The October issue of Collision Management is now available online. You can flip through it here, but first, a few words from the Editor-in-Chief of Collision Management, Huw Evans.

Ahead of the Curve

Positioning your business to take advantage of industry developments.

It’s not easy to predict the future, especially in this business. However, there are steps we can take to best position ourselves in the long term.

Our cover story this month is a classic example of that. European Autobody has, through canny planning and commitment, built a reputation that’s second to none, both at a regional and national level. And when it comes to partnerships, owner Emilio DeLuca, his son Manuel and the rest of the team, have selected some of the best names in the business.

Our cover story focuses on the partnership developed with BASF, the installation of Symach’s state-of-the-art FixLine system and how standing apart from the herd often puts you in front of it.

Perfect match

With October being our Refinish issue, we also thought it would be good to look back at just how much this part of the business has advanced in the last decade. When you actually examine it, the results are rather staggering. Today, the quality and efficiency of the refinish process is light years from where it was even at the start of this century.

Modern paint matching and refinish quality are second to none, while equipment advances have vastly improved touch time and reduced backlogs in the collision repair process.

Yet while the paint process has improved significantly, there are new challenges we face as an industry. Increased vehicle complexity is driving up severity, which could have a serious impact on the repair process. Whereas once a front-end repair on a $40,000 car cost maybe $5,000, today the cost can be triple that, with $5,000 being the cost of the headlight assembly alone.

It was something that was discussed at length at the most recent CCIF meeting in Edmonton, and I’m sure we’re going to hear more in the coming months and years.

There’s no question we live in some very interesting times and for our industry to succeed long term, there has never been a greater need for every automotive stakeholder to collaborate. And when we come across stories like the European Autobody and BASF partnership it’s something we can all learn from.

Click here to read the October issue of Collision Management