Midwestern Issue Oct. 2014

by Lee Emmons

K and M Collision LLC of Hickory,NC, has been included as a plaintiff ina lawsuit filed under the Racketeer In-fluenced and Corrupt OrganizationsAct (RICO) against seven major in-surance carriers and their affiliates.The suit, originally filed in an Illinoisdistrict court on April 30, accuses StateFarm, Allstate, GEICO, Progressive,Farmers, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide,and many of their respective sub-sidiaries, for short pays and conspir-acy to establish “an artificial marketvalue for collision repairs.”

Kevin Michael Bradshaw, VPof Operations at K and M CollisionLLC, says, “I think the lawsuit willuncover and prove what many shopsthroughout the country have knownfor years, that the insurance compa-nies are refusing to pay for proper re-pairs, and are using illegal methods tosuppress the market rate.”

This is the latest in a series of ac-tions taken by body shops throughoutthe country in an effort to push backagainst insurance company tactics thatthey believe to be unlawful. The Mis-sissippi Collision Repair Association

See K and M Joins RICO, Page 8

by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor

A federal court case involving over-time payment for employees under therules of the Fair Labor Standards Act(FLSA) was filed in State Court Feb-ruary, 2014, and removed to the Fed-eral Florida Southern District Court inJuly. The court’s ruling in Smoluk v.Action Auto Body, LLC, has the poten-tial to clarify confusing and contradic-tory positions from the Department ofLabor and rulings by courts with re-gard to exempt status for employees inautomotive repair.

The plaintiffs, Jospeh Smolukand Michelle Smoluk, are suing their

former employer, Franck Tatto andAction Auto Body, LLC., for damagesexceeding $15,000, excluding attor-neys’ fees or costs for breach of agree-ment and unpaid wages under theFLSA.

Franck Tatto and Action AutoBody, LLC., located in BrowardCounty, FL, deny the allegations. Incourt documents, the defendants saythe “… Plaintiffs have been paid allwages due in full and in a timely man-ner.”

According to the lawsuit, JospehSmoluk worked for Action Auto Bodyas a non-exempt service writer from

Federal Court in FL to Rule on Overtime Pay for Employees in Body Shops Under FLSA

See Overtime Pay, Page 6

NC Shop, K and M Collision, Joins RICO Case AgainstSeven Major Insurers

A First-Person Account of the Consolidated MDLHearing in Orlando, September 11by Ron Perretta

As an observer of the initial court pro-ceedings for the repairers Multi-Dis-trict Litigation against dozens ofinsurers in the Orlando Federal Court-house [on Sept. 11], I can’t tell you thefeeling that I had and that other re-pairers present expressed while watch-ing the proceedings. I’m not sure anywords can capture the feeling but itwas a feeling that I believe was longoverdue for repairers... and insurer’salike.

While phones and cameras werenot allowed in the courthouse, the pic-ture of the hearing was one I wishevery repairer could have seen.

I was sitting at the back of thecourtroom, close to center and frommy view point I saw 50 plus attorneys

who were there representing the 40plus defendant insurers, all in darksuits, sitting side by side, row afterrow along the entire right side of thecourt room.

In the center, on an elevatedbench were the two Honorable Judges(Presnell and Smith) who sat facingthe court room, and then to my leftwere five attorneys sitting at the plain-tiff’s table who were there represent-ing hundreds of collision repairersfrom various states. To the far left, inspectator’s area were 15 or more shopowners who were plaintiffs in the law-suits to witness this first step in whatwill prove to be, no doubt, a pivotaland historical event for the entire col-lision repair industry.

When provided the opportunity toSee MDL Opens, 0

The Roseville Police Department inMN has hired a new auto body shopafter employees from its former vehi-cle repair vendor reportedly drovesquad cars at “irresponsible” speedson the way to be fixe, as reported byJohanna Holub at LillieNews.com.

According to the department, onthe morning of Thursday, Sept. 4, therewere two phone calls from “concernedcitizens” regarding two marked squadcars “being driven at excessive speeds”on County Road C, which has a 40mph speed limit, from Victoria Streetto Western Avenue.

The department found the vehi-cles were being driven by employeesfrom a local auto shop the departmentused for repair services.

The employees came to the Ro-seville Public Works garage to pick uptwo squad cars that needed body workfollowing a police pursuit that tookplace overnight, and were supposed todrive the vehicles to the repair shop.They had authorization to do so, ac-cording to the police statement.

After discussing the matter withthe owner of the auto repair business,the department decided to “end busi-

ness dealings” with the shop.“The department recognizes its

accountability to the community,” thestatement reads.

Lt. Lorne Rosand said the ve-hicles were equipped with everything“except the rifle,” which is secured inthe police armory before a vehicle istaken to any location for repair work.

Because the department contractsseveral vendors for service including alocal dealership, Rosand said mechan-ics often pick up police vehicles anddrive them to the shop for repairs. Cer-tain repairs also require a test drive tobe sure the problem is fixed. They’venever had a problem with vendor em-ployees driving their vehicles unpro-fessionally until now.

“It’s not uncommon for civiliansto drive our cars,” Rosand explained.“We just hope they do so in a mannerthat represents the city in a very pos-itive way. These two individuals didnot.”

But, from now on, the depart-ment plans to put in the “best effortpossible” to have a city mechanic orpolice officer drive squad cars to berepaired, Rosand added.

Roseville, MN, Police Replace Local Auto Body Shop AfterEmployees Take Squad Cars on Joyride

Midwestern Edition

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Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Stacey PhillipsOnline Editor: Victoria AntonelliContributing Writers: Tom Franklin,John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess,David Brown, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio,Chasidy Sisk, David LuehrAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, SeanHartman, Bill Doyle, David Petro(800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky,Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio,Wisconsin and adjacent metro areas.Autobody News is a monthly publicationfor the autobody industry. Permission toreproduce in any form the materialpublished in Autobody News must beobtained in writing from the publisher.©2014 Adamantine Media LLC.

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Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 45Automotive International . . . . . . . . . 12BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 43Bolt Buster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Car-Part.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4CarcoonAmerica Airflow Systems . 23Celette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Certified Automotive PartsAssociation (CAPA). . . . . . . . . . . 15

Charles Gabus Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . 26, 27Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Clements Cadillac-Chevrolet-Subaru. 9Color-Dec North America, Inc. . . . . . 8Dent Tools Direct USA . . . . . . . . . . 26DJS Fabrications, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 48Dominion Sure Seal, Ltd. . . . . . . . . 10Equalizer Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . 31Erhard BMW of Bloomfield Hills . . . 39Erhard BMW of Farmington Hills . . 39GlasWeld Systems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . 22GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 36Graham Auto Mall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Hank Graff Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . 33Herkules Equipment Corporation. . 37Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 36Innovative Tools & Technology, Inc. . 21Jake Sweeney Chevrolet . . . . . . . . 28

Kia Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . . 47Laurel Auto Group of Westmont . . . . 7Lexus Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 42Loaner & Rental Insurance byNorthland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Luther Hopkins Honda . . . . . . . . . . 34Malco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Martech Services Company . . . . . . 18Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 47MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 43Mitsubishi Wholesale PartsDealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 29Morrison’s Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . 32Motor Guard Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6PreFab Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Prima srl, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . 11Sherwin-Williams AutomotiveFinishes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 19

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 40TG Products, Inc. - The Rail Saver . 14Toyota of Des Moines . . . . . . . . . . . 17Toyota of Grand Rapids . . . . . . . . . 32Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 38Valspar Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Volkswagen Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

West Bend Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Inde

xofAdvertisers

ContentsREGIONALAASP–MN Announces Fall Seminars . . . . 22ABRA Auto Body & Glass Helps Raise$40,000 for Helping Paws . . . . . . . . . . . 9

ABRA Auto Body Acquires USA CollisionCenters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Appeal Seeks to Open MI InsuranceFund To Public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

ASA Confirms Detroit as Location andDates for Next NACE-CARS Expo . . . . . 13

Attanasio - AASP-MN President JeraldStiele has Lifetime of Repair Experience . 14

Bus Inspections Conducted by MI Police . 23Collision 34 in MI Expands to New Building . 23Fewer Highway Traffic Deaths in MO . . . . . 9Mankato Free Press.com Posts “What’sWhat on Wrecked Windshields” in MN. . 28

MI Ban on Non-OEM System . . . . . . . . . . 23MI’s No-Fault Car Insurance Under Fire . . 28Roseville, MN, Police Fire Local Auto Body Shop After Employees Take Squad Carson Joyride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Sisk - AASP-MN on Track to BreakMembership Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Suburban Collection Adds Two NewMI Repair Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

UFG’s Dividend for AASP-IL InsuranceProgram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

COLUMNISTSAntonelli - Autobody News Launched OurNew Website on September 13 . . . . . . . 4

Attanasio - Is Angie’s List Impartial orIs She Playing Favorites? . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Franklin - End Useless Marketing—Redirect Funds and Get Results! . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Luehr - Better Blueprinting, Part 2: Howto Set Up a Blueprinting Area . . . . . . . . 18

Sisk - Parts Authorization, Indemnificationand More—Documentation Part 3 . . . . 36

Yoswick - CIC Committees Look atAutonomous Vehicle Issues, Impactof “Length of Rental” Formulas . . . . . . 44

Yoswick - October Retrospective—ADP,Non-OEM Parts, AAIA Study . . . . . . . . 41

NATIONALA First-Person Account of the Consolidated MDL Hearing in Orlando, September 11. . 1

Aluminum Association to Present During SCRS’ OEM Collision RepairTechnology Summit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

ASA Announces Plans to RelocateHeadquarters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Auto/Steel Partnership to Present DuringOEM Collision Repair TechnologySummit at SEMA Show . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Axalta Coating System’s Front RoyalPlant in VA Hosted CongressmanBob Goodlatte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Boyd Group Acquires Seven ChampsCollision Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Boyd Group Adds GA & FL CollisionRepair Shops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Caliber Enters FL Market With FourNew Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

CarMax Recruiting for More than1,000 Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Celette Has Fixtures for M-B B ClassElectric Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Counterfeit Engine Control DevicesFound in Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Crowd Favorite the “Telephone Doctor”Returns for SEMA Education Days . . . . 34

Federal Court in FL to Rule on OvertimePay for Employees in Body ShopsUnder FLSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

FL is the Third Most Expensive Statein Which to Own a Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Ford and Chrysler Up, GM down inAugust Car Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

GM Posts Best July Sales Since 2007,Toyota Also Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Herkules to Host NASCAR Driver Brendan Gaughan During SEMA Show. . . . . . . . 21

K & M Collision Sends Second Versionof ‘Open Letter’ Video to NCAttorney General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

MS is the 4th Most Expensive Statefor Car Ownership Overall . . . . . . . . . . 46

NABC 20th Anniversary Golf Fundraiser,January 14, 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Napa Body Shops Jolted After 6.0 Quake. . 30NC Auto Injury Attorney Urges Driversto Use the New NHTSA OnlineRecall Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

NC Shop, K and M Collision, Joins RICOCase Against Seven Major Insurers . . . . 1

New SEMA Event Provides Opportunityfor 10 Builders and Their Cars . . . . . . . 12

Newest Shop in Utah Opens November 1. . 35NJ is 5th Most Expensive State forAuto Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

NY Shop & Owner Pleads Guilty to GrandLarceny & Criminal Tax Fraud. . . . . . . . 34

NY Shop Owner’s Forgotten Lottery Ticketis a Nearly-Lost $2.9 Million Winner. . . 27

O’Reilly Automotive Joins the CCC TRUE™ Parts Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Over $500,000 in Support to MakeoverSchool Grant Applications . . . . . . . . . . 22

PA Insurance Co. Vindicated in YouTubeBugatti Crash Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

PA Shop Owner Held Meeting to DiscussHow Insurance is Negatively ImpactingIndustry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Panel to Discuss Aftermarket Accessto OEM Education During NASTFMeeting Nov. 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

SCRS Posts Tribute to March Taylor forSupporting and Inspiring the DEG. . . . . 46

Season 34 of MotorWeek 2014 FeaturesCollision Mitigation, Traffic Alerts . . . . . 47

Service King Team Member WinsJeff Silver Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Six Holmes Body Shop LocationsAcquired by Cooks Collision Centers,All but Original Shop in Pasadena . . . . . 33

Theft and Serious Injury at PA AutoBody Shop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Volvo Reappears on World Marketwith XC90 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

WI is the 5th Cheapest State in Whichto Own a Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

WY is the Most Expensive State in theUS for Car Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

www.autobodynews.com | OCTOBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Stacey Phillipsis our new Assis-tant Editor. Shehas written andedited for numer-ous online andprint publicationsover a 15-yearperiod. Stacey

graduated from the University of SouthernCalifornia with a double major in journalismand political science. Born and raised in LosAngeles, CA, she also lived in Calgary, Al-berta where she edited several magazinesbefore joining Suncor Energy. There shehelped create an online company newsletterthat received the Apex Award of Excellencetwo years in a row. Stacey also co-authoreda commemorative history book for theProvince’s Institute of Chartered Account-ants. After moving back to San Diego in2007, Stacey has spent the majority of hertime writing about local issues. When sheisn’t writing, Stacey enjoys playing tennis,reading and spending time with her family.

Victoria Antonelliis the newly ap-pointed onlinecontent editor atAutobody News.Victoria will bemanaging ournew website andsocial media

pages. She is originally from SouthKingstown, RI, and has lived in San Diego,CA, since August 2013. Victoria graduatedfrom the University of Rhode Island in May2013 with a BA in journalism. Previously,she attended High Point University in HighPoint, NC, for two years, and studiedabroad for a semester at Oxford BrookesUniversity in Oxford, England. Victoriacompleted two internships while in college,one with the University of Rhode IslandMarketing and Communications Depart-ment and another at Rhode Island MonthlyMagazine. Victoria’s favorite color isturquoise and her hobbies include hiking,reading, writing, and photography.

New Talent Joins the Autobody News Editorial Staff

Stacey Phillips is Our NewAssistant Editor for Print

Victoria Antonelli is Our NewOnline Content Editor

Contact Stacey at:[email protected] withyour story ideas and news items.

Contact Victoria at:[email protected] withyour story ideas and news items.

On Sept. 13, 2014, Autobody Newslaunched a new and vastly improvedwebsite, under the same domainname— www.autobodynews.com. En-hanced video handling, strengthenedsocial media connectivity, optimal or-ganization, and an eye-catching colorscheme are just a few of the many up-

grades this advanced template has tooffer. The template is fully responsive,meaning you can view it optimally onany device you carry.

The main functionality is to groupour regional coverage into RegionalContent pages, one for each of theprint issues of Autobody News.

HomeThe home page (see p. 8)displays themost recent articles in the followingcategories—Regional Content, ProductNews, National Events, Recent Asso-ciation Articles and the Video Gallery.The Video Gallery will feature recentvideos that has impacted the industry.

NewsHere you will find National News, Com-pany News, Product News, InsuranceNews, and Automakers and Dealers.Find current and timely news storiesabout automobile companies, new prod-uct releases, insurance dealings, andnews provided by dealerships.

Regional ContentRegional Content is grouped, like ourprint editions, into five major sectionsof the country—Midwestern News,Southwestern News, Western News,Northeastern News, and SoutheasternNews. National News, which is re-placing the former Industry News cat-egory, covers stories that affect allcorners of the US. The regions arecolor-coded at the top of the page tomatch the headings of each section.

Each region now has its own do-main. For example, western.autobo-dynews.com will take you to WesternRegional Content, including News,Associations, and Events. You canalso located and save RSS feeds fromeach of these regional categories.

SPSSPS stands for Shop & Product Show-case. This unique publication givesshop owners and managers a detailed,peer to peer perspective on the prod-

ucts and services being used. Down-loadable PDFs of each issue are lo-cated in this section, with the mostrecent being October 2014.

The next drop down item, Adver-tising in SPS, gives detailed informationabout advertising policies, and how youcan get your products noticed by theowners and managers of over 40,000collision repair shops nationwide.

ColumnsThis tab features articles by industry en-thusiasts. With the help of over 15 con-tributors, AutoBody News is able toproduce thought-provoking, informa-tive features.

EventsThis drop down menu not only listsmeetings, classic automobile shows,and other activities for all five regions,but also national events, including thelatest on SEMA and NACE.


Autobody News Launched Our New Website on September 13

with Victoria AntonelliWeb Window

See Our New Website, Page 8

October 1, 1997 to January 25, 2012.Michelle Smoluk claims she performedwork as a non-exempt secretary fromapproximately May 2004 to January 25,2012. The plaintiffs say they worked anaverage of 50 hours per week and werenot paid the proper overtime rate for thehours they worked over 40 per week, asprescribed by Federal and Florida law.

They also say that Action AutoBody received gross revenue in excessof $500,000 per year, which satisfiesthe FLSA’s coverage requirements ofworking in interstate commerce.

According to Section 7 of theFLSA guidelines, unless employeesare specifically exempted from thisrule, “...employers must pay coveredworkers at least one-and-a-half timestheir regular hourly wage for hoursworked over 40 hours a week at agiven job. Employers may choose topay more than time-and-a-half forovertime or to pay overtime to em-ployees who are exempt from over-time under the FLSA.”

The Smoluks are seeking dam-ages for unpaid minimum wage andunpaid overtime compensation forhours they worked in excess of 40 perweek with interest; an equal amountin double damages/liquidated dam-ages; the cost of the action and rea-sonable attorneys’ fees and additionalrelief decided by the court.

If the plaintiffs prevail, there islikely a statute of limitations for anyentitlement going back two or threeyears, at the discretion of the court,from the date on which the case wasfiled. Since the case was filed in StateCourt in February 2014, that would bethe effective date for damages.

The defendants assert that JospehSmoluk was exempt from the FLSAunder the executive and/or professionalexemptions and Michelle Smoluk wasexempt under the administrative ex-emption.

Over the years there has beenconsiderable confusion about the sta-tus of service writers and whether ornot they are exempt from the overtimepay provisions of the FLSA.

The answer appears to lie inwhether or not the employer is a deal-

ership or a collision center. The dis-tinction is important, since the ex-emption for service writers onlyapplies to service writers who work inan auto dealership, that is an ‘estab-lishment . . . primarily engaged in thebusiness of selling automobiles,trucks, or farm implements to the ulti-mate purchaser.’ 29 CFR 372(b)(ii).If the service writer works in a colli-sion center, service shop, or someother business which does not actuallysell cars, then the exemption does notapply, according to attorneys.

If Action Auto Body, LLC is adealership, then the service writer ex-emption pretty clearly applies. Thereis a case called Brennan v. Deel Mo-tors, 475 F.2d 1095 (5th Cir. 1973)which is directly on point, and is ac-tually binding on the court where theSmoluk case is pending.

“A body shop would have all ofthe general exemptions availableunder the FLSA at their disposal,” saidan attorney with a nationwide firmthat represents employers in labor andemployment matters. “For example,executive, administrative, profes-sional, computer professional, outsidesales. They just would not have thethree commonly used dealership over-

time exemptions: salesperson, parts-men, and mechanic,” said the attorney,who is not affiliated with this case,adding the service writer exemption isconsidered part of the salesperson ex-emption.

In 1966, Congress amended theFLSA and created an exemption forany salesman, partsman or mechanicemployed at a retail dealership. A yearlater the U.S. Department of Labor(DOL) confirmed service writers wereexempt from overtime pay; however,they retracted their statement a monthlater and issued an opinion letter say-ing service writers would not be in-cluded in the exemption. Since thennumerous federal cases have ruledthat service employees are exemptfrom FLSA overtime.

On April 5, 2011, the Wage andHour Division of the DOL clarified itsposition. According to their website,“Salesmen, partsmen and mechanicsemployed by automobile dealershipsare exempt from the overtime pay pro-visions of the FLSA.”

Richard Longo, Director of En-forcement for DOL’s Wage and HourDivision in the Western Region said,“The April 2011 cleanup rule did stip-


Continued from Cover

Overtime Pay

Nonmanufacturing establishmentswith certain exempt employees undersection 13(b)(10).(c) Salesman, partsman, or mechanic.(1) As used in section 13(b)(10)(A), asalesman is an employee who is em-ployed for the purpose of and is prima-rily engaged in making sales orobtaining orders or contracts for sale ofthe automobiles, trucks, or farm imple-ments that the establishment is primarilyengaged in selling. As used in section13(b)(10)(B), a salesman is an em-ployee who is employed for the purposeof and is primarily engaged in makingsales or obtaining orders or contractsfor sale of trailers, boats, or aircraft thatthe establishment is primarily engagedin selling. Work performed incidental toand in conjunction with the employee'sown sales or solicitations, including inci-dental deliveries and collections, is re-garded as within the exemption.

(2) As used in section13(b)(10)(A), a partsman is any em-ployee employed for the purpose of andprimarily engaged in requisitioning,stocking, and dispensing parts.

(3) As used in section13(b)(10)(A), a mechanic is any em-ployee primarily engaged in doing me-chanical work (such as get readymechanics, automotive, truck, or farmimplement mechanics, used car recon-ditioning mechanics, and wrecker me-chanics) in the servicing of anautomobile, truck or farm implement forits use and operation as such. This in-cludes mechanical work required forsafe operation, as an automobile, truck,or farm implement. The term does notinclude employees primarily performingsuch nonmechanical work as washing,cleaning, painting, polishing, tire chang-ing, installing seat covers, dispatching,lubricating, or other nonmechanicalwork. Wrecker mechanic means a serv-ice department mechanic who goes outon a tow or wrecking truck to performmechanical servicing or repairing of acustomer's vehicle away from the shop,or to bring the vehicle back to the shopfor repair service. A tow or wreckertruck driver or helper who primarily per-forms nonmechanical repair work is notexempt.

Excerpt from FLSA Regulation §779.372See Overtime Pay, Page 10


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AssociationsThe association stories come from allfive regions, as well as national associ-ation news. Examples include newsabout the Iowa Collision Repair Asso-ciation (ICRA), Automotive Service As-sociation (ASA), and the LouisianaCollision Industry Association (LaCIA).

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Some Ugly Regional Placeholders?You’ll notice some placeholder ban-ner ads on the regional content sec-tions of the website. If you’re adealership doing wholesale parts tradein your area, consider replacing these‘eye catching’ spots with a banner ofyour own. We’ll design it for you atno charge. Email [email protected] for more information.

Take Advantage of Regional CoverageAs a shop owner or association mem-ber we want to know what’s going onwith your shop or your association inyour state. Send us an email with thedate of your meeting in advance, we’llpost it in our regional secction. Let usknow what happened with pictures orvideo. Likewise if there’s somethingspecial going on with your shop, wecan get the word out. Email your de-tails to: [email protected].

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Our New Websitefiled to block State Farm’s Part-sTrader parts procurement mandate inthe summer of 2013; a Tennesseebody shop filed suit against Progres-sive for steering and shortpays in No-vember of 2013, and Ray Gunder hasfiled suit to block State Farm’s Part-sTrader in Florida.

The RICO Class Action plaintiff,Crawford’s Auto Center, is a Pennsyl-vania-based automobile collision repairfacility who alleges that the defendantsconspired amongst themselves and/orothers to “suppress compensation to re-pair facilities for automotive collisionrepairs covered by insurance.”

For more on the RICO case,search ‘RICO’ at:www.autobodynews.com.


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ABRA Auto Body & Glass an-nounced on Sept. 9, 2014 it helpedraise more than $40,000 during the

second annual Bent Creek CharityGolf Tournament to benefit HelpingPaws, Inc.

Over 100 golfers and guestsgathered at the Bent Creek GolfCourse in Eden Prairie, MN on Au-gust 11, 2014 to support HelpingPaws of Hopkins, MN.

The second annual golf event ispart of Helping Paws’ initiative toprovide the healing power of servicedogs to disabled veterans sufferingfrom Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD). The cost of raising andtraining a service dog is estimated at$30,000. The canine companions

will assist in transitioning returningveterans back to civilian and homelife.

“We are honored to partner withimportant organizations like Helping

Paws to support our Veterans,”said Duane Rouse, ABRA’spresident and chief executiveofficer.

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lege.”Since 1984, ABRA has been

supporting charitable causes in Min-nesota and throughout the UnitedStates with similar core values andcommon goals. The company hasraised more than a million dollars forlocal charities in the Twin Cities areaand across the country.

Traffic deaths on Missouri roads havebeen on a downward trend for nearly10 years, and a highway patrolspokesman said the declining numbersare likely due to factors such as edu-cation and road improvements.

The number of traffic fatalitieshas dropped since 2005, with 2012 theonly year showing an increase fromthe previous year, the Jefferson CityTribune reported. On average, about1,068 deaths a year have occurredsince the Missouri Highway Patrolbegan reporting traffic fatalities in1949.

The highest number of trafficdeaths reported was in 1969 with1,521 fatalities, and the lowest numberreported was in 2013 with 757 deaths.Lt. John Hotz, Missouri Highway Pa-trol spokesman, said the state agencyattributes the decline in fatalities to ed-ucation, enforcement, engineering andemergency medical services.

“The Patrol, of course, worksdiligently in the areas of education andenforcement, conducting educationalprograms for tens of thousands of Mis-sourians each year,” Hotz said. “Westress the importance of paying at-tention, obeying the speed limit,driving sober and buckling up.”

Fewer Highway TrafficDeaths in MO

A group is asking the MichiganSupreme Court to force an insur-ance fund that charges drivers a feeto open its books to the public.

The Coalition Protecting AutoNo-Fault won its case in InghamCounty only to see the state appealscourt reverse this year. It will an-nounce an appeal Wednesday.

The advocacy group says theMichigan Catastrophic Claims As-sociation should be covered by thestate Freedom of Information Act somore is known about how its annualfee is set. The MCCA is a privatenonprofit created by the Legislature.

Michigan drivers pay the fund$186 per car per year for unlimitedmedical benefits for catastrophic in-juries and rehabilitation.

The insurance industry saysthe MCCA’s pertinent financial datais available from its website or thestate insurance department.

Appeal Seeks to Open MIInsurance Fund To Public

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ulate our current position on this mat-ter and that we don’t take an auto-matic position that service writers areexempt just because of their job title.That would be consistent with how weapply any of our exemptions. We lookat the facts of the case.

“With that being said, even thoughwe’ve made these changes when ap-propriation came in for the spendingbills they basically didn’t fund some ofthe changes,” said Longo. “We’re tak-ing a non-enforcement position on thematter currently but it does not prohibitindividuals from seeking court deci-sions to determine exempt or non-ex-empt status.”

Longo said that if courts arelooking for interpretive guidance, themost recent guidance would be theApril 2011 update.

“If the company is able to es-tablish that service writers satisfyone of the white collar FLSA ex-emptions, it would eliminate anyneed to record service writers’ hoursworked or pay overtime for hours

worked over 40 in a work week,”said the attorney consulted. “Whileservice writers typically work longhours, they are usually paid quitewell. If service writers are found tobe exempt under one of the FLSAwhite collar exemptions, this wouldbe a great victory for body shops andcollision centers.”

The defendant’s attorney has apolicy of not commenting on pendinglitigation. The plaintiff’s attorney wasunavailable for comment at press time.

Autobody News will continue tofollow this story and update readerson the status of Smoluk v. Action AutoBody, LLC.

Details about the applicable FLSAregulations are available on the fol-lowing website: www.ecfr.gov undersection 779.372.

As always, consult a qualified at-torney before acting or reacting to anybusiness news discussion such as this.


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speak and ask quotations, few camefrom the defending attorneys. JohnEaves Jr. mentioned to the courts thatsince the litigation, some repairershave experienced various levels ofabuse from some insurers as and askedof the court to consider rendering aruling to prohibit steering and retalia-tory efforts against those repairers whoare named as plaintiffs in the litigationand to enjoin them from efforts toharm them by making disparagingcomments about them and to steerconsumers away from them. Thejudge stated in so many words that hewould not render an order at that timeas he anticipated the insurers wouldnot make it necessary to do so... but hewould consider it if indeed their be-havior warranted it. This was pivotalas it placed the concern in the judge’sminds as well as became part of therecord. Repairers will be documentingany such instances and share themwith their legal counsel.

The five attorneys representingthe repairers were Mississippi attor-neys John Eaves Sr., John Eaves Jr.,

Allison Fry, Hal Wilkins andFlorida’s own Brent Geohagan, who,as most know, has represented RayGunder in his ongoing legal quests.

Because this was a pretrial hear-ing, the judges were cordial yet to thepoint regarding their conveying thecourt’s expectations for the attorneys.The judges made it clear to all thatfrivolous filings and unnecessary de-lays and such would not be tolerated,and due to the sheer volume of the is-sues and evidence that was to be pre-sented, that the court would be quickto discourage and stop such behavior.Based upon the limited questionsposed by the insurer attorneys, thejudge’s message had been receivedclearly and duly noted.

Upon conclusion, as the courtrose to its feet and the judges left thebench, while it was quiet and subdued,there was a sense of relief along withexcited expectations by the repairerswho were there. They knew that thiswas the beginning of long overduechanges in the automotive collision re-pair and casualty insurance industriesnormal behavior and practices.

It wasn’t a day of reckoning…but I firmly believe it is the first day ofits beginning!


MDL OpensThe following are excerpted from Paul Brinkman’s September 11 article in the OrlandoSeninel as referenced by Ron Perretta.

•About 55 attorneys representing insurance companies came to the Orlandocourt hearing September 11

•The judge in charge, Senior U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell, showed dryhumor, saying, “I don’t know what we did to deserve this, but here we are.”

•Body shop attorneys said they expect another 20-25 cases to be filed in other states.•The hearing mostly set schedules and conducted introductions between attor-

neys and court staff.•Michael McCluggage with Eimer Stahl in Chicago said he would be doing

“most of the talking in court for State Farm.”•Judge Presnell said he would discourage lengthy extensions on deadlines or

filing too many back-and-forth replies to others’ motions, adding “you’ll have tocome back from the golf course to get it done [if he allows it.]”

Separately, Paul Brinkman has quoted Ray Gunder of Gunder’s Auto Center inLakeland as saying, “[I have] seen many cars that were repaired improperly at othershops under insurer-imposed expense limits.”

“One of those cars was a 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid owned by Joan Dick ofLake Wales, Gunder said. After a collision, Dick said, she had the car repaired firstat a shop that is part of State Farm’s repair program. She says the car still shook vi-olently on the road. She eventually took it to Gunder. Gunder’s inspections indicateda cracked block and bent steering column, among other problems, Dick said in aninterview. Eventually the car was declared totaled. “I had been through hell formonths,” Dick said.”

“Gunder’s attorney on the case, Brent Geohagan of Lakeland, said the courtmay need to rent a hall for all the attorneys involved.”

Excerpts from Orlando Sentinel Articles

The Boyd Group Inc. has signed a de-finitive agreement and concurrentlyclosed the acquisition of Champ’sHolding Company, LLC (“Champ’s”)the company announced in a news re-lease on Sept. 12.

Champ’s is a premier full-serviceauto collision repair service providerin southeast Louisiana, owning andoperating seven collision repair cen-ters. Champs locations are in NewOrleans, 4047 South Carrollton Ave.;Elmwood, 200 Edwards Ave, Hara-han, LA; Kenner, 1601 22nd Street;Westbank, 3621 Lapalco Blvd., Har-vey, LA; Northshore, 2501 FloridaStreet, Mandeville, LA; Hammond,500 South Morrison Blvd.; and BatonRouge, 6137 Siegen Lane.

Champ’s has grown significantlysince its inception in 1978 and gener-ated sales of approximately $37 mil-lion for the trailing twelve monthsended June 2014. This acquisition in-creases the number of Boyd collisionrepair locations to 313 across 16 statesand five provinces.

“We are very pleased to enter theLouisiana market which will expand

our reach to new customers, increaseour geographical footprint for our in-surance industry partners and also pro-vide us with another new market fromwhich to execute our single locationgrowth strategy,” said Brock Bul-buck, President and Chief ExecutiveOfficer of the Boyd Group. “With thisacquisition we strengthen our positionas the largest multi-shop operator inNorth America in terms of number oflocations, and demonstrate our abilityto add attractive multi-shop operationsin line with our growth strategy.”

“Our team is proud of the busi-ness we have built over the last 36years,” added Champ’s PresidentDanny Kingston. “Champ’s decadesof growth and success in the collisionbusiness are a direct result of the ef-forts of our knowledgeable, friendly,and professional team. We are excitedto build on our accomplishments aspart of the Boyd team.”

The total purchase price consider-ation of approximately $35.0 million.It is within the range of other recentmulti-location acquisitions completedby Boyd.


Boyd Group Acquires Seven Champs CollisionCenters in Southeast Louisiana

New SEMA Event Provides Opportunity for 10Builders and Their CarsSEMA Ignited, a new post-Showevent, will offer exhibitors and indus-try partners an opportunity to reach anexpanded audience, including mediaand consumers. The event will includea spectacular collection of vehiclesfrom the SEMA Show.

This year a panel of top automo-tive editors will select 10 deservingbuilders and their vehicles to appearcenter stage at SEMA Ignited and befeatured in a nationally televised spe-cial that SEMA is sponsoring. The TVprogram will highlight the hot trendsfrom the SEMA Show and feature theunique builds and the artistry of ourTop Ten builders. The evening willculminate in awarding the “SEMABattle of the Builders” trophy to thisyear’s top vehicle and its builder.

SEMA is producing the SEMA Ig-nited event to help stoke consumerawareness and excitement by highlight-ing the impressive vehicles, products

and personalities gathered in Las Vegasfor the SEMA Show. As such, participa-tion in the SEMA Battle of the Buildersis open to the full range of builders andvehicles including truck, hot rod, streetrod, off-road, motorsports, sport com-pacts, luxury exotics, and the like.

Builders interested in participat-ing in the event and TV productionshould complete an online form.

If selected, the builders and vehi-cles will be featured at the SEMAShow and SEMA Ignited event (dead-line for consideration is Friday, Sep-tember 19). Selected builders must alsoagree to make their shop available forvideo work leading up to the event.

The Friday night SEMA Ignitedevent will take place at one of thenewest landmarks in the Las Vegas—the High Roller observation wheel atthe LINQ entertainment district.

For more information, e-mail:[email protected].

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The Automotive Service Association(ASA) announced that NACE | CARS2015 will again be held in The MotorCity, July 23–25 by ‘popular demand.’

The ASA Board and managementconsidered feedback from attendees,exhibitors, and other industry con-stituents. Dan Risley, ASA ExecutiveDirector, stated “The response for De-troit was overwhelmingly positive.Many said this was the best event in re-cent memory. Attendees were pleasedwith the education and training, and nu-merous exhibitors made significantsales on the show floor. There weremany requests for the exhibition to con-tinue through Saturday, and we will in-corporate that for 2015.”

Partnering with industry organi-zations and associations is key to thesuccess of Industry Week, and that for-mat will continue. I-CAR, CIC, CCIF,MERA, NABC, and CREF have al-ready committed to Detroit next year.

I-CAR will again host the centerstage in the exhibit hall to provide ed-ucation and awareness on advancingvehicle technologies and related repairand industry trends, maintain a boothfor membership, provide live techni-cal demonstrations in the demo zone,

and offer add-on I-CAR training ses-sions in classrooms.

John VanAlstyne, I-CAR CEO &President, said “We are very pleasedwith the results of Industry Week thisyear. Attendance was up significantlyon the NACE floor and the I-CARConference was a great success. We arecommitted to NACE and will continuewith a similar footprint in 2015. Wealso plan to continue holding the I-CARConference in conjunction with Indus-try Week moving forward, shifting to abiennial cadence, so make plans to at-tend our next Conference in 2016.”

● CIC will once again host thesummer quarterly meeting during In-dustry Week following a successfulmeeting this past July in Detroit.

● CREF will hold its annual golffundraising event during the week.

● After drawing a larger-than-ex-pected Canadian contingency, and withclose proximity to the growing Cana-dian market, CCIF will be back onceagain with their education program,sessions, and a keynote speaker.

● MERA will host a series of ses-sions again in 2015.

● NABC will produce the Recy-cled Rides program on the exhibit floor.

Other organizations are currently eval-uating co-located meetings and an-nouncements are forthcoming.

“On behalf of the ASA members,the board of directors, and our team,we are pleased to be working with I-CAR, CIC, CRES, CCIF, MERA,NABC, and others for the benefit of theautomotive repair industry,” said Dar-rell Amberson, ASA Chairman. “Withour organizations working together wecan provide the most current educationand training in the market. We look for-ward to seeing everyone in Detroit theweek of July 20, 2015.”


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General Motors has posted its best Julysales since 2007. GM sold 256,160cars in July, a 9% uptick from July2013. Retail sales were only up 4%,though—perhaps a sign that those whobuy cars for fleets have more faith inGM than individual customers. This isthe ninth straight month of year-over-year sales growth for GM, and an im-provement from June when yearlygrowth was at around 1%. Toyota saidit sold 215,802 cars last month, an11.6% increase over a year ago.

GM Posts Best July SalesSince 2007, Toyota Also Up

The Inter-Industry Conference onAuto Collision Repair (I-CAR)named Service King teammateDustin Harrier winner of the pres-tigious Jeff Silver Award for hisoutstanding commitment to the in-dustry.

Harrier, Service King’s West-ern U.S. Quality Control Managerand an I-CAR instructor, receivedthe award July 30 at the Interna-tional Autobody Congress and Ex-position in Detroit. The Jeff SilverAward is presented annually to anI-CAR Platinum individual whodemonstrates passion for training,professional growth and improve-ment of the industry’s image.

“Dustin is a multi-talented I-CAR instructor, and Service Kingis proud to have a teammate thatshows so much dedication to hisstudents and the collision repair in-dustry,” said John Halbrook, Serv-ice King Project Specialist. “Hisinstruction has led to thousands ofhigh quality collision repairs forService King’s customers.”

Service King Team MemberWins Jeff Silver Award

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Many body shop owners are contentwith making a decent profit, whileothers are willing to work toward bet-tering the collision industry in theirstate. Jerald Stiele, president of theAASP-MN and the owner of HopkinsAuto Body in Hopkins, MN, fits intothe latter category. Stiele, 40, is athird-generation body shop owner,who takes pride in offering full andmechanical collision repair.

Hopkins Auto Body was estab-lished in 1963 by Stiele’s grandfather,Floyd Stiele. Today, Stiele co-ownsand manages the shop with his uncle,Dale Stiele. “When I first came on-board fulltime, I was working as anestimator,” Stiele said. “Prior to that Iworked on and off through the sum-mers in high school and in college,cleaning the shop floor and maskingcars and whatever other entry leveltask that needed to be done.”

Initially, Stiele wasn’t expectinghis path to lead to collision repair.“After graduating from North DakotaState University with a degree in Eco-nomics, I did not go into the business,because at that time, the shop con-sisted of a six-car garage and therewasn’t room for me,” he said. “Today,we’re working out of a 26,000 square-foot shop that fixes approximately 150vehicles every month and employs 16people. I run the front office and Dalemanages the production/shop floorand we work very well together. But,getting into this industry wasn’t a slamdunk at the beginning.”

Stiele is proud of what AASP-MNhas achieved. “In Minnesota, we havea really strong association and we’reproud of the fact,” he said. “WheneverI travel to out-of-state conferences,people from other state organizationstell us that we’re a really well-re-spected group. We have a strong asso-ciation that starts with ExecutiveDirector Judell Anderson and a boardthat works really well together. Judell’sassistant Jody Pillsbury runs the officereally well and Tom Kluver is havinggreat success as our new recruiter.We’ve got a great team here and that’swhy we’ve been so successful.”

AASP-MN’s membership con-sists of 697 shops, both mechanicaland collision. We asked Stiele, “what

are some of your major concerns withthe future of the organization?”

“From a body shop’s perspective,we want to retain the control of ourbusinesses and our procedures,” hesaid. “The way we manage and orderour parts really concerns us and I knowit’s the same thing across the wholecountry. DRPs are a reality in this in-dustry and some of them can be greatpartnerships, but we don’t want to com-promise our work as a result. AASP-MN’s main concern is that we don’twant to lose control when it comes tothe parts and part venders that we useon our repairs. We’re being asked tohandle more and more of the adminis-trative work as it gets handed off to usby the insurance companies, so we con-stantly have to be adjusting to that. Itnow takes us additional front office staffto fix these vehicles, which of coursemeans that we’re making less profit onthese cars. Yes, we’re still profitablewith our DRPs, but we’re starting to seethat our DRPS are less profitable andwe’re obviously concerned about that.”

Stiele believes that in some cases,aftermarket parts are suitable. “New,OEM is not the only way to go in everysituation, in my opinion,” he said.“There are situations that call for the useof aftermarket or LKQ parts. As shopowners, we know when it’s right to usethem. The point is—we want to makethe determination and we don’t want tobe forced or coerced into making thosedecisions, because they can impact thequality of our work and cycle time.

“Minnesota is one of the few stateswhere we have aftermarket parts legis-lation on the books,” Stiele said. “If theowner does not want aftermarket partsthey can specify that. So it’s a matterof who talked to the customer first. Alot of times it’s the insurance companythat will talk to them and say ‘Hey---there are going to be aftermarket partsincorporated into the repair of your car.’They don’t ask, they tell them. It willfix it back to pre-accident conditionwith a lifetime guarantee and you knowso it’s up to them to say yes sometimesthat’s the case. In some cases, the after-market parts don’t fit as well, but inother cases, they work just fine.”

“Many shops are torn about thewhole topic of steering, but in a perfect

world it would be better to not exist al-together,” Stiele said. “If an insurancecompany is steering business awayfrom another shop, that’s bad obvi-ously. But, if they’re recommendingone shop over another, that’s called aDRP. Collectively at the AASP-MN,we agree that from the perspective ofthe entire industry, we’re better offwithout steering. We would rathercompete with each other fairly and gainour business through marketing anddoing a good job, by focusing on thingslike quality and customer service. Wehave anti-steering laws in Minnesota,which may lead to less steering--atleast that’s the intention.”

The majority of shop owners havea love/hate relationship with the DRPconcept, and Stiele is no exception.

“The DRP relationships are thebiggest change in this industry, nodoubt. Many body shops rely exclu-sively on their DRPs. Our DRPs makeup is around 40% of our total business.

We have three main relationships withlarger insurance companies, but handlea lot of customers and insurance com-panies outside of the DRP arrange-ment.”

It’s hard to say what the futureholds, but Stiele is excited to be work-ing in today’s collision industry in Min-nesota.

“We really enjoy using technologyto do a better job, whether we’re usingtablets or smart phones to capture datafrom vehicles and writing the esti-mates. We’re working on being alu-minum-ready and spending the moneyand time needed to get onboard in thatregard. It’s a significant investment asall of the necessary equipment isn’tcheap. It’s important for us to be readyas the manufacturers start increasingthe use different types of metals andmaterials. I can’t predict how many orwhen the new F-150s will start show-ing up, but when they do I want ourshop to be trained and ready.”


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with Ed AttanasioMidwest Associations

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


The Alliance of Automotive ServiceProviders of Minnesota (AASP-MN)is on track to break its all-time highmembership record this year. Cur-rently, the association consists of 717members, including collision repairfacilities, mechanical shops and in-dustry suppliers. Though AASP-MNprimarily serves the entire state ofMN, Executive Director Judell An-derson explains that they also “offeran out-of-state membership at a re-duced rate and have members in com-munities bordering MN in Wisconsinand South Dakota.”

As an association comprised ofindependently-owned automotiveservice businesses and industry sup-pliers, AASP-MN’s mission is to be“dedicated to improving the state’s au-tomotive service industry and the suc-cess of its members.” Benefits ofmembership in the association includeaccess to education and training,group buying programs, legislative

representation, industry informationupdates, and networking opportuni-ties. “Membership literally doespay… it’s quite common for memberswho utilize just one of our group buy-ing programs—like uniforms or in-surance—to save many times morethan the cost of their membershipdues,” Anderson says.

Despite the significant value theassociation offers to members, An-derson has many short-term goals forenhancing its offerings, including toprovide more opportunities for peer-to-peer information exchange andnetworking among members, refresh-ing the association’s website to makeit easier for members to find and usethe information they need, and work-ing to expand the workforce talentpool available to the automotive serv-ice industry. Additionally, AASP-MNhopes to pass legislation which wouldprohibit insurer mandates and steer-ing of estimates.

In discussing long-term initia-tives, Anderson explains, “the fourkey pillars of AASP-MN are educa-tion and training, legislative advocacyand representation, group buying, in-formation and networking. Our long-term goal is to continue to deliverinnovative, relevant and valuablebenefits to members in each of thoseareas. We want to maintain a profes-sional, dynamic and financially-sound organization that is recognizedas one of the best in the automotiveservice industry.”

Over the years, Anderson hasnoticed a lot of consistency in thebiggest challenges facing the in-dustry. They include keeping upwith rapidly-changing technology,the availability of qualified techni-cians, and increasing insurer con-trol. “Through its various programsand initiatives, including trainingopportunities, our scholarship pro-gram and legislative efforts, AASP-

MN is working to address each ofthese challenges,” Anderson says.

As part of these efforts, the asso-ciation has organized several trainingprograms this fall, including OSHAcompliance workshops and seminarsin gasoline direct injection and vari-able cam timing. AASP-MN will alsohold a meeting for collision membersto discuss the preparations necessaryto repair aluminum vehicles. The as-sociation has also begun planning forthe 2015 legislative session and an-nual meeting and convention.

AASP-MN also has a unique pro-gram for its mechanical memberscalled “Get to Know Your Neighbor-hood Auto Repair Pro™.” Anderson de-scribes this program as “a marketingcampaign that promotes the benefits ofdoing business with independently-owned shops. Currently, commercialsare running on-air and streaming ontwo popular radio stations in the TwinCities area.”

AASP-MN on Track to Break Membership Record

with Chasidy Rae SiskMidwest Associations

Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family ofNASCAR fans. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Like many associations, AASP-MN is faced with the challenge ofidentifying and preparing the nextgeneration of volunteer leaders. An-derson notes, “the association de-pends on input and direction frommembers of the industry, and it isthat involvement that drives what theassociation does and how we goabout doing it. No ‘good ole boys’club here; we enforce term limits andwork to ensure that we have an on-going influx of new people and newideas.”

During the 2014 Legislative Ses-sion, AASP-MN introduced legisla-tion which would prohibit insurersfrom requiring insureds to go to aparticular shop for an estimate or re-quiring shops to utilize specific ven-dors, distributors, manufacturers,suppliers, business platforms or in-ternal processes to carry out vehiclerepairs. Due to the time constraints ofa short legislative session, the bill didnot advance, but Anderson believesthe groundwork has been adequatelylaid to try again in 2015.

This proposed legislation is im-portant, Anderson says, because “itwould restore the balance of power inthe relationship between repairers and

insurers. Insurer mandates signifi-cantly diminish shop owners’ controlover how they run their business. In-surers too often abuse their power andinterfere in the business practices andrelationships of the shop. If we’resuccessful, collision repairers willonce again have the ability to deter-mine repair decisions, vendor selec-tions and business practices based onwhat’s best for their customers andtheir business. Consumers will bene-fit by being assured that their shop ofchoice has the discretion to safely andproperly repair the vehicle to its pre-accident condition without being un-duly pressured by insurers to cutcorners and control costs.”

Of course, like any collision re-pair association, AASP-MN facescertain challenges when attempting topass legislation, namely in terms of“the human and financial resources ofthe insurance industry.” Andersonelaborates, “when AASP-MN goes tothe Capitol, we’re up against not onlylobbyists from the insurer association,but lobbyists employed by a dozen in-dividual insurers as well. But we havethe upper-hand when it comes tograssroots participation. AASP-MNmembers are local, main street busi-

nesses who oftentimes have personalrelationships with the legislators intheir communities. That is what reallymakes a difference when we’re work-ing to advance legislation.”

AASP-MN also takes a stance onnational legislative matters. The asso-ciation supports Right to Repair be-cause “consumers should ultimatelyhave the choice to decide where theirvehicle is repaired. The ability of in-dependent shops to conduct those re-pairs is contingent upon havingaccess to the same technical informa-tion, communications, tools and train-ing available to new car dealerships,”Anderson states.

Although the association has nottaken an official stance on the PARTSAct, Anderson notes that “generallyspeaking, AASP-MN members be-lieve that OEM, recycled and after-market parts all have their specificapplications and that shops are bestpositioned to select the appropriatepart for the particular vehicle beingrepaired.”

AASP-MN is opposed to in-surer-mandated parts procurementssystems, such as PartsTrader, whichAnderson refers to as “perhaps themost egregious example of an insurer

mandate, to date. It unduly interferesin the business relationship betweenshops and their suppliers and hasfailed to demonstrate any benefit orvalue to the parts procurement andrepair process.”

The association, known asAASP-MN since 1999, was originallyestablished as the Independent GarageOwners Association (IGOA) in 1955and was later a part of the AutomotiveService Council (ASC) and the Auto-motive Service Association (ASA) be-fore settling on its affiliation withAASP.

AASP-MN1970 Oakcrest Ave, Suite 102Roseville, MN 55113612-623-1110www.aaspmn.org


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In last month’s Better BlueprintingPart One, we discussed reasons thatshops have failed at Blueprinting. Thismonth we will focus on performingBlueprinting, and how it can greatlybenefit your collision repair shop.

Blueprint Admin StaffingOver the years I tried numerous vari-ations and combinations of people tostaff a Blueprinting program. All ofthem worked better than no Blue-printing program, but some combina-tions definitely worked better thanothers. Much of what influences yourBlueprint staff is simply the size andvolume of your shop. Many clientsrun smaller shops where people wearmany hats. In a small shop it is not un-common for the manager to also bethe estimator, the parts guys and theBlueprint guy. It is pretty easy to de-termine how to staff a really smallshop, but what about a shop that is alittle bigger? I recently worked with a

client that had two estimators, one ofthem liked being in the shop and thesecond one was better at dealing withcustomers. So we moved one of theminto the shop to be the Blueprint Ana-lyst, and the other efficiently handledthe entire volume of customers as theCustomer Service Manager. You mayneed to experiment with differentstaffing combinations to make it workfor your unique needs.

Blueprint Technician StaffingThe best Blueprint team I put togetherhad an older and very knowledgeabletechnician working alongside an ap-prentice disassembly technician. Thiswas a high volume shop and the teamworked in a dedicated Blueprint work-space with a Blueprint analyst whonever left his station. Many advancedshops have taken advantage of the ben-efits that creating a team system brings.It is still possible to use a dedicatedBlueprint area with individual flat rate

techs who are not paid as a team, butthere is a lot of movement of tools andpeople. Some shops using rolling com-puter carts are finding some successperforming the Blueprinting in thetechnician’s stalls. It works, but I stillprefer a dedicated area. Again, there aremany ways to create a Blueprint staffand each shop is going to be a little dif-ferent than the next based on skill level,shop size, personalities, etc.

SpaceDon’t fall in the trap of believing thatyour shop may be too small to be suc-cessful with Blueprinting. I have ana-lyzed damage in space from 2,000 sq.ft. to over 60,000 sq. ft. and the prac-tical application is still the same.

1. Disassemble and analyze the dam-age.2. Move the car until enough parts ar-rive to continuously work on it. (No-tice I said continuously.)

3. Move the car in and fix it. The keyhere is to only allow vehicles on theshop’s repair floor once they are readyto be worked on continuously. If youfollow this discipline, you will findshop space you knew you never had! Some setups used by successful shops:● One or two dedicated Blueprintstalls inside the shop

● Laptop or dedicated computer in theBlueprint area● If possible, keep the area accessiblefor tow trucks● Keep fasteners and fluids in theBlueprint area


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Better Blueprinting, Part 2: How to Set Up a Blueprinting Area

Recommended ToolsIn addition to the usual hand tools, thefollowing items are needed to com-plete the inspection procedure:1. Parts cart 2. Clipboard 3. Tape measure 4. Tram gauge 5. Tread depth gauge

6. Small mirror 7. Flash light/drop light 8. Mobile Estimating system 9. Creeper 10. Collision estimating system11. Access to OEM parts schematics12. Colored markers 13. Heavy Gloves 14. Safety Glasses

Better Blueprinting TechniquesStep 1. Vehicle Check-inEven though the process of perform-ing a “check-in” with the customerduring vehicle drop-off may not beconsidered a part of the Blueprintprocess, the information obtained isabsolutely vital to the Blueprint. Withthe customer present, this process in-volves walking around the vehicle and

communicating and documenting thefollowing. It is a great way of com-municating the customer’s concernsindirectly to the Blueprint Analyst toensure things don’t get missed!● What damage is a result of the acci-dent?● Unrelated prior damage?● Upsell opportunities?● MILs such as check engine warninglamps on dash – prior or related?● Anything unusual about the vehi-cle’s performance mechanically?● Touch-up paint and other “freebie”promises

Step 2. Identify Mechanical IssuesIdentifying mechanical issues prior todisassembling and disabling a dam-aged vehicle is always preferable. (Butnot always possible.) Everyone can re-late to the delays that are caused whenthese problems are discovered on theday the car was supposedly going to beready! In a collision, mechanical issuescould involve many things; howeverthe most common are suspension, airconditioning /cooling system, wiringand supplemental restraint systems. Irecommend that first you address theseitems by:● Review the customer concerns onthe check-in sheet● Test driving● Performing suspension alignmentprior to disassembly (if possible)● Using a scan tool to help diagnosetrouble codes (check engine lights, etc.)● Always ask the customer how manypassengers were in the car, especiallyif restraint systems were deployed.Check those seatbelts!● Check interior electronics, heat/air,etc.● Check fluid levels

Step 3. Communication between Esti-mator and TechnicianHow many times have you seen a tech-


See Better Blueprinting, Page 32


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A three-person panel will discuss key is-sues in a one-hour session, AftermarketAccess to OEM Education Resources,during the NASTF Fall 2014 GeneralMeeting, Wednesday, Nov. 5 at the SandsExpo Center/Venetian Hotel in LasVegas.

Jill Saunders of Toyota, Rob Mor-rell of WORLDPAC and Bill Moss ofEuroService Automotive will engagewith panel moderator Skip Potter ofNASTF, revealing their expert insightson the availability, use and plans of OEMtechnical training resources for the inde-pendent aftermarket.

Panelists will discuss key issuesconcerning OEM education resources,including the legal requirements on au-

tomakers, why automakers may want toprovide training voluntarily, the differ-ence between OEM dealer training andwhat the aftermarket may need, navigat-ing OEM websites to find training, OEMlicensing of resources to independenttrainers and more.

Jill Saunders is a Product Engineerfor Toyota Motor Sales, USA, in theProduct Quality and Service Support Di-vision. She is responsible for the devel-opment and support of the TechstreamDiagnostic Scantool for all of NorthAmerica and the US Territories.

Rob Morrell has been Director ofTraining for WORLDPAC since 2001.Previously, he had been lead technicianand shop foreman in a 115-bay, San Fran-

cisco area BMW-Porsche dealership.Morrell currently serves as the Inde-pendent Co-chair for the NASTF Educa-tion Committee.

Bill Moss owns a four-bay serviceshop, EuroService Automotive in VA,which he purchased in 2009. Moss is anASE Master, L-1 Technician and serveson the Boards of Directors for bothNASTF and the Automotive Service As-sociation. Skip Potter is the Executive Di-rector of NASTF.

“The OEMs provide a great deal oftraining resources to the techsin their dealer networks,” said NASTFBoard Chair Allen Pennebaker. “Whilethe resources available from some OEMsto independents is often the same and

those from others may not be as exten-sive, much of what is being provided isnot being consumed. This panel shouldgo a long way to fixing that disconnectand helping all to understand what isavailable and what is not, how to accessthose resources and what to do if theycannot.”

The NASTF meeting begins at 1pm(PT) in Casanova 605 during the Auto-motive Aftermarket Industry Week. Noregistration is necessary. Information canbe found at www.nastf.org/generalmeet-ings/. Seating is limited but the full eventand panel discussion will be broadcast onthe NASTF website, www.nastf.org, andrecorded on the NASTF YouTube Chan-nel, www.youtube.com/nastfdotorg.

Panel to Discuss Aftermarket Access to OEM Education During NASTF Meeting Nov. 5

Ron Perretta, owner of ProfessionalsAuto Body in central PA (see coverstory), held a meeting for body shopowners and employees, as well as con-sumers and vendors, who believe in-surance companies are negativelyimpacting the industry.

The meeting was held Sept. 20, atthe Holiday Inn Fort Washington PA.“...this is not about DRP or Non-DRP.This is about independence and charg-ing what's fairly owed to our shops,”

said Perretta. He encouraged industryworkers and patrons to come out andshow their support. “This gathering isto discuss what the solutions are to anever growing problem,” said Perretta.“You need to get off the sidelines andget involved. We are very powerfulwhen we join together.”

The following was addressed:● legal actions by repairers in the statesof Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, In-diana, Utah and Louisiana, plus addi-

tional states joining the Multi DistrictLitigation against the nation’s largestinsurance companies;● Louisiana Attorney General’s actionagainst the nation’s largest propertyand casualty insurance company;● the ability for body shops to buyparts freely from other shops;● the ability to sell parts without havingto pay insurance companies that “de-stroy the parts vendors business andshops profitability;”

● the right of consumers to have repairsdone by the body shop they choose;● the right of consumers to usewhichever rental car company theychoose.

“We cannot continue to have theinsurance industry control our everymove, even to the point that shops andvendors who were frightened to comeout on Sept. 20,” said Perretta. Formore information, contact Ron Perrettaat 814-931-7669.

PA Shop Owner Held Meeting to Discuss How Insurance is Negatively Impacting Industry


PA Insurance Company Vindicated inYouTube Bugatti Crash CasePhiladelphia Insurance Companiessaid it has been vindicated in its inves-tigation and denial of a fraudulentclaim filed by an East Texas motoristfor the 2009 crash of his BugattiVeryon, following his guilty plea inAugust in the case United States ofAmerica v. Andy Lee House, as re-ported by Insurance Journal.

The Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylva-nia-based insurer said it committed ex-tensive resources over the past fouryears to fight the $2.2 million fraudu-lent claim filed by Andy Lee House ofLufkin, Texas, for the intentional de-struction of the luxury sport car.

The 2009 crash, which was cap-tured on video by a passing motoristand viewed more than five milliontimes on YouTube, drew national at-tention. Philadelphia Insurance said itsclaims investigators had suspectedfraud from the beginning and stead-fastly denied the claim.

Authorities said House initiallyclaimed that he was reaching for hiscell phone when the car swerved intowater near Galveston, Texas. The saltwater flooded the engine, ruining theBugatti. Philadelphia Insurance said itcommenced its investigation, securedwitness statements, and received an

anonymous call regarding the schemedeveloped by House to destroy the ve-hicle in exchange for the insuranceproceeds.

In lieu of settling the claim,Philadelphia Insurance filed suit in2010 in the U.S. District Court for theSouthern District of Texas seeking tonot only rescind the insurance policyissued to House, but also sought dam-ages for breach of the insurance con-tract and fraud.

The insurer said the FBI ulti-mately got involved and filed a federallawsuit against House, resulting in hisguilty plea on August 26 to wire fraud.House faces up to 20 years in federalprison and the U.S. Attorney in thecase has recommended that he payrestitution to Philadelphia Insurance.

“We owe a great deal of thanks tothe witnesses who provided video andstatements, which allowed the truth tocome to light, as well as to federal andlocal enforcement for their investiga-tions,” said Bill Benecke, executivevice president and chief claims officerat Philadelphia Insurance. “Fraudulentclaims adversely impact all of our cus-tomers and it is our fiduciary responsi-bility as an insurance carrier to protectour policyholders.”

Herkules to Host NASCAR Driver Brendan GaughanDuring SEMA ShowHerkules Equipment Corporation willbe hosting NASCAR Driver Bren-dan Gaughan at the 2014 SEMAShow, being held in Las Vegas, Ne-vada November 4-7. Gaughan will be

signing autographs and chatting withfans on Tuesday and Wednesday, No-vember 4 and 5, from 1 to 3 pm, in

the Herkules booth #11139.Brendan Gaughan has been a

NASCAR Driver since 1997 with hisdebut in the Camping World TruckSeries and winning this race in 2000.A Georgetown University graduateand family man, he holds 17 careerwins and 83 top-five finishes through-out all of the NASCAR Series races.His latest win was in June 2014 at theNASCAR Nationwide Series GardnerDenver 200 race. His website is:www.brendangaughan.com.

Herkules Equipment Corpora-tion, established in 1984, is a leadingmanufacturer for the AutomotivePaint & Body Repair industry, hav-ing designed, manufactured andpatented the first Paint Gun Washer.They have been manufacturing qual-ity vehicle lifts and scissor lift tablesfor close to 30 years, providing manyindustries with ergonomic solutionsfor countless applications. Herkulesalso supplies Sparkle Clean, AirJacks, Carts & Stands, and CrushingEquipment.

For more product information,please contact Herkules at 800-444-4351, or at [email protected] or visittheir website at:www.herkules.us.

NASCAR Driver Brendan Gaughan will besigning autographs on Nov. 4 & 5 at theHerkules booth during the SEMA Show inLas Vegas, NV


Collision industry members are invitedto join the Collision Repair EducationFoundation during their industry recep-tion the evening of Tuesday, November4 from 8:30 p.m.-10 p.m. (Local Time)in Ballroom B at the Westgate LasVegas Resort & Casino (formerly theLas Vegas Hotel) during SEMA 2014.

During the reception, attendees willhear about the organization’s efforts tosupport high school and post-secondarycollision students, 2014 donors/support-ers will be highlighted, and over$500,000 in support will be announcedfor the 2014 Ultimate Collision Educa-tion Makeover school grant applicants.Industry members will also have an op-

portunity to meet attending collisionschool instructors and students.

Collision Repair Education Foun-dation Director of Development BrandonEckenrode noted, “Over 100 collisionschool programs from over 30 states ap-plied to have their $50,000 wish lists ful-filled in 2014 and through the industry’scontinued generosity, we will be able toannounce over $500,000 in support to theMakeover applicant schools during ourannual SEMA reception. We would liketo invite all industry professionals to joinin recognizing those who are making thissupport possible and also introduce at-tendees to the instructors and studentsthat will explain how much of a differ-

ence this support means to ensuring grad-uating students have a quality technicaleducation.”

The goal of the Ultimate CollisionEducation Makeover grant is to honor aschool that has been doing an outstand-ing job in educating students in collisionrepair, but needs some financial assis-tance to improve their program’s teach-ing materials and equipment.With strained school budgets, the Edu-cation Foundation and industry sup-porters have the opportunity to bridgethe program’s financial gap and tomake a difference in the lives of thestudents studying collision repair.

As part of the Makeover grant ap-

plication, schools provide an itemizedwish list which can include any tools,supplies, and equipment that areneeded by the collision program.

Additional details of the event willbe made available as the date ap-proaches; however, industry membersare asked to RSVP for the reception byemailing attendee information [email protected].

Questions regarding the receptionand/or the Education Foundation’s ef-forts to support the future of the colli-sion industry can be directed toDirector of Development, BrandonEckenrode at [email protected] or 847.463.5244.

Over $500,000 in Support to Makeover School Grant Applications Announced During SEMA

The Alliance of Automotive ServiceProviders of Minnesota (AASP-MN) willhost, “Gasoline Direct Injection and GMGDI Diagnostics,” Wednesday, Oct. 8,and “Variable Cam Timing,” Thursday,Oct. 9. The seminars, presented by JohnThornton, will be held from 4-8 p.m. at EPAuto, Tire & Glass, in Eden Prairie, MN.

The Gasoline Direct Injection &GM GDI Diagnostics class will focus onGDI operation, theory, diagnostics andservice procedures. The discussion willbe applicable to most manufacturers

using GDI today. GM has used GDIsince 2007. This high-pressure fuel sys-tem is found on most late-model GM ve-hicles. A strong emphasis will be placedon testing techniques using both the GMscan tool (GDS2) and a lab scope. Ad-ditionally, there will be case study analy-sis of failed components.

The Variable Cam Timing classwill be a case study-based class. Spe-cific manufacturers’ strategies and test-ing techniques will be discussed usingbroken vehicles with a scan tool and

lab scope. Also on tap in October are aBS Session for collision shops andMech XChange session for mechanicalshops. The BS Session will focus onpreparing for aluminum repair and theMech XChange roundtables will dis-cuss the various ways of handlingcompensation for employee trainingand the pros and cons of extended shophours. More details about these pro-grams are available on the AASP-MNwebsite, www.aaspmn.org.

On Nov. 12 and 13, AASP-MN

will host “Preparing for an OSHA In-spection,” from 11:30 a.m. –1:30 p.m.,at its offices in Roseville. The work-shops, presented by Carol Keyes andJanet Keyes, of Complete Health, Envi-ronmental & Safety Services (CHESS),will cover the most frequently-cited andmost commonly-found OSHA viola-tions in automotive repair facilities.For additional information contact theAASP-MN office at (612) 623-1110 or800-852-9071 or visit:www.aaspmn.org.

AASP–MN Announces Fall Seminars


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ABRA Auto Body & Glass, a leadingnational damaged vehicle repair com-pany, announced it had acquired USACollision Centers in Harrison, WestChester, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Thenews follows ABRA’s initial entry intothe state in June 2014. Terms of thetransaction were not disclosed. The re-cent growth in Ohio is part of the com-pany’s strategy to increase its nationalfootprint. ABRA is one of the collisionindustry’s largest multi shop repair op-erators in the country. ABRA’s portfo-lio now stands at 243 repair centers in19 states.

“The acquisition of USA Colli-sion Centers represents a fantastic op-portunity to expand our presence inOhio and continue building on the ex-traordinary success we’ve achieved inthe region,” said Duane Rouse,ABRA’s president and chief execu-tive officer.”

Joseph Sanfillipo, Jr., founder andco-owner of USA Collision Centers,said, “I have complete confidenceABRA will continue the legacy myfamily and I have built over the years.There is no doubt our employees willflourish and our customers will receivethe highest quality repairs and superiorservice they’ve come to expect.”

ABRA Auto Body Acquires USACollision Centers

Collision 34—located at the inter-section of Highway 34 and 48 underthe busy lights of Osage, MI, for thepast two years, has a new buildingand a new location.

Owned and founded by MarkLarson, the auto body and mechanicshop outgrew its old location and isnow settling in with a larger build-ing at 45980 Highway 34, formerlyLymburner Awning.

“We had to expand. The loca-tion we had been at was just toosmall,” said Larson.

The Board of Directors of UnitedFire Group (UFG), an AASPI en-dorsed provider of insurance cover-age for collision and mechanicalshops, has approved the payment ofan eight percent all-eligible-linesdividend on earned premium formembers in the Alliance of Automo-tive Service Providers Illinois-UFGinsurance program for calendar year2013. The program became effectiveFebruary 1, 2013, and finished theyear with $649,000 written premiumand a 32 percent loss ratio.

Collision 34 in MI Expands toNew Building in New Location

UFG’s Dividend for AASP-ILInsurance Program

The Suburban Collection automo-tive group has rebranded two majorautomotive repair facilities in Troyand Farmington Hills, Michiganunder the Suburban Collision Cen-ter name.

Suburban Collision Center ofTroy, 1759 Maplelawn Dr., andSuburban Collision Center ofFarmington Hills, 34600 GrandRiver Ave., had previously beenoperated under the Fischer BodyRefinishing name.

“We are extremely proud ofour outstanding work accom-plished year after year by a greatteam,” said David T. Fischer, chair-man and CEO, The Suburban Col-lection.

“The name change will in-crease the awareness that these twofacilities will continue to be keycomponents of The Suburban Col-lection, offering industry-leadingbody repair and refinishing serv-ices for our customers.”

Suburban Collision Centersare also located in numerous otherMichigan locations, including Ster-ling Heights, Ferndale, Ann Arbor,Waterford Hills, Garden City, Ply-mouth, and Lansing.

Suburban Collection AddsTwo New MI Repair Shops

Michigan State Police motor carrier offi-cers joined the Federal Motor CarrierSafety Administration for the NationalMotorcoach Safety Initiative. The nation-wide effort aimed at ensuring passengerbus safety and compliance took place untilSept. 8. During the effort, Michigan StatePolice motor carrier officers conductedbus inspections. Officers checked overallvehicle maintenance, including brakes,tires and exhaust systems.

Bus Inspections Conducted byMI Police

MI Ban on Non-OEM SystemSEMA-opposed legislation to prohibitmotor-vehicle repair facilities frommodifying an exhaust system to “pro-duce noise in excess of OEM stockdecibel levels” has been introduced inMichigan. Under the bill, a person whoviolates this prohibition would beforced to pay a fine of $10,000 for eachviolation. Under Michigan law, a motor-vehicle repair facility means “a place ofbusiness which engages in the businessof performing or employing personswho perform maintenance, diagnosis,vehicle body work or repair service ona motor vehicle for compensation.”

For information, visit the SEMAAction Network website or contactSteve McDonald at [email protected].


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M 8-5; Tue 8-8 W, Thu, F 8-5; Sat [email protected]

Honda of FishersFishers

800-806-6404317-299-3723

M-F [email protected]

Gary Force HondaBowl ing Green

800-533-6723270-781-8230M-F 7-5; Sat 8-2

[email protected]

Victory HondaPlymouth

800-824-4646734-453-3600

M 7:30-8; Tue-F 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Zeigler HondaKalamazoo

888-342-1678269-585-5812

M-Thu 7-8; F 7-6; Sat [email protected]

Buerkle HondaSt . Paul

800-592-9514651-484-0975

M-Thu 8-9; F 8-6; Sat 8-4:[email protected]

Luther Hopkins HondaHopkins

800-328-6016952-908-8585

M-Thu 7-9; F 7-6; Sat [email protected]

Richfield-BloomingtonHondaRichf ie ld

800-328-2703612-866-8197

M-Thu 6:30-9; F 6:30-6; Sat 6:[email protected]

Bommarito HondaHazelwood

800-731-8270314-731-8270

M-Sat [email protected]

Ed Napleton HondaSt . Peters

800-875-4190636-928-4400

M-Sat [email protected]

Frank Fletcher HondaColumbia

573-818-3650M-F 8-5; Sat 8-4

[email protected]

Frank Leta HondaSt . Louis

888-680-6025636-336-5003M-F 7-6; Sat 7-5

[email protected]

Honda of Tiffany SpringsKansas C i ty

800-875-3911816-452-3221M-Thu 7-7; F-Sat 7-6

[email protected]

Mungenast St. Louis HondaSt . Louis

800-233-1288314-487-5112

Wholesale Hours: M-F 7-5www.stlouishonda.com

Roper HondaJopl in

877-244-6632417-625-0846M, W, Thu, F 7:30-6;Tu 7:30-7; Sat 9-1

[email protected]

Honda MarysvilleMarysv i l le

866-645-4080937-645-4095

M-F 7:30-9; Sat 7:30-6; Sun [email protected]

Jay HondaBedford

800-509-9057440-786-3363M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-4

[email protected]

Russ Darrow HondaMilwaukee

888-318-1671414-586-5401

M-F 7-6; Sat 7-4; Sun [email protected]

Wilde HondaWaukesha

800-526-3209262-542-9300M-F 7-9; Sat 8-4

[email protected]

ILLINOIS MICHIGAN OHIO

The Honda and Acura Dealers Listed Here are Subscribers:HONDA

OHIO ILLINOIS ILLINOIS MINNESOTA

ACURA

Columbia AcuraCinc innat i

800-654-3553513-530-0698M-F 8-5:30; Sat 8-12

[email protected]

Ed Martin AcuraInd ianapol is

888-812-1269317-706-1933

M 8-8; Tue-F 8-6; Sat [email protected]

Acura of LibertyvilleL iber tyv i l le

847-680-7333M-F 7:30-6; Sat 7:30-4

[email protected]

Arlington Acura in PalatinePalat ine

800-991-8438847-991-9005

M-W 7:30-7:30; Thu-F 7:30-5:30; Sat [email protected]

Continental Acuraof NapervilleChicago/Suburbs888-711-1506630-960-2175M-F 7-5:30; Sat [email protected]

McGrath Acura ofMorton Grove

Morton Grove847-470-2309M-F 7-9; Sat 8-6

[email protected]

Muller’s WoodfieldAcura

Hoffman Estates866-475-9280

M 7-5; Tue-F 7-6 Sat [email protected]

Buerkle AcuraMinneapol is

800-717-3109763-488-1122

M, F 7-5:30; Tu-Thu 7-7; Sat 7:[email protected]

Acura of BrookfieldBrookf ie ld

800-383-3936262-439-6029

M-Thu 7:30-6; F 7:30-5; Sat 8-4:[email protected]

INDIANA

KENTUCKY

INDIANA WISCONSIN

For more collisioninfo, go to:collision.honda.comairbagaware.honda.comcrashrepairinfo.com

MISSOURI

OHIO

MINNESOTA

MISSOURI

WISCONSIN

K & M Collision, a NC shop that isknown for strong advocacy (see pre-vious story this page and search auto-bodynews.com), posted a consumer-

oriented video on YouTube that it pro-duced in support of Louisiana Attor-ney General Buddy Caldwell’s actionagainst State Farm.

“These kinds of unfair trade prac-tices aren’t just a problem in Louisiana,”owner Meredith Bradshaw states inthe video. “They pose a threat to con-sumers here in North Carolina andthroughout the United States.”

The text of a related video states“After an accident, one of the mostcommon things you’ll hear from aninsurance company is ‘if you takeyour car to a shop that’s not on our re-

ferral program or preferred list, wewon’t warranty or guarantee the re-pair’.

“This statement isn’t just mis-leading, It’s completely false.The insurance company doesnot, has not and will not war-ranty the repair even if yourcar is repaired at their directrepair facility.

“Let’s say you do followtheir recommendation, andtake your car to one of theirshops. If there are problemswith that repair, the shop it-self is liable, in exactly thesame way that K&M is liable

for any of the repairs that we perform.“The shop you choose, whether it

be an insurance preferred shop or anindependent shop, is solely responsiblefor the warranty on the repairs to yourvehicle.

“So why do insurance companiesmake this misleading statement to theirpolicyholders? It’s just another scaretactic.

“In reality, the insurance com-pany itself doesn’t provide any guar-antee. In fact, with the pressure theyplace on their shops to turn out highvolume, they create an environment

that’s more likely to result in bad re-pairs.

“But they don’t have to worryabout that. Because ultimately, the shopis responsible.

“At K&M Collision we don’tparticipate in referral networks. Ouronly priority is to serve our customersby fixing their car the right way. Youcan rest assured that any repair thatcomes through our doors is guaran-teed for life.”

A previous version of the videowas suspended from YouTube becauseof a copyright complaint from the In-surance Institute for Highway Safety(IIHS) due to its use of one of the or-ganization’s crash test clips. K & MVice President of Operations MichaelBradshaw alleges State Farm per-suaded IIHS to file the complaint.

“The basis of their complaint wasthat we used a few-second clip of acrash test to give our viewers a senseof the way a ‘crash management sys-tem’ works,” says Bradshaw. “Wefound this clip on YouTube, created bywhat we thought was an independent,nonprofit organization dedicated toconsumer safety. We’re also certainthat our brief, educational use of thisclip constitutes ‘Fair Use.’ However,

we didn’t notice that this ‘independent,nonprofit organization’ was foundedby State Farm.”

Bradshaw says K & M has coun-tered the copyright claim throughYouTube and is awaiting word on theoutcome. He says the video has gottenthe attention of the North Carolina At-torney General’s office, and they haveeven taken an interest in the IIHS’s ef-fort to remove K & M’s video fromYouTube.

“We will be documenting StateFarm’s efforts to get our content re-moved from the Internet and willcontinue to fight back and notify theindustry press about their actions,”Bradshaw says. “People should knowthat the IIHS, supposedly a non-profit organization dedicated to high-way safety, is nothing more than apuppet of State Farm, an organiza-tion responsible for putting unsafecars on the road.”

The new version of the video canbe viewed directly at http://kandm-collision.com/open-letter/?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Video&utm_campaign=2ndVersionofAGLetter

A link can also be viewed at:www.autobodynews.com.


K & M Collision Sends Second Version of ‘Open Letter’ Video to NC Attorney General

Meredith Bradshaw narrates the second version of theopen letter video. Previous videos are viewable online


An attempted auto theft at a collision re-pair shop in Pittsburgh, PA on August 30left the shop manager seriously injuredin the hospital and nine cars damaged.Pittsburgh police are investigating the in-cident that took place at Ultimate AutoBody Shop, in business for more than 30years. Mike Harlack, the manager, no-ticed someone getting into a new Subaruthat had just been dropped off that morn-ing and was ready to be put on the rack.

“He thought it was one of hisfriends at first,” said Joe Sokolowski,the owner of the shop. Sokolowski saidwhen the car started Harlack openedthe door to stop the thief. A surveil-lance video, aired on WTAE PittsburghAction News 4, showed Harlack beingdragged away by the car before hittingthe side of a tow truck and falling tothe ground, with a broken leg. Thethief sped away, hitting eight cars andtotaling the Subaru before runningaway.

Sokolowski said he wished thatHarlack wouldn’t have tried to stop thethief. “I just hope he’s going to be okay,”said Sokolowski, who has worked withHarlack since the shop first opened andconsiders his colleague a close friend.

Ultimate Auto Body specializes incomplete collision repair and works onthe police cars for the City of Pitts-burgh Bureau of Police and the MountOliver Police Department. The autobody shop is continuing operationsduring this difficult time; however,

Sokolowski said it is frustrating as asmall business to have Harlack in thehospital and the thief at large.

Autobody News contacted the po-lice department for an update andlearned no arrests have been made. Ul-timate Auto Body Shop is offering a$500 reward to identify the thief.


by Victoria Antonelli, Online Editor

A missed step in Jerry Ritieni’s routineon July 19 almost cost him close to $3million. When the Extreme Auto Bodyowner stopped at Cumberland Farms inSyosset, NY, to buy $10 in Quick Piclottery tickets, he placed the winningnumbers in his center console, insteadof their usual spot—on his visor mirror.

Ritieni found the tickets a monthand a half later while searching for hisVermont house keys. After entering thenumbers online at his shop, he becamea millionaire in the blink of an eye.

“I’m a joking kinda guy, so my son,friends and employees didn’t believe

that I had won the lotto, until I sped outof the parking lot,” said the Massapequalocal. “Kenny [an employee] said, ‘I

think he’s serious, he hasn’t left the shopduring business hours in 22 years, and

he’s been gone for almost an hour!’”Ritieni, 48, says he will continue to

work. “The money is life-easing, notlife-changing,” Ritieni explains. “I neverhad a retirement plan, which was alwaysa concern of mine, so it’s nice to havethat taken care of.”

Ritieni’s 20-year-old daughter and17-year-old son are his priorities,specifically their college tuition. Healso bought the building next door tohis shop for expansion purposes.

“I drove into a Maserati dealer-ship next door to the lottery officewhile my son was in the car, just tomess with him,” said Ritieni. Ritienisaid he’s happy with the way the com-

munity responded to his win.“I live by my father’s words: Be

honest, be fair, and do the right thing andyou’ll be fine,” said Ritieni. “A lot of thelocals said I won because of good karmaand I believe that to be true.”

Ritieni said he is not affiliated withany insurance companies or DRPs, andthat the customer is the priority.

“Everybody wants to make a living,but money is not my driving factor,” saidRitieni. “I don’t believe in taking advan-tage of people. At my shop, everybodygets what they paid for, and everybodygets treated the same.”

After a cash buyout and tax deduc-tions, Ritieni collected $1.3 million.

NY Shop Owner’s Forgotten Lottery Ticket is a Nearly-Lost $2.9 Million Winner

Theft and Serious Injury at PA Auto Body Shop

Extreme Auto Body owner Jerry Ritieni infront of his NY shop with the winning ticket(Photo courtesty of VICTORALCORN.COM)

www.a


33 West Kemper Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45246

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Mankato Free Press.com Posts “What’s What onWrecked Windshields” in MNQ: The other day I was coming intotown when I passed a constructioncompany truck. When the truck passedmy car, it threw a rock onto my carwindshield and broke it. I followed thetruck until it stopped, we got out andconfronted the truck driver. He said:“It’s not my problem.”

My question is: Why is that thefarmers hauling grain and soybeanshave to have the cargo covered and notconstruction companies? Stuff flies offthe trucks and hits other vehicles. Whatare the requirements for trucks like this?I know I’m not the only one that thishappens to.

A: If a rock on the road was flung by atire into your windshield, there’s no re-sponsibility under the law for the ownerof the tire to reimburse the owner of thewindshield. But as to your questionabout stuff being hauled by a truck, Lt.Eric Roeske of the State Patrol pointedAsk Us Guy to Minnesota Statute169.81, subdivision 5.

As it turns out, the reader actuallyhas it backward as to who has to covertheir loads and who doesn’t. The statutestates: “No vehicle shall be driven ormoved on any highway unless such ve-

hicle is so constructed, loaded, or theload securely covered as to prevent anyof its load from dropping, sifting, leak-ing, blowing, or otherwise escapingtherefrom, except that sand may bedropped for the purpose of securingtraction, or water or other substancesmay be sprinkled on a roadway incleaning or maintaining such roadway.”

Violating the subdivision is a mis-demeanor.

But then comes the exception tothe rule. Ask Us Guy has noted beforethat Minnesota lawmakers from ruralparts of the state have a long traditionof making sure that regulations don’toverly burden farmers, and that’s thecase with this law as well.

“This subdivision shall not applyto motor vehicles operated by a farmeror the farmer’s agent when transportingproduce such as small grains, shelledcorn, soybeans, or other farm produceof a size and density not likely to causeinjury to persons or damage to propertyon escaping in small amounts from avehicle,” the law states. “Violation ofthis subdivision by a vehicle that is car-rying farm produce and that is not ex-empted by the preceding sentence is apetty misdemeanor.”

The Coalition Protecting Auto No-fault(C-PAN) is in the process of taking TheMichigan Catastrophic Claims Associ-ation (MCCA) to the Supreme Court. The high costs of car insurance inMichigan sparked the lawsuit.

The MCCA covers medical costsfor serious accidents totalling morethan $530,000 in damages.

The association charges drivers$186 per car and is currently exemptfrom requests through the Freedom ofInformation Act or FOIA.

C-PAN argues that the associationshould not be exempt and recordsshould be opened up to public scrutiny.An Ingham County judge originallyruled in favor of C-PAN, ordering theMCCA to open up it's records to thepublic.

However, the MCCA appealedthat decision and a 3-judge appellatepanel agreed that the association is, infact, exempt from FOIA requests.The case is still underway.

MI’s No-Fault Car InsuranceUnder Fire

CCC Information Services announcedthat O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. hassigned on to join the CCC TRUE™Parts Network, an electronic automo-tive parts quoting and eProcurementnetwork that connects auto parts sup-pliers with CCC’s expansive customerbase of collision repairers. O’ReillyAutomotive, Inc., one of the largestspecialty retailers of automotive after-market parts, tools, supplies, equip-ment, and accessories in the U.S., is thefirst mechanical parts supplier to jointhe CCC TRUE Parts Network, addingits vast mechanical and aftermarket in-ventory to the options collision repair-ers can view and purchase from withinCCC ONE® Repair Workflow.

“Reducing the time it takes to re-view and order parts is vital to the con-tinued improvement and growth of thecollision industry,” said TonyBartholomew, Sr. VP of ProfessionalSales, O’Reilly Auto Parts. “Collisionrepairers now have the opportunity topull inventory from over 4200 O’Reillystores and 25 distribution centers fromwithin the CCC ONE Workflow appli-cation. O’Reilly Auto Parts has a com-mitment to provide quality aftermarketparts and excellent customer service tothe collision repair industry and thisplatform provides us with another av-enue through which we can continuemeeting this goal.”

“O’Reilly Automotive is a nationalleader in the automotive aftermarketparts industry and we’re very excited tohave them join the CCC TRUE PartsNetwork,” said David Boden, VP,CCC’s Parts Services Group. “The ad-dition of O’Reilly marks our foray intomechanical parts and serves as the per-fect complement to the dozens of othernational, regional and local market sup-pliers we have in the network today. Ourgoal with the CCC TRUE Parts Net-work is to offer the collision repair in-dustry choice and convenience when itcomes to parts procurement and todaymarks another important step in that vi-sion.”

Participation in the CCC TRUEParts Network is open to all parts sup-pliers. Parts suppliers interested in be-coming part of the CCC TRUE PartsNetwork should visit: http://www.ccc-true.com.

Integrated auto parts quoting, pro-curement and invoicing are availablenow, free of charge, to CCC ONE Re-pair Workflow customers.

O’Reilly Automotive Joins theCCC TRUE™ Parts Network

Caliber Collision Centers announcedits expansion across the East Coastwith the acquisition of three Univer-sal Auto Body Centers in the Orlando,FL area along with Flagler Collisionin Palm Coast.

Caliber Collision’s new Floridalocations opened for business Aug. 22at 2024 Wellfleet Court in Orlando;430 Kane Court in Oviedo; 17649 USHwy 27 in Clermont; as well as 3 Mar-ket Place Court in Palm Coast.

Caliber’s four new facilities arelocated throughout the greater Or-lando market.

“Today’s openings in Floridafurther enhance our ability to restorecustomers to the rhythm of theirlives in the Eastern U.S., as we de-liver on our commitment to expandcustomer convenience while pro-viding industry-leading metrics inevery market we serve,” said CEOSteve Grimshaw.

“Our new Florida centers bringCaliber Collision’s total number oflocations to 186 across the Calibernetwork as we continue to grow intothe collision repair provider of choicein the nine states we now serve,”added Mark Sanders, President andCOO.

Caliber Enters FL Market WithFour New Stores

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by Ed Attanasio

In most parts of the country, snow, tor-nadoes, floods and other severeweather can lead to an unexpectedwindfall for body shops. But most ofCalifornia isn’t usually affected bydramatic seasonal weather. However,when an earthquake hits, like the onethat shook Napa, CA, on August 24 at3:20 a.m. and measuring at a 6.0 onthe Richter scale, everyone, includingbody shops, are impacted. Thequake’s epicenter was located approx-imately 3.7 miles northwest of Amer-ican Canyon near the West Napa Faultbeneath the Napa Valley Marina, justwest of the Napa County Airport.

The earthquake was the largest tohit the San Francisco Bay Area sincethe 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake 25years earlier. Significant damage andseveral fires were reported in thesouthern Napa Valley area, and therewas also damage in the nearby city ofVallejo, in Solano County.

Napa, of course, is best knownfor its wine industry, and certainlywineries were damaged. So were dis-tributors and retailers whose inven-

tory was subject to breakage. BistroDon Giovanni in Napa lost about athird of its wine and liquor inventory,worth $20,000 to $30,000, said Cur-tis Bradford, the restaurant’s man-ager. The quake could lead toeconomic losses of as much as $4 bil-lion from wrecked wine stock andshuttered businesses that rely on

tourists, according to an estimatefrom Kinetic Analysis Corp.

Brent Blackwood, the owner ofBlackhawk Body Shop in Napa wasobviously concerned about his shopwhen the earthquake hit, but once herealized that the damage was minimal,his focused shifted to repairing cars.“There was a little sheet rock damageand quite a bit of broken glass here atthe shop. A few tool carts and a jackfell over, but other than that we werefine. It was just enough to make a bigmess, that’s all.”

Since the earthquake, BlackhawkBody Shop has been inundated withcustomers and business is up at least40%, Blackwood explained. “On anormal day, we do 4–6 estimates, butsince the earthquake, we’re doing 15or more every day. It’s mostly PDR(Paintless Dent Removal) work, but insome cases if the paint was affected,we need to do more than just PDR. Weknew that we would get a spike inbusiness, so we came in the day afterthe shaker and made sure we’d be pre-pared. We have a PDR guy that wework with regularly and he’s normallyhere once a week, but now he’s been

down here almost every day.”A second-generation body shop

owner, Blackwood and his father haveseen a few earthquakes over the years,including the 1989 Loma Prieta quake,but this one hit closer to home. “[LomaPrieta] impacted us, of course, andsome people here in Napa lost theirhomes,” Blackwood said. “We’ve beenhere since 1957 when my dad openedthis shop, so we have second and third-generation customers. We’ve devel-oped relationships with them over theyears, so seeing their cars coming inand asking them about their homes wasdifferent. In this industry, we makemoney when people get into accidents,but when things like earthquakes hap-pen, everyone is affected and anyone’sproperty can be damaged.”

Mike’s Auto Body in Napa experi-enced some toppled shelves andflipped chairs, but overall the shopcame through without damage, accord-ing to the shop’s Manager BradWoodland. “We were extremelylucky,” he said. “The city green-taggedour building, which means we’re clearfor business as usual. I live here inNapa and we know people whose


Napa Body Shops Jolted After 6.0 Quake

Most cars damaged by the Napa Earthquakeneeded just cosmetic work, but obviouslysome vehicle required much more. (Photocourtesy of Michael Smith)

homes have been red-tagged or yellow-tagged and some that came down com-pletely.”

Business was already brisk evenbefore the quake hit, so now Wood-land’s workload is over the top, heexplained. “The repairs are all earth-quake-related, involving dentedroofs, hoods, fenders and trunks. The

earthquake has been goodfor us from a businessstandpoint, but in the endwe’re more focusing onhelping people in need aftera disaster like this.”

Randy Lichau, a Napanative and the owner of LitoAuto Body near downtownwas shocked by the magni-tude of the quake. “Our re-frigerator danced across theroom and it’s a very largeunit, so I was impressed bythat,” Lichau said. “We losta lot of good buildings andseveral parts of the towntook it hard, but we nevershut down and we have beenworking hard to fix all thecars that have been cominghere.”

Lichau has been fasttracking his production to meet the in-creased need and getting his cus-tomers back on the road as quickly ashe and his crew possibly can. “We’recoming in early and working on Sat-urdays, because we were actually busyeven before the quake,” he said.“We’re doing all of the glass-relatedrepairs first, replacing windshields,

headlights, side mirrors and thingsthat make the cars unsafe to drive.We’ve definitely seen a spike in busi-ness, but as someone who was bornhere and grew up here, a tragedy likethis is never a good thing. We’rehappy to be helping people by fixingtheir cars and allowing them to returnto their normal lives.”

Insurers will probably coverabout $2.1 billion in damage, accord-ing to research firm Kinetic Analysis.Costs borne by the insurance industrymay be limited because many home-owners don’t have earthquake cover-age, according to the InsuranceInformation Institute. The costliestearthquakes in the U.S. have occurredin the state.

But just 10% to 11% of Califor-nia homes with homeowners insur-ance have earthquake coverage, whichmust be obtained on top of the stan-dard homeowners policy, according tothe California Earthquake Authority, astate-managed earthquake insurer.California residents seeking a CEApolicy can contact an insurance agentfor a premium quote, or go to Califor-niaRocks.com for an estimate.

“I’m sure more people are goingto buy earthquake insurance now,”

Amy Bach, executive director of SanFrancisco-based consumer advocacygroup United Policyholders. Ms.Bach’s main buying tip is: “Don’tforgo buying it because you think thehigh deductible is a rip-off. No earth-quake insurance means you’re carry-ing a 100% deductible!”


Some older buildings in Downtown Napa didn’t fare wellduring the 6.0 temblor. (Photo courtesy of Michael Smith)

Mercedes-Benz launched its firstelectric vehicle in 1906. Over a cen-tury later, the company has returnedwith a vehicle that is 100 percentelectrically powered. The new vehi-cles are built on the same assemblylines as models equipped with gasand diesel engines, and retain thesame structural characteristics. Theelectric engine, developed by Tesla,is integrated in the engine block. Thebatteries are housed underneath thepassenger cabin.

For the underframe check,Celette says to use the existing MZ+fixtures 7246.510 B Class W246 andthe complementary set 7156.509GLA X156. For side repair, use theexisting overhead gantry 7246.810B Class W246.

For more information, pleasevisit celette.com.

Celette Has Fixtures forM-B B Class Electric Drive

nician take the front bumper off a carthat was in the shop to get the rearbumper fixed? This is not a compli-cated step, but one that is often skippedwith costly results. Shops need to in-clude this step as a standard procedureand hold people accountable becausethe technician must be properly in-formed prior to touching a singlewrench to the vehicle! Make it part ofyour program to have the estimator orBlueprint Analyst go over the check-in sheet with the technician and alsoreview the estimate if one had beenpreviously prepared. Use the next step(visual mapping) to help with thiscommunication as it will clearly indi-cate what parts need to be removed inorder to properly analyze the damage.

Step 4. Visual MappingA great form of communication be-tween the Blueprint Analyst and thedisassembly tech is the use of a coloredwater marker to write on the vehicle or“visual mapping.” It can sometimes bedifficult to pull the technician aside foran extended period of time to discuss

the details of a particular vehicle’s dis-assembly requirements. This techniquecan help by writing the instructions onthe car in advance. This technique canalso be used by the customer servicerep who is identifying damage duringvehicle check-in and is particularlyhandy when there are multiple dents orscratches on a single panel, somewhich are supposed to be repaired, andsome that are not. When doing visualmapping, you can use any color youwish; however, I prefer to use trafficlight colors: red, yellow and green.

● Red = Don’t fix● Yellow = Caution, Don’t know iffixing yet?● Green = Fix it!You can come up with your own sys-tem of words, abbreviations, or sym-bols to mark the vehicle, but here area couple of the most common ones.

● X = Replace● R = Repair● RI = Remove and Install

Step 5. Meticulous Disassembly in Se-quence (if Possible)In this step, it is time to start disas-sembling the damaged vehicle. If youhave a dedicated Blueprint Analystwho will be keying-in the estimate asthe technician removes the parts, itwill be much easier to remove theparts in approximately the same groupsequence as your estimating systemparts groups i.e. bumper, grille, lamps,etc. This method is not always possi-ble, but you will find that removingdamaged parts and entering damageinto the estimating system with bothpeople following the same group se-quence (Step 10) will make your lifeeasier. You have probably heard the

terms “meticulous disassembly” or“100% Teardown.” This refers to thepractice of taking off EVERY dam-aged component that is bolted or oth-erwise fastened to the vehicle. Thispractice should not only include dam-aged parts but also parts being re-

moved for blend panels or that need tobe removed for access. Damaged as-semblies such as bumpers should notonly be removed as an assembly, but


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Cooks Collision Centers, based inRosedale, CA, has acquired six colli-sion repair locations from HolmesBody Shop. Holmes will continue toown and operate the original HolmesBody Shop location in Pasadena, CA.The transaction is Cooks Collision’s

first MSO acquisition in the SouthernCalifornia market. Terms of the agree-ment were not disclosed.

The Holmes Body Shop loca-tions solidifies Cooks’ position as thelargest independently owned and op-erated collision repair organization inCalifornia, with 25 locations through-

out the state. The Holmes collision re-pair centers are located in Alhambra,Canoga Park, Duarte, El Segundo,Riverside and Westlake Village, CA.

“We are very excited about CooksCollision assuming ownership of oursix locations,” said Tom Holmes,owner and CEO of Holmes Body Shop.“Since 1972, our team has focused ondelivering outstanding customer serv-ice and quality collision repairs to ourcustomers. We made our finaldecision to join the Cooksteam based on the honesty andintegrity of the entire Woodfamily and Cooks employeesthat we met and dealt with.Our team is excited to join theCooks Collision organization.”

Cooks Collision saidHolmes will continue to ownand operate the Holmes Body Shoplocation in Pasadena, CA.

“The acquisition of the sixHolmes locations is a key step in exe-cuting our strategic plan by expandingto the Los Angeles basin and servingSouthern California consumers,” saidRick Wood, co-CEO of Cooks Colli-

sion Centers. “Cooks Collision is com-mitted to providing our new SouthernCalifornia customers the same highquality collision repair, customer serv-ice and value that our Northern Cali-fornia customers have come to expectfor the past 33 years.”

Chris Rose, vice president ofSouthern California operations forCooks Collision, said the companyplans to add several more collision re-

pair locations throughout the South-ern California market in the future.

Symphony Advisors consultedwith both Cooks Collision Centersand Holmes Body Shop throughoutthe acquisition process and separatelyVeritas Advisors, Inc. assisted CooksCollision Centers.


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Six Holmes Body Shop Locations Acquired by Cooks CollisionCenters, All but Original Shop in Pasadena

The original Holmes Body Shop location inPasadena, CA, from which it grew into an MSOwith seven collision repair centers throughoutthe Los Angeles area. This location will continueto be owned and operated by Tom Holmes

CarMax Inc. said it is recruiting formore than 1,000 positions to fillacross the country. The used-car re-tailer in Richmond, VA, said in astatement that it is offering full- andpart-time permanent positions. Mostof the openings are in sales and serv-ice operations, which include detail-ers and technicians, CarMax said in astatement. The retailer also has open-ings in purchasing and in its businessoffice. “While many retailers are hir-ing for the holiday rush, we are look-ing for individuals who are lookingfor a long-term career,” CarMaxspokeswoman Michelle Topping Ell-wood said. CarMax plans to open 10to 15 stores during the next year, Ell-wood said.

CarMax has 139 superstores in70 markets, but cities with the mostjob openings are Sacramento, CA;Bakersfield, CA; Cincinnati; Atlanta;Lancaster, PA; and Huntsville, AL. Jobseekers can apply at carmax.com/ca-reers. Most positions, with the excep-tion of technicians, require no priorautomotive experience.

CarMax Recruiting forMore than 1,000 Jobs

The seven locations of Holmes Body Shop are dispersedover a wide area of greater Los Angeles



Nancy Friedman was recently featuredin a column by Ed Attanasio, so wewere pleased to see that she’ll be back atthe SEMA Show this year with her ses-sion, “Have You Asked Your Customerto Marry You? (Are You Really En-gaged?).” The session will be offeredtwice during SEMA Education Days.

Friedman spoke with SEMA aboutwhat attendees can expect from her ses-sions.

SEMA: What is a Telephone Doc-tor?

Nancy Friedman: I got that name

from an editor in Davenport, Iowa, whosaid, “You’re the doctor. You’ve got theprescription for everything.” We knowmore business is lost to poor customerservice and poor treatment than to poorproducts, and it’s usually done on thephone. There are people in businesseswhose job is to answer the phone andhave more of a service mentality than asales mentality, and that’s so wrong.

SEMA: What is the right thing fora business to do after the phone rings?

Friedman: There are many leadgenerators around the country who can

tell you how to make the phone ring.That’s great, but what happens when itdoes ring? The phone can ring, butturning it into a sale is what matters.Companies hire people to pick up thephone when it rings, but often they getscrewed up and lost when somebodyanswers.

SEMA: What’s the biggest tele-phone mistake businesses make?

Friedman: We’re just not friendlyenough. Companies spend hundreds ofthousands of dollars to make that phonering and, if it’s not handled just right, allthat money is wasted. We answer thatphone and we’re in a bad mood. We letit ring too long. We answer the phoneimproperly or without a name. You getless than 30 seconds to build that rap-port.

Crowd Favorite the “Telephone Doctor” Returns for SEMA Education Days


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Axalta Coating Systems, a leadingglobal supplier of liquid and powdercoatings, hosted Congressman BobGoodlatte, serving Virginia’s SixthCongressional District, at its FrontRoyal plant on September 8, 2014.

Congressman Goodlatte is visit-ing select industries in the area in sup-

port of local economic growth. LouPapa, Axalta Plant Manager, hostedthe congressman who addressed alarge group of employees.

“We enjoyed visiting with Con-gressman Goodlatte. Our Front Royalplant manufactures and distributeshigh quality paint products for cus-tomers in the Refinish and Industrialmarkets. We are proud of our teammembers and our products, and weare pleased that he took the time tovisit our facility,” said Papa.

“Axalta has an important presencein Warren County – both employingmany hardworking individuals andhelping to stimulate the local econ-omy,” said Congressman Goodlatte. “Iwas delighted to visit the Front Royalfacility to learn more about the workthey are doing and take questions fromteam members on some of the issuesfacing our nation today. I thank LouPapa and the team members in FrontRoyal for welcoming me.”

Axalta Coating System’s Front Royal Plant in VAHosted Congressman Bob Goodlatte

Axalta Front Royal Plant Manager Lou Papa (l)and Congressman Bob Goodlatte (r)

by Autobody News Staff

A Staten Island, NY auto body shoppleaded guilty to felony grand larcenyand its owner pleaded guilty to a mis-demeanor count of criminal tax fraudon August 25. They were responsiblefor paying $175,000, which included$135,000 in back taxes owed by thecorporation and individual as well as$40,000 in interest accrued.

Richard Corio, president and100 per cent shareholder of AbsoluteCar Carriers, Inc. was arrested inNovember 2013. Corio and his busi-ness were indicted by a grand juryand arraigned on multiple felonycharges of grand larceny and crimi-nal tax fraud as well as failure to file

a return or report, and city criminaltax fraud. Corio was released on hisown recognizance.

The case was heard in the Rich-mond County Supreme Court nearly ayear later. “The defendants were con-victed of not paying the owed salestax, corporate income tax and personalincome tax all while operating a lu-crative business,” said RichmondCounty District Attorney Daniel M.Donovan, Jr. “Richard Corio and Ab-solute Car Carriers, Inc. have been or-dered to repay not only the taxes theyevaded, but also a hefty amount of in-terest.”

The defendants are still liablecivilly for penalties that may be col-lected by state and city tax authorities.

Incorporated in December 1997,Absolute Car Carriers conducted busi-ness as OK Auto Body and Auto Colli-sion, Inc. During a three-year period thecompany grossed more than $1 million;however, only just over $70,000 was re-ported in sales. That figure equates toabout seven percent of the total income.

Prosecutors said the businessunder-reported sales tax from March2009 to February 2012 and didn’t filesales taxes for two quarters. Companyofficers can be personally held liablefor non-payment or under-payment ofsales taxes, known as trustee taxes.Over $75,000 of sales taxes were paidback in restitution.

Corio also under-reported hispersonal income tax for all three years

and was ordered to pay back over$10,000 in restitution. Absolute CarCarriers had to pay more than $50,000in corporate income taxes owed toNew York City.

“Sales tax evasion disadvantageshonest business owners and steals di-rectly from customers,” said Thomas H.Mattox, the New York State Depart-ment of Taxation and Finance Com-missioner.

The case was prosecuted by As-sistant District Attorney Jin Lee underthe supervision of Assistant DistrictAttorney Kyle Reeves, the chief trialcounsel.

Corio’s lawyer, Joseph Sorrentino,had not responded to Autobody News’request for a comment as of press time.

NY Shop & Owner Pleads Guilty to Grand Larceny & Criminal Tax Fraud


After nearly a year building their newstate-of-the-art facility in SouthernUtah, Red Rock Collision Repair &Auto Painting is expected to open onNovember 1, 2014. “We’re planning tobe a one-stop shop for everything,” saidJosh Borrowman, the general managerof the company. The 16,000 square footcollision repair and painting facility willbe located at 765 N. Red Rock Road inSt. George, UT. In addition, they areopening a 6,000 square foot mechanicalshop on site as well as Red Rock Tow-ing. Since founding Red Rock CollisionRepair & Auto Painting in January, thecompany has operated out of a tempo-rary location in St. George at 1275 E.Red Hills Pkwy. Mike Keetch, theowner of the company, managedMAACO Collision Repair & AutoPainting in St. George for the last 10years prior to starting Red Rock. Keetchhas also owned an auto dealership, Ap-proved Auto Sales, in the area for thelast four years. With 25 years of experi-ence in the auto body and paint industry,Keetch opened his new company withtwo distinct departments to differentiatebetween the types of services provided.The collision repair center offers fac-

tory-to-match collision repair using in-dustry best practice repair methods,OEM parts and experienced techni-cians, who will all be I-CAR certified.Borrowman, who worked with Keetchfor the last 10 years, said they are ex-panding their business to include truck-ing companies and fleet vehiclesbecause they noticed the increased de-mand. “What makes us unique is thatwe’re going to have the only downdrafttruck booth in all of Southern Utah,”said Borrowman. They will also have adowndraft car booth and laser framerack. Red Rock will offer customersmultiple paint lines and options, vary-ing from cost-effective single-stageUrethane to premium commercial fleetpaint. He said the goal is to cater to awider market to meet everyone’s needs.“Currently there is no option for cus-tomers to get their whole car painted un-less they want to spend $4,000 to$5,000,” he said. Borrowman said theirteam takes pride in offering customersgood prices and quality, guaranteeing allof their repairs and paint jobs. “We’venever once turned anyone away,” hesaid.

His advice to other shops is to“build good, solid relationships andyou’ll never run out of business.”


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The Newest Shop in Utah Opens November 1

The Boyd Group Inc. announced theopening of two new collision repairlocations, one located in Atlanta, GA,and another in Naples, FL, on Sept. 9.

The Atlanta location previouslyoperated under the name Atlanta Im-port Collision Center and is approxi-mately 22,800 square feet with 21,600square feet of production space. Thiscenter is located in the second-largestbusiness district in Atlanta, and housesone-third of the city’s highrises.

The new location in Naples, FL,the principal city in the Naples-MarcoIsland metropolitan area, is the BoydGroup’s second location here. It pre-viously operated under the nameEagle Automotive Auto Body Repairsand is approximately 6,000 squarefeet, with 5,500 square feet of produc-tion space.

“Both of these locations increaseour capacity in densely populatedareas and allow us to reach out to newcustomers and better assist our insur-ance partners,” said Tim O’Day, Pres-ident and COO of the Boyd Group’sU.S. operations. “Together, these ad-ditions demonstrate that we are ontrack to achieve our growth target ofsix to 10 percent through single store-additions.”

Boyd Group Adds GA & FLCollision Repair Shops

A Florida man has been chargedwith one count of trafficking incounterfeit engine control devices—an offence that carries a maximumpenalty of 10 years in federal prison.The goods at issue are counterfeitversions of goods produced andmarketed by Hondata for use inmodified Honda and Acura vehicles.

In a plea agreement filed with aU.S. District Court, the defendant ad-mitted that, beginning in 2009, hearranged for Hondata’s K-Pro andS300 devices to be reverse-engi-neered. The counterfeit devices boreHondata’s trademarked name, as wellas counterfeit serial numbers. The de-fendant also admitted creating coun-terfeit packaging, labels, instructionsand compact discs for the devices.

The investigation in this matterwas conducted by the Federal Bureauof Investigation. For more informationon how to protect your intellectualproperty, go to: www.sema.org/ipr.

Counterfeit Engine ControlDevices Found in Florida

Follow us on Twitter:@autobodynews

Accept no Substitutes!

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

Over the past two issues (see Augustand September Autobody News), in-dustry attorney Erica Eversman hasoffered some insights into the varioustypes of documentation that collisionrepair facilities can use to protect theirinterests and help them obtain propercompensation for work performed. Inthe final installment in this series onrepair documentation, Eversman helpsexplain the purpose for and how to usethe Parts Notice/Authorization and theIndemnification/Hold Harmless Letter,with a few additional documents.

The Parts Notice/Authorization isan important form for repair shops toutilize since most states have statutespertaining to the use of used or after-market parts which requires the shopto notify the consumer if these typesof parts are used to repair their vehi-cle. When choosing the parts to use ina repair, the facility has several op-

tions: new OEM parts, aftermarketparts, or salvage yard parts (which theinsurance industry commonly refers toas “recycled parts”), but dependent onand subject to state laws, the repair fa-cility must be sure that the consumerunderstands which parts are being uti-lized in their vehicle—and that dis-closure can be easily be substantiatedby having their customers sign a PartsAuthorization.

Often, the insurance company in-structs the repair facility to utilize af-termarket parts in the repair, butultimately, the consumer is puttingtheir life in the repairer’s hands, not theinsurer’s. “Nothing gives a repairer theright to knowingly put an unsafe parton someone’s vehicle,” Eversman ad-monishes; however, there will be situ-ations that repairers face when they arenot entirely comfortable with the in-surer’s suggestion to use particularused or aftermarket parts in the repair.In those situations, if the consumer is

unwilling/unable to pay for new ornew OEM parts when the repairer hasconcerns about using used or after-market, Eversman states, “the repairfacility is ethically responsible for per-forming a safe repair, despite pressurefrom insurers, so the repairer must en-sure that the consumer is notified thatthe repairer really prefers to use differ-ent parts during the repair process.”

Although aftermarket or recycledparts may work just fine the majorityof the time, there is always the poten-tial for problems when parts used inthe repair are not new OEM. In theevent of an accident related to the fail-ure of these parts, the repair facilityneeds to make certain it has protecteditself by proving the insurer refused topay for new OEM parts, the consumerwas informed about the use of theseparts but refused to pay the differencefor the preferred parts, and the repairerpossesses this signed document estab-lishing the consumer’s notification and

consent. “People don’t want to thinkabout accidents,” Eversman points out.“Generally, they don’t think of it untilafter an accident when they’re alreadyvulnerable. We, as an industry, need todo a better job of educating consumersin advance.”

In addition to the Parts Notice/Au-thorization, repair facilities that areaverse to installing certain used or af-termarket parts should also ask theircustomers and the customer’s insurerto sign an Indemnification/Hold Harm-less Letter which explains that the re-pairer is only using the specified partsbecause both the customer and the in-surer insisted on them. This documentmakes the insurer liable for the use ofthe specific parts and documents theiragreement to pay for any lawsuits ordamages the repairer suffers for prob-lems with the parts. Insurers rarelyagree to sign this document, often opt-ing to pay for the appropriate part in-stead, but if the insurer insists on the


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Parts Authorization, Indemnification and More—Documentation Part 3

with Erica EversmanThe Legal View

Erica Eversman is an attorney, frequent speaker and author on automotive legal topics.She has been quoted in such publications as The Wall Street Journal Online, USA Today,Kiplingers Personal Finance, Cars.com, Yahoo! News and other trade magazines.

use of potentially unsafe parts and thecustomer agrees, the repair facilitymust protect itself from the insurer’sinfluence; otherwise, the insurer willclaim it has no responsibility for theuse of those parts in the repair.

Because manufacturers don’toffer a warranty on aftermarket parts,using these in a repair can lead to apartial or complete restriction on thevehicle’s bumper-to-bumper warranty.OEMs cannot automatically void awarranty due merely to the use of af-termarket parts, but they can restrictor void the warranty if the aftermarketpart results in problems with the vehi-cle or causes an accident due to partfailure or malfunction. Still, many in-surance companies’ DRP contracts re-quire the use of aftermarket parts, yetthey will not insure the shop’s liabilityif there is an issue.

Though insurers say they will“guarantee” the work of a DRP shop,doing so requires assuming liability,which insurers invariably try to avoid.While they generally say they offerwarranties on the aftermarket or usedreplacement parts, insurance compa-nies’ warranties do not cover the facil-ity’s workmanship unless specificallystated. As a result, consumers are too

often told by insurers that the insurer“guarantees the repair”, but if a con-sumer actually reads what the insureris guaranteeing, it is often nothingmore than a statement that it will try toaddress a problem with an aftermarketpart after the consumer has addressedthe warranty problem with the partmanufacturer. Eversman states, “theinsurance company’s guarantee is use-less. Warranties are like insurance poli-cies – they contain more exclusionsthan actual coverage. The insurers willsay they don’t fix cars—they just payfor repairs and that all of the decisionsfor how the vehicle was repaired werethe collision facilities; however, theirads brainwash consumers by creatingthe impression that insurers are in-volved in the repair. These ads focuson a magical restoration without theinvolvement of the consumer or the re-pair facility. Much of this glib adver-tising creates the wrong impression forconsumers that doesn’t reflect reality.”

Eversman also strongly discour-ages shops from offering a warrantyon anything besides their workman-ship, especially on parts. Thanks to theMagnuson-Moss Warranty Act, insur-ers can offer a warranty for the re-pairer’s workmanship and parts used

in the repair, though this puts them onthe hook to assume liability in theevent of a problem. Eversman advisesshops to “refuse the insurer’s demandsto offer aftermarket or recycled partswarranties. Repairers should clearlystate in all customer documents thatyou guarantee your services and repairwork, but never offer a warranty forany part used in the repair. Doing soonly subjects repairers to potentiallawsuits involving double or trebledamages and the payment of the con-sumer’s attorney fees if there are is-sues with the parts.”

In addition to the documents dis-cussed in detail throughout this three-part series, Eversman feels that shopsshould also be aware of some addi-tional documentation that they mayfind useful. The Customer Notice ofInsurer Deficiency is a form thatserves to inform the consumer of theirinsurance company’s refusal to pay fora proper, safe repair. Eversman notes,“this form can help with the public re-lations battle; the insurance companiesdon’t like to be called out on their ac-tions, so they are more likely to han-dle the problem. It also reminds thecustomer that you are the collision re-pair professional and that you are re-

fusing to perform an unsafe repair, de-spite the insurer’s demand that youbreach this part of your contract withyour customer.”

The Customer Notice of InsurerDelay keeps the consumer in the loopby alerting them to the fact that the in-surer is causing a delay in the repairprocess. The Vehicle Damage Insur-ance Election Form, which only ap-plies in first-party cases, is a documentthat the customer can send to their in-surance company demanding to knowwhat specific remedy under the insur-ance policy the insurer is choosing.This forces the insurer to definewhether it is “electing to repair” andaccepting all liability for the repair orpaying for the loss in money. Thoughthe insurer is unlikely to sign this doc-ument, the customer can note their re-fusal to responds to the request, andthis can be useful if a trial is necessaryas the insured has the right to demanda response from the insurer to ques-tions related to their claim.

A Notice of Additional Cost is anice way to inform the insurancecompany of an additional repair cost,granting them a specific amount oftime to respond before resuming the


See Documentation Series, Next Page

The marketing world has changed sig-nificantly during the past few years. Somuch has moved on-line that mostother marketing expenditures may nolonger make sense in your area. If youtrack results from your marketing ef-forts, you have probably noticed thelack of business coming from printads, print version yellow page, andother phone book ads. It may be timeto pull the plug on non-productivemarketing and make better use ofthose funds. As insurance companiesestablish toll-free numbers to reportclaims, you should probably stop mar-keting to most agents. Unless you havenearly unlimited funds to advertise justto keep your name in front of the pub-lic, you should probably end off radioand TV advertising. And stop payingfor useless advertising schemes. Thesemoves should free up money to pay forreal marketing results.

So where should you redirectthese funds? Mainly you want to dou-ble up on-line and live contact efforts.On-line yellow page, Superpage, andsimilar services will allow prospectivecustomers to find you. Enhancingyour website, Facebook page andother social media will be one gooduse for expanded expenditures, butthis should only be a start. As the vol-ume of collision repairs decline due toadvances in vehicle accident avoid-ance technology, to survive shops willhave to embrace other profit centers.This may call for a new mindset notfamiliar to most shop owners andmanagers. For example, merchandisestore marketing rule number one is“Get as many people as possible intothe store!” People like to go to famil-

iar places and prefer not to have to tryout a new place if they are happy withthe old one. The intent is always tomake a prospective customer’s firstexperience so incredible, they will al-ways come back first before trying outany other place. How can a shop makeuse of this fundamental principle?

Perhaps it’s time for shops tocopy what dealerships have done fordecades. Shop owners and managersaccustomed to $2000 repairs and up,may scoff at a couple of hundred dol-lars here and there in profits fromvending machines, accessories, audiosales, and cosmetic automotive mer-chandise. But keep in mind that many“profit-centers” have a second benefitas marketing opportunities. Everynew person that comes into the shopshould be given a powerful propa-ganda piece. This should be a bookletfeaturing the shop’s “special” features.Shop personnel often think prospec-tive customers know what equipmentshops have, and what they do, but thisis rarely true. A booklet should spellout why a shop’s frame machine,welding equipment, and painting ca-pabilities are better than the competi-tion, and why special skills inrepairing hybrids, electric vehicles,exotic cars and more make this thebest shop to repair a vehicle. The real-ity is the public is generally unawareof shop expertise, and the unspokenmessage of the booklet is that ourcompetitors are unlikely to have thishigh quality equipment and systems(even though they may have it too).

Sharing or piggybacking busi-nesses is increasingly popular as rentsgo up. Local grocery stores now often

have a Starbucks or similar conces-sion in the store. Some hamburgerchains now have a donut vendor con-cession or a pizza concession sharingthe space. Sharing the cost of a spaceagain frees up funds for marketing andperhaps advertising deals on lineusing Craig’s List, eBay and othersites. Auto glass, headlights, acces-sories, cosmetic fixes, running boards,pet restraints,, child proofing, oldercars with no GPS are all profit-centerprospects for sales and/or installationsand add new names to an e-mail mar-keting list. A shop might want to part-ner with an automotive accessoriesvendor and provide an alternate dis-play area—and not only share in thesales profits, but also profit from in-stallations and again capture prospectnames. In a shop where estimatorsonly write estimates a few hours aweek, product sales and installationfees can be an on-going supplementalcommission opportunity.

Beyond front office space, a col-lision repair shop also has a hugeamount of space compared to mostbusinesses. Some shops open up re-pair space for mini-trade shows, andnot only for collision repair products.Convention centers are costly placesto hold trade shows, and small groupslike furniture and equipment vendorscould appreciate a local space to showproducts. This could bring in localbusinesses with company vehiclesand provide an opportunity to solicittheir vehicle repairs. Another alterna-tive is more community-based uses ofspace. Sundays some shops makeopen space available for meetings,church groups, school groups, andboy or girl clubs or activities.. Kid’sactivities bring parents, especiallymoms who can be good prospects forvehicle repair. Redirecting marketingfunds like this will generate far moresales than old-style advertising andpromotions.

repair, since this saves rental car timefor the insurer. It also gives the im-pression that the insurance companymust respond to you because you’rein control of the repair process.Lastly, an Authorization and Releasegives you the right to use photos orvideos of the repaired vehicles foryour own purposes (such as on your

website).Obtaining proper repair docu-

mentation is essential to providingcustomers with the best possible re-pair. Eversman encourages all colli-sion repair facilities to protect theirbusinesses by contacting a local attor-ney to begin drafting these vital doc-uments.

Erica Eversman is the ChiefCounsel for Vehicle Information Serv-ices, Inc. and founder of the Automo-tive Education and Policy Institute.


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End Useless Marketing—Redirect Funds and Get Results!

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

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


Documentation Series

should also have all the grilles, lamps,moldings, fasteners, etc. removed.There are three main reasons that100% Teardown is recommended.

1. To reveal all hidden damage2. Ensure fasteners will be reused3. Facilitate ease in mirror matchingthe replacement parts

Step 6. Divide Parts by Good and Bad(R&R and R&I)As the technician is disassembling thevehicle, the parts being removed shouldbe separated and placed in two visuallyseparate spaces. One space for damagedparts (Bad) and another for parts justbeing removed and later re-installed(Good). I prefer to use a table to lay partsout, but you could also use the floor.

Step 7. Using a Clip SheetClips and fasteners tend to be an oftenoverlooked part of the damage analy-sis process and with costly conse-quences. Some shops consider clipsand fasteners an expense. When dam-aged or missing fasteners are captured

and billed out on the initial Blueprint,they become a profit center! I haveseen several ways to capture and recordthese, but my favorite technique is touse a clip sheet. By the tech taping asample of the damaged clip to a clipsheet and writing out the quantityneeded, the person entering the infor-mation into the estimating system willhave the information. There are two ad-ditional benefits to using this system.1. You can take a photo of the clipsheet to send to the parts vendor.2. The clips are where you can mirrormatch them until the new clips arrive. If your company stocks the neededclips, you should put the new replace-ment clips in a marked bag along with

the old re-usable clips so when itcomes time to reassemble the vehicle,everything the tech needs will bethere. It’s a term called “kitting” be-cause you are actually building a kitwith everything needed to assemblethe car on a parts cart.

Step 8. Re-backing Moldings and TrimAs mentioned, we are trying to build a“kit” for the technician during reassem-bly so cleaning the adhesive and apply-ing new adhesive backing on moldingsand emblems should be done immedi-ately after removing them. There areadvantages to re-backing the trim now.● If molding is painted, lessenschance of damaging paint later on● If they are going to break, it is bet-ter to know now so it can be added tore pair plan

● Is ready to go back on during as-sembly (part of the “kit”)

Step 9. Sequenced Analysis of Dam-age Using Arrow-Down MethodThere are several schools of thoughtabout what sequence to put damage en-tries onto the estimate. Most of us weretaught to start with the point of impactand then work outwards. I don’t agreewith this because it opens up too muchroom for error. Nearly 10 years ago, agood friend suggested that I should usethe information in the estimating systemand take it to the damaged car, insteadof the other way around. By keyingdown through every part in each group,you will now catch parts that may havebeen completely destroyed or torn offduring the accident. I also highly rec-ommend using actual OEM diagrams.

Step 10. Photo DocumentationIn addition to your company’s photostandards, I suggest getting photos ofthe parts as they are being laid out onthe table or floor. Your local insuranceadjuster will most likely appreciate it.

Step 11. Blueprint Verification Process,Loading Parts Cart


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Some body shops swear by Angie’sList and call it the “Anti-Yelp,” but inthe end, isn’t it just another advertis-ing-based review system? If you’renot familiar with Angie’s List, it’s apaid subscription supported websitecontaining crowd-sourced reviews oflocal businesses. They currently have2.3 million paid members, althoughthe company lost $1 million last year.

Right now, Angie’s List is underfire and many small service companieshave put her on their enemies list. PoorAngie is getting bad feedback fromsubscribers, investors and businessesalike, for bad reviews from low-ratedbusinesses, disappointing earnings, ex-ecutive departures, and lawsuits alleg-ing misleading practices. Then, there’sthe younger, hipper competition offer-ing similar information for free.

Angie’s List wants users to thinkthey’re consumer-driven, when in fact70% of their revenue comes from ad-vertising. “It’s not advertising fromCoca Cola, it’s advertising from thecompanies they rate,” Jeff Blyskal, asenior editor for Consumer Reportsexplained.

While companies do not pay to belisted on Angie’s List, companies canpay to appear higher up in the searchresults—which Blyskal believes com-promises the validity of the Angie’sList sorting system.

“If you’re looking for a contrac-tor, you’re only going to look at pageone or two. That skews the ratings,”said Blyskal. “It’s about who adver-tises and I don’t think they’re beingstraight with the public on that.”

In a recent statement, Angie’s Listfounder and CMO Angie Hicks said,“Angie’s List is built on a foundationof fairness and transparency. Every-thing at Angie’s List starts with theconsumers. The consumers give the re-views and assign grades. The compa-nies’ A–F ratings are the average of theconsumer reviews we receive. Com-panies that are A–B rated are eligibleto advertise with Angie’s List, but theymust offer a discount with that adver-tisement and if their grades fall belowa B, we pull their advertising.”

Hicks also noted that the companyputs itself through an outside audit inorder to determine that the data-han-

dling process is fair to all businesseslisted on the site, and that these auditshave “always found Angie’s List re-views a fair, impartial, trustworthysource.”

Angie’s List has been criticizedfor the fundamental contradiction be-tween its mission statement whichstates, “Companies can’t pay to be onAngie’s List,” while in reality its top-rated businesses are allowed to adver-tise. Small business owners (like bodyshops) are crying foul, because they’reaware of the fact that if a company ad-vertises with Angie’s List, their nega-tive reviews will be removed. Thecompany’s effort to keep advertisershappy reveals their conflict of interest,which is why subscribers and busi-nesses are claiming that Angie is play-ing favorites.

Angel Iraola from Net BusinessConsulting & Solutions in Santa Rosa,CA has advised his clients in the pastto use Angie’s List, because for manyyears it was better and more crediblethan Yelp, he claimed. But no longer,Iraola said. “The A- and B-rated com-panies on Angie’s List can buy theirway to the top of the default search re-sults and that makes it patently unfair.My automotive repair clients are grav-itating more now toward Yelp, becausethey’re not so blatant about giving spe-cial treatment to advertisers.”

One body shop owner (who choseto be anonymous fearing bad reviewsfrom Angie) said the following: “Itseems to me that just a few short yearsago Angie’s TV commercial was com-pletely different. She seemed to endeach one with the statement ‘no com-pany can pay to be on Angie’s list.’ But,now they’re forced to make money andadvertising seems to be the way they’redoing it. I think ‘truth in advertising’should pertain to everyone, especiallythose that claim complete transparencybut don’t adhere to their own claims.Do we even know if Angie is the realowner or just a paid actor like Flo onthe Progressive commercials? I’ve lostmy faith in this site, so we don’t use itanymore and we took their link off ourweb site as a result.”

How can a body shop owner becertain that Angie’s List is on the upand up or playing games with your re-

views? Iraola says do your due dili-gence and get everything in writing.“Angie’s List is just like any other re-view site” Iraola said. “They need tomake money somehow and at the be-ginning they were going to the cus-tomers to get it. But, how manypeople are going to pay $100 annuallyto find good, honest companies if theyknow that these companies are alsopaying for their positions on Angie’sList? That’s one of the biggest prob-lems with Angie’s List. Are the top-rated companies really there becausethey do excellent work or are theythere because they bought that spot?Once any review site loses its credi-bility and the end users doubt its va-lidity, problems will follow. I hopeAngie’s List can figure out a way tore-invent itself, so that my clients willwant to get involved and the cus-tomers will believe in it again.”

When it comes to review-basedsites, Iraola prefers Yelp to Angie’s

List, especially for body shops. “Yelpis more relevant and many shops stilldon’t like it, but in the end it’s theirbest way to go. I tell collision market-ing people to manage your Yelp pageand respond to every review, both pos-itive and negative. Use it as a tool andstay on it, because if you let a bad re-view sit, it looks like it’s justified. Andstay away from Angie’s List at leastfor now. They will undoubtedly re-in-vent itself to a certain degree verysoon, because right now they’re los-ing traction.”

Curtis Nixon is the president ofAutoBody-Review.com in Chino Hills,CA, a company that verifies everycustomer review by tapping into adatabase that confirms their identityand thereby gets true reviews for itsbody shop clients. “The big problemwith these review sites is that they donot contain verified reviews,” Nixonsaid. “We make sure that the customer


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

Is Angie’s List Impartial or Is She Playing Favorites?

See Angie’s List, Page 46


20 Years Ago In The Collision RepairIndustry (October 1994)Responding to complaints from thecollision repair industry, ADP will bepulling the plug on a program that al-lowed dealers to promote discount re-tail parts prices using ADP’s “PartsExchange New” system.

“As a result of the issues that re-sponsible parties of the industrybrought to our attention, we will betaking discounted OEs off the ‘PartsExchange New’,” ADP’s Rick Tuuriannounced at the Collision IndustryConference (CIC) held in Nashville,TN. “They will be off the system byJanuary 1, 1995. I want to emphasizethat this is no reflection on the waythe discounted OEs themselves aredoing business.”

Although the parts prices listedin the ADP database are the manufac-turers’ suggested retail prices, the“Parts Exchange New” system al-lowed the names of dealers discount-ing these retail prices to be listed onan estimate. More than 30 dealerswere discounting retail prices throughthe system.

Shop owners at a previous CICmeeting had pointed out that whilethe discounted retail prices affectedwhat insurers will pay, the shop wasstill being charged the same whole-sale price.

“The dealers are not giving a dis-count, they’re not giving anythingup,” California shop owner DarrellMalott said. “They’re selling atwholesale anyway. All they’re doingis putting a different retail price downthere. They can mess with that listprice all they want because it doesn’tchange what they sell it for. The sys-tem encourages them to play thatgame and at no cost to themselves.They’re giving away our margin fortheir advertising so that they can beselected by a third-party to make usbuy from a particular OE vendor, andthey didn’t have to give up a thing.”

►As reported in AutobodyNews. ADP’s Claims Services Group(including its estimating system) wasacquired by Audatex (now AudaEx-plore) in 2006. Tuuri (who left Auda-tex in 2004 and spent four years withI-CAR) became AudaExplore’s vice

president of industry relations in2007. Malott died in 1999.

15 Years Ago In The Collision RepairIndustry (October 1999)After losing a $456 million class ac-tion jury verdict and being assessedan additional $730 million by the trialjudge, State Farm has stopped writ-ing for non-OEM crash parts on itsestimates.

The class action trial concludedearly in October in Marion, IL, withthe 4-man, 8-women jury findingagainst State Farm. A week later, trialjudge John Speroni assessed the in-surer a financial penalty, including$600 million in punitive damages.

The total judgment against StateFarm came to $1.1 billion. The in-surer plans to appeal.

In response to the verdict, StateFarm stopped promoting non-OEMcrash parts. A State Farm memo to itsemployees dated October 6 said, “Ef-fective immediately, State Farm willtemporarily suspend quoting non-OEM crash parts on repair estimates.This decision applies countrywideand in Canada, until further notice.”

►As reported in Hammer &Dolly. Other insurers also halted useof non-OEM parts temporarily, butmost returned to the practice of call-ing for their use. State Farm has not,at least in the case of 25 parts types,including hoods, fenders, doors anddecklids. The insurer did, however,appeal the ruling all the way to the

Illinois Supreme Court; in 2005, thatcourt overturned the lower court’sjudgment against the insurer. Thecase remains in the news, however,because of a pending lawsuit overwhether one of the judges on the Illi-nois Supreme Court at the time itoverturned the verdict should haverecused himself from the case be-cause of election campaign donationsthe lawsuit alleges he received fromState Farm.

10 Years Ago In The Collision RepairIndustry (October 2004)The Automotive Aftermarket Indus-try Association’s recently releasedstudy, “Collision Repair Trends,” ex-

amines a number of thetrends that continue to re-shape the collision repair in-dustry in the United States.

“Total collision repair-re-lated sales by aftermarket re-pair shops increased 5percent in 2003 to $34 bil-lion,” the report states, not-ing that this was driven by anincrease in the number ofmiles driven and the increas-ing cost of collision repairper vehicle.

The study forecasts thatsales will increase 5.4 per-cent in 2004 and an addi-tional 5.1 percent in 2005.

AAIA found that therewere roughly 43,360 shops that spe-cialize in collision repair—34,700 in-dependents and 8,600 dealershipaffiliated body shops. That’s a declineof about 2,000 shops since 1999.

►The AAIA earlier this year re-branded itself as the “Auto Care As-sociation.” The total collision repairmarket is now estimated at about$33.7 billion—about the sameamount as a decade earlier—but iftotal industry revenue had grown justby the rate of inflation over thedecade, today’s collision repair mar-ket would need to be about $44 bil-lion to be equivalent. The currenttotal number of shops is estimated atabout 40,100—about 3,200 fewerthan a decade ago, a decline of 7.4percent. Dealership shops account formuch of that decline, dropping to

about 6,350 (down by more than2,200) while there are about 900fewer independent shops.

5 Years Ago In The Collision RepairIndustry (October 2009)Last month’s press conference byConnecticut Attorney GeneralRichard Blumenthal in which hecondemned steering by insurersprompted a Hartford Business Jour-nal columnist to write that, “It’s prob-ably not the state’s business whetheryou, your insurer, or your Mommachooses the body shop that fixes yourcar.”

If someone trusts an insurerenough to do business with them,freelance writer Laurence Cohensaid, why wouldn’t they trust them tosuggest a particular body shop evenif other shops “are unhappy about notbeing included in the big hug fromthe insurers” and say that the pre-ferred shops “often attach new equip-ment with used chewing gum.”

In a letter to the editor of thepaper, Bill Denya, owner of Denya’sAuto Body in Meridan, CT, and aboard member of the Auto Body As-sociation of Connecticut, said whatcustomers “don’t know about thosesecret deals is that the insurance com-panies typically put huge pressure onthese preferred body shops to reducecosts—and increase insurance com-pany profits.”

Denya said Cohen may havebeen joking about “chewing gum”being used in repairs, but that the as-sociation has “documented countlessinstances of these shops doing signif-icantly substandard repairs.”

“If you needed heart surgery,would you allow your insurance com-pany to select the least expensive sur-geon for the job or would you wantthe best surgeon possible?” Denyawrote.

►As reported in CRASH Net-work (www.CrashNetwork.com), Oc-tober 12, 2009.

October Retrospective—ADP, Non-OEM Parts, AAIA Study

with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot

—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a bodyshop in the family and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988.He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription,visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contact him by email at [email protected].

California shop owner Darrell Malott was among thosecritical in 1994 of an ADP tool that allowed dealers topromote discounted retail parts pricing through the ADPestimating system. ADP eliminated the system inresponse to industry criticism.




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The Society of Collision RepairSpecialists’ (SCRS) OEM CollisionRepair Technology Summit will beheld on Wednesday, Nov. 5th at theLas Vegas Convention Center dur-ing the SEMA Show. The Summitwill allow the industry to explore

how automotivedesign, technol-ogy and materialsimpact repairabil-ity, and how inturn repairabilityinfluences struc-tural design anddevelopment. The

full-day program will include fourunique panel discussions with au-tomakers, equipment suppliers, cer-tified repair facilities, and OEMcertifiers/auditors and will also fea-ture special presentations from sub-ject matter experts on automotivematerials. Registration is requiredto attend and seats will be limited.Register today at:www.semashow.com/scrs.

As the newest development to theagenda, SCRS has announced thatDavid Rigg, Project Lead with the

Auto/Steel Partnership (A/SP) Ad-vanced High-Strength Steel (AHSS)Repairability Project, will provide adetailed overview of the market de-velopments and repairability researchtaking place between the steel indus-try and the automakers. The A/SP is acollaboration between the steel com-pany members of the Automotive Ap-plications Council of the Steel MarketDevelopment Institute and ChryslerGroup LLC, Ford Motor Companyand General Motors Company to pur-sue research, validation and educationthat help automakers enhance vehiclesafety, fuel economy and improve de-sign and manufacturing. Through theA/SP, automakers and steel companieshave worked to drive improvementsand innovation in vehicles on theroad—and in repair businesses—today.

“Participating in the SCRS OEMCollison Repair Technology Summitallows us the opportunity to interactwith the leaders of the automotive re-pair industry to better understand theirneeds, so that we can incorporate theminto our project plan,” said Terry Cul-lum, director of the A/SP. “Our goal is

to share the latest technology on theseinnovative advanced high-strengthsteel materials so that they can be re-paired in the field using the best prac-tices developed from our repairabilityproject.”

Rigg will deliver visibility intothe technological advancements beingmade in the steel industry relative toautomotive materials, and an overviewof how their market is developing as aresult of increased collaboration to-wards ever evolving safety and sus-tainability goals. He will share reasonsbehind the automakers’ continued re-liance on steel as a critical substrate;and what their industry is doing to aidin the development of that relationship.The presentation will ultimately ad-dress how repairability plays a role inmaterial research and development,and the prevalence steel will have inthe vehicles of tomorrow.

In addition to his role with theA/SP, Rigg serves as Global ServiceLead - Structures, Front and RearClosures at General Motors where heis responsible for the development,consensus, documentation and im-plementation of Global Service Re-

quirements. He also represents serv-ice at the Advanced Vehicle Devel-opment Center for body structures.In his previous position as BodyService Engineer, Rigg was respon-sible for authoring collision repairmanuals; however, his career withGM extends back to 1998.

Rigg’s formative years were spentworking in his father’s body shop mak-ing the traditional advancements fromwashing cars to eventually straighten-ing frames and writing estimates. Hisfirst-hand experience in the repair com-munity has given him valuable insightinto the collision repair industry.

For more information about SCRS’Repairer Driven Education (RDE) se-ries, and to register for the OEM Colli-sion Repair Technology Summit andother RDE sessions, please visit:www.semashow.com /scrs.

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This is the most important step! Printthe estimate out. Check off each dam-age entry on your estimate as the cor-responding part is loaded onto the cart.If you have everything checked offyour estimate and there are still dam-aged parts on the table or floor, you

may have missed something. It’s a sim-ple but very powerful technique. Fi-nally, be sure to place the parts in thesame manner as discussed in Step 6.When you orderly divide the good andthe bad parts on the cart, it makeschecking the replacement parts for cor-rectness (mirror matching) easier to do.

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Better BlueprintingThe National Auto Body Council(NABC) is holding its 20th Year An-niversary Golf Fundraiser on Wednes-day, January 15, 2015 in Palm Springs,California. The fundraiser at theTahquitz Creek Golf Resort will be ahighlight of special activities NABCis planning to commemorate its an-niversary. Hertz will continue as thepresenting sponsor for the annualevent, which is one of the NABC’smajor sources of funding to support itsongoing community service programs.These programs include NABC’s sig-nature Recycled RidesTM, First Re-sponder Emergency Extrication(FREETM) and the Distracted Driv-ing Initiative.

“Last year’s golf event was asold-out success, with a lot of positivefeedback from participants, and plansare underway to raise that bar evenhigher this year,” said David Merrellof Parts Trader and Domenic Bruscoof PPG Automotive Refinish, co-chairs of the NABC fundraising com-mittee.

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In early August, the Society of Colli-sion Repair Specialists (SCRS) an-nounced the launch of the firstissue-specific collision repair industryforum being held at the SEMA Show.The OEM Collision Repair Technol-ogy Summit will be held on Wednes-day, November 5th at the Las VegasConvention Center and will explorehow automotive design and technol-ogy intersect with repairability, andhow developments in this area impactthe collision repair process and theprofessional businesses planning fortheir future in the ever-changing land-scape of this industry. Registration canbe made at www.semashow.com/scrs.

In addition to panel discussionswith technology experts representingthe automakers, certified repair facili-ties, equipment suppliers, and certi-fiers/auditors, the program will featurespecial presentations from subjectmatter experts on automotive materi-als.

SCRS announced that DougRichman, Technical Committee Chair-man of the Aluminum TransportationGroup (ATG) will offer insight into therole aluminum will play in collision re-

pair businesses now, and in the future.“The ATG is eager to share with

SCRS session attendees key insightson aluminum’s long history in the au-tomotive industry,” said Richman.

“Aluminum-intensive vehicles havebeen in the marketplace for manydecades and are regularly repaired asneeded. Within the next ten years,seven out of 10 new pickups produced

in North Americawill be aluminum-bodied, accordingto a recently re-leased survey ofautomakers con-ducted by DuckerWorldwide. Asaluminum use in

auto bodies grows exponentially in thenext decade, we applaud the SCRS’efforts to educate and train repair pro-fessionals to be better prepared for thechange in status quo materials thatcome through their shop doors.”

Richman will deliver visibilityinto the technological advancementsbeing made in the aluminum industryrelative to the automotive market, andan overview of how their market is de-

veloping as a result of increased inte-gration into our modern fleet. He willshare reasons behind the automakersinterest in, and use of, aluminum; andwhat their industry is doing to aid inthe development of that relationship.

In addition to his role with theATG, Doug Richman is Vice Presidentof Engineering and Technology forKaiser Aluminum. He joined Kaiser in1996 and was appointed to his currentposition in 2001. Before joining Kaiser,Richman was Vice President of Auto-motive Castings for Alcan Aluminumand his background also includes al-most 20 years of experience in devel-opment and design management atGeneral Motors.

Richman is a long-standing mem-ber of the ATG, serving as technicalchairman of the sub-committee. Healso serves as co-chairman of the So-ciety of Automotive Engineers (SAE)Light Metals committee.

The OEM Collision Repair Tech-nology Summit is made possiblethrough support from PPG RefinishProducts, Ford Motor Company, BASF,Toyota Motor Sales and The Hertz Cor-poration.

For more information about SCRS’Repairer Driven Education (RDE) se-ries, and to register for the OEM Colli-sion Repair Technology Summit andother RDE sessions, please visit:www.semashow.com/ scrs.

Aluminum Association to Present During SCRS’ OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit

Doug Richman

Volvo is trying to regain a footholdworldwide with the introduction ofits XC90 full-size crossover, thefirst for China’s Zhejiang Geely’sacquisition of the Swedish au-tomaker from Ford in 2010. Thepremium seven-seater will contendagainst models like the LexusRX350, BMW X5 and ChevroletTahoe. Its arrival is considered crit-ical for Volvo dealers who havewatched sales plummet since Ford,in the midst of financial difficul-ties, sold the brand to the Chinesecompany for $1.8 billion.

Volvo Reappears on WorldMarket with XC90



Lawmakers and regulators on a state,federal and international level areworking to make sure they can stayahead of the quickly-developing “dri-verless vehicle” technology—but whatwill it mean for collision repairers?

That was one of the questionsconsidered in a presentation at themost recent Collision Industry Confer-ence (CIC), held in Detroit, Mich. Thecommittee looked at what laws andregulations are being enacted sur-rounding the technology, and what thatcould mean for collision repairers, in-surers and other industry segments.

Steve Regan, chairman of thecommittee, said that for insurers, thenew and costly safety-related equip-ment involved in autonomous carswill impact repair costs. Access to oruse of “black box” data will continueto be an issue. And liability related tothe repair of the vehicles could be anissue for insurer offering garage-keep-ers, as well as liability policies for col-lision repairers.

The auto manufacturers and sys-tem suppliers will potentially face lia-bility if their systems are controllingthese vehicles, Regan said, but someof that liability is addressed in thestate and federal regulations being en-acted.

“We started tracking these lawsand noticed the missing component,”Regan said. “There’s no protection inany of these laws for those who are fix-ing the cars.”

That’s an issue the industry willneed to continue to monitor, Regansaid.

‘Length of rental’ formulas discussedAlso at CIC in Detroit, a panel tack-led a new twist on the issue of cycletime. The topic: Do insurer formulasused to calculate the number of “rentaldays” on an initial estimate drivedown cycle time? Do they set unreal-istic expectations for consumers? Dothey add friction and inefficiencies?Or do they do some combination of all

of these things?Pat O’Neill of Bodyshop Revo-

lution, who moderated the discussion,noted that there is a wide variation inthe formulas shops and insurers use todetermine expected “length of rental”(often used as a proxy of “cycle time”)and even in the statistics about averagelength of rental that are reported by the

rental car compa-nies or informationproviders.

Data providedby Enterprise Rent-a-Car, for example,found that lengthof rental in the sec-ond quarter of this

year averaged 10.7 days nationally, butranged from a low of 8.9 days to a highof 14.1 days in another. With a 5-daydifference between some states, repair-ers on the CIC panel asked, is it reason-able for an insurer to set length of rentalexpectations using a national formula?

Panelist Darrell Amberson of

LaMettry’s Collision in Minnesotaread some of the formulas that theCIC committee had collected that in-surers use (or require their direct re-pair shops to use) to establish theinitial completion date, which may beincluded on the paperwork given tothe vehicle owner. Those formulasranged from one day for every threehours of labor to one day for every sixhours of labor on the estimate. Someformulas allow the shop to excludeweekends or delays caused by parts.

Panelist Aaron Schulenburg ofthe Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists said one insurer acknowledgedto the association that it recognized itshours-per-day formula for its direct re-pair shops was outside the norm forthe industry, but that it set that goal tomake sure its shops prioritized that in-surer’s work over one who had set anunrealistic hours-per-day goal to try toget its work prioritized.

If the goal is to drive perform-ance, Schulenburg said, that’s one


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Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

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Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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

CIC Committees Look at Autonomous Vehicle Issues, Impact of “Length of Rental” Formulas

Pat O’Neill

The North Carolina auto accidentlaw firm of Riddle & Brantley LLP,is urging consumers to use the Na-tional Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration’s (NHTSA) new OnlineRecall Check feature on their web-site. Drivers can now use this tool tosearch for recalls which may affecttheir particular vehicle by enteringtheir car’s Vehicle IdentificationNumber (VIN).

“As we saw with General Mo-tors’ defective ignition switches, it isextremely important for consumersto stay up-to-date on recalls whichmay affect the safety of their vehi-cles,” said attorney Gene Riddle,partner at Riddle & Brantley. “Ourfirm is urging drivers to use theNHTSA’s tools to keep their familiessafe.”

According to an August 20,2014, report from the AssociatedPress, U.S. automakers have recalledover 40 million vehicles this yearalone. Over 29 million of these vehi-cles were the results of extensive re-calls from General Motors after faultyignition switches blamed for causingmultiple accidents leading to over adozen fatalities and many more in-juries.

Before the creation of the tool,drivers had to search multiple sourcesto make sure that their vehicles hadnot been recalled. According to theNHTSA’s VIN checker website, thisnew tool lists all ongoing safety re-calls, any recalls which have beenconducted in the past 15 years, and allrecalls by major car and motorcyclemanufacturers. The checker does notcover non-safety related recalls, re-calls for international vehicles orultra-luxury cars, or vehicles whichare over 15 years old.

According to an August 14,2014 press release from the NHTSA,consumers were previously limitedto searching using a car’s make andmodel year. Now, the addition ofVIN searches will allow consumersto find alerts specific to his or herparticular vehicle. In addition to thecreation of this checking tool, theNHTSA is also mandating that automanufacturers maintain a list of cur-rent recalls which affect their modelson their websites. Automakers mustupdate this information at least oncea week.

To use the NHTSA’s recallchecker, consumers should visit:https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin.

NC Auto Injury Attorney Urges Drivers to Use the NewNHTSA Online Recall Check

thing. But when it establishes unreal-istic expectations for the consumer,and requires multiple adjustments bythe shop and rental car company to thecompletion date information, that im-pacts efficiency and customer satis-faction. He said it’s also unfair for ashop to have to pick-up the cost of arental if repairs exceed a calculationbased on an unrealistic formula.

“The shop didn’t sell a rentalcoverage policy, and they didn’t profitfrom the sale of that policy,” Schulen-burg said.

“My concern is: Is that the bestway to drive behavior,” Ambersonasked about the formulas. “If you’regoing to push us to fix cars faster, isthat really the best way to do it? Imight suggest there are more cooper-ative ways to do this. This feels like anegative approach with a negativeconsequence if we don’t achieve whatyou’re looking for, and on top of thatcauses us to create an unrealistic ex-pectation to the customer, which onlyirritates and frustrates them.”

Amberson said that his companyis making an effort to reduce cycle timeby using blueprinting – but that “theformulas insurance companies usehave very little to do with the improve-

ments we’ve shown in our numbers.”Chris Andreoli of Progressive In-

surance, the lone insurance companyrepresentative on the panel, agreed thatthe customer should not be given inac-curate completion date information, butthat length of rental formulas can beused as a starting point in that conver-sation.

He agreed that using the same for-mula for every vehicle across the na-tion isn’t as accurate a system as he

believes the indus-try will develop asdata sophisticationimproves. He pre-dicted that at somepoint shops and in-surers will be ableto establish moreaccurate comple-

tion dates based on data that will in-clude year, make and model of vehicle,as well as market or region.

“I think that’s where the level ofsophistication needs to go in the in-dustry,” Andreoli said.

Not a lot of consensusThe panel did not seem to agree on howoften consumers currently are beinggiven an accurate completion date.

Curtis Nixon of UpdatePromise.comsaid his company’sresearch indicatesshops are hittingpromise dates 88percent of the time;however, he shareddata showing theimpact on CSIbased on the num-

ber of times a promise date changes, achart that showed the impact on CSI foras many as 12 such promise datechanges on a job.

The rental car companies on thepanel seemed to experience morechanges to the initial completion dateinformation than an 88 percent accu-racy stat indicates.

“We do see a lot of changes,” saidMckenzie Spalding of Choice AutoRental, a regional company in the TwinCities market of Minnesota. “It happensa lot.”

“We see an average of 2-4 changesthat occur per claim,” concurred FrankLaVioila, assistant vice president forcollision industry relations at Enterprise.

Amberson said using better datainstead of arbitrary formulas could re-duce or eliminate such changes, whichimpact shop and rental car company

efficiency as well as potentially lowercustomer satisfaction.

Because of such formulas, Am-berson said, “Sometimes we meet thecustomer’s basic expectations butwe’re not exceeding the customer’s ex-pectations. We’re not wow’ing them.We’re not creating raving fans. Andthat’s what we should be striving for.We should be striving for excellence,not just a tolerable experience for thecustomer.”


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Curtis Nixon

Chris Andreoli

It’s been a busy season for the Auto-motive Service Association (ASA) asthe national office prepares to relo-cate its headquarters in a few weeksfrom Colleyville, Texas, to nearbyNorth Richland Hills. In addition, theassociation recently held its success-ful NACE|CARS trade show in De-troit. Effective immediately, theassociation’s 800-ASA-SHOP (272-7467) number is changing to (817)514-2900. Please update your recordsto reflect this change. And effectiveOct. 1, 2014, the association’s newheadquarters will be located at 8209Mid-Cities Blvd., North RichlandHills, TX, 76182.

ASA Announces Plans toRelocate Headquarters

Seven years ago this month in August of2007, the Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS) and the collision repaircommunity lost a dear friend and tremen-dous asset with the untimely passing ofMarch Taylor. Those that were fortunate

enough to have beentouched by Marchknew him as a dedi-cated family man, aninnovative shopowner, an experi-enced master techni-cian, and a selflessand iconic collisionindustry leader andcontributor. He was afixture within SCRS,the SCRS Board of

Directors and a mentor to many of us in ourcareers and businesses.

March was passionate about ad-dressing inaccurate estimating data andvolunteered his time collecting, re-searching and processing hundreds ofdatabase inquiries. He was a technicianat heart and was insistent on identifyingareas where the data failed to reflect thereal world requirements technicians’face in the repair process. His work wasthe catalyst and inspiration behind thecreation of the Database EnhancementGateway (DEG), and the concept tohave a centralized point for our indus-try to submit inquiries to.

The DEG (www.degweb.org) is aninitiative that was developed to help ad-dress collision repair estimates data,through proactive feedback from the col-lision repair industry to the informationproviders (IPs) that supply the databasesfor the various estimating products. TheDEG was created, and is equally fundedand maintained by SCRS, Alliance ofAutomotive Service Providers (AASP)and Automotive Service Association(ASA). It is a perfect example of our or-ganization putting membership dollars atwork to address real issues in the indus-try. The DEG has processed more than7,000 inquiries from the industry, manyof which have resulted in changes to theestimating system database, or necessaryexplanations of how they work.

The process is simple, the shopsubmits the inquiry to the DEG and theadministrator works with the represen-tatives from the IPs to bring the inquiryto resolution. Here are some great recentexamples of responsive results fromDEG submissions:7112 - 2004 VW Beetle Left Door Skin6939 - 2013 VW Beetle Roof Panel6602 - 2013 Chevrolet Camaro SS SideBody Drip Molding

If you are using electronic estimat-ing systems to itemize your repairprocess and price your services, it is im-portant to pay attention to the informa-tion being used to create the estimate.

Talk to your estimating staff about theDEG and visit www.degweb.org tocheck it out today.

The DEG and all of its successesare dedicated to the memory of ourgood friend, March Taylor.


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doing the review indeed had their carrepaired by the shop they’re review-ing. We illicit the reviews by doing acustomer satisfaction survey andwe’re finding out that about 25% ofthe customers are writing reviews onour site as a result. This way, bothbody shops and customers can rely onthese reviews, because they’re real.”

AutoBody-Review.com chargesits body shop clients a monthly feeand does not offer advertising to getany shop at the top of any list. “Stay-ing objective is crucial and that’s whyour reviews carry weight. We nevermanipulate reviews or call customersto have them changed or delete anyreview, negative or positive. Ourplaying field is 100% level, so if ashop does good work, they getpraised and vice versa. Selling ads forprime positions is definitely a clearconflict of interest and not the rightway to do things, in my opinion. Thecustomers should dictate position, notthe almighty dollar and that’s why wewill never sell ads to our body shopmembers—ever!”


Angie’s List

SCRS Posts Tribute to March Taylor for Supporting and Inspiring the DEG

March Taylor

With relatively cheap repair and in-surance rates, why is Wyoming themost expensive state in which to owna car? Gas prices. The state is themost expensive for annual estimatedgas costs, and it’s not even close.Wyoming is over $350 more expen-sive per year than second-ranked Ala-bama. It costs about $1,588 annuallyto fill your car up in Wyoming. At$324, repair costs are reasonable, as isinsurance at $792. In total, it costsabout $2,705 per year to own a car inthe most expensive state.

Mississippi is the third-most expen-sive state for annual estimated gaso-line costs, at $1,231. Other costs arenot too outrageous: the state ranks asthe 21st most expensive for insuranceat $901, and repair costs come in at$356 per year. But thanks largely tothose gas prices, owning a car in Mis-sissippi comes with an annual esti-mated cost of $2,487.

WY is the Most Expensive Statein the US for Car Ownership

FL is the Third Most ExpensiveState in Which to Own a Car

MS is the 4th Most ExpensiveState for Car Ownership Overall

Repair costs are about in line withOhio’s, at an annual estimated cost$329, and insurance is the third-cheap-est of all states at $658. Wisconsin,though, is 1 of 22 states with gasolineprices over the annual estimated costof $1,000 ($1,031). That’s over halfthe annual estimated car ownershipcost of $2,018 in the state.

WI is the 5th Cheapest State inWhich to Own a Car

According to Bankrate.com there isno one cost that is astronomical inFlorida when it comes to owning acar, but all three factors Bankratemeasured were on the high side. Es-timated annual repair costs are $377,11th most-expensive among the 50states and D.C. Insurance costs are$1,124, comfortably in the top-10most-expensive states, and gasolinecosts are $1,015. Overall, the cost ofowning a car per year in Florida isabout $2,516.


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Season 34 of MotorWeek, television’slongest-running automotive series, cel-ebrates the reinvention of the automo-bile. Upcoming 2015 and 2016 modelswill feature the highest level of info-tainment, safety, and driver’s aid tech-nology ever on four wheels andMotorWeek will cover all of it in ex-citing detail. This new technology istransforming how automobiles interactwith consumers as well as how theydrive, paving the way for the emer-gence of the autonomous, self-drivingcar. The new season of MotorWeekpremieres on public television stationsnationwide beginning Sept. 5, 2014.

Season 34 of MotorWeek willhighlight advanced functions such asCollision Mitigation, Lane Keep As-sist, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, andother driver aids that are a step to-wards cars that completely drivethemselves. While this approachmay be somewhat alarming to auto-motive enthusiasts, it will be a boonfor everyone that loves or needs theeveryday freedom that driving anautomobile provides. “The au-tonomous automobile will not onlycontinue America’s love affair withthe automobile, but move it to aneven higher level of usefulness,”says John Davis, MotorWeek Host

and Senior Executive Producer.One new technology, Collision

Mitigation, which uses a radar aidedbraking system to slow and even stopa vehicle to avoid a collision, will be-come a special focus of MotorWeek’scontinuing commitment to drivingsafety. In season 34 MotorWeek will

inaugurate a new test for cars with au-tomatic braking systems. MotorWeekwill add a low speed barrier test, thefirst all-new test in our Road Testregime in a generation. This new bar-rier test was created to measure the ef-fectiveness of the various automaticbraking systems among differentmakes and models. MotorWeek Sea-son 34 will reveal how automaticbraking systems react in low speedcollisions; one of the most commonaccidents causing billions of dollars

in insurance claims for injuries andproperty damage.

The season premiere of Motor-Week features the newest addition tothe BMW family, the exotic 2015BMW i8 advanced hybrid, the com-pact 2015 Lincoln MKC utility, the700-plus horsepower 2015 DodgeChallenger SRT Hellcat, along withthe all-new 2015 Acura TLX. Otherhighlights from MotorWeek’s newseason include road test reviews of the2015 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, de-signed and engineered to be the fasteststreet-legal Camaro ever built; and thenew 2015 Lexus NX, the brand’s firstcompact luxury crossover.

MotorWeek’s line-up of popularsegments returns with Master Techni-cian Pat Goss offering do-it-yourselfcar care advice at Goss’ Garage.Yolanda Vazquez will continue to tackleconsumer news and trends in FYI andMotor News. Roving reporter ZachMaskell goes Over the Edge with aquirky and fun look at the auto world inoverdrive, while Brian Robinson re-views the newest motorcycles andscooters in Two Wheelin’. MotorWeekalso continues its decade-long empha-sis on the widening availability andpracticality of hybrid and electric vehi-cles in Green Motoring.

Season 34 of MotorWeek 2014 Features Collision Mitigation, Traffic Alerts

MotorWeek Cast Members

It costs more to fix your car in NewJersey than in any other state, withan annual estimated cost of $393.New Jersey is also the third-most-expensive state for auto insuranceat $1,244 per year. Gas, though, isaffordable, with New Jersey rank-ing as the sixth cheapest state inthis category at $783. For owninga car in New Jersey, you pay about$2,421 per year.

NJ is 5th Most Expensive Statefor Auto Ownership

It was an up and down sales monthfor the Big Three US automakers,with Chrysler and Ford seeinggains while General Motors saw re-tail sales decline, though fleet salesmade up some of the ground. Alltold, a total of 1.58 million light ve-hicles were sold in August, accord-ing to data from Wards Auto. Thisbrings the year-to-date total to 11.3million units, a 5% increase over2013.

Ford and Chrysler Up, GMdown in August Car Sales

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Midwestern Issue Oct. 2014

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