11.23.21 – “Don’t ask a question you don’t want the answer to because I’m going to give you an answer, and I really don’t care whether you like it or not,” Larry Montanez of P&L Consultants warned during the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey’s (AASP/NJ) November 17 meeting. Held at Gran Centurions in Clark, NJ, the in-person estimating seminar focused on Toyota required procedures, not-included items, estimating consistency and more.

Guiding nearly 100 attendees through the process of writing an estimate to replace a quarter panel on a 2020 Toyota Camry, Montanez recommended repairers start by visiting I-CAR’s Repairability Technical Support (RTS) Portal and then proceeding to Toyota’s Technical Information System (TIS) to review OEM repair procedures; in the example used, 33 repair procedures were reviewed to complete the repair!

Montanez touted the benefits of using the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG). “The DEG gives you the P-pages for CCC, Mitchell and Audatex. If you’re not using the DEG, you’re only screwing yourself.”

The meeting concluded with a special Q&A segment, “Larry Live!” during which Montanez tackled some of the industry’s most pressing issues. He concluded by discouraging attendees from applying all of the techniques he’d discussed immediately.
“Unless you have an asinine amount of money and want to go to court constantly, you can’t dive in headfirst. Take one bite at a time; do it slowly and progressively, and you’ll get there over time with less hassle.”

As the Q&A segment came to a close, AASP/NJ President Jerry McNee urged attendees:

“Do something with the information you learn. It’s like a puzzle. You’ve got 1,000 little pieces, and your job is putting those pieces together to form the puzzle – and then use it. Never stop learning; there’s plenty of room for improvement. There’s strength in numbers, and if we all start doing things the same way, it’ll make our jobs and lives a little bit easier.”

AASP/NJ’s next educational seminar will be held on December 15 featuring a presentation on OEM Certification by Dave Gruskos of Reliable Automotive Equipment.

For more information about AASP/NJ, visit aaspnj.org.