Recycled parts should have no signs of damage, insurer tells auto recyclers

Selling an insured on the value of using a recycled part is tricky enough, but selling a recycled part with signs of damage on it is almost impossible, an insurance company representative told auto recyclers at an industry conference.Hudd was speaking in a breakout session at a joint seminar hosted by the Automotive Recyclers of Canada and the Canadian Collision Industry Forum (CCIF) in Toronto on June 16. “You [auto recyclers] have got [recycled] parts that have an hour of damage or two hours of damage [on them to repair],” Keith Hudd, national vendor manager with The Economical Insurance Group, said to auto recyclers. “Well guess what? Our customer has a part that has damage on it, too. And think about selling that part to the customer.”The seminar was intended to spark discussion between insurers, auto recyclers and collision repair facilities about the issues concerning the use of recycled parts in collision repair and ways to solve them. In order to sell the use of a recycled part to a consumer, the part must be free of damage, Hudd said. This does not mean the part cannot be used if some time is spent cleaning up superficial damage such as stone chips, for example. But the recycled part offered to the customer must be perfect, he said. It must be exactly the same kind and quality as the part was pre-accident, or the insured is likely not going to buy it. The issue is the consumer’s perception, he said. “We’ve already sold them on a used part and we might be able to get away with it because we are saying to them it’s like kind and quality,” he said. “‘Like kind and quality’ means it didn’t have an hour’s dent in the door before the accident. “That’s what we have to sell, and those are the types of parts that we want.”