Busby said the collision center has seen steady growth of 10 to 15 percent a year since the dealership moved to its current location 11 years ago.  The regular gains allowed him to make the decision in 2001 to cut out other makes, which accounted for about 10 to 15 percent of the volume at the time, he said.

"The other makes really came to us through DRP programs and tended to be other high-line cars," Busby said.  "We lost one DRP because of the decision but another one immediately stepped in, so it didn't really hurt us at all."

The real benefit to the shop was the efficiency gained by focusing on a line of cars that the technicians worked on regularly and the dealership stocked parts for, Busby said.  "I think it made us more profitable because there was less downtime looking up procedures or waiting for parts," he said.  "We were able to put more cars through, which ultimately brings profits up."

Even after limiting the shop to Mercedes, the growth continued unabated until 2007, Busby said, by which time the shop was averaging $1.35 million a month in sales.  Business dropped to an average of $1.28 million a month in 2007, he said but added that business has improved in 2008 and is back up to around $1.32 million a month, bringing it very near capacity.

"Up until last year, we were running at capacity," Busby said.  "I didn't even want to see it rain because it just complicated things.  Right now, I would say we are running at about 95 percent capacity."

While the shop's profitability is helped by its specialization, Busby said they have seen some erosion caused by the growth of parts as a percentage of the repair costs, due to more bolt-on components, noting that in a dealership body shop, parts profits are recorded by the parts department rather than the body shop.

To help break down supervision of the large facility, Busby said each of the shop's five estimators works with three to four technicians, one painter, and one polisher.  "We went this way five or six years ago," he said.  "We were having a lot of scheduling problems.  This way each service writer has a little better handle on where his guys are at.  The adviser also isn't chasing all over the shop to get information on his cars."

Each of the 20 technicians is assigned two stalls, Busby said, one of which includes either a Benwill above-ground lift -- for those bays over the service department--or an in-ground lift for those located over grade.  Each bay has shelving above the tool boxes, and technicians use rolling carts to store parts in another area of the shop following teardown.  The storage is critical, he said, because the shop usually has 100 to 125 cars in various stages of repair.

Busby said that four years ago, the shop subscribed to the VeriFacts system to get an expert outside opinion on the quality of the repairs the shop does.  "We have some really excellent technicians here, but part of how we make sure is by having this extra set of eyes," he said.  "The technicians were a bit leery at first, but now they actually look forward to them coming in.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, they are doing fine, and this is outside recognition of that."

The VeriFacts inspector arrives unannounced once a month to look at jobs in progress, Busby said.  "They often key in on repairs that include structural repair and welding," he said.  "It's the most critical part of the repair, and if your ever get a BAR complaint, they are really going to key in on that.  It's a little peace of mind knowing that the guys are doing what the should be and are putting out quality work."

The shop's consistent quality and efforts to improve further earned two of its team members Technician of the Year Awards, Busby said, and in 2007 the collision center earned the VeriFacts Repair Center ACE Award.

Busby said the center has also received some training from VeriFacts over the years but focus primarily on I-CAR and Mercedes-Benz training for the technicians.  "The owner of the dealership is very big on training, and Mercedes has really started to look at body shops and develop some training tracks," he said.  He said the shop has completed six I-CAR training courses exclusively for its technicians at the shop in the last four months.

Shop technicians also attend many Mercedes-Benz classes in collision repair and also mechanical repair, Busby said.  He said he prefers that the collision center technicians perform the majority of their own mechanical repairs because it keeps the higher-labor-rate repairs in the body shop and eliminates any delays.  The collision center has its own Mercedes STAR factory diagnostic tool, he said, and generally only needs to pass on alignments to the service department.

The collision center is equipped with eight Celette benches and one Chief EZ Liner frame rack, Busby said.  "Mercedes does not approve any structural repairs unless it's done on a dedicated bench," he said.  "The EZ Liner is a carryover from when we worked on other makes, but it does come in handy on occasion."

The paint department is equipped with one Saico Hydroline paint booth that was set up for waterborne when it was purchased and one Blowtherm booth that has been retrofitted with a Junair QADs supplemental airflow system.  "They both do the job," Busby said.  "Actually, if you could combine the two, it would work even better.  It's all about increasing airflow."

In 2003, with the shop needing to increase its paint department volume but unable to add another booth because of the facility's design, Busby chose to add an infrared arch system to the paint booths.  The arches feature a computer system on which the painter enters the panels that were repaired, allowing the arches to move over the car and heat those repaired panels and speed drying times. 

"It really was as good as adding another paint booth," he said.  "It's not as beneficial today with waterborne, which is more dependent on airflow than heat, but we can still use it on clearcoats."

Busby said the shop changed from the Spies Hecker solvent basecoat system to its waterborne paint system about eight months ago and has been happy with the results.  "We are struggling with a couple of color matches," he said.  "The waterborne seems to be a little harder to match, but when we do have trouble, we get phenomenal support from our Spies rep Miguel Salazar and from our supplier FinishMaster.

"The waterborne does cover better," he said, "but it is also more expensive.  Our average material bill has gone up 15.5 percent."