I recently had the pleasure of attending American Honda’s first-ever Collision Repair Integrity Event at the American Honda Training Center in Mount Laurel, N.J.

Ed Mayer, Collision Select marketing manager for Honda covering Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Long Island and New York City, invited me, and I jumped at the chance to meet new collision repairers and learn more about Honda’s ProFirst certification program, I-CAR and Verifacts.

A sellout crowd of 100 was comprised of ProFirst certified shops, ProFirst candidates, insurers, refinish suppliers and automakers.

Before the meeting kicked off, attendees were treated to a dinner courtesy of 3M, PPG and Bill Flannery Automotive. They also received a complimentary tour of the Honda parts warehouse.

After the tour, Honda shared its message of proper repairs, vehicle integrity and consumer safety. Then, Allan Smith, northeast regional manager for I-CAR, discussed how training helps your shop compete in today’s marketplace and how to get ROI for your training dollar and time. One of the requirements of ProFirst shops is that they be either I-CAR Gold or Verifacts VQ or Medallion, which is why Verifacts representatives were also on hand to talk about their onsite quality verification and in-shop technician assessment.

“I believe there is only a percentage of the collision repair inter-industry that is up to the challenge of repairing our vehicles properly, and this meeting was a way for shops to hear our call to action and decide to step up,” said Mayer. “Proper repairs are critical to consumer safety, and our plan is to support the capable shops with added value.”