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Last month Toby Chess wrote an article in Autobody News (see Dec. 09 issue) that was about two repairs on completed by two different shops on Mercedes Benz vehicles that were not only repaired in a substandard way but safe to say in an un-safe manner. I want to add to what Toby had to say because this is not the exception but the norm.

With our economic downturn, shops and consumers are struggling. One (shops) to make a buck, and the other (consumers) to save a buck. There has been a giant step backwards in accountability from both shops and insurers that guarantees that a safe vehicle is put back on the road. The consumer is becoming the victim because they are deceived into thinking that a guarantee is the same as a safe repair.

I believe that we reap what we sow, so to think we will get away from accountability just because we haven’t been caught is wrong. To hide something from the customer will only come back to bite you in the end. Selling the job back to the customer should never be anything more than explaining to them what you have done and reassuring them that they can count on you because you care about them. It should never get to the point of talking them into accepting a repair that you know is substandard.

There is the way “it should be” and then there is “the way it is.” Deal with the way it is and forget the way it should be. “It should be” will never benefit you; you will become bitter and cynical and could become distracted from the problems at hand.

We have all watched changes in the economy over the last year and we have been forced to readjust our approach to our businesses. We wonder what we can possibly do to return things to the way they were two years ago. We may think things would be different if we had done things differently but the reality is, we have what we have, and looking back only hinders your progress.

I remember during the last recession and I beat myself up pretty bad about expanding and opening up a second location only to be met with the worst recession of my working life. I thought I had made a poor decision to purchase a building and open a second location only to find myself in a financial crisis. After three years of beating myself up I finally realized that every decision I made was a “good one,” based on the information I had at the time. I quit beating myself up and began to make decisions once again with the information I had at the time; I had to close one shop so I could sustain the other.

I have watched our industry take two steps backwards and one step forward for over thirty years. Because of this “every man for himself” attitude that runs predominately within the collision industry, we are unable to control the repair process even when it comes to safety. I have heard it said that most shops really would fix the cars correctly but they are being hindered because they are not being paid enough. I say “Bull.”

Either you fix the cars correctly or you are lying to yourself and risk resembling a crook. Sounds tough? Not really. It’s the truth. The choice is yours.

We are the ones that know how to repair collisions. When something is denied by the insurer we scramble to figure out a way to make enough money on the repair to make it worthwhile. Many shops have moved safety issues to the back burner and profit becomes their main concern. They move to the damage control mode because they still need to make money. If you go against the grain and make a stand for safety issues and the integrity of the repair, you risk looking like the bad guy when in fact you are the good guy, and the real ones qualified to do the repair.

In a media-oriented demonstration organized by the Collision Repair Association of California (CRA), Autobody News' columnists  CRA President Lee Amaradio (left in photo) and Industry Trainer Toby Chess (using saw) were featured on ABC TV news (see video below) replicating Chess' earlier demonstration of mild steel in certain aftermarket parts vs high strength steel in OEM bumper reinforcements.

Jones released the following statement on April 9:

Unbeknownst to most Californians, for many years inferior aftermarket parts have been installed in their cars when they are repaired as part of an insurance claim after a collision. These substandard parts can affect the safety and performance of the vehicle in a future collision and pose a serious risk to anyone on California roads and highways.

California law requires that aftermarket replacement crash parts only be used in the repair of an automobile if “the parts are at least equal to the original equipment manufacturer parts in terms of kind, quality, safety, fit, and performance,” and that insurers warrant that these parts are in fact as good or better than the manufacturer parts.

Today, I am calling on the Insurance Commissioner and the Insurance Industry to:

• Identify all of the vehicles that contain these inferior aftermarket bumper reinforcement bars;
• Notify the owners of the vehicles of the existence of these substandard parts and the risk they pose; and,
• Develop a program to replace all of the defective bumper reinforcement bars on California roads and highways.

If the Insurance Industry is not able to take these simple steps to comply with California law and protect our residents, legislation should be introduced that orders insurance companies to do so, and provides strict penalties for failing to do so.

One of my favorite movies was the Western miniseries Lonesome Dove, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall along with Robert Urich and Danny Glover. This was a story of the legendary Texas Rangers and the old West. There were several great parts but a theme throughout the entire movie was that these men had a bond that was all about integrity and honor. There is a scene that comes to mind where they were forced, because of their integrity, to hang one of their friends because he had stepped outside of the law and, most importantly, he had breached their unwritten code of honor.