BMW Northwest 2020 Magazine - Flipbook - Page 14
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Autobody center to open
in 2020
While it’s not unusual for car
dealerships to offer in-house
engine repair and other
mechanical services for their
customers, autobody services have historically been
contracted out to shops that
specialize in exterior painting,
bumper replacement and
dent repair.
But as technology has become
more and more integrated with
car bodies, vehicles have become
more complicated to fix.
“Changes are coming at a fast
pace,” says BMW Northwest
president Manfred Scharmach.
Materials such as carbon fiber,
aluminum and light-weight
steel are quickly replacing the
conventional car body materials that have been used for
decades, and high-tech sensors, cameras and transmitters interface closely with
tires, doors and windshields.
No longer is a dented bumper a straight-forward fix.
“Repaired parts must be correctly aligned and reintegrated
with the car,” adds Scharmach.
“This is not simple.”
To keep pace with the changing autobody repair landscape,
Scharmach is opening Collision Center Northwest, an
on-campus autobody repair
facility in Tacoma. Construction for the 18,000-sq-ft facility is planned for this winter,
with the opening anticipated
in spring 2020. The facility will
be a MINI- and BMW-certified
shop, says Director of Parts
and Services Kyle Canalizo.
1 2 BMW Northwest Life 2020
Collision Center
Northwest will be
the first autobody
center in the
Northwest to have
state-of-the-art
Astra painting
equipment tailormade for the facility.
“This means we’re held to very
high standards. The shop will
undergo thorough inspections
with manufacturers to ensure
proper training and tool use is
followed before receiving certification.”
The Collision Center Northwest will also be the first autobody center in the Northwest
to have state-of-the-art Astra
painting equipment tailormade for the facility. The paint
booths are designed in Italy
and manufactured in Spain
specifically to accommodate
the use of BMW’s eco-friendly
water-based paint, which is
lower in chlorof luorocarbons than traditional solventbased paints. “This equipment
has the highest-standard
filtration and higher air f low
than anything else available.
That means it is extremely
efficient in both energy consumption and heat cycles.”
Due to higher air f low, and
because there are less contaminates in the booths, Astra
equipment produces a higherquality paint repair and delivers faster overall repair times.
Eliminating the dealership’s
role as a middleman also
means we can ensure the use
of original equipment parts
and expedite and complete
repairs faster than ever before.
“But the best part,” says
Canalizo, “is that our customers will get to do business with
people they’ve known and
trusted for the last 51 years.”