Northeast 2015: OEM Validation, an Industry Showdown, and What Repairers Need to Know

The Northeast 2015 Automotive Services Show — hosted by the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey — was shaping up as one of the industry's most substantive events of the year, drawing unusual vendor interest and anchoring a program that addressed some of the thorniest questions in collision repair: what OEM certification and validation actually mean, how insurers and shops should define their respective roles, and where major unresolved disputes were heading.

The NASTF Panel: What Does OEM Validation Mean for Shops?

The National Automotive Service Task Force was set to host a panel discussion titled "Validation of Collision Repair Workmanship: What should OEMs consider? What do shops hope to avoid?" on March 19, moderated by Teresa Bolton, director of collision repair test development at the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence.

The panel was convened in part because OEM certification — the process through which a manufacturer designates a shop as qualified to repair their vehicles — had been expanding steadily from its origins in premium and exotic brands into the mainstream. Ford's certification program for shops capable of working on the aluminum-bodied 2015 F-150 had brought the issue to wide industry attention, even though Ford's program was voluntary rather than mandatory.

"Certification appears to be a foregone conclusion for OEMs," said uParts California President Michael Quinn, a NASTF Collision Repair Committee member. "But I believe the question is what level of validation will exist if any at all?"

Panelists including VeriFacts' Farzam Afshar, I-CAR's John Bosin, Assured Performance's Aaron Clark, and Honda collision parts marketing assistant national manager Gary Ledoux were scheduled to address how quality control programs work within a collision repair business and what OEMs may eventually require.

Ledoux had previously framed the OEM interest in validation clearly: "It's important for OEMs, and other entities, to know that the vehicles under their umbrella are being properly and safely repaired as the vehicle's performance reflects on their brand." He noted that some OEMs were already using I-CAR Gold Class status, VeriFacts VQ or Medallion status, or ASE Blue Seal as third-party validation mechanisms.

Resolution Forum: Regional Issues, National Patterns

SCRS and AASP-NJ were co-hosting an East Coast Resolution Forum at 1 p.m. on March 20 — a networking and knowledge-sharing session structured around state-specific regulatory and business issues in the collision industry. The forum format is designed to allow shops from different states to compare notes on insurer behavior, legislative developments, and procedural disputes, with the recognition that issues that seem local often reflect industry-wide patterns.

Registration was required and could be completed through the Northeast events page or by calling the AASP-NJ office.

Industry Showdown: Felder vs. Montanez on the Issues That Matter

The most anticipated event of the show was an evening debate session billed as an "Industry Showdown" between Collision Hub CEO Kristen Felder and P&L Consulting co-owner Larry Montanez — two figures whose combined expertise spans direct repair program management, collision damage analysis, and estimating methodology.

The topic list for the 6:30 p.m. March 20 event read like a catalog of the industry's biggest unresolved disputes: insurer parts procurement systems, self-driving vehicle technology, paint and materials compensation, the growth of multi-shop operations, post-repair inspections, litigation, and aluminum.

Felder had run Nationwide Insurance's direct repair program before transitioning to the education and media side of the industry through Collision Hub. Montanez had spent years as a collision damage analyst with Lange Technical Services, with deep expertise in post-repair inspections and proper repair methodology. The two brought genuinely different vantage points to every topic on the list.

An open-mic format followed the structured debate, giving attendees the opportunity to engage directly with both presenters.

Why the Show Mattered

The Northeast 2015 show was attracting "deafening" buzz and notably stronger vendor participation than prior years, according to AASP-NJ. The coincidence of the OEM certification discussion, the legal and regulatory exchange at the Resolution Forum, and the open debate on industry flashpoints made it an unusually dense program for a regional trade event.

For collision repairers trying to stay current on certification requirements, their rights in dealings with insurers, and where vehicle technology was pushing the business, the March 2015 Northeast show offered a concentrated exposure to issues that would define the next several years of the industry.