Aging Vehicles Mean More $

From Polk, a global automotive market intelligence firm, comes good news for auto repairers: the average age of cars and light trucks currently in operation in the United States has increased to 10.8 years. Passenger cars showed a modest increase in age since 2010 from 11 years to just 11.1 years at the end of June 2011. Light trucks (including pickups and SUVs) show a more sizeable gain in the same time frame, from 10.1 years to 10.4 years.

Polk reports average age based on an analysis of national vehicle registration data.

Vehicles getting older is good news for repairers because as Mark Senger, global aftermarket practice leader at Polk, said: “The increasing age of the vehicle fleet, together with the increasing length of ownership, offer significant business growth opportunity for the automotive aftermarket. Dealer service departments and independent repair facilities, as well as aftermarket parts suppliers, will see increased business opportunity with customers in need of vehicle service.”

Foundation Seeks Help

The Collision Repair Education Foundation is calling on the collision industry to support Franklin Technology Center (FTC) of Joplin, Mo., which was completely leveled during a tornado that hit May 22, 2011.

FTC’s auto collision program is operating out of a warehouse, but planning has begun to construct a new building in three years. Meantime, the center has issued a wish list of tools, equipment and supplies that would help currently enrolled collision students.

The Collision Repair Education Foundation has established a grant fund to help FTC restart its program and is asking industry professionals interested in joining its efforts to support FTC’s rebuilding to contact Brandon Eckenrode, at Brandon.Eckenrode@ed-foundation.org or (847) 463-5244.

Kelly McDonald To Speak at IBIS

Kelly McDonald whose presentation at last year’s International Bodyshop Industry Symposium was one of the meeting’s highlights, will be joining IBIS again this year. McDonald also delivered the keynote address at ASRW in 2010.

“We are delighted she will be joining us again this year, given the IBIS 2012 theme of ‘Winning Relatioships,’” said Chris Mann, chairman of IBIS.

IBIS 2012 will take place May 21-23 at The Hotel Arts, Barcelona, Spain. Among attendees will be Ron Nagy, ASA’s chairman.

I-CAR Course Aimed At High-Strength Steel

The Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) has a new training course that focuses on repairing collision-damaged vehicles that have been built primarily with high-strength steel and ultra high-strength steel. 

I-CAR introduced the course, “Best Practices for High-Strength Steel Repairs (SPS09)” Feb. 27.

For more information, visit the I-CAR website, www.i-car.com.

Lift Guide Available

The 2012 edition of the Automotive Lift Institute’s “Vehicle Lifting Points for Frame Engaging Lifts” is now available.

It is a quick-reference, single-source manual for lifting point information as recommended by the vehicle manufacturers. The 60-page lifting point guide for domestic and imported cars and light trucks uses more than 200 undercarriage images to cover the most recent 20 model years.

For more information, visit the Institute’s website, www.autolift.org.