By Sheila Loftus

This is hello and goodbye.

John Yoswick, who has reported on the auto collision repair industry since 1988, will be taking over the publication of the CRASH Network as of the next issue. John is an excellent reporter and a terrific writer. He will serve his readers—you—well.

Hello, John.

For me, this is goodbye.

I began my career in the collision repair industry in 1975, soon after my 1968 yellow Volkswagen Beetle was hit in the right quarter panel by an old lady insured by Nationwide. Sam Laddon, the manager of the shop where I took my poor Beetle, put me in a rental car despite the Nationwide adjuster’s protest that I didn’t need a rental car because “You’re just a girl.

Well, he was right about one thing—I was just a girl (or at least it seems so now, 30-plus years later, looking back). But girls need rental cars as much as boys do.

In the end, the Nationwide adjuster convinced me to have my car repaired by a Nationwide-approved shop. Bad idea—for me and Nationwide.

The repair took 39 days, with the shop redoing much of the work at my insistence. (Sam Laddon helped me discern where the repairs were flawed.) This was a major hassle. My loss. The bill for storage, towing, and rental car, which went to Sam’s shop, was $463.10, almost as much as the $517.62 it cost o repair the car.

But I learned a great deal from the experience, and because of the way I handled myself throughout it, I was asked to become the publisher of Hammer and Dolly magazine and, not long thereafter, the executive director of the Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association. This wasn’t such a good thing for Nationwide or any insurer, because in my new positions, I became a tireless critic of the way the insurance industry uses its financial might to control the collision repair industry and confuse, mislead, and shortchange consumers.

I worked out of my home before it was fashionable (and before Hammer and Dolly’s growth necessitated more office space). In three decades, I employed two dozen or more people, several of whom worked for me for years. I even employed my two children, Mark and Sarah Jean Brazaitis, and a calico cat named Frumpkin. All of us believed the collision repair industry was a cause worth supporting. But even as we were serious—one of our cover stories halted the implementation of new ADP paint times—we had fun. I decided if Sports Illustrated could have a swimsuit issue, so could Hammer and Dolly. If our models weren’t as glamorous, they weren’t as high-maintenance: They posed for free.

I began publishing the CRASH Network in 1994—around the time the insurance industry’s grip on collision repairers became a chokehold—and over the years, it served as a clearinghouse of information about the auto collision repair trade. It also served as an exchange of ideas. Since CRASH came out over the weekend, subscribers considered it a Monday morning meeting of the industry. Much of what went into CRASH was generated from its subscribers. It spoke to you, and you spoke back.
I hope you, CRASH’s subscribers, will give John Yoswick the support you gave me. At least until August, I’ll serve as a consultant to CRASH.  Please don’t hesitate to continue to contact me; and if you’d like, I’ll pass on what you tell me to John.

If you haven’t made John’s acquaintance, send him an email at jyoswick@spiritone.com  or give him a call at (503) 335-0393. I know he’d love to hear from you.

There’s much I will miss about our industry. I’m tempted to name all the people, all the places, and all the events, although that would probably just bore you and make me cry.

I will say this—I will miss my readers. I am happy to have served you, to have done what I could to make your lives—and the collision repair industry as a whole—better.

Thank you, good luck, and goodbye.