Cars of the past... Repairs of the past.
Cars of today... Repairs of today and the future

Going back in years, cars were built much different than today. Back in the 1960's, US vehicles were built the same as they had been for the past 40-50 years. They were heavy, strong framed cars. The pride of the workers was built in to the automobiles. A repair was somewhat easy; if the part were damaged, we would replace it or straighten it, prime, and paint. A good repair lasted as long, or about as long as the rest of the vehicle, 1-2 years before some sort of failure. In that day and time, this was acceptable. Repairing the vehicles of the past years was not as difficult as the repairs of today.

In the 1960's, the Japanese auto manufacturers challenged the US market. The Japanese vehicles were lighter, cheaper, and got much better gas mileage. However, the life of the body, which was approximately the same as a US built vehicle, was seeing problems such as rut or other sorts of fatigue within a year or two.

Until this point in time, the auto manufacturer looked away from the Japanese market. As the US auto manufacturers went on building the same, the Japanese and European manufacturing factories had greater technology and built that into their automobiles. With this, they gained a larger US and world market with a noticeably better built vehicle than the US.

The US manufacturer's market loss finally took notice, with poor auto sales, large layoffs, and poor attitudes from the workers. The American public was demanding a better-built vehicle from the US manufacturers. A vehicle that got better gas mileage, had quality paint that did not fade or peel or rust within one to two years was the result. The manufacturers started to work overhauling their factories; adding technology they needed to build better vehicles.

Around 1979, the start of building uni-bodies lighter, safer and with better gas mileage had begun. Every year since then, they have built in new technology to get up to speed with a challenging market from other countries. Today we have a very complex automobile, a vehicle that lasts approximately ten years before we see any failure. Because of the long life of the newer vehicles, we now need a much longer repair life with warranties to back them up.

The vehicles of today are much more technical and expensive. In return, the repair process is much the same to bring the vehicle back to pre-accident condition.

SO WHAT....

Our repair industry today is much like our US factories in the 1970's; not up to speed and moving very slowly to get there. This makes it very difficult to get a vehicle repaired properly today. If today's vehicles are not repaired properly, one could lose trade in value, appearance and most importantly, safety.

Both the insurance industry and the collision industry are behind on the learning process of what it takes to repair a vehicle properly. Much of our industry is lacking in knowledge especially if they are not involved with an association or training organizations. If the insurance people are not all advanced on safe proper repairs, it's difficult for them to understand why we have to do all the steps that many others are not doing. This creates a challenge to be the best, and to do the repairs properly.

For those of you who read this and understand, you will be challenged every day on your high standard repairs. You must stand firm on your standards for we have numerous people in the industry to train.

Repairs of yesterday versus the repairs of today: the differences lie in the knowledge and repair standards of the repairers and the insurance industry, the length of the repair life, and the structural integrity of the vehicle.

With the use of proper procedures, higher quality parts and materials, correct tools and equipment, we are able to repair the cars of today and bring them back to pre-accident condition. With the investments we have in our business, our customer's investment in their vehicle, our written warranties and the smaller margins of profit, we cannot afford to take short cuts or use low quality parts or materials.

My pledge to my industry, my customers, my employees, is to continue to raise the bar of high standard repairs.

Proud to be in the Collision Repair Business.

Boyd W. Dingman
Dingman's Collision Center
Omaha, Nebraska