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Representatives of the Automotive Service Association (ASA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were on hand Nov. 6 in Las Vegas for an afternoon press conference to discuss new initiatives, goals and partnerships involving the two organizations. The press conference was held during ASA’s NACE and CARS events—co-located as part of the second annual Automotive Service and Repair Week (ASRW)—at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center Nov. 4-7.

Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce, Glenn Wilson, has issued a Consent Order to GEICO Insurance Company alleging that the company violated Minn. Stat. § 72A.201, subd. 6(2)(a) (2008).  GEICO was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $30,000 and to cease and desist from any further violations of the Statute.

General Motors has returned $140 million of the $290 million it received from the government to support is parts suppliers.

Toyota Motor Corp. on Nov. 25 said it would fix about four million vehicles in the U.S. to avoid sudden acceleration that could occur from the floor mat interfering with the gas pedal.

Toyota will recall about 110,000 Tundra vehicles sold in the United States due to safety concerns. The move was triggered by excessive corrosion on the frame rear cross-member of certain Tundra vehicles which operate in areas with high road salt use. "In the worst case, the spare tire stowed under the truck bed may become separated from the rear cross-member. Spare tire separation will create a road hazard for following vehicles and increase the likelihood of a crash," said the Japanese auto maker in a statement.

With a track record of more than 50 years carrying a huge inventory of auto paint, equipment and related accessories, as well as every mechanical part imaginable, O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. is spreading throughout the country and expanding its network of stores at a phenomenal rate. In 2008, O’Reilly completed the biggest acquisition in the company’s history with the purchase of CSK Auto. This and past acquisitions have made O’Reilly one of the top three auto parts chains in the country.

Scott Sharpe is the regional parts director for Asbury Automotive Group, one of the largest automotive retailers in the U.S., headquartered in Duluth, GA. Asbury is the parent company that manages the Crown Automotive Group, with some ten dealerships in North Carolina and another ten elsewhere, and seven dealerships within Texas’ David McDavid Auto Group, based in Irving, TX, but having other locations in Plano, Houston, Austin, and Frisco.  Sharpe works for a company that oversees some 80 dealerships throughout the United States, and personally directs the parts operations of all of the David McDavid stores as well as the Crown Automotive stores in North Carolina. It’s an enormous job, managing parts for the seven David McDavid dealerships carrying a total of $5.1 million in parts, but he’s a seasoned professional with more than three decades of overall experience in the industry.

LINK to PDF copy

After two consecutive years of considerable declines, overall customer satisfaction with renting cars at airports stabilized in 2009, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 U.S. Rental Car Satisfaction Study(SM) released Nov. 17.

The Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) addressed members of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) Property and Casualty Committee Nov. 19 at a meeting in New Orleans to discuss model legislation, which is designed to reduce airbag fraud. During his presentation, ARA Executive VP Michael E. Wilson pointed to the necessity of Americans to have proper functioning airbags in their motor vehicles. Wilson pointed to a recent review conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of 1,446 fatal accidents from 2001 and 2006 found that in an alarming 255 instances (18%) airbags that should have been replaced following deployment in a previous crash were missing.

Body and refinish materials represent a significant and continually growing component in the overall cost of an auto body repair; therefore, it is critically important that the cost-accounting of these materials be as accurate as practically possible. The "refinish calculators" presently available from several vendors, with new offerings presently under development, offer the potential for more detailed and accurate calculations of these costs compared with the "dollars times refinish hours" approach that has been prevalent in the United States for several decades now. Two of the primary reasons that these refinish calculators claim increased accuracy is because they a) factor in cost variations that may be present relative the specific color (paint code) in use, and b) their pricing is regularly updated to reflect the most current paint manufacturer pricing.

Earlier this year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extended the net operating loss (NOL) carryback period from two to five years for tax years beginning in or ending in 2008 for small businesses with gross receipts of $15 million or less. President Obama just signed into law a provision which expands the NOL carryback to all businesses, not just small businesses, and extends the time period to include 2009.

Mitchell International, Inc. announced that it has completed the purchase of Scene Genesis. Scene Genesis is a web-based workflow and connectivity solutions provider dedicated to improving the claims handling process for insurers, independent appraisers and shops alike. Innovative products such as SceneExchange, which , which,creates a web-based marketplace that encourages open communication among all parties involved in the repair process, and SceneAccess, an end-to-end web-based solution, put efficient claims handling into action for insurers.

AQMD to begin issuing permits after Jan. 1

Hundreds of Southland businesses and public utilities forced to delay plans to expand, modernize or relocate can move forward after Jan. 1, 2010 now that Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed a bill lifting an air quality permit moratorium.

Filing a series of class action lawsuits has paid off for the Auto Body Association of Connecticut (ABAC). A Superior Court in Stamford, CT, ordered The Hartford Insurance Company to pay $15 million for using “unfair business practices to suppress labor rates.”
    Consumers and body shops alike can take heart in this victory over the oppressors of free enterprise and fair business practices.
    The latest class action lawsuit, filed by ABAC charged that The Hartford “engaged in a pattern of unfair [business] practices” that violated Connecticut law. The jury agreed.

Organizers of the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE) say that even just weeks before the 26th annual event in November they were concerned that, given the economy, attendance could be down as much as 20% from last year.
    So it came as somewhat of a relief to the Automotive Service Association (ASA) and its event team to announce that about 20,000 attendee made the trip to Las Vegas for the trade show and classes, a more modest drop of 8% from last year but less of a decline, they say, than that experienced by some other trade shows.

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Every year NACE is eclipsed in size by the SEMA and AAPEX Shows during industry week. This year the AAPEX aftermarket show had 132,000 attendees, about six times the number at NACE and CARS this year.
    Some collision shop owners and managers make it over to the SEMA Show, but I’m always amazed at how few seem to grasp the enormous profit potential for their shops. I’ve written about this before, but let me refresh you on a few details.
    SEMA says their specialty automotive industry is now about $31.85 billion with 7,144 member companies. Retail sales of these products increased more than twice as fast as the general economy. One dealership body shop manager told me they did $25,000/month in accessory sales and installations. I don’t know the exact numbers, but even with our diminished economy, automotive accessories are still selling well.