For years insurance companies assumed that inexpensive cars were easy to fix and did not need special attention. The people who bought premium cars had an expectation that they would get top level repair and maintenance service. If the Mercedes Benz sanctioned repair facility told them that these parts and these procedures were needed then […]
One of the themes of the overall collision repair industry that now often comes up at conferences is “we are all working together for the good of our mutual customer, the vehicle owner.” This theme can be described as disingenuous, insincere or even outside the rules. The disingenuous or insincere part is that everyone would […]
For many years, the collision repair industry had a reputation of having more than its share of scruffy, low-skilled and unscrupulous operators. The really bad ones looked the part and the consumer stood some chance of avoiding these based on appearance. Now there is a different owner of potential concern. These new players in the […]
It is the progressive operators who move the safety standards and integrity of industry forward, with a lot of effort and cost, and relatively little thanks. Perhaps not surprisingly these progressive operators are not the major national companies with hundreds of shops under their control. The active progressives may have several locations in one marker […]
Until around early 2019 the collision repair industry did not have a very clear vision of Certification and worked on the assumption that Certified meant Qualified and that Uncertified meant Unqualified. The two quite different things of Qualification and Certification had been mixed into the same category. What is Qualification? Qualification is based on the […]
The collision repair industry for many years had a reputation of having more than its share of scruffy, low skilled and unscrupulous operators. The bad ones looked the part, and the consumer stood some chance of avoiding these based on appearance. Now there is a different owner of potential concern. These new players in the […]
Many people in the repair industry still believe that the repair tech knows both the “How” and “What” of a repair. This belief should have ended around 2010, but discouragingly it is still prevalent in the industry in 2021. In facilities that still hold to this outdated model, the technician is assigned a repair and […]
I have written in the past about the tension between vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) and the other stakeholders in the collision repair industry. In March of 2017 I criticized the OEMs for their insistence on new OEM parts for all repairs Since that time, vehicle manufacturers seem to have doubled down on the policy with All […]
“Position Statements” are written by vehicle manufacturers to summarize and highlight certain aspects of their repair procedures. They are not being written and published to reveal new information; they are reiteration and reinforcement of information that is already in the company’s service and repair information manuals and bulletins. They serve a purpose by gathering information […]
The changes of the last 5 years and those still coming at us rapidly are significant more for their wide application than for their technology. Many of the features which are seen as “new” were being used by high-end manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz in the mid to late 2000s. But with only a few […]