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Consumers who embrace Ford's aluminum intensive 2015 F-150 pickup truck may be faced with higher insurance rates and a harder time finding body repair technicians qualified to repair aluminum panels once they do file an insurance claim. Darrell Amberson, chairman of the Automotive Service Association, estimated that less than 10% of the more than 30,000 independent repair shops in the United States are certified for meeting training and equipment standards needed to work with aluminum body parts. Independent shops do the vast bulk of collision repair in the U.S. according to Amberson. Higher insurance rates could also affect residual values, driving lease prices up.
Ford estimates that the new F-150 will be about 10% more expensive to insure but it hopes that consumers will accept that cost in return for better fuel economy and improved towing and payload capacities. According to Ford, the current F-150 is cheaper to insure than competitors' trucks, so it will be loyal Ford truck buyers who notice the difference the most.
Doug Scott, Ford's truck marketing manager, said last week at the Detroit auto show that, "At the end of the day, that's sort of a wash. We've spent a lot of time and feel very comfortable that that's not going to be an inhibitor."
As for finding a qualified collision shop, Ford says that by the time the 2015 F-150 arrives at dealers 80% of customers live within 30 minutes of a qualified repair facility and 90% of consumers are two hours or less from a capable shop. Those figures match those for the current steel bodied F-150.
Ford will have to devote resources to aftermarket education and training. The F-150 is the highest profile and highest volume vehicle to switch from steel to aluminum. "You don't get any more mainstream than the F-150," said the collision trade group's Amberson, whose day job is VP of operations for LaMettry's Collision Inc. in Minneapolis. "We've just been waiting for the reveal to unveil a certification process for dealer-owned body shops and the independent channel," Ford's Scott said.
Repair shops that don't already work with aluminum will have to invest in tools and training. Separate wire brushes, grinders and sanding discs have to be used to avoid the galvanic corrosion that occurs when two different metals come into contact. Aluminum requires different techniques to return it to its original shape than steel.
In an April 2013 webinar, Jeff Poole, a coordinator for I-CAR, a collision-repair industry training organization, said, "Aluminum has a very poor memory and it resists straightening attempts. Experience really pays dividends here, and this is where we've got a learning curve ahead of us."
Ford COO Mark Fields told the Automotive News World Congress held in Detroit last week that service was one of the factors weighed in the 18 month process determining if aluminum was a practical choice.
The light alloy panels are thicker than a typical steel panel and Ford is also selling the point that those thicker panels will be more dent resistant, requiring fewer repairs.
"The new F series is going to be more dent- and ding-resistant," Fields said. "Our engineers have great tests where they're dropping bowling balls. We've actually been testing this with a number of our customers, in the construction industry, the mining industry, to help us."
Ford is taking a gamble with the switch to aluminum. Audi and Jaguar sell aluminum bodied cars, but they are made and sold in volumes far smaller than those of the F-150, often said to be the best selling vehicle in North America.
"This is the biggest bet of the show and maybe one of the biggest bets ever in the car industry," Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, the largest retailer of new cars and light trucks in the U.S., said. "Ford is going to have to execute, and building at that volume in aluminum has never been done in the history of the automobile business. And there are reasons it hasn't been done: It's expensive, and it's complicated and it's difficult to work with."
"We're going to have to develop, prepare, train for another new technology. It's a lot to ask [of dealers]", Jackson said. "But that's the price of leadership."
from The Truth About Cars http://ift.tt/Jh8LjA
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