GM: New collision certification program will increase body shop standards

A pickup traveling 40 mph plowed into Tim Kip's Jaguar XJ last fall, days after he bought the $80,000 aluminum-body sedan. The financial planner from Plant City, Fla., wanted to get rid of the car, even though he loved it.

"I asked the insurance company if they would total it," Kip said. "Then I tried to get the dealer to take it back on trade."

The car was crunched from the rear doors back. The repair bill topped $22,000. Kip worried that the body shop would not be able to return his car, with just a few hundred miles on its odometer, to showroom shape.

But the independent body shop — a certified Jaguar Land Rover collision-repair facility — brought the XJ back to its pre-crash condition. Kip says he's satisfied with the repair.

It's that kind of automotive angst that General Motors hopes to avoid among its customers with the scheduled introduction next year of a collision certification program for its dealerships and independent repair shops.

The program comes at a time when GM is increasing its use of lightweight materials and, like other automakers, adding electronic safety equipment.

Often the vehicle brand pays the price for improper repairs after collisions. Ford Motor Co. says nearly half of its customers who got rid of their car or truck after an accident did so for repair-related reasons — and worse, they changed brands.

John Eck, GM's collision manager, customer care and aftersales, says the intent of the automaker's new certification program is "to focus on the repair of the vehicle."

"We want to ensure the repair facility is following the repair procedures, doing the necessary scanning and calibration, checking for recalls and ensuring the appropriately trained repair technicians are actually doing the work," Eck told Fixed Ops Journal.

"We want every Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac restored to pre-crash condition," he added. "It's about safety and brand loyalty."

A GM spokesman declined to say how the automaker plans to market the new program to customers.

GM already certifies body shops to work on two of its cars: the Chevrolet Corvette, which has a fiberglass body, and the Cadillac CT6, which uses GM's mixed-materials manufacturing combination of aluminum, high-strength steel and magnesium.

On the CT6, chassis parts are joined with riveting, bonding and, in some areas, welding. GM expects to use that manufacturing system for the next generation of its full-size pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.

Eck says results of the CT6 and Corvette certification programs have helped GM develop collision-repair standards for its other brands. GM had informal discussions with insurance companies in developing the new certification program, he adds.

GM says it will require dealerships and body shops enrolled in the program to scan accident vehicles before and after repairs. Scanning with a specialized tool identifies trouble codes in a vehicle's powertrain and safety systems. It also alerts body shop technicians when a component, such as a rear backup camera, is not properly calibrated.

Who should pay for scans has been a source of contention for some repair shops. Joe Hershey, body shop manager at Bill Brown Ford in suburban Detroit, says nearly every procedure on a repair order for a wrecked vehicle includes a line item and a billable charge submitted to an insurer.

But automakers, including GM, and insurers often expect body shops to perform scans as part of the repair process. That rankles shop techs who work on commission, Hershey says.

Eck says GM's scanning mandate will make sure repairs are done properly.

"Because of [vehicle] electronics today, and not knowing what happens in a collision, pre- and post-scanning needs to be done to ensure that the car is properly calibrated," he says. "We simply say, if you are going to fix it right, this is what you should be doing."

In addition to the required scanning, Eck says, GM's new program establishes procedures that require technicians to perform only the repairs for which they are trained and certified.

"Other OEMs have developed a great framework, and we want to build on that," Eck says. "It's one thing to have a welder who is certified. It's another thing to make sure the certified welder is doing the welding for that vehicle.

"We want to push the industry to make sure that not just the tools, training and facilities are in place, but that [repairs are] being completed" by a properly certified technician, Eck adds.

The cost to become a GM-certified collision-repair center will vary, Eck says.

If body shops "already have the tools and other things that are going to be part of our requirements, they'll be good to go," he says.

"But if they don't and choose to be in this program, obviously they will have a different financial [responsibility] to make up."

Enrollment will open in early 2018. Independent body shops that become GM-certified collision-repair centers will work with the automaker's aftermarket sales force.

Eck notes that "80 to 85 percent of collision work is done outside of a dealership network. About 34,000 independents and 4,000 dealers have [body] shops."

"But our standards will be the same no matter what the rooftop looks like."