Advanced High Strength Steel

If handled improperly, the structural integrity of damaged vehicles may be at risk

by Anne Koppel Conway

“In a nutshell the primary reason behind the use of advanced high strength steel (AHSS) is the reduction of fuel consumption – reducing our carbon footprint – and the safety of vehicle occupants,” said John Leddy, owner and managing member of LDC Consulting. The Seattle based company sells equipment and offers training related to working on high strength steels used in the auto industry.

In addition to wanting to improve the safety of a vehicle and reduce fuel consumption, automakers hope to reduce their manufacturing costs by using the special alloyed steel, he said. The newer steels allow manufacturers to use fewer pieces for parts, because fewer joints are needed to create a part with the new steel.

The use of advanced high-strength steel reduces a vehicle’s structural weight by as much as 25 percent, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

“But as the new steels are becoming thinner and stronger, they are becoming more brittle,” Leddy said.

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A body shop’s arbitration experience

by Anne Koppel Conway

PORTLAND, OR—Stemming from a 2005 repair, a customer sued a greater Portland area body shop for fraud, breach of warranty, holding the customer’s vehicle without justification for 18 months and violations of the Unlawful Trade Practices Act.

Strong charges. (For this article the body shop chose anonymity.)

This past spring the suit ended up in arbitration.

After hearing 2½ days of testimony from the parties and their expert witnesses and participating in the examination of the vehicle in question, the judge / arbitrator in making his ruling, said that the claimant (customer) had gone after the body shop’s “jugular” and had been pursuing the case “as if the controversy was over the death of a child, rather than the repair of an automobile.”

In an effort to be charitable, the judge said the claimant “may have been following his experts’ advice throughout” the case, but “such reliance turned out to be mistaken and unreasonable.”

The claimant “vigorously pursued” the case – “adding punitive damages and refusing to negotiate in any range that bore a reasonable relationship to the claimed actual damages.”

During the mediation, the claimant “wanted something with six-figures.”

To defend itself the body shop and its attorney were “reasonably required to put up a correspondingly strong defense.”

As a result, the judge awarded the body shop $97,666.25 for attorney’s fees, costs and disbursements.