Autobody News January 2011 Southeast Edition

by John Yoswick

Looking for a preview of what liesahead for the collision repair indus-try? Look no further than some keystatements made in 2010 that likelywill continue to reverberate in 2011.

With these changes, it will becomequickly and increasingly more apparentwhich business are prepared throughtraining to address the increasing com-plexity of repair…and (which) busi-nesses have failed and continue to failto prepare themselves for the future. Bynot selecting aGold Class business, the

consumer is unknowingly accepting therisk of having repairs completed byunder-trained workers.

—John EdelenNow-retired I-CAR CEO JohnEdelen last sum-mer unveiled I-CAR’s new“Professional De-velopment Pro-gram” and revisedrequirements for

its “Platinum Individual” and “GoldClass” recognition programs, promis-

Toyota Bulletin Recommends AgainstAftermarket, Rebuilt, and Salvage PartsToyota USA has announced in a Col-lision Repair Information Bulletin(CRIB), that it not only has concernsabout non-OEM structural compo-nents, but also doubts about exteriorsheet metal parts that are usually con-sidered “cosmetic” parts.

Toyota is taking an aggressiveposition against the use of alternativereplacement parts for Toyota, Lexusand Scion vehicles. Calling automo-tive safety and performance systems“sensitive,” and citing a lack of test-ing to determine alternative parts’ ef-fect on vehicle safety, Toyota isrecommending against the use of al-ternative parts, including aftermarket,

rebuilt and salvage.“In light of several parts tests that

have recently been conducted onuntested structural aftermarket partsby collision repair professionals, Toy-ota has become increasingly con-cerned with how the use of untestedimitation parts could potentially effectvehicle structure, airbag deploymentand ultimately occupant safety,” saidRoger Foss, National Field SupportManager, Toyota Customer Services.

“To help ensure shops and con-sumers are aware of the potential risksthat may be associated with repairinga vehicle using parts that may beSee Toyota Recommends OEM., 6

See 2010: Year in Review, Page 12

2010 Year in Review—Words Spoken SignalIssues the Industry will Address in 2011

John Edelen

GREG COCCARO ‘NOT GUILTY’ AGAINof Fraud Charges Filed by ProgressiveA six-person New York jury found Greg Coccaro, owner of NorthState Custom in Westchester, N.Y., not guilty of civil insurancefraud—for the second time—on Dec. 15. The case was originallybrought by Progressive Insurance in 2005 in a dispute over the re-pair of a badly damaged Mercedes which was fixed at Coccaro’sMercedes-certified shop. Progressive alleged that the shop inflatedthe charges to make the car a total loss, and that both the shop andthe insured received payment for the vehicle’s repairs.

In 2005, the customer, a handicapped professor from Columbia Uni-versity, asked Coccaro to repair her 6-month-old 2004 MercedesE320 that she had rolled down an embankment and crashed into apile of rocks. Progressive Insurance wrote an on-site initial estimateof $7,142. Once the car was taken to Coccaro’s shop—which wasnot a Progressive DRP (Coccaro has no DRPs)—he found far moredamage in addition to mistakes on the original estimate. Accordingto Coccaro, Progressive eventually wrote another estimate for$26,804, then a third one for $18,000, and then another. All told therewere some 10 estimates done. Coccaro’s final, carefully docu-mented, invoice for the full repair came in at $34,091.That’s when it really got interesting...

continued on page 15

Also in this issue... Toyota Recommends OEM . . .p. 1NABC Establishes Inter-Industry Initiative . . . . . . . . . .p. 33Chief Partners with Collision Hub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 7Huge Cost of Mismatched Bumpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 14Airbag Fraud Becoming More Prevalent . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 18SCRS Affiliate Groups Help Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 26

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REGIONAL

Alabama Retains Insurance Chief, Gets New

News Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Auto Shredder Purchased for Georgia

Recycling Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Drunk Driving Arrests Up, Fatalities Down

in Mississippi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

FL Shops Join CCAR’s ‘GreenLink Shop’

Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Florida Auto Vet Gets Toyota Dealership . . . 5

Ford investing $600M, hiring 1,800 at

Louisville, KY, SUV plant. . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Georgia Collision Industry Association

Wraps Up 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Georgia Insurers, Incoming Commissioner

Plan Fraud Crackdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Georgia Supreme Court Upholds Insurers

in Uninsured Driver Cases . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Georgia’s Sports & Imports Collision

Donates Recycled Ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Man to Open Florida’s First all Green

Car Lot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

PPG Conducts Lean Six Sigma Training

for Toyota in Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

S.C. Pre-files Legislation Reflecting NCOIL

Model Parts Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Safety Advocates Advocate Restructuring

of Alabama Licensing Program . . . . . . . 6

Texas Driver Records Now Available

Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

TN Senator Advises VW to Keep Union

Out of New Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

COLUMNISTS

Attanasio - Airbag Fraud Becoming More

Prevalent, Experts Say . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Attanasio - Greg Coccaro ‘NOT GUILTY’

AGAIN of Fraud Charges Filed by

Progressive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Attanasio - Rich Evans’ Academy Becomes

Reality at Ohio Technical College . . . . . 28

Attanasio, Garmat - Van Tuyl Dealership

Group Acquires Garmat Paint Booths

Nationwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Causey - An Insurance Adjuster’s Tips for

Consumer Insurance Claims . . . . . . . . 23

Schroeder - Jeff’s Auto Body Repair in

Austin, TX, Steers Clear of Direct Repair

Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Weaver - Who’s on First When What Can’t

Get to Second? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Yoswick - 2010 Year in Review—Words

Spoken Signal Issues the Industry will

Address in ‘11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Yoswick - SCRS Affiliate Groups Help

Members with Industry Issues . . . . . . . 26

NATIONAL

Allstate Pays Gunder’s PMCLogic-Calculated

Paint Materials Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chief Automotive Technologies Partners

with Collision Hub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Collision Repair Executive Webcast

Welcomes CAPA’s Jack Gillis and a

Discussion on Aftermarket Parts . . . . . 13

Ford Fiesta, Mini Cars, See Slow Sales,

Compacts Dominate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Huge Cost of Mismatched Bumpers: When

Bumpers Don’t Line Up . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

International Auto Glass Safety (AGRSS)

Conference Meets Success in

Chicago, Ill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

NABC Establishes Inter-Industry In-Language

Initiative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

NHTSA Proposes Mandatory Backup

Cameras in New Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Nissan Leaf Officially On Sale in U.S.

Dec. 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Ray LaHood Fights Loophole Favoring

Drunk Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Stop Searching for “Hard to find” Parts

Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Toyota Bulletin Recommends Against

Aftermarket, Rebuilt, and Salvage Parts . 1

U.S. Wants Tougher Repair Rules on Rental

Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Contents

Southeast

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesEditorial Assistant: Erica SchroederContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, Stefan Gesterkamp, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio,Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Dan Espersen, Tom McGee, Jeff Webster, Rich Evans, EdAttanasioAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Kristy MangumArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the auto body 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 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018; (800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

Arrigo Dodge-Jeep-Chrysler . . 21

Autoland Scientech. . . . . . . . . 16

Bill Penney Toyota. . . . . . . . . . 27

BMWWholesale Parts Dealers. 25

Chassis Liner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Crown Automobile Company . . 5

Delray Acura / Hyundai . . . . . . 14

Equalizer Industries. . . . . . . . . . 8

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

FL, GA, AL, MS . . . . . . . . . . 32

Galloway Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . 21

Gus Machado Ford . . . . . . . . . 20

Honda Wholesale Parts Dealers 25

HyundaiWholesale Parts Dealers13

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts

Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Maroone Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge 9

Mazda Wholesale Parts. . . . . . 22

Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts

Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Nalley BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Nimnicht Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . 4

Nissan Wholesale Parts Dealers 30

Palmers Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Savannah Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . 6

Scorpion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . 18

Taylor BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers 19

Unique Concepts . . . . . . . . . . 10

VIM Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Volkswagen Wholesale Parts

Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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Georgia Insurers, Incoming Commissioner Plan Fraud CrackdownThe Associated Press is reporting thatGeorgia’s insurance industry is team-ing up with state authorities to launchan ambitious effort to crack down onthe rising number of insurance fraudcases.

Incoming Insurance Commis-sioner Ralph Hudgens, who takes of-fice in January, said this week he plansto beef up the department’s fraud unitand hire a former prosecutor who canhelp build criminal cases againstfraudsters.

Also, insurance executives an-nounced a new campaign to encour-age residents to turn in people whostage fake car accidents or file otherfalse claims. The campaign is put-ting up 10 billboards across the statethat say “Insurance Fraud CostsEveryone’’ and urge residents to re-port cases by calling 1-800-TEL-NICB.

“We can’t do it by ourselves,’’said FBI Special Agent in ChargeBrian Lamkin, whose agency helpedcoordinate the billboard campaign.“It takes a combined effort and com-bined partnership to address thisissue.’’

It’s part of an effort to curb thenumber of fraudulent claims inGeorgia, which officials say can add

hundreds of dollars to annual premi-ums of Georgia policy holders. Thenumber of questionable claims inGeorgia has swelled from about2,1000 claims in 2007 to more than2,700 in 2009.

Curt Jester of the National Insur-ance Crime Bureau said he hopes theeffort will attract tips from the publicrather than relying on law enforce-ment officials and industry execu-tives.

The industry has also helpedtrain more than 100 police officers oninsurance fraud techniques, said Wal-ter Swett, a Nationwide investigatorwho is also a past president of theGeorgia chapter of the InternationalAssociation of Special InvestigationUnits.

Hudgens, a Republican who re-places outgoing Insurance Commis-sioner John Oxendine, likened thebillboard campaign to a neighborhoodwatch program.

“Anything we can do to reducefraud, we’re all the beneficiary of that,because your premiums will godown,’’ Hudgens said. “And the morebad guys we put in jail, the more con-victions we get, that will be a disin-centive to people who want toperpetuate fraud.’’

Georgia Supreme Court Upholds Insurers in Uninsured Driver CasesThe Supreme Court of Georgia hasruled in favor of insurance companiesin two cases involving how muchpeople injured in car wrecks shouldget under uninsured motorists cover-age.

At issue was whether the two in-jured persons were entitled to receivemore money under their uninsuredmotorist coverage to help cover theirunpaid medical expenses, or if theirinsurance companies were entitled toreduce the amount of coverage by thepayments made under the insurancepolicies of the drivers responsible forthe wrecks.

In their 5-2 ruling in the similarcases, the state’s high court reversedthe Georgia Court of Appeals.

The first appeal—State Farm In-surance Co. v. Adams—involved anaccident in which Randolph Adamswas treated at Grady Hospital for afractured skull, brain injury, dentaldamage and back, neck and leg in-juries, according to briefs filed in thecase. Adams filed a claim for personalinjuries and economic damages, in-cluding the cost of his treatment atGrady.

The person who hit Adams car-ried $25,000 in insurance with Na-tionwide, which paid $15,782.34 toAdams and his attorney and $9,217.66directly to Grady to satisfy the hospi-tal lien for Adams’ unpaid medicalbills.

Adams, who claimed his medicalbills totaled more than $40,000, thensought compensation under his ownpolicy with State Farm, with which hehad a maximum of $100,000 in “unin-sured motorist” coverage. Such cov-erage is designed to protect someonewho is injured in a car wreck when theother party has no insurance or is “un-derinsured.”

A dispute arose, however, whenState Farm reduced Adams’ reim-bursement by the entire $25,000paid by Nationwide, including notonly the near $16,000 Nationwidehad paid Adams, but also the $9,000plus it had paid Grady. Adams thensued State Farm, arguing that StateFarm was not entitled to a credit forNationwide’s payment of Grady’slien.

The trial court ruled in the in-surance company’s favor, findingthat the payment by Nationwide toGrady did not qualify as a reductionof the liability coverage that wouldtrigger additional uninsured mo-torist coverage by State Farm. Onappeal, the Georgia Court of Ap-peals initially upheld the lowercourt’s decision. But on reconsider-ation, it reversed the lower court’sdecision and ruled in favor ofAdams.

In the Georgia Supreme Courts

decision, written by Justice HaroldMelton, the majority has reversed theCourt of Appeals, finding that the“clear language” of Georgia law“mandates that payment of a hospitallien should not be subtracted from atortfeasor’s [person who caused thewreck] total liability coverage to de-termine the underinsured coverage ofan insured who has been injured in anaccident.”

State law “recognizes that a hos-pital is entitled to directly bill the pa-tient for its services and to rely solelyon the patient to pay for medical serv-ices rendered,” the majority opinionsays.

In the second case—AmericanInternational South Insurance Co. vFloyd—the Supreme Court ruledsimilarly as the issues were thesame.

In 2005, Donna Floyd was in acar crash in which she lost con-sciousness and suffered a concussionand other injuries. The person whohit her had $25,000 in liability cov-erage through United Automobile In-surance Co. Floyd had $25,000 inuninsured motorist coverage under apolicy she had purchased from Amer-ican International South InsuranceCo.

Floyd settled with the otherdriver for the maximum $25,000 inliability coverage. She then soughtcoverage from her own UM carrierin the amount of $23,189.60 – thedifference between the underin-sured driver’s maximum coverageand the amount she still owed At-lanta Medical Center where she wastreated.

Her insurance company de-nied the claim because her UMpolicy limit of $25,000 did not ex-ceed the other driver’s policy limitof $25,000.

As in Adams’ case, Floyd sued,and the trial court ruled in the insur-ance company’s favor. Floyd ap-pealed, and the Georgia Court ofAppeals reversed the decision, rulingin her favor by finding that the policylimits under the other party’s liabilityinsurance had to be reduced by theamount of the unpaid hospital lien,thereby increasing American Interna-tional’s exposure.

But, the “Court of Appealserred,” Justice Melton wrote inthe Supreme Court’s majorityopinion. For all the reasons setforth in the Adams decision, themajority found that Floyd’s un-paid hospital lien does not reduceUnited Automobile’s coverage orconcomitantly increase AmericanInternational’s uninsured motoristcoverage.

Insurance Journal sourced thisfrom Supreme Court records.


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Alabama Retains Insurance Chief, Gets New News ServiceIncumbent Alabama Commissioner ofInsurance JimL. Ridlingwill continuein that role in the new administration ofGovernor-elect Robert Bentley. Ridlinghas served as commissioner since2008.

“Jim Ridling is a respected insur-ance professional with many years ofvaluable experience. It is important thatwe have an insurance commissionerwith an in-depth understanding of theindustry and its impact on the dailylives of virtually all Alabamians. I lookforward to working with Commis-sioner Ridling to resolve insurance is-sues that are so important to ourcitizens,” said Bentley in a press state-ment.

Ridling’s insurance career beganin 1967 with Fireman’s Fund Insuranceas a management trainee. He rose tobecome executive vice president of thatinsurer’s U.S. branch operations, leav-ing to become president and chief ex-ecutive officer of Southern Guaranty,an insurance company headquarteredin Montgomery. He was named chair-man soon after and held that positionuntil retirement in 2003.

New Insurance News ServiceThe Alabama Insurance InformationService (AIIS), a not-for-profit, non-

lobbying trade association has been es-tablished by 18 insurance companies toprovide news and information to thepublic.

AIIS is based in Montgomery andplans to work primarily through thestate’s news media about issues relat-ing to auto insurance, homeowners andrenters insurance, flood and earthquakeinsurance, workers, compensation andconsumer safety information, accord-ing to AIIS Executive Director DavidColmans.

Colmans said the Alabama groupwill be modeled after similar industrygroups in other states. The Alabamaservice is an expansion of the GeorgiaInsurance Information Service, forwhich Colmans is also executive direc-tor.

“There are a number of insurancetrade associations in the Southeast in-cluding in the states of Georgia, Southand North Carolina, Florida, Kentuckyand Louisiana,” he said.

Colmans said AIIS will work withseveral affiliated industry organizationsincluding the Insurance Information In-stitute; the Insurance Institute for High-way Safety; the Institute for Businessand Home Safety; the Federal Alliancefor Safe Homes; the National InsuranceCrime Bureau, and others.

Florida Auto Veteran Gets Toyota DealershipOrangeburg’s Toyota dealership isunder new ownership.

Reggie Vaughn, a 27-year auto-motive business veteran, purchasedToyota of Orangeburg/Scion Nov. 18according to reports made by theTimes and Democrat.

“It was a great opportunity,”Vaughn said. “It is a good market thathas been doing well.”

Vaughn said customers can expectnothing but improved and high-qualitycustomer service at the dealership. Cur-rently, the dealership employs about 31and Vaughn said there are hopes of fu-ture growth and expansion.

“We are going to look to be thebest corporate citizen in Orangeburg,”Vaughn said, noting he has always puta strong emphasis on community serv-ice. He and his wife will call Orange-burg their home. “I have asked allassociates to find ways to reach out tothe community and to be a part of thecommunity. I believe strongly in that. Itgives the people who work with you asense of pride of ownership not only inthe dealership but for the community.”

Vaughn said if the communityprospers, so does the dealership.

“We want to add value to ourcustomers, to our community and toourselves,” he said, noting he desires

to build a “family atmosphere.”The dealership will remain Toy-

ota of Orangeburg-Scion though itwill now be owned by OrangeburgMotor Sales Inc.

Vaughn said he has worked withSoutheast Toyota of Deerfield Beach,Fla., for the past 17 years holding anumber of positions including re-gional sales trainer, vice president ofcustomer service, district sales man-ager as well as leading the dealershipdeveloper program.

“I was looking for an opportunitylike this,” he said. “My wife and I hadtalked about moving to the Carolinasand this opportunity came along andwe said, ‘Hey, this might be our op-portunity.’”

In August 2005, Bob RichardsAuto Group purchased Whatley Toy-ota on Broughton Street, seeing thegrowth of the Toyota line. Whatleypurchased the dealership in Novem-ber 1997 from Jim Covington. At thetime, it was selling about 50 to 60 carsa month. The dealership is rankedamong the top Toyota stores in mar-ket share-penetration in the Southeast.

Dealership hours are Mondaythrough Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. andSaturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thedealership is closed on Sunday.

The recent deaths of four JeffersonCounty teenagers in three wrecks re-inforced what safety experts said theyalready knew — Alabama is a danger-ous place for young drivers.

According to reports made by theBirmingham News, a 2008 study byAllstate Insurance ranked the state thesecond most dangerous in the countryfor teen drivers, just behind Missis-sippi. Of the nation’s 50 largest met-ropolitan areas, the Birmingham-Hoover area was the fifth deadliest forthose drivers, the study showed.

That same year, 8.8 percent of alldrivers involved in fatal crashes in Al-abama were age 19 or under and 22percent were younger than 25, ac-cording to the 2008 Alabama TrafficCrash Facts published by the Univer-sity of Alabama’s Center for Ad-vanced Public Safety.

Making driving safe forteenagers, and everyone who sharesthe roads with them, requires propertraining, careful choice of vehicles,and — just maybe — once againchanging state driver’s license laws,safety advocates said.

“The single most important factoris the time spent behind the wheel. So

many of the cases we review citedriver inexperience as a contributingcause,” said Richard Burleson, di-rector of the Alabama Child Death Re-view System.

Vehicular deaths account forabout half of all preventable deaths forAlabamians under 18, according tothe state Department of Public Health.Driver inexperience is cited as thecause in about 25 percent of thosedeaths.

It takes about 50,000 miles or 10years of driving to become proficient,said Marty Spellicy, director of theAlabama Traffic Safety Center at theUniversity of Montevallo.

Spellicy said it is important forparents to take their children out fordriving practice at night and in badweather, experiences they won’t get indriver’s education classes.

Parents, he said, must also decidewhat conditions their child is capableof driving in even after he or she has alicense.

“Don’t just abide by what thestate rules are,” Spellicy said. “It’s nothard to get that piece of plastic. Par-ents need to take responsibility.”

To curtail Alabama’s teen driver

death rate, the state in July enacted anew graduated driver’s license law.

Under that law, someone who is16 or 17 and has had a license for lessthan six months cannot use a cellphone while driving and can haveonly one passenger, not includingadults or family members.

Those drivers also cannot drivebetween midnight and 6 a.m. unlessthey are with an adult, going to orfrom work, a school event or a churchevent.

There are also exemptions foremergencies or if the driver is goinghunting or fishing with the appropri-ate license.

Spellicy said lawmakers mightwant to consider modeling Alabama’slicense laws after much stricter lawsin place in other states. New Jersey,for example, does not grant full driv-ing privileges until the driver is 18.

“We could raise the permit age to16 and the driver’s license age to 17. Itmight be worth the Legislature takinga hard look at,” Spellicy said.

The new graduated license law, asit stands, could help reduce the rate of

teen traffic fatalities, but too few par-ents are aware of the law’s require-ments, said Dr. Kathy Monroe, anemergency department physician atChildren’s Hospital.

“It’s a step in the right direction,but I’m not sure how much the wordhas spread,” Monroe said of the law.

Monroe works with state troopersand deputy sheriffs to educate Jeffer-son County teenagers about the dan-gers of driving, but she said moreteens need to be involved in preachingthe gospel of safe driving.

Even if teen drivers are observingthe basic safety rules, they are still atgreater risk than older, more experi-enced drivers.

“Situational awareness is notgreat in teens. What is the driver in theother lane doing? Is that car backingup?” Monroe said. “They might bedoing everything right, but they aren’taware of their surroundings.”

The best way for a parent to keeptheir young drivers from engaging indangerous driving behavior is to be agood model for their kids before theyreach their teens.


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Safety Advocates Advocate Restructuring of Alabama Licensing Program

Man to Open Florida’sFirst all Green Car LotIn Florida, a new car dealership isopening and the owner hopes tochange the way you think about elec-tric cars, according to reports madeby WFIE Channel 14 News.

Richard Nimphie, knows hiscars. “The first car I sold was a 1973Buick,” Nimphie said. “And it got awhopping 8.7 miles-per-gallon.”

After 37 years of being in thecar business, he’s opening a newdealership at a time when others haveclosed their doors. He said that theguilt of wanting to be green, whileselling gas guzzler vehicles, got tohim. So in three weeks, Nimphie willopen Florida’s first all electric cardealership in St. Petersburg.

Nimphie’s already sold 12Wheego Life electric cars. ScottMcIntyre is waiting for his. He lovedthe idea of skipping the gas station,and zero emissions, but that’s notwhat sealed the deal. “The one thingI liked about the Wheego Life was ithas very comfortable seats.”Electriccars are sparking the interest of driv-ers and you can bet you’ll see moreof them on the road soon. Work is un-derway in FL to create solar fueledcharging stations that would allowdrivers to recharge for free.

Auto Shredder Purchasedfor Georgia Recycling PlantHammermills International has an-nounced the commissioning of a 74-inch auto shredder at Oconee MetalRecycling’s scrap recycling plant inCovington, Ga.

The complete design, fabrica-tion and installation of the shredderis being handled by HammermillsInternational as a turnkey project.The project included a 74-inch x60-inch shredder, an in-feed con-veyor, a downstream plant, as wellas all the hydraulics, motors andcontrols.

According to a Hammermillsrelease, the shredder is based on aMetpro International design thatfeatures a patent pending hy-draulic squeezebox. HammermillsInternational supplies shredders,shredder wear parts, downstreamferrous and nonferrous systems,turnkey installation and removalof plants, production diagnosticsas well as operational, environ-mental and design consulting serv-ices.

Hammermills Internationalaffiliate companies include Os-born Engineering, A.W.C. Serv-ices and Nevada ShredderConsulting.


PPG Conducts Lean Six Sigma Training for Toyota in FloridaPPG’s Business Solutions Group ledthe instruction of its MVP Green BeltTraining for a class of 12 Toyota col-lision center managers in the south-east region, November 8-11. Hostedby Southeast Toyota Distributors,LLC, the training was held at its Ve-hicle Processing Center in Jack-sonville, Fla. Southeast Toyota is theworld’s largest independent distribu-tor of Toyota and Scion vehicles.

PPG’s MVP Green Belt Trainingis a comprehensive 4-day program fo-cusing on the practical application ofLean Six Sigma principles to collisionrepair. The curriculum is designed toprovide an effective balance betweenteaching the proven science and prin-ciples of continuous improvement andproviding practical solutions in thecollision center environment, allgeared to drive simultaneous im-provement in cycle time, quality andcost. The course covered such topicsas X-Ray Repair Planning™, processdesign and implementation, 5S andworkplace organization, and re-sources a collision center can drawupon to further continuous processimprovement.

“Holding the training at South-east Toyota’s Vehicle Processing Cen-ter provided the attendees with a mixof classroom training and the ability

to observe firsthand how similar prin-ciples have been implementedthrough the teachings of Toyota at theVehicle Processing Center,” notedSteve Topczewski, OEM/Dealer busi-ness development manager, PPG In-dustries. “Since no two collisioncenters are exactly the same—interms of sales volume, facility size,layout and source of work, etc.—theGreen Belt curriculum takes into con-sideration that the current state of dif-fering collisions centers can be quitedifferent. The emphasis is on a realworld process of moving from wher-ever the starting point is to an im-proved future state.”

“We were extremely pleased towork with PPG and bring this trainingto our dealers’ collision centers, ofwhich the majority attending are‘Toyota Certified’,” said Jon Lee, re-gional consultant, Southeast ToyotaDistributors. “Continued support fromPPG will allow participants to keeptheir journey of process improvementon track and moving forward. In thatregard, we plan to conduct a follow-up performance meeting in the firstquarter of 2011 with PPG.

PPG’s MVP Green Belt Trainingis recognized by I-CAR and AMI. At-tendees receive appropriate credits forthe course.

Gunder’s Auto Center in Lakeland,FL, says it has reached a settlementwith Allstate Insurance for $241 (plusattorney fees) that the shop said it wasowed for paint materials on a 2003GMC Envoy it repaired earlier thisyear.

The shop uses the PMCLogic sys-tem for calculating paint and materialsused on each vehicle, but had receivedfrom Allstate only a portion of the$837 on its 61-line invoice breakingdown its paint and materials charges onthe job. “We’re glad Allstate is ac-cepting this technology as a fair andreasonable way to identify all materi-als needed for the repair,” shop ownerRay Gunder said. Gunder’s attorney,Brent Geohagan, said bad faith claimsby the shop against State Farm resultedin payment from the insurer this monthfor two more jobs also billed usingPMCLogic-generated paint and mate-rials invoicing.

“These payments constitute amonumental occurrence in light of ourhistory with State Farm and its refusal,up until now, to pay for charges asso-ciated with, and generated using PM-CLogic paint and materials invoicing,”Geohagan told Gunder.

Allstate Pays Gunder’s PMCLogic-Calculated Paint Materials Charge Chief Automotive Technologies

Partners with Collision HubChief™Automotive Technologies haspartnered with Collision Hub, the pre-mier professional networking site forthe collision repair industry. Chief is aleading provider of collision repairequipment, data and training. CollisionHub provides an online communitythat enables technicians, shop owners,insurance companies and others activein the collision repair industry to inter-act with each other. Members can postphotos and videos, answer questions,refer business, recommend products,participate in discussion forums andbuild relationships. The website,www.collisionhub.com, includes in-dustry news, a comprehensive indus-try calendar, event coverage, videos,photographs, and more than 20 spe-cialty groups. Collision Hub currentlyhas around 3,000 members.

“Collision Hub is an excellentindustry resource,” saysMike Cran-fill, Chief vice president of collision.“Partnering with Collision Hub willhelp us strengthen our existing cus-tomer relationships, build new con-nections, and participate in industrydiscussions.” Through its sponsor-ship, Chief is helping to ensure thatthe Collision Hub forum and Colli-sion Hub TV remain available to theindustry for free.

DUI arrests have skyrocketed in Mis-sissippi in the past several years, help-ing lead to the lowest number ofdrunken driving deaths in decades ac-cording to reports made by InsuranceJournal.

It’s welcome news for a state thathas ranked among the nation’s worstin per capita alcohol-related deaths.Projections estimate drunken drivingdeaths in 2010 in Mississippi will beabout 232 — far below the 384 talliedin 2007.

The drop coincides with the stateseeing more than 32,000 DUI arrestsfor the second year in a row, far morethan the 22,511 several years ago.

Mississippi Highway Patrol offi-cials attribute the rise in DUI arreststo local and county agencies acrossthe state getting more involved.

“Here are things we know we canprevent through enforcement and stiffpenalties,” said Hinds County SheriffMalcolmMcMillin. “It’s a deterrent.”

Decades ago, people thoughtnothing of drinking and driving, hesaid.

“Now you hear people talk aboutdesignated drivers, and ‘I’m going toget another way home,’“ McMillinsaid.

The DUI problem goes beyonddeaths, he said.

“Let’s talk about people who areparalyzed or have injuries they’ll haveto deal with the rest of their lives,”McMillin said.

Projections put the Highway Pa-trol on track to have its highest num-ber of DUI arrests in recent years at8,805.

“We’re getting good results,” saidPublic Safety Commissioner SteveSimpson.

The patrol has “blitz periods” dur-ing the holiday periods aimed at re-ducing alcohol-related accidents, hesaid.

The patrol’s ability to make sucharrests has been aided by annualgrants from the National HighwaySafety Transportation Association.This year, that grant topped $2 mil-lion.

Simpson said the grant made itpossible to pay troopers overtime.

There is now a problem with thatgrant, he said.

Language in Mississippi’s grantapplication mentioned that whiletroopers are attempting to pull overDUI violators, they also can pull ve-

hicles over for speeding, seat belt vio-lations and child safety seat violations,he said.

NHTSA officials have raisedquestions about that language, sayingit sounds more like general law en-forcement purposes than patrolsaimed at getting drunken drivers offthe roads, he said.

“I think it’s absolutely splittinghairs. We’re getting the results we in-tended to get,” Simpson said.

He said the worst-case scenario isthe DPS would “have to pay backsome of the grant funds or give all themoney ($2 million) back to NHTSA”

The reduction in drunken drivingdeaths has coincided with an overallreduction in traffic fatalities, projectedto total 610 in Mississippi this year.

Simpson pointed to “Click It orTicket” as a seat belt campaign thathas helped reduce fatalities.

Mississippi’s seat belt usage ratethis year is the highest ever at 81 per-cent - slightly below the national aver-age of 84 percent. That’s a significantincrease from 2001 when the rate wasless than 62 percent.

“We have the highest adoptionrates we’ve ever seen for seat belts,”Simpson said.

In addition to seat belts, airbags,crash-resistant cars and better roadsalso have helped reduce traffic fatali-ties, said Mike Right of St. Louis,vice president of public affairs forAAA that covers Mississippi.

Those riding in trucks had thehighest percentages of fatalities wherepeople failed to wear seat belts. Morethan three-fourths of the truck occu-pants fatally injured during nighttimeweren’t wearing seat belts.

“Pickup trucks are notorious foroverturning,” Right said. “They arenotorious for drivers and passengerswho feel they’re invulnerable becauseof the mass and size.”

And when those trucks crash oroverturn, those without seat belts canbe thrown from the vehicles andkilled, he said.

About two-thirds of fatal crashesoccur in rural areas, where there arepoorer roads, he said. “It’s sad becausea lot of these people killed are young-sters. Their whole attitude is, ‘I can’tget hurt. I’m bulletproof.’“

Frank Harris, state legislativeaffairs manager for Mothers AgainstDrunk Driving, said the decline in al-cohol-related deaths is a testimony to

the hard work of law enforcement.Unfortunately, he said, many

drive drunk before getting caught. Hesaid studies show those pulled overfor DUI have often driven impaired atleast 87 times before getting arrested.

Although alcohol-related deathsare declining in Mississippi, he saidthe costs of these remaining deaths arestill staggering - an estimated $1.1 bil-lion last year.

MADD officials are urging Mis-sissippi lawmakers to follow the leadof Arkansas, Louisiana and 11 otherstates in adopting the ignition inter-lock device that requires convictedDUI offenders to pass a Breathalyzertest before they can crank their cars.

The device costs $70 a month for sixmonths and $100 to install, Harris said.

That cost is typically borne by of-fenders with a separate fund set up forthe indigent.

A study by the Insurance Institutefor Highway Safety found that instal-lation of these devices in the cars ofDUI offenders would save 8,000 livesa year, he said.

State Rep. Philip Gunn, R-Clin-

ton, who has introduced legislation thepast two years, said the ignition inter-lock enables those convicted of DUIto keep driving.

“One of the hardships put on peo-ple convicted of DUI is they can’tdrive legally,” he said.

State Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Can-ton, chairman of House Judiciary ACommittee, said he wouldn’t be op-posed to mandating the ignition inter-lock for second offenders.

“I think it’s a little too much onthe first offense,” he said. “I’m morecomfortable with a repeat offender.It’s not a felony in Mississippi untilthe third offense.”


Drunk Driving Arrests Up, Fatalities Down in Mississippi

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With the help of The Impact! Group,Sports & Imports Collision, a mem-ber of the Georgia Collision IndustryAssociation (GCIA), delivered anOldsmobile Intrigue to The JeremyBurse Family in a ceremony at 3400McDaniel Rd., Duluth, Ga.

The project was part of a nation-wide vehicle donation program calledRecycled Rides, a community aware-ness project whereby members of theNational Auto Body Council(NABC) repair and donate recycled

vehicles to families in need. As part ofthis program, simultaneous vehicledonations took place throughout thecountry in the month of November.

“We are exceptionally pleasedwith the results of the project,” saidGene Hamilton, owner of Sports &

Imports Collision.“The vehicle was wellreceived and all of ourstaff worked hard tomake the donation a re-ality. The Burse familywas extremely gratefuland we wish them agreat holiday season.Hopefully, having thisvehicle will brightentheir lives and make iteasier for them to ac-complish the dailytasks most of us takefor granted.

“I want to thank our staff. Thiswould not have happened without theirefforts.

“We appreciate all those who at-tended the event, at which we pre-sented the vehicle—decorated with a

huge green bow—to the Burse family.Our thanks also go out to The Im-pact!Group of Lawrenceville, Ga, andHoward Batchelor ofFinish Master that at-tended the presenta-tion.. We look forwardto participating againnext year and we inviteother auto body repairfacilities in our com-munity to join us so ourindustry can serve evenmore local familiesnext year.”

“The event was agreat success,” saysAvis Lucas of The Im-pact! Group. “We’re

proud to be a part of Recycled Rides.The family is just thrilled to have reli-able transportation. Sports & Imports

Collision did a great job getting thevehicle ready.”

The National Auto Body Councilis a not-for-profit organization com-mitted to the goal of improving theimage of all dedicated professionals inthe collision repair industry. NABCheadquarters is located at 9404 Ashk-ing Drive, Mechanicsville, VA 23116.

Please visit autobodycouncil.org.


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The Burse family and Owners of Sports & Imports Collision GeneHamilton and Michelle Coombs

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U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., sayshe has told Volkswagen officials thathe thinks it would be “highly detri-mental” to the German manufacturerif the United Auto Workers organizesits Chattanooga assembly plant, ac-cording to reports made by the Chat-tanooga Times Free Press.

“I was asked to give input, and Idid,” Corker said.

The advice stemmed from his ex-perience trying to negotiate with theunion during the 2008 federal bailoutof GM and Chrysler, he said.

“I certainly shared with [VW] Icouldn’t see how there was any possi-bility it could be a benefit to them toenter into a contract with UAW,” saidCorker, a former Chattanooga mayor.He stressed he is not “anti-union” andsaid he often employed union crafts-men when he ran a construction com-pany.

But the UAW “breeds an ‘us ver-sus they’ relationship, and I just don’tthink it’s healthy for a company to beset up in that regard,” Corker said.

Bob King, president of the400,000-plus-member labor union,

said the UAW is interested in organiz-ing the VW plant.

“We want workers there, and notjust Chattanooga but all nonunion as-sembly facilities,” King said. “Wewant workers to have a choice tocome into the UAW.”

King, who became UAW presi-dent in June, said Corker is “talkingabout the past and not the present orthe future.”

There is a difference between“this 20th century perception ofUAW” and “the 21st century realitywhere we’re proactive on all these is-sues of quality and productivity,” hesaid.

The UAW is “committed to thesuccess of the employers that we rep-resent, Ford, GM, Chrysler,” Kingsaid, and the union supports a “win-ning formula” for overseas transplants“whether it be Volkswagen, Toyota orHonda.”

Guenther Scherelis, Volks-wagenGroup of America Inc.’s general man-ager of communication, declined to ad-dress Corker’s specific comments aswell as King’s.

“At Volkswagen Chattanooga, theemployees will decide for themselvesabout their representation,” Scherelissaid in an e-mail.

VW’s Chattanooga plant will em-ploy as many as 2,500 workers start-ing early next year. The $1 billionfacility will produce a midsize sedanaimed at the American market.

Mike Randle, editor of SouthernBusiness & Economic Development,said none of the foreign transplant au-tomakers has been unionized exceptfor a few joint ventures with Ameri-can companies in other parts of thecountry.

“There are none in the South,”Randle said. “That doesn’t mean theyhaven’t tried.”

Nissan workers, for example,have twice voted against attempts tocertify the UAW.

Randle said the transplants havebeen able to pay workers less than atNorthern, unionized plants while stilloffering what is considered a goodwage in the South.

An economic study, conductedearlier this year on behalf of The

Grand Rapids Press in Michigan andother Booth newspapers, stated that“wages are typically high in the [stateswithout right-to-work laws] comparedto the Southern states.”

Not having a union makes it eas-ier to change how companies operate,Randle said, and also noted it elimi-nates the threat of union work stop-pages.

Volkswagen is no stranger tounions. The UAW had a presence at aVolkswagen-owned plant that oper-ated in New Stanton, Pa., between1978 and 1988.

Volkswagen’s parent company,Volkswagen AG, is unionized andunder German law has a policy of “co-determination” that ensures union rep-resentation on the company’ssupervisory board of directors.

Corker said he formed his viewsof the UAW when he was lead Re-publican negotiator with Democratson the proposed auto-industry bailoutsfor GM and Chrysler in 2008.

King said the union soon will pro-pose to employers a less confronta-tional procedure for union campaigns.

TN Senator Advises VW to Keep Union Out of New Plant

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Ford Motor Co. is hiring 1,800 work-ers and spending $600 million to over-haul a factory in Louisville, Kentucky,to build small sport utility vehicles ac-cording to reports made by BloombergNews.

The factory, which now producesthe midsize Ford Explorer SUV, willbegin building a redesigned version ofthe Escape compact utility vehicle latenext year, Marcey Evans, a Fordspokeswoman, said in an interview. Atthat time, the plant will begin operat-ing two shifts and employing 2,900workers, up from one shift and 1,100workers currently, she said.

Ford is transforming the Louisvilleplant into its most flexible factory, ca-

pable of producing small cars, SUVsand wagons.

Such flexibility is typical of Toy-ota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.plants. Ford also plans to build a smallLincoln SUV in Louisville starting in2012.

“Ford is putting itself in a positionto answer the call of the consumer andbuild whatever they want,” saidMichael Robinet, an analyst withIHS Automotive in Northville. “Forseveral years, the method they usedwas to overbuild and then tape moneyto the hood” by offering discounts oncars.

The Louisville factory will beable to make Ford’s new Focus

compact car, should consumer de-mand outstrip the factory in Wayne,where that model is built, Robinetsaid. Louisville also could build theGrand C-Max wagon Ford is bring-ing to the U.S. from Europe, hesaid.

Mark Fields, Ford’s presidentof the Americas, announced produc-tion of only the Escape at a cere-mony earlier this month at theLouisville factory, Evans said. Thereare no plans to build the Focus inLouisville, she said.

Production of the Lincoln smallSUV may begin around June 2012.Evans declined to comment on theLincoln SUV production.

Once output of the 2010 Ford Ex-plorer ends Dec. 16, Ford will gut the55-year-old Louisville factory, Evanssaid. The plant will receive new toolsfor assembling compact-sized models,new equipment for building car bodiesand upgrades to its paint shop, shesaid.

“It will be a pretty major over-haul,” Evans said. Some of the work-ers that will be added at the plantwhen it returns to operation in thefourth quarter of next year will betransfers from other Ford factories,Evans said.

Ford expects to hire about 1,000employees to either work inLouisville or fill vacancies created bythose moving to the Kentucky fac-tory, she said. The new hires will bepaid about $14.50 an hour, about halfwhat veteran assembly workers makeat Ford, she said. To stimulate hiringand lower costs, the United AutoWorkers union agreed to create a sec-ond wage tier in the 2007 contractswith Ford, General Motors Corp. andChrysler LLC.

“Louisville now is operating athalf speed,” Robinet said. “The in-creased flexibility there will reallyhelp Ford better utilize its capitalstructure.”

The next generation Escape thatwill be built in Louisville is based onthe Kuga model Ford sells in Europe,Robinet said. It is expected to be morefuel efficient than the current Escape,which gets 23 miles per gallon in thecity and 28 mpg on the highway, ac-cording to auto researcher Ed-munds.com. Ford will end productionof the existing Escape at its KansasCity plant late next year as Louisvillebegins assembling the new model,Evans said. Kansas City will continueto build the Ford F-150 pickup on oneshift. Missouri lawmakers have of-fered Ford incentives to bring a newmodel to Kansas City and keep theplant open.

“Additional new products forKansas City will be announced at a fu-ture time,” Evans said.

Ford, the only major U.S. au-tomaker to avoid bankruptcy last year,earned $6.37 billion in the first ninemonths of the year, more than anyother global carmaker.

The upgrades Ford is making atLouisville will put the second-largestU.S. automaker in a better position tocompete against Toyota and Honda.


Ford investing $600M, hiring 1,800 at Louisville, KY, SUV plant

ing to make the training more relevantand the recognition programs moremeaningful. Edelen oversaw a turbu-lent three-year period within I-CAR,winning mostly praise for his effortsto turn the organization around afterseveral money-losing years and de-clining student numbers.

Now this month it becomes up tonew CEO John Van Alstyne to pick upwhere Edelen has left off. His 2011 to-do list will include helping the indus-try understand the transition to the newrecognition requirements, continuingthe overhaul of the curriculum, lookingat new ways to make I-CAR trainingaffordable and accessible, and perhapsgetting more insurers, who have largelydropped anything but vague trainingrequirements in their DRP contracts, toonce again mandate attainment of GoldClass or similar training levels.

When I think of things I know asingle store can’t do that an associationcan do, one thing that comes to mind isto help us stop insurance companiesfrom mandating use of certain estimat-ing systems, CSI providers, or rentalcar companies. It’s unbelievable thatwe have to use, for example, Enterprisefor some repairs and Hertz for other re-pairs. I think the repairer should be theperson that makes that decision.

—Dan Bailey

Dan Bailey, presi-dent and chief op-erating officer forthe CARSTAR col-lision repair fran-chise chain, putinto words this yearwhat many shopshave been saying

for years: that micro-managing by in-surers can add as much inefficiencyand cost as it saves.

In an effort to highlight this issue,the Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS) is expected in 2011 tocomplete a matrix it is building thatshow which insurer direct repair pro-grams (DRPs) require use of a specificvendor for such services. The goal,SCRS Executive Director AaronSchulenburg said, is to show thatsome programs are more restrictivethan others in terms of vendor choice,and to show the burden and added ex-pense such requirements can have on

shops participating in multiple DRPs.

The bottom line is if these bumpersdo not protect occupants or (allow)more damage to vehicles, it’s insurersthat are going to pick up the cost of ei-ther the personal injury associated withthe problems, or the additional damageassociated with poor-performingbumpers in low-speed collisions.

—Jack Gillis

This quote fromJack Gillis, execu-tive director of theCertified Automo-tive Parts Associa-tion (CAPA) wasjust one of manyrelated to non-OEM structural

parts this past year. Though clearly noone expects full resolution of the long-simmering battle over non-OEM partsin 2011, a number of interesting devel-opments could take place.

First, 2011 will see CAPA facingcompetition for its non-OEM partscertification with NSF International,which says its program similarly iden-tifies parts that are comparable toOEM. NSF launched its programearly last year in part because CAPAwasn’t certifying non-OEM bumperparts (it now is), though there are cleardifferences between the two pro-grams. NSF also last year launched acertification program for distributorsof such parts. Whether either or bothCAPA and NSF programs survive willclearly depend on how well they areaccepted by insurers, shops and partsmanufacturers and distributors.

I think the people in this roomwill make that decision over time,”NSF’s Bob Frayer told representa-tives of all those segments of the in-dustry at a meeting last fall. “I think ayear from now we’ll be talking againand see how we’re doing.

It will also be interesting in 2011to see if both sides continue the crash-testing of non-OEM parts conductedthis past year. Ford last fall sharedcrash-test results it says clearly showthat use of non-OEM parts lead to in-creased damage—and possibly un-necessary firing of the airbag—whileCAPA said its testing showed non-OEM bumper parts that meet its stan-dard perform comparably to OEM.Both sides may seek to bolster theirargument through more such testing.

OEM parts proponents hope in2011 to gain more public push for the

use of OEM parts through the press,following up last year’s Consumer Re-ports’ piece that recommended to carowners to check the paperwork on pre-vious collision repairs and “if knock-offs were used, demand that they bereplaced with original equipment.”

And the aftermarket parts indus-try, determined as one LKQ Corpora-tion executive said last year to “reallyget in front of these guys who arecoming after the industry,” will con-tinue its push for federal legislation toprevent automakers from getting de-sign patents on sheet metal parts.

You can’t have the have a defini-tion of sub-standard before you havea definition of standard. We could(with standards) eliminate half the ar-gument and half the confusion and alot of the inefficiency. The question tothe industry is: Do we have the ap-petite? Is it now time for standards? Ifthe answer is yes, what is the next stepto actually creating something?

—Scott Biggs

Scott Biggs of Assured PerformanceNetwork has been among those callingfor the development of formalized

standards in the in-dustry for sometime. While associ-ations and commit-tees of volunteersat the Collision In-dustry Conference(CIC) have beenmaking some

progress on such standards in recentyears, 2011 is seen by some as the yearto really jump-start the process.

A meeting in Palm Springs inJanuary will serve as a follow-up toone held in Las Vegas in November.At that earlier meeting, a small groupresolved to hire a temporary projectmanager to take the work to date by aCIC committee and develop a plan,timeline and budget for completion offormalized standards, and for the cre-ation or designation of an entity tooversee and implement adoption ofthe standards within the industry.

While there are still many unan-swered questions and plenty of work tobe done, the effort may languish if se-rious momentum isn’t gained this year.

“Take time to get consensus, butdon’t take too long,” recommendedLeslie Upham of Thatcham last fall.


Dan Bailey

Scott Biggs

Jack Gillis

Continued from Page 1

2010 Year in Review

Jack Gillis, executive director of theCertified Automotive Parts Associa-tion (CAPA), led a Collision RepairExecutive Webcast on December 14centered on CAPA’s certification pro-gram and standards and the differencebetween certified and non-certified af-termarket parts.

Gillis started off the webcast bydetailing CAPA’s purpose and mo-tives. He said that CAPA’s sole pur-pose is to ensure that consumers andpeople in the industry can identifyquality parts. CAPA is also there toprotect consumers from over pricedand poor quality parts.

CAPA certification process fitsaftermarket parts from CAPA’s 39 ap-proved manufacturers against the carcompany brand parts or the “stan-dard” parts. Only approved aftermar-ket manufacturers can submit parts toCAPA for certification and these man-ufacturers go through rigorous moni-toring and requirements before beingallowed to submit parts.

CAPA not only tests the aftermar-

ket parts’ material, composition, me-chanics, strength and dimensionagainst the standard parts, they also doa Vehicle Test Fit as a final test beforecertifying the part. The Vehicle TestFit is the final step in certification andis unique to CAPA. It aims to do twothings; to make sure the standard partfits the way it should, and to makesure the aftermarket part fits the way itshould.

About 38% of parts submitted toCAPA for certification fail the VehicleTest Fit process. Gillis also stressedthat CAPA only reviews about 20% ofaftermarket parts available.

“What about the [sic] parts thatare never presented to us for certifica-tion?” said Gillis.

CAPA also has a vast number oftools available that help them to con-tinue to monitor parts after they havebeen certified. They have a complaintsprogram, a marketplace monitoringprogram and a decertification program.

When a part is retested and seenfit to be decertified from CAPA it is

immediately changed from CAPA cer-tified in the electronics estimating sys-tems so body shops are aware of thechange in certification status.

CAPA does their tests through aworldwide company called Intertek,but also has some of their parts testedby the Insurance Institute for High-way Safety (IIHS). Gillis showedsome IIHS test results that put CAPAcertified aftermarket parts not only oflike fit, finish and material as brandname parts but also as having nearlythe same crash test results.

“Yes, CAPA standards are rigor-ous - they have to be,” said Gillis,“We think the standards are justright.”

Although 4 out of 5 aftermarketparts used in the marketplace are notCAPA certified, Gillis stoody byCAPA’s success.

“You have to determine how youmeasure success,” said Gillis, “thebottom line is that parts bearing theCAPA seal must be matching to thecar company brand parts.”


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Collision Repair Executive Webcast Hosts CAPA’s JackGillis and a Discussion on Aftermarket Parts

FL Shops Join CCAR’s‘GreenLink Shop’ ProgramThe Coordinating Committee ForAutomotive Repair (CCAR) has an-nounced two more facilities inFlorida have joined their GreenLinkShop program in November.

The GreenLink Shop status,an extension of CCAR’s CCAR-GreenLink Environmental Compli-ance Assistance Center and S/P2Safety and Pollution Prevention E-learning Program, is designed topromote consumer confidence inlocal automotive repair facilities’environmental/safety awarenessand stewardship.

The new GreenLink Shops are:

• Duston & Roberts Collision Cen-ter, Inc., Ocoee, Fla.• Precision Collision, Lynn Haven,Fla.

Repair facilities seeking theGreenLink Shop recognition mustmaintain high standards of excellencein environmental, health and safety(EHS) practices in four categories:business operations, employee train-ing, safety compliance and environ-mental management.

For more information pleasevisit www.ccar-greenlink.org.

by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

When bumpers on cars and SUVsdon’t line up (and many of themdon’t), low-speed collisions producemore damage and higher repair costs

Bumpers are the first line of de-fense against costly damage in every-day low-speed crashes. Bumpers oncars are designed to match up with eachother in collisions, but a long-standinggap in federal regulations exemptsSUVs from the same rules. New Insur-ance Institute for Highway Safety crashtests demonstrate the results: SUVbumpers that don’t line up with thoseon cars can lead to huge repair bills inwhat should be minor collisions in stop-and-go traffic.

“SUVs and cars share the road,”says Joe Nolan, the Institute’s chief ad-ministrative officer. “The problem isthey don’t share the same bumper rules,and consumers end up paying the price.”

A federal standard requires that allcars have bumpers that protect withina zone of 16 to 20 inches from theground. This means car bumpers lineup reasonably well and are more likelyto engage during low-speed collisionsto absorb energy and prevent damage.No bumper requirements apply toSUVs, pickups, or minivans, so whenthese vehicles have bumpers they oftenare flimsier and higher off the groundthan bumpers on cars. Plus, SUVs andpickups may not have bumpers at all.

In fender-benders with SUVs,cars often end up with excessive dam-age to hoods, engine cooling systems,fenders, bumper covers, and safetyequipment like lights. SUVs don’t al-ways come out unscathed either, oftenneeding extensive work.

The Institute conducted 10 mphfront-into-rear crash tests involving 7pairs of 2010-11 models, each com-posed of a small car and small SUVfrom the same automaker.

“We picked vehicles from thesame manufacturer because we thinkautomakers should at the least pay at-tention to bumper compatibility acrosstheir own fleets,” Nolan explains.“The results show that many don’t.”

In the tests, an SUV going 10 mphstruck the back of its paired car, whichwas stopped. Then the configuration wasreversed, with the car striking the backof its paired SUV. Results of these low-speed impacts varied widely, from a totalof $850 damage to one vehicle to $6,015damage to another (see table below). In

some cases, the crash damage includedmajor leaks from broken radiators andcooling fans. If these collisions had hap-pened in the real world, the motoristswouldn’t have been able to drive away. Ifthey did, their vehicles could overheat,and the engines could be ruined.

Mismatched pairs: If bumpersdon’t match up, they’ll bypass eachother when vehicles collide, and the re-sulting crash energy will crumple thevehicle body. That’s what happenedwhen the Nissan Rogue struck the backof the Nissan Sentra in the SUV-into-car test. The Rogue’s front bumper did-n’t line up at all with the Sentra’s rearbumper, and the resulting $4,560 reardamage tally for the Sentra was thehighest among all the cars in this test.The impact crumpled the car’s bumpercover, trunk lid, and rear body. TheRogue ended up with a crushed andleaking radiator that kept the SUVfrom being driven after the test.

Bumper height mismatch con-

tributed to pricey damage when theFord Escape struck the rear of theFord Focus. Their bumpers over-lapped less than 2 inches, not enoughto protect the Focus’s rear body andtrunk lid from $3,386 in repairs.

“The mismatch problem with theFord pair was even worse when theFocus struck the back of the Escape.The front bumper on the car underrodethe high-riding Escape’s rear bumper,which at 25 inches off the ground isthe tallest among all the small SUVsevaluated this time around. Damage tothe Focus came to $5,203 and includedreplacing most of the sheet metal plusmany parts in front of the engine.

When the Toyota Corolla hit therear of the Toyota RAV4 in the car-into-SUV test, damage amounted tonearly $10,000 for the pair — thehighest combined test damage amongall of the vehicle pairs the Instituteevaluated. The RAV4 accounted forabout $6,000 of the bill.

“The RAV4’s so-called bumper isreally just a stamped piece of sheetmetal supporting the bumper cover,”Nolan explains. “So instead of engag-ing a strong bumper, the strikingCorolla hit the spare tire mounted onthe RAV4’s tailgate. The spare isn’tdesigned to absorb crash energy, so itdamaged the Corolla’s hood, grille,headlights, air conditioner, and radia-

tor support and crushed the RAV4’stailgate and rear body panels.”

Compatible bumpers: Bumpers


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Huge Cost of Mismatched Bumpers: When Bumpers Don’t Line Up

When the Nissan Rogue struckthe back of the Nissan Sentra(top) in the 10 mph front-into-rearcrash test, the Rogue’s bumperoverrode the Sentra’s, resulting in$7,444 in combined damage forthe pair. In the car-into-SUV test,the Ford Focus bumper slid underthe high-riding Ford Escape,adding up to $5,203 damage forthe car and $2,208 for the SUV

Ford Focus: $5,203 damage

Nissan Sentra and Nissan Rogue

Ford Escape and Ford Focus

The bumper bars on this pair ofHondas (top) lined up. The Civic’s$1,274 in rear damage when hitby the CR-V was thelowest among cars in this test.The Kia Forte’s front bumper linedup with the rear bumper of theHyundai Tucson (bottom),keeping the front of the car fromunderriding the SUV and limitingdamage to a combined $3,601 forboth vehicles

Honda Civic and Honda CR-V

Hyundai Tucson and Kia Forte

See Bumpers, Page 19


Progressive tried to recall the carfrom Coccaro after repairs had com-menced and steer it to one of their se-lect shops but was unsuccessful inconvincing the customer. When the

second estimate came in at $26,804,the customer confirmed she wantedNorth State to do the job, She agreedto pay any expenses beyond the$26,804. Progressive finally agreed topay Coccaro’s invoice after the cus-tomer’s son became involved, who hada relationship of sorts with the insurer.

At that point a curious requestcame from Progressive to take pos-session of the car so they could deliverit to the customer. Coccaro declined,preferring to deliver to his own cus-tomer, but finally agreed, with the cus-tomer’s approval. He was surprised atthe cavalier manner in which the ve-hicle was towed by the insurer’sprovider, risking throwing off the twowheel alignments that had recentlybeen done. This would be telling whenthe case finally came to trial.

Progressive did not deliver the ve-hicle to the professor. They took it forforensic evaluation to another shop. Infact, as the court documents would re-veal, Progressive had already decidedto prosecute for fraud before examin-ing the vehicle. Progressive alleged thatNorth State had defrauded the company;had provided phony invoices; that Coc-caro himself had directed a conspiracyto defraud Progressive; and had chargedthe insurer for non-existent damage.

The first fraud trial pressed by Pro-gressive Insurance against Coccaro inBedford Hills, NY, was dismissed byState Supreme Court Judge Mary Smithon August 5, 2008. Significantly, thecase was dismissed “with predju-dice”—meaning the court barred Pro-gressive from filing another case on theclaim, effectively ending Progressive’soptions—and the judge acted before thedefense could call a single witness, how-ever this ruling was successfully ap-

pealed by Progressive who argued thatthe judge lacked this lattitude in the case.

The second defense of the case,and his acquittal in the first case, havenow cost Coccaro and his shop in excess

of $600,000 in legal fees, and all for acase which Progressive offered to settlefor a dollar and an admission of guilt in2005. Coccaro refused the offer, despitethe fact that under New York law, evenif he won, he could not be awarded anymoney from Progressive, nor could herecover his legal expenses. It was al-ways a matter of principle to him.

Progressive continued to allegethat Coccaro committed fraud in therepair of the now one-year old Mer-cedes, causing Progressive to incurdamages in the amount of $2,808.65.Coccaro’s legal team of Michael G.Santangelo, Erica L. Eversman, andAnthony J. Mamo, Jr. estimates thatProgressive ultimately spent over onemillion dollars to prosecute the claimof $2,800 and change.

Coccaro has said in the past, “Ibelieve they’re out to punish me forspeaking out. They want to make anexample out of me for anyone elsewho would do the same thing.”

Coccaro still has no hard evi-dence to support his conclusion, buthe points to the time, expense and zealProgressive has invested in a battlethat began over repairs to a single ve-hicle. He also points to what he saysare other ongoing practices by insur-ers to intimidate shops.

“Certain shops get steeredagainst, and the shops who speak outget business steered away from them,”he says. “I also know of certain shopswho don’t get paid for certain opera-tions because they’ve spoken up. In-surers make trouble between a shopand its customers. No customer wantsto get in the middle of that.

“It’s like whack-a-mole in this in-dustry,” he says. “You stick your headup, and they’re going to knock it

down. That’s definitely what they do.They intimidate people.”

“They put me in a huge financialhole, so I’m leaving a [tortious interfer-ence lawsuit option] on the table,” saidCoccaro. “I am 61 years old and had toremortgage everything I owned. I’m indebt again. They don’t like people tostand up to them. They couldn’t get thiscar out of my shop and they were madand wanted to teach me a lesson.” Coc-caro confirmed to Autobody News thathe would be pursuing the lawsuit, andthat he has already been deposed byProgressive’s attorneys.

“I am so grateful that the jury wasable to see through Progressive’s tac-tics and didn’t fall for the fairytale Pro-gressive tried to tell them,” Coccarosaid. “I feel exonerated,” he said. “Mybusiness and reputation mean every-thing to me. That’s why I insisted onfighting these false accusations.”

Coccaro has credited supportfrom collision repairers, and espe-cially Mike Anderson, a former shopowner now running a consulting com-pany (CollisionAdvice.com), whotestified that the repairs to the vehiclewere properly executed and that NorthState Custom was entitled to charge

for the workthat was per-formed. An-derson hadreinspected thecar after theoriginal repairs.“Mike Ander-son took time

out of his schedule to fly here and tes-tify and fly back and he did it forfree,” Coccaro said. “He did notcharge a dime. It was poignant whenhe pointed that out in court. I am verygrateful that he did that for my family,my business and me. Not many peo-ple would do that. He put his reputa-tion on the line testifying on mybehalf, and I owe him many thanks.”

They don’t like people to stand upto them. They couldn’t get this car outof my shop and they were mad andwanted to teach me a lesson. Hugecompanies can put you out of business.I won the case, but all I did was exon-erate myself. I think they spent over $1million for an alleged fraud of $2,800,according to their expert witness. Theywere suing me for $34,000, the entireamount of the bill, because they said Iintentionally totaled the car.”

“This is a triumph for the entirecollision repair industry,” he said.“Now insurers will know that theycan’t accuse shops of fraud for mak-ing repairs according to the blueprintfor repair set out in the shops’ esti-mates. After all, we are the repair pro-fessionals, and it is time that insurersstop interfering with how we operateour businesses.”

The ruling leaves Coccaro free topursue his $15 M suit against Progres-sive, although he has not commentedon that specifically. His complaint wasreduced from $40M to $15M after Pro-gressive attorneys successfully arguedthat NY law does not allow an insur-ance company to be sued for steering.Nontheless, Coccaro alleges that Pro-gressive has engaged in a scheme to in-jure North State and deceive the publicby engaging in deceptive businesspractices, including telling customersthat North State inflates estimates, doesshoddy work, and is a problem shop.

When Coccaro’s tortious interfer-ence suit against Progressive was orig-inally filed, the New York State AutoCollision Technicians Association(NYSACTA) was quick to supporthim. At the time, Mike Orso, Presidentof NYSACTA said, “We all know thetricks and games that are being playedby a majority of the insurance compa-nies, their appraisers and adjusters. Theinside information obtained in this law-suit only confirms our suspicions...”

“It’s not about the money,” Coc-caro said at the time. “It was neverabout the money. I just couldn’t standby and watch them destroy my repu-tation and the business I worked hardto create. If they could do this to me,they could do this to anyone.”

North State was established morethan 30 years ago and promotes itself“a state-of-the-art European luxury carcollision repair facility.” Its motto is“New World Technology, Old WorldCraftsmanship.” The shop is certifiedby Mercedes Benz, Volvo and Jaguarfor structural aluminum repairs alongwith being BMW-trained for body,paint and aluminum structural repairs.

To contribute to defraying Greg Coc-caro’s staggering legal fees, pleasemail a check to:

North State Legal114 Green LaneBedford Hills, NY 10507

Greg Coccaro ‘Not Guilty’ Again Cover Story

Mike Anderson

North State Custom’s shop


untested, Toyota is releasing [thisstatement] highlighting our concerns,”Foss said.

Toyota Statement:Toyota Lexus and Scion vehicles areengineered and manufactured as an in-tegrated assembly of carefully de-signed and manufactured partsworking as a system to provide pre-dictable performance, safety and dura-bility.

To help preserve the perform-ance of Toyota/Lexus/Scion vehi-cles, Toyota Scion and Lexuspublishes detailed repair proce-dures and produces and sells Gen-uine Toyota/Lexus Parts, which aremanufactured to the same specifi-cations and tolerances as the partsinstalled on new Toyota, Lexus andScion vehicles. Repairing a vehicleusing Genuine Toyota/Lexus/Scion parts and procedures canhelp return Toyota vehicles to pre-loss condition following a colli-sion.

The use of Alternative PartsDue to the sensitive nature of thesafety and performance systems andlack of testing to determine their effecton vehicle crashworthiness, Toyota,Lexus and Scion do not recommendthe use of alternative parts for the re-pair of Toyota vehicles.

This includes:● Aftermarket Parts: Parts manufac-tured and branded by a company otherthan Toyota, Scion or Lexus● Rebuilt Parts: Exterior sheet metalparts (including bumpers and wheels)removed from a damaged Toyota,Lexus or Scion vehicle and refur-bished for re sale● Salvage/Recycled Parts: Parts re-moved from a previously damaged ve-hicle, cleaned up and then installed ona different vehicle.

Overall Body StructureGenuine Toyota, Lexus and ScionParts are constructed using metalswith specific properties, thicknessesand stamping structures built to per-form in a consistent and predictableway during a collision event. The useof non-OEM structural componentsmay compromise the overall crash-

worthiness and occupant safety ofToyota, Lexus or Scion vehicles in asubsequent collision.

Supplementary Restraint System (SRS)ComponentsToyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles areequipped with several SRS compo-nents including airbags and seatbeltpretensioners, which are designed tohelp protect vehicle occupants frominjury. These parts rely upon pre-cisely manufactured sensors to detecta collision event and trigger the SRScomponents to deploy within mil-liseconds of an impact. The installa-tion of parts branded by companiesother than Toyota, Scion or Lexusthat may not be tested to match Toy-ota, Lexus or Scion performancespecifications may alter the structureof a vehicle and could result in im-proper operation of the SRS sensorsand components.

Exterior Sheet Metal PartsThe exterior sheet metal componentsare often described as “CosmeticParts.”

However, these parts are de-signed and tested as part of the overall

vehicle and may help send impact en-ergy to the SRS sensors.

In addition, some of these partsmay help Toyota, Lexus or Scion ve-hicles comply with several FederalMotor Vehicle Safety Standards(FMVSS) including hood intrusion inthe passenger cabin, preservation ofproper door operation following a col-lision and proper airbag function. Al-ternative parts may not be crash testedto verify compliance with these stan-dards.

Recycled PartsToyota, Lexus and Scion do not rec-ommend the re-use of structural com-ponents that have been removed froma previously damaged vehicle.

Although parts may appearequivalent, it may be difficult to iden-tify previous damage, if a part has re-ceived collateral damage as a result ofa prior collision or if the part has beensubject to extreme weathering, corro-sion or other detrimental environmen-tal exposure.

Furthermore, removing weldedparts from a donor vehicle, may com-promise the structural integrity of theparts being used.


Toyota Recommends OEM


My shop’s office manager is my eld-est daughter Katie, a bright, pretty galwith a quick wit and long beautifulred hair. Katie gets all the phone callsand handles the front office issues.She does a great job, and makeseverything feel like a day at the ballpark.

She cracks me up with some ofher responses to those baffling phonecalls we all tend to receive at the re-pair shop. Sometimes I wonder if sheshouldn’t be a comedian, or evenhave her own vaudeville act.

On one occasion I happened tobe working in the office, and over-heard a conversation she was havingwith a prospective customer. The wayshe handled it was “pure Katie.”

With the phone on speaker, Icouldn’t help hearing the entire con-versation. By the end of the phonecall I was laughing so hard that Inearly forgot I was only supposed tobe listening and to keep quiet. I didmanage to keep quiet, but had a bigsmile on my face for the rest of theday. The phone call went somethinglike this:

“Good morning, this is Katie,may I help you?”

“Yes, I had my car over at thetransmission shop, and they recom-mended you guys,” the caller said.

“OK, is it a shifting problem?”she asked.

“No, it’s an electrical problem.”“We certainly do that kind of

work. When would you like to bring itin and have it diagnosed?”

“No, I already had it diagnosedat the other shop.”

“They did, did they? Did they tellyou what the problem was?”

“No, they didn’t know what waswrong with it. That’s why I’m callingyou.”

About now Katie is getting herraised-eyebrow look going, and herpen is scribbling something on thenote pad. Something is up. I can tell.I’ve answered phone calls like thismyself. Let’s see how Katie handlesthis … I’ll listen in a little more.

“So, did they give you any clueas to what the problem was?” sheasked patiently.

“They said they didn’t know.”“Well, that doesn’t help either

one of us. Let’s start this all overagain. It sounds to me like the othershop checked it out, and determined

that it was some-thing they could-n’t handle andrecommended us.Their best guesswas that it wassomething electri-cal. Then theygave you our

phone number and told you we couldtake care of it. Am I pretty close towhat’s going on, sir?” Katie asked.

“Quite right.”“OK, let’s see if we can go round

the bases on this. First off, the trans-mission shop sent you to … who?”

“To you…”“Great, who is first base. Now,

on to second base. That’s where wefigure out the what’s wrong with itpart.”

He quickly interrupted her… “al-ready did that.”

“Well, what’s wrong with itthen?” Katie asked.

“I don’t know, and they couldn’ttell me either,” the caller said, clearlytrying to avoid a trip to second.

“Sir, somehow we have got tothird base, and haven’t touched sec-ond at all,” she reasoned.

“I don’t understand what you’regetting at,” the stymied caller said.

“Let’s try this again,” Katiecontinued. “We have established thatthe who part of this is us at firstbase. You’re at home plate andyou’re going to bring the car here.That will give us a good foothold onfirst base. The second base is thewhat part, and that’s where we arehaving a problem. The I don’t knowpart can be answered once we haveit diagnosed.

“I told you. I already had it diag-nosed.”

“OK then, what’s wrong withit?”

“I don’t know.” (Right past sec-ond at full speed and sliding intothird.)

“Naturally,” Katie answers him

with that I’m-not-going-through-this-again look on her face. “They didn’tknow. That’s why you’re talking tome.”

“I don’t think you understand,”he answered her.

“Oh, I understand perfectly well,sir. I don’t think you understand thatwe can’t repair it unless we knowwhat is wrong with it,” she answeredin a measured tone. “This is why Iwanted to start off with who’s on first,which is me. I’m who.”

“But, I just told you. They diag-nosed it already.”

“Who did?”“Not you, they did.”“What did they tell you was

wrong with it?”“I don’t know,” our caller an-

swered yet again, making anotherbeeline for third base.

“Sir, we will need to diagnose itall over again in order to find out whatis wrong with it, and hopefully get tothat third base.”

“What third base?”“What is second base, I don’t

know is third,” Katie answered himmatter of factly.

“So, we need to stay on what?”asks the caller.

“Yes, second base.”“Who’s on first?”“I’m on first base. I thought we

already agreed on that. We need tomove on to second base.”

“When we get to second base,will that fix my car?”

“I don’t know,” said Katie. “So are we on second or third

now?” the caller asked, genuinely baf-fled.

“Sir, I’m still on first base wherewe started. Now let’s try to get to sec-ond again. We still need to get it di-agnosed. That’s second base,” Katiecontinued.

“I already had it diagnosed,” re-peated the caller yet again, withamazing persistance.

“And what did they find out?”“I don’t know. Third base!” They

both answered in unison withoutmissing a beat.

This back and forth call went onfor quite some time. I’m about to fall

off my stool, I’m laughing so hard.

We all know what’s going onhere. It’s not the who, what, or I don’tknow. The customer is saying he hasalready paid someone to check his carout, and they failed to find the prob-lem. So “naturally,” the customer as-sumes that there is no need to pay forthe same thing a second time, sincenothing came out of it the first timearound. (Try that logic when you goto a second doctor for another opin-ion.)

I understand the customer’splight. He wants to know we can fixit before he brings it in. I just wishwhen he got up to bat at the firstshop they would have done a betterjob of explaining the necessary di-agnostic procedures—to make anyrepairs at all —to the customer.Then again, the fees the customerwas charged might have been forother work, and not just for diagnos-tics, but that part never makes it intothe conversation.

The call ended with us none thewiser about the customer’s actualproblem. He simply said, “I can’tbring it today, but I can bring it in to-morrow,” and hung up.

What a relief. Because (he’s inthe outfield) today is the day to fieldwacky phone calls, and I’ve caught allthe foul balls I can stand for one day.I just hope Tomorrow doesn’t end upthrowing me any wild pitches.

Katie was great at umpire. But nomatter how you handle things in theoffice or in the shop, sometimes allyou really want to do is make itaround the bases without gettingtagged or thrown out.

And there’s one more thing I’msure of: I don’t want to end up withthe customer only making a “shortstop” in my shop, because we haven’tseen eye to eye on how the game hasto be played. That is, how the prob-lem needs to be approached and re-solved.

We all know that short stop’sname. It’s the kind of thing you don’twant to hear from a customer or fromthe repair shop. Now, let’s PLAYBALL.

Who’s on First When What Can’t Get to Second?

with Rick WhiteShop Management

with Stefan GesterkampPaint Management

with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox

with Richard ArnoldJobber Journal

with Dale DelmegeAsk Dale

Mainstream Media

Automakers’ Actions and Analysisby Autobody News Staff

Shop Showcaseby Autobody News Staff

with Ed AttanasioShop and Product Showcase

with Ed AttanasioConsumer Callout

with Ed AttanasioCustom Corner

with Chasidy Rae SiskCompany Connections

with Erica SchroederShop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Snapshot

This is a new story by Scott “Gonzo” Weaver as posted on his website,www.gonzostoolbox.com. See his book “Hey Look! I Found The LooseNut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age. The bookis available at amazon.com. Contact Gonzo at [email protected]

Katie

I got a phone call a couple of monthsago from a caller who I didn’t know. Hesounded concerned and very cautious.

“I got your home number fromyour office. I want to talk to someoneat Autobody News, but I don’t want totell you my name.”

I’m not much on whistleblowingbut I’ve been asked this kind of thing be-fore, just not so carefully and cautiously.

“Okay, it will be off the record” Isaid. He got to the point quickly,which was good, because I was atdeadline on an assignment.

“I’m an airbag technician. I’velearned how to service, install andtroubleshoot any type of airbag thatexists and I’ve been doing it for morethan 10 years. At some point, I startedto notice that people were doingsketchy things with the airbags. First itwas a rarity but over time I’ve seenmore and more of it. It’s like a virus—word gets around. Now I see a lot ofpeople who are trying to avoid in-stalling the airbags properly, becausethey don’t want to pay the price ofdoing it the right way.”

Still without naming names ortelling me where he worked, myanonymous contact continued.

“Most of the airbag companiesout there are honest, but the dishonestones are getting away with doing dis-honest things,” he said. “They discon-nect the airbag system and then installa resistor so that the deployment lightwon’t come on. Then, when used carresellers, brokers or individuals buythese vehicles in which the airbags arenot operating and yet appear to be fine.That’s when it becomes dangerous andlife-threatening. Someone could easilyget seriously hurt, or killed.”

My anonymous caller said thatthis type of fraudulent activity has be-come more rampant in this downeconomy. He’s experiencing it mostlywithin the used car industry, whereshady dealers are willing to jerry rigthese airbags, instead of replacingthem. And he even sees a handful ofbody shops cutting corners when itcomes to airbags as well, he said.

“I had to tell somebody, becauseone of these days I’m going to readabout a death caused by an illegallyinstalled airbag and my conscience

will bother me for a long time whenthat happens. And at this rate, it’s def-initely going to happen.”

He hung up, sounding somewhatrelieved, and I decided to look into thesituation.

I called around. Although severalorganizations wouldn’t return phonecalls (The California DMV and theNational Highway Traffic Institute,for example), I found some people inthe know who were more than willingto share their perspectives.

According to my contact at theCoalition Against Insurance Fraud(CAIF) this is the way it works: Anunscrupulous technician will removean airbag after it has deployed in anaccident and make it appear as thoughit’s been replaced. Or, a shady shop orindividual will replace the airbag witha dummy or a sub-par cheaper airbagthat isn’t designed for the vehicle inquestion. This part is disclosed in apress release distributed by the CAIF.

In my search for someone to goon the record, I contacted DougHansen, the president of AirbagSer-vice.com, a company he founded in1992 with 18 locations nationwide.“I’ve experienced a lot of fraudulentand questionable activity in this indus-try for the last 30 years,” Hansen said.That checked out with me becauseairbags have been in use since the ‘70s.

“It’s caused by people who aren’tpaying attention to the right thingsand/or motivated by money. We’ve seenmore fake bags, fake covers, andgarbage work than anyone else outthere.

“Most of the top collision shopsare doing a responsible job followingthe OEM standards,” Hansen contin-ued. “But some people are also gravi-tating more toward doing impropercosmetic work on airbags to savemoney or rushing through repairs tosave time. I see a trend where inferiorairbag repairs are more and more evi-dent within the last two years, and I dobelieve that the recession must havesomething to do with it. Re-paintingthem, for example, is not acceptablefor several reasons, because it also af-fects the braking mechanics of thevinyl. The vinyl is very specificallytuned to the airbag, so it can cause the

airbag to deploy improperly. Morepeople are doing unscrupulous things,trying to get their codes cleared for$49 instead of replacing a mandatorycontroller or, replacing a controller onan airbag system that isn’t required bythe manufacturer because they don’thave the proper scan tools or just notreplacing all the parts needed for aproper repair—these types of thingsare happening. In addition, the pres-sures on the body shops for cycle-time, cost saving and no supplementscan force poor decisions even whensomeone is trying to do the rightthing.”

Hansen said he’s seen a widerange of questionable things done toairbags within the salvage industry,but his stance about salvaged airbagsover the years has changed.

“Our first position is to use newOEM parts per the manufacturer’srecommendations, and we’ve always

been advocates against the use of sal-vaged airbags. Most of our workcomes from responsible body shopsand insurance companies who requirenew airbag system components. Butwe also service the used car industry,rebuilders and retail customers wherewe’re seeing more salvaged airbagsacross the board.

“I’ve softened on the salvagedairbag question more recently, how-ever, because we now know that sal-vaged airbag are going to be used bysome customers and it’s not illegal,”Hansen said. “Although it’s not rec-ommended by the OEM’s, what we’resaying is this—a professional airbagtechnician who at least knows how touse a torque wrench and can programthe proper computer codes can proba-bly work within that realm on certaincars. We’ve taken the position that if aprofessional is installing a set of used


Airbag Fraud Becoming More Prevalent, Experts Say






Mainstream Media









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

See Airbag Fraud, Page 20

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on Honda’s CR-V and Civic were themost compatible in the test in whichan SUV strikes the rear of a car, andat $2,995 the pair had the lowest com-bined estimated damage in this crashtest. The Civic’s $1,274 damage wasthe lowest among the cars. The CR-Vis one of only 3 SUVs whose frontbumpers overlapped half of the rearbumpers on the cars they hit.

“The CR-V’s front bumper over-lapped the Civic’s rear bumper bymore than 2 inches. That may notsound like much, but it’s enough toallow the bumpers to do what they’resupposed to do,” Nolan says.

When the Kia Forte struck theback of the Hyundai Tucson, theirbumpers matched up well enough tokeep the Forte from underriding theSUV, limiting damage to a combined$3,601 for both vehicles. The Forte’s$1,510 repair estimate was the lowestamong cars in the car-into-SUV test.

The Tucson-Forte pair’s bumpersalso did a good job of lining up in theSUV-into-car test. The Tucson’s $850damage estimate was better than the

other SUVs, and it was the only SUVthat didn’t have a damaged air-condi-tioning condenser.

Despite bumpers that aligned, re-sults for the Forte weren’t as good.The Forte had more than $3,000 reardamage because its bumper broke dur-ing impact. The car’s rear body panelalso was damaged.

“Of the 7 car-SUV pairs we tested,we can’t point to a single one as amodel of compatibility because com-bined damage estimates run into thou-sands of dollars for even the bestperformers,” Nolan says. “In the realworld that money comes straight out ofconsumers’ wallets through deductiblesand insurance premiums. RegulatingSUV bumpers would ease the burden.”

Regulate SUV bumpers: The In-stitute in July 2008 petitioned the Na-tional Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration to regulate bumperson SUVs and pickups the same ascars, and require them to match up ina way that shields both vehicles fromcostly damage. The agency in June2009 agreed to seek comments on thepetition but hasn’t moved forwardwith a rulemaking or a low-speedcompliance test for bumpers.

Regulators have long said that re-quiring light trucks to have bumperswould compromise off-road maneuver-ability and make it hard to use thesekinds of vehicles at loading ramps. TheInstitute counters that very few SUVs

and pickups are used off road. In addi-tion, bumpers aren’t the limiting factorin most vehicles’ approach and departureangles. Instead air dams, bumper covers,exhaust pipes, and other trim mountedlower than the bumpers get in the way.


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SUV INTO CARSUV

DamageCar

DamageTotal

Damage1Honda CR-V into Honda Civic $1,721 $1,274 $2,995

Toyota RAV4 into Toyota Corolla $1,434 $2,327 $3,761Hyundai Tucson into Kia Forte $850 $3,223 $4,073

Volkswagen Tiguan into Volkswagen Golf $2,329 $2,058 $4,387Jeep Patriot into Dodge Caliber $1,415 $3,095 $4,510

Ford Escape into Ford Focus $1,470 $3,386 $4,856Nissan Rogue into Nissan Sentra $2,884 $4,560 $7,444

CAR INTO SUVCar

DamageSUV

DamageTotal

DamageKia Forte into Hyundai Tucson $1,510 $2,091 $3,601Dodge Caliber into Jeep Patriot $2,559 $1,338 $3,897Honda Civic into Honda CR-V $4,921 $1,053 $5,974

Volkswagen Golf into Volkswagen Tiguan $4,555 $1,872 $6,427Nissan Sentra into Nissan Rogue $5,114 $1,428 $6,542

Ford Focus into Ford Escape $5,203 $2,208 $7,411Toyota Corolla into Toyota RAV4 $3,852 $6,015 $9,867

Note: The Ford Escape and Focus, Hyundai Tucson, and Volkswagen Golf and Tiguan are 2011 models.All other cars and SUVs are 2010s. Repair costs reflect November 2010 parts and labor prices.

DAMAGE REPAIR COSTS IN 10 MPH FRONT-INTO-REAR CRASH TESTS


Bumpers


airbags at the customer’s request; it’sthe right match (make, model, yearand color of the car) and they are fol-lowing the rest of the manufacturersrecommendations and aren’t doinganything sketchy with the system, it’s

okay. The cus-tomer also needsto understand therisks and acceptsthe liability of thesalvaged partsthey’re having in-stalled. “

The Au-tomotive Recy-cling Association(ARA) is trying toteach its membersabout how to prop-erly handle airbagswhile setting stan-dards that can as-sure safety and

responsibility, and Hansen thinks it’sa smart move for the entire industry,he said.

“The ARA has a program calledARA Pro, where they’ve developedtheir own standards for handling

airbags, which is a positive step in theright direction,” Hansen said. “At leastthere is a group out there that is tryingto do this responsibly. What we’re say-ing and what the industry is realizing ishey—if a car is totaled and the personcan’t afford brand new airbags, recy-cled airbags that are properly matchedwith the particular vehicle, can be anacceptable option. They have to sign arelease and use new electronics, partsand controllers, but if they can do itproperly, using recycled airbags canprovide a reasonable solution.”

Hansen isn’t enamored with theidea of using recycled airbags, but healso realizes that it can be a viable al-ternative if done the right way.

“This is the reality in this industryright now and it’s going to happen re-gardless. So, then you have to ask your-self—what is the responsible way ofdoing things? We can’t bury our headsin the sand because a sector of this busi-ness is going in this direction. Let’smake sure that if they’re making thisdecision and installing recycled airbags,at least it can happen professionally andproperly within guidelines.”

Matt Patterson has owned andoperated AirBagService.com’s SanFrancisco Bay Area businesses inNorthern California since 1995 andhas more than 20 years experience in

the industry, he said. What are themost basic indicators that an airbaghas been tampered with, we askedPatterson.

“Peeling paint and vinyl repairson the airbag cover; if the logo or let-tering on the outside of the airbag inunclear or illegible; if the outsidecolor of the airbag doesn’t match therest of the car’s interior colors; if theairbag warning light doesn’t come on

at all, remains on or if it doesn’t illu-minate when the vehicle’s ignition isturned on, those are the standardthings you’ll discover when an airbaghas been tampered with. People needto look for these tell-tale signs and callus if they have any concerns abouttheir system so it can be inspected.”

How can this industry-wide prob-lem get solved before a slew of in-juries—possible fatal ones—takeplace?

“It’s widespread and it seems tobe growing,” Hansen said. “Wheneverwe catch one of these jerry-riggedairbags, we’re always thinking aboutall of the other ones that are still outthere on the road right now. We can’tstop everything that’s happening, butif responsible people can teach othersthe right way of doing things whilemonitoring and certifying their ownwork, things will improve. We can’tafford to let the standards of our in-dustry slip and we need to educate ourcustomers about the importance ofproper airbag repairs and the risks ofinferior work. When our customersunderstand which shops take theirsafety seriously, it can only help thecollision industry as a whole.”


Airbag Fraud

Doug Hansen isthe president of

AirbagService.comand a 30-year vet-eran of the automo-tive airbag industry.He is also encoun-tering more andmore jerry-riggedairbags during this

recession

Matt Patterson, the owner of severalAirbagService.com branches in NorthernCalifornia has more than 20 years experiencein the industry. He is holding a false airbagshowing where the vinyl on the steeringwheel has been doctored

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“There is a great need for thesehard to find parts. Body shops areblown away by our ability to fulfilltheir specialty part needs”, said BrentTaylor.

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by GCIA

As 2010 draws to close and we lookahead to 2011, the GCIA would like toreview the accomplishments we madein 2010 and focus our efforts for 2011.Following is a recap of events held in2010:

In January, Society of CollisionRepair Specialists (SCRS) ExecutiveDirector, Aaron Schulenburg spoketo our members about the benefits ofbelonging to an Association. He alsodiscussed several key issues that theSCRS had been working on the previ-ous year and their goals for 2010.

In January, we created a newwebsite to better educate the con-sumer and our members on importantissues facing our industry. We up-dated our training page to include allschools in the state that have automo-tive collision programs and created ajob posting board for our members.We also created a monthly newsletterto inform our members about impor-tant events and topics occurring in ourindustry.

In April, the GCIA hosted a FirstResponder Extrication Program forlocal fire fighters and EMT’s. Theevent was held at Sports & ImportsCollision in Duluth. I-CAR instructor,Toby Chess, taught over 135 firefight-ers and first responders the latest in ex-trication techniques and vehicle safety.

The GCIA held two meetingswith the candidates running for theGeorgia Insurance Commissioner’soffice.

These meetings allowed ourmembers to learn more about the can-didates and educate them on the issuesthat are affecting Georgia motorists.

The GCIA conducted our fourthannual labor rate survey of the MetroAtlanta area. Our Association is theonly association in the nation that hascollected this amount of data on laborrates.

With State Farm as the only othercompany that conducts a survey, theGCIA wanted to have another meas-urement of rates in Metro Atlanta area.

GCIA Executive Director,Howard Batchelor, spoke to the at-

tendees of the Collision Industry Con-ference (CIC) in Atlanta in April andChicago in July regarding the laborrate survey we performed.

GCIA Executive Director,Howard Batchelor also spoke at theWashington Metropolitan AutoBody Association (WMABA) meet-ing in June about the challenges wefaced conducting our survey and tooffer ideas to ensure a non biased sur-vey.

In September, BMW of NA andthe GCIA hosted an Insurer Workshopat the Metropolitan Atlanta Auto-mobile Dealers Association(MAADA) in Atlanta. Over 100 In-surers and Collision Industry Profes-sionals attended this meeting to learnthe latest in repair technology andproper repair standards when workingon Aluminum vehicles.

In October, the GCIA hosted our14th Annual Golf Tournament atBradshaw Farms in Woodstock, GA.

As we move into 2011, the GCIAwants to build on these accomplish-ments. Here is a look at some of the

projects we are already working on for2011.

Georgia Insurance CommissionerRalph Hudgens has asked for our as-sistance in establishing a statewideProperty & Casualty Advisory Com-mittee where we can be involved inpolicy making issues that affect ourindustry and Georgia consumers.

Several members of our boardwill be meeting with CommissionerHudgens in early January to discusskey issues that are affecting our in-dustry and Georgia motorists.

Carfax will be our featuredspeaker at our January 20th meetingto discuss their new RAP program andhow shops can ensure accurate data isrecorded on Carfax reports.

The GCIA needs your continuedsupport in 2011. We have an oppor-tunity to have a say in the direction ofour industry and we cannot do it with-out you. Please renew your member-ship today and get involved.

Please visit www.gacollisionin-dustry.wordpress.com for more infor-mation.

Georgia Collision Industry Association Wraps Up 2010’s Accomplishments


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Van Tuyl Dealership Group Acquires Garmat Paint Booths Nationwide

Company Connections

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Company Connections with Ed Attanasio

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

What does a body shop owner expectfrom a paint booth? If you ask one,they’ll probably tell you things like: “Idon’t want to have to worry about it; Iwant to buy one and maintain it, sothat it can last for 20 years; I want it towork for me and not the other wayaround.”

Buying a paint booth is like buy-ing a new car, except to a body shopit’s more important than that. It’s amajor investment and, like a vehicle,owners want their booths to performat a high level while requiring nothingmore than standard maintenance.That’s the mindset body shop ownersand managers are in when they’relooking a paint booth or, in this case,several.

To say that Darren Hugginsbought “several” paint booths is agross understatement. Huggins is theNational Collision Director for theVan Tuyl Auto Group, an enormous

dealership group that manages moreprivately held automotive dealer-ships that any other company in theUnited States. With offices in Ari-zona, Kansas and Texas, the man-agement group works withapproximately 80 independently op-erated dealerships nationwide. Hug-gins oversees the operations of 34collision repair facilities doing ap-proximately $160 million in total an-nual sales, so when he buys paintbooths, for instance, it’s usually avery large acquisition.

The Van Tuyl Auto Groupbought more than 30 paint boothsfrom Garmat in 2010, Huggins said.“We had a hodge-podge of differentequipment in a lot of our facilities andwe decided to do a company-wide up-grade. It was a large investment withGarmat, close to $1.8 million, but wefeel confident in the decision, becausethe booths are proven and well-built.

We looked at a lot of different paintbooths, but in the end we selectedGarmat.”

The Van Tuyl family has had along history with the automotive in-dustry, starting with Cecil Van Tuylwho began managing a Kansas CityChevrolet dealership in 1955. Joinedby his son Larry in 1971, they havebuilt a highly successful managementcompany based on the principles theydescribe as “hiring the right peopleand giving our dealership clients theright tools, training and support thatthey need for success.”

What attracted Huggins and theVan Tuyl Auto Group to Garmat paintbooths? “It’s fairly simple—they havea great product. I have a track recordusing their booths in other positionsI’ve held within this industry, and so Iam very familiar with their capabili-ties and features. Follow-through is

See Garmat Van Tuyl, Page 25

From left, Collision Director Steve Rivette,National Collision Director Darren Huggins andBody Shop Manager of the Van Tuyl AutoGroup were recently on hand to oversee theinstallation of several Garmat paint booths atDavid Maus Toyota in Sanford, Florida

With the average motorist filing an in-surance claim every seven years, any-one, including shop owners, mightbenefit from some tips on how to ap-proach insurance claims, especially ifdistracted in the heat of the moment.

According to the US Departmentof Transportation, about 255 millionpassenger vehicles are registered inthe United States. Traffic congestionis a fact of life on most of our streetsand highways. With all this conges-tion, combined with impatient, dis-tracted, or reckless drivers, accidentsare bound to occur. That keeps us inbusiness, but it may be much moreproblematic for us as individuals inour own collisions.

With more passenger vehiclesthan any other country in the world,the volume of traffic congestion onour streets and highways make itlikely that you or someone in yourfamily will be involved in an accident.

In my family, my wife, mymother and my niece were involved inseparate traffic accidents recently.

A vehicle sped through an inter-section, ran a red light and hit mywife’s car. Both air bags deployed andthe car was declared a total loss. Luck-ily, my wife wasn’t hurt physically,other than a bruise from the seat beltand airbag restraints that protected herfrom serious bodily injury.

A few days later my mother’s carwas sideswiped by another driverwhile driving on a busy street. Then, afew days after that, my niece was in-volved in an eight-car pileup that senther to the hospital and totaled her car.Again, no serious injuries in eithercase.

That’s the “good news” withmost auto accident claims; Personalinjury isn’t the problem.

“Sixty-three cents of every claimdollar [pays for] physical damage on

your car,” says John Eager, senior di-rector of claims services for the Na-tional Association of IndependentInsurers (NAII).

Filing auto insurance claims re-quires basic steps whether personal in-jury is involved or not. However, apersonal injury claim may require adifferent level of proof and persistencethan a vehicle damage claim.

Also, insurance regulations varyfrom state to state, but the basic stepsto take information needed to file aclaim are fairly similar.

The claims process for vehicledamage is simple in principle: (1) Youmake a claim; (2) The adjuster esti-mates the cost to repair the damage;and (3) The insurance company sendsa check for that amount to you or thebody shop to pay for the repairs.

Negotiating the maze of require-ments from insurers makes the claimsprocess anything but simple to thosenot familiar with the simple steps nec-essary to complete a successful claim.

“Proof of damage or injury” is re-quired by every insurance claim be-fore an insurer will pay.

For auto claims, Eager says thereare five elements of proof that willcome into play: (1) What you tell theinsurance companies; (2) What theother party tells them; (3) A police re-port; (4) Witnesses; and (5) Physicaldamage at the scene.

Here are eight tips to keep withyou and pass along to your family,customers and friends:

# 1) At the accident scene, Call911. Get police and medical help ifnecessary. Most important: Remem-ber that you’ll need a police report.Some police officers may try to avoidtaking an accident report in parkinglots or where the damage appearssmall. INSIST on an accident report.

# 2) Exchange information withthe other parties involved: licenseplate numbers, contact informationand auto insurance information. Moststates require drivers to have an insur-ance identification card in the vehiclethat will provide most of the necessaryinformation. Make sure to get phonenumbers, names, addresses, wherethey work, etc. Make notes on anypertinent information regarding acci-

dent.# 3) Find witnesses willing to tell

what they saw and get their statementand contact information. If you are un-able to gather information at thescene, the police report can be a back-up source of information on the otherparties involved and witnesses.

# 4) Notify your insurance com-pany as soon as possible. Call your in-surer from a cell phone right from thescene. Many insurers have 24-hourclaim-filing service by phone. Re-gardless of who’s at fault you shouldfile the claim with your own insurancecarrier.

# 5) If the other party is at fault,advise the other party’s insurancecompany that you’re pursuing a claimthrough your carrier and will seek re-imbursement for costs your carrierwill not pay, including your collisioninsurance deductible, time off work,auto rental differential and the amountof your diminished resale value.

# 6)You’ll get a phone call fromthe other company asking for yourversion of events that led to the acci-dent. Be prepared for this.

# 7) The adjuster comes up withan estimate of what it will take to re-store your damaged vehicle (or re-place it, if it’s totaled). Then, theinsurance company will cut a check inthe amount of the repair, minus anycollision deductible amount.

# 8) (For disputed cases) If youfeel your insurer’s damage settlementoffer is too low, ask for “arbitration”to settle the dispute. This process maytake two to six weeks, but in mostcases you won’t have to wait for pay-ment. The insurance company shouldpay you the amount it offered imme-diately, and you’ll get the rest whenand if the dispute is resolved in yourfavor.

On the other hand, if you disagreewith an offer from the other party’s in-surer, you may or may not be offeredsuch dispute resolution. If not and theamount in dispute is significant, itmay be worthwhile to take legal ac-tion.

My friend, J. D. Howard, a re-tired insurance adjuster who co-founded the Insurance ConsumerAdvocate Network (I-CAN), based in


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An Insurance Adjuster’s Tips for Consumer Insurance Claims

with Kathy Steck-FlynnAutobody CSI

with Kathy Steck-FlynnAutobody CSI

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Say What?!

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Mike Causey is a consumer advocate and lobbyist for the Independent Auto Body Association (IABA), in additionto Non-profits such as alternative healthcare groups (Citizens for Healthcare Freedom, NC Reflexology Associa-tion), Organic farming and Healthy Eating. Mike is a writer and speaker on numerous consumer issues and legis-lation. Mailing address: Causey & Associates, P.O. Box 16725, Greensboro, NC 27416 Email: [email protected]: (336) 210-1947


Branson West, Missouri, says, “Insiston a report. If [officers] won’t file atraffic accident report, insist on an in-cident report. You want an independ-ent, disinterested record of whathappened. You’d be amazed at howoften the other driver’s story willchange.”

The police officer may plead “nojurisdiction” if the accident happens ina parking lot. Insist on an incident re-port, Howard says. If the accident isin a mall or other facility that has a se-curity force, ask security to file a re-port. In a lot without any security, aska shop owner to make a statement.

“You want to get something inwriting,” Howard says, because “in-surance companies are obliged to be-lieve the story given to them by theirown policyholder” unless there’sproof to the contrary.

Finding of fault is very importantwhen it comes to auto insuranceclaims. There are rental car and di-minished value issues, time off fromwork, and whether or not your insur-ance rates go up.

According to Eager and the Na-tional Association of Independent In-surers (NAII), the majority of states

have adopted “comparative negli-gence,” a concept based on the ideathat no one party is necessarily com-pletely at fault, but that fault is just amatter of degree. The “degree offault” may determine how much yoursettlement is “reduced.”

“You have rights with your own[insurer] that you don’t have with the

other party’s insurance,” Howardsays. This includes the right to aprocess for resolving disputes overwhat expenses should be covered bythe insurance.

Have the patience to take an un-conventional route that will be chal-lenged by the insurer, Howardbelieves that if the other party is atfault, you should file claims with bothcarriers.

“You cannot collect twice for thesame thing,” he says. However, under“multiple source recovery,” he adds,

“you can collect from two sources andput the checks in a kitty and decidehow much was paid for what.”

This means itemizing every ex-pense involved, and which insurancecheck paid for which expense. At theend of the process, you submit theitemized list to your insurer. Then, ifthere’s anything left in the “kitty”, you

write a check for the overage to yourown insurer.

“Especially with an injury claim,you’d want to check with your insur-ance carrier to see what statementsyou need to make to the other insur-ance carrier.”

Make written notes about youraccident. Don’t trust your memory.Write down exactly what you will tellthe other insurer so that in case of alawsuit your statement will remainconsistent. The other insurer will betaping your statement and will have

your exact words at their disposal.Consumers don’t know that if an

insurance company has a direct repairprogram (DRP), the adjuster mightnot even have to come out, Eagersays. Under the DRP, their insurancecompany will refer them to a shopwith which they have an agreement.So, depending on the DRP agreement,the damage claim estimate may bedone by the shop itself, the shop won’thave to wait to start repairs and thecheck can be transmitted right to theshop, Eager says. The body shop mayalso make their own arrangements fora rental vehicle if the customer needsone.

If the adjuster “Totals the car,”the adjuster will estimate compensa-tion on the actual cash value (ACV ordepreciated value) of the vehicle be-fore the accident, essentially enablingpurchase of a similar used car. How-ever, if the auto insurance policy has“replacement cost value,” the estimatewill cover the cost of buying a similarnew vehicle.

Getting the claim settled more ef-ficiently and with less frustration willbe the likely result of following theabove claims tips.

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the majority of states have adopted “comparativenegligence”... based on the idea that no one partyis necessarily completely at fault, but... it may be amatter of degree... affecting settlement amounts.

S.C. Pre-files LegislationReflecting NCOIL ModelParts ActSouth Carolina state Sen. DavidThomas, R-Seneca, pre-filed legisla-tion mirroring that of the NationalConference of Insurance Legislators’(NCOIL) Model Act RegardingMotor Vehicle Crash Parts and Repair.

The Automotive Service Associ-ation (ASA) opposes the Model Act.An amendment to the NCOIL ModelAct that equated certified aftermarketcrash parts with original equipmentmanufacturer parts (OEM) failedwhen considered before the NCOILProperty-Casualty Insurance Com-mittee at its annual meeting in Austin,Texas.

ASA raised concerns with sec-tions of the proposed act at theNCOIL spring and summer meetings,and at the organization’s annualmeeting in November. NCOIL’sProperty-Casualty Insurance Com-mittee delayed a final decision ateach of these meetings.

ASA encourages independent re-pairers to go to the ASA legislativewebsite, www.TakingTheHill.com, toreview the South Carolina legislation.Previous ASA testimony submitted toNCOIL and other NCOIL-related itemscan also be viewed on the website.

Ford Fiesta, Mini Cars, See SlowSales, Compacts DominateCompact cars are selling much betterthan small cars these days. The com-pact class is seeing new models gettingbigger as the subcompacts take up theirformer position on show floors as theentry-level models.

In what could be considered itsfirst full month of sales, Chevy’s newCruze sold 8,066 units, which is a goodnumber. The much-maligned Cobalt itreplaces sold 5,112 units during No-vember last year, likely at much lowertransaction prices.

Volkswagen’s new Jetta helpedoverall Jetta sedan sales climb to 8,955,a 49% increase over last year.Hyundai’s new Elantra just went onsale in the final days of November, to-taling 192 units, while the 2010 stillmanaged an impressive 8,439 units.Sales of the Mazda3 rose 9.3% to 6,474while Mazda’s all-new Mazda2 sold462 units in its first full month on sale.

Don’t cry for Ford, though, be-cause its soon-to-be replaced Focussaw sales jump 27.8% to 13,030.

The outlook for new compactcars like the Cruze, Jetta and upcom-ing Focus seems positive, while com-pact SUVs and midsize sales remainsteady. The only cars that seem to befloundering are the smallest ones outthere.

also very important. Whenever Gar-mat’s people tell me something, ithappens. I have developed a solid re-lationship with the General Manager,Johan Huwaert and they have given ussome amazing support, so it’s been asound business decision in everyway.”

Longevity is the key with a paintbooth, and if you don’t take care ofit, it can end up being a money-

draining expense rather than a sageinvestment, Huggins explained.“Treat it like a new car and it willperform for you. The biggest thingis how it will do 10-15 years fromnow. When I look at a paint booth,the first thing I want to know is howit’s built. Will it hold up for morethan a decade? Next, I want to ana-lyze the moving parts of the booth—how the heating elements andheaters engage and how quickly

they get up to tempera-ture. It’s all about cycletimes in this industryright now, as we allknow. When I take thecar from the customerup until when I returnit, the clock is running.The reality is this— thetime we spend on a carhas to be minimized inany way we can. In thepast, 10–14 days wasconsidered okay, butguess what—that does-n’t work now.

Consistency is another majorconcern with a paint booth’s perform-ance, Huggins said.

“I need those paint booths to dowhat they’re supposed to every time.I need my ambient temperature to re-ally climb quickly, and Garmat’sheating process and the way thewhole flow of the booth works verywell. The other part of the system fea-tures their Accele-Cure® air accelera-tor system, a drying component to aidin the waterborne procedures. We’veconverted 26 of our locations to wa-terborne and in the shops with olderbooths, I’ve installed Accele-Cure inall of them, and they do an outstand-ing job.”

The success they’ve achievedwith their waterborne paint processrelies heavily on Garmat’s Accele-Cure, Huggins explained. “With thewaterborne, you can actually seethe water dissipate on the panel andthat’s how you know it’s time forthe next coat. After you apply thatinitial coat, the fans up aboveand/or the handheld dryers will dothe job effectively by providing theproper amount of air movement.The painter uses the handheld dry-ers just like a blow dryer and, be-tween the two types of fans, itworks great. Garmat’s accelerated

drying system flashes waterbornepaint better than anything we’veused. The bottom line is that it di-rects higher volume of airflow di-rectly at the vehicle, and that’s whatwe expect.”

Huggins has changed his facili-ties to waterborne for all the right rea-sons, he said. “That’s where thetechnology is going. It’s so much bet-ter for the environment, so it was ano-brainer for us. We use PPG Envi-robase waterborne paint, and in con-junction with our partners at Garmat,it’s really elevated us to a higherlevel. Going waterborne was a hugemove for us, and it’s already paid off.To do whatever we can do to help theplanet is a big deal and as a largecompany, it’s even more important.”

The Van Tuyl Auto Group mustbe doing something right, becausethe company’s numbers are slightlyup, during a rocky period for the col-lision repair industry overall, Hug-gins said.

“We’re very pleased, because ourindustry as a whole is off drastically,but our sales are up considerably com-pared to the market. That’s not a huge


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New Garmat paint booths were recently installed at David MausToyota in Sanford, Florida, a dealer member of the Van Tuyl AutoGroup

More than a dozen associations wererepresented at a gathering in Dallas,Texas, as SCRS held its fifth annual“Affiliate Leadership Conference.”SCRS Chairman Barry Dorn said theevent is designed to help the nationalassociation gather input from its stateaffiliates on its direction and efforts,as well as to help those groups workwith one another and with the nationalorganization.

A num-ber of the associa-tions reporting onefforts they aremaking to workwith state regula-tors to address is-sues and concerns.James Brown of

the Houston Auto Body Association,for example, said the association suc-cessfully pushed the Texas Depart-ment of Insurance to conduct a 4-pagesurvey of five top insurers in thatstate, asking questions about labor ratedetermination, shop referrals to con-sumers, DRP agreements, reimburse-ment caps or thresholds and otherclaims practices by the insurers (seecover this issue.)

Brown said the survey wasprompted by a petition circulated by ahandful of Texas shops asking the In-surance Department to request claimsprocessing procedures and informa-tion from the insurers.

Larry Cernosek, owner of DeerPark Paint & Body in Pasadena,Texas, a member of the Houston asso-

ciation, presentedthe petition to theInsurance Depart-ment, and helpedreview drafts ofthe survey ques-tions. He also filedan Open RecordsAct request with

the Department to receive copies ofthe responses.

Also at the Dallas meeting, Mon-tana shop owner Bruce Halcro, pres-ident of the Montana Collision RepairSpecialists, said among that group’sactivities is an effort to educate regu-lators about the issue of paint capping,and to change how shop estimators are

categorized in terms of workers’ com-pensation insurance premiums. Halcro

said premiums forinsurance com-pany estimatorsare 26 percent ofthose charged forshop estimators,and the associa-tion believes therisk of on-the-job

injuries —and thus the rates—for bothtypes of estimators should be compa-rable.

“How can my estimator be ahigher risk doing the exact same thingas someone who is driving aroundtown all day when my estimatorspends all day in an office,” Halcrosaid.

Associations address legislationLegislation also continues to be a keyfocus for many of the associationsmeeting in Dallas. Janet Chaney ofthe Iowa Collision Repair Associationsaid that group plans to take anotherrun in 2011 at legislation addressingthe issue of shops not being reim-bursed for state sales tax paid on paintand materials purchases.

Judell Anderson of the Allianceof Automotive Service Providers(AASP) of Minnesota said her groupwould likely push similar sales taxlegislation again in her state this com-ing year. She said the association wassuccessful this year in getting lan-guage on the issue included in boththe state House and Senate tax bills,but it was opposed by the Governorwho viewed it as a new tax, somethinghe’d pledged not to allow. The associ-ation argued it was not a new tax;shops currently pay tax on the whole-sale cost of materials but cannot col-lect it at the retail level because theycharge for materials on a per-labor-hour rather than itemized basis. ButAnderson said she feels confident lastyear’s effort has set the groundworkfor success on the issue in 2011.

Jordan Hendler, executive di-rector of the Washington MetropolitanAuto Body Association (WMABA),said the association is pleased withchanges it helped craft to total lossregulations in Maryland. Repair costs

related to paint, plastic parts and other“cosmetic” aspects of repair no longermust be included in the salvage calcu-lation under a new law that went intoeffect this past October. Two yearsago, the state mandated branding of avehicle’s title when repair costs ex-ceeded 75 percent of the vehicle’svalue. The new law passed earlier thisyear excludes the cost of towing, stor-age or vehicle rental from the calcula-tion, as well as a list of “cosmetic”items worked out by Maryland’s de-partment of motor vehicles, state po-lice, insurers and the WMABA.

“It’s going to save a lot of carsfrom being totaled,” Hendler said.

Hendler said she expects the as-sociation will also have to fight (as itdid successfully this year) an effort inVirginia next year to raise the thresh-old of damage requiring a flood-dam-aged vehicle to receive a branded titlefrom $1,000 to $5,000.

Hawaii shop owner MadisonSpotts, representing the AutomotiveBody Painting Association of Hawaii,

said the group in2010 successfullydefeated legisla-tion introduced inthat state related tothe use of salvagedairbags. The bill,which was craftedbased on model

legislation approved by the NationalConference of Insurance Legislators(NCOIL) in 2009, would have estab-lished criminal penalties for fraudu-lent installation of an airbag, andwould have required shops to main-tain detailed records of airbags theypurchase, sell or install.

Spotts said the association wasconcerned that the legislation also setforth guidelines regulating – and somewould say endorsing – the use of sal-


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SCRS Affiliate Groups Help Members with Industry Issues

with Ed Attanasio

Shop and Product Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase



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].

Madison Spotts

James Brown

Larry Cernosek

Bruce Halcro

increase, but in a very down time,we’re very proud of that. And work-ing with top vendors such as Garmatis definitely major part of that equa-tion.”

Garmat USA was established in1988 to provide quality refinish equip-ment to the North American Market.The company’s corporate offices,

manufacturing facility, R&D andtraining facilities are located in En-glewood, Colorado.

The company’s mission state-ment on their Web site tells it all.“Garmat USA’s mission is to provideinnovative and cutting edge techno-logically advanced products that en-hance your facility’s productivity andprofitability, while providing an envi-ronmentally safe atmosphere for therefinish technician.”

“All Garmat USA cabins and me-

chanical units are designed and manu-factured at our Englewood, Coloradofacility. Each unit is built for your spe-cific application. By manufacturingour own complete air handling sys-tems, we can ensure consistent per-formance with leading edge

technology, for a constantly changingindustry. We strive to provide the bestdistributor network with the finest in-stallation and service personnelthroughout the industry and we pledgeto stand behind our representativesand products.”


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vage airbags. Auto recyclers were alsoopposing an important clause in thebill that would have required anyoneinstalling a salvage airbag to place apermanent label on the vehicle’s dash-board indicating that a salvage airbaghad been installed.

Spotts said she thinks proponentsof the use of salvage airbags sawHawaii as a potential “easy state” to getsuch legislation enacted in, so its defeatwas particularly important, she said.

Discussion of data privacyIn addition to association reports likethese, Aaron Schulenburg, executivedirector of SCRS, discussed in Dallas

some of the association’s recent and fu-ture efforts on a national level. Privacyof a shop’s estimating and managementdata is becoming more of a concern, hesaid, as the information providers movetoward “cloud computing,” in whichthat data is stored remotely on theprovider’s computers rather than theshop’s. Schulenburg said the associa-tion is hearing from more and moreshops concerned that the privacy agree-ments with vendors do not seem ade-quate to address this issue.

“In addition to protecting theshop’s customer data, we also have tobe concerned about our own shop databeing compiled and potentially used

against us,” Schulenburg said.Fred Iantorno, executive director

of the Collision Industry ElectronicCommerce Association (CIECA) and aguest speaker at the SCRS event, saidimplementation of CIECA’s “BMS”standard would give shops more con-trol over which of its data it shares withother parties. Currently, he said, themajor estimating system providers usea different standardized format(“EMS”) to transfer data from the es-timating system to the shop manage-ment system, insurer or other vendors.

Under EMS, Iantorno said, virtu-ally all of the information from an es-timate is transferred. But the BMS

standard would enable a shop, for ex-ample, to transfer only the parts datafrom an estimate to the parts vendor. Itcould also potentially save shopsmoney by making possible true free-dom-of-choice of estimating system,and potentially eliminating the needfor rekeying data into other systemsfor CSI, paint and parts ordering, etc.

Iantorno said the informationproviders say they have not moved tothe BMS standard because they havenot seen repairers asking for such achange. That’s an issue that SCRS andits state affiliate groups meeting inDallas discussed trying to address inthe coming months.

Headquarters:8333 Royal Ridge ParkwaySuite 130Irving, Texas 75063(972) 536-2900

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Nissan Leaf Officially On Sale in U.S. Dec. 11Nissan made good on its promise tostart delivering the Leaf hatchback EVbefore the end of the year, with its firstdelivery globally made to a customer inNorthern California on Dec. 11 accord-ing to reports made by Green Car Ad-visor.

A Nissan spokeswoman at thecompany's North American headquar-ters in Tennessee confirmed the Dec. 11on-sale date for the U.S. to Green CarAdvisor December 3 after Nissan inJapan announcing a Dec. 20 saleslaunch date in that country.

Other U.S. states are expected toget a handful of Leafs before year's endinclude Arizona, Washington, Oregonand Tennessee.

Nissan will begin a European roll-out - as well as deliveries in Canada andother U.S. states in 2011 and also con-firmed this morning that Leaf deliveriesin Mexico will begin in mid-2011.

The Leaf is the first modern mass-produced electric passenger vehicle andis expected to be followed in the nextfew years by battery-electric andrechargeable plug-in hybrid cars andlight trucks from most of the world'sautomakers, a list that includes Ford,General Motors, Mitsubishi, Toyota,Honda, Subaru, Renault, Peugeot, Cit-roen, Opel, Audi, Volkswagen, Mer-cedes-Benz, Smart, BMW, FiskerAutomotive, Tesla Motors, and a num-ber of Chinese car makers.

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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

by Ed Attanasio

Ed is filling in for Rich this month be-cause Rich is up to his axles with hisprojects. It gives Ed a chance to re-port on some exciting developments.Rich has a lot of things going on, asdo many custom builders, but whoelse has his own academy of customdesign and fabrication? Read on.

They don’t have a football team orcheerleaders, but now the Ohio Tech-nical College (OTC) has something noother institution of higher educationcan offer its students. It’s called theRich Evans Academy (REA), and it’sthe newest division within the auto-motive curriculum at OTC, the largesttechnical college of its kind in thecountry. Last year, the school was se-lected as the best top technical college

in the nation.The REA will open its doors and

kick off its first 12-week module infall 2011, after getting all the ap-provals from the accreditation board,according to OTC’s Vice President ofEnrollment Management/TechnicalTraining Tom King. The program’scapacity will be 25 students four timesper year for a total of 100. We expectit to really take off. We train 200 autobody students annually in our college

and we imagine that many of themwill be attracted to the Rich’s curricu-lum.”

OTC is thrilled to be associatedwith Rich Evans for obvious reasons,King said. “We’re pleased to be part-nering with Rich and we’re lookingforward to tapping into his hugereservoir of skills and knowledge. Hewill bring his excitement for this in-dustry to the school and we know thatour students will benefit on many lev-els.”

Evans was amazed by the pro-grams at OTC when he first visitedthe college a few years ago, he said.“My first impression of OTC was thatthis school is where I’d like to be if Iwere back in school. They care abouttheir students and their futures. Youcan tell when you attend functions atthe school and see the layout of theirfacilities. They’re always trying tomake their curriculum better by of-fering a wide range of great pro-grams. They want their students tolearn and grow, and they place somany of their students in great jobsthat it proves the value of what theyteach.”

A lot has changed in the world ofautomotive technology since OhioTechnical College opened its doors 40years ago. With V8 muscle cars mak-ing way for high-tech hybrids and thedays of do-it-yourself repairs being re-placed by professional technicianservice, the college is proud to be onthe cutting edge of every aspect of au-tomotive technology.

King knows that REA will hope-fully produce a great car new genera-tion of automotive restorationprofessionals that will be attractive tobody shops throughout the country, hesaid.

“The school is always looking tooffer its students the latest and great-est in the world of car restoration,paint techniques and customization,and by aligning itself with top in-structors and sponsoring companies,we’re stepping up in a big way,” Kingsaid. “By creating the Rich EvansAcademy, a special division of thecollege’s curriculum that hopes tooffer those students who want to de-velop new skills under the tutelage of

Rich Evans.”What was the genesis of the REA?

“It’s a program that Rich and I came upwith together to really teach customiz-ing cars in-depth and impart his ad-vanced autobody techniques with thisprogram,” King said. We’ll be video-taping everything Rich does for us, sothat students can refer to them at anytime. It’s a great tool for studying all ofhis techniques in detail.”

The classes offered by the REAwill be geared toward the advancedOTC students, King explained.“We’re going to incorporate many ofthe unique skills that Rich has devel-oped over the years, including his wayof doing things and creating an organ-ized and methodical way of workingand bring them to the college. TheREA will be an advanced automotiverepair program for those students whoreally want to excel.

“Another component Rich willoffer to the college includes his addi-tional frame straightening techniquesto complement what we’re alreadyteaching,” King said. “He’s going toshare his theories on pulling framesthat he uses to help students to bemore efficient in the field.”

The REA will also teach its stu-dents how to organize the productionprocess, Evans-style, King said. “Oneof the things Rich does is designs andbuilds his own workstations, andwe’re going to incorporate them into

our program. For hammer and dollywork, we’ve got a workstation thatthey can build for themselves, to storetheir tools for the program. Helpingour students to be organized in theirwork is very important, because we’reteaching them how to be effective in ashop environment.”

Other classes as part of the REA’scurriculum will include specialized in-struction in paint, fabrication and tool-

ing, just to mention a few, King said.“We’ll be teaching advanced re-

moval techniques; waterborne paint-ing techniques; different spray outmethods; and proper PSI to use fordifferent types of paint. All of our air-brushing is done using waterbornepaint. Rich is going to get into fiber-glass and plexi glass fabricating tocreate your own plugs and molds; ad-vanced TIG welding; and fabricationtooling; smoothing and curving metalusing the English wheel punishinghammer. Those are some of the thingswe’re looking to do at the REA.”

Skilled students will be able tospread their wings in a big way at theREA, King said. “These are more ad-vanced autobody techniques that canhelp students to hone their skills a lit-tle more and develop their techniqueseven further. If our students want toget more into customization work,these classes will lay the foundationfor those skills. They will be able tolearn things that you wouldn’t nor-

Rich Evans’ Academy Becomes Reality at Ohio Technical College

The Rich Evans Academy will launch this fallto provide advanced automotive bodyworkclasses at the Ohio Technical College

Tom King received the 2009 National College of the Year Award on behalf of the OTC in 2009


mally see in your average auto bodyshop.”

King has also added some dutiesto Evans’s role at OTC, he explained.“We’re bringing Rich in as a “MasterAdvisor” to help us evaluate and im-prove the existing Collision Repairand Classic Car Restoration programs.In this capacity, Rich will be workingclosely with staff and student andmaking recommendations to the col-lege on how to improve curriculum,training methods and utilize the mostcurrent advanced techniques used inthe industry.”

Ohio Technical College (OTC)began in 1969 as the Ohio DieselMechanics School, conducting six -week diesel training courses inCleveland’s Warehouse district.Founded by Julius Brenner, theschool began hitting its many growthspurts in 1971 as the demand fordiesel tech training grew at a rapidpace and students moved into alarger facility to accommodateproper equipment. From that day inthe early 1970s, the school hasn’tstopped expanding, changing itsname several times—first to theOhio Diesel Technical Institute, then

to Ohio Auto/Diesel Technical Insti-tute and the Ohio Auto Diesel Tech-nical College—before deciding onOhio Technical College in Septem-ber 1997 to reflect its mission to pro-vide premier technical training in theworld of modern mechanics.

In 1989, a building purchaseadded 500,000 square feet to the com-plex and the school created the Mo-torcycle and Small Engine Training

Program. In 1993, the college wasone of 133 technical schools nation-wide to participate in the Federal Gov-ernments New Direct Loan Program.

Today, Julius’ son Marc Brennerserves as president of OTC while hisgrandson Jordan Brenner is the admis-

s ions /marke t ingmanager of this fam-ily-owned school.More than 1,000 stu-dents are enrolledand 190 full-timeemployees work atthe college. Newlypurchased buildingsand houses are beingconverted into class-rooms and parkinglots to expand thecampus footprint.Most recently, theschool’s branchcampus Power-Sports Institute (PSI)has moved into a210,000-square-foot

facility in nearby North Randall, Ohio,to provide technical training on motor-cycles, snowmobiles, personal water-craft, ATVs and more.

Drawing students from all overthe country, OTC is an AccreditingCommission of Career Schools andColleges of Technology (ACCSCT)college. Students can choose from awide variety of techniciantraining programs in Automotive,Diesel, Auto-Diesel, Collision Repair,Classic Car Restoration and Power-Sport Technology as well as special-ization in High Performance andRacing, BMW, Alternative Fuel Vehi-cles, CDL Truck Driver Training, Cus-tom Paint and Graphics, PowerGenerator Systems and a 12-monthWelding Program partnered with Lin-coln Electric.

“It’s important for the college togive back to the industry and com-munity by partnering with qualitymanufacturers and local businesses tocreate real-world training situationsfor our future technicians,” addsKing. “The Ohio Technical Collegeteam is extremely proud of our stu-dents as well as our academic pro-grams in the automotive andpowersports industries. We look for-ward to another exciting, rewardingand successful year for the students,staff and school.”

Rich Evans (left) is ready to impart his skills and knowledge toOTC’s students alongside Director of Enrollment Tom King (right)

Ray LaHood Fights Loophole Favoring Drunk DriversToo many motorists stopped for sus-pected alcohol impairment havefound that just saying no to a requestfor a roadside breath test improvestheir odds of beating a conviction,federal authorities say.

“We know that refusing abreathalyzer is a persistent, ongoingproblem,” said U.S. TransportationSecretary Ray LaHood. “There’s aloophole here.”

Announcing a “no refusal” strat-egy December 13 as part of a holidaycrackdown on drunken driving, La-Hood said the federal government isadvising law officers to use a searchwarrant to quickly obtain a blood testfrom drivers who have refused to takea breath test.

“We know people are going totry and find ways to get out of verybad, dangerous behavior,” he said,“and we’re not going to let that hap-pen.”

The strategy—already beingused in nine states—involves havinglocal judges on call for requestsfrom police for a search warrant in asuspected case of alcohol impair-ment, just as is done to authorize asearch for illicit drugs during a traf-fic stop.

Only in this case, the blood testis the means of obtaining evidence.

Additional personnel trained in

blood collection also are part of the ef-fort. LaHood, at a news conferenceheld in the lobby of the ArlingtonCounty Detention Center, was flankedby a variety of state and local policeofficers from around the country, someof whom told reporters their testing ofthe program is already showing it tobe a success.

Sheriff Craig Webre ofLafourche Parish, Louisiana, told re-porters that if drivers “refuse to sub-mit to a blood-alcohol test, the deputywill apply to the court for a searchwarrant, ordering the subject to sub-mit to a blood test.”

“This process enhances the abil-ity of the prosecutor to close loop-holes and criminally prosecute drunkdrivers,” he said.

The law supports the strategy insome 30 states, but most of them arenot currently using the warrant initia-tive, officials said.

Meanwhile, based on 2005 fig-ures, nearly one in four suspecteddrunken drivers refuses a breath test,according to an average of reportsfrom 38 states.

LaHood blames defense attor-neys who counsel repeat offenders toavoid providing scientific evidence—the results of a breath test—that couldhelp convict them when a drunkendriving case comes to trial.

Jeff’s Auto Body Repair, in Austin,TX, was founded in 1971 and hasbeen family-run ever since. Theshop’s owner, Jeff Sessler, opened theshop 39 years ago and has his son, JoeSessler, working in the shop with him.

The shop has 25,000 square feetof work space and employs 20 people.Jeff’s grosses about $2.5 million peryear, but has seen years as high as $3million, especially during a year witha hail storm, according to JoeSessler.

The shop has about 50 carsgoing in and out of bays permonth.

Jeff’s not only does not haveany direct repair program (DRP)relationships with any insurancecompanies, they take an aggres-sive stance against these relation-ships in their business completely.

“We work for the customer,not the insurance company pay-ing for the claim,” said Joe.

Jeff’s believes that by not havingpreset relationships with any insurersthey can dictate how their repairs areperformed based on the customer’swants and needs.

“By doing this, there is not a con-flict of interest in how the repairs areperformed,” said Joe.

At Jeff’s they feel this policy al-lows them to openly discuss claimswith customers without fear of losing

a contract with an insurancecompany.

Customer satisfaction is ofthe utmost importance at Jeff’sbecause they have always de-pended on customer referrals andrepeat customers as their mainsource of business.

“Our main goal is to providethe customer with high qualityrepairs and factory replacementparts,” said Joe.

Jeff’s not only upholds a noDRP standpoint in their opera-tions, they also make a point to

educate customers on how the pro-grams work.

“We do take an aggressive ap-proach on educating the consumerabout the DRP programs, and what kind

of parts and repairs that can be expectedwithin the guidelines established by theinsurance companies,” said Joe.

Jeff’s also makes their stance onthis issue and an abundance of infor-mation about DRPs available on their

website at www.jeffsautobodyre-pair.com.

Jeff’s centers their businesson doing high-quality repairs andwarrants all work done for life.

“The heavy use of salvageand aftermarket parts limits theability of DRP’s to do highquality repairs,” said Joe. “Wewould rather spend more timeconcentrating on the integrity ofour workmanship, than makingsure that we use inferior partsand repairs tactics to save the insurance companies money.”

Although Jeff’s does not haveany direct repair relationships with in-surers, they do process insuranceclaims as normal for customers.

For more information please visitwww.jeffsautobodyrepair.com.

6614 N. LamarAustin, TX 78752512-452-3373


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Shop and Product Showcase

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Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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

(l-r) Owner Jeff Sessler, Joe Sessler and Donny Barkerat the front desk

Street view and sign

Inside the shop area

An outdoor storage area for finished vehicles waitingto be picked up

Jeff’s Auto Body Repair in Austin, TX, Steers Clear of Direct Repair Programs

Texas Driver Records Now Available OnlineThe Texas Department of PublicSafety announced that Texas driverscan now order their driving records on-line and print them out immediately in-stead of waiting to have the recordmailed to them, according to reportsmade by Insurance Journal.

“We are pleased to offer this newservice, which is available 24/7 to ourcustomers. The convenience of order-ing your driver record online and thenprinting it out yourself will save every-

one time and money,” said RebeccaDavio, the DPS Assistant Director forDriver License. Previously, driverscould order their driver record onlinebut had to wait to receive their recordvia the U.S. Postal Service.

Now, drivers can place their orderusing a credit card and their driver li-cense, and then print out their record,which is available in a certified version.

To order a driver record online,visit www.texas.gov.


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NHTSA Proposes MandatoryBackup Cameras in New CarsU.S. auto-safety regulators proposedrequiring backup cameras on all newvehicles by 2014, under a rule releasedDecember 6 intended to prevent driv-ers from backing over pedestrians.

The National Highway TrafficSafety Administration, which pub-lished the proposed rule, said an aver-age of 292 people die each year fromback-over accidents, which primarilykill children and the elderly.

“There is no more tragic accidentthan for a parent or caregiver to backout of a garage or driveway and kill orinjure an undetected child playing be-hind the vehicle,” Transportation Sec-retary Ray LaHood said in a statement.

The rule will benefit supplierssuch as Gentex Corp., said DavidLeiker, an analyst with Baird EquityResearch. He said in a research notethat Gentex’s rear-camera display sys-tem, with an LCD screen that is visiblewhen the vehicle is in reverse, wouldsatisfy NHTSA’s proposed require-ments.

A rule to enhance rear-view visi-bility for drivers was required by a2007 law named after Cameron Gul-bransen, a 2-year- old from New Yorkwho died after his father accidentallybacked over him.

U.S. Wants Tougher Repair Rules on Rental CarsThe top U.S. auto-safety regulator saidhe is “working through the bully pul-pit” to make sure rental-car companiessuch as Avis Budget Group Inc. andHertz Global Holdings Inc. completerepairs on recalled vehicles.

National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministrator David Strickland saidhe’s working to publicize the investi-gation he opened November 25 intothe repair history of 29 U.S. models inrental-car fleets according to reportsmade by Bloomberg News.

Thirty percent of recalled vehiclesin the United States aren’t repaired, ac-cording to agency data.

“Our interest and our conversationswith rental-car companies are to makesure every driver, every customer is in avehicle that is safe,” Strickland said.

The recall process treats rental-carcompanies the same way as retail cus-tomers, who must be notified about de-fects and aren’t required to fix them.

Clarence Ditlow, executive direc-tor of the Washington-based Center forAuto Safety, said rental-car companiesshould be held to the same standard asauto dealers, who can’t sell a car if therepairs aren’t complete.

“If there’s a safety recall, there’s asafety recall,” Ditlow said. “When rentalcars are subject to a recall, the car should

be repaired before the consumer uses it.”Laura Bryant, a spokeswoman

for Enterprise Holdings Inc., the largestU.S. rental-car company, didn’t havean immediate comment.

Paula Rivera, a spokeswoman forHertz, and John Barrows, a spokesmanfor Avis, didn’t respond to inquiries.

The Center for Auto Safety peti-tioned the Federal Trade Commissionin August to look into whether Enter-prise rents to its customers before re-call repairs have been completed.

NHTSA works with domestic andforeign automakers to issue recalls forsafety-related defects.

Automakers, in turn, notify cus-tomers about repairs, which are doneat no charge to vehicle owners.

There can be months of delay be-tween the time a manufacturer notifiesNHTSA about a defect and when ve-hicle owners are informed of a recall,Ditlow said.

NHTSA could require carmakers tonotify rental companies sooner, he said.

International Auto Glass Safety(AGRSS) Conference MeetsSuccess in Chicago, Ill.The sixth annual International AutoGlass Safety (AGRSS) Conferencegarnered rave reviews from attendees.The event was held October 27-28 inChicago, Ill.

Attendees heard from severalsafety group representatives, includingJill Braselton with Safe Kids USA, agroup dedicated to child safety, andautomotive safety design expert BenKelley of the Center for Auto Safety.In addition, participants received tipsfor preparing for a third-party valida-tion, marketing AGRSS in their busi-nesses and an inside look at thethird-party validations that have beenconducted so far.

On the second day of the confer-ence, several insurance agents wereon-hand to participate in an AGRSSinsurance/consumer awareness pro-gram. Insurance agents earned CEcredits for the sessions, and auto glasscompany representatives were able tonetwork with agents from across theMidwest region.

This year’s conference was heldat the Drury Lane Conference Centerin Oakbrook Terrace, a suburb of theWindy City.

NABC Establishes Inter-Industry In-Language InitiativeAt its November 2, 2010 board meet-ing, the National Auto Body Council(NABC) voted to establish an inter-in-dustry initiative to explore and addressthe needs of the growing number ofnon-English-speaking employeeswithin the collision industry.

The goal of the initiative is to fa-cilitate equal access to industry train-ing, services and products fornon-English speakers, supportingNABC’s core mission of enhancing theimage of the industry. Under the aus-pices of NABC, the inter-industry willdevelop strategies to enhance the work-ing experience and quality of workproduct of non-English speakers.

Practicality dictates that one non-English speaking population be the ini-tial focus of the inter-industry effort.Because the Spanish-speaking commu-nity was identified as the largest andfastest growing segment of the U.S.population, NABC will start there.

The concept of language outreachwithin NABC started at the organiza-tion’s July 2009 annual planning meet-ing.

George Avery, then NABC pres-ident, suggested that a “KnowledgeCommunity” be established to answerthree basic questions; is there a need forin-language outreach in the collision in-dustry?, if so, what are those needs?and is there anything NABC can do, in

accordance with its mission, to meetthese needs?

Avery recruited fellow boardmember Karen Fierst to spearhead theinitiative. Fierst then set out to find in-terested, informed people willing toserve on the Knowledge Community.

The Knowledge Community hasworked together for over a year now. Itconsists of Active Co-Chair JavierAvalos (Ina Road Auto Collision), Ad-visor/Co-chair Al Estorga (Estorga’sCollision Repair), German Mejia (I-CAR Southeast Regional Manager),Gene Lopez (I-CAR Southwest Re-gional Manager), Denise Pina (BreaAuto Body) and Ben Mendoza(Kelly’s Body Shop). Fierst serves asNABC’s board member and the initia-tive’s facilitator.

The group has already begun dis-cussions regarding several pertinent is-sues.

These include the fact that Span-ish speakers from different geographicareas use different terminology and thechallenges that surface when transla-tors/interpreters have no background inthe automotive or collision industry.

NABC’s in-language initiative willconduct its first formal meeting of saidstakeholders during CIC Week in PalmSprings, California this coming January.

Please visit www.autobodycoun-cil.org for more information.


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Autobody News January 2011 Southeast Edition

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