

sion is 8:30–10 AM on Monday, Octo-ber 11, followed immediately by the

opening of the NACE and CARSshow floor. McDonald will addressthe vast diversity in the workforcethese days and how businesses canwork cohesively with their customerbase, their employees and their laborforce as a whole.

“The consumer really has thepower of choice,” McDonald told Au-tobody News. She detailed how con-sumers have so much choice andinformation available to them onlinethat businesses really need to cater toa customer’s needs, preferences andstyles to win their business.

For businesses, the bar is set

NACE/CARS Offers Array of Speakers

See NACE/CARS, Page 6

see www.autobodynews.com

JOB DESCRIPTION—● Run California’s largest consumer protection agency● Oversee more than 1,500 insurers with 300,000 workers● Control a tenth of our largest state’s economy

TASKS REQUIRED—● Manage 1300 employees with a $200 million budget● Field 300,000 consumer assistance calls annually● Handle more than 35,000 consumer complaints● Issue 170,000 agents/brokers licenses● Investigate 24,000 suspected fraudulent referrals● Initiate about 1,000 arrests annually● Recover more than $48 million per year for consumers

FULL TIME POSITION, LONG HOURS—● Requires election by voters of California● Need to know plenty about collision repair

Who is AssemblymanDAVE JONESand why does he want to be California’s nextInsurance Commissioner?

INTERVIEW by Ed Attanasio

ASA Texas is warning shops that laborand other services are disallowed in cal-culating cost of goods sold for tax pur-poses.All shops are allowed to claim isthe actual parts used for the repair.However, because this is such a com-mon “error” in filing among auto re-pairers, Texas tax authorities are goingto target auto repair shops in particular.The Comptroller’s office announced itwill audit 29,000 businesses for the2008 year. It has hired, or plans to hire,almost 500 auditors.

Ashop owner in Tomball whowasgoing through a franchise tax audit wasunaware of this exclusion and after hisCPA did recalculation of his tax liabil-ity, discovered it would cost him an ad-ditional $7300.

The Texas comptroller website hasposted the following message:

“Franchise tax audits for reportyears 2008 and 2009 are now in fullswing, andwe’ve noticed that many en-tities in the service industry are incor-rectly electing to use the cost of goodssold deduction to determine margin.

“Section 171.1012 of the TexasTax Code specifically provides that, indetermining the cost of goods sold, theterm “goods” means real or tangiblepersonal property sold in the ordinarycourse of business and does not includeservices. The Tax Code does not allowa cost of goods sold deduction for enti-ties that provide services such as drycleaners, law firms, parking facilities,

ASA Texas Warns COGS Excludes Labor

See Texas Tax Audits, Page 24

NACE keynotespeaker, KellyMcDonald

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SouthwestPublisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst

General Manager: Barbara DaviesEditorial Assistant: Erica SchroederContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio, Dan EspersenJanet Chaney, Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Tom McGee, David Brown, Rich Evans,Ed AttanasioAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Christina Shubert (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Kristy MangumArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2010 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsBox 1400, Oceanside, CA 92051; (800) 699-8251 (214) 371-6626 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

Aegis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Allen Samuels Dodge Katy . . . . . . . . . . 10Auto Body Guru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Autoland Scientech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20B & B Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . 31Chacon Suzuki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Chassis Liner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Chevyland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39David McDavid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Ford Wholesale Parts DealersTX, OK, LA, NM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Fredy Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Gene Messer Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Global Finishing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . 13GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . 39Honda/Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers 30Huffines Hyundai Plano . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 33Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 25LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Malco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Mattei. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 24Mercedes-Benz of Oklahoma . . . . . . . . 30Mike Calvert Toyota. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 32MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 29Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 38North Star Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Parkway Family Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Performance Radiator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Ray Huffines Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Replica Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35SATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Scorpion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6SCA Appraisal Company . . . . . . . . . . . 22Southwest Autogroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 9Suzuki Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 35Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 28VIM Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Volkswagen of Tulsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 34Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . 38Walcom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Young Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Inde

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REGIONAL

ASA Texas Warns COGS Excludes Labor. . . . . . . 1

Claims Flood Insurers After Hermine Hits Texas . . 8

Dollar Thrifty Auto Group Raises 2010 Outlook . . 8

OK Body Shops Hail-Damage Backlogged . . . . . . 4

Sherwin-Williams’ A-Plus Workshop . . . . . . . . . 10

Texas: Misuse of Insurance Settlement Payments. 4

Texas Dealer Association Groups Merge . . . . . . . 8

Texas-Based Service King National Expansion . . . 7

Texas Recycling Facility Acquired. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

COLUMNS

Autoland: Mobile Airbag Co. Relies on Scanners 19

Amaradio - Aftermarket Parts, the Same? . . . . . 35

Chess - Porsche Collision Certification Program. 30

Evans - Finishing the Red Mist Car . . . . . . . . . . 37

Franklin - A Person-to-Person Approach . . . . . . 16

Gonzo - It Can Still Be A Small World . . . . . . . . 21

Mattei: Seventy-five Years of Leadership . . . . . . 22

Williams - Management Training Series . . . . . . . 12

Yoswick - Access and Use of Shop Data . . . . . . 28

Yoswick - Automaker Announcements . . . . . . . . 14

www.autobodynews.com

California Insurance Commissioner . . . . . . . . . . . .

Other Regional Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NACE/CARS coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sign up for e-Newsletter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Search our thousands of articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NATIONAL

2011 Ford Focus’ New Airbag Technology . . . . . 38

280 Car Charging Stations Set for Michigan . . . . 34

Aftermarket Parts Industry to Consumer Reports 11

Ameriprise Fined $71K For Discount DRP . . . . . 10

ASRW Says 2011 Event Remains in October . . . 10

August Sales Down vs. C4C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CARSTAR Calls for Nationwide Recall System . . 27

CARSTAR Media Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

CARSTAR Recognizes its Four Top Stores . . . . . 27

EPA Postpones Final Decision on Smog Rule . . . 26

Ford Uses Cadavers to Test Inflatable Seat Belts. 38

Highway Deaths Fall to Lowest Level . . . . . . . . 18

Kia’s Top Executive Resigns After Recalls . . . . . 34

Marchionne Targets Chrysler IPO in Q2 of 2011 . 26

NACE/CARS Offers Array of Speakers . . . . . . . . . 1

Percentage of Deaths from Distracted Driving. . . 36

Progressive’s Round Two Against Coccaro . . . . . 4

Volkswagen Predicts EV 500 Mile Range . . . . . . 21

Contents

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On December 6, 2010, the legal teamrepresenting Progressive Insurance,headed up by Michael Nelson willonce again travel to West ChesterCounty, New York to present theirclaim of $2,800 in fraud stemmingfrom the $34,000 repair of a one-yearold Mercedes in 2005.

The case had originally been triedin 2008 when a NewYork judge foundin favor of the shop, North State Cus-tom, and its owner, Greg Coccaro.The judge found that Progressive didnot present sufficient and credible ev-idence to support the insurer’s claimsof fraud against Coccaro and dis-missed the case before the defensecalled their first witness. But the casenow heads to trial once again afterProgressive appealed the decision andwon the chance to retry its case.

“We are disappointed that the ap-pellate court saw fit to overturn thejudge’s decision,” said Coccaro. “I amconfident that Judge Smith will seethrough Progressive’s scheme to dis-credit me and my company. I appreci-ate all the support and encouragement.We will see this thing through no mat-

ter what it takes so that consumersknow they have a quality repair facil-ity to go to that works for their best in-terest.”

Coccaro’s attorney in the originalcase, Tony Mamo, had explained thatunder New York law, if Coccaro wins,he cannot recover his legal expenses,nor can he be awarded any money fromProgressive. “If he wins, he just gets towalk away exonerated,” said Mamo.

The highly publicized legal battlebetween Coccaro and Progressive In-surance involves not only Progressive’scharges of fraud in this case set for trialin December, but also involves a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by Coccaroagainst Progressive for alleged decep-tive business practices and patterns ofviolations of NY law.

The discovery phase of the decep-tive business practices case is nearlycomplete, according to Coccaro, and thedepositions have also been completed.Coccaro said he expects that case to goto trial sometime early next year.

Manhattan firm Anderson Kill &Olick has agreed to represent Coccaroin his case against Progressive.


Texas: Misuse of InsuranceSettlement Payments IncreasingThe Texas Department of Insurancehas issued a bulletin stating that mis-direction, misapplication and im-proper use of insurance settlementpayments appear to be on the rise, ac-cording to reports made by InsuranceJournal.

The bulletin is in response to areport from the State Bar of Texasthat such incidents are increasing. Inthe one-year period ending inAugust2009, the Bar’s Client Security Fund,which compensates clients whosefunds were used improperly, paidover $266,800 to such clients.

The department is encouragingall insurance companies issuing set-tlement payments, payable to both theinsurance claimant and the claimant’srepresentative, to provide written no-tice to the claimant at the same timepayment is made to a claimant’s rep-resentative. Such notice should statethe amount and method of the pay-ment and the name and address of theparty to whom the payment is made.

This process, called “Payee No-tification,” notifies claimants when-ever a settlement payment is made toboth the insurance claimant and theclaimant’s representative, but is is-sued to the claimant’s representative.

Texas Recycling Facility AcquiredIESI Corp., a subsidiary of IESI-BFCLtd., has announced that it has ac-quired Central Texas Secure Shred-ding and its recycling facility inPflugerville, Texas.

Central Texas Secure Shred-ding, which operates a documentdestruction business in a 20,000-square-foot building, providesdocument destruction servicesthroughout the central Texas area.In addition to shredding services,the company processes 150 tons ofrecyclables per day.

The release notes that with theacquisition the facility will change itsname to IESI Central Texas Shred-ding and Recycling Facility. IESIsays that it plans to expand the facil-ity’s current document destructionprocessing services to incorporate afully integrated single stream recy-cling process to serve the Austin,Texas area by the third quarter of2010.

IESI, along with parent com-pany IESI-BFC Ltd., have divertedmore than 500,000 tons of materialfrom landfills, including more than300,000 tons of paper. IESI’s SenecaMeadows Tire Recycling center hasprocessed more than 1.5 million au-tomotive tires for re-use.

OK Body Shops Hail-Damage BackloggedRepair shops in Oklahoma are stilltrying to catch up with the colossalamount of work created by the May16 hail storms which left thousands ofcars in the area damaged, according toreports made by The Oklahoman.

Almost 4 months later, somebody shops are just getting caught upwith the work.

Cars made up about $80 millionworth of damage costs for insurers,Southwest Insurance InformationServices President Jerry Johns said.

“From an insurance perspective itwill go down as one of, if not the mostsignificant weather-related eventssince 1999,” Johns said. “Obviouslymuch of it was roof damage andthings like that but vehicle claimswere extremely high for those not for-tunate enough to shelter their car ortruck before it hit.”

Some customers waited forweeks and even months to get theirhail-damaged cars repaired, mostbody shops in the area were havingpeople come in and schedule an ap-pointment months in advance.

“We’ve slowed down quite a bit,to about 1/3 of what we had initially,but there’s still a lot of work to be

done,” said Bob White, Manager forBody Works Inc. in Oklahoma City.

White said the focus after thestorm was on cars that weren’t dri-vable because of broken windshields.Now the focus is on less-serious haildamage, such as dented hoods.

“We’re still pretty scheduled outuntil November but we’re managingthe jobs better than we were. Rightafter the storm we were scheduled outuntil December,” said White, “We’veeven been able to call some people inahead of schedule now that the jobshave tapered a little bit more than inthe beginning.”

White also mentioned that BodyWorks has been able to start workingback with some of their collision workthat had to be put on hold after thespring storm.

Some cars that haven’t been re-paired might have remained on theroad and could potentially pose haz-ards. It’s up to officers to decidewhether to cite a driver for a crackedwindshield, which is against the lawin Oklahoma. Tickets are most likelyto be written when the vehicle dam-age might impede someone’s abilityto drive safely.

Progressive’s Round Two Against Coccaro


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higher than ever and the customer isfully in charge: they have specific ex-pectations about service, convenienceand communication. The multilingualneeds of our country are more appar-ent than ever and the businesses thatmeet those needs will have a signifi-cant competitive advantage in themarketplace.

McDonald’s presentation will befocused upon key generational seg-ments and the Hispanic consumer.At-tendees will learn about the FourLevels of Acculturation and the im-portance of relating to different cul-tures.

Kelly McDonald is a recognizedexpert on multicultural marketing andbusiness trends. McDonald alsoworked in the automotive industry forover 20 years with brands like Toyota,Nissan and Subaru in their sales andadvertising department. She hasknowledge of parts and services aswell as industry terminology.

McDonald’s speaking client rosterincludes: Toyota, Sherwin-Williams,Harley-Davidson, State Farm Insurance,AAA Travel, BlueCross BlueShield,and dozens of financial organizationsand associations.

McDonald will not be holdingany seminars after her keynote speechtitled; “The Changing Face of YourBusiness—Inside and Out” but will bemoderating one of the forums on Sun-day, October 10.

More information about McDon-ald’s services can be found atwww.mcdonaldmarketing.com. Mc-Donald will be publishing her firstbook, “How to Market to People whoAre Not Like You” in March of 2011.

Other speakers that will hostsome industry seminars are: AngieKilbourne, Bob Cooper, Tony Pass-water, Chris Ortiz and RichardFlint.

Chris Ortiz will speak on October12th from 4:00 PM–5:30 PM on Intro-duction to Lean Auto Body. The sem-inar will focus on the 8 Wastes ofLean, Body Shop Performance Met-rics, 5S and the Visual Body Shop,Kanban and Material Replenishmentand Repair Flow.

Ortiz will also speak on October13th from 7:30 AM–10:30 AM on 5Sand the Visual Shop. This course is ahighly detailed curriculum coveringthe implementation of 5S and the vi-

sual workplace. 5S is an aggressiveorganization and cleanliness philoso-phy that has a profound impact onproductivity and maximizing time. Itis the foundational element of LEANauto body and will be the catalyst forfuture ongoing improvements. Highlyvisual with lots of pictures of bodyshops and non-body shops. This is themost important LEAN auto bodycourse.

Chris Ortiz, President KaizenAs-sembly, LLC, can be contacted at360-715-2129 or 360-224-9245 [email protected] www.kaizenassembly.com.

Bob Cooper will speak on October10 from 1:30 PM–4:30 PM on THEBESTPAYPROGRAMS ON EARTH!™. BobCooper is an expert on keeping em-

ployees producing at peak performance.Cooper’s company works with suc-cessful shop owners and dealershipsaround the world. He will share someof their best-kept secrets when it comesto compensation programs.

Cooper will also speak on Octo-ber 12 from 7:30 AM – 10:30 AM onSTOP DREAMING & STARTACHIEVING™. Cooper will share theleadership skills he’s learned from themost successful clients, and then usedthroughout his own career. Starting offas a technician, Cooper has grown acompany that now spans the globe.Nowdays he speaks to many Fortune500 companies, universities, and tothe United States Army.

Cooper is the founder and presi-dent of Elite; a worldwide company

that helps auto shop owners buildmore profitable, successful busi-nesses. Cooper was one of the firstto predict automobile leasing, thetrend toward maintenance, thegrowth in remanufactured compo-nents and the resurgence in dealer-ships targeting the service business.To learn more about Bob and Elite,visit their website at www.Elite-Worldwide Store.com or call (800)204-3548.

For additional event information,contact Hanley Wood Exhibitions atP.O. Box 612128, Dallas, Texas75261-2128 or call 888.529.1641 or972.536.6444. NACE and CARS runfrom Oct. 10–13. For more informa-tion about NACE and CARS go tonacexpo.com and carsevent.com.


Continued from Front Page

NACE/CARS

Dallas-based Service King plans toembark on an ambitious national ex-pansion led by new president CathyBonner that could double revenueover the next five years according toreports in the Dallas Morning News.

The chain of collision-repair cen-ters, founded in 1976 by company chair-man Eddie Lennox, recently openedseven shops in Houston and the successof those centers—some were profitableafter three months— prompted Lennoxto consider the leap outside Texas.

Most of Service King’s 31 shopsand 1,000 employees are in the Dallasarea. The privately held company,which says it has a 20 percent marketshare in the area, expects to repairabout 70,000 vehicles and earn $150million in revenue this year.

“We were able to experiment witha lot of things in Houston that mightwork for us nationally,” said Lennox,57, a former body-repair man whostarted Service King in a three-bay tinbuilding in West Dallas.

Bonner, a Dallas native, has noexperience with auto repair. But sheserved as executive director of the

Texas Department of Commerce from1991 to 1994, founded The Women’sMuseum in Dallas and has started andmanaged three marketing and com-munications firms.

She also is Lennox’s sister-in-lawso she knows the Service King cul-ture, Lennox said. Bonner’s primaryresponsibility will be to develop astrategic plan for growth, determiningwhich markets Service King shouldenter and overseeing that plan.

“This relates to growth and get-ting someone who can help us achieveit — and not ex-technicians like my-self,” Lennox said.

He believes that planning formajor growth requires knowledge thathe and his managers don’t have.

“Eddie approached me and con-vinced me I don’t need to know how tofix a car,” said Bonner, 60, a finalist in2007 for The Dallas Morning News’“Texanof theYear” award for herwork topass legislation creating the Cancer Pre-vention and Research Institute of Texas.“I just get to build on their success.”

Bonner said she intends to have agrowth strategy plan completed by the

first of the year.“I had a lot of experience identify-

ing new markets and bringing in cor-porations when I was with the state,”said Bonner, who was part of a team ofofficials in the early 1990s that helpedconvince General Motors Corp. to notclose its assembly plant in Arlington.

Service King offers several pro-grams that Lennox says are unique—including a computer program devel-oped by vice president Jeff McFad-den that allows insurers to monitorand audit the entire repair process.

“We also have someoperations pro-grams that [vice president] DannyMcKinley put into place that no one elsedoes, and those products reallymadememore bullish on growth,” Lennox said.

Despite its moves to get larger,Service King has no interest in goingpublic, said Lennox, who holds 80percent of Service King’s stock alongwith his wife. Managers throughoutthe company own the remaining 20percent. “We’re well capitalized, andwe have good banking relationships,”he said. “We envision doubling ourrevenue in three to five years.”


TX-Based Service King Plans National Expansion August Sales Down vs. C4CAutomakers struggled through an-other disappointing month in Au-gust, as weak housing and othereconomic data discouraged con-sumers from making big purchases.Auto sales tumbled from prior-yearlevels, as expected. Compared withAugust 2009, when the govern-ment’s “cash for clunkers” programfueled a surge in demand, lastmonth’s sales were down 21 percent.But the selling pace also slowed fromthe previous month, slipping to 11.47million cars and light trucks, on an an-nual basis, from 11.54 million in July.

The selling rate lastAugust was14.17 million vehicles, with cars ac-counting for 57.6 percent, accordingto Autodata Corp.

This August, as gas prices heldsteady in a sluggish economy, lighttruck sales accounted for 49.7 per-cent of the total, up from 42.4 per-cent a year ago.

Chrysler Group LLC, HyundaiMotor Co. and Ford Motor Co. faredbest in a difficult market.

Chrysler was the only major au-tomaker to report a sales increaselast month, a jump of 6.9 percent,because automaker hardly benefitedfrom the “cash for clunkers” pro-gram last summer.


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Dollar Thrifty Auto Group Raises 2010 OutlookCar rental company Dollar ThriftyAutomotive Group, Inc. raised Au-gust 31 its corporate adjustedEBITDA forecast for the full-year2010, citing strong operating per-formance in the months of July andAugust, and the continuing projec-tions of lower fleet costs. The com-pany also provided an update onfiscal 2011 outlook.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-basedcompany raised its fiscal 2010 fore-cast for corporate adjusted EBITDA,excluding merger-related expenses, toa range of $240 million to $260 mil-lion from the prior guidance in therange of $200 million to $220 million.The company had earlier raised itguidance in early July.

Dollar Thrifty attributed the in-crease to projected lower fleet costs,and the continued strength in opera-tions and ongoing cost control effortsat the company.

The company also noted that itcontinues to expect vehicle rental rev-enue for the full year of 2010 to in-crease 1% to 2% from last year.Meanwhile, the company lowered itsexpected fleet cost target to a range of$230 to $240 per unit per month fromthe prior forecast of $245 to $255 perunit per month.

Meanwhile, the company alsolowered its estimate for vehicle de-

preciation per unit per month to arange of $270 to $290 for the thirdand fourth quarters of 2010 from $300to $310 per unit per month, citingcontinued strength in residual valuesand favorable trends in vehicle dispo-sition results.

For fiscal 2011, Dollar Thriftyreaffirmed its previously announcedfleet cost estimate of $300 to $310per unit per month. The is expectedto lead to corporate adjustedEBITDA for the full-year 2011 torange between $186 million and$198 million.

The company added that it ex-pects the used car market in 2011 tobe based on solid fundamentals,though less robust than now, as de-mand for used cars is expected to befirm, while supply is expected to besomewhat constrained.

Car rental companies are slowlyrecovering from the recession, whichbattered demand from business andleisure customers, after having strug-gled in recent years due to reducedtravel budgets, falling used-car pricesand large debt loads.

DTG closed Tuesday’s regulartrading session at $47.04, down $0.69or 1.45% on a volume of 1.18 millionshares, higher than the three-monthaverage volume of 0.89 millionshares.

TX Groups Merge into Largest Dealer AssociationThe new-car dealer groups in Dallasand Tarrant counties have merged intothe Dallas Fort Worth MetropolitanNew Car DealersAssociation accord-ing to reports made by the DallasMorning News.

Dealers voted overwhelminglyto approve the merger, which is sig-nificant because the association willrepresent about 250 dealers in 11counties with annual sales of morethan $10 billion. The new associa-tion is the largest dealer group inthe state and should have a strongvoice in state and national legisla-tive affairs that affect the auto busi-ness.

“D-FW is now viewed as a sin-gle market, with many of our dealershaving franchises in both Dallas andTarrant county areas,” said SamPack, former chairman of the NewCar DealersAssociation of Metropol-itan Dallas and a driving force in theformation of the new group.

Pack, who owns Ford dealer-ships in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin andDenton counties, and other dealersbegan considering the merger aboutnine months ago after Drew Campbellretired as president of the New CarDealers Association of MetropolitanDallas after a 25-year tenure.

Lee Chapman, 50, the formerpresident of the Tarrant County deal-ers association, will head the new as-sociation. The primary goals of thenew association are largely un-changed — promoting and represent-ing new-car dealers.

“I’m really excited,” said Chap-man, who was president of the TarrantCounty group for 26 years. “This is onemarketplace, and wewant to help deal-ers sell more cars and help consumershave a positive sales experience.”Among other initiatives, the new asso-ciation intends to call more attention todealers’ good deeds — “everythingthey return to the community, from sup-porting Little League teams to donatingto hospitals,” Chapman said.

Fort Worth and Dallas-area deal-ers will still put on separate new-carshows.With annual sales approaching400,000 vehicles, dealers in the Dal-las-FortWorth region sell as many ve-hicles as those in some small states.

“It just made sense to combinetwo smaller associations into one ofthe biggest and strongest in the na-tion,” said Tom Durant, a boardmember of the former New Car Deal-ers Association of Greater TarrantCounty and owner of Classic Chevro-let in Grapevine.

Claims Flood Insurers After Hermine Hits TexasThe storm that dumped several inchesto more than a foot of rain on manyparts of south and Central Texas onthe night of September 8 has also leftinsurance companies with a risingnumber of damage claims accordingto the Texas Statesman.

Austin, San Antonio and Killeenwere hit exceptionally hard withrecord rainfall from the storm, ac-cording to the Insurance Council ofTexas, a trade association of about500 property and casualty insurers.

As of 1 p.m. September 8, StateFarm policyholders in Texas had filedabout 960 property claims and about50 auto claims, said Patti Kelly, aspokesperson for the state’s largest in-surer.

The property claims included170 in Austin, 50 in Georgetown, 30in Round Rock and 18 in CedarPark, Kelly said. Kelly said updatedfigures would be available at a laterdate.

Allstate also has seen a spike inclaims, saidKristen Beaman, a com-pany spokeswoman in Irving.

“Travis County is one of ourhardest-hit areas in the state, as far asclaims and property damage are con-cerned,” Beaman said, though figureswere not available.

Allstate and State Farm declaredthe event a catastrophe, meaning thecompanies are sending in additionalemployees to answer questions andhelp customers file claims as quicklyas possible.

Farmers Insurance executivessaid September 8 that the companyhad mobilized a team of specializedclaims workers and equipment to helpcustomers throughout Texas whowere affected by the rain and strongwinds stemming from the storm.

Mark Hanna, a spokesman forthe Insurance Council of Texas, saidwind and flood claims were moreprevalent south of SanAntonio, whileareas to the north were seeing moreflood- and rain-related claims.

Meanwhile, the southern point ofTexas was also watching the path ofHurricane Karl as it made its wayalong the Gulf Coast of Central Mex-ico September 16.

Although Hurricane Karl is quitea bit smaller than Hermine, it stillcould bring heavy rains to southernTexas as it makes its way north whichcould cause flooding and mudslides incoastal areas.

For more information andhurricane watch maps please visithttp://www.nhc.noaa.gov/.


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Sherwin-Williams Announces Next A-Plus WorkshopSherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes announced it will hold its nextA-Plus™ University ‘Winning theKeys’ Estimating and ProfitabilityWorkshop in New Orleans on October26 and 27, 2010 at the RenaissanceNew OrleansArts Hotel in Louisiana.

To meet the challenges collisionrepair facilities face in today’s eco-nomic climate, Sherwin-Williams de-signed its ‘Winning the Keys’workshop to specifically increasebusiness at the front end of the bodyshop. It focuses on three critical profitareas of importance to a successfulcollision facility: customer service,selling skills and estimating.

The workshop has been specifi-cally designed for collision repair fa-cility owners, managers, estimatorsand customer service representativeswho are interested in improving theirclosing ratio and creating loyal cus-tomers.

Attendees will learn to utilizeproven sales techniques that havebeen custom-tailored to the collisionrepair industry and designed to im-prove the effectiveness of their sellingskills during the estimating process.

The workshop also provides eachattendee with detailed informationand the tools necessary to write and

negotiate more profitable estimates.“Winning the Keys is a great

class. I have already tripled theamount of money spent on the class inthe first three days on additionalcharges we were not being paid for,”said Dennis Johnson, Body ShopManager, Freedom Super Body Shop,Chesapeake, Va.

The ‘Winning the Keys’ coursehas been built by leading collision re-pair industry professionals and willoffer attendees the opportunity toshare best practices with their industrypeers throughout the two-day learningsession.

Breakfast and lunch will be pro-vided each day with a group dinnerscheduled for the first evening.Course curriculum includes the fol-lowing: Achieving Service Excel-lence, The Road to Sales Success andEstimating Solutions for Profit.

“We are very excited about thisA-Plus University offering,” saidBrandon Devis, A-Plus Network Pro-gram Manager for Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive Finishes.

To register for the A-Plus Uni-versity ‘Winning the Keys’workshoponline, go to www.sherwin-automo-tive.com. For more information on theA-Plus Network, call (216) 332-8580.

Ameriprise Fined $71K For Discount DRP IncentivesThe Colorado Division of Insurance(CDI) has levied a fine of $71,100against Ameriprise Auto & Home In-surance Co. for steering by offeringdiscounts on deductibles for utilizingdirect-repair program (DRP) auto re-pair shops, according to a report fromthe CDI.

According to the report, Ameri-prise offered an incentive program be-tween September 2006 and January2010 in which customers received a$100 discount off their collision de-ductibles for using one of the insurer’sDRP facilities. A total of 711 con-sumers participated in the programduring that period, and Ameriprise’s$71,100 fine is comprised of $100 forevery consumer that received the dis-count in return for using one of itsshops. In addition, the company hasbeen ordered to pay a 10 percent sur-charge of $7,100 directly to the CDI.

CDI initially received a complaintin January 2010 from an Ameriprisecustomer who said that he/she was of-fered the $100 discount for selecting arepair facility on the insurer’s Direct-Repair Program (DRP), and an inves-tigation was launched shortly after,according to the final order.

“The Division alleges that … thedeductible reduction is considered an

inducement by incentive to utilize arepair facility participating in theDRP,” writes CDI in its official re-port.

In addition to the fine,Ameriprisewas ordered to cease use of the incen-tive immediately, and the fine is duewithin 30 days.

“While the repair shops con-tracted with Ameriprise may havedone good work, the anti-steering lawensures that consumers, not insurancecarriers, are in the driver’s seat to de-cide where they want repairs done,”says Marcy Morrison, Colorado in-surance commissioner.

ASRW Says 2011 EventWill Remain in OctoberAutomotive Service and Repair Week(ASRW) announced its 2011 eventwill be held Monday, Oct. 17- Weds.,Oct. 19, 2011, at the Mandalay BayConvention Center in Las Vegas, NV.The 2011 ASRW education programwill begin on Sunday, October 16. “Ina year filled with changes in the auto-motive industry, we feel it’s importanteveryone knows ASRW, NACE andCARS are here to stay,” states RonPyle, ASA president, adding “we feelthis event deserves its own week.”

The October issue of Consumer Re-ports ran an article called Are low-costreplacement bumpers safe? in whichit stated “some safety experts are con-cerned about the internal bumperparts: a bumper beam, bumper isola-tors, foam, crush cans, brackets, andradiator supports. In a frontal crash,those pieces work together to properlytransmit the crash pulse, or vibrationsfrom impact energy that movesthrough the vehicle, to air-bag sensorsand away from the passenger com-partment to reduce or prevent injury.

“There’s a lot of engineering thatgoes into making a crash-protectionsystem,” says David Zuby, chief re-search officer for the Insurance Insti-tute for Highway Safety. “You can’twilly-nilly change those parts becausethe system may not work the way itwas designed.”

The article went to say that “Fordreported that its engineers had foundalarming differences in two aftermar-ket parts tested. One bumper bar wasmade of mild steel, instead of the ultra-high-strength steel that the originalFord part uses. A radiator support was

made of plastic instead of the magne-sium used in the Ford part. In com-puter-simulated crash tests, the fakeschanged the timing of the crash pulse,whichmight affect air-bag deployment.

“Differences in material could re-sult in a difference in the timing of theair-bag deployment,” saysMikeWar-wood, Ford’s parts marketing and re-manufacturing manager. “The air bagmight deploy earlier than it should orlater than it should. Or it might deploywhen it shouldn’t or not deploy at allwhen it should.”

“Ford’s testing follows a demon-stration last year by Toby Chess, amaster collision-repair instructor, whoused a reciprocating saw to easily slicethrough an aftermarket bumper bar.The saw couldn’t cut through the orig-inal automaker bumper bar.”

Now amajor automotive aftermar-ket association, ABPA, has respondedto the Consumer Reports article.

Eileen A. Sottile, co-chair of theABPALegislation & Regulation Com-mittee, issued the following statement:

“As a publication that purports toprovide a “reliable source of informa-

tion consumers can depend on to helpthem distinguish hype from fact andgood products from bad ones,” Con-sumer Reports has sorely missed themark with its piece, “Are low-cost re-placement bumpers safe?,” featured inthe October 2010 article, “Save on carinsurance.”

The aftermarket collision parts in-dustry maintains the highest standardsof quality and safety in the parts weprovide to the collision repair industry.In doing so, we also ensure that there isan economical parts option availablein the marketplace — a benefit that isextremely important to most Ameri-cans, whether they are fixing their ownvehicle or having work done by a re-pair facility. The availability of after-market parts also helps keep the pricesof car companies’ replacement partslower, allowing for more vehicles to berepaired rather than declared totallosses, thus avoiding the financialstress car owners face when they areleft to pay the balance due on the loansof their totaled vehicles.

Consumer Reports bases itshighly questionable recommendation

that consumers “demand that they [af-termarket parts] be replaced with orig-inal equipment,” on egregiouslyunscientific tests and unwarrantedcriticism from organizations that havea significant financial stake in the out-come of the debate on aftermarketparts: Ford Motor Company’s hypo-thetical assertions supported only bycomputer simulations of a couple ofparts merely represent one more playby the company to create a monopolyfor its own replacement parts; andquotes from the Insurance Institute forHighway Safety appear to be based onpresumption rather than actual re-search and factual data.

Rather than providing a reliablesource of information for consumers,Consumer Reports is doing nothingmore than re-reporting unsubstanti-ated hype from fierce competitors.

I expect this magazine to be heldto a higher standard, and hope thatConsumer Reports will involve the af-termarket industry in any future re-porting on this issue and uphold itsresponsibility to draw its own unbi-ased conclusions.”


Aftermarket Collision Parts Industry Responds to Consumer Reports Article

I write this story as an example ofwhat not to do. I also write this story

as a fable, to pro-tect the indignant.Therefore, it startslike this:

Once upon atime, in a far offland, there was akingdom which

had existed for two generations. Thebusiness of this kingdom had grownover the years, and the castle was nowfar too small to fulfill all of the king-dom’s needs. The present king neededto expand his castle. He called in alltypes of workmen, and they laboredtogether for many weeks in order toenlarge the castle. In the course oftheir various labors, they attempted tocommunicate and coordinate witheach other. Most of the time thingswent well, but occasionally there werebreakdowns. This is the story of theresult of one of those communicationerrors.

Long, long ago, the king’s fatherhad decided to install over his ground

floor office, a small apartment with abath, a bed, and a private stairwell.The present king used it primarily forstorage, but valued the privacy of hisown bathroom. He was a quiet man,happy at his desk, and few of his sub-jects cared to disturb him. During theexpansion of his castle, there were ofcourse, necessary changes made to theexisting infrastructure. Intermittently,the subjects would lose their water,power, and other services, but most ofthe time there was warning of theseevents, and they were dealt with as al-most routine.

This particular day, however, wasnot routine. Unknown to anyone ex-cept for two of the workers, it becamenecessary to reroute the plumbingfrom the old apartment area. Thesepipes were located in the area betweenthe first and second floors of the cas-tle. Here is where the communicationbreakdown occurred. The workers as-sumed that the old pipes were seldomused, and that there would be no needto climb down and find the overseer;post notices, etc. They thought thattheir repairs would be completed

quickly and that no one would noticeor even care about their work. Theywere sadly mistaken.

They had completed half of theirwork, and clean, fresh water wasagain available to the old apartment.Now it was lunch time. Both men tooka well deserved break, as working inthe crawl space between floors wasextremely difficult. They relaxed andtalked to each other, listening to thesounds of the other subjects workingbelow. Those subjects had no idea oftheir existence, and took no notice ofthem, even though the work was di-rectly over their heads.

Now it came to the king the urgeto use his apartment’s facilities. Hesaw no need, nor had he been in-formed of any need, to change his nor-mal habits. He climbed the stairs, andsat upon his throne. For many mo-ments there was nothing unusual, andall went well. The king finished hisduties, and performed the final ges-ture, disposing of the evidence.At thispoint, my story brings fantasy to life.

Several gallons of the king’sbounty went down the pipe as usual,

until it came to the severed end of thepipe, between the floors. It missed thetwo men eating their lunch and allwould have been well, except for twothings. The men naturally shouted inalarm, but their noises did not have thedesired effect. Instead of dispersingthe subjects below, their shouts drewthe attention of all in the vicinity, gath-ering them to the source of the shout-ing. The second problem was the forceof gravity. This force pulled every-thing down from the crawl space,through the false ceiling panels, andonto the heads, bodies, and workspaceof the subjects below… yes, at thatmoment every crude joke, tagline, andjob description came true.

You can understand, no furtherwork was accomplished that day.

Every fable needs to teach a les-son. You might assume this lesson tobe one about communication, plan-ning, or other such items; it is not.

The lesson from this fable comesafter the event. The king, who musthave been informed of the results ofhis actions, never said a word to his


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Management Training Series: When Expressions Come True

Larry Williams

See Management Training, Page 15


A number of automakers in recentweeks have issued bulletins, launchedprograms or made announcementsthat could impact collision repairers—whether at dealerships or inde-pendent shops. Here’s a wrap-up ofthis recent news from the OEMs.

MercedesThe slight rebound in vehicle leasingin the last few years is seen as goodnews for collision repairers becauseconsumers tend to have damage onleased vehicles repaired. But Mer-cedes-Benz now offers a new leaseprotection product that waives up to$7,500 in wear-and-tear charges andup to $200 in missing parts on a vehi-cle being returned at the end of alease. Unlike other lease protectionplans, this waiver doesn’t require theconsumer to wait to get reimbursedfor the wear-and-tear charges they payout of pocket. That’s likely to make

the program more popular with deal-ers, who have found any money thecustomer has to pay out just decreasestheir down-payment on the next vehi-cle.

VolkswagenVolkswagen of America has launcheda certified collision repair facility pro-gram for its dealers and independentbody shops. The automaker says thenational launch follows a pilot pro-gram with 15 shops. Certificationunder the program requires nomina-tion by a dealer, specific techniciantraining, use of VW-approved equip-ment, and an onsite inspection. Certi-fied shops will be listed on VW’swebsite and will have access to vehi-cle-specific training on a dedicatedprogram website. Volkswagen willalso provide customers with free 24-hour towing of vehicles under war-ranty to its certified shops. Dealers

can nominate a shop (or independentshops can request more information)by contacting Volkswagen at [email protected].

FordFord’s latest findings regarding non-OEM structural parts have beenwidely reported. But while non-OEMpart advocates are quick to point outthat Ford’s testing involved only“computer-simulated” crash testing,Ford hasn’t ruled out doing some ac-tual crash testing.

In discussing such testing, PaulMassie, collision product marketingmanager for Ford, said he recognizesthere is ample competition within thecompany for the research time andfunds that would require.

“Our engineers, our resources,our safety department are all dedi-cated to building the next generationof Ford vehicles,” Massie said. “There

aren’t extra resources to stop whatthey’re doing and look backwards, so[looking at it] shows you the impor-tance of this issue.”HondaAmerican Honda is urging collision re-pair shops to check for any applicablesafety recalls when repairing a Hondaor Acura vehicle. The automaker at-tempts to notify the current registeredowner of any vehicle being recalled,but said not all owners receive suchnotices. Recall information fromHonda is available by VIN at www.re-calls.honda.com or www.recalls.acura.com. Recall information for all makesof vehicles also is available throughthe Big Three estimating systems orthrough the NHTSA (www-odi.nhtsa.gov /ca r s /p rob lems / reca l l s / r e -callsearch.cfm).

Positions on PartsHonda, Hyundai, Toyota and Nissan


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Automaker Announcements Carry Implications For Repairers

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].

are among the automakers to re-cently issue bulletins or positionstatements regarding the use of crashparts used in the repair of their vehi-cles.

“Hyundai Motor America doesnot support the use of aftermarket,imitation or recycled collision repairparts,” the company’s statementreads. “The use of such parts or othernon-original Hyundai equipment forthe repair of any collision-damagedvehicle may negatively affect crash-worthiness and occupant safety dur-ing a collision therefore is notsupported by Hyundai. Additionally,Hyundai does not support the use orre-use of components removed or re-cycled from an existing collision-damaged vehicle.

Like the Hyundai statement, theNissan memo to its dealership partsmanagers states warns that the parts ofthe vehicle are designed to work to-gether as a system and integratingnon-OEM parts into these systems canchange the crash performance in a fu-ture collision. Nissan said this is par-ticularly true “with regard to safetyand structural components.

American Honda earlier this yearissued a position statement, similar toone from Toyota late last year, that itdoes not support the use of non-OEMor used structural parts or supplemen-tal restraint system parts in the repairof its vehicles.

But inAugust, Honda also issueda bulletin more broadly cautioningagainst the use of “aftermarket, coun-

terfeit or gray-market” parts in the re-pair of Honda or Acura vehicles.

That prompted the AutomotiveAftermarket Industry Association(AAIA) to complain to the FederalTrade Commission (FTC). The AAIAsays Honda’s statements violate theMagnuson-Moss Warranty Act bysaying failure to use Honda replace-ment parts will cause consumers tolose warranty coverage on their vehi-cle.

Honda’s position statements donot say the use of non-OEM or sal-vage parts void the vehicle’s warranty.They say Honda’s warranty does notcover any part not purchased from anauthorized Honda dealer, and thatHonda is not responsible for “any sub-sequent repair costs associated with

vehicle or part failures caused by theuse of parts other than Honda partspurchased from an authorized Hondadealer.”

ButKathleen Schmatz ofAAIAis asking the FTC to force Honda toretract the statements, saying they areusing unsubstantiated warnings. “Toour knowledge, Honda has providedno specific evidence to support theirclaim that there are problems with useof non-Honda aftermarket parts fortheir vehicles, or that use of such partscreates warranty-related issues fortheir customers,” Schmatz said.


subjects. Without any word from theking, the subjects were free to thinkthe worst. They waited in vain for anysign of his distress, embarrassment orconcern. Understand that it was neverhis intention to initiate this event, itwas an accident. But the result of hissilence was even worse than the eventitself. He was perceived as uncaringand cold. He lost the respect of his en-tire kingdom. Even the relatives of thesubjects working in that departmentwere offended. Construction slowed,permits were delayed, sales slowed;subjects left for better lands.

The moral is clear. If you are amanager, at any level, and an em-ployee suffers due to your actions,apologize.

An apology costs the giver noth-ing, and gives the receiver everything.Admitting responsibility for your ac-tions—even accidental ones—is asign of moral character. Your employ-ees will know that you care, and willreturn your consideration with theirloyalty.

You have the power. Your deci-sion in a crisis can change an eventfrom a catastrophe into a shared joke,or just as easily destroy or enhanceyour reputation.

See Larry’s previous articles goto www.autobodynews.com > content> distinctive-dealerships.html

Larry Williams is an innovativeparts manager with national awardsand over 30 years of experience increating and managing profitable de-partments. He can be reached for con-sultation at [email protected].

Continued from page 12

Management Training

www.autobodynews.com

A reporter in Washington D.C. re-cently reported that Illinois Repub-lican Congressman Timothy V.Johnson makes one hundred ormore phone calls to his constituentsevery day. He calls from home, theoffice and the airport. He calls whilewaiting in traffic in his car, whileworking out on his treadmill, andwhile walking through the Capitol.He says, “I think a good many of mycolleagues spend too much timetalking to each other and not enoughtime talking to the people they rep-resent.”

Many years ago I briefly workedwith a charitable organization that hadevery employee who had a few freemoments call some prior contributors.Another private school I came in con-tact with had a similar policy of hav-ing idle employees personally callprior and potential students. Both ofthese organizations attributed a large

degree of their success to these phonecalls.

In this day of unwelcome “robo-calls” and uninvited phone solicita-tions, can calls like this be effective?The fact that the calls continue alreadytells you that they must produce re-sults or they wouldn’t be continued.Could a body shop produce similar re-sults if idle employees called priorcustomers?A shop owner might com-plain, “I have thousands of prior cus-tomers. I couldn’t possibly call themall.”

Congressman Johnson has653,647 constituents. If he called100 of them every day for fouryears, he would still only reach 25%of them, but the calls he has madehave kept him getting re-elected foryears.

Obviously for a body shop itwould be most effective to call the re-peat and most profitable prior cus-

tomers, but an old sales law says thevolume of business coming in is di-rectly proportional to the amount ofcommunication going out. Any callsgoing out would be better than none atall.

So, assuming you decided to trythis calling approach, what do yourpeople say when they call? A priorclient of mine had a practice I haven’trun across in any other shop. Afterevery repair he told the customer hewould be calling in about a month tohave him or her bring the vehicle backto buff and polish the repaired area.For one thing, he said this allowedhim to make one more check on thequality of the repair and catch any po-tential problems, plus he could use theopportunity to press for possible re-ferrals to an employer, employees orjust family and friends. But when theycame in he also suggested they do acomplete detail of the entire vehicle,

and he frequently sold the customeron doing it. Even a year after a repair,very few customers would refuse aninvitation to come in to have a repairchecked for durability and possibly afree buff and polish. The cost of thisfree service should be more than offsetby detail sales. Best of all, these callscan be made by just about any em-ployee since no technical knowledgeis needed.

The next level of call could beconsidered to actually be a sales call,but disguised as an information call.Prior customers are called to informthem of new services and technologyavailable at the shop now. If the shophas added or upgraded alignmentequipment, the customer can be in-vited to come in for an alignment at adiscount. Since more car owners arenow upgrading their existing vehiclerather than buying new, the call could


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Can a Person-to-Person Approach Bring in Business?

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for forty-five years. He haswritten numerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many busi-nesses. He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected] Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin

See Person-to-Person, Page 24


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Traffic deaths have plummeted acrossthe United States to levels not seen inmore than a half-century, spurred bytechnology, safety-conscious driversand tougher enforcement of drunkendriving laws according to reportsmade by the Associated Press.

The Transportation Departmentsaid September 9 that traffic deathsfell 9.7 percent in 2009 to 33,808, thelowest number since 1950. In 2008, anestimated 37,423 people died on thehighways.

Government and auto safety ex-perts attributed the improvement tomore people buckling up, side airbags and anti-rollover technology inmore vehicles and a focus in manystates on curbing drinking and driv-ing. Economic conditions were also afactor.

Transportation Secretary RayLaHood called the new data “a land-mark achievement for public healthand safety” but cautioned that toomany people are killed on the roadeach year. “While we’ve come a longway,” he said, “we have a long dis-tance yet to travel.”

Forty-one states, the District ofColumbia and Puerto Rico saw reduc-tions in highway fatalities, led byFlorida with 422 fewer deaths andTexas, down 405.

The rate of deaths per 100 millionmiles traveled also dropped to arecord low. It fell to 1.13 deaths per100 million miles in 2009, comparedwith 1.26 the year before.

Year-to-year declines in highwaydeaths have occurred in previous eco-nomic downturns, when fewer peopleare out on the road. Traffic deaths de-creased in the early 1980s and early1990s when difficult economic condi-tions led many drivers to cut back ondiscretionary travel.

Last year’s reduction in fatalitiescame even as the estimated number ofmiles traveled by motorists in 2009increased 0.2 percent over 2008 lev-els.

Barbara Harsha, executive di-rector for the Governors HighwaySafety Association, said the new datawas “particularly encouraging giventhat estimated vehicle miles traveledactually increased slightly in 2009,

thus exposing the public to greaterrisk on our roadways.”

LaHood said the weak economywas a contributing factor as manyAmericans chose not to go out to barsand restaurants after work or on theweekend.

But he said many motorists aremore safety conscious behind thewheel.About 85 percent ofAmericanswear seat belts while benefiting fromsafety advances found in today’s carsand trucks.

Side air bags that protect thehead and midsection are becomingstandard equipment on many newvehicles. Electronic stability con-trol, which helps motorists avoidrollover crashes, is more commonon new cars and trucks, whilesome luxury models have lane de-parture warnings and other safetyfeatures.

Dave McCurdy, president andCEO of the Alliance of AutomobileManufacturers, which representsGeneral Motors, Toyota, Ford andothers, said the improvements were“the payoff from years of manufac-

turer-driven safety improvements,like antilock brakes and electronicstability control systems” along withefforts by law enforcement to keepthe roads safe.

LaHood, a former Illinois con-gressman, has also sought to crackdown on distracted driving, urgingstates to adopt stringent laws againstsending text messages from behindthe wheel, as well as other distrac-tions.

The annual highway safety reportalso found:-Motorcycle fatalities broke a string of11 years of annual increases, fallingby 16 percent, from 5,312 in 2008 to4,462 in 2009.-The number of people injured inmotor vehicle crashes fell for a 10thconsecutive year. An estimated 2.2million people were injured in 2009,a 5.5 percent decline from 2.3 millionin 2008.-Alcohol-impaired driving deaths de-clined 7.4 percent in 2009 to 10,839deaths, compared with 11,711 in2008. Alcohol-impaired fatalities fellin 33 states and Puerto Rico.


Highway Deaths Fall to Lowest Level Since 1950

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Mobile Airbag Company Relies on Autoland Scannersby Ed Attanasio

An essential piece of equipment canmake or break any company. If a bodyshop has problems with a lift or a

paint gun, it can slow down their pro-duction significantly. That’s whyRodSalas, owner of an airbag mobileservice company in Southern Califor-nia, knows that his scanners have towork on every service call or he’lllose time and of course, money.That’s also why he said he’s happy touse scanners made by Autoland Sci-entech, a worldwide leader in diag-nostic tools since 1990.

Salas, 46, has been working inthe airbag industry since 2000, and in2003 he started Airbag Tech inDowney, CA, servicing all of LosAn-geles County. It’s a small companywith two vans and several on-callpart-time employees, including hisson Rod Jr., 20, but the company isbusy even in a recession, he told Au-tobody News.

Half of Airbag Tech’s clients arecollision repair companies and mostof the time the body shops Salas

works for require either troubleshoot-ing or diagnostics to re-set airbaglights before they can complete therepair and return the vehicle to thecustomer, he said. Car dealers and in-

dividuals who find him on the Inter-net make up the remainder of hisbusiness, Salas said.

In the beginning, body shops inL.A. weren’t getting involved with in-stalling airbag systems, Salas said.“They would call me and say can wedo an installation or come in to seewhat this vehicle needs. We wouldgive them a list and they would buythe parts, so they could make somemoney.And then we’d come back anddo the work. Now, to make moremoney, body shops are doing theirown installations themselves, butsometimes they make mistakes.That’s when they call me and I’ll ei-ther service the airbag, perform trou-bleshooting and/or do the diagnosticsto find the problem and clear thelight.”

It’s always about the light, Salasexplained.” 99% of the time the lightis on and they don’t know why. Most

of the time it’s the last thing they’vedone and they’re in a rush to get thevehicle ready for the customer. So, Iget down there as fast as possible,half-hour to 45 minutes most of thetime, to check those codes and dowhatever I need to do to get the jobdone. That’s why I have the Au-toland scanners, because they workwell for almost all of the cars we en-counter.”

Salas was initially introduced toAutoland’s scanners a decade ago, hesaid. “When I started working for anairbag company ten years ago, Ibegan to use one of Autoland’s scan-ners and I learned how to use it veryquickly. The technology was a lotdifferent back then and it was a littleblack scanner that would just readthe codes. We had to look up thecodes and figure out what the prob-lem was.

“So, when I started my own busi-ness, I invested in all Autoland scan-ners,” Salas said “First I had theiSCAN and then later I got theiSCAN II. Ease-of-use and great cov-

erage—those are probably the bestthings about these scanners. I havesome other companies’ scanners, but

they’re only for backup purposes. Iuse the iSCAN II for pretty much allthe cars I diagnose. When it comes toHonda, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvoand BMW, the iSCAN II is the onlyone I will bring with me to the cus-tomer’s shop.”

Was his investment in his Au-toland scanners a good one, we askedSalas. “They’ve paid for themselvesmany times over by now, definitely. Itcost us roughly $6,000 for the iSCANand the package that comes with it,but it also includes a great warrantyand software updates as long as wehave the device.”

Salas is obviously enamoredwith his iSCAN scanner, a tool that hecan use to make money on a dailybasis, but he also values the thoroughsupport that Autoland offers him, sothat he can make sure his device willwork well even under heavy usage, hesaid.

“They can train you how to usethese scanners over the phone. Oneof my part-time guys learned how tooperate the scanners in less than one

day. It was a very simple step-by-step process and they make it veryeasy to understand. Also, I can get

Rod Salas relies on his iSCAN II to run Airbag Tech, his LA County-based mobile airbag repairand service company

The software associated with Autoland Scientech’s iSCANII system supports 40 automotivemanufacturers


my iSCAN II updates downloaded di-rectly over the phone every 3-4months free for three years. The sup-port offered byAutoland is very goodand we’re never worried about get-ting stuck out in the field withoutone.

Richard Zenteno, the MarketingDirector for theAmericas forAutolandScientech U.S.A., said he has recentlyseen a movement throughout thecountry in which body shops are usingcompanies such as Airbag Tech toclearing codes and servicing theirairbags.And many shops are also buy-ing Autoland scanners themselves todo all their diagnostics in-house, hesaid, to retain more control of the re-pair and capture more revenue in theprocess.

Autoland Scientech was founded20 years ago, developing engine ana-lyzers initially, Zenteno said. “We’vebeen doing something right in thisbusiness for two decades to be aroundthis long. We’re leaders in this areaand our excellent reputation is the re-sult of hard work.”

Zenteno has seen body shopsthrive in the world of diagnostics byembracing his company’s line of scan-

ners, he said. “The iSCAN II is a multimake scan tool that offers comprehen-sive coverage ranging from engine,transmission, ABS and most impor-tantly airbags. In the body shop, it isessential to have a low cycle time andthis tool helps lower the cycle timeplus keep the profits in house. Withour tool you’ll be able to read the cur-rent fault codes on many systems al-lowing you to quickly understand theproblems the vehicle.”

Autoland’s scanners are de-signed for ease-of-use and to be eas-ily understood, Zenteno said. “TheiSCAN II is a very intuitive scantool that is fast and easy to learn. Wehave online step-by-step instructionsto perform certain procedures andvarious visual guides to enable thecustomer to quickly get up to speedwith how to connect. I believe this isone of the most feared obstacles toovercome however scanning anderasing a vehicle is very easy. Yousimply must connect to the vehicle,select the make and model and thesystem that you want to diagnose theselect the function like reading orclearing codes and you are on to thenext vehicle. This can be done in

less than five minutes and you cancharge one hour for diagnosis andsave the time to send two people tothe dealer and wait for the vehicle tobe ready.”

Buy a iSCAN II and you canforget about your scanners for along time, Zenteno said. “Autolanddesigns products that are verydurable and most of our customershave had our tools for 10-15 years.When you invest in a machine ofany type in a body shop, you don’twant to have to questions as towhether it will perform each timeyou use it and that’s why we’vebuilt these scanners to hold up inany environment.”

By using Autoland scanners,can body shops build their businessand improve their reputation fordoing everything in-house, includingdiagnostics? “Like I mentioned be-fore, cycle times is a critical compo-

nent of the operation if you want tokeep a good a stable relationshipwith the insurance carriers,” Zentenosaid. “The other critical componentfor the business is profitability. Withour scanning equipment you are at-tacking both subjects simultane-ously.”

Does Salas think he’ll be usingthe Autoland scanners in 10-15years? “The technology will change,but diagnostics and airbags will bearound for a long time,” he said. “Iam sold on the quality, support andcoverage of my ISCAN II, so I willbe using these products as long as Ican.

Autoland Scientech USA1001 Cypress Creek Rd. Ste 101Cedar Park TX 78613(512) 336-5152www.autolandscientechusa.comwww.autotechforum.net

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Give us your opinion on matters affecting the industry.


with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox 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]

I’ve been in private business longenough to gain quite a following fromall over the city and surroundingareas. Most of it good, I hope… andthen there are some of my customersthat once they get to know me they’llbring just about anything into theshop for me to repair.

Just the other day I had one ofmy regulars bring in a huge lawn-mower for me to look at. It has aCaterpillar diesel engine on this hugegrass cutting machine the likes ofwhich I’ve never seen before. But aswith anything mechanical/electricalif given the right tools and the properinformation I’ll take on the chal-lenge.

It wouldn’t start; the first thing Icould tell about it was the starter ben-dix was out of it. It would hit the fly-wheel spin a quarter turn and thennothing. The bendix would stay en-gaged and the starter motor was spin-ning like mad but the bendix nevermoved. Each time I would turn thekey the same thing would happen.The engine would spin just a bit andthen the bendix would just stop turn-ing. I took the starter off and gave hima call.

Since his place of business wasjust around the corner it didn’t takehim long to show up. “I’ll go get it re-built,” he said, as he grabbed thestarter and headed out the door.

A few hours later he was back,but the starter wasn’t repaired. He hadtaken it to two different starter over-haul shops and both said it was Ok…

I thought that was a littlestrange… this thing was in dire needof a bendix. I muscled the engine overwith a pry bar just to make sure therewas no issues there, it was fine. I wasvery certain the bendix was at fault,there was no mistake about it. But, ifthe overhaul repair shops have asgood a reputation for their work as Ihave, I’ll have to take another look atthis whole thing and be sure I’m notdiagnosing it wrong.

I stuck the starter back on and asI expected the same thing was hap-pening to the starter.

I decided to skip this little prob-lem and try to determine if anythingelse was wrong… because accordingto the owner the starter probably was-n’t the only problem wrong with it.He had already tried a new ignitionswitch but when that didn’t do thetrick he brought it to me.

After checking the wiring dia-gram it was clear that one wire was onthe wrong post on the replacement ig-nition switch. I asked the owner if hemade sure he put the wires back cor-rectly when he changed the switch, henot only was extremely sure that hehad them in the same place, he alsotook a photo of the old switch wiring

so that there was no mistake aboutwhere each of the wires went. Withthat information it had to mean onlyone thing… the ignition switch had tohave been wired wrong from either aprevious repair attempt or from thefactory. Because, the way it washooked up the starter solenoid wasengaged the whole time the enginewas running.I went ahead and moved the wires tothe right spots and gave it one moretry. When, I could get the starter tostay engaged long enough to spin theengine, there still wasn’t any voltageat the fuel cutoff solenoid. Somethingelse had to be wrong with it. Time toconsult the wiring diagrams again.Now it was only a matter of follow-ing the road map of a wires and traceout how all the individual safety cut-off switches played a part in the start-ing and running of this beast. Sureenough, one of the fail safe switcheswas faulty.

It should start now, that is, if youcould get the crazy starter to engagelong enough to throw the engine overtop dead and create enough compres-sion to keep itself going. It took sev-eral attempts of flicking the key onand off to get it to happen but it didfinally start. Once it started I knewwhy no one noticed the starter bendixwas still stuck out against the fly-wheel… you couldn’t hear a thing

with this huge motor blaring away(ear protection is in order) Now, theowner only had one more task to do.Take the starter back one more timeto the rebuild shop and get a new ben-dix installed.

I offered to install a new bendixfor him, but he insisted on going backto the overhaul shop and tell themabout it. He said there was somethingabout “putting a board in the bendix”which seemed to be the way bothplaces checked to see if the bendixwas any good. I’ll bet it would hold aboard… but I don’t think a little oldpiece of wood jammed into the starternose cone was any match for this bigdiesel motor.

I just hope my reputation hasgotten to that end of the city, be-cause he planned on telling themwho said the bendix was bad. Eventhough the starter overhaul shop wasconvinced it wasn’t the bendix… hewas going to insist on having one re-placed.

A day later he had a new bendixand the big old grass munching beastwas as good as new. Sometimes, all ittakes is experience and a reputation toget your point across. Just make sureyou can back it up with clear evidenceand good diagnostic skills. It’s an ex-cellent way of gaining a good reputa-tion, even in the big city or the smallworld we live in…

Even in a Big City It Can Still Be A Small World

Volkswagen Predicts EV Success, 500 Mile Range By 2020Volkswagen is intent on becoming theworld’s leading automaker by 2018and that means being the top dog inevery segment, including hybrid andelectric vehicles according to reportsmade by Autocar and the HuffingtonPost.

In fact, the automaker is so se-rious about its electric car effortsthat it recently announced plans tostart building its own electric pow-ertrains, and enlisted the help ofTesla co-founder Martin Eber-hard.

Eberhard is the electric vehicleengineering director at Volkswagen’sElectronics Research Laboratory(ERL) in Palo Alto, California, andspeaking recently with Autocar he pre-

dicted that within the next 10 yearselectric vehicles will have a range of500 miles or more.

He went on to explain that at thepoint the further development of fastcharging infrastructure will be unnec-essary as most drivers rarely drivemore than 500 miles in a day.

Volkswagen plans to sell 300,000electric vehicles a year by 2018,which would translate to 3% of allsales. VW’s hybrid ambitions couldlead it to overtake Toyota as theworld’s largest automaker withineight years.

Key details of Volkswagen’sstrategy include introducing the com-pany’s first hybrid electric vehicle theToureg 2010, and in 2013 three EVs,

likely to be versions of the Jetta, Golf,and the Up.

At ERL, Eberhard’s main focusis the development of the lithium-ion battery packs for the Golf blue-e-motion and E-Up all-electricvehicles—both of which are des-tined for trials and eventual sale inthe U.S.

The batteries being developed atERL are the 18650-type lithium-ioncells commonly found in laptops andthey will also be used for the more pre-mium Audi e-tron electric vehicles aswell.

Eberhard explained that thecommon 18650-type battery is at theforefront of electrical storage tech-nology. There’s also a cost factor; the

18650-type battery, for example,costs about half of that used by theNissan Leaf.

Incidentally, in addition toelectric drive systems, the engi-neers at ERL are also working onnew driver assistance systems andhuman-machine interface tech-nologies, as well as improving themultimedia functionality and con-nectivity for the different Volk-swagen Group brands.

Some of its latest developments,for example, are the autonomousAudis that competed in the DARPAChallenge as well as the Google Earthfunctionality for the sat-nav systemsfeatured in the new Audi A8 and A7models.

Italy makes amazing race cars (Fer-rari), top-tier watches (Bulgari) andluxurious shoes (Gucci) and they alsomake some of the finest air compres-sors on the planet, respected by autobody and mechanical shops through-out the world.

Mattei’s General Manager JayHedges knows air compressors insideand out after two decades in the in-dustry. He’s been with Mattei fornearly three years, overseeing NorthAmerican Operations for the companythat developed the first rotary vanecompressor in 1958.

For nearly a century, Mattei’smachines have been in use worldwidefor industrial and automotive applica-tions. Body shops throughout NorthAmerica have embraced the com-pany’s rotary vane compressors be-cause they’re more efficient anddurable than comparable products onthe market, Hedges said.

Mattei was founded in 1919,when a young Italian Army Engineernamed Enea Mattei, started explor-

ing the compressed air industry, an in-dustry that hadn’t even been fullyborn yet. In 1934, he invented the

world’s first portable air compressorand after many years of growth andtechnological advances, his namesakecompany become a leader in theworld of compressed air technology.

Hedges cited several reasons forMattei’s success worldwide: “We de-veloped the technology, so we’re in agood position. Recent patents generatedby our research& development depart-ment are evidence of our drive to con-tinually exploit proprietary vanetechnology and advantages. Collisionrepair facilities benefit from the per-formance and efficiencies of our rotaryvane compressors versus traditional ro-tary screw compressor systems.With afocus on both current and future com-pressor models, Mattei will reducemaintenance and energy costs while de-livering ever increasing efficiencies.”

Mattei’s compressors are sold inthe U.S. exclusively through distribu-tors and a handful of re-sellers, such


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CompanyConnections with Ed Attanasio

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

Mattei’s General Manager Jay Hedges showing body shop owners the company’s products attheir Collision Repair Compressed Air Training Center in Baltimore, Maryland

as Keystone Automotive and a networkof 200 independent distributorsthroughout the country. Big collisionchains that currently use Mattei’scompressors include Caliber Collisionand Cook’s Collision, Hedges told us.

“Big collision chains are attractedto these rotary vane compressors be-cause they can save a lot of moneythrough the machine’s ability to con-serve energy and the low maintenancerequired. Large companies want a reli-able compressor, that when routinemaintenance is performed by qualifiedtechs it will not cause unscheduleddowntime. Any equipment failurecosts you money, but when your com-pressor is down you are essentiallyshut down. It’s obviously critical foroperational consistency. It’s rare for acompressed air user to have 100%back-up air compressors at the ready.Therefore, corporations can’t toleratea compressor failing. Whether you’refixing 50 or 500 cars monthly, thecompressors in any size shop must bereliable because if they go down, itwill obviously affect their production.”

Cubic feet per minute (CFM) isthe key power rating when it comes tocompressors and Mattei’s rotary vane

compressors lead the industry in that re-gard. “More air with less energy; that’sour reputation andwe are proud of that.Our machines produce more CFM perhorse power than any other rotary orpiston compressor on the market. Thisis one reason why our compressors are

great, because they represent a value forbody shop owners and that’s whythey’ve been a big success in the colli-sion industry as a whole.”

Mattei’s rotary vane compressorsare more efficient than screw rotarycompressors and deliver 90% me-chanical efficiency, according toHedges. “As the speed decreases, thecompressor’s efficiency increases, of-fering straight-line energy savings,”

he said. “And they’re more durable,because our vane compressors are de-signed for low speeds and long lifeand backed by a revolutionary 10-year warranty. Our vanes are de-signed for 100,000 hours of servicewithout bearing changes or rebuildingan airend, twice the life of most rotaryscrew compressors. They just don’tbreak down, because they feature di-rect drive and in-line operation, whileusing fewer moving parts.”

Mattei’s Optima Series is idealfor high-volume body shops, accord-ing to Hedges. “The variable speedfeature is highly coveted by collisionrepair companies because they willoptimize energy savings for collisionfacilities with varying levels of plantair demand. One of the best thingsabout Mattei’s vane technology is thatthis machine has no ball or roller typebearings because there is no thrustloading. Thrust bearings are subject toB-10 and L-10 design life considera-tions and the thrust forces deterioratethose bearings making them the most-common parts to fail in rotary screwcompressors. This is a big deal.”

Dan Wittenberg is the generalmanager of Keystone Automotive inSt. Cloud, Minnesota. He has seen aspike in popularity of Mattei’s rotarycompressors within the last few years,and he tells us why: “We’re seeingmore body shops in our region mak-ing the transition to using waterbornepaint, and these Mattei rotary air com-pressors are ideal for waterborne, be-cause they provide more airflow. Plus,they’re greener overall when com-pared to piston-type compressors.They will shut down automaticallywhen demand for air drops so it won’tpump air all the time. A smaller shoprequiring intermittent usage is a per-fect application for a Mattei rotarycompressor.

“It’s easy to operate and maintainand the new computer-based rotaryvanes are on the technology’s leadingedge,” Wittenberg said. “The threemajor advantages of the Mattei rotaryvane compressors over the rotaryscrews are: 1) They cost less to oper-ate, because the motors will run less.With the cost of electricity, this is a bigdeal for a body shop watching its bot-tom line and 2) Durability—the rotaryvane compressor will last longer and itcan handle any amount of usage youcan throw at it. 3) They’re quieter thanany other compressor on the market.You can stand right next to this ma-chine and have a conversation, which

is a breath of fresh air, that’s for sure.”Wittenberg and Keystone per-

formed extensive product researchwhile looking for a better air com-pressor and he discovered that Mat-tei’s rotary compressor is the best onthe market, he said.

“We always do our homeworkbefore we take on a new product, andthe Mattei was a no-brainer. Keystonehas been researching products for 85years in this industry, so we knowwhat our customers want. The Matteirotary is in the big leagues and thepackage is very reasonable, so we’reexcited to be carrying them.”

The extensive support and hands-on service provided by Mattei is an-other big plus of working with aleader, Wittenberg said. “The cus-tomer service is exceptional.When wecall Mattei for any reason, we get awell-trained individual on the phone

and the follow-up is the best we’veencountered. They won’t leave you onhold and they speak our language. Weneeded a part recently and they got itto us the very next day.”

Will Keystone be selling moreMattei rotary air compressors in theU.S. in the future? Wittenberg agreesenthusiastically. “It’s a beautiful unitand with the easy set-up we’ll defi-nitely be selling a lot more as this re-gion starts changing over towaterborne more aggressively. Onceshops find out about these compres-sors, they will see the value andthey’ll want one or more, because itwill save them money and last longer.

Mattei Compressors Inc.9635 Liberty Ave., Suite ERandallstown, Maryland 21133(410) 521-7020http://www.matteicomp.com/


Mattei’s AC tank-mounted units like this oneare highly respected by body shops worldwide

Mattei’s Stacked ERC compressor is an idealfit for body shops who value the machine’sdurability and energy-saving features

rental services, towing companies, etc.Franchise Tax Rule 3.588(c)(8)

does allow a cost of goods deductionfor transactions that contain elements ofboth a sale of tangible personal prop-erty and a service; however, an entitymay only subtract as cost of goods soldthe costs otherwise allowed in relationto the tangible personal property sold.

For example, an auto body shopoffers the service of car repair and in theprocess of the repair, replaces some ofthe car’s parts. If the auto body shopelects to use the cost of goods sold todetermine margin, the shop can onlydeduct the cost of the car parts. Thelabor related to the repair of the car isnot allowed as a cost of goods sold.

If an entity that is not eligible for thecost of goods sold deduction elected touse this method for prior years’ reports,the entity must amend the reports. Thecompensation deduction, however, is notavailable for the prior years’reports. Theelection language in Tax Code Section171.101(d) does not allow a change inthe method of computing margin to a

cost of goods sold or compensation de-duction after the due date of the report.

These entities that originallyelected to use the cost of goods soldmethod must amend and use the 70percent method to determine marginor, if total revenue is not more than$10 million, may use the E-Z Compu-tation to determine tax due. The E-ZComputation does not allow a cost ofgoods sold or compensation deductionin computing margin but instead ap-plies a lower tax rate of 0.575 percentdirectly to apportioned total revenue.

In future years, entities that do notsell real or tangible personal propertyin the ordinary course of business maychoose the compensation deductionover the 70 percent method or the E-Zcomputation. The compensation de-duction, detailed in Franchise TaxRule 3.589, includes W-2 wages andcash compensation paid, net distribu-tive income reported to natural personsand employee benefits provided.”

ASA wants to address this inter-pretation of cost of goods sold by con-tacting theWays andMeans Committeeof the Texas House and our representa-tives. Contact Charles Parker, Director,ASA Texas at [email protected].

focus on equipment that is now stan-dard in new vehicles, like GPS sys-tems, back-up lights and systems, andupdated cosmetic improvements.Rather than pushing for a sale over thephone, a better approach would beinviting the customer in to come in tosee a display of available upgradeequipment.

While not as likely to be wel-come to every person called, askingfor participation in a brief two orthree question survey will get the at-tention of some prior customers. Agood place to start would be tellingthe customer the shop was intendingto make some improvements and addsome new services. The caller thenasks the customer what additionalservices he or she would like to seeoffered by the shop. The secondquestion would ask if the customerwere planning to upgrade their exist-ing vehicle or to buy a new one. Thisopens the door to talking about theupgrade options already available atthe shop.

Will employees be willing tomake these calls? If business is slow,this may be a chance to save their job.Phone solicitation is generally a verytough job. A large percentage of peo-ple called simply hang-up or angrilytells the caller not to bother them. For-tunately a shop employee calling aprior customer has the advantage ofbeing able to say this call is from theshop that recently repaired their vehi-cle and it is simply a follow-up infor-mation call. After that is made clear,it is vital to then ask the customer:“Do you have just a few moments totalk now, or would there be a bettertime to call?” This shows courtesyand concern for the person’s time.That should minimize hang-ups andavoid damaging the shop’s relation-ship with the customer. And it mayalso bring the customer back to theshop for those additional services.


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Marchionne Targets Chrysler IPO in Q2 of 2011Chrysler Group LLC will probablyhold an initial public offering in thesecond half of 2011 as investors ap-proved Fiat SpA’s plan to spin off itsindustrial business September 16 ac-cording to reports made byBloomberg News.

“I don’t think it’s the first part; Ithink it’s a second part of the yearevent,” SergioMarchionne, chief ex-ecutive officer of both carmakers, toldreporters in Turin today when askedwhen in 2011 a Chrysler share salewould take place.

Fiat, which acquired a 20 percentstake in Chrysler in June last year,September 16 announced the approvalby shareholders to separate CNHGlobal NV, Iveco and some industrialand marine operations into a newcompany called Fiat Industrial SpA,leaving Fiat Auto and luxury brandsFerrari and Maserati in the new FiatSpA.

The separation would allowMar-chionne, 58, to focus on carmakingand would give Fiat an entity to facil-itate future alliances.

The spinoff, the most sweepingcorporate reorganization in Fiat’s 111-year history, will resolve an issuethat’s been a “thorn in the side” for

Italy’s largest carmaker, Marchionnetold shareholders today.

Fiat Industrial, which will starttrading in Milan next January, may bevalued at 8.38 euros a share, accord-ing to the average projection of fiveanalysts surveyed by BloombergNews. That’s 49 percent more than the5.64 euro value estimated by the ana-lysts for the new Fiat SpA, which willinclude auto-making operations andthe Ferrari and Maserati luxurybrands.

“Fiat Industrial is undervaluedby investors and will benefit from arecovery of the capital goods market,”said Gabriele Gambarova of BancaAkros SpA, who is ranked No. 1among Fiat analysts tracked byBloomberg and based on relative re-turns of the stocks they covered in thepast year. “Investors will be more cau-tious on Fiat auto, which will have toinvest to complete its commercialoffer.”

Before today, Fiat had risen 34percent since the Chrysler deal andwas down 1.6 percent since the spin-off announcement on April 21. Fiatauto may double its trading profit to1.2 billion euros, according to thebusiness plan presented in April.

EPA Postpones Final Decision on SmogRule Until Late OctoberThe U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) announced recentlythat it had postponed final rule onthe National Ambient Air QualityStandard (NAAQS) to late October.The agency had originally plannedto finalize rules on the ozone stan-dard by the end of August, but it de-cided on late October because itwanted to spend more time review-ing public comments on the pro-posal.

In January of this year, the EPAproposed revisions to the Bush ad-ministration’s 2008 ozone standard.The EPA advocates that its proposalwould enhance the eight-hour stan-dard created to protect citizens’health, shifting the requirementfrom 0.075 parts per million (ppm)to a range of 0.060 to 0.070 ppm, aswell as create an all-new secondarystandard designed to protect envi-ronmental resources. The EPA, en-vironmentalists, states and industrywent to court over the Bush admin-istration’s rejection of these pro-posals in March of 2008. Thelitigation, State of Mississippi v.EPA, is currently before the U.S.Court of Appeals for the District of

Columbia Circuit, awaiting theObama administration’s final revi-sions.

The proposed restrictions andtightening of the ozone standard hasreceived some opposition from a bi-partisan group of seven senators, whourged the EPAnot to tighten the ozonestandard. In a recent letter to LisaJackson, administrator of the EPA,the senators said they “believe thatchanging the rules at this time willhave a significant negative impact onour states’ workers and families andwill compound the hardship thatmany are now facing in these difficulteconomic times.”

Supporters of the EPA’s proposalare concerned about delay of the finalrule, and they believe that postponingthe agency’s final decision could di-lute the final rule.

EPAsaid the proposal would cost$19 billion to $90 billion to imple-ment. But it said it would save $14billion to $100 billion from healthcarebills for asthma, lung damage, andother diseases and lost work costs.

To view the seven senators’ let-ter to the administrator visit:www.TakingTheHill.com.

CARSTAR held their 2010 NationalMedia Conferences on Tuesday, Sep-tember 14, to discuss the changes thecompany is making in order to bettercompete in the current economy.

Chairman and CEO Dick Crossbegan the conference call by outliningCARSTAR’s forecast for the comingyear. He said that the successful shopsare going to need to not only provideextraordinary performance, but alsobe able to document it and be preparedto show it to customers.

“We think our collision industryis going to change,” said Cross.

Dan Bailey, President and COOfor CARSTAR, also discussed someof the trends facing the collision re-pair industry in this economy, in-cluding several of the mergers goingon between companies and the con-solidation of multi-location net-works.

Both Bailey and Cross talkedabout how although CARSTAR haslost some stores in the last fewmonths, that a lot of the stores lostwere not participating as much as theycould have been in the CARSTAR

system. They also mentioned how alot of stores had been defeated by theirbalance sheet; that some stores could-n’t balance their debt with the loss ofvalue that a lot of things had after theeconomic downturn.

Cross and Bailey acknowledgedthat about eight of its franchises haveclosed in recent months but they saidothers have doubled their revenue oracquired struggling or closing shopsas additional locations.

Bailey and Cross also fieldedquestions about steering; both felt thatshops needed to hold their ethicsabout customer choice.

“We’re on the sidelines with thatissue. We promote that every cus-tomer has the right to choose where tohave their repairs done but we are noton one side or the other on this issue,”said Bailey.

But Cross also mentioned thatstores that have DRPs are likely to geta bigger piece of the repair work avail-able, if the customer does not speak upabout a preferred shop they would liketo use.

Cross and Bailey both stressed

that body shops are entering an erawhere shops are compared throughobjective performance-based com-petition. There is a smaller body ofwork to compete for and shops needto excel in order to receive busi-ness.

CARSTAR has confirmed thatgoing green can make economic sensethese days, Bailey and Cross said thatCARSTAR has two shops that aregreen certified and 35 stores that arespraying waterborne paint.

Cross wrapped up the conferenceby saying that CARSTAR is attempt-ing to get all of their shops on a simi-lar store software. CARSTAR hasbeen working on this for over a yearand is now in talks with Mitchell foran appropriate program.

“We still have some road to gobefore we can launch,” said Cross,adding that CARSTAR is shooting forQ1 of 2011 to launch the program.

For more information please visitcarstar.com.


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CARSTAR Media Conference Outlines Changes and Forecasts for 2010

CARSTAR Calls for Nationwide Recall System for A/M PartsCARSTAR has announced its posi-tion on aftermarket parts. CEO DickCross said that CARSTAR is willingto use aftermarket parts so long asthey meet standards.

“We have a long way to go be-fore we’re 100 percent satisfiedwith putting aftermarket parts onthe cars we repair,” said Cross.“There’s no recall process to takethem out of the marketplace if thereis an issue.”

Cross reiterated CARSTAR’spoint of view by saying that CARSTARwill take the position on behalf of con-sumers and consumer safety on the

issue of aftermarket parts.Bailey and Cross continue to ex-

press concern over shortfalls in fit,form and function from aftermarketparts, calling for a nationwide recallsystem.

“I don’t care if Betty Crockermakes it, if it’s of like, kind and qual-ity,” says Bailey, lamenting a lack ofoverall accountability regarding faultyaftermarket components.“There’s no recall process to takethem out of the marketplace.We trackthem to try to get them out of the mar-ketplace with some success, but notas much as I’d like.”

CARSTAR Recognizes its Four Top StoresCARSTAR celebrated its 21st an-niversary and honored its top per-forming stores and representativesacross the United States.at the annualawards ceremony held at the Home-stead in Hot Springs, VA. CARSTARCEO Dick Cross and President DanBailey toasted each winner on stageand presented their award.

In the category for overall opera-tions, technical excellence, office per-formance and facility performance,four CARSTAR stores were honored,with one store taking home two topawards. The winners included:

Franchisee of the YearFranchisees of the Year were Kurtand Terri Mueller, owners of Kurt’sCARSTAR in Maryville, Ill. Fran-chisee of theYear is the highest awardgiven in the CARSTAR system. Thisyear’s winner was chosen on criteriaincluding using all vendors possible,attending conference , being imagecompliant, submitting reports on timeonline, and delivering consistentlyhigh CSI in the Top Ten for the monthand quarter periods. His past fivequarters of CSI have been: 98.7%,99.2%, 99.1%, 99.5% and 99.4%.Kurt’s CARSTAR was also the recip-ient of the Extraordinary Individual

Contribution to the Make-Wish-Foundation. Kurt joined CARSTARin October of 1993 as a member of theSt Louis Business Group.

Rookie of the YearThe Rookie of the Year in theCARSTAR family was Marshall’sAutobody CARSTAR owned byJames and Dawn Marshall in Bil-lerica, MA.This award is given inrecognition of the newest CARSTARfranchisees as they get “up and run-ning” with CARSTAR. To qualify forthe award, a franchisee must havebeen with CARSTAR less than threeyears, be well underway of achievingTier 1 compliance and enthusiasticallyembrace the CARSTAR culture withactive participation.

Outstanding Facility PerformanceOutstanding Facility Performancewent to Exhibition CARSTAR ownedby Jeff and LaVada Middleton inKent, WA. The award is for consis-tently high ratings in Sales, GrossProfits, CSI, COS, Tier complianceand active involvement both in thecommunity and within CARSTAR.Exhibition CARSTAR also is very ac-tive in the community, providingenormous support for Make-A-Wish

Concerns about data privacy promptedthe formation this spring at the Colli-sion Industry Conference (CIC) of ataskforce focused on the subject. AtCIC in Chicago in July,Tony Passwa-

ter, an industrytrainer and execu-tive director of theIndianaAuto BodyAssociation, saidthat the new task-force that he chairshas in recent weeksbeen discussing

and finalizing its objectives.The primary issue, he said, is that

as the industry’s information providersmove toward “cloud computing” sys-tems—in which a shop’s estimate andeven management system informationis stored on the system provider’scomputers rather than the shop’s—concerns are being raised about accessto and use of the data.

“I don’t think the current data pri-vacy policies and terms-of-use address

all the ramifications of that,” Passwatersaid.

The topic was also highlighted bya panel during the CIC Insurer-Re-pairer Relations Committee, whichdiscussed a “data rights” proposalcrafted by another CIC committee.That statement says no third-partyshould capture or use in any way dataproduced by a shop—even if devel-oped using or transmitted over a third-party’s software or network—withoutthe specific authorization of the shop.The intended use of the data and whowill have access to it must be clearlystated, the proposal reads.

Aaron Schulenburg, executivedirector of the Society of CollisionRepair Specialists (SCRS), said theproblem isn’t that informationproviders don’t get shops’ permissionto aggregate and sell their data. It’smore that shops aren’t given anychoice but to sign away that right ifthey want to use any of the Big Threeestimating systems, he said. Granting

permission for the shop data to beused should be an option for the shop,not a requirement, Schulenburg said.

“We all need aggregated data,”Mike Lloyd of California Casualty

said. “But as far asthe individual re-paier’s data, I be-lieve that belongsto the shop. Youshould have that inthe agreement withthe vendor thatyou’re using. You

should also have in the agreement thatif you move to a different vendor, howdo you get your data back so you canput it in your (new) system?”

That’s an issue several people onthe panel brought up. One panelist, forexample, said he was aware of anmulti-shop operator who closed one lo-cation and could not get the data cre-ated for that location back from theinformation provider because the sub-

scription for that location was nolonger maintained.

Passwater said informationproviders argue that they should havesome rights to estimate data preparedby users that are based on the infor-mation provider’s labor times andother data. But he compared it to buy-ing lumber, saying that doesn’t allowyou to own the land the wood wasgrown on nor give the lumber yardany right to the house you build withit. It’s my house. At some point intime, I should have the right to saywhat I do with my house,” Passwatersaid.

Scott Biggs, ofAssured Perform-ance Network, said some shops mightnot be overly concerned about thisissue but likely will be if down theroad the information providers chargea shop for access to the shop’s ownaggregated data that the shop cur-rently has access to as part of its man-agement software system fee.


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Access and Use of Shop Data Raise Privacy Concerns for the Industry

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].

A new survey found that when it comes to

parts suppliers, collision shops prize order

accuracy most, aren’t overly interested in

electronic parts ordering, and are not very

satisfied with the quality of remanufactured

or non-OEM parts.

The survey by phone and fax of 300

shops was commissioned by the Collision

Industry Conference (CIC) parts committee

earlier this year. It asked shops to rate nearly

two dozen attributes of a parts vendor on a

scale of 1 to 10, with the higher number in-

dicating a higher level of desirability.

Perhaps not surprisingly, order accu-

racy, quality parts, competency and help-

fulness of the parts personnel, timely

delivery and undamaged parts topped the

list of shop’s desires.

A large parts inventory – something

many dealers tout in their advertising to

shops – finished about in the middle of the

21 attributes.

Least important to shops among the

attributes were the proximity of the supplier

to the shop, and promotions or trips and

merchandise awarded for purchase loyalty.

But perhaps discouraging to OE Con-

nection and InfoMedia was the fact that the

ability to order parts electronically received

an average importance rating of 7.32, indi-

cating that 17 of the 21 other attributes

were more important to shops.

Still, nearly 3 out of 5 shops respond-

ing say they use one or both of the elec-

tronic parts ordering systems. The rest said

they don’t use them because they prefer the

personal contact with the vendor by order-

ing via phone or fax. Some non-users, how-

ever, also cited a lack of dealer participation

as the reason they don’t use the systems.

With regard to non-OEM parts, the sur-

vey found that over half of the shops said their

vendor does not supply them with return-rate

information on a particular part. Eighty-two

percent rated the quality of non-OEM parts as

“7” or lower on a scale of 1 to 10.

Remanufactured parts fared slightly

better, with 37 percent rating their quality

as an “8” or higher.

Complete findings of the study are

available on the CIC website at:

www.CIClink.com.

Mike Lloyd

What shops want from parts vendors

Tony Passwater


Hey Toby—We are repairing at 2007Porsche Cayman and the insurancecompany wants us to recon the wheel.Do you know if Porsche has a positionstatement on reconditioned wheels?—Mick from Marina Del Rey.

Hey Mick—I did not know the answerwhen you e-mailed me, so I calledMike Kukavica from Porsche Carsof North America (PCNA), and hesaid that Porsche only allows refinish-ing of their wheels, but nothing else. He invited me to attend the introduc-tory course for Porsche collision cer-tification program, which I accepted.After attending the week long pro-gram, there are a couple of other itemsthat you need to know about replacingwheels and tires on Porsches.

First, all production tires need tobe passed by Porsche’s engineeringdepartment for handling, hydroplan-ing and high speed durability require-

ments. Only after passing the test, thespecific tire will get an “N” designa-tion. You can purchase a MichelinPilot Sport with and without the “N”designation. You may have to pur-chase another tire if there is more 30percent difference in the wear.Porsche states that mixing tires is notpermissible and will affect vehicleperformance, safety and can affect thevehicle’s warranty. Another item thatyou need to be aware of is the TirePressure Monitoring System, which

was available since the end of 2005.The system continuously monitors theair pressure on all 4 tires. When youchange a wheel, the system needs torecalibrate itself which is done by testdriving the vehicle and checking thedisplay unit for proper function. Fi-nally, Porsche wants new valve stemswhen replacing a wheel. If the vehicleis equipped with the TPM System,then a special valve system must beused. Next the group looked at the rearspoiler on the Boxter and Caymanmodels.

Figure 3 shows the rear bodypanel of a Cayman set in place. The po-


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Tech Notes

National News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

Regional News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

with Jeremy HayhurstPublisher’s Page

with Karyn HendricksShop Showcase

with David M. BrownShop Showcase

Shop Showcasewith Jeremy Hayhurst

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

California Autobody Associationwith David McClune

Collision Repair Association of CA.with Richard Steffen

Insurers Excel at Steeringwith Richard Steffen

Year in Quoteswith John Yoswick

Transition Planningwith John Yoswick

Mainstream Media

My Turnwith Joe Momber

Toby Chess is an I-CAR program instructor, Welding specialist, and former salvage yardoperator. Toby is universally known in the collision industry for his charitable works,worthy causes, and magic tricks. He can be reached at [email protected]

Attending the Porsche Collision Certification Program

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

sition and angle of the rear body panelis critical to the correct operation of therear spoiler. Without the knowledgeand angle setting tool, the rear bodypanel can be placed in a position thatthe spoiler will not operate correctly.

The hole is used to secure the hy-draulic piston for the rear spoiler (Fig4). There is no adjustment for the part,so how does tech know the properangle of the hole before securing therear body panel. Porsche has a specialjig that aligns the part in its proper po-sition (Fig 5).

The jig secures the rear bodypanel with eight different locationbolts and pins. After the jig and parthas been installed, the part is tackwelded before the final welding oper-ation. Speaking of spoilers, the group

had to remove the rear spoiler from anew Turbo.

Mike Kukavica demonstratedthe operation and explained the cor-rect removal of the rear spoiler (Fig6). Porsche has a special tool thefits in to inner and outer mountingrings.

Sean Vlaszof of DC Autocraft inBurbank, CA, reinstalling the rearspoiler on the Turbo (Fig 7).One afternoon session was the re-moval and installation of the frontwindshield.

Scott Cramer-Bornemann ofDC Autocraft repositioning the removaltool. (Before anyone emails me a cau-

tionary about safety, I had the guys re-move their safety glasses for the shot.Porsche policy is to wear safety glasseswhen working on their vehicles.)

The windshield was test-fitted and it’slocation marked prior to the final in-stallation.

Porsche sells its own windshieldadhesive kit.One last item on the windshield. Partof the Porsche certification program isto have a tool to set the proper angle ofthe wiper blades (Fig 11).

Improper blade angle will causethe wiper blades to chatter.

Another whole afternoon was de-voted to structural repairs. The groupassembled a front lower frame rail.Two complete rails were used.


North County BMW

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BMW of San AntonioSan Antonio(210) 732-7121(800) 880-1430

BMW of DallasDallas(800) 245-7269(972) 241-3953 Fax

BMW of Houston NorthHouston(888) 215-7431(281) 875-4021 Fax

Classic BMWPlano(214) 778-2673 Direct Wholesale(214) 778-2674 Direct Wholesale(214) 778-2814 Fax

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BMW of TulsaTulsa(800) 331-3996(918) 665-1360 Fax

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When you repair a BMW, use the partsthat are identical to those used in Seriesproduction – and just as reliable.Choose Original BMW Parts. Becauseyou can’t repair your reputation.

You only get one chance at thefirst repair.

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Original BMW Parts

Sandia BMWAlbuquerque(800) 642-2697(505) 217-0289 Fax

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X6 M 2010

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 10

Figure 8

Figure 9

Porsche procedure is to weld bond thetwo sections together. A specific struc-tural adhesive is spelled out in the re-pair manual.

George Pedroza from EstorgasCollision Center, Long Beach, CA isapplying the specified Porsche adhe-sive to the inner mating surface of theframe rail (Fig 12). Prior to the instal-lation of the adhesive, a special adhe-sion promoter is applied to the baremetal surface. Porsche also recom-

mends weld-thru primer to all baremetal mating surfaces that are to bewelded (except when weld bonding).MIG spot welds are made through a7mm diameter hole.

Agasee Bagoumyan from DCAutocraft welded the frame rail utiliz-ing a Porsche approved resistance spotwelder (Fig 13). Porsche recommends

only an open butt joint (no butt weldwith backers). Porsche also wantsepoxy primer applied to all bare metalsurfaces. Furthermore, all sealantmust be applied over primed surfaces.In other words, no direct to bare metalsealants. Finally, when installing anouter panel over 2 interior panels(quarter panel, for example) that havebeen weld bonded, Porsche recom-mends spot welding over existingspots welds. Porsche does not wantwelding through cured adhesive.Note the three weld bonded panels onthe Cayman.

Some notes on Ultra High StrengthSteels in Porsche vehicles. Nostraightening or reshaping UHSSparts. UHSS parts are replaced in their

entirety. Rivet bonding is also permit-ted as outlined in the repair manuals.

Another afternoon was devotedto the Panamera. The group had to re-move the inner door cassette.


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Genuine Mitsubishi replacement Crash Parts are close at hand through the following quality dealerships. They o!er exceptional customer service, wide selection of in-stock parts and the experience necessary to ensure your repairs proceed smoothly.

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Figure 12

Figure 13

Figure 11

Figure 14

Figure 15

Figure 16

Stephen Hurt from Park Place Body-werks, Dallas Texas, removing the dri-ver’s side trim panel on the 2011Panamera (Fig 15). There are four alu-minum bolts the secure the cassette.These bolts need to be replaced andtorqued to 10 Newton meters.

The side air bag sensor is locatedin the door trim panel. It is a pressuresensitive sensor (Fig 17). It is impera-tive that the cassette is totally sealed.The pressure builds between the outershell and trim panel on a side impact,which sets off the side air bags.

Any air leaks will prevent theside air bags from working properly.

Sergio Barba from EstorgasCollision Center and Moses Morafrom European Auto Body, Escon-dido, CA, holding the passenger’s side

door cassette (Fig 18). The group re-moved door handles that required spe-

cial tools and techniques fromCayman, Cayenne and Panamera.

The group removed the front andrear bumpers from a new Cayenne andPanamera.

Stephen Hurt reinstalling the frontbumper on the 2011 Panamera (Fig 21).

The front bumper to hood ischecked with a 1mm gauge. The frontbumper is suppose to be flush with thehood, but 1 mm higher.

The week-long class looked atthe entire Porsche Automobile line.

The front rails on the Panamera arealuminum and the replacement re-quires special tools, materials andtechniques. This will be the next classfor the techs.


DO THE RIGHT THING ENOUGH TIMES, AND PEOPLE BEGIN TO NOTICE.

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�e Hyundai Genesis—2009 North American Car of the Year.

Hyundai Sales Up More than 14% (year on year). In 2008 Hyundai became the world's ��h-largest automaker, with 7% market share in the United States.

See these Hyundai dealers below for allyour collision parts needs!

�ink About It

OKLAHOMATEXAS

Gene Messer HyundaiLUBBOCK

888-786-8128806-785-2238 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 7pmSat 8am - 6pm

[email protected]

James Wood HyundaiDECATUR

940-627-4607940-627-4653 Fax

Mon-Fri 7:30am - 5:[email protected]

NEW MEXICO

Larry H. MillerHyundai

ALBUQUERQUE505-792-7050505-792-7016 FaxMon-Fri 7:30am - 6pm

Sat 8am - [email protected]

www.Larrymillerhyundai.com

Allen Samuels HyundaiNORTH RICHLAND HILLS


[email protected]

Hub HyundaiHOUSTON

800-856-2212281-955-2311 FaxMon-Fri 7:30am - 6pm

Sat 8am - [email protected]

www.hubhouston.com

Automax HyundaiNORMAN

866-619-6406405-364-3307405-364-6504 FaxMon-Fri 8am - 6pmSat 8am - 1pm

Vandergriff HyundaiARLINGTON


[email protected]

Figure 19

Figure 20

Figure 21

The graduating class of week of September17th. Front row (l to r) Agasse Bayoumyan,Ricardo Sandoval and George Pedroza.Second Row: Moses Mora, Sean Vlaszof,Scott Cramer-Bornemann, Stephen Hurt,Sergio Barba and Mike Kukavica

(Ed—We’re not sure, but we don’t believe theauthor drove away in this car.)

Figure 17

Figure 18


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Kia’s Top Executive Resigns After RecallsThe top executive at Kia Motors hasresigned after the company recalledmore than 100,000 vehicles world-wide over defective wiring, the au-tomaker said September 6 accordingto reports made by the AssociatedPress.

Chung Sung-eun, vice chair-man and CEO of South Korea’s No.2 automaker, stepped down on Sep-tember 3, according to companyspokesman Michael Choo.

“His resignation comes in thelight of the recent global recall issuedby Kia Motors,” Choo said, withoutelaborating. He said no successor hasbeen named. Chung was one of twoKia CEOs.

Kia Motors Corp. is an affiliateof South Korea’s top automakerHyundai Motor Co. Together theyform the world’s fifth-largest auto-motive group.

Chung’s resignation comesamid a wave of recalls that haveshaken the global auto industry sinceJapan’s Toyota Motor Corp. begancalling in vehicles in October lastyear.

South Korea’s Yonhap newsagency reported that Hyundai MotorChairman Chung Mong-koo askedChung to step down to take respon-

sibility for the recalls as they sug-gested possible quality problems.

Neither Choo nor HyundaiMotor spokeswoman Song Meey-oung could confirm the report.

Chung, the former Kia execu-tive, is no relation to the Hyundaichairman, Choo said.

Early this month Kia issued aglobal recall totaling 104,047 vehi-cles for a defect in electric wiringthat controls mood lighting inside thecar and could cause heat-relateddamage, according to Choo. Of thattotal, 35,185 vehicles were recalledin the United States, he said.

Seoul-based Kia has a complexmanagement system. Though Chungheld the top rank, day-to-day opera-tions come under the control of twopresidents: Hank Lee for overseasoperations and Seo Young-jong fordomestic operations, according toChoo. Seo also holds the title ofCEO, said Pamela Munoz, a Kiaspokeswoman.

Kia, which posted a 61 percentsurge in second-quarter net profit,manufactures vehicles in SouthKorea as well as at overseas plants inChina, Slovakia and the U.S.

Kia shares tripled in value in2009.

280 Car Charging Stations Set for MichiganAbout 4,600 electric vehicle charg-ing stations will be installed through-out the country — including 280 inMichigan — under a federallyfunded program, ChargePoint Amer-ica, designed to build a fueling net-work for electric cars, industry andstate officials said September 2 ac-cording to a report made by the De-troit News.

Detroit’s alternative energy in-cubator, NextEnergy, in the NewCenter got the state’s first chargerunder the program but more are ex-pected to go up in Dearborn, Flint,Ann Arbor and other parts of Detroit.Homeowners, businesses and com-munities are eligible to apply for acharging station. Those chosen getthe station for free.

The $37 million program, par-tially funded by a $15 million federalstimulus grant, aims to help commu-nities prepare for a possible influx ofelectric vehicles with the first ap-pearing in dealer showrooms laterthis year.

“It will get a kick start fromthe government with these grants,”said Coulomb Technologies CEORichard Lowenthal. “But in theend, it’s up to you to go out and buythese vehicles.”

The charger, which resemblesa parking lot pay station, was builtby Coulomb Technologies ofCampbell, Calif. The company isworking with Ford Motor Co. andGeneral Motors Co. as they prepareto bring plug-in electric vehicles tomarket.

The first 4,400 Chevy Voltbuyers also will be eligible to re-ceive a free 240-volt home charg-ing station made by Coulomb orSan Francisco-based ECOtality.The Volt is expected to go on salein November and will allow driversto go about 40 miles on an electriccharge before the gas engine kicksin.

The Coulomb stations retail be-tween $1,700 and $5,000, dependingon where they’re installed.

The retail price doesn’t includeinstallation, which can cost from$250 to several thousand dollars,Lowenthal said.

Some utilities, such as DTE En-ergy in Detroit, already have pro-grams to help electric car ownersdefray the cost of installing homecharging stations. Legislation hasbeen introduced in Congress to offertax credits and other incentives forinstalling charging stations.

What gives me the right to commenton any of the above issues and whywould I want to bite the hand thatfeeds me? If there were no problemswith aftermarket crash parts whywould I even care?

I am in business to make money,and to stay in business I need to treatmy customers fairly and honestly. Partof being in business responsibly isserving my customers by giving themgood and honest value for theirmoney. If there were no problem withthese parts I would embrace them andpresent them to my customers as anadded value. I would be an advocate,not a critic, of the aftermarket part.

Some readers have wonderedwhy I am able to speak out as I do onthe industry with boldness and confi-dence. Because I know that I speak thetruth and its hard to argue with that.

I am concerned with the dimin-ished value of my customer’s vehicles

and I am compelled to speak out. Ihave ten years of documented proofalong with photos and invoices toprove that what I am saying is true.Aftermarket crash parts are NOT thesame as OEM unless they are made onthe same assembly line to the sameexacting standards.

Recently (last week) I had a 2010Toyota Tacoma come in for a repair.The estimate listed all A/M parts, evenfor the front impact bar. This customerdid not even know that there was anA/M parts clause in his policy. Thedifference out of his pocket was $400plus a deductible. He contacted his in-surance company, but to no avail. Hewas told, in effect, “too bad.” This isthe type of policy you bought—butthey will guarantee the parts specifiedas long as he owns his vehicle.

He asked us if the parts were thesame and we had to tell the truth. Wetold him ‘no, they were not the same.’

If we answered any other way then wewould be liable because the Toyotadealer will depreciate this 2010Tacoma upon trade in.

I have a big problem with this de-ceit when I am the one expected to dothe deceiving. There is a big differencebetween allowing a well-informed dis-cerning customer to make this decisionand one who is not informed, but theformer is almost never the case.

Normally I am expected to be theone to convince my customer thatthese parts will make their car as goodas new. The problem is that it’s just nottrue. It’s a problem for me when thecustomer is trusting me and my nameand reputation is going on the repair.

Do you really think I will keepthis Toyota Tacoma owner as a cus-tomer if he realizes one day that I liedto him? What about when trade-intime comes, and he and his wife go tothe dealer to pick out their new car and

find out that their 2010 Tacoma can’tbe traded in without a substantial loss?I wonder if he would blame his insur-ance policy, or care about the guaran-tee of these parts then, or would hejust be upset with me, the guy who putthe parts on his truck?

The problem with aftermarketparts is more in the deceit that mustaccompany them rather than with thepart itself. Because NO ONE, and Imean NO ONE, would choose theseover OEM parts if cost were not a fac-tor. The problem is that the use ofthese parts have far have supersededproper business ethics and the manu-facturers want the collision industry tobecome a party to what are deceitfulmarketing and sales tactics.

Safety is the issue, but many in theaftermarket crash part industry are boldenough to say this is all fabricated andblown out of proportion. I have beenaround long enough to say that colli-


Aftermarket Parts: Are they the Same? Are they Safe? Is there a Problem?

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans


Opinions Countwith Dick Strom



Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.


with Sheila LoftusYour Turn



Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney


Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney


Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney




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]

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sion repairs are really not investigated,so to say there is no safety issues at thispoint is risky foolishness not unlikemarketing cigarette smoking. Peoplewere getting cancer from cigarettesyears long before anyone was able toprove smoking was responsible.

Either way, safety is not the onlyissue. There is substantial diminishedvalue, and the parts are not the same,as many of our state laws require.

When will the truth about thesecrash parts reach the public and whenwill the insurers properly inform their

policyholders of the facts? When willuse of these parts be banned from latemodel vehicles? Since when did fitand finish mean nothing in a collisionrepair? When will the major insurersrealize that using aftermarket crashparts will eventually cost them their

customers? Why is the collision in-dustry still held liable for the repairwhen we really don’t control the deci-sions in the repair process? When willwe quit being the advocates of deceitand tell the whole truth and nothingbut the truth.

Percentage of Deaths Linked to Distracted Driving Remains SteadyDistracted driving claimed the samepercentage of overall traffic deaths in2009 as in 2008, according to num-bers released September 19, meaningit’s still a big problem across thecountry, Transportation SecretaryRay LaHood says.

“These numbers show that dis-tracted driving remains an epidemicin America, and they are just the tipof the iceberg,” LaHood said.

According to reports made byCNN Money, the report from the Na-tional Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration shows crashes linked todistracted driving claimed 5,474 livesand led to 448,000 injuries across theUnited States in 2009. That amountsto 16 percent of the traffic fatalitiesin 2009, the same percentage as in2008.

The proportion of fatalities asso-ciated with driver distraction has in-

creased from 10 percent in 2005, thereport says, and the greatest propor-tion of distracted drivers was in theunder-20 age group.

A bright note in the report is thatoverall traffic fatalities fell in 2009 totheir lowest levels since 1950.

The report was released one daybefore Lahood is scheduled to con-vene a National Distracted DrivingSummit in Washington.

On September 21, leading trans-portation officials, safety advocates,law enforcement personnel, industryrepresentatives, researchers and thefamily members of victims of distrac-tion-related crashes will gather to ad-dress challenges and identifyopportunities for national anti-dis-tracted driving efforts, according tothe Transportation Department.

In January, federal safety regula-tors proposed a set of guidelines for

states to create laws that would bantext messaging while driving.

The proposed legislation, pre-pared by the traffic safety agency andindustry advisers, would authorizelaw enforcement officers to stop a ve-hicle and issue a citation to driverswho are texting while driving.

“This language, which we cre-ated with a variety of safety organiza-tions, is another powerful tool in ourarsenal to help the states combat thisserious threat,” LaHood said.

Under the proposed guidelines,drivers caught typing on a handhelddevice while behind the wheel wouldface a minimum fine of $75 and un-specified action against their drivingprivileges.

In cases resulting in serious in-jury or death, a driving while textingoffense could be considered a felony.

A ban on texting behind the

wheel has already been enacted in 19states and the District of Columbia.Seven states have banned the use ofall handheld devices while driving.Regulators said texting is particularlydangerous because it distracts driversin three ways: visually, manually andcognitively.

The sample state law is modeledon rules implemented last year direct-ing federal employees not to engagein text messaging while driving gov-ernment-owned vehicles or with gov-ernment-owned equipment.

In addition, the Department ofTransportation announced federalguidance earlier this year to prohibittexting by drivers of commercial ve-hicles such as large trucks and buses.

Truck and bus drivers who textwhile driving commercial vehiclesmay be subject to civil or criminalpenalties of up to $2,750.


This column is part three, continuedfrom our September 2010 issue titledBuilding a numbered car exactly likethe Red Mist in the movie “Kick-Ass.”

To read the previous parts to thecolumn go to www.autobodynews.com> columns > Rich Evans.

As with last month’s (part two) ar-ticle I’m going to go into some detailon the finishing of Woody’s Red Mist.

We left off with sanding with the

Soft-Sanders™ blocks. I con-tinue to use the same blocks,with my color sand system.I’m going to cut it down with800, then cut with 1000 fol-lowed by 1200, then 1500,2000, and finally 2500 sandpaper. I come over it with the6 inch DA on the areas I canreach with 3000. That justmakes my buffing system a loteasier. So after 3000 (with thehelp of the 3M five step sys-

tem that they call Perfect Finish. The3000 grit sand paper is usually on ahook back, so I’m using a foam diskwith the p3000 (PN02085, without thefoam backing is PN02075).

After that we’re ready for buff-ing. The first step is going to be thecompound, this will buff to removesand scratches completely and thissystem is for a faster cut and less heat,use 3M Super Buff 3 wool pad

(PN05703). I like to use the 3 woolcompounding pad, (PN05719). Youwant to wheel it up until you get yourgloss back and then we’re going tomove to step 4 which is the perfectmachine polish (PN06064 or 06065)to remove compound swirl marks.The pad that you’re going to use is aperfect plus foam polishing pad(PN05738), using medium pressure.Suggested buffing speed is in therange of 1200 to 2000 rpm.

Then you want to come back andwipe with a yellow 3M perfect detailcloth (PN06016), then we’re readyfor step five, ultrafine machine pol-ishing (PN06068 or 06069) to elimi-nate fine swirl marks, even ondark-colored vehicles. Polish with amedium pressure, ultimate foam pol-ishing pad (PN05733) and then we’vegot a completed project.

As always I want to tell youabout new products that I’ve comeacross recently which I’ve job testedand really like. I found a universalpad washer which reduces scratches.It is phenomenal, made by GritGuard. I learned about this at theAuto Geeks show in Florida. Ifyou don’t have one of these padwashers you have got to get one.It saves money and time washingout your pads and cleaning them,and it also improves your finish.This does everything for you anddoesn’t make a mess. Go to grit-guard.com and see all the differ-ent things they offer you. It’sguys like these that are saving ustime and money and always justgoing to that extent of how wecan make it easier for the enduser (that’s us). How we canmake our jobs go faster and bet-ter is by using quality productthat solves problems. I’ve beenusing it for over 5 months nowand it’s a great product. You needit in your shop.

So our pads are stayingclean, and we’ve got a buffed vehi-cle. Now 3M’s got a perfect cleanand shine (PN06084) with which Iclean up all the compounds on theedges so we’re not applyingscratches. After the car is buffed isI’m putting the graphics on to match

the graphics in the movie Kick-Asscar. They want this car to look justlike it so basically I used my vinylplotter, get the measurements, and Iasked Larry White come by and setthem up in the computer. All we haveto do then is push a button. We getour graphics laid out where I wantthem. I use a masking paper, thentransfer paper to transfer it to the car.Just like applying stickers. So nowwe’ve got our design laid out, I gaveSims a call for their hot rod flat, mybuddy Gabe over there supplied uswith the product. I’m just going toapply two wet coats and with thoseflats you really want to lay it down-wet on wet, otherwise you’ll getzebra stripes in it.

That’s the key to shooting the sin-gle stage flats. I applied two wet coatsand when you unmask it, you’ve gotyour graphics.

I’m ready to add the yellow let-ter “M”, surrounded by yellow. So weput a white base down, mask every-thing up. I use a 3M fine line, and Inumber my pull strings because after I

put the white down then the yellow, Iput one coat of clear on it, becausewe’re not burying these graphicsunder the clear. They are pretty muchsitting on top of the paint. You’regoing to want to pull the lines so that



















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

Finishing the Red Mist Car from the Movie Kick-Ass

See Finish the Red Mist Car, Page 39


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Ford Uses Cadavers to Test Inflatable Seat BeltsA highly-promoted feature in the 2011Ford Explorer are its new inflatablerear seat belts. The not-so-highly-promoted working stiffs that helpedmake it happen? Human cadavers.Here’s how automakers still quietlyuse dead people to make your carsafer according to reports made by theautomotive blog Jalopnik.

When automakers show off theresults of crash tests, they inevitablyrun video showing empty vehicles orcrash test dummies; back in the1980s, they even turned the dummiesinto lovable cartoon characters. Whatthe industry doesn’t like talking aboutis how much of the safety innovationin vehicles was built around testingcadavers.

“It’s still very important,” saidPriya Prasad, a former top safety re-searcher at Ford. “Even though wehave very good math modeling ofdummies, human modeling hasn’treached that state yet.”

Automakers don’t have the med-ical resources that cadaver tests re-quire, but universities do. TheNational Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration funds scores of cadavertests at schools across the countryevery year; many of those schoolsalso get grants from automakers. And

the data they gather can be sharedwidely.

That’s the case with Ford’s in-flatable seat belts, an idea it’s beentesting for several years. The 2011Explorer will be the first vehicle in theworld to offer them, and Ford hasmade the belts a highlight of thesafety features offered to competeagainst other family haulers.

Most of Ford’s tests used thefamily of dummies developed by theindustry, including ones that mimicchildren. But without a cadaver test,Ford couldn’t know for sure how theinflatable belt would affect internalorgans and tissues.

Typically in cadaver tests re-searchers swaddle the body in stock-ings, including one over its face,partly for scientific reasons and partlyout of respect. The arms and hands, ifstill attached, are bound in place tokeep them from moving during a sim-ulated crash, and sensors record theforces on various parts.

After the test, researchers wouldlikely have used x-rays to examinehow much damage the cadaver sus-tained. Ford shared the results withNHTSA but deemed them confiden-tial business information so they arenot available to the public.

2011 Ford Focus Launches New Airbag TechnologyThe all-new 2012 Ford Focus willlaunch exclusive airbag technologiesthat enhance protection for front seatoccupants in the most commonfrontal and side crashes.

The suite of new innovations in-cludes Ford’s next-generation driver-side airbag with enhanced chestprotection technology.

The new airbag uses a reconfig-ured curve-shaped tether system thatpulls in the lower section to create a“pocket” to help lessen the impact ofthe airbag on the driver’s chest andribs in frontal crashes.

Ford’s innovative side airbagsfeature unique shoulder vents thatstay open and reduce pressure forsmaller occupants who typically ben-efit from reduced forces. Taller oc-cupants whose shoulders block thevent could benefit from the higherpressures.

Focus also will be Ford’s firstcar ever to feature front passengerairbags with adaptive venting tech-nology that diverts some of the gasfrom the airbag inflators throughvents outside of the airbags.

The restraints control module —the control center of Ford’s advancedsafety systems — adjusts the level ofventing based on seat position.

The new passenger airbag is de-signed to help enhance head andneck protection by better matchingdeployment force with occupantsize.

This innovative system uses asmall pyrotechnic device to forceopen the vent and can provide lesspressure in the airbag when it’ssufficient to help protect the occu-pant.

“This is Ford’s most advancedairbag system we’ve ever equippeda car with, and it is designed tohelp protect occupants even betterin the most common types ofcrashes,” said Sue Cischke, Fordgroup vice president, Sustainabil-ity, Environment and Safety Engi-neering.

“Each of these airbags uses in-novative technologies to help bettercustomize airbag protection to theoccupant.”

The new airbag technologiesdebut as standard equipment on theall-new 2012 Ford Focus, which goeson sale early next year in NorthAmerica. They will be rolled out toother Ford vehicles in the next fewyears.

For more information pleasevisit www.ford.com.

clear doesn’t make such a big dryedge. Let it meld itself in there. Tonumber the fine line, I use quarter inchon this and number them sequentiallyso you know which one to pull firstand avoid a mess.

Now we’ve got the “M” painted,it’s assembly time. It took me about 8hours to assemble this car, give it a fulldetail, go back over it, judge myself.Obviously we painted some wheels forthis vehicle as well to match the vehi-cle in the movie. I added my littletouches to it. I put red caliper coverson (MPG Rich Evans caliper coversfrom mgpcalipercovers.com, or youcan just go to calipercovers.com andvisit Mike Barland). My website canlink straight to them.

I’ve got the car ready, judged it,everything looks good, ready for ship-ping. I got a super charger for it. Theowner, Woody Frees and his two sons,13 and 15, are installing that, along withother finishing items. They took deliv-ery of this car on the 25th of August.

I’m excited to see the car get de-

livered and have one of my cars beingseen in Florida. This car is number 7,(93 more to go), and we’ve got twomore in the works now. I thought thisone was pretty special. I really likedthe story behind it: a father and sons

project. It’s a great bonding project andit’s something that they’ll rememberfor the rest of their lives.

They’ll have a scrap book of 799photos that shows me doing everystep prior to them getting the car. Asa builder that means everything tome. I’m excited to see another onedone, and always waiting for the nextone.

We’re moving closer to SEMA,I’ve got six vehicles going and I can’t

wait to show off some of the new carsI’m doing. Go to Mopar.com, to followmy build on a custom Challenger. I’mteaming with Mopar to bring someproduct so you can trick out your owncar. It’s a lot easier than these Mus-

tangs. The parts I’m creating for theChallenger can be bolted on withintwo hours. You can fully change thelook of your Challenger, not that theyaren’t cool already, but cooler is al-ways better. We’re supposed to bedone with that October 1.

I’d like to thank my sponsors onthis project, Sherwin-Williams, 3M,Grit Guard (call 866-592-5925, or seetheir demo at the 2010 SEMA Show inLas Vegas, Booth #12645 and#12639), and Soft-Sanders™.

Thanks to Woody and his familyfor giving me the opportunity to do agreat project. Alright, see you guys atSEMA next month. You can followprogress at my websites, huntington-beachbodyworks.com and Richevans-designs.com.


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Continued from Page 37

Finish the Red Mist Car

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Autobody News October 2010 Southwest Edition