January 2013 Western Edition

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

When Hurricane Sandy charged intothe East Coast in late October, shedevastated many homes and busi-nesses. Her most vicious attack wasperpetrated in NY and NJ, leavingmillions with flooded properties andno power. Sandy’s effects on the autobody industry were no different.Many collision repair facilities in thearea were destroyed, and equipmentand tools were demolished. Somehave still not reopened as of the mid-dle of December.

Three shop owners took the timeto share their stories.

Bobby Zigman, owner of Colli-

sion Depot in Oceanside, NY, sufferedpersonal and business losses as a re-sult of Sandy since his home is nearhis shop and both were flooded. Zig-man notes that the storm left five orsix feet of water in his shop and park-ing lot, completely wiping out all ofhis shop and office equipment.

Though Collision Depot techni-cally remained open after the storm,the flooding ruined equipment andlack of both phone connections andelectricity prevented them from per-forming any actual repair work forabout two weeks. Zigman’s dedicatedemployees still went to work, and hepaid them to help restore the shop and

See Still Recovering, Page 33

Northeast Shops Still Recovering from Sandy

The California Autobody Associa-tion had another successful yearin 2012, reports David Mc-Clune, CAA’s ExecutiveDirector.

CAA PresidentDave Picton imple-mented an aggressivemarketing campaign forthe association in 2012,which brought in over 75new members. In addition, thepresident and the board made im-provements in the CAA website tofurther educate the association mem-bers.

CAA state chapters continued towork with the Labor Enforcement

Task Force (LETF) by sched-uling meetings to educate

members, explainingtheir inspection processand the areas that thetask force focused on tofight the underground

economy through educa-tion and enforcement.CAA has continued in 2012

to improve on Rule 1147 that passedSept. 9, 2011 in the South Coast AirQuality Management District

California Autobody Association Recapsits Legislative Efforts from 2012

See CAA Recaps 2012, Page 9

The pace of acquisition of both smallerMSOs by larger ones and independentshops has substantially increased dur-ing 2012. The rate of acquisitions hasbeen running at more than two shopsper week for 2012.

CARSTARCARSTAR Auto Body Repair Expertsis North America’s largest Multi-ShopOperator (MSO) Network of inde-pendently owned collision repair fa-cilities with more than 400 locationsin 31 states and 10 Canadianprovinces. CARSTAR recently ex-panded its business development teamto accelerate the expansion of the

MSO network into two of the fastestgrowing regions—the Western U.S.and the Southeast. Shops that joinCARSTAR pay a one-time joining feeranging from $5,000 to $15,000, andthen pay a percentage of sales eachmonth, according to formerCARSTAR CEO Dan Bailey. Typicalmonthly royalty fees are .75 percent to2 percent of sales.

FIX Auto USAFix Auto USA added a franchisemodel to network membership in Jan-uary 2011, and currently has 50 fran-chise locations operating in four states:

2012 Adding Up to a Record Year for MSO’s ShopConsolidation, All Major MSO’s Add Shops

See Record Year, Page 31

by John Yoswick

A lot happens in the collision repairindustry, so trying to compile it allinto a single year-end review is a chal-lenge. But here’s our look at what wesaw as among the most important orjust plain interesting and memorablenews item, event or quote from eachof the last 12 months.

JanuaryState Farm’s George Avery an-nounced that his company is testingthe electronic parts ordering system

“PartsTrader” withtwo collision re-pair businesses. Hedeclined to iden-tify the shops, say-ing that it is tooearly in the testing“to put those folksunder the micro-

scope and ask, ‘What do you think ofthe new system?’”

Lots of shops have since voicedwhat they think of the system. By theend of the year, the program wasbeing rolled out to a fifth market

(Chicago) for a total of about 600 Se-lect Service shops.

FebruaryJohn Borek of Autocraft Bodywerksin Austin, TX, wasn’t accepting theexplanation from American NationalProperty and Casualty Company(ANPAC) that an appraiser workingon its behalf was just using “an out-dated document” when denying theshop’s supplement for color sand andbuff.

In a follow-up letter to the TexasDepartment of Insurance, Borekpointed out that the document lookedlike a page from the Audatex guide toestimating, but shows that color sandand buff is included in refinish times;Borek says an Audatex manager whosearched the Audatex/ADP “DatabaseReference Manuals” back to 1993,concluded that the page is “most cer-tainly not a document from ADP/Au-datex.”

“This manufactured documentcan only achieve one goal, which is toconvince uneducated consumers andshops that this operation is included

See Year in Review, Page 52

Industry Year in Review—A Month-by-Month Lookat the Most Interesting Collision News of 2012

George Avery

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REGIONAL

A Busy 2012 is Remembered by Bay Area’s

CAA Chapters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

ASCCA, CAWA to Host 4th Annual

Joint Summit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

CAA East Bay Hosts 15th Toys for Tots

Model Truck Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Caliber Collision’s 2012 Included Expansion

and Giving to Communities in Need . . . . . . 4

California Autobody Association Recaps

its Legislative Efforts from 2012. . . . . . . . . 1

California Remodels Quake Insurance,

Rates Drop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CDI’s Commissioner Dave Jones Warns on

Workers’ Comp Potential Insolvency . . . . . . 6

City Attorney Sues San Francisco Shop Owner . 6

Education and Industry Partner to Bring

Top Training to Arizona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Gerber Collision & Glass Open New

Repair Center in Nevada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Glendale/Foothill CAA Chapter President

Looks Back at 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Goodguys 30th Anniversary Season Includes

Events in the Western Region . . . . . . . . . . 13

Mark Cali Appointed to CAWA Advisory

Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Mike Rose Auto Body Opens 10th Location

in Napa, CA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Mike’s Auto Body Gives Away 5 Cars for

a Total of 40 in 12 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

NASCAR Scam Leads to Prison . . . . . . . . . . . 4

New Tech Center Building is Upgrade for

Palomar College’s Collision Repair Program . 10

Phoenix Body Shop Collects Christmas

Toys for Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Phoenix Collision Centers Donate Six Vehicles . 20

San Diego Body Shops Give the Gift of

Vehicles to Those in Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Sherwin-Williams Hosts A-Plus Network

Vision Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Toyota’s Predictive System Showcased

in Pasadena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Valley Motor Center of Van Nuys, CA, Donates

Two Vehicles to Disabled Veterans . . . . . . . 6

Yuma Body Shop Celebrates 60 Years

of Family Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

COLUMNS

Attanasio: How Body Shops Can Use LinkedIn . 16

Franklin: Integrity Sells!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Insider: Not All Insurance Executives Are

Created Equal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Yoswick: Advocate of Collision Industry

Standards in the U.K. Sees Need for

Them Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

NATIONAL

2012 Adding Up to a Record Year for MSO’s

Shop Consolidation, All Major MSO’s

Add Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

26 Insurers Now Paying Gunder’s Rate

Increases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

44 Techs Honored at ASE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

American Honda Launches Two New

Consumer Websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

ASA Collision Division Recaps 2012, Moves

Forward into 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Automaker, OEM and Recall News . . . . . . . . 30

Boyd Grows in Florida with 14 New Locations. 51

CAPA’s Lighting Standard Expanded to Include

Testing of HID Lamps, Positioning Motors. . 3

Education Foundation Wants Facebook Likes . 12

Industry Year in Review—A Month-by-Month

Look at the Most Interesting Collision

News of 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Mitchell Repair Center ToolStore Integrates

with Car-Parts.com Pro Search. . . . . . . . . 42

NC Shop Sues Six Insurers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

NHTSA Expects to Propose Black Box

Requirement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Northeast Shops Still Recovering from Sandy . 1

Rhode Island Shop Owner Arrested Again. . . 13

Sandy Forces Automakers to Scrap over

15,000 New Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Society of Collision Repair Specialists

Takes a Look Back at 2012. . . . . . . . . . . . 34

State Farm Updates ASA on PartsTrader

Pilot Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

TV Public Service Commercial for Body Shops

Aimed at Dangers of Texting, Driving. . . . . 26

WIN Seeks 2013 Sponsors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Women’s Industry Network Reports Winning

Growth in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Contents

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Melanie AndersonContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, David Brown,John Yoswick, Rich Evans, Janet Chaney,Toby Chess, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman,Jay Lukes (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving California, Nevada and Arizona, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Per-mission to reproduce in any form the material publishedin Autobody News must be obtained in writing from thepublisher. ©2013 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsP.O. Box 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018(800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.comEmail: [email protected]

Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .46Automotive ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18Autowest Chrisler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram .21BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . .43Car-Part Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55Completes Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22Downtown Motors of LA(Audi, VW, Porsche) . . . . . . . . . . .17

Drew Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44DuPont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Elk Grove Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38Enterprise Rent-A-Car . . . . . . . . . . .49Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Ford Wholesale Parts DealersAZ, CA, & NV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Galpin Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25, 33Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Glenn E. Thomas Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . .37Haydell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Henderson Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28-29

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . .48Intertape Polymer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Kearny Mesa Subaru-Hyundai . . . . .35Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers .41Levan Group, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53Maita Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10Malco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Matrix Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .54MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .42Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers .40MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . .27Moss Brothers Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge .11Nick Alexander BMW . . . . . . . . . . . .19Nick Alexander MINI . . . . . . . . . . . .56Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

North County Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36Replica Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Riverside Metro VW-Honda-Hyundai-Nissan-Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Safety Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Shingle Springs Nissan-Subaru . . .31Sierra Chevrolet-Honda-Mazda-Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .47That’s Included . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14Timmons VW-Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . .24Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .51VIM Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers .26Volvo Crash Wholesale Dealers . . .52Weatherford BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23Wedge Clamp System . . . . . . . . . . .12

Inde

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Western

www.autobodynews.com | JANUARY 2013 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Keeping pace with the latest lightingtechnology, the Certified AutomotiveParts Association (CAPA) has addednew testing requirements to coverelectric motors, actuators, and highintensity discharge (HID) lamps.

The new requirements were ap-proved by CAPA’s Technical Com-mittee, an inter-industry consensusbody made up of collision repairers,distributors, insurers, technical ex-perts, and manufacturers.

CAPA is the only independentcertification body in the U.S. for af-termarket lighting parts that testsfor, and confirms compliance to,FMVSS 108, as well as true compa-rability to the car company brandcounterpart.

“I’m proud to report that CAPAStandards are keeping pace with thelatest technology and complex com-ponents used in today’s headlights,”said Jack Gillis, CAPA’s ExecutiveDirector.

“Thanks to CAPA’s TechnicalCommittee, which is undoubtedlyone of the greatest quality resourcesin the industry, the CAPA standardsenable informed choices in even the

very newest products. The fact is, no-body can simply look at an aftermar-ket light and know if it truly matchesthe car company brand part or fullycomplies with FMVSS 108—that’swhy CAPA’s independent certifica-tion program is so important,” saidGillis.

The CAPA 301 Lighting Stan-dard include: headlamps, taillamps,stop lamps, turn signals, and foglamps.

Parts that have been certified tothe CAPA Lighting Standard areclearly marked with CAPA’s unique,tamper-proof Quality Seal. TheCAPA Seal, each with a unique num-ber, represents independent verifica-tion of both compliance to FederalMotor Vehicle Safety Standard 108and comparable performance to thecar company brand parts.

Like all CAPA Standards, theupdated CAPA 301 Lighting Stan-dard test procedures and tolerancesare available to the public at nocharge via the CAPA website.

“Full transparency is a criticallyimportant component of the CAPACertification Program,” said Gillis.

CAPA’s Lighting Standard Expanded to IncludeTesting of HID Lamps and Positioning Motors


The Boyd Group Inc. recently an-nounced the opening of a new colli-sion repair center in Las Vegas, NV.The new repair center is approxi-mately 10,000 square feet and pre-viously operated as CoachworksCollision Center. It now operatesunder the Gerber Collision & Glasstrade name. With this addition, theBoyd Group owns and operates fourrepair centers in Nevada, whichbrings the total number of U.S. lo-cations to 166.

Gerber Collision & Glass OpenNew Repair Center in Nevada

NASCAR Scam Leads to Prison

Mike Rose’s Auto Body recently an-nounced the opening of their 10th lo-cation in Napa, CA.

According to Brennan Rose,Vice President, “Our Fairfield acqui-sition made it very easy to expandinto the Napa County, which is acommunity we have wanted to be apart of for several years now. Whenthe opportunity to acquire an existingbusiness in downtown Napa cameavailable, we opened discussions im-mediately.”

The shop, formerly MiracleAuto Painting and Body Repair, islocated at 804 Napa St.

Mike Rose, president of MikeRose’s Auto Body, says that beingfamily owned and operated makesensuring the right community fit es-sential. “We will continue to grow ata pace where maintaining the corevalues of our company can be ac-complished. We will never compro-mise quality, and we will always putthe customer first, by delivering thebest repair experience possible,” hesaid. Celebrating their 40th year inbusiness this year, Mike’s Auto Bodyemploys over 225 and is headquar-tered in Concord, CA.

See related story, p. 40 herein.

Mike Rose Auto Body Opens10th Location in Napa, CA

Capitol Collision Repair, an autobody shop located in Phoenix AZ, iscollecting toys for the local fire de-partment to give to underprivilegedchildren.

Capitol Collision Repair col-lected unused toys during Novemberand December to try and make achild’s Christmas a little bit merrier.

“We are all coming together totry and collect as many toys as possi-ble, and knowing how it will impacta child is a Christmas miracle in it-self,” said body shop owner DanDeary. Capitol requested help fromtheir customers, employees, neigh-boring businesses, and insurancecompanies for new, unwrapped toysfor children of all ages.

Once all the toys have been re-ceived, they will be given to the firedepartment for them to hand themout to children in need.

The toys or cash donations canbe dropped off at Capitol Collision ina big wrapped box that says “ToyDrive.” Any donation will be greatlyappreciated and will help to make achild’s Christmas more special.

Phoenix Body Shop CollectsChristmas Toys for Children

In California, two earthquake insur-ance carriers are lowering their ratesdue to revised models and less risk.

Insurance Commissioner DaveJones announced Dec. 2 that he ap-proved a 15.5% rate reduction forChubb Insurance. The average an-nual premium will fall to $5,021from $5,940, according to the stateDepartment of Insurance.

Chartis Insurance earthquakecoverage rates are going down 15%,with average annual premiums drop-ping to $6,061 from $7,292, the De-partment of Insurance said.

Overall savings to consumerswill total about $15 million, itsaid.

The rate reduction followed anupdate to models used to estimateprobable earthquake damage.

Jones said he hoped the lowerrates would persuade more Califor-nians to buy earthquake insurance.Currently, the Insurance Departmentsaid, only 12% of the state’s home-owners have the coverage.

“We live in earthquake countryand the danger is real,” Jones said.“Anything we can do to make cover-age more affordable for consumers isa good thing.”

California Remodels QuakeInsurance, Rates Drop

Caliber Collision’s 2012 Included Expansionand Giving to Communities in NeedAs Caliber Collision grew from 94 lo-cations to 112 during 2012, its associ-ates also helped many families andcommunities in need throughout Cal-ifornia, Arizona, Nevada, Texas andOklahoma.

Throughout the year, CaliberCollision participated in several com-munity events. Last January, the com-pany said it would refurbish anddonate at least 12 vehicles to familiesin need. Caliber surpassed this goal by25% by gifting at least 15 vehicles tofamilies across California, Texas, Ari-zona and Nevada. Caliber team mem-bers volunteered hundreds of hours torepair and refurbish these vehicles, aswell as collect gifts and cash dona-tions from local businesses and ven-dor partners.

Beneficiaries of these efforts in-cluded a grandmother raising twograndsons on her own in north Holly-wood, CA; a disabled veteran in Texaswho selflessly volunteers to help men-tor and support disabled veterans; anda mother and her two teenage daugh-ters in Orange County, CA, who es-caped an abusive situation with onlythe clothes on their backs.

Realizing that as many as one in

five Americans go without sufficientfood each day, 112 Caliber Collisionlocations partnered with local foodbanks to help fight hunger in thespring of 2012. Caliber’s first-everfood drive resulted in over 172,000meals being donated in just twoweeks. Caliber associates recentlycompleted a three-week fall fooddrive and provided even more mealsfor those in need just prior to Thanks-giving.

Caliber Collision has also joinedwith the American Heart AssociationHeart Walk across all participatingcommunities including the DallasHeart Walk that raised a record $4.7million dollars in donations.

“We are deeply grateful for thepassion our associates have demon-strated in 2012 to help restore therhythm of lives in need across everycommunity we serve,” said SteveGrimshaw, President & CEO of Cal-iber Collision.

“As we continue to bring our vi-sion of improving the image of thecollision repair experience to life inevery community we serve, our asso-ciates have rallied around communi-ties large and small,” he said.

A Los Angeles man was sentenced to6-1/2 years in prison for his involve-ment in a $13.5 million fakeNASCAR merchandise business.Federal prosecutors say 66-year-oldEliott Dresher was also ordered topay $8.8 million in restitution.Dresher is accused of taking moneyfrom family, friends and others overan 11-year period to invest in a busi-ness that would buy overstockNASCAR apparel and sell it at aprofit. In reality, he had no relation-ship with the car racing organization,nor its licensed manufacturer or dis-tributor.

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Valley Motor Center on Dec. 10 pre-sented two refurbished vehicles to theDisabled American Veterans (DAV)of California, local chapters #13 inNorth Hills, CA, and #55 in Simi Val-ley, CA.

The donations, a 2006 Toyota Si-enna and a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica, werepart of the center’s annual participationin “Recycled Rides,” a nationwide proj-ect of the National Auto Body Council(NABC) to donate vehicles to needycharities in local communities. ValleyMotor Center, supported by auto insur-

ers, paint and parts vendors, and othercollision repair industry partners, all do-nated resources to make this possible.The vehicles were donated by MercuryInsurance and Farmers Insurance.

“Our goal is to help as many peo-ple who are in need as we can, in thecommunities we serve,” said MarshGluchow, owner of Valley Motor Cen-ter.

The donated vehicles will beused at the DAV Transportation Divi-sion, and the DAV Hospital in NorthHills, to transport disabled or elderlyveterans and family members to andfrom VA Medical facilities for treat-ment, as well as to physical therapy,rehabilitation, continuing educationafter military service, and to and fromcommunity events.

“We commend the DAV for theirinvaluable support and services theyprovide to help our disabled veterans,who have fought so hard for the free-dom we enjoy every day as Ameri-cans,” said Gluchow. “Recycled Ridesis a wonderful program that enables somany of us in the collision repair in-dustry to partner with our insurancecolleagues and vendors to make a pos-itive impact in so many peoples’ lives.”

Valley Motor Center of Van Nuys, CA, DonatesTwo Vehicles to Disabled American Veterans

CDI’s Commissioner Dave Jones Warns on Workers’ CompPotential Insolvency, Proposes Premium BoostWarning about potential insolvencyamong workers’ compensation insur-ers, state Insurance CommissionerDave Jones is supporting an increasein employer-paid premiums—eventhough an overhaul of the compensa-tion system for injured and ill workers,passed by the California Legislaturethis year, promised savings to em-ployers. Jones’ “recommendation” isnot binding on insurers, who are freeto set their own premiums, but the in-surance commissioner’s positions aregenerally followed in the industry. Heis, in effect, responding to insurers’complaints in recent years that theircosts of providing cash benefits, med-ical care and rehabilitation to disabledworkers have outstripped their rev-enues. Jones described his “pure pre-mium” recommendation of $2.56 per$100 of payroll as “a modest 2.8% in-crease” over the current ‘filed rate’ of$2.49. With workers’ compensationinsurance premiums running about$12 billion a year, Jones’ recommen-dation, if adopted by insurers, couldcost employers more than $300 mil-lion a year.

“We cannot afford to set thepure premium rate based on overestimates of the potential reform

savings that (Senate Bill) 863 willbring when insurers are alreadypaying out more in claims than theyare collecting in premiums,” Jonessaid. “Today, companies are payingout 116% more in claims than theyare collecting in premium. It’s arecipe for history to repeat itselfwith a significant number of insur-ers becoming insolvent just a fewyears ago.”

Earlier this year, followingmonths of private negotiations be-tween business groups and laborunions, the Legislature and Gov. JerryBrown enacted a workers’ compensa-tion overhaul—following the tradi-tional pattern of the once-a-decadechange in the multibillion-dollar sys-tem—that increased cash benefits byan estimated $740 million a year whilepromising employers more thanenough offsetting savings from sys-temic reforms. Some medical careproviders and workers’ compensationattorneys opposed the changes be-cause of the impact on their incomeswhile insurers continued to press theircase for more premium revenue tooffset operational losses, which theysaid were driven by rapidly increas-ing medical costs.

Members of the CAA Glendale/Foothill Chapter will meet Jan. 30 tolearn about Toyota's new ‘PredictiveEstimating’ system. The system,which debuted at SEMA last month,begins with a complete estimate andallows the user to omit items as ap-propriate, rather than having an esti-mator start from scratch and add lineitems. The system requires the useronly to select the damaged portions ofthe vehicle (left front fender, for ex-ample), and all items related to thatsection of the vehicle are automati-cally listed, including such items asone-time use fasteners, necessary in-formation labels, and procedures suchas color, sand and polish (with a linkto Toyota's bulletin indicating that itis a procedure necessary even at thefactory). Rick Leos, Body & Colli-sion Business Development Consult-ant with Toyota, will present thesystem Jan. 30 at Brookside CountryClub, 1133 Rosemont Ave. inPasadena. Registration begins at 5:30p.m. and the meeting begins at 6:30p.m. Cost is $45 for CAA membersor $100 for non-members. RSVP toCAA Southern California representa-tive Cindy Shillito at 714-944-4028or [email protected].

Toyota’s Predictive SystemShowcased in Pasadena

San Francisco, CA, city attorneyDennis Herrera announced a suitagainst Brother’s Auto Body Shopowner Raul Amilcar Vasquez Dec.6, calling the Bayview shop “ascofflaw enterprise” that has ex-panded into illegal construction andunsafe housing.

The lawsuit contends thatVasquez, owner of the shop at 1270Thomas Ave., has operated the au-tomotive repair business for yearswithout the needed permits and hasdefied city inspectors and repeatnotices of violation.

In fact, Vasquez aggressivelyexpanded his operations, includingillegally converting a single-familyhome into multi-unit housing with-out permits and “leasing unsafe anduninspected residential housingunits to tenants,” Herrera said in an-nouncing a legal filing that outlinesdisputes Vasquez had with city agen-cies including the Department ofBuilding Inspection to the PoliceDepartment. The city is seeking civilpenalties of up to $1,000 per day foreach housing code violation; $500per day for each building code vio-lation; and $2,500 for each act of un-fair and unlawful competition.

City Attorney Sues SanFrancisco Shop Owner

DAV State Commander Kirk Johnson, MarshGluchow, owner of Valley Motor Center, andAssemblyman Bob Blumenfield


by Joyce Lobeck, Yuma Sun

Over the past 60 years, Smitty’s Paintand Body Shop has been in a variety oflocations, but one constant is that thebusiness has always been owned andoperated by the Schmidgall family.

Even as they celebrate the notablemilestone, that’s a tradition currentowners Rob and Debbie Schmidgallhope will continue with their childrenand grandchildren for years to come.

Smitty’s was established in 1952in a little shop behind Dunbar Chevro-let by Rob’s grandfather, U.M.“Smitty” Schmidgall, according to a1963 newspaper article that is yel-lowed and brittle with age but lov-ingly preserved by the family.

A photo accompanying the articleshows the front window of the busi-ness with a sign that says “Bakedenamel paint jobs $39.99.”

The article stated that Smittystarted the shop as a specialist in paintand body work, bringing more than 30years of experience in automobilework to the business. Before comingto Yuma, he had owned and operated abody shop in Jerome, ID.

As the Yuma business grew andprospered, glass and upholsteringwere added to the services. AndSmitty was joined by his sons, Ken-neth, Hank and Bob. Kenneth, whowas farming in Idaho for a while,would come to Yuma in the winter

months and lend a hand in the shop.The shop also changed locations

a few times, with that history pre-served in a series of business cards. Itwas located in Somerton at 200 MainSt. for a short time, then moved backto Yuma to 228-1/2 2nd Ave. It finallysettled in at 206 Orange Ave. for anumber of years.

In 2005, Rob realized his dreamof a new and larger building by mov-ing the shop to its current location at2685 E. 24th St.

Debbie believes that was a movethat was meant to be. Right after thecouple built the new shop, the marketwent “sky high,” she said. And sincethey moved, the area around the shophas built up with other businesses.

“It was a great move ... it’s a goodlocation,” Debbie said as she surveyedthe modern, attractive office.

It also gave them space to bringon board their two daughters, Jen-nifer and Jill, and one son-in-law.

And perhaps one day their grand-children, Debbie observed. Althoughthat will be awhile as the couple’sseven granddaughters are young andtheir one grandson is only 5.

In 1970, the shop was passed onto the second generation when Ken-neth, Rob’s father, and Kenneth’s wifeCarol bought the business.

Rob got an early start in the busi-ness. He recalled sweeping floorswhen he was about 12 years old. Inhigh school, he began doing assemblywork with his uncle.

In 1983, he was thrust into themanagement of the business when hisfather was killed in a Jeep accident.Seventeen years later, Rob purchasedthe business from his mother, Carol.

Asked if he had ever wanted to dosomething different than fol-low his grandfather and fa-ther in the business, Robreplied that he had takenwelding classes at ArizonaWestern College and thoughtabout maybe working on theAlaska pipeline.

He never got to Alaska,deciding he wanted to stay inYuma and work with his father in-stead. Someday, he might like to go toAlaska just for a visit, though. And hiswelding skills have come in handy onoccasion.

The Schmidgalls attribute the con-tinuing success of their business for 60years to dedication, hard work and anemphasis on customer service. And

they take pride in restoring their cus-tomers’ cars to their original condition.The company also runs an Enterprisecar rental service, so customers canconveniently rent cars to drive whiletheirs are being repaired.

This all earned the third- andfourth-generation family-owned busi-ness the No. 1 ranking in 2007 asYuma’s Best Auto Body Shop, chosenby Yuma Sun readers.

In response, Debbie was quoted:“I think it's pretty awesome for thepeople of Yuma to have confidence inus to do the job right and vote usYuma’s Best. We appreciate them ascustomers supporting us over theyears. It’s important to us that we putout quality of work and safety of thevehicles ... We put safety above all.”


Yuma Body Shop Celebrates 60 Years of Family Ownership

The Schmidgall family celebrated 60 years in business with an anniversary party Nov. 29. Familymembers who work at Smitty’s include third generation Rob and Debbie Schmidgall (currentowners) and their daughters, fourth generation, Jennifer and Jill. Pictured here are Chris Quamen(son-in-law), daughter Jill Quamen, owner Rob Schmidgall, his mother Carol Schmidgall (wife ofKenneth, second generation owner), daughter Jennifer Trevino, and co-owner Debbie Schmidgall

Smitty’s Shop in 1955


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(SCAQMD ). There were many con-cessions approved, but a very impor-tant one was that almost no one wouldhave to purchase a low NOx burneruntil 2017, which has saved shopsthousands of dollars. The district isnow required to do a technology as-sessment, a cost effectiveness study,and an affordability study. These stud-ies may further exempt shops, whichis an on-going project that CAA andother groups are working hard to ac-complish.

CAA co-sponsored the CaliforniaRetail & Trade Business Conferencein Los Angeles on Nov. 1. This con-ference was hosted by the CaliforniaState Board of Equalization and titledMinimize the Frustration of Taxation.This was one of many ways that CAAand its chapters provided on-goingeducation to its members.

There were a number of legisla-tive bills that were defeated in 2012that would have been very detrimen-tal to the collision repair industry thatinvolved CAA and other groups whoworked hard to defeat these bills.

SB 1460 (Yee) CAA was op-posed. This bill would have elimi-nated current law, which requiresinsurers who compel consumers toaccept non-OEM crash parts whenvehicles are repaired to warrant theparts are “of like kind, quality,safety, fit and performance” as OEMcrash parts. The bill would haveshifted all insurer warranty respon-sibility of aftermarket crash parts tothe repair shop, third party vendorsand suppliers. The bill also wouldhave created a new legal presump-tion that all certified crash parts arepresumed sufficient to return themotor vehicle to its pre-loss condi-tion, even though the part may notfit properly or is defective. This billdid not pass.

AB 1098 (Hagman) CAA wasopposed. The amended version of thebill would have eliminated long-standing law that provided for fair andreasonable auto body practices. It wasa last minute “gut and amend” andsimilar to SB 1460 (Yee). The auto-motive repair version was defeated.

AB 2505 (Ma) CAA was op-posed. This bill would have requiredthat non-original equipment manu-facturer certified aftermarket crash

parts, including the name of the certi-fying entity, be identified on the writ-ten estimate and invoice withoutproviding definitions for “certified”and certifying entity. This bill died.

The CAA worked closely in 2012with the Department of Insurance(DOI) on improving and clarifyingsome of the current regulations. TheDOI released the final version of theproposed regulations dealing withstandards for reasonable auto body re-pairs and procedures and use of after-market crash parts.

The CAA believes these regula-tions are fair and reasonable for con-sumers, repair shops and insurers.The CAA is supporting the passageof the regulations and feel these willbe very important for auto bodyshops. These should be finalized inearly 2013.

The DOI will also be releasingthe latest draft of regulations pertain-ing to clarifying labor rate surveystandards for conducting surveys andclarification of customer steering. TheCAA has been actively involved withthese important issues as well and willcontinue working with the DOI inproviding input and keeping membersadvised.

Continued from Cover

CAA Recaps 2012The California, Nevada and ArizonaAutomotive Wholesalers Associa-tion recently appointed Mark Caliof ZF Services, LLC, to the associa-tion’s 2013 Manufacturers AdvisoryCouncil. He was appointed byCAWA chair Steve Sharp ofWORLDPAC.

Cali has been with ZF Servicesfor more than 12 years, where hebegan as a product manager for lighttruck. He later took on sales for thatunit as well as for passenger car,where he was responsible forlaunching the Aftermarket Auto-matic Transmission program. Caliprogressed through the sales ranks atZF and has served as the nationalsales manager for retail for the past 21/2 years. He was recently promotedand currently heads up the productand marketing department at ZF.

“We are pleased to welcomeMark to the CAWA leadership andlook forward to his participation andcontributions to the automotive af-termarket industry out west,” saidSharp. Sharp went on to say, “Weare pleased he has stepped forwardto give something back to our indus-try, through his commitment toCAWA.”

Mark Cali Appointed toCAWA Advisory Council

by Melanie Anderson

Palomar College in San Marcos, CA,recently upgraded its collision repairprogram and other technical programswith a new Industrial Trades Centerbuilding. Space dedicated to auto bodyrepair is approximately 4,700 square

feet. Cost for thenew ITC building,which also housesdiesel technologyand auto technol-ogy programs, cost$7.7 million paidfor by PropositionM building funds,

which was approved by voters in No-vember, 2006, to maintain and modern-ize the 60-year-old campus and tocreate new educational opportunities.

The community college collisionrepair program has been inexistence for more than 30years at Palomar College, lo-cated in San Diego county,and over the years the pro-gram has seen a few changes,including being a part ofROP for several years. Colli-sion repair is again part of theregular community collegetwo-year curriculum and of-fers four classes, two each inRepair 1 and Repair 2. Allfour classes are taught by theprogram’s single teacher,David Wright, who has been an autobody professor at Palomar for 12 years.Currently, the program has space forabout 26 students in its new spaciousclassroom and lab.

The beautiful new ITC buildingwas constructed just a year ago andWright is patiently waiting for his newrefinishing area to be completed. Inthe meantime, they use a temporary,makeshift paint booth. The new paintbooth and refinishing area is sched-uled to be finished next fall, andWright plans to immediately begin alevel 1 refinishing class and add alevel 2 class when more students aretrained. While construction is under-way, the refinishing part of the pro-gram remains in hiatus.

The recent renovation of the newtrades building has brought life backto the collision repair program. Yearsago, it had become “generic and rundown under ROP,” Wright said. “Mygoal is to individualize classes and getthe program up to standards,” he said.Another big goal is to the get the pro-

gram NATEF certified, which hehopes to do in about four years. On his‘wish list’ for items he would like toprovide his students are lap top com-puters and a virtual reality spray sim-

ulator so students can practice spray-ing.

Wright’s love of cars began a longtime ago when as a kid he visited hisuncle in Las Vegas who owned a pinstriping business. The hot rods sparked

his interest and so he took an autobody class at Santana High School inSantee, CA.

One of Wright’s students, NikGerdel, 18, is in his fourth semesterin Palomar College’s collision repairprogram. He took the first class withhis dad, who owns a shop across thestreet from the college.

“Dave is an awesome instructorand always happy to help,” Gerdel said.

Gerdel’s interest in collision re-pair is personal. His dream was to owna restored Datsun 240Z. He hadwanted once since he was 13. He

bought one but soon realized he hadbeen “swindled.” He bought anotherDatsun 240Z so he could use partsfrom the first car to restore the second.Gerdel’s future plans include transfer-ring to Cal Poly, Pomona to pursue adegree in mechanical engineering.

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The temporary refinishing booth

Auto body repair students at Palomar College work on aproject

Student Nik Gerdel and David Wright

Palomar College auto body repair instructor David Wright teaches the collision program in a newclassroom and lab



Three San Diego charities and oneneedy family were the recipients of anearly holiday gift.

On Nov. 19, several San Diegocollision centers teamed up with Pro-gressive Insurance to gift two PTCruisers, a Toyota Sienna and a DodgeCaravan at a special Recycled Ridesevent held at Progressive San DiegoService Center.

Participating body shops in-cluded Eurotek Autobody, QualtechCollision, A&G Collision Center andMiller Collision. Paint suppliers, partsvendors and others who also donatedproducts or services included SherwinWilliams Automotive Paint, Perfec-tion Glass, Keystone/LKQ Parts, Ran-cho Chrysler Auto Group, QualityPlus Parts, Snyders Electrical, ABMobile Glass, Central Auto Wrecking

Parts, Safelite Auto Glass and 1800Radiator. Enterprise Rent-A-Car alsodonated to this special event to helpthose in need.

Charities receiving the special giftof a vehicle were National MultipleSclerosis Society, CalvaryChapel Church, HistoricBario Logan District and alocal San Diego family.

National Multiple Scle-rosis Society (NMSS) re-ceived a 2000 Toyota Sienna,and Angela Northrup, sen-ior director, said that receiv-ing the vehicle before theholidays was a great blessing.NMSS has a vehicle loanprogram where families liv-ing with MS can borrow thevehicles to get to doctor ap-pointments.

“The National MultipleSclerosis Society is an organizationthat I hold close to my heart,” saidMark Tyler, owner of Qualtech Col-lision. “My mother-in-law, LillianSedgwick, has MS. When you have afamily member that has MS, you seehow it affects your entire family. Youwant to do everything you can to getinvolved so no other family is affectedby MS. My wife and I do all we can tofundraise, get involved, and donate in

means to helping in finding a cure.This donation will create a better qual-ity of life for a local family. I amhappy to help and very thankful to allthe vendors that helped support in thisproject.”

The event marked San DiegoProgressive Insurance's first annualparticipation with the national Recy-cled Rides program.

Anna Bevier, claims center man-ager, stated that she was overwhelmedwith the generosity of all the collisionshops and vendors who participated.“The local automotive communitycame together and made this eventmemorable for all,” she said.

San Diego Body Shops Give the Gift of Vehicles to Those in Need this Holiday Season

From left: Anna Bevier, Mark Tyler, Angela Northrop.Photo credit: Hilary Castro

Four vehicles gifted in San Diego. Photo: Hi-lary Castro

The Collision Repair EducationFoundation and LORD Corporation,the maker of Fusor products, arepartnering to provide safety glassesto collision students. Until Dec. 31,for every individual who “Likes”both organization’s Facebook pages,LORD will donate a pair of safetyglasses (up to 10,000) to collisionschool programs through the Colli-sion Repair Education Foundation.

“Like” the organization’s Face-book pages by visiting:● www.facebook.com/CollisionRe-pairEducationFoundation● w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / p a g e s /LORD-Fusor-Automotive-Repair-Adhesives/531537473524134

Collision Repair Education Foun-dation Director of Development Bran-don Eckenrode noted, “Due to schoolbudget reductions, there are many col-lision school instructors who don’thave the ability to purchase safetyglasses for their students. ThroughLORD’s generosity, we can help keepup to 10,000 collision students safe.Please “Like” both of our Facebookpages before the New Year so that wecan provide the full amount of safetyglasses to collision students this up-coming spring semester.”

Education FoundationWants Facebook Likes


The Goodguys Rod & Custom Asso-ciation celebrates their 30th anniver-sary in 2013 marking three decades ofpromoting and producing some of thenation’s favorite rod & custom events.

Goodguys will stage 19 dynamicevents in 2013 welcoming a widerange of hot rods, customs, musclecars, trucks and classic cars to thecountry’s premier event venues.

Goodguys 2013 event schedule(Western region):March 8–10—Goodguys 4th SpringNationals, Westworld, Scottsdale, AZ– Season opener! Hot rods, customs,classics, trucks and muscle cars thru1972 vintage. Vendor exhibits, swapmeet & car corral, Goodguys Au-toCross, All American Sunday.

March 23 & 24—Goodguys 31st AllAmerican Get-Together Presented byJ. Rockcliff Realtors, Pleasanton Fair-grounds, Pleasanton, CA–Featuringall years of American made & pow-ered show cars & trucks, vendor ex-hibits, swap meet & car corral,Goodguys AutoCross.

April 5–7—Goodguys 13th Meguiar’sDel Mar Nationals, Del Mar Fair-grounds, Del Mar, CA—Hot rods, cus-toms, classics, trucks and muscle cars

thru 1972 vintage. Vendor exhibits,swap meet & car corral, Goodguys Au-toCross, All American Sunday, specialawards and more.

June 1 & 2—Goodguys 20th SummerGet-Together Presented by J. Rock-cliff Realtors, Pleasanton Fairgrounds,Pleasanton, CA—Featuring all yearsof American made & powered showcars & trucks, vendor exhibits, swapmeet & car corral.

July 26–28—Goodguys 26th PacificNorthwest Nationals Presented byWesco, Puyallup Fair & Event Center,Puyallup, WA—Hot rods, customs,classics, trucks and muscle cars thru1972 vintage. Vendor exhibits, swapmeet & car corral, All American Sun-day, special awards, Friday NightDrags @ Pacific Raceways and more.

August 16–18—Goodguys 12th GreatNorthwest Nationals, Spokane Fair &Expo Center, Spokane, WA - Hot rods,customs, classics, trucks and musclecars thru 1972 vintage. Vendor ex-hibits, swap meet & car corral.

August 23–25—Goodguys 27th WestCoast Nationals Presented by Flow-master, Pleasanton Fairgrounds,Pleasanton, CA—The Goodguys

“Crown Jewel.” Over 3,500 hot rods,customs, classics, trucks and musclecars thru 1972 vintage. Vendor ex-hibits, swap meet & car corral, specialawards and more.

November 9 & 10—Goodguys 24thAutumn Get-Together Presented by J.Rockcliff Realtors, Pleasanton Fair-grounds, Pleasanton, CA—Featuringall years of American made & pow-ered show cars & trucks, vendor ex-hibits, swap meet & car corral,Goodguys AutoCross, special awardsand more.

November 15–17—Goodguys 16thSouthwest Nationals, Westworld,Scottsdale, AZ—Hot rods, customs,classics, trucks and muscle cars thru1972 vintage. Vendor exhibits, swapmeet & car corral, Goodguys Au-toCross, All American Sunday, specialawards and more.

November 22–24—Goodguys 3rdFall Del Mar Nationals Presented byMeguiar’s, Del Mar Fairgrounds, DelMar, CA—Season finale! Hot rods,customs, classics, trucks and musclecars thru 1972 vintage. Vendor ex-hibits, swap meet & car corral,Goodguys AutoCross, All AmericanSunday, special awards and more.

Goodguys 30th Anniversary Season Includes Events in the Western Region

The owner of a Pawtucket car shopaccused of scamming customers wasarrested again by Rhode Island StatePolice.

Dino Cocciawas taken into cus-tody in North Providence by the Vio-lent Fugitive Task Force Nov. 29 onfour Superior Court Bench Warrants:Failure to Appear/Unlawful Appro-priation; Failure to Appear/UnlawfulAppropriation; Failure to Appear/Ob-taining Money under False Pretenses;Failure to Appear/Obtaining Moneyunder False Pretenses.

Coccia is the owner of America Salesand Collision Center. He was arrested inMay after he was accused of selling twocustomers the same car and renting out carshe was supposed to be repairing.

More than two dozen peoplehave come forward, claiming to bevictims of his scheme.

In July, the Attorney Generalfiled 50 new charges against him, in-cluding obtaining money under falsepretense, unlawful appropriation, ut-tering bad checks and one count ofattempted larceny.

Rhode Island Shop OwnerArrested Again

by Linda Holcomb, Chapter President

As chapter president of the Califor-nia Auto Body Association Glen-dale/Foothill-Pasadena chapter, myfellow members and I can look backupon our meetings and rememberthat we had some very educationaland informative gatherings last year.We were one of the three chapterschosen in the state of California tohost the LETF-Labor EnforcementTask Force auto body compliancepresentations. This enabled our chap-ter members to prepare for LETF vis-its and know what to expect and howto properly comply.

We also tackled the issue of theBureau of Automotive Repairs Ethicsand Integrity.

In addition, we hosted a panel dis-cussion by Gene Lopez, Western Re-gional Manager of I-CAR, on “CuttingsCosts and Improving Shop Efficienciesand Profits.” Five distinguished bodyshop owners contributed some very in-teresting information. We had over 70people at that meeting and I guaranteeyou everyone learned something theycould put to work in their shops the nextday.

The chapter hosted a pre-SEMAequipment showcase. Tom Gattuso,SEMA trade show director, gave usthe complete insight on the SEMAshow, which is now the largest tradeshow of its kind in the automotive in-dustry. We saw some of the newestequipment technology in the automo-tive industry that later won prestigiousSEMA awards.

Toby Chess, I-CAR instructor,talked about “Where is our industrygoing in the future and what are yougoing to do about it?” It was very ed-

ucational and informative.We have been keeping our chap-

ter informed about the AQMD Rule1147, regarding installing and con-verting your heaters to low NOx burn-

ers on your spray booths.Our chapter focuses on what the

needs are for collision repairers intoday’s competitive market place.

As we move into 2013, as pre-dicted a few years ago, the large con-solidators are rapidly moving forwardwith their acquisition of MSO’s (mul-tiple shop owners) at a high rate ofspeed. My dear friend George Beau-cather of Hi-Tech Collision Centersjust recently sold all of his shops toCaliber Collision Centers.

Tom Holmes of Holmes BodyShops sold all but one of his eightshops to Cook’s Collision Centers.There will be many more in 2013. Wehave other consolidators moving intothe California market from out of stateto acquire their market share. This willmake it much more difficult for singleshop owners to compete with this typeof competition.

It is my firm belief that the insur-ance companies think they are gettinga “better deal.”

But when it comes to dealing witha single shop owner, generally speak-

ing, the customer who owns the car isgetting the better deal, such as morepersonalized service, higher qualityrepairs and better communication. Thecustomer is not “just another number.”

There is room for both in our in-dustry. It is high time that the majorinsurance companies realize this.

The single shop owners are goingto have much more difficulty in af-fording the new type of equipment thatwill be required to repair aluminumand the new high-strength steel auto-mobiles that are coming out, and theexpense involved in all of the specialtraining classes for technicians. The in-surance companies need to not shutout the independent shops. If they dothis, how will these shops afford tostay up with the current technology?

It is a time in our industry whenwe really need to stick together andmake all of this work for the inde-pendent shop owners and the insur-ance companies. There are many goodClass A independent shops out therethat deserve the respect and equalityfrom the insurance companies. They,too, need an equal stake in this busi-ness of repairing cars. There is no

need for the insurance companies topass up the independent shop ownerfor a consolidator. Didn’t most con-solidators once start as a single shopowner in the beginning?

I look forward to working with myCAA chapter members and giving themthe tools they need to survive thesechanges. I look forward to workingwith all of my body shop customers,helping them acquire the proper equip-ment at fair prices, assisting my clientswith wise marketing strategies, and rep-resenting all of the body shops inSouthern California to stop the AQMDfrom making the shops install costlylow NOx burners on their older spraybooths as a part of Rule 1147.

Wishing everyone a good begin-ning and prosperous 2013.

Linda Holcomb owns J.R. SandovalEnterprises & Consulting located inMonrovia, CA, www.jrsandoval.net,specializing in selling body shop equip-ment since 1973. Holcomb has been thepresident of the CAA Glendale/FoothillChapter for over two years, and looksforward to many informative and wellattended meetings in 2013.

Glendale/Foothill CAA Chapter President Looks Back at 2012


Linda Holcomb

The Women’s Industry Network(WIN) is seeking corporate sponsor-ships to help expand its 2013 educa-tional and mentorship programsoffered to women in the automotiveindustry.

WIN offers several levels ofcorporate sponsorship opportunities,including bronze, silver, gold, plat-inum and diamond, as well as spon-sorship of its annual EducationalConference. Each sponsorship en-ables the organization to providewomen in the collision repair indus-try with educational opportunitiesthat position them for future success.

All sponsors of WIN are recog-nized on the organization’s website,promotional items, signage, andmembership functions and activities.Visit WIN’s website to view the mon-etary donation amounts associatedwith each level of sponsorship.

“WIN is dedicated to providingwomen in the automotive industrywith a platform for growth,” said Vic-toria Jankowski, chair of WIN’sboard of directors.

For more information about spon-sorship opportunities, contact WINboard member Susanna Gotsch [email protected].

WIN Seeks 2013 Sponsors


A LinkedIn expert and a Forbes Top30 Social Media Power Influencer, aswell as the creator of the AdAge Top100 Global Marketing blog and theowner of Windmill Networking, NealSchaffer is a global social media con-ference speaker who is also known forhis two award-winning and criticallyacclaimed social media books: Maxi-mizing LinkedIn for Sales and SocialMedia Marketing, and Windmill Net-working: Maximizing LinkedIn. Hecurrently speaks on social media atapproximately 50 events each year. Isat down with Schaffer recently andasked him the question many collisionrepairers nationwide are asking--howcan I use LinkedIn to help my busi-ness?

Q: With all of the social media sitesout there, does LinkedIn have a role inthe entire mix when it comes to bodyshops and the collision industry ingeneral?NS: It’s ideal for what I call outward-facing employees. These are your es-timators, front office people and eventhe techs that deal with the public on aregular basis. And, of course, the shopowner needs to have his own LinkedInprofile, with a picture and a bio.LinkedIn is designed for business peo-ple who want to interact with otherprofessionals in their respective fields.People are using it to constantly lookfor new products and services andvice-versa. Are you looking for a newpiece of equipment or a better man-agement system? Finding the top de-cision makers in each businesssegment can be done quickly and eas-ily using LinkedIn.

Q: What should we know about cre-ating a profile?NS:Make it complete, with your em-ployment history and keywords thatwill make it easy to find by other col-lision professionals. Use LinkedIn foryourself and then also create a pagefor your company. Users will want tolink to you and others will link solelyto your company page. You can do somuch once you learn the bells andwhistles of LinkedIn. We instructcompanies how to recommend salesand build a marketing program via

LinkedIn and if they follow the plan, itworks without fail.

Q:Now I have created my profile anda company page on LinkedIn and a lotof people want to connect with me—hundreds of them. Should I accept allof them or carefully handpick eachone?NS: Some folks haven’t completelygrasped the whole purpose ofLinkedIn and want to limit their con-nections for one reason or another.But, think about it—how many peo-ple do you meet in the course of run-ning your company or doing yourjob--maybe 500 or even 1,000? Younever know how someone can helpyou in your business in the future. Anold college buddy may want to investin your business and help you to openup a new location? A former em-ployer may now have a job with avendor you want to purchase productsfrom? How many people do you meetat shows like SEMA, AAPEX, etc.? Igive my clients this easy formula:Take your age and multiple it by 10times and that’s how many LinkedInconnections you should have. Don’tjust connect with people you know—go broader and connect with theirfriends and their vendors. The wideryour audience the more likely you’llfind beneficial deals and relationshipsthrough LinkedIn. Reach out as muchas you can and never take socialmedia personally. Let as many intoyour net that want to be there and thendevise techniques for keeping themon your boat.

Q: Okay, I have 500 connections now.What’s next?NS: Engagement is the key. Too manynewbies create their profile and invitea bunch of people, but then they dropthe ball completely and say, heyLinkedIn didn’t work for me. Createsome interesting things for people tolook at, such as niche applications orslideshows showing your shop andstressing your strengths. And alwaysbe looking out to meet new people, byjoining special groups or entering dis-cussion forums. Spend some timeevery week (maybe less than an hour)on LinkedIn and comment, discuss,

offer your expertise and provide use-ful information whenever you can.Any form of social media is only asvaluable as what you are willing to dowith it.

Q: Can I start my own group to dis-cuss things that are important to me,such as green practices, the ins andouts of DRPS and how to use mymanagement system the best way?NS: Definitely—groups are a greatvehicle for becoming a magnet formore connections today and down theroad. Groups can position you as anexpert on any subject and will bringyou a ton of secondary connections.You can also join as many as 50 othergroups to further connect you to yourindustry. Many of the paint compa-nies have groups and all of the pro-fessional trade organizations alsohave one, in most cases. Staying intouch with your existing friends, col-leagues and associates is important,

but finding new ones is even just asvaluable. Once they establish a group,we tell our clients to create a very tar-geted ad campaign around the group.It’s inexpensive and you can use it topinpoint people ten miles from yourshop if that’s what you want to do.They might be future vendors or evencustomers. Being involved with topprofessionals in any area can be valu-able to the further success of anycompany.

Q: If my shop hasn’t done any socialmedia up to this point, does that meanI’m too late to the party?NS: I tell people, it’s never too late tobe a part of the social media game. Allit takes is a few hours weekly andpretty quickly; you’ll be a pro at it andhave a significant following. Let itbuild gradually and create new con-tent; join groups and start your ownand within six months--you’ll see thevalue of LinkedIn!

How Body Shops Can Use LinkedIn

with Ed Attanasio

Social Media for Shops

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



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We recently ended an election cam-paign season during which exaggera-tions, misrepresentations and outrightlies were rampant. It made me think ofJohn, a small shop owner who sur-prised me when I asked where his cus-tomers came from. He had been inbusiness for nearly 30 years, but he toldme he didn’t rely on any corporate re-ferrals, dealership business or any ofthe other usual sources that many shopowners tell me are vital to keepingthem in business. “So,” I said, “wheredoes your business come from?” Hereplied, “My customers just keep com-ing back. After 30 years, you accumu-late a lot of customers.”

Right away I thought about manyother owners who complain to me thatthey have lost a lot of their old cus-tomers. They tell me their customersare swayed by steering, websites, ads,and news stories designed to scarethem away from small shops. I askedJohn if that happened to him. “Some-times,” he replied, “but mostly whenthey try to sway my customers, theyfail. My customers are my friends.Good friends never desert you.”

John isn’t the only small shopowner in business for more than 20years. What does he do different thatbinds his customers to him with suchloyalty? I overheard a couple of con-versations with his customers. I noticedthat John was scrupulously honest. Hewent to great pains to get the truth ofthe situation across to each customer. It

appeared to me that no prospective cus-tomer would ever doubt John’s in-tegrity. There was no phony “trust me”kind of selling on his part. He simplycame across as 100% sincere and100% determined to give or get for hiscustomer the best deal possible. Thatkind of integrity speaks for itself.

I’m sure some would say to me,“Of course he comes across with in-tegrity after 25 or 30 years! Whowouldn’t? But how can you communi-cate integrity instantly when you aremeeting a prospective customer for thefirst time? Or when you’ve only beenin business for less than a year? I re-cently had some work done on myhouse. The handyman that did the worksent me a thank-you note (not some-thing I’ve ever received from a handy-man before) and also he sent mesomething else I had never receivedfrom a handyman before: something hecalled “The Code of a Handyman.” Itwas a statement of his personal com-mitment to do a good job, to be ontime, to perform as promised, to pro-vide top service for a fair price, and afew other commitments to reassure meand his other customers that neither henor anyone working with him wouldever steal anything or knowingly dam-age any property or falsely representwhat had been done. In short, it was acode of handyman honor, a pledge ofintegrity far more effective than ver-bally boasting of his integrity. RalphWaldo Emerson once commented on a

boastful political speaker. He noted,“The louder he talked of his honor, thefaster we counted our valuables.”

The dictionary defines ‘integrity’as follows: 1. Rigid adherence to aCODE of behavior. 2. The state ofbeing sound; unimpaired. 3. Complete-ness; unity. Codes of ethics are oftenprovided by various industry associa-tions and also franchise operations.Such a ‘code,’ posted in a conspicuousplace, can serve to reassure theprospective customer that this place ofbusiness is committed to following adefinite criterion of ethical behavior. Ofcourse the prospect can only hope thebusiness owner and employees will ac-tually adhere to the code they haveposted, but at least the promise is therefor all to see.

Recall that the third definition of‘integrity’ was “completeness; unity.”It comes from the same root word as‘integrated.’ That word has come tohave a racial connotation, but actually

means “to make into a whole by bring-ing all parts together.” The businessowner who has ‘integrated’ into his orher community and become an ‘inte-gral’ part of that community, is gener-ally viewed as concerned and thustrustworthy. It is no longer necessary to‘sell’ the public on one’s integrity.

During the worst of the recessionin the early 1990s, John Baraona,owner of ‘Fussy Cleaners’ in Akron,OH, offered free dry-cleaning servicesto temporarily unemployed customers.When they finally landed new jobs inthe cleaned and pressed clothes Johnhad provided for them, they became hismost loyal customers. Was there anyfurther need for John to publicize hisintegrity? Integrity sells! In the shortrun, it may always be possible to lieand deceive, to gain a temporary vic-tory. But in the long run one’s reputa-tion for integrity, trustworthiness andhonesty is the best sales and marketingasset of all.


Integrity Sells!

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

The National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration is expected to proposea rule requiring event data recorders,the so-called black boxes in vehiclesthat record crash data, in all new lightvehicles.

The White House Office of Man-agement Budget completed a reviewof the proposal, clearing the way forNHTSA to finalize the standard for allcars and light trucks.

NHTSA estimates it could costautomakers $24.4 million to put therecorders in all vehicles. About 90%of new vehicles have the recorders, in-cluding all by General Motors, FordMotor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. andMazda Motor Corp.

The Alliance of Automobile

Manufacturers urges the governmentto consider driver privacy, it said.

“Event data recorders help our en-gineers understand how cars perform inthe real world, but looking forward, weneed to make sure we preserve privacy,”alliance spokeswoman Gloria Bergquistsaid. “Automakers do not access EDRdata without consumer permission, andany government requirements to installEDRs on all vehicles must include stepsto protect consumer privacy.”

NHTSA Expects to Propose Black Box Requirement

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Phoenix Collision Centers Donate Six VehiclesThe lives of six deserving families inPhoenix, AZ, will be changed with thegift of a refurbished car through theNational Auto Body Council (NABC)and its Recycled Rides program.

The vehicles were donated by sixPhoenix area collision centers affili-ated with the Van Tuyl Group, Inc.

The families received their newvehicles during an event held Dec. 17at Camelback Toyota, one of six localarea dealership collision centers affil-iated with the Van Tuyl Group, Inc.

The six local collision centersthat donated their labor to refurbishthe vehicles are:• ABC Collision Center• Collision Center of Peoria• Bell Collision Center• Camelback Toyota Collision Center• Midway Collision Center• Van Collision Center

Companies that made contribu-tions to the vehicle giftings includeEnterprise Rent-A-Car, LKQ Corpo-ration, 3M, PPG, Travelers Insurance,Wal-Mart, Jiffy Lube, Shell Oil, Cob-blestone Auto Spa, Lakeshore Learn-ing Center, Airpark Tint, All-CityTowing, Valley Towing and manyother sponsors.

“We’re happy to give these fam-ilies the reliable transportation thatcan help provide them a fresh start,”

said Recycled Rides Co-ChairmanJim Ocampo of DuPont PerformanceCoatings. “We’re also very pleased tobe able to say that the Phoenix giftingrepresents only a small fraction the150 families that received vehiclesthis year through Recycled Rides. It’sgreat to be part of a project that clearlyillustrates the giving nature of NABCmembers and the collision repair in-dustry at large.”

Recycled Rides is a national ini-tiative through which National AutoBody Council members—men andwomen putting their superior crafts-manship to benevolent use—refurbishdonated vehicles and gift them to fam-ilies in need and organizations dedi-cated to assisting others. The programis an intra-industry effort, so in addi-tion to body shops donating theirlabor, insurers, paint suppliers, partsvendors and rental car companies arerecruited to contribute.

“At its most basic, the goal ofRecycled Rides is to help people helpthemselves,” noted Rafael Hinojos,collision business development direc-tor for the Van Tuyl Group.

“And all of the industry seg-ments commit to playing a part in see-ing that happens. Most that participatefind it a life-changing experience,” hesaid.

26 Insurers Now Paying Gunder’s Rate IncreasesAs of late November, 26 insurers haveelected to provide full compensationfor Gunder’s Auto Center’s labor ratesand material invoicing.

This past August, Ray Gunderplaced a notice in his reception area andprovided handouts to all auto apprais-ers and insurer claim representativeswho visited his shop that new laborrates and allowances were in effect. Asreported Sept. 12, (“15 and Counting”),with the exception of a handful, mostinsurers have conceded to paying with-out argument (excluding Infinity wholater acquiesced after a Gunder filed alawsuit against them). The increases in-clude labor, refinishing labor, framelabor, mechanical labor rates and the in-voicing of PMC Logic for all body andrefinishing related materials.

Currently, those insurers include:MetLife; Kemper Services’; WestfieldComp.; Auto Owners; Acceptance Ca-sualty; Liberty Mutual; Amica Mu-tual; Horace Mann; The Hartford;Direct General; Zurich American;Mercury; Esurance; Security Na-tional; *Infinity; Occidental; First Ac-ceptance; GMAC; Esis; SpecialtyProducts Claims (a division of Na-tionwide); Sentry; Michelin TireCompany; Grange Mutual; CNA;Global Indemnity; and Commerce In-

surance.Some insurers are taking Gunder

to court, arguing that Gunder, with thePower of Attorney, has no standing tofile lawsuits on behalf of his customers.It’s anticipated that the court will heararguments from all defendants and ren-der a joint verdict for all 25 cases. Thehearing occurred on Dec. 13. See adja-cent story. Defendants include: StateFarm, Allstate, USAA, Travelers, In-finity, and Geico.

“This hearing and the judge’s rul-ing will be significant and may set astrong precedent regarding similar ef-forts of quality-minded independentrepairers across the country,” Gundersaid.

“We are very confident that thedecision will be in the favor of ourcustomers and support the right for re-pairers to stand in the shoes of theircustomers if and when such issues re-garding the full payment of any and all“Reasonable and Necessary” chargesshould arise. I’m excited to bring thismatter to closure as it will only em-bolden us to move forward in servingour customers in an unencumberedfashion. This will also hopefully opena door to better communications andcooperation with insurers to betterserve our mutual customers.”


by Ed Attanasio

The California Autobody Associa-tion’s East Bay chapter once againhosted its Model Truck CustomizingCompetition on Nov. 20 at the Black-

hawk Auto Museum in Danville, CA.More than 200 CAA members andfriends attended this hugely popularevent consisting of a dinner, raffle,and spirited truck competi-tion, which raised toys forToys for Tots and money forfour northern California Re-gional Occupational Pro-grams.

Eight companies cus-tomized model trucks andentered them into the com-petition, including T.G.I.FAuto Body, Crockett’s Pre-mier Auto Body, Jim’s AutoBody, FinishMaster, D & SAuto Body, National AutoParts, Uptown Auto Bodyand NEO Autoworks. In addition, allfour regional occupational schools en-tered trucks for the contest. Each com-peting organization took an identical

plain white Nylint die-cast truck andturned it into a unique piece of art.

First place went to Jim’s AutoBody for its beautiful red, silver andblack 18-wheeler, capturing the cov-eted trophy and winning an Iwata

Twilight chrome 1.3 W-400spray gun. Second placewent to the College ofAlameda with a Coca-Colatruck and received a 3MSpeedglas 100 welding hel-met, and third place went toMission Valley ROP, for itsred sparkling limousine, forwhich they received a De-Walt buffer with a case andgloves.Jeff Rogers, manager of

Jim’s Auto Body, was obvi-ously pleased to walk awaywith the trophy and the brag-ging rights that accompany

it, he said. “Sam Spinelli, one of ourbody techs, did all the work on thistruck, approximately 40 hours total.We’ve won before, but this was spe-

cial because the competition was in-tense. It’s nice to win, but in the endit’s all for charity, which is the mostimportant thing. We bought the truck

to display in our office, sothat customers can see it andappreciate it.”

The People’s Choiceaward went to T.G.I.F AutoBody, for its “Tim Burton’sNightmare Before Christ-mas” creation. Kathy Mello,the owner of T.G.I.F., entersa truck every year and herstaff really gets involved tomake it a special occasion.“Two of my body techs andone of my painters put 120hours into this truck,” Mellosaid. “Every year, it’s a teambuilding experience and very

beneficial to the shop, the chapter andthe industry as a whole. It’s ideal forteam building here in the shop. Welove to have fun with it, so that’s whywe decided to go with this theme thisyear.”

The Educational Best-of-Classaward, given to the best truck enteredby an educational institution, went tothe College of Alameda.

The CAA East Bay chapter alsogave several educational institutionsmoney for their auto repair programsand the head instructors from eachprogram were in attendance. ContraCosta College (Peter Lock), MissionValley ROP (John Cimino), EdenArea ROP (Daniel Pareja) and theCollege of Alameda (Bill Andrews)

all received grants from the CAA EastBay chapter.

“Without grants from organiza-tions such as the CAA, it would makeit difficult for us to maintain our pro-gram,” Peter Lock, department chairof the auto technician program at Con-tra Costa College, said. “The CAAEast Bay chapter has always been anoutstanding supporter of our program,

and we greatly appreciate it. The stu-dents always get into designing andbuilding these model trucks, and everyyear we see more and more top entriesfrom the schools involved.”

Mike Govette, branch managerfor FinishMaster in Concord, has beenorganizing the Model Truck Cus-


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CAA East Bay Hosts 15th Toys for Tots Model Truck Competition

The Marines were on hand representing Toys for Totswith from left, Staff Sergeant Harry Easter, East Bay CAAchapter President Tiffany Silva and Corporal RichardSalas

Celebrity Judges who picked the evening’s winners wereKirk Kapfenstein, Rich Evans, organizer Mike Govette andMike Taylor

From left, Sam Spinelli from Jim’s Auto Body, eventorganizer Mike Govette, James Maltbie from Jim’s JeffRogers, manager of Jim’s Auto Body in Concord repre-sented the winning truck and captured the Best TruckTrophy

Jim’s Auto Body won first place with this red, silver and black 18-wheeler

See Truck Competition, Page 51


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Include Mike Monaghan as amongthe proponents of the benefits of col-lision repair industry standards. Whateffect did he see such standards hav-ing in the United Kingdom?

“The bad repairers went away.The incompetent and inefficient and il-legal repairers went away,” Monaghansaid. “The insurance carriers got moreintegrity, better safety, better customerservice. They got better value fromtheir supply chain.”

Monaghan spoke at the CollisionIndustry Conference (CIC) in LasVegas in November. As a three-shopoperator in the United Kingdom in1988, he said was discouraged withhaving to compete with other repairersthat he didn’t feel had made the invest-ment he had in equipment and training.He wrote a white paper outlining whathe felt a “good shop looked like,” andover the course of three years helpedcraft one of the first set of collision re-pair standards in the U.K.

Though some others have pointedto some downsides to the standardsprogram in the U.K., Monaghan wasunequivocal about the positive impactof the standards. He began his argu-ment for standards in the U.S. by not-ing that change is inevitable, and thattoo often collision repairers allowthemselves to remain only on the re-ceiving end of that change.

“The tragedy for our industry iswe react too late. We react to every-thing and then we seek to blame,”Monaghan said.

“Can the collision industry takecontrol of its market and its destiny?Yes, it absolutely can, but what it can’tdo is constantly wait and react. It hasto take control.”

Are minimum requirements enough?He challenged whether repairers orinsurers clearly have defined what“good” looks like. He pointed out oneexample in a draft revision of CIC’s

definition of the minimum require-ments for a shop, which calls forshops to have a minimum of one tech-nician certified in welding. Mon-aghan asked about a shop that has sixor eight technicians, only one ofwhich who is certified and who isgone for a day when welding is doneon vehicles.

“Is that safe? Is it right? I seri-ously don’t think so,” Monaghan said.“If you’re welding a car, you shouldbe tested before you get to weld.”

He said that part of the problemwith not having standards is that re-pairs are too often designed basedmore on negotiated cost.

“You need to understand there isan independent correct repair, and thathas to come first, and only… then doyou figure out, and if necessary nego-tiate, the cost,” he said.

Monaghan said over the course ofthree years, he took his white paper toshops, insurers and automakers for

input, and by 1991 it was ready to beimplemented as a standard.

“The good shops that wanted todifferentiate themselves stepped upand said, ‘If that means I have to beaudited four times a year, front door toback door, looking in every dark cor-ner, then that’s the standard I want tobe identified with,’” Monaghan said.

The standard was eventuallyadopted by 13 insurers (who requiredit be met by shops on their programs)and 11 auto manufacturers, Monaghansaid.

Though Monahan didn’t mentionthat another set of standards was alsovying for adoption by shops and in-surers, he did say that in 2007 hestepped aside and the current singlestandards program in the U.K., imple-mented by the insurer-funded researchfirm Thatcham, moved forward.

The issue of costsMonaghan returned several times at


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Advocate of Collision Industry Standards in the U.K. Sees Need for Them Here

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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

CIC to the topic of the impact of stan-dards on costs. He acknowledged thatin some instances in the U.K., repaircosts (and the percentage of vehiclesdeclared total losses) have risen. Buthe said the reduction in costs associ-ated with variability and other issuesdeclined.

“If you get the right people, theright repairers with the right materialsand the right skills and training—ifyou get all those things more fre-quently—then you reduce the vari-ables,” he said. “There is less rancor,less rework, less supplementaries. Allthose factors were contained andscaled back considerably.”

Monaghan, who recently movedto the United States, clearly has an in-terest in playing a role in the develop-ment of standards here.

“I’m living here now, and I’mwilling to help CIC or anybody else inthis industry with my knowledge andbackground,” Monaghan said. “I thinkthe U.S. can achieve something quitespectacular (and) does not need to gothrough the pain we went through… “If the repair industry does not em-brace this and take charge of its owndestiny, then it will be a victim ofchange.”


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Other perspectives on standards in the U.K.As an advocate for implementation ofa set of collision repair standards here,Mike Monaghan, at the most recentCIC, spoke mostly of the upside of thestandards he helped develop in theUnited Kingdom. But others there,even those who support the stan-dards, acknowledge some challengesthey pose.

In the U.K., more than 840 shops(out of an estimated 1,400 that partici-pate in insurer direct repair programs)have earned certification under the 5-year-old set of repair standards. Al-though the standards were developedby an inter-industry effort, the imple-mentation of those standards and cer-tification of the shops is overseen byThatcham, an insurer-funded researchorganization.

“It’s basically a get-of-jail-freecard for insurers,” said Chris Mann,publisher of Bodyshop Magazine in theU.K., has said of the standards pro-gram. “If something goes wrong and

they are asked, ‘Why did you choosethis body shop,’ just saying, ‘It’scheap and it’s there,’ is not a verygood answer to a court. But ‘I chosethis body shop because it is independ-ently-audited through this standardsprogram,’ means you’ve taken the duecare that a reasonable organizationshould do. I think that’s a big, big plusfor insurers.”

But Mann also points out thatwithout such standards “against whichtheir suppliers can be measured...theonly criteria insurers can use is price.”

Certified shops also have thebenefit of using the “Kitemark” logo,somewhat equivalent to the “GoodHousekeeping” seal of approval in thiscountry in that it is widely recognizedby U.K. consumers as a designation ofsome level of performance among thecompanies and products that haveearned its use.

Paul Gange, the president andchief operating officer of Fix Auto USA,

said that while he believes in the valueof standards for the industry, he’s ob-served some of the challenges withthe program in the U.K., where a simi-lar Fix Auto organization has more than60 franchises.

Gange noted that at one point inthe U.K., there were multiple compet-ing sets of industry standards, andshops found themselves being re-quired by different insurers to imple-ment multiple standards

“This was, at the very basis, a bitof a mess,” Gange said.

Gange also said that while singlestandards program now in the U.K., is“at its essence positive, it’s riddledwith bureaucracy, and along with bu-reaucracy comes costs.” Gange saidthat shops in the U.K. feel they bearthe burden of these costs, which in-clude $30,000 to $80,000 in terms ofan initial implementation fee, alongwith the equivalent of just under$8,000 a year in annual training.

East Valley Institute of Technology(EVIT) in Mesa, AZ, has partneredwith Leading Edge Auto Refinishesand Kachina Automotive Equipmentto establish one of the premiere edu-cational programs and training centersfor Collision Repair Technology in theUnited States. New training begins inJanuary.

EVIT is Arizona’s first JointTechnological Education District andwas formed in 1991. Recently recog-nized as an A+ School in Arizona, itserves adult and high school studentsin over 40 occupational specific pro-grams.

This private/public enterprisepartnership fulfills the mission forEVIT’s CEO & Superintendent Dr.Sally Downey.

“We must bring industry to thetable if we are going to provide thefinest training in the world and to ac-complish that goal we needed to part-ner with two of Arizona’s mostinfluential market leaders,” said Dr.Downey. “Leading Edge and KachinaAutomotive are recognized as innova-tive market leaders and industry vi-sionaries in Arizona. When I asked

them to outline their vision of whatthey believed our program could be-come I was taken back at the depth,the vision and their comprehensivestrategy of implementation thatgreatly exceeded EVIT’s short andlong term vision for our collision pro-gram.”

It has long been a dream of JohnRang, managing partner of bothLeading Edge Auto and Kachina Au-tomotive Equipment, to provide state-of-the-art training for the collisionindustry in Arizona.

“When Dr. Downey approachedus we quickly realized that we shareda similar vision for industry trainingin Arizona. We lacked a brick andmortar facility and EVIT lacked theknowledge and industry connectionsto bring EVIT’s dream to reality. Dr.Downey describes our relationship asa ‘public/private enterprise partner-ship.’ I would describe it as a win-winopportunity for students and our colli-sion industry partners. Our relation-ship with EVIT is beyond anything Icould have imagined,” said Rang. “Dr.Downey has big ideas and by collab-orating we are going to have a signif-

icant impact on students and industry.This is going to be a unique collisionprogram.”

On Nov. 7, 2012, Dr. Downeywas proud to present Rang and Lead-ing Edge the prestigious Sam andOlga Bender Award for Business, oneof EVIT’s highest honors. The awardis given to a business partner whomakes the greatest contribution oftime, energy, and commitment to theschool. Rang’s efforts were acknowl-edged just as the Collision Repair fa-cility was in the final stages ofcompletion. The renovated facilitieswill begin hosting manufacturer’straining programs in January, 2013 be-ginning with Chief Automotive “De-sign Based Repairs and AdvancedFrame Analysis” training classes.

EVIT has served high school stu-dents in collision repair classes formore than 20 years. However, the newfacilities and programming expandsthat vision by offering students sec-ondary education and advanced train-ing for professional technicianscurrently working in the industry.

“It’s essential that we keep tech-nicians current with the technology

and repair techniques in our industry,so we leveraged our local and nationalindustry relationships. To say theystepped-up would be a gross under-statement,” says Rang. “I-CAR em-braced the opportunity immediatelyalong with several nationally recog-nized manufacturers who are offeringindustry training at EVIT during 2013.The 18,000 square foot facility, withnew state-of-the-art equipment, andfactory supported training, offers theperfect environment to address one ofthe greatest weaknesses of our indus-try, a severe lack of qualified techni-cians.”

“We have great expectations forour new collision program. As a cur-rent member of the national ‘Automo-tive Youth Educational Systems’(AYES) executive board, I am con-vinced that the opportunities for EVITin our collision programs are unlim-ited,” said Dr. Downey.

Leading Edge Auto Refinishes isa single-line BASF ColorSource™distributor. Kachina AutomotiveEquipment, founded in 1978, suppliescollision shop repair equipment andtraining to the collision industry.

Education and Industry Partner to Bring Top Training to Arizona


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PreFab Ads recently introduced “TextCrash,” a TV/Internet commercialaimed at increasing public attention ofthe hazards of texting while driving,making it available to auto body shopsnationwide.

Chuck Jessen of Jessen Produc-tions in San Rafael, CA, wrote, di-rected and produced “Text Crash,”which opens with a young womantexting her boyfriend while driving.As a result, she runs a red light and T-bones a van in the intersection. In theeerie aftermath, amidst the wreckageand against the wail of the approach-ing sirens, a “ping” is heard—a textfrom her boyfriend, wondering whereshe is. The words “Please don’t text

and drive. We don’t need the businessthat bad” fade up, followed by thelogo sponsoring auto body shop.

Designed as a body shop-spon-sored public service announcement(PSA), “Text Crash” will be making

its December debut in 14U.S. markets and oneCanadian market, withmore body shops signingon to run it every week, ac-cording to Jessen.

“Body shop owners seemto easily recognize the po-tential good will this PSAcould generate in theirlocal communities,” Jessensaid. “Nearly all the shopsrunning this spot say theyhave fixed cars damaged

from a texting-while-driving incident.Hopefully the awareness generated bythis spot will help take this tragictrend in another direction.”

“Text Crash” is just the latest of17 collision repair commercialsJessen offers through PreFab Ads(prefabads.com), a division of JessenProductions, LLC. It can be viewedon prefabads.com and YouTube. Toview “Text Crash” go to:http://www.prefabads.com/text_crash.php.

TV Public Service Commercial for Body ShopsAimed at the Dangers of Texting and Driving




Autowest Honda RosevilleRosev i l le

800-262-3201916-783-5628

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-5:[email protected]

Avery Greene HondaVal le jo

800-834-8886707-551-3202

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Barber HondaBakersf ie ld

661-396-4235Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5:30

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Clawson HondaFresno

559-435-5000Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5; Sat [email protected]

First HondaSimi Va l ley

888-523-0698805-584-6646

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Galpin HondaMiss ion Hi l ls

800-GO GALPIN818-778-2005

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat [email protected]

Honda Cars of CoronaCorona

800-557-3652951-734-9045Dept. Hours: M-Sat [email protected]

Honda of HollywoodHol lywood

800-371-3719323-466-3205

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Honda of OaklandOakland

510-547-8047Dept. Hours: M-F 7-8; Sat 7-6

Kolbe HondaReseda

800-735-1424818-609-7441

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Larry Hopkins HondaSunnyvale

408-720-0221408-736-2608Dept. Hours: M-Sat 8-5

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Metro HondaMontc la i r

800-446-5697909-625-8960

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 7:[email protected]

Ocean HondaSanta Cruz

831-464-1800Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 8-4:30

[email protected]

Robertson HondaNorth Hol lywood800-508-3894818-301-3511

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 8-5

San Francisco HondaSan Francisco415-913-5125

Dept. Hours: M-F 8-5:[email protected]

Selma HondaSelma

800-717-3562559-891-5111

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 7:30-4:[email protected]

University HondaDavis

800-585-8648530-758-8770

Dept. Hours: M-Sat 8-6; Sun [email protected]

Findlay Honda HendersonHenderson

888-234-4498702-568-3531


Bell HondaPhoenix

866-682-9802602-772-4159Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6

[email protected]

Chapman HondaTucson

800-461-6744520-202-5770


Santan HondaChandler

800-765-1353480-285-2804

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5:30; Sat [email protected]

Showcase HondaPhoenix

800-537-8236602-230-7306

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5; Sun [email protected]

Tempe HondaTempe

800-571-7019480-421-4860Dept. Hours: M-Sat 7-6

[email protected]

CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA ARIZONA

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The Honda and Acura Dealers Listed Here are

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Acura of FremontFremont

888-435-0504510-431-2560Dept. Hours: M-Sat 8-6

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Acura of PleasantonPleasanton

888-985-6342925-251-7126

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Cerritos AcuraCerr i tos

855-895-2678562-207-0554


Metro AcuraMontc la i r

800-446-5697909-625-8960

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:[email protected]

Power Acura South BayTorrance

310-784-8647Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat [email protected]

Santa Monica AcuraSanta Monica

866-332-4950310-449-0064


Findlay AcuraHenderson

877-770-5873702-982-4160


Acura of PeoriaPeor ia

866-347-4507623-792-2559


Acura of TempeTempe

866-455-6601480-344-6703


ARIZONA

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Autobody News January 2013CALIFORNIA • NEVADA • ARIZONA


Ford Fusion Wins ‘Green Carof Year’ TitleFord Motor Co.’s all-new Fusionwon Green Car Journal’s “GreenCar of the Year” title at the recentLos Angeles Auto Show.

The Fusion beat out the DodgeDart Aero, Ford C-Max, MazdaCX-5 SKYACTIV and the ToyotaPrius c.

It is the eighth consecutiveyear that Green Car Journal has rec-ognized a “Green Car” of the year.Previous winners include the com-pressed natural gas-powered HondaCivic in 2011 and the range ex-tended plug-in hybrid ChevroletVolt in 2010.

The Fusion comes with multi-ple internal combustion engine op-tions, and as a hybrid and plug-inhybrid model.

Ford’s Fusion has a base priceof $21,700; the hybrid model, whichgets a combined 47 miles per gallon,starts at $27,200. The C-Max hybrid,which also gets a combined 47 milesper gallon, starts at $25,200.

The winner was selected by ajury of environmental leaders, in-cluding Sierra Club Executive Di-rector Michael Brune, OceanFutures Society President Jean-Michel Cousteau, Global GreenUSA President Matt Petersen,“Tonight Show” host and auto en-thusiast Jay Leno, and Green CarJournal staff.

Volkswagen is recalling certainmodel year 2012-2013 Beetle vehi-cles, manufactured from Feb. 2012through Aug. 2012, and equippedwith leather sport seats. If the rightfront passenger seat gets wet, theoccupant control module may notproperly detect the presence of achild restraint installed in the seat.If the control module does not de-tect a child seat installed, the airbagwill not turn off. If the airbag doesnot turn off, in the event of a crashnecessitating front airbag deploy-ment, a child secured in the childseat may be at an increased risk forserious injury. Volkswagen will no-tify owners, and replace the controlmodules, free of charge.

Volkswagen Beetle Recall

Ford Recalls Escapes, Fusions for Engine FiresFord Motor Co. issued its fourth recallNov. 30 for its 2013 Ford Escape SUV,citing a fire risk.

The recall affects 73,320 Escapes,as well as 15,833 midsized 2013 FordFusions. Some 80,000 of the recalledvehicles were in the U.S.

It’s the latest setback for the Es-cape, introduced in June and a key ve-hicle in Ford’s lineup.

The Dearborn automaker urgedowners of the vehicles with 1.6-liter en-gines to contact dealers immediately, toarrange loaners. But unlike an earlierEscape recall, this one didn’t cautiondrivers to stop driving them.

The recall is for Escape and Fu-sion SE and SEL models with a 1.6-literengine.

The company said it has not yetestablished repair procedures, and can’tsay when owners will be able to gettheir cars fixed. A Ford spokesman saidengine overheating can lead to fluidleaks, which may come in contact witha hot exhaust system and trigger a fire.

Ford said it received 13 reports ofengine fires that followed overheating.No injuries have been reported.

Ford told the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration that thefirst report of an Escape fire was Sept. 7in Florida.

150,000 Toyota TacomaTrucks Recalled Due to Rust

Hyundai, Kia Faces $775 MLawsuit Over Fuel EconomyLiesA lawsuit was filed against HyundaiMotor Corp. and Kia Motors Corp forover $775 million in damages due to theauto companies admitting they over-stated the fuel economy in close to 1million vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.

Reuters reported the lawsuit wasfiled in the U.S. District Court forCentral California on behalf of 23Hyundai and Kia vehicle owners.

The lawsuit is expected to chal-lenge Hyundai and Kia’s compensa-tion plan that they have set to satisfydisappointed customers.

The South Korean automakersadmitted they had overstated the fueleconomy on 13 Kia and Hyundaimodels after the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency released a reportabout the mistakes. The agencylooked into the matter after over adozen customers filed complaints.

Volt Sales Plummet Due toInventory IssueChevrolet sold 1,519 Volts in Novem-ber, a 33% rise over the same month ayear ago. But that was only about halfthe record 2,961 vehicles sold in Octo-ber and 2,851 in September.

Don Johnson, U.S. vice presidentof Chevrolet sales and service, attributedthe fall in Volt sales from its record-set-ting tally in October as an inventoryissue, felt particularly hard in California.

“Dealers are just clamoring formore,” he said of the California market,where GM sells about 34% of Volts andwhere it recently had just an eight-daysupply of the vehicle. Inventory is nowup to 23 days for California and about60 days for U.S. supply, which Johnsondescribed as ‘ideal.’

Volt sales through 11 months thisyear totaled 20,828.

It’s difficult to tell whether expira-tion of favorable sales incentives alsoled to the fall in Volt sales. Without spe-cial incentives, the Volt costs $39,145before a $7,500 federal tax credit. That’smore expensive than the base prices forToyota’s Prius plug-in ($32,000), FordMotor Co.’s C-Max Energi plug-in($32,950) and Nissan Motor Co.’s all-electric Nissan Leaf ($35,200).

GM to Hasten Developmentof Electric Vehicles in ChinaGeneral Motors Co. said it is increas-ing the speed of its development ofelectric vehicles in China, where itwill build and sell an all-electricChevrolet Sail Springo in addition toselling the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in electric.

GM recently announced plans tobuild 500,000 vehicles a year by 2017that would be powered in some wayby electricity. That would includeplug-in electrics, pure electrics, mildhybrids that use the company’s eAs-sist technology and full hybrids, ac-cording to the automaker.

GM China opened an advancedmaterials lab in Shanghai in Sept.2011 where employees work on bat-tery technology and lightweight ma-terial research. Workers there canbuild cells for lithium-ion batteries.

GM is recalling 2,949 model-year2012 Buick Verano, ChevroletCruze and Chevrolet Sonic vehiclesbecause the airbags could fail, ac-cording to the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration.

The recall involves the driver-side front airbag, which contains ashorting bar that could intermittentlycontact the airbag terminals,NHTSA reported. If the bar and ter-minals are contacting each other atthe time of a crash, the airbag maynot deploy. This increases the risk ofinjury.

GM Recalls 2012 Buick Verano, Chevy Cruze, Sonic

Toyota is recalling its popular Tacomapickup truck, sold in certain parts ofthe country. At issue is the carriers thathold the emergency spare tire under-neath the truck may not be adequatelyprotected from the chemical road de-icers used in several states. If the tirecarrier rusts, the spare tire may fall offthe truck and present a road hazard, in-creasing the risk of collisions.

According to the National High-way Traffic Safety Administration, therust problem affects 150,000 2001 to2004 model year Toyota Tacoma full-size pickup trucks sold in so-call “rustbelt” areas of the U.S., including:Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indi-ana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,New Hampshire, New Jersey, NewYork, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Is-land, Vermont, Virginia, West Vir-ginia, Wisconsin and Washington,DC.

Toyota has not yet developed aremedy to this situation, but they willnotify owners when a fix is in place.

California, Colorado, Oregon andWashington. Fix Auto’s increased itspresence in the Seattle market to sixlocations, while doubling locations inthe Pacific Northwest from six to 12stores in the last year.

Fix Auto USA CEO Erick Bickettsaid, “Extinction [in the collision busi-ness] has already begun with the shiftof market share at a time when there isa declining demand for the repair serv-ices that we provide. If you aren’t con-sidering or making changes, you arebeing left behind. The big get biggerand the smaller will disappear, unlessthey are in a niche market. Independ-ent repair operators can survive if theyevolve their business and participatein a collision repair solution that is lessexpensive to do business with.”

Boyd GroupLast week Boyd Group has an-nounced the opening of their 180th lo-cation. The 15,000 square foot facilityin Orlando, Florida, previously Colo-nial Auto Body, will now operate

under the Gerber Collision & Glasstrade name, the Boyd Group’s largestU.S. brand.

The Boyd Group now owns andoperates 37 repair centers in Florida,a state in which the company didn’teven do business in until a year ago.President and COO of the BoydGroup’s U.S. operations Tim O’Daysaid, “We strongly believe that Floridais an attractive market for the BoydGroup.

In June this year Boyd Group an-nounced that it would acquire the as-sets of Pearl Auto Body, which ownssix collision repair centers in the Den-ver area.

At the end of last year, the BoydGroup owned 136 locations in theUnited States. In the past 12 months,the company has added 44 stores in-cluding the two recent acquisitions ofAutocrafters and The Recovery Roomwhich accounted for 23 of this year’snew locations. And Boyd is not theonly consolidator growing rapidly thisyear.

Caliber CollisionCaliber is a multi-shop operation with112 locations—including 49 in Cali-

fornia, 48 in Texas, eight in Arizona,and two in Nevada. The company alsocompleted its third acquisition in thegreater Oklahoma City market. 2011revenues were $365 million, a 15.5-percent growth over 2010, said StevenGrimshaw, president and CEO.

Caliber Collision began 2012with 94 locations and ended the yearwith 112. Most of their purchaseswere one and two-shop operationswith their biggest purchase being thefive locations of 101 Collision in Cal-ifornia, in February.

Mark Sanders, Chief OperatingOfficer for Caliber, recently said, “Wewill continue to increase our marketpenetration in this and other south-western U.S. markets in the months tocome.”

ABRA Auto Body & Glass ABRA Auto Body & Glass has alsobeen on an acquisitions streak. ABRAannounced the acquisition of all fiveCollision Solutions locations in Indi-anapolis, IN. ABRA’s five newly ac-quired repair centers are located inKensington Commons, Robbins Park,Beech Grove, Shelton Heights, andWestfield. The deal increases the num-

ber of ABRA repair centers nation-wide to 132 in 14 states. ABRA nowoperates 128 stores in 14 states. At theend of last year, ABRA had just 112locations in 12 states.

Service KingRichardson, TX-based Service Kingwas itself acquired by a managementteam backed by the investment firm,Carlyle group. Service King grew by16 shops this year to a total of 63 lo-cations. With 49 stores all within thestate of Texas, Service King expandedto the state of Arizona with its acqui-sition of Auto Body World and alsobecame the latest industry consolida-tor to attract Wall Street’s attentionwhen the Carlyle Group stepped in toacquire a majority ownership in thechain.

Adding in a few additional ac-quisitions this year by the smaller con-solidators like Cooks Collision (whichadded 8) and Collision Revision (2),the year 2012 has seen 104 repair fa-cilities acquired by these six compa-nies alone. That is more shops than thetotal number of locations Caliber Col-lision owned just 12 months ago.


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Record Year

by Kelly McNalis

In retrospect, it’s apparent that 2012was another “winning” year for WIN,the Women’s Industry Network®. WINis a not-for-profit organization dedi-cated to providing women in the colli-sion repair industry with educationalopportunities that create a platform forsuccess, as well as recognition for ex-cellence and leadership within the in-dustry.

WIN has reported growth in sev-eral areas of the organization in 2012,from enhanced membership servicesand additional sponsorship opportuni-ties, to improved internal operationsand a refined governance structure.

The organization reported a 50%increase in member engagement since2010 and a nearly 13% average in-crease in conference attendance since2007. The organization published itsfirst annual Report to the Industry,which gave visibility and transparencyto the organization’s activities, finan-cial data, and sponsors.

Victoria Jankowski, WIN Chairstated, “While this committee-run or-ganization has come a long way, focus

on the core mission remains the same;a strong sense of community, scholar-ship support, and ongoing educationalefforts for our members.”

WIN has increased its visibilitywithin the industry in a variety of ways.Its members have made an impact onmembership through networking, per-sonal connections, and corporateawareness.

Enhanced publicity efforts aroundthe 2012 Annual Conference in At-lanta, GA, generated buzz beginningthree months prior to the event andfeatured an expanded scope of speak-ers covering a variety of topics.

As an example, Robyn Benincasa,adventure racer, firefighter and motiva-tional speaker, addressed the confer-ence’s theme of, “Be the Change.”

“Her message of strength, perse-verance, and accomplishment bothresonated and inspired everyone in the

room,” said Ruth Weniger, WINCommunications Chair and CEO ofAirbag Solutions.

A variety of sponsorship levelsand conference sponsorship opportu-nities have helped spread organiza-tional awareness of WIN withinsponsoring companies, as well as theindustry at large. The greatest expen-ditures in the WIN budget are relatedto the Annual Educational Conference,which provides attendees with an op-portunity to interact with their collisionindustry peers and receive educationalopportunities. Once spon sorship is se-cured, WIN subsidizes 35% of each at-tend ee’s cost to attend the conference.

To continue strengthening its pro-gram and providing measurable im-provements in 2013, the WIN BoardStrategic Planning Session identifiedthree primary objectives at the start of2012:● Enhance the value of WIN mem-bership and sponsorship● Increase industry visibility of WIN,our activities and our members● Establish a more robust operationaland governance structure for theBoard of Directors

Jankowski stated, “Like any grow-ing organization, WIN will continue tobe challenged with building strongeroperational processes, creating consis-tency in communication that supportsthe WIN mission, and tracking progressso we can support continued success.”

The Board and committee mem-bers are engaged and confident thatthese objectives will align WIN foranother successful year in 2013 andenable the organization to continue itsmomentum.

“WIN will continue to explorenew ways to connect with women inthe industry, keep our sponsors en-gaged, and support the positive energyour network brings to the overall in-dustry community. As the organiza-tion grows, expect to see more waysWIN can contribute,” Jankowski said.

“We are ever grateful for the con-tinued generosity of our sponsors whosupport our efforts to engage womenin the Collision Repair Industry andwe welcome new members and spon-sors who are similarly committed toadvancing our mission,” she said.

To learn more about WIN, visitwww.womensindustrynetwork.com.

Women’s Industry Network Reports Winning Growth in 2012


clean their tools and equipment. Sincethen, Collision Depot has installedsome generators. Even though theyare now fully operational, they are stillrestoring their building and replacingthe $750,000 loss in equipment asthey go, due to a lack of insurance.

More than 250,000 cars in the NYand NJ area have been totaled due tosevere flooding, and Zigman notes adecrease in business because of thevast number of destroyed cars and theinflux of rental vehicles in the area. Heshares that though he is receiving oc-casional repair requests caused by thestorm, his only hope for now is for thegeneral public to get back on their feet.Zigman says he has noticed increaseddifficulties with insurance companiesas they are investigating claims ingreater depth and just generally givingconsumers a harder time obtaining re-pairs. They’ve opted to total many ofthe damaged vehicles. The insurershave also given Collision Depot someproblems regarding partially and fullyrepaired vehicles that had not yet beenpicked up; the insurers are objecting to

paying for the repairs on vehicles thatwere totaled by Sandy’s flooding.

Despite the challenges that hefaces daily, Zigman maintains a posi-tive outlook and puts his efforts andfocus into rebuilding. He states, “Whatgets me through living with this tragedyis remembering 9/11 and knowing thisis nothing but lifestyle changes com-pared to what others went through then.We will get through this.”

Burnside Collision of Inwood, NY,was similarly struck by Sandy’s devas-tating impact. With several feet of waterin their office, all computers and deskswere destroyed and had to be replaced.Over two feet of water in their workarea demolished their equipment, sub-merging and ruining their spray boothmotor and their Car-O-Liner’s mecha-nisms. Additionally, the flooding de-stroyed a number of partially and fullyrepaired vehicles stored on the property,including police cars and Burnside’stow truck. All of this destruction forcedowner Ronnie Marciano to shut downfor two and a half weeks.

Though Marciano has noticed aninflux in repair business since thestorm, he initially had to turn away agreat deal of business due to the dam-age done to his shop, thus losing po-

tential business in addition to the lossof work-in-progress. Several com-pleted cars were also destroyed, andone completed repair which was beingstored was completely flooded out,forcing Marciano to fight with the in-surance company in order to get paidfor the work he had already com-pleted. In addition to the general frus-tration of declining customers’ repairrequests, Marciano faced the difficultyof expenses without the ability to cap-ture business and revenue. BurnsideCollision’s current focus is on repair-ing and replacing the equipment dam-aged by the storm.

Marciano’s house was alsoflooded, as was his estimator’s and of-fice manager’s homes. Employeeswho were not affected came to theshop to start working on repairs andget the business back up and running,said Marciano—a credit to his em-ployees’ dedication and his relation-ship with them. Because of this extraeffort, Burnside Collision was able tomeet payroll obligations instead ofutilizing FEMA’s layoff program.

Noting that insurance companiesare currently focused on picking upsubmerged cars, Marciano expects tosee more storm-damaged vehicles in

the future. He suggests that many con-sumers may not yet realize that theircars were damaged by salt water, andhe also suspects that some people haveavoided submitting claims for feartheir insurer will total their vehicle.Though insurers are totaling manycars, Marciano notes that they’ve re-turned to standard procedure with han-dling claims. Initially, the volume ofclaims was overwhelming, causing de-lays, but by using independent ap-praisers to manage their volume,insurers have been able to return tonormal processing times. BurnsideCollision has seen very few floodedcars come in for repairs due to thechallenge that owners face when try-ing to retain their vehicles. Marcianobelieves that insurance companiesshould be making decisions on a case-by-case basis instead of making a blan-ket decision to total so many vehicles.

In spite of their own problems,Marciano and his staff helped unloada truck filled with supplies sent fromFlorida to provide relief for victims ofHurricane Sandy. Marciano sees thistragedy as a learning experience, stat-ing “We will pick up the pieces andwork diligently to move forward and


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Still Recovering

by Aaron SchulenburgExecutive Director, SCRS

2012 was an interesting year in the in-dustry; a year that was filled with bothnew and pre-existing challenges forcollision repair business owners. Busi-ness activity fluctuated from week toweek causing market uncertainty,daily reports of consolidation filledthe headlines of the trade press, insur-ance companies continued to developways to interject themselves into col-lision repair business management,and reports of technology develop-ment cast a long term question markover the future of collision repair busi-nesses. When concern and uncertaintyoccupy the marketplace, businessesoften look to the collective power ofcommunity to find information, leanon support from their peers, and col-laboratively innovate solutions.

As a trade association that hasspent more than three decades solelydedicated to educate, inform and rep-resent the collision repair professionalin all aspects of the industry, 2012 wasa remarkably busy year for the Societyof Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS).

In taking stock of the past year, I amconfident that the entire staff and vol-unteer board of directors of SCRS areproud of the work that we embarkedupon in each of the three areas of ourmission. While the ultimate results ofthose efforts may not be fully realized,the momentum from that work willserve the organization and its member-ship well, leading into 2013.

As a member driven organization,the success of our efforts is often bestgauged by the response of our mem-bership. For SCRS, our actions in2012 have been met by significantlevels of growth in every individualand corporate membership category.In addition to welcoming individualbusinesses, SCRS has proudly addednew state and regional Affiliate Asso-ciations to our network with theNorthern Michigan Body Shop Asso-ciation, the Texas Independent Auto-motive Association, Idaho AutobodyCraftsmen Association, Alabama Au-tomotive Repair Industry Society ofExcellence and the Utah Auto BodyAssociation. These state groups ex-tend the reach of SCRS’ informativenetwork, bringing our Affiliate Asso-

ciation relationships to more than 40affiliated groups across North Amer-ica, and strengthening the breadth ofour voice as we represent the industry.

It is through this growth that ourorganization is able to further our re-solve, knowing the message points,the areas of focus, and the activitieswe have undertaken have spoken tothose we aim to represent, spurringunsolicited growth in support and par-ticipation.

But a thriving trade associationrequires more than simply the abilityto boast one of the broadest networksof collision repairers such as SCRS’;it requires action and activity thatspeak to the heart of the membershipsissues. Our members give us the toneand tenor behind our voice, but it isour responsibility to make sure it thatcollective voice is raised at the righttime, for the right reasons, and that ourchorus echoes through the industry’shalls. In fact, vocalizing repairer’sperspectives at a national level wasnot just a continued responsibility forthe Society in 2012, but a centerpieceof the association’s efforts. From en-tering into the year with a written re-

sponse to an article in USA Today thatclaimed that auto body shops say they,not insurers, should set costs, to anend-of the year announcement thatSCRS would be working with otherrepairer groups to facilitate ongoingrepairer-only forums in conjunctionwith other industry events; 2012 hasmarked a year where repairers under-stood the need to embrace the powerof community, and to stand up fortheir business independence. No issuebecame a bigger focus for SCRS, orthe industry, than that of insurer man-dated parts procurement programs,which first received focus due to thelaunch of State Farm’s pilot programwith PartsTrader in several marketsacross the U.S. in the spring.

As part of our responsibility toboth inform and represent our mem-bership and our industrial community,SCRS issued a series of informativereleases on this program throughoutthe year; the first being issued as earlyas April, and marking one of the in-dustry’s first glimpses into the newprogram at the time. This release wasfollowed with an interview SCRSconducted with representatives from


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New Zealand highlighting the impactthat similar insurer-mandated partsprocurement models have had in thatgeographic market. The purpose ofthis information was simple; the moreinformed and educated collision re-pairers in the U.S. are about the po-tential impact and ramification of suchprograms, the more equipped they areto form a proactive individual busi-ness strategy on how to address such amandate if their business is faced withit in the future. There was perhaps nogreater industry advocate on this issuein 2012, because our membershipmade it clear that this issue was para-mount to virtually all others. Addi-tional releases, presentations, debatesand efforts centered on this issuethroughout the year, mirroring theconcern and pushback expressed bythe both the industry and by individ-ual businesses alike. The end result ofsuch communication and industry ac-tivism is yet to be seen, but the re-pairer’s voice was certainly heard.

People are paying attention, andmore repair facility owners today un-derstand what has happened in coun-tries like New Zealand and Canada,because of information that only be-came available through an organized

international network such as the oneprovided by SCRS.

Representing an industry takes theconfidence and understanding to knowwhen collaboration will generate themost substantial and beneficial resultsfor the industry, and SCRS has beenproud to continue our history of workwith other associations and entities in2012. In November of 2011, SCRSand other collision repair organizationsreleased a monumental joint positionstatement officially recognizing OEMvehicle manufacturer published repairprocedures as the industry’s standardof repair. As continuation of that effortin 2012, SCRS hosted a face-to-facemeeting in April of national repair as-sociations, I-CAR, the OEM Round-table and top automakers in OklahomaCity, OK. The meeting was a continu-ation of the step taken by SCRS andmore than two dozen additional state,regional, national and internationalcollision repair organizations. The ini-tial positioning, along with the leader-ship provided by SCRS and others inongoing meetings and communica-tions have led to major OEM vehiclemanufacturers responding with amaz-ingly innovative solutions that havethe potential to change the face of our

industry. One such tool with potentialis TOYOTA’s recently announced pre-dictive estimating technology that isunder development, and a direct workproduct of these ongoing repairerdriven discussions.

Perhaps one of the most notableareas in which we have actively em-braced other groups to address criticalindustry wide topics include a jointletter to the Information Providers inJanuary of 2012, regarding the collec-tion and reporting of repairer businessdata. The statement served as a publicrequest from the collision repair in-dustry to Audatex, CCC and Mitchell,seeking removal of contractualclauses within end user license agree-ments which require permissive ac-cess to aggregate and collect end-userdata as a point-of-sale requirement topurchase those estimating programs.This communication generated re-sponses from CCC, Mitchell and Au-datex as the year progressed, andserved as an ongoing source of dis-cussion for the Collision IndustryConference Data Privacy Committee.SCRS continued to collaborate withour colleagues at AASP and ASA inthe management and oversight of theDatabase Enhancement Gateway; a

free industry resource that was devel-oped and funded by industry trade as-sociations to address user-identifiederrors, inaccuracies or omissions inelectronic estimating system data. In2012 we proudly watched as this tradeassociation-funded industry tool sawboth its 4000th and 5000th inquiries.The DEG also made headway launch-ing a major website overhaul to en-hance the end-user experience, andadding a functionality to address thetop ten user requested enhancementsto estimating platforms.

Addressing estimating data haslong been a part of SCRS’ history, andin addition to the collaborative workwith other trade associations, SCRShas provided other resources that aimto provide collision repairers with themost effective tools in their toolbox.In 2011 SCRS provided the industrywith the SCRS Guide to Complete Re-pair Planning; an exhaustive list of le-gitimate operations and services ourtechnicians provide that often go un-recognized in the estimate develop-ment and final billing processes. It hadbeen initially developed by the lateMarch Taylor, who was a formerboard member of SCRS and owner of


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Being an insurance executive has itspros and cons. I guess it’s not reallydifferent from any other job – withone exception. We are the ones withthe gold, and the evil body shops arethe ones that aretrying to get it.That makes my jobunique because noteveryone gets toplay the role of theleprechaun.

Although I amjoking, there are alot of similaritiesbetween insurancecompany employ-ees and the lep-rechaun at the endof the rainbow pro-tecting the pot ofgold. We are unique, misunderstood,deceptively sneaky at times – and con-tinuously worried about someone tak-ing our money.

With the holiday season here,perhaps I should be making compar-isons between Santa Claus and insur-ance executives, but that would beridiculous. We are nothing like Santabecause we don’t give anything away.I guess we more closely resembleEbenezer Scrooge, if trying to staywithin the holiday theme.

Why am I telling you somethingyou already know? After all, we allknow that grass is green, there is nosuch thing as paint caps or Santa Claus,and insurance executives are all misers(present company excluded). Actually,I’m telling you all of this because notall insurance company executives arecreated equal. Even though it is fun tothrow jabs at defenseless suits, the re-ality is that there are a few good onesamong us (present company included).

But please meet Bob. Bob is aninsurance executive who works withme. Although Bob doesn’t wear green,isn’t short and doesn’t have red hair,he is very much a leprechaun. I don’tknow when or why he became so bit-ter and perpetually worried about theevil body shops stealing money. Buthe has more conspiracy theories thanthe George Bush administration.

It’s extremely difficult to workwith guys like Bob because he lives in

a different world. It’s people like Bobthat cause lower-level insurance com-pany employees that you have to workwith to think and act like empowereddictators towards shops.

It isn’t a healthy situation but it’sone that is tolerated at various levelsbecause Bob is a company man, andhe watches our money and is helpingto eliminate fraud. When Bob identi-fies a shop that he thinks is over-writ-ing estimates or not properly repairingvehicles, his view is considered justi-fied. Sadly, Bob’s word is taken as if itwere written by Matthew, Mark, Lukeor John.

An even sadder reality is that Bobnever worked on a car in his life. Hecouldn’t tell you a weld nugget from achicken McNugget, yet he is judgeand jury on a proper repair and repairhours.

How is this possible? Becausemost insurance company executivesare born on a different side of townand have years and years of drinkingfrom the same water fountain. I’mnot sure how I escaped because Iwas drinking the same stuff. But formost of us, all of our experience isinsurance-related, so we don’t knowwhat’s really on the other side of thewall. Depending upon your mentorswithin an insurance company, yourvision of body shops can end upbeing tainted.

I am grateful that I’ve had manylevel-headed bosses over the years. Ido recall one in the early 1980s thatlooked just like the nutty professor.I’ve never asked Bob, but I am will-ing to bet that he spent a lot of time

working for that mad scientist. Hedespised body shops, and Bob is ex-actly the same. I think he wakes upevery morning with sole purpose ofpenalizing shops. While Bob actu-ally does find some shops that arethieves and couldn’t repair a RadioFlyer wagon correctly, the vast ma-jority of his hysteria should beviewed as nothing short of a witchhunt.

This story doesn’t have a happyending. Bob isn’t a mythical charac-ter. He is someone who is still very ac-tive in our business. I believe he willretire in a few years but the damagehas already been done.

I think every insurance companyhas a Bob. Insurance companies havemade positive changes over the past30 years, but they’ve been unable tofully rid themselves of the cancers likeBob. They are the old-timers who arecarry-overs from a time when shopsand insurance companies were sepa-

rated by the Berlin Wall. I’m gratefulto have been there when both that wallwas erected and when it was torndown. I found out that the people onthe other side of the wall are just likeme.

You can’t fight with the Bobs ofthe world because you won’t win.There is no answer or fix. The bestyou can do is to know your enemy.Debating, arguing and offering per-sonal opinion will surely raise the ireof the cunning and deceptive lep-rechaun. Only facts and documenta-tion are worth their weight in gold.

Just don’t tell Bob that. He mighttry taking both of them for his over-flowing pot.

“The Insider” is an auto insur-ance company executive who wishesto remain anonymous. This column re-flects solely the opinion of The Insideras it offers an unvarnished look atvarious issues impacting the collisionindustry.

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ASCCA, CAWA to Host 4th Annual Joint SummitThe Automotive Service Councils of Cal-ifornia (ASCCA) and CAWA, represent-ing the Automotive Parts Industry, arehosting the 4th Annual Aftermarket In-dustry Summit Feb. 9 in Newport Beach,CA. The Summit continues to grow, andthe two organizations expect to attractparticipants representing independent re-pair facilities and aftermarket parts man-ufacturers, distributors and retailers.

Additionally, the California Auto-body Association (CAA), CaliforniaAutomotive Business Coalition (Cal-

ABC), State of California Auto Dis-mantlers Association (SCADA), theAutomotive Aftermarket Industry As-sociation (AAIA) and the CaliforniaAutomotive Teachers (CAT) have alsobeen invited to participate.

Issues to be discussed include:• Where does the distributor buy parts?Who within the company makes the de-cision to buy? Does the repair shop haveany say in the purchasing decision?• What does it mean for California af-termarket businesses now that the

“Right to Repair” legislation and ini-tiative have passed in Massachusetts?• SB 750: A lesson in grassroots advocacy• How will I know if the brake pads Isell or install are compliant with thenew regulations?• What can the two associations workon in 2013 to improve the recruitmentof individuals into the automotive af-termarket in California?

Jack Crawley, ASCCA 2013 pres-ident, said, “The rate of technologicalchanges in our industry, and environ-

mental influences, as well as legislativeand regulatory impacts, will continue togrow exponentially. The outcome ofthese factors will shape our individualand collective futures as well as the in-dustry. Together we must reflect thatgrowth to be effective in protecting ourinterests and having our collective voicesheard, respected, and acted upon.”

Ed Jimenez, 2013 Chair ofCAWA’s Board of Directors, stated, “Asmanufacturers, distributors and retailers,

See Joint Summit, Page 47

Auto Body Hawaii, who worked tire-lessly to find ways to standardize theblueprinting process within his ownrepair facility. The purpose of theGuide was to aid repair facility per-sonnel in formulating the most accu-rate repair plan in the estimatepreparation process, to minimize theneed or expense of a supplement. Tay-lor worked with other SCRS boardmembers looking at commonly over-looked or forgotten non-included op-erations, building a list that wouldhelp benefit a more comprehensiveblueprint. After his passing, SCRSsought to compile his work into a re-source that would benefit all in the in-dustry by releasing the guide. In 2012SCRS saw tremendous growth in theuse of the free resource, being fea-tured in estimating education pro-grams offered by every major refinishcompany, incorporated into 3M train-ing programs I addition to many oth-ers. Early in the year, SCRSannounced that the data from the as-sociation-crafted estimating toolwould be featured in the free onlineestimate review tool www.estimate-scrubber.com.

The year also brought about a re-newed focus in the development ofSCRS member benefit programs, fea-turing discounted services from com-panies such as Alldata, AutoWatch,AdminConcepts, Summit Software &Mobile Solution, Siriani & Associates,Total Merchant Services and as of2012, GRC-Pirk. The GreenSweepprogram with GRC-Pirk launched anenergy and pollution performance pro-gram, online tracking tools and freesustainability education programs toeducate the industry on the benefits toenvironmental responsibility. ButSCRS’ education agenda wasn’t onlyfocused on the environmental issues;the Education Committee continued itsefforts throughout the year, bringingeye opening topics to SCRS openboard meetings around the country. Aspart of the association’s emphasis toinform and educate repair businesses,the Society started working with Col-lisionHub to record and produce freecopies of those presentations during2012, making discussions such assafety considerations in glass replace-ment, squeeze-type resistance spotwelders, and blueprinting tools for col-lision estimating available for all colli-

sion repairers on the SCRS website.But when it comes to education,

no other industry venue provides moreopportunity, possibility and inspirationthan SCRS’ involvement at the SEMAShow, which prominently featuresSCRS’ Repairer Driven Education se-ries. In looking back on the week atSEMA, and the events that took placeduring it, you can’t help but feel re-minded about how important a strongsense of community is to professionalbetterment and personal enrichment. Asense of community provides ground-ing, balance and camaraderie whenfaced with challenges. This is exactlywhat organizations such as SCRS arehere to do; provide our members witha community network that offers themthe opportunity to strengthen their re-lationships and their connection to theindustry.

At the SEMA Show, that sense ofcommunity was noticeably heightenedthis year. SCRS has been very proudto work with the wonderful show or-ganizers, and to lead the developmentof the collision repair industry foot-print within the show over the pastseveral years. It was hard not to noticethat this section of the Las Vegas Con-vention Center - a complex housing anastonishing one million square feet ofbooth space, and hosting over 135,000attendees – had a noticeable spark ofpositive energy flowing through thehalls inspiring those seeking newbusiness ideas. The traffic in the aisleswas dense with individuals searchingfor collision repair business solutions,and the classrooms were alive withimpassioned subject matter expertsleading idea exchanges with over athousand repair professionals fromaround the globe looking to soak in in-formation offered by SCRS. Theseclasses are directly designed to helpattendees bring tangible results hometo their businesses. This year’s lineupdelivered tremendous information thatsupported interests in all areas of busi-ness development, while bolsteringthat sense of community. We saw per-sonal, inspiring and occasionally hu-morous discussions between U.S.entrepreneurs, well known for their in-novative approach to business devel-opment; riveting elaboration of howforthcoming technical development inother areas of the automotive industryis going to have cross-over effects onour work capacity over the next 40-plus years; and information exchangesfrom global representatives fromCanada, Australia and New Zealand,

demonstrating the impact of insurer-driven parts procurement initiatives ininternational markets.

This is what community is about.It is about sharing our best attributes,whether it is a product, a service or anidea, and showing our peers how touse it to their advantage. It is therecognition that while collision re-pairers have clearly and definitivelydecided that the SEMA Show is THEnational venue for collision repairbusiness solutions in the UnitedStates, that it has become a meltingpot of collision repair attendees fromdozens of countries. It is a place to runinto old friends, and to meet new ones.It was a place that the attendees andexhibitors have both grown to realizethe importance of the show and itscontent directly offering solutions spe-cific to our niche industry, but under-standing (and benefiting from the fact)that we are really an integral part ofthe broader automotive industry.

It is that sense of community thatwill support the success of collision re-pair businesses around the globe. Con-necting with our peers, through ourassociations; learning the basic foun-dations of successful business manage-ment, to the cutting edge of products

and technologies; making friendshipsthat span a globe and last a lifetime;these are the things that make SCRSproud to be a part of the SEMA Show,and the things that really define thework of a trade association.

The end of the year provides theopportunity to reflect, to look back ataccomplishments and shortcomingsfrom the past year, in an effort to betteryourself in the coming one. As we lookback over the past 12 months, the ac-tions, activities, and the engagementfrom our members highlights an exem-plary period where our organization canproudly say, we have been the voice ourmembership expects from us. We haveadvocated on the issues that resonatewith those who support us; and we havebeen an organization that provides ourmembers with leadership, but allowsour ideals to be led by our membership.As an organization, we are proud to beRepairer Driven, and we believe thework speaks for itself. 2012 was a dif-ficult year, but it was a year where col-lision repairers came together, andlearned the value of community. Welook forward to the opportunity thatcreates going into 2013, and we areproud to be the Society which collisionrepairers can call home.


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The Christmas season got a whole lotjollier for a handful of people in Con-tra Costa County, CA, when Mike’sAuto Body presented five refurbishedvehicles to four families and one non-profit organization on Dec. 12 as partof the company’s annual benevolenceprogram.

Since 2001, Mike’s Auto Bodyhas presented a total of 40 automo-biles to families and organizations inneed, according to Sal Contreras,marketing director at Mike’s AutoBody, with 10 Bay Area locations.

Every year, the collision repair in-dustry comes across cars that are“written off” by owners or insurancecompanies as total losses. The exis-tence of these cars prompted MikeRose to get involved in a NationalBenevolence Program, a communityrelations program that presents refur-bished cars to deserving people or or-ganizations during the holidays.

Several years ago, Mike’s AutoBody took this program to the nextlevel, by giving away more cars andgetting more insurance companies on-board, Contreras explained.

“This is a win-win for the entire in-dustry, because everyone gets involved,including the insurance companies, thelocal Contra Costa Fire Department, theCity of Concord and tons of vendorsthat contribute products, money or serv-ices. The whole community steps upand the program has gained more mo-mentum every year.”

After receiving 150-200 lettersevery year in which applicants explainwhy they need a vehicle, only five arechosen, Contreras said. “It’s tough

every year to pick the most deserving,because there are so many people outthere who really need a car just tomake a living and survive. We’ve re-ceived approximately 2,000 lettersduring the 12 years we’ve been doingthis, and it’s always hard making thesedecisions. It’s also very emotionalwhen we call the recipients to tellthem they’re getting a car. To me, that

is the most satisfying part.”The five recipients of re-

furbished vehicles this yearwere:Sam Utu, who has been a

reservist in the CaliforniaArmy National Guard since2004 and deployedtwice—one tour in Iraq andonce at Guantanamo BayCuba as a terrorist cell hold-ing guard. After he and hiswife lost their jobs, home andcar, they had to move into afamily homeless shelter. Byworking odd jobs, Sam wasable to scratch his way out ofthe shelter for his wife andtheir two teenage boys. He

applied for and was granted a chanceto attend Truck Driving School. Heexcelled in the course graduating inthe top five people of the class andwas recently hired on as a part-timecross country driver.

“Receiving a dependable vehiclewill greatly help my family,” Utu said.“I am so happy that there are peoplelike this out there. Unbelievable!” Heand his family received a 2007 PTCruiser donated by GEICO Insurance.

Single mom Constance Gutier-rez, whose lack of reliable transporta-

tion made it extremely difficult to re-cover from a very abusive relationshipof 12 years while raising two children,

going to college and working, re-ceived a 2008 PT Cruiser donated bySafeco Insurance.

Twenty-two year-old singlemother Kayla Walker had been strug-gling every day to overcome a violentchildhood and to become self-suffi-cient. She was raised on welfare andin shelters and wants a better life forher and her child. After relocating toCalifornia at age 17, Walker held sev-eral jobs, but could never afford a car

while earning minimum wage. She re-cently applied for a managementtraining position at Burger King and

was accepted. Walker re-ceived a 2008 Ford Focusdonated by Mercury Insur-ance.

“I can’t believe this car isso amazing,” Walker said.“It looks brand new and Istill can’t believe it’s mine.You don’t know how mucheasier my life is going to benow that I have reliabletransportation.”

Single mother AmandaArroyo is the proud motherof two beautiful girls. While

pregnant with her second child, she re-ceived the worst news she could havepossibly imagined.

“I got a phone call from the CHPtelling me that my fiancé Adrian hadgotten in a car accident and that hedidn’t survive,” Arroyo explained. “Itwas the hardest thing I’ve ever had toaccept. I then realized that my girlswould have to grow up without theirfather and that was heartbreaking. I

Mike’s Auto Body Gives Away 5 Cars for a Total of 40 in 12 Years


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Army National Guard Reservist Sam Utu (back row) andhis family received a 2007 PT Cruiser donated by GEICOInsurance during a ceremony at Mike’s Auto Body inAntioch, Calif. Photo credit: Helene Paz

Single mom Constance Gutierrez (far left) received a 2008PT Cruiser donated by Safeco Insurance. Photo credit:Helene Paz

See Mike’s Auto Body, Page 42

Mike Rose, owner of Mike’s Auto Body, re-ceived a proclamation from the City of Con-cord, honoring him and his family for givingaway 40 cars over the past 12 years. Photocredit: Helene Paz


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hope to re-enter school and find agreat job, and now with this car it canbecome a reality. I can now get mygirls to daycare and then get myself

to work or school. I want to be suc-cessful and provide a bright future formy girls, and now I have a chance.”Arroyo received a 2007 ChevroletCobalt donated by Farmer’s Insur-ance.

Foster A Dream, a program thatserves foster youth in several BayArea counties, received a 2008Chevrolet van donated by AAA Insur-ance. The non-profit organization’smission is to build the hopes, dreamsand future of youth in the foster caresystem and be a guiding source for

successful transmission intothe adult world.

In addition, Enterprise do-nated several children’s carseats and the Contra Costa FireDepartment donated bikes andhelmets to the recipient’s fam-ilies with children.

Owner Mike Rose is proudto help people, the commu-nity and the collision indus-try as a whole. “We are in anindustry that has the meansto get these vehicles roadready,” Rose said. “It’s just amatter of getting all of ourvendors on the same page.

For the sake of the other applicantsthat are still in need of reliable trans-portation, we only hope that moreshops can create a similar program oftheir own to give back to their respec-tive communities.”


Mike’s Auto Body

Mike’s Auto Body’s Vice-President Brennan Rose (left)and his sister, Operations Manager Ragen Rose, ad-dressed the 200-plus people at their annual benevolenceprogram car giveaway. Photo credit: Helene Paz

develop better plans for the future tobecome a better, more prosperousbusiness than before.”

Of the three shops described here,Tony D’s Auto Body of Atlantic High-lands, NJ, seems to have suffered themost severe losses. Owner Tony Del-lapietro notes, “We lost everything.And I mean everything!” With five feetof water in the shop, all of his tools andequipment were destroyed. With thehelp of his parents and dedicated em-ployees, Dellapietro has begun clean-ing and oiling his equipment, but nothis personal toolbox, which he beganaccumulating when he was 11 yearsold. He laments, “I started this businessin 2003. What I built in ten years waswiped out in ten hours.”

Because of difficulties with his in-surance, Dellapietro has been forced toexplore loan options to avoid having toclose. He has purchased new officedesks and computers, and an electri-cian has replaced outlets in the shop.For now, everything is still up in the airas the funds for shop repairs just aren’tthere. Dellapietro has been forced to

utilize his savings and other assets, andbeing forced to turn business away hasbeen devastating. “You just don’t getrich in this business,” says Tony. Hehas been unable to turn a profit sinceSandy, and the bills just keep accruing.

Employees of Tony D’s are cur-rently relying on unemployment in-surance since the shop is still closed.Dellapietro is busy dealing with disas-ter unemployment issues. On the daythat Sandy hit, police had to force Del-lapietro out of the building, but hecould not extract the cars he was work-ing on as there was already three feetof water in the yard. All seven cars inhis shop were totaled, whether par-tially or fully repaired. Dellapietro ad-mits that he was very emotional whenhe saw how badly his shop was dam-aged, and he has been seeking spiritualcomfort. He has no clue when he willbe able to reopen, and he notes “Itfeels like I’m starting over again.”

These three shops are just a smallsampling of the businesses that weredamaged by Sandy. There are manyoptions to contribute aid for Sandy’svictims.

One such option is HurricaneSandy New Jersey Relief Fund, P. O.Box 95, Mendham, NJ 07945-0095.


Still Recovering Mitchell Repair Center ToolStore Integrates withCar-Parts.com Pro SearchMitchell recently announced a newtechnology integration with Car-Part.com as a partner in the Repair-Center™ ToolStore, making it possiblefor body shops to search for green partsin the Car-Part Pro marketplace di-rectly from the RepairCenter Work-space.

The Car-Part Pro value addedmarketplace, designed for bodyshops and insurance appraisers, isnow seamlessly integrated into Re-pairCenter through the RepairCenterToolStore. Car-Part Pro allows pro-fessionals to search by delivery date,warranty, recycler certifications, andpart quality, and returns all inclusivepricing results from a database of140 million parts, 4,200 recyclers,and hundreds of alternative partsproviders. The built-in Live Serv-ice™ messaging feature allows real-time communication with partsuppliers, and Car-Part.com’s exclu-sive SmartVin™ technology decodesVINs to simplify part choices duringthe search.

“This integration gives Mitchellcustomers the ability to search forgreen parts and see only those that canbe delivered within their cycle timewindow, meet their warranty criteria,

and conform to their quality stan-dards,” says Jeff Schroder, foundingCEO of Car-Part.com. “We know it’scrucial for shop’s profitability to haveall the information they need at theirfingertips, and we’re excited to pro-vide a simple and powerful solutiondirectly integrated into Repair Cen-ter.”

In addition to passing data to fa-cilitate parts lookup and ordering, theRepairCenter ToolStore also pro-vides the ability to receive data backfrom Car-Part Pro. This two-way in-tegration empowers shops to elimi-nate the manual steps required toupdate relevant parts costing and es-timate information in RepairCenter,further simplifying workflow. Car-Part Pro interface is offered at no ad-ditional cost in the RepairCenterToolStore and takes just one click toactivate.

To learn more about RepairCenter,visit www.repaircenter.mitchell.com,orto get additional information aboutbuilding your own application in theToolStore, contact Mitchell by [email protected] ortelephone at 1-800-238-9111.

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The ASA Collision team, composed ofASA staffer Denise Caspersen andASA collision members participatingon the ASA Collision Division Opera-tions Committee, led by team directorDan Stander, owner of Fix Auto High-lands Ranch, with input from the ASABoard of Directors, had a productive2012 representing the ASA member-ship and engaging with the various seg-ments of the industry that affect theASA collision repair membership.

ASA is fortunate to have willingvolunteers with diverse backgroundsactively donating their time, mind-share and leadership in addressing ac-tions and issues of the association.

“ASA’s collision division func-tions extremely well as a team and ap-proaches things just that way, as ateam,” said Caspersen.

Just as the collision repair industryfaced multiple challenges and changesin 2012, so did the volunteers and staffof ASA’s collision division. Followingthe release of a revised ASA crash partspolicy, supporting the original part asthe standard of measure, and a jointstatement with AASP and SCRS rec-ommending that original manufacturer

repair procedures be considered as thestandard, the ASA’s collision teambegan 2012 with the announcement ofa strategic alliance with alternativeparts manufacturer, Diamond Standard,that afforded ASA members with prod-uct liability protection against the un-likely scenario of damage or personalinjury directly related to use of Dia-mond Standard parts in the repair.

In early 2012, ASA Arizonaplayed a vital role in bringing aboutthe removal of language from Housebill 2394 which would have forcedshops, in many situations, to absorbthe costs associated with vehicle stor-age or bill it to the vehicle owner.

This was accompanied by ASATexas bringing forth opposition to pro-posed licensing ordinances in early 2012followed by ASA Texas challenging thestate’s franchise tax law in mid 2012.

At the federal level, ASA beganthe year monitoring an auto parts bill,H.R. 3889, Promoting AutomotiveRepair, Trade and Sales Act (PARTS).The bill would amend the U.S. designpatent law to change the period of de-sign patent protection for automakersfrom 14 years to 30 months. ASA

joined with 10 other automotivegroups in opposition to the bill whilemonitoring actions in the U.S. HouseJudiciary subcommittee.

Continuing a long-standing tradi-tion of ASA calling for the repeal ofMcCarran-Ferguson, ASA showedsupport for federal bill, H.R. 5 askingfor the restoration of the Applicationof Antitrust Laws to Health Sector In-surers, which passed on the Housefloor in the first quarter.

Also related to insurance, ASA at-tended a workshop in the Federal TradeCommission and the U.S. Departmentof Justice review of Most Favored Na-tion (MFN) clauses within the insur-ance industry. Prior to the workshop theFTC noted: “The most commonly usedMFN provisions guarantee a customerthat it will receive prices that are at leastas favorable as those provided to otherbuyers of the same seller, for the sameproducts or services. Although at timesemployed for benign purposes, MFNscan, under certain circumstances, pres-ent competitive concerns. This is be-cause they may, especially when usedby a dominant buyer of intermediategoods, raise other buyers’ costs or fore-

close would-be competitors from ac-cessing the market. Additionally, MFNscan facilitate collusion and stabilize co-ordinated pricing among sellers.” ASAwill continue interest in Most FavoredNation discussion in 2013.

The 2012 ASA legislative objectsand can also be located on the ASA leg-islative website at www.takingthe-hill.com – sidebar – LegislativeObjectives - http://www.takingthe-hill.com/objectives.htm. 2013 ASAlegislative objects will be appearingthere in the very near future.

In addition to working with SCRSand AASP on seeing vehicle manu-facturers repair procedures recognizedas the standard for repair procedures,ASA continued in the three’s mutualsupport of the Database EnhancementGateway (DEG) program, which con-tinues to provide free industry supportfor addressing questions of informa-tion provided the industry leading in-formation providers.

Throughout 2012, ASA’s collisiondivision also provided the ASA mem-bership with representation by takingpart on the on the I-CAR Board of Di-rectors, the CIECA Board of Direc-


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ASA Collision Division Recaps 2012, Moves Forward into 2013

tors, the WIN Board of Directors, CICmeetings and the CIC Data Privacycommittee. ASA looks forward tocontinued interactions with these bod-ies in 2013.

These items were in addition tothe lengthy and extensive engagementof ASA’s collision team centered onthe electronic parts procurement ap-plication currently piloted by StateFarm. During many conversations,ASA’s collision division has been metwith both support and disappointmentof ASA’s approach of professionalism,factual understanding and industry en-gagement in addressing this pilot.

During the early stages of thepilot, information was presented to theindustry which brought both concernand confusion to the ASA member-ship. In early April, the ASA collisionteam took on the challenge of provid-ing ASA’s membership and the colli-sion industry with as much verifiableinformation as possible through theengagement with as many segmentsas possible, in addition to speaking di-rectly with State Farm and the appli-cation’s designer, PartsTrader.

Over the past months, this ap-proach also called for the ASA colli-sion volunteers to express the concerns

of the ASA membership (initially cen-tered around the repairer/supplier rela-tionship, and then expanding tospecifics of the application, and nowon ‘what happens to the collision re-pair shop’s profit on parts?’) and fol-low up on requests for data on whatare the affects of the pilot are on thoseparticipating. The December 2012 ex-pansion of the pilot to the 475 SelectService shops in the Chicago, IL, areawill broaden the test market to ap-proximately 600 collision repair facil-ities currently on the Select Serviceprogram.

To date, ASA has provided the in-dustry with 13 statements focused onthe State Farm Select Service pilot, in-cluding: initial details of the pilot;public request for result data of thepilot; overviews of industry meetings;changes to the pilot and detailed cov-erage of ASA’s ongoing conversationswith State Farm. ASA will continue tobe a part of conversations, advocacyand communications about the StateFarm electronic parts procurement ap-plication in 2013.

ASA’s communication piecesspecific to the State Farm pilot canbe located on the ASA website atwww.ASAshop.org. Click on “Tools

& Resources,” then “State FarmPilot Program.”

And lastly, the ASA collisionteam spent many hours designing andleading in the educational elements ofAutomotive Service and Repair Week(ASRW), which took place in NewOrleans, LA, in October. During theweek, ASRW conducted more than 80educational sessions, along withNACE forums and the Assembly, atown hall type discussion for repairersonly. For those attending ASRW in2012 and taking part in the invaluableeducational activities, it’s likely youheard from ASA’s collision team invarious sessions, panels and forums.

ASA’s communications pieces spe-cific to all the other above mentionedactives of the ASA collision division for2012 are found at www.asashop.org.Click on “News & Events,” then LatestNews – 2012 Press Releases.

The key driver in ASA collisionteam actions continues to be centeredon the engagement of the ASA collisionleadership and the ASA membership atlarge. To be a part of the conversation,continue to contact ASA’s collision di-vision manger, Denise Caspersen byemail; [email protected] or phoneat (817)-514-2906.


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The National Institute for Automo-tive Service Excellence (ASE) rec-ognized 44 automotive professionalsat its Fall Board of Governors meet-ing held Nov. 14 at the Hilton Palaciodel Rio in San Antonio, TX. The an-nual awards banquet spotlights topscorers on the ASE CertificationTests.

Thirty-seven companies fromboth OEM and Aftermarket segmentssponsored the individual technicianrecognition awards in the Auto,Truck, Collision and Parts categories,along with three instructor awards,and one recognizing a U.S. Air Forcetechnician. In addition to looking fortop scores on ASE tests, award spon-sors may also consider such factorsas on-the-job excellence, communityservice and more when selectinghonorees.

“ASE has been honoring thebest of the best in our industry formore than 30 years, and we are proudto once again recognize 44 outstand-ing individuals from all across thenation,” said Tim Zilke, ASE Presi-dent & CEO. “This is all made pos-sible by the support of our manyaward sponsors, whose ranks includesome of the best-known names in theindustry.”

44 Techs Honored at ASE

by Ed Attanasio

American Honda recently launchedtwo consumer-related websites to pro-vide pertinent and timely informationto owners of Hondas and Acuras. Seenext story for new collision center fo-cused Honda website.

Earlier this year, the manufacturerlaunched its collision consumer site,Collision.Honda.com, after years ofdevelopment and the early reviews arevery positive, according to GaryLedoux, Honda’s Assistant NationalManager of Wholesale Parts Market-ing.

Last month, the carmaker alsolaunched AirbagAware.Honda.com, asite the company created in responseto the burgeoning problem associatedwith the proliferation of counterfeitairbags on the market.

After polling its customers andgetting their feedback through severalfocus groups, Honda saw a need forboth new websites, Ledoux said.

“We conducted several focusgroups in 2009, and we learned somevery interesting things. The averageconsumer knows that their car getswrinkled up, they take it to the bodyshop and a few days later they get itback and it’s straight and shinyagain, but they have absolutely noidea what goes on in the background.So, one of the main things that wecover on Collision.Honda.com is anin-depth look into the collision in-dustry from the consumer’s perspec-tive,” Ledoux said.

Another need for education aboutparts became apparent through theirfocus groups, Ledoux said.

“We learned that most people donot know that aftermarket parts couldbe installed when their cars are beingrepaired at a body shop or collisioncenter. They understand that after-

market parts are used in the mechan-ical world, because they drive by theparts stores every day, but they’re notaware that aftermarket parts exist inthe collision industry. In the past,they assumed that OE parts werebeing used in their cars. They didn’trealize there was an alternative.When we explained this fact to thepeople in our focus groups, some ofthem were visibly upset, becausethey all thought they were getting OEparts.”

In the past, Honda created collat-eral pieces to convey important mes-sages to its owners, but now they’reembracing the Internet to achieve thesame thing, Ledoux said.

“Years ago, we created abrochure called “What to Do WhenYou Get in an Accident”, designedfor new owners of Hondas or Acuras.We put them in every car we manu-factured, and did it for several years.It cost a lot of money to producethem and when we conducted a sur-vey, we found out that most of thesebrochures died a slow death in thebottom of peoples’ glove boxes. So,we decided to put the information on-line, so that people could access itquickly and easily.”

The Accident Assistant section ofthe site deals with what to do after anaccident, and the section titled Colli-sion 101 focuses on factors and issuesdrivers can and should deal with be-fore an accident takes place, Ledouxexplained. “Collision 101 is a primeron how to deal with body shops, byproviding a glimpse into the industryfrom a consumer’s perspective. It’s avery thorough approach with a ton ofvalue-added features.”

The website includes pages thatdeal with repairs, parts, insurance re-lationships (DRPs), safety tips, a shoplocator, a collision glossary (that goesfrom Accident Forgiveness all theway to Waterborne Paint), news,views and a special section that fea-tures Honda’s position statements canbe found in the Collision 101 section.Honda has included a series of posi-tion papers on Collision.Honda.comas well.

“We didn’t know what the re-sponse would be to the position pa-pers, but it’s been exceptional,”Ledoux said. “They deal with all ofthe topics that people are concernedabout and they want to know our

stance on all of them. They deal withsubjects like aftermarket vs. OEparts, wheel repairs, safety recalls,structural parts replacement, sal-vaged and used airbag componentsand unibody repairs and salvaged/re-cycled parts. It covers the entiregamut and evidently it’s going to be avery popular part of the site.” In theNews, Views and More section, userscan access the latest and greatest sto-ries about the collision industry, witha focus on relevance to the consumer,Ledoux said.

“This is an ever-changing sec-tion of the site, because we’ll beposting new articles on there all thetime. In addition, we have a Hall ofFame page in that section, whichconsists of stories about people orcompanies within the collision in-dustry that do good things for otherpeople on a regional basis. Thatmeans that only the people in thoseareas know about it. Our Hall ofFame will bring national attentionto these efforts and we want them toget out there, because they deservethe accolades. Also, our Rear Viewsection is going to be a lot of fun,


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American Honda Launches Two New Consumer Websites

Collision.Honda.com tells owners of Hondas and Acuras what to do when they get in an accidentin its Accident Assistant section, while they get a glimpse into what happens when their cars getfixed by accessing the site’s Collision 101 section

providing historical capsules thatrelate to the automotive history, aswell as the world of collision re-pair.”

In addition to creating Colli-sion.Honda.com, Honda also recentlylaunched a second consumer-relatedsite, AirbagAware.Honda.com, an ef-fort that became necessary when thecarmaker encountered a growingproblem associated with counterfeitairbags.

“A few years ago, we began see-ing more and more of these counter-

feit airbags,” Ledoux explained.“Consumers need to know the facts sothey can insist that only OE airbagsare used. It’s a life and death situation,so we’re very concerned and want tobe proactive in providing valuable in-formation to the public about this con-troversy.”

A i r b a g Aw a r e . H o n d a . c o mlaunched in mid-December and is fullof useful data, including safety advi-sories provided by the National High-way Traffic Safety Association(NHTSA), useful news about airbags,

videos, and documentation that ex-plains the difference between a Hondaand a non-Honda airbag.

One of the featured videos ap-pearing on both websites is called“Use Your Melon,” a 30-second com-mercial that shows exactly what hap-pens to a watermelon when an airbagopens too late. “It’s quite a visual andpeople have been talking about itsince we produced it,” Ledoux said.“It illustrates how crucial airbags areand how things can go wrong ifthey’re not genuine.”


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we find it informative and valuable tohave thought-provoking discussionswith the repair segment of our indus-try. These discussions strengthen ourrespective businesses and build unitythroughout the aftermarket distribu-tion channel.”

For more information, contact:CAWA CEO Rodney Pierini, at800.332.2292; or ASCCA Execu-tive Director Jackie Miller, at800.810.4272; 916.924.9054.


Joint Summit

State Farm recently provided ASAwith a PartsTraders update.

Dan Stander, AAM, ASA’s col-lision division director and owner ofFix Auto Highlands Ranch in Little-ton, CO, and Denise Caspersen, ASAcollision division manager, receivedupdates from State Farm about the in-surer’s current pilot, which uses thePartsTrader electronic parts orderingapplication. Representing State Farmon the call was George Avery, claimsrepresentative, and State Farm stafferDuane Willemain. The Novemberupdate was the first of several ex-pected from the insurer, which hascommitted to keeping ASA membersabreast of the pilot and its potential ef-fect on future State Farm Select Serv-ice participants.

The ASA collision leadership andstaff continue to focus on providingASA members and the industry withaccurate information about the pilot,while engaging and advocating on be-half of collision repairers.

The pilot expanded into Chicago,IL, on Dec. 10, and will increase in-volvement to nearly 600 Select Serv-ice collision repair facilities of the

10,300 shops participating nationwidein the State Farm Select Service pro-gram.

The following updates were pro-vided to ASA during the call:● Pilot locations in Charlotte, NC,and Birmingham, AL, now have theability to do 30-minute quotes—re-sulting in all four original pilot mar-kets now having a 30-minute quotewindow.● Regarding estimating systems, Au-datex; CCC Information Services; andMitchell International all have two-way integration in all four markets.● A change has been made in theprocess of writing estimates to betteraccommodate alternative pricing. Ac-cording to State Farm, if a shop has al-ternative pricing available through adifferent source, State Farm is recom-mending Select Service shops writeestimates with those prices—thereforeutilizing price matching.● In Chicago, business meetings areset with multi-shop organizations andall Select Service repairers. Chicagois recognized as a heavy consolidatormarket. Items for the meetings in-clude:

– An overview of the program– Handouts about the program– Preparation material for the Dec. 10“live” date– PartsTrader started hosting meetingsNov. 12 for dealers and parts suppli-ers.– Select Service shops have been

asked to identify suppliers.– To date, 466 letters from State Farmto suppliers have been sent out.– 500–600 suppliers have been identi-fied in the Chicago market.– To date, 475 of 477 Select Serviceshops have registered.● Regarding cycle time improve-ments, State Farm said it was hard toprove, at this point, any cycle timeimprovements linked to the applica-tion. State Farm does not expect animmediate or large reduction in cycletime.● Regarding “saving of total losses,”State Farm said that at this point thereis not enough data to validate this. Noris there data that demonstrates an in-crease in recycled or alternative parts.● PartsTrader is moving forward withintegration into the various collisionmanagement systems.

● No evidence to date on reductionsin parts profit, according to StateFarm.● The length of the Chicago pilot isunknown. According to State Farm,once a change is introduced into theapplication in pilot, it is necessary forthe change to “mature” to determinethe impact of the change. This impactsthe end date.● The PartsTrader application has un-dergone at least seven updates sincethe initial pilot release in March2012.● PartsTrader has announced it willnot charge suppliers until 2014.

“For the ASA collision member-ship volunteering on the operationscommittee, the focus continues to beone of information, engagement andimpacting the outcome in the mostpositive way on behalf of repairers. Itwas apparent early on that the ‘trainhad left the station’ in regard to stop-ping this application from being pi-loted. The ASA team made thedecision to focus on accuracy and en-gagement, and will continue to do soas this pilot continues and future itemsarise,” said Caspersen.


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In the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s de-struction, automakers were forced toscrap more than 15,000 new vehiclesdamaged by the storm.

Nissan estimated more than 6,000Nissan and luxury Infiniti brand carsand light trucks were not going to beable to be sold because of storm dam-age. Including used autosand those of individual own-ers, approximately 200,000will have to be replaced,said Larry Dixon, senioranalyst for the National Au-tomobile Dealers Associa-tion.

“Total vehicles affectedmay be about one-third ofwhat we saw with HurricaneKatrina, and that was about600,000” used and new ve-hicles, said Dixon, based inMcLean, VA.

Sandy, the biggest Atlantic stormin U.S. history, raked New Jersey,New York and the surrounding regionwith 100 mile an hour winds and ledto at least 100 deaths. The storm’ssurge of more than 13 feet inundatedtransit tunnels and underground utili-

ties, destroyed homes and eroded nat-ural barriers such as beaches after itstruck Oct. 29.

Fisker Automotive Inc., a startupmaker of luxury plug-in hybrids, lost338 of its $103,000 Karma sedans atthe port of Newark, New Jersey, in-cluding 16 that burned in a fire trig-

gered by salt water, said RogerOrmisher, a spokesman for the Ana-heim, California-based company.

“We don’t have a full estimate ofthe cost to replace them yet,” he said.The closely held company’s cars werebeing processed for delivery to deal-ers when the storm arrived. Replacing

338 Karmas at the $103,000 baseprice would total $34.8 million.

Some 4,000 Toyota and Lexus ve-hicles were at the company’s port fa-cility in Newark, CA, when the stormhit, said Jana Hartline, a spokes-woman for Toyota’s U.S. unit in Tor-rance, CA.

“We have about 1,300 that we aretaking a second look at” that may besalvaged, she said. “A little bit under3,000 will likely be scrapped.”

Another 825 vehicles in dealer in-ventory were damaged by Sandy andcan’t be sold, Hartline said.

Honda and Acura dealers expectto have to scrap about 3,440 vehicles,said Chris Martin, a spokesman forHonda’s U.S. unit in Torrance, CA.Scrappage decisions will be deter-mined by dealers and their insurers, hesaid.

Additionally, about 500 U.S.-builtvehicles Honda was preparing to ex-port from the FAPS Inc. port facilityin Newark were also damaged, Mar-tin said.

Chrysler dealers lost about 750vehicles from their stock due to hurri-cane damage, said Ralph Kisiel, a

spokesman for the Auburn Hills,Michigan-based carmaker that’s ma-jority-owned by Fiat.

Hyundai Motor Co. U.S. unit lost400 vehicles, said Lori Scholz, a com-pany spokeswoman in Costa Mesa,CA.

Kia Motors Corp., a Hyundai af-filiate also based in Seoul, has about200 vehicles “damaged beyond re-pair,” said Scott McKee, a spokesmanfor the company’s U.S. unit in Irvine,CA.

The company’s dealers in BayRidge, New Jersey, Jersey City andStaten Island “lost most or all of theirinventory,” McKee said.

New York and New Jersey areamong the top 15 U.S. states for vehi-cles in operation and auto dealerships,NADA said in a report. The two statesalso have a larger portions of cars thantrucks and non-U.S.-based brands ac-count for a significant share of totalsales, the dealer organization said.

There are 886 auto dealerships inNew York and 463 in New Jersey, ac-cording to NADA.

Sandy Forces Automakers to Scrap over 15,000 New Vehicles

Cars damaged in Manhattan from Hurricane Sandy.Photo by: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg



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by Ed Attanasio

It was an exciting year for the Cali-fornia Autobody Association’s (CAA)northern California chapters. Here areyear-end recaps from the East Bay andSanta Clara chapters reported by for-mer Chapter President/State BoardMember Gigi Walker and 2012Chapter President Randy Greenblat,respectively.

East Bay Chapter Year in ReviewThe chapter began the year by ap-pointing its new President Tiffany

Silva from Accurate Autobody. “As asecond-generation body shop owner,Tiffany has been an exceptional pres-ident,” Walker said. “She took thereins and hit the ground run-ning. Her industry knowl-edge and leadership skillswere apparent almost imme-diately and we’d like tothank her for her contribu-tions to the chapter thisyear.”

At its March meeting,the chapter hosted bestsellingauthor and motivationalspeaker Mike Robbins, whoworks as a life coach for theSan Francisco Giants, as wellas management and staff. Itwas definitely one of the highlights ofthe year, Walker said.

“Mike’s program was designedfor our industry and the challenges weface in running a shop and dealingwith so many different personalities inthe work place. Robbins really moti-vated our members and got us readyto run our shops with a better outlookfor the year. His message was clearand his delivery to our group was on

target and we surely want him back tospeak again.” The sponsors for theevening included LKQ, DiamondStandard and Enterprise.

In April, Gene Lopez from I-CAR updated the chapter on the orga-nization’s changes and how it wouldimpact their businesses. “Gene is agreat speaker and always provides uswith a ton of useful information,”Walker said. “I-CAR has undergone alot of changes with its curriculum andLopez was there to convey the news.”

In May, industry expert RichardForness spoke about the future of the

collision industry along with statisticsand in-depth analysis. Forness was in-vited to speak on behalf of Audatexand kept the chapter’s membershipengrossed for more than an hour,Walker said.

The chapter’s golf tournamentended up in the rough this year and un-fortunately had to be canceled. “Ourannual tournament was hampered byscheduling conflicts which resulted ina small number of signups,” Walker re-ported. “But, we’re poised and readyto make sure it’s going to happen in2013.”

In July, the East Bay chapter co-hosted a summer barbecue sponsoredby PPG that took place at the PPGtraining center in Concord, CA. Theevening’s guest speaker was AaronSchulenburg, executive director ofSCRS, who talked about the Part-sTrader Program that State Farm hasimplemented across the U.S., as wellas other collision industry trends.

In September, the East Bay chapterbroke new ground when they spon-sored a joint meeting with the Auto-motive Service Council of California(ASCCA) for the very first time. The

A Busy 2012 is Remembered by Bay Area’s CAA Chapters


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The Having Too Much Fun Team (EnterpriseFoursome #1) finished third and featured(from left) Razo Navari, Shawn Saidi (withcigar), Chad Iken and Ron Nelson at the CAASanta Clara chapter's annual golf tournament

From left, Trish Pickens, District Manager for Audatex,Melissa Perez, District Sales Manager for FinishMasterand Gigi Walker from Walker’s Auto Body network at theEast Bay CAA chapter July meeting, held at PPG’s SanFrancisco Business Development Center in Concord, CA.

evening’s guest speaker was ChrisRisdon, one of the administrators foreducational development for Univer-sity of Toyota.

“Risdon was the most appropriatespeaker to educate a room full of col-lision repairers (from CAA), alongwith mechanical shops in attendance(from ASCCA),” Walker said. “Oneof the main topics at the meeting con-cerned hybrid vehicles and how to re-pair them.”

The chapter’s 2012 schedule wastriumphantly completed with its an-nual Toys for Tots Model Truck Cus-tomizing Competition.

“It was a success due the effort ofour great and longtime members,schools and sponsors,” Walker said.“We’d also like to thank Ed Attanasiofrom Autobody News for volunteeringhis time and emceeing the night!”

The East Bay CAA Board mem-bers for 2012 were: Lisa Daves (D&SAuto Body), Gigi Walker (Walker’sAuto Body & Fleet Repair), MikeGovette (FinishMaster), Kathy Mello(T.G.I.F Auto Body), Trish Pickens(Audatex), Jack Sandri (DublinBuick GMC), Peter Lock (ContraCosta College) and Bill Andrews(City of Alameda).

CAA Santa Clara Chapter Year in ReviewHighlighted by a successful golf tour-nament and a series of informativemeetings, the Santa Clara CAA chap-ter flourished and helped the collisionindustry in the South Bay by provid-ing networking opportunities at meet-ings featuring top guest speakers.

Chapter President Randy Green-blat is an industry veteran and a long-time member/officer of CAA. He sees

the value in organizations such asCAA, for a wide range of reasons. “Wework very hard in this business and inmany cases we lose sight of the big pic-ture. Reaching out to other body shopsin your region is so valuable, becauseby sharing concerns and issues that weall encounter in our daily lives, we can

be stronger and more effective.”On the chapter’s list of guest

speakers for 2012, there were presenta-tions by 3M in April, the Labor En-forcement Task Force LETF in July andCollision Billing Solutions in October.

The chapter was well-represented atCAA’s annual Legislative Day in Sacra-mento, with members Tabias Padilla,David Mello, Miguel Espana, RandyGreenblat and Shawn Saidi in atten-

dance. Espana, Mello, Green-blat and Alex Ornelas alsoattended the CAA State Meet-ing in San Jose during the thirdquarter of 2012.

In May, the chapter madea presentation at the CentralCounty Occupational Cen-ter (CCOC), a program thatteaches students in both col-lision and mechanical re-pair. “We donated $250 tothe school’s top students in

their paint and auto body programs.Special thanks go to Don Dutra fromMartin Auto Color for championingthis cause and getting it done.”

Chapter board member TabiasPadilla received the annual I-CARFounders Award, honored for his serv-ice to the educational organization.

“Tabias is an integral member ofour chapter and we’re proud of him forhis service to our membership and I-CAR,” Greenblat said. “He has organ-ized our golf tournament for the pastfew years and he makes it a specialevent every single time. Our successhinges on people like Tabias, who givetheir valuable time without question orhesitation.”

The chapter’s annual golf tourna-ment was held at Cinnabar Hills andattracted 73 golfers, raising a consid-erable amount of money for the oper-ational fund.

The East Bay CAA Board membersfor 2012 were: Shawn Saidi (Active Au-tobody), Dave Mello (Anderson-BehelBody Shop), Chad Iken (Enterprise),Nathan Chukes (CCOC), Bob Mc-Taggert (CCOC), Tabias Padilla(Hertz), Don Dutra (Martin Auto Color),Miguel Espana (Espana’s Collision Re-pair), Adam Piper (FCC CollisionCenters), Alex Ornelas (Toyota PaloAlto), Steve Sturken (Sturken AutoBody) and Rudy Solorio, (B2 Perfec-tion Auto Body).


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Santa Clara CAA Chapter President Randy Greenblat(left) discusses legislation affecting the collision industryin the State Capitol with Senator Leland Yee at CAA’s2012 Legislative Day.

tomizing Competition for 15 years.He never gets tired of the amazingcreations he sees from the body shopsand schools over the years.

“The people in this industry areartists in so many ways,” Govettesaid. “And this is a very rare oppor-tunity for shops and ROPs to show-case their talents. Every year we see afew trucks that really stand out andthis year was no exception! Hoursand hours go into these trucks, so it’sa big deal.”

Sponsors of the evening includedOwen-Dunn Insurance Services, En-terprise Rent-A-Car, Audatex, a So-lara Company, PPG, FinishMaster,LKQ/Akzo Nobel, Hertz and DublinChevrolet/Cadillac/Buick/GMC/KIA.

Celebrity judges for the eventwere Rich Evans, world-famous carcustomizer, reality television star andthe owner of Huntington Beach Body-works; Customizer Mike Taylor ofHouse of Kolor and Kirk Kapfen-stein, a local customizer and a painterfor Regal Collision in Vallejo, CA.


Truck CompetitionBoyd Grows in Floridawith 14 New LocationsIn early December, the Boyd GroupIncome Fund announced it had com-pleted the acquisition of three or-ganizations known as Autocrafters,which operates 14 collision andglass repair centers in northernFlorida.

Boyd acquired three differentcompanies under the trade namesAutocrafters Collision Repair,Walker Collision Repair and S&LAuto Glass, which collectively op-erate as Autocrafters. The organiza-tion serves the Florida markets ofJacksonville, Gainesville and Talla-hassee, and generated sales of $32.6million in 2011.

The $19.5 million transac-tion, which is the Boyd Group’sfourth multi-location acquisitionthis year and its third in Florida,was completed Nov. 30. The BoydGroup now operates 37 locationsin Florida. At the end of last year,Boyd did not have any shops inFlorida.

With the Autocrafters acquisi-tion, the Fund adds 14 new locationsto its North American footprint,bringing the total number of loca-tions to 220 across 14 U.S. statesand four Canadian provinces.



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so they can ‘short pay’ the claim,”Borek wrote in his follow-up letter tothe Department of Insurance.

MarchChrysler became the latest automakerto announce a certification programfor both independent and dealershipcollision repair shops. Certificationrequires meeting more than 40 stan-dards including maintaining I-CARGold Class status and using squeeze-type resistance spot welding equip-ment. Under the program, if all OEMparts are used on a job, that will benoted on the vehicle’s CARFAX re-port, along with the fact that the vehi-cle was repaired a Chrysler-certifiedshop.

AprilLKQ Corporation worked tocounter ongoing liability concernsfor shops about use of alternativeparts by announcing that in additionto a lifetime warranty on its non-OEM parts, it would indemnifyshops against injury or damagecaused by a defective vehicle partdistributed by LKQ.

The “Promise of Protection” saysit covers a “licensed automotive repairshop” that purchases the part fromLKQ, excluding claims arising fromshop negligence or malfeasance.

LKQ’s move followed DiamondStandard’s announcement in Januarythat it was offering ASA membershops coverage under a $40 millionliability insurance policy for any lia-bility issues related to the perform-ance of Diamond Standard non-OEMstructural parts.

MayEileen Sottile of the Quality PartsCoalition (GPC) urged attendees atthe Auto Body Parts Association(ABPA) conference to contact Con-gress to support the coalition’s legis-lation (HR 3889) that would reducethe time automakers can use designpatents to prevent other companiesfrom producing replacement crashparts. Sottile said the bill would re-duce the patent protection from 14years to just 2.5 years.

Despite a public relations andlobbying effort funded by LKQ Cor-poration ($3.7 million), Nationwideand State Farm ($115,000 each), All-

state ($92,000) and others, the billnever got beyond a hearing in the U.S.House.

JuneInsurer groups’ radio ads and other ef-forts were successful in convincingRhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee toveto legislation that would have givenshops in that state the right to sue in-surers directly in small claims courtover disputed repair costs.

Chafee said he believed the billwould have given shops rights thatexist in “no other state in the nation,”and would have “hurt Rhode Islandconsumers” by raising the cost of autoinsurance.

The legislation, supported by theAuto Body Association of Rhode Is-land and passed by lawmakers, alsowould have strengthened the state’santi-steering law, and would have re-quired that damages exceed 75% of avehicle’s value before that vehicle canbe declared a total loss.

The association issued a statementexpressing its disappointment withChafee’s action.

“Though his veto message states thathe is concerned about the consumer,he clearly put the consumer and smallbusiness’ interests aside and bowed tothe pressure of the real ‘special inter-est group’ —the billion-dollar insur-ance companies,” the association’sstatement read.

JulySome good news for shops worriedabout the growing amount of acci-dent-avoidance technology in vehi-cles: It’s not all working.

The July issue of “Status Report”from the Highway Loss Data Instituteexamined insurance claims data to seewhat impact crash-prevention tech-nology is having.

“Forward collision avoidancesystems, particularly those that canbrake autonomously, along with adap-tive headlights, which shift directionas the driver steers, show the biggestcrash reductions in the studies,” thepublication stated. “But one feature,lane departure warning, appears tohurt rather than help, though it’s notclear why, and other systems aren’tshowing clear effects on crash patternsyet.”

AugustDuPont announced it was selling its11,000-employee automotive paintbusiness to private equity firm The

Carlyle Group for $4.9 billion incash.

“Through targeted investmentswe will support DPC’s product devel-opment and growth objectives as ittransitions to a stand-alone company,”Greg Ledford of The Carlyle Groupsaid.

The Carlyle Group earlier in thesummer had announced it was acquir-ing majority ownership in the Texas-based Service King Collision RepairCenter chain.

SeptemberThe Department of Justice (DOJ) andFederal Trade Commission (FTC)jointly held a workshop on the topic ofmost-favored-nation (MFN) clauses,such as the basis for State Farm’s pric-ing requirements for its Select Serviceshops.

“Although at times employed forbenign purposes, MFNs can, undercertain circumstances, present com-petitive concerns,” the two agenciesnoted. “This is because they may, es-pecially when used by a dominantbuyer, raise other buyers’ costs or(prevent) would-be competitors fromaccessing the market. Additionally,MFNs can facilitate collusion and sta-

bilize coordinated pricing among sell-ers.”

OctoberSpeaking at NACE in New Orleans,representatives of State Farm, Allstateand Nationwide said that any MSOson their DRPs are measured as indi-vidual shops and must compete to per-form as-such.

George Avery of State Farm saidhis company’s experience with M2,the 27-shop consolidator in Califor-nia that closed suddenly back in2005, led his company to focus onfinding top-performing individualshops, whether stand-alone or part ofan MSO.

Rob Knott of Nationwide con-curred.

“We think the mom-and-popsstill have a place,” Knott said.“Some of the challenges that theMSOs have is over-saturation in cer-tain marketplaces, so you’re notgoing to put (all their shops in amarket) on (the direct repair pro-gram). And then there’s the consis-tency issue, when they expand toofast and aren’t able to maintain thesame service levels and quality.”


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Year in Review

See Year in Review, Page 55


Sherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes hosted its invitation-only A-Plus Network Vision Conference inPalm Springs at the beautiful LaQuinta Resort Dec. 5–7. The themeof the conference was “Focus onYour Business.” More than 100 lead-ing A-Plus network collision repairowners and managers from the U.S.and Canada attended.

The event kicked-off with a roundof golf at the TPC Stadium Course“PGA West” and was followed by anoutdoor welcome reception at LaQuinta’s “Hotel Waterfall.”

Thursday’s keynote presentationwas given by Rex Green, ManagingDirector of BB&T Capital Markets.The presentation comprised an invest-ment banker’s view of the collision in-dustry. Rex started his presentation bystating “Don’t shoot the messenger.”His three key takeaways were: ● DRPs will continue to increase theirinfluence in the market● Shops with high DRP volume are at-tractive to MSO’s (the ‘Four Horse-men’ of the Current Consolidation),

and 3. Private equity funds are nowfully engaged in the pursuit of MSO’swhich will bid up the price of acquisi-tions.

His presentation concluded withhis prediction that:● Large MSO operators will expandinto all regions of the country over thenext 10 years● Independent collision repairers andsmall MSO’s will work harder for lessrevenue as insurance carriers ‘guide’their customers to larger MSO opera-tors● The larger MSOs will start having

strong brand recognition among carowners, influencing the flow of claimsaway from independents● Independents and small MSOsshould be considering one of three op-tions:► Sell “sooner” or at an otherwise ad-vantageous time► Grow now and sell later► Change their business model to off-set the decline of insurance-pay cus-tomers

Green’s presentation was fol-

lowed by Matt Ohrnstein’s presen-tation, “The Collision Repair Indus-try Competitive Landscape” and“The KPI’s of Integrity Leadership”by Marcy Tieger, both from Sym-phony Advisers.Gary Ledoux from American Honda

Motor Co. pre-sented Honda’s“ProFirst” newbody shop recog-nition programand explained thebenefits to shops(increased op-

portunities to reach more customers),what’s required to qualify and thebenefits of participation. For more in-

formation on the ProFirst pro-gram, go to profirst.honda.comor profirst.acura.com.

The afternoon concluded witha “Current State of the Indus-try” presentation by RaymondChew of CCC InformationServices and a roundtable dis-cussion by Sherwin-WilliamsBusiness Consulting Servicestitled “Keys to Keys.” Thurs-day’s dinner was well attendedand featured a silent auction tobenefit Operation Comfort.


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RX-8 2012

Sherwin-Williams Hosts A-Plus Network Vision Conference

“The Four Horsemen of Consolidation” presented by Rex Green, Director of BB&T Capital Markets

Sherwin-Williams’ Team (l to r): Bill Mays, Director of Sales NE Region; Rob Lynch, Senior VP ofSales; Craig Williams, Director of Global Vehicle Refinish, OEM and Services; Kurt Hammond,Director of Sales West Region; Brandon Devis, Director of Sales Force Effectiveness; and TroyNeuerburg, Marketing Manager of Business Services

(l to r): Dave Dewalt, Steve Feltovich, Lee Rush,Managers of Business Consulting for Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive

Joe and Jessica McKenna, owners ofGolden West Collision Repair in Sunnyvale, CA

Gary Ledoux

NovemberToyota previewed a new “predictiveestimating” system it is creating thatincorporates all necessary parts andToyota-recommended proceduresalong with links to all related Toyotabulletins and published documenta-tion. Toyota’s Jerry Raskind calledthe system a “game-changer,” in thatrather than having an estimator start

from a blank page and add line itemsbased on what they know or can lo-cate about OEM procedures, the sys-tem begins with a complete estimateand allows the user to omit items asappropriate.

“Everything you need to fix ourcars correctly and to our standards isthere,” Toyota’s Rick Leos said.

DecemberThe National Insurance Crime Bureau(NICB) released revised estimates in-dicating that 230,000 vehicles in East-

ern states had been damaged by super-storm Sandy. New York had the mostvehicles affected by the storm with130,000 while New Jersey generated60,000 claims.

John Yoswick, a freelance writerbased in Portland, Oregon, who has beenwriting about the automotive industrysince 1988, is also the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.Crash-Network.com). He can be contacted byemail at [email protected].


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Year in Review A Belmont, NC, auto body shop re-cently filed 16 lawsuits on behalf oftheir customers. Pack Brothers Colli-sion Center filed lawsuits against Na-tionwide, State Farm, Allstate,GEICO, Penn National and Amica.

The suits allege that the insurersrefused to pay for “reasonable andnecessary” parts, procedures and ma-terials to return customers’ vehiclesback to “pre-accident condition.”

The total amount sought in thelawsuits is in excess of $23,000, pluslegal fees and court cost.

NC Shop Sues Six Insurers

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January 2013 Western Edition