First, we will be first to admit that the most accurate way to write an estimate is to have the vehicle on-site and do a tear-down and make sure you account for all the hidden damage. You’re also able to quote unrelated prior damage if the customer wants.

But in our day and age where time is the most valuable personal (and business) currency, it’s hard to find customers jumping at the chance to drive from shop to shop getting estimates. And wait for a tear-down and re-assemble? No way. Unless you know of a body shop that you trust, there really isn’t any other avenue for a customer to be able to search and “comparison shop” easily and effectively.

Photo (or video) based estimating isn’t the best, but it’s the best under the circumstances the general population lives in. I do want to add that one of the great capabilities of CrashSpace.com is that body shops and the customer (anonymously) can communicate with each other using the built-in messaging feature. This provides the body shop to sell themselves, build credibility and trust and for the customer, it provides more information to make a more informed decision on which body shop to choose. The choice may not be for the repair, but could be to help choose a body shop to do the proper estimate, on-site, with tear-down. Now, this is the core business model of CrashSpace.com – a service that connects two parties with the same final objective – repair the damaged vehicle. You can even consider is a dating service… match-making a customer with the most suitable body shop based on the customers needs.

In summary, the photo portion is a small one in the overall process. The key is the communication between customer and body shop. And that’s true for any business.

And with other alternative fueled vehicles like the hydrogen-powered Honda Clarity, I really feel for the body shop community who have to keep up with all the new technology – not only from a training standpoint but also having to purchase the required equipment.

Will dealerships become the de facto repair facility for non-gas powered vehicles? Will large shop operators create specialized shops specifically for these vehicles? Or will new shop owners build facilities from the ground-up and market themselves to be the preferred choice when repairing alternative fuel vehicles?

http://engt.co/hWgFE6

From what I remember Allstate got a lot of backlash from the public (and shops) accusing them of steering and potentially not giving Allstate insureds a choice in the body shop to get their vehicle repaired.

As a consumer, I don’t get why. Why wouldn’t you want a one-stop shop of insurance for your vehicle and a place to get it repaired where the insurance company is accountable for the quality of the repair and ultimately my satisfaction? If the insurance company owned the shops, wouldn’t they be incentivized to provide the best service and shortest repair time? Isn’t a closed claim a happy claim for an insurance company? Insurance company and body shop systems would be seamless integrated for repair status, communications with all parties including rental car companies and financial payments. Insurance companies have the financial backing to update technology with the latest and greatest. They also have the buying power to influence paint companies and other vendors to provide a low price which in turn (hopefully) means a more cost effective repair for insureds.

Perhaps in the not too distant future, with the concept of the Direct Repair Program (DRP) which of all people Allstate started a couple of decades ago now starting to degrade (since Allstate went open a few years ago!), will we see insurance companies own shops to repair their insureds vehicle and body shops just doing walk-ins/self-pay?

You can find body shops through different methods…. Asking friends and family for a recommendation, searching the web, or actually driving to body shops to them to check them out. So, what’s important to you?

- Size of the body shop?
- Cleanliness?
- Friendliness and knowledgeable staff?
- Certifications from collision repair associations?
- Recommended by insurance companies?
- Location? How close it is to your home or office?
- Estimate quote/price?
- Guarantee policy?

Then after you have selected the shop and brought your vehicle in, what factors are important to you?

- Quality of repair?
- Speed of repair? Being on-time?
- Being kept informed of the status of your vehicle repair? And what method of communication do you prefer? Call? Text message? Email?
- Seeing pictures of your vehicle as it goes through the different stages of the repair?
- Free shuttle service?
- Rental car service?

After the repair is done, whether you had a good or bad experience, would you tell friends and family about the body shop? If so, how?

- Word of mouth?
- Facebook?
- Twitter?
- Email?
- Yelp? Or similar eBay like survey/rating method?
- Personal blog site?

Hyundai? KIA? What happened to Volvo and Saab? I remember back in the 80s, you could buy a Hyundai Excel for like $7,000. But, it would fall apart within a year. Fast forward and Hyundai now has a Lexus-challenging car – Genesis for half the price with the quality you expect from a Lexus! And now they plan to go even higher end with the Equus. The Koreans sure have come a long way. And even though they are just entering the alternative fuel vehicle markets (the KIA Optima is the first hybrid for 2011), I’m pretty sure they’re watching the market and will bet on the one that will be the leader and the top profit-maker.

My bet is that Hyundai will take over Toyota as the #1 OEM by 2020 in the US market. Not only because they will make great cars, but because they will partner and integrate with companies like Samsung and LG for their electronics and smartphone technologies.

Quick thought – interesting that the Korean OEMs don’t have the headline-making recalls or quality issues that have plagued Toyota and others…

http://usat.me?135891
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx

Although there are explanations as to what needs to be fixed, I sure would like to know what the root cause was because most of the time the vehicle manufacturers won’t tell you unless they are forced to. Was it a design flaw? Manufacturing process issue? Human error?

I’ve also noticed that there are vehicle manufacturers that have not issued any in the time span of Toyota’s issues up till now – even those that don’t rank high on consumer quality scales like J.D. Powers seem unscathed in the recalls and safety issues of their peers.

I think there is an opportunity for Consumer Reports to expand their safety tests based on all the new issues that come up.

http://usat.me/?41770322

http://usat.me/?41764928

http://usat.me?41782198

Not only are they recommending against parts that they manufactured themselves originally, but they missed a wonderful marketing opportunity to make them themselves more socially responsible and green. At a minimum, the OEs don’t need to recommend recycled parts since they are financially incentivised to recommend new OE parts but they certainly should not have gone against recycled parts. We recycle newspapers, soda cans and beer bottles, so why shouldn’t we recycle parts for vehicle repair?

Wouldn’t it have been better for the OEs to step up and work with salvage yards to address potential safety issues when selling recycled parts but also be the “good guy” to the public eye by showing that you are not contributing more waste in the environment? Also, OEs have surplus parts that they sell through a fragmented channel – how about sending all the OE surplus parts to salvage yards to sell on the OEs behalf? Salvage yards have the software and infrastructure to inventory and sell parts to body shops efficiently.

OEs make money selling new cars – wouldn’t it help sell more cars if the consumer knew that you were more socially responsible compared to other OEs. You make alternative fuel vehicle, you make new parts with recycled materials, so why not be an advocate to using recycled parts? OEs….. you messed up on this one.

http://bit.ly/f5meJU

http://bit.ly/dUFcFb

So, how about providing a way to sell your vehicle if it’s not repairable? Would salvage yards and re-builders like the ability to have consumers upload their pics of their totaled vehicle so they can bid on it? Would eBay suffice? Do consumers associate eBay with selling salvage vehicles?  How many yards/re-builders search through eBay for consumer totaled vehicles? How many “owner-retained” totaled vehicles are there?

Does it make sense for CrashSpace to offer a new service where it brings together consumers and yards/re-builders? Or do salvage pools like Copart, IAA and Manheim offer a consumer-based service that we are not aware of?

Since 1986, the third (middle) brake light is by far the most successful idea that has saved countless lives and reduced accidents significantly. Since then, no other collision avoidance technology has had the impact that the third-brake light has.

When you see the examples below, we need to ask, “why are they developing these new safety features?”. One should think that if you took the responsibility of driving seriously and just paid attention to the road, most of these new ideas are pointless. In fact, are they developing these safety features in order to adapt to our new, multi-tasking driving style of combining texting, eating, reading, falling asleep, putting on make up or trying to dial a phone number? Are collision avoidance systems giving us the opportunity to continue and perfect the art of multi-task driving? Accident frequency won’t change because stupidity will find a way to trump technology.

Ford: http://bit.ly/cArwFc

Volvo: http://bit.ly/c1Eji1