[Rambo_The_Dog]

Just a topic for discussion.

I have been in and around the business for over 25 years and over the last 5 years especially I cannot believe the increase in the costs of materials and overhead.

It used to be a guy could start up a shop on a shoestring...pretty much all you needed was a compressor and a few tools and a spray gun...of course...we all know it's virtually impossible to open a small body shop with todays enviromental regulations.

I was talking to my friend who owns a local bodyshop (almost 30 years) his heating bill alone jumped from an average 500.00 a month to over 800.00 a month. Monthly material costs are running him around 8-15k (depending on volume of work) and this is a small operation with only 2 employees. He told me he had to buy a factory pak pint of paint the other day 100.00!

Then I walk into my local jobber last week and I guess it's been a while since I shopped prices but seeing DTL-16 @ 28.95 a gallon - just about made me soil myself...when I worked a auto paint store in the mid 80's we were selling this stuff as wash thinner for about 6-8.00 a gallon!

The really, really, evil part of all of this is that the insurance companies will not pay more for labor or materials - even though both have skyrocketed.

What do you think and what are your experiences?

[OneMoreTime]

I see this a lot as the big business guys are trying to make it tougher for the little guy and corner the market all we can do is fight back..do better work..and try and keep our costs down..

One of my pet issues as we need to have the jobs to keep our economy going..

Sam

[Countilaw]

Being a hobbyist and having a nice shop I do work for other people. It seems that I always have people or friends come up and ask me to paint their car or truck. I used to tell them I would and what it would cost. They felt like I was gouging them when I would say that it would cost $2,000.

So I started telling them to go to the paint store and get the paint. I would tell them what to get. When the paint store would tell them that it was going to be over $1,000 for the paint, they would change their mind about painting their car.

I remember a day when I could paint a car for $200 or $300.

I think that if we do exceptional work, watch our expenses, we can survive. The big shops just want to get the work in and out. And their work doesn't look near as good as mine. So I've been told.

[trees]

It is my belief that the insurance companies are driving the train and calling all the shots. They now do the adjusting and tell the body shop how much they will pay them for the job and by the way, you will use OEM parts and this is how much we will allow on them. Yeah, I am seeing the shops close the doors because they can not make it with too many other people telling them how to run their business. Can't blame them either!!

Trees

[kenseth17]

I do bodywork on semis, and we stay fairly busy all the time. There are about 15 people working between the manager, alignment guys, painters and bodyman. But the estimator does write quite a lot of lowball estimates and takes in some real junk often enough. I went through the industrial park near my house last week just curious what kind of shops were available. A guy that did mainly frame pulling and pulled out the front end on one of my cars many many years ago, when the dealership I had worked for wanted too much, was closed down. Across the road was a medium sized bodyshop that was also for lease. I see a few shops that have been in town for a very long time, that I don't really notice any work at, but figure they probably own the building by now, and which is why they aren't locked up tight. I've done a bit of sidework, and most people have been pretty cheap. I've also had inquirys knowing I quoted much lower then a shop could do the work for, and heard nothing back. The few cars I've done on the side, I've have two repeat customers now, and am pretty sure who I've done stuff for would give a good referal if they were asked, but I've had very little inquirys of late. I thought about renting a shop and open something up after hours, but the signs don't look good to me, knowing what the average person I run into wants to pay, and all the overhead, insurance, regulations, disposal ect a shop has to cover as well as the cost of material continuely rising and if doing collision, insurance fighting to cut time and pay and steering work to shops that will bow down to them.

[chopdtop]

We've got a corporate bodyshop here that has insurance adjusters offices in the same building!
To me that seems like a conflict of interest.

As soon as they finish the estimate they steer you in the direction of the bodyshop to schedule you to get your car fixed there. Luckily, I've never been there. But it wouldn't shock me one bit if you can only enter and exit the adjuster's offices in one direction. Right through the bodyshop or the bodyshop office.

The local paint supply shop said that at this time last year there were double the amount of smaller bodyshops here as there is today. And the bad part for everyone is that this corporate shop doesn't even get their paint supplies from this local paint supply shop!

[OneMoreTime]

One of the things I have noticed is that some of the shops do have contracts with the insurance companies..More like the shop is working for the insurance company than the customer..There are some small independent shops around and the restoration guys that do just a few jobs each year..

Sam