Turning Total Loss into a gain

Insurance Companies have set guidelines for declaring your vehicle a Total Loss. Just in case you are not familiar with the term, the vehicle is declared a Total Loss after an accident if the cost of repairs exceeds usually about 75 percent of the value of an automobile. It is pretty straight forward. For example, if your 2008 Chevy Camaro is worth $10,000 before it hit a fire hydrant on Glenoaks Boulevard and the repair cost after is $ 9,000 it is declared a Total Loss. In such cases your Insurance Company usually will take your vehicle to a junk yard and pay you a fair value to replace it. However when you add a human element to the equation things could get a bit complicated.

A huge tree fell on Brian Hogue’s Ford truck during last year’s storm that temporarily left half of the City of Angels without electricity. “Thank God it wasn’t my house,” said Hogue who came by the body shop to talk about his truck. Insurance Company has declared Brian’s vehicle a Total Loss, but he wasn’t quite ready to send his prized possession to the salvage yard. Aside from sentimental and practical value, Brian just could not visualize having a car note on a new vehicle.

“What would it take to repair it?” inquired Mr. Hogue

“Time and a lot of work,” replied Jorge Mondragon, Burbank Body Shop’s production manager.

“Some jobs are more lucrative than others,” noted Mondragon who began his career over forty years ago sanding cars at his father’s body shop:” But what makes it all worthwhile is when you can make a customer happy.”

Replacing a cab on a Ford truck is not as simple as replacing a fender, but Mondragon has the experience and a know how to do both equally perfect. To replace a fender one needs to simply unbolt it and then bolt it back on. To replace a cab one needs to remove and reinstall the chassis, drive train, complete wiring etc…

Few months later and some blood sweat and tears Brian’s truck was ready to get back on the road. “Yesterday he felt like a kid the day before Christmas,” said Brian’s wife Stacie when they came to pick up the truck.” It looks like brand new,” they exclaimed in unison.

Camaro ZL1 is no longer Corvette’s poor little cousin

Chevrolet people recently announced that the new Camaro Zl1 is now officially a member in the 11 seconds club. A stock ZL1 with an automatic transmission ran a quarter mile in 11.93 seconds reaching 116 miles per hour speed.

"The ZL1 is great at everything, and we're very proud of that," said Tony Roma, Camaro ZL1 program engineering manager: "You can take it to the drag strip and run 11-second quarter-miles all day long. You can also take it to a road course, where it's balanced, handles well, and does exactly what you want."

General Motors officials recently stated that 2012 Camaro ZL1 could accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in four seconds using street legal components.

Taking a phrase burning rubber to a new level the new ZL1 is a throwback to a special-order 1969 Camaro ZL1 that was renowned for its performance on the drag strip.

“We know many of customers will take their ZL1 to the drag strip,” said Gordon Rojewski, driveline development engineer – and who is also an experienced drag racer and owner of a turbocharged, 920-horsepower street car. “Some may just go once, to experience the full potential of the 580-horsepower LSA engine. Others may be more serious, going every other weekend with a set of slicks in the trunk. As such, we set out to make sure the ZL1 would perform for them – on the first pass and on the 100th.”

I had to take a look at a newly constructed ZL1 which would give any corvette a run for its money at a local dealership, Community Chevrolet. 580 horsepower engine and a sleek exterior took my breath away.

Texting and Driving

One would think that creating a law that bans texting while driving is a no brainer, especially considering that texting is a preferred form of communication for our youth. Yet only thirty eight out of fifty states of our country have implemented that law. The latest state, Alabama which will have a ban on texting behind the wheel effective August 1^st, will fine first time offenders $25.00, second timers $50.00 and $75.00 for all subsequent offences. In California where texting while driving ban went into effect on January 2009, first time violators are subjected to a $20.00 fine. All subsequent convictions are subject to $50.00 fine. Note that even though these convictions will appear on your DMV record they will not cost you a point or adversely affect your insurance premium. Are these fines severe enough to enforce the law? How serious is this situation?

Yesterday I went to take a look at the Honda that belongs to the City of Burbank. It was smashed beyond repair. The car was parked while it was hit by a young motorist who destroyed two other vehicles at the same time.” He was going thirty five miles per hour and he didn’t even stop,” exclaimed Tim, city supervisor:” There were no tire marks. The kid swore up and down that he wasn’t texting.”

Fortunately all three vehicles were parked and the young kid walked away unharmed. But how many accidents of this nature end up with fatalities? Are you talking to your children about texting and driving? My twenty year old son likes to text at the dinner table or even while he is talking to me on the phone.  He says he doesn’t text while he drives, but he checks his messages. Do you check your messages while you drive? Is it safe? No!

A cause of a major train wreck in Chatsworth several years ago was attributed to a train engineer texting while on the job.  How scary it would be to think that our airline pilots are texting while in the air? How many more fatalities do we need to stop ignoring potentially life altering dangers associated with texting and driving?

“Now more than three quarters of our states outlaw one of the riskiest behaviors behind the wheel- texting and driving,” said U.S transportation Secretary Ray La Hood. What about the rest of the country? For more information on text messaging law click on http://dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/

Replace versus Repair.

They say there is more than one way to skin a cat. There is also more than one way to repair your automobile. In this article we will review a never ending debate of replace versus repair.

In a perfect world every damaged part would be replaced by original part made by manufacturer of your vehicle. Cost, availability and quality of repairs are three major factors when considering the best way to restore your automobile to pre accident condition. Of course if you live in Africa finding a replacement fender for Chevy Impala might be a bit of a challenge. I have recently interviewed a body man from Ghana who took pride in being able to straighten almost any panel and showed me pictures of parts he was forced to repair due to unavailability. With twenty five years of experience in collision repair industry I was simply amazed.

Fortunately we do not have the same problems in Southern California. Aside from few minor instances, such as trying to get a performance Porsche wheel through customs or having a wiring harness for a corvette on back order for several months, one can get any auto part imaginable in a timely manner. Should we then replace every damaged part?

Just the other day a proud owner of Chevy Suburban told me while dropping it off for repairs:” I don’t want any Bondo on my car and I want all new parts.”

“That is preferred Modus Operandus at Burbank Body Shop,” I replied.

Unfortunately it was 1998 Suburban and if I was to adhere to my customer’s wishes the cost of repairs would exceed the value of the vehicle. On the other hand an appraiser employed by State Farm Insurance, while negotiating a price of repairs with me said: “This door cost thirteen hundred dollars. Can we try to repair it? I will give you sixteen hours to do it.” Other words, insurance guy was willing to pay a body man to spend two days to repair this door. Is it reasonable?

Obviously the cost of repairs is important, but what about quality? What are the criteria’s to use when deciding repair versus replace? Generally when the cost of repairing of an existing panel approaches the price of replacement part, the new panel is recommended. Several different formulas are used in the industry to decide on repair versus replace. They take into account painting of the damaged panel along with blending adjacent panels and other operations as well as time required or as we call it cycle time. These formulas are complicated. There are also formulas on how much Bondo can be used on a panel, considering that it shrinks with time and prone to creating cracks on paint.

Ultimately, the decision whether to repair or replace a panel should be made with participation and best interest of one person in mind, vehicle owner. Transparency and communication between shop owner and vehicle owner is the key to successful repair, because just as often as I get requests for all new parts, customers say:” I don’t care what you do, just make it cheap. I am paying cash.”

Replace or repair? You be the judge, but remember that “ The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of the cheap price is forgotten.”

Holiday Greetings

Say hello to Chevy Volt

Toyota Prius is an ugly automobile “In fact, it’s the ugliest car on the road today!” exclaimed Andrei, an automotive enthusiast and my son. In spite of that Toyota Prius took an American car market by a storm. Consumers love to save money on gas, but more than that, they like to feel like they are doing their part to protect the environment. Even state government got in on the band wagon of saving mother earth for a spell, issuing stickers for Prius owners to roam on diamond lanes of busy California freeways without passengers, just to encourage citizens to purchase these vehicles.

Say hello to Chevy Volt, a fully hybrid Chevrolet designed to compete with Prius on technological level. Volt, however, is no comparison to its ugly grandfather when it comes to looks; a sleek aerodynamic design could compete with any sports sedan on the road today.

The whole production of our shop stopped when Ruben Maldonado, company vehicle operations coordinator for General Motors, dropped one off to remove promotional decals. “What do you really think?” I asked admiring exciting new design.” It’s beyond awesome,” said Maldonado who gets to test all the new GM vehicles first hand.

According to Chevrolet people Volt is an electric car that uses gas to create its own electricity. Plug it in, let it charge overnight, and it's ready to run on a pure electric charge for up to 40 miles with gas and emissions free. After that, Volt keeps going, even if you can't plug it in. Volt uses a range-extending gas generator that produces enough energy to power it for hundreds of miles on a single tank of gas.

Americans want something better; here it is. Volt has a revolutionary propulsion system that takes you beyond the power of regular battery.

Stay tuned as Volt unplugged will come to a Chevrolet dealer near you.

Burbank Body Shop Back to School Promotion.

Weather you want to send your son or daughter back to school in a shiny vehicle without scratches or would like to take care of a fender bender repair that you have been putting off because of the economy stop bye Burbank Body Shop and give us a chance to take care of your vehicle.

Burbank Body Shop back to school promotion is offering a complimentary in and out detail of your vehicle for any customer who brings their car for repairs in the month of August and September. Yes, that’s right a detail valued at $150.00 for any one who will bring in their car for repairs in the month of August and September (minimum repair is $400.00).

Please call us at 818 845 0901 and speak to Norma Medina to set up an appointment.