Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco. Ed enjoys sports of all kinds and is a part time stand-up comedian.
He can be reached at era39@aol.com.
An auto body shop manager in San Francisco, CA, told me he spends more time moving cars than fixing them.
As part of Autobody News' “After the Donation” series, we focus on families, individuals and nonprofit organizations who give away cars through NABC’s Recycled Rides Program.
When an adjuster walks into your auto body shop to write an estimate, the decisions they make can affect the repair from start to finish. If your number and their number don’t agree, it can lead to an avalanche of supplements and potentially open up a tug-of-war between you and the insurer.
I have been telling people for decades that car refinishers are truly artists, and every time I see a beautiful car at SEMA or on YouTube or social media, it reinforces my beliefs.
If you’re a shop owner anywhere in this country, your labor rates have been a serious concern since day one and the numbers have likely kept you up at night more than once.
At Autobody News, we get emails and letters every week from auto body shop owners all over the country. In most cases, they’re either venting about the industry or promoting themselves.
Charlie Vigiani owns Vigiani’s Auto Body & Paint in Yuba City, CA, where people call him “The Godfather of Collision Repair.”
After giving his wholesale parts customers deep discounts through price-matching programs and taking a miniscule profit, Charlie Monteleone, corporate fixed operations director for the Ancira Automotive Group, recently discovered he can buy some of his parts cheaper at Walmart than through his own jobber.
A decade ago, ADAS was an acronym very few people in the collision repair industry were familiar with. But now every collision repair professional on the planet knows what it means and how it affects them every day.
I was at a California Autobody Association (CAA) meeting recently and I couldn’t help but notice a well-dressed man at the front table.
Some auto body shops appreciate insurance adjusters and their role in the collision repair industry, while others don’t necessarily feel the same way. But all seem to agree it’s a necessary job.
It’s called wholesale and if you’re not wholly dedicated to doing it yet, it can lead to a whole lot of headaches and lost revenue.
Steven Schillinger of Reno, NV, has worked as a collision repair industry consultant in different capacities for more than 40 years, as a compliance expert focusing on permits, license protection and record keeping.
Over the years, I have interviewed a lot of collision repair professionals as they retire from the industry. If someone can work in this business for 30, 40 or even 50 years, it’s obviously an impressive run.