An ice business

Body shop owner Scott Shawver walked through his packed impound yard Friday pointing out casualties from the region’s skating rink-slick streets.

Sideswiped Jeep Grand Cherokee. Damage estimate: $4,000.

Toyota pickup truck that slid into a concrete barrier: $13,000.

Postcard-size scrape on the side of a Chevy Suburban: $618.

New bumper and quarter panel for the white Mercedes from California: at least $5,000.

“We’re running out of room to park all the cars,” said Shawver, owner of Body by Scotty in Post Falls. “We’re slammed.”

Shops across the Inland Northwest are now inundated with wrecked vehicles. After several dry winters, many smaller body repair shops went out of business. For those remaining, these are the new days of milk and honey.

“I don’t want to sound like a vulture, but this is what everyone prays for to get them through the hard times,” Shawver said.

Backlogs are already approaching over a month at several large shops. Although the worst crashes have already been towed to the body shops, many other vehicles were able to be driven away. They won’t start arriving in shops until early this week, said Larry Gilliam, owner of Geiger Body Shop.

“They’ve already had bad luck on the roads. A lot of times they wait inside until the roads clear out,” Gilliam said. “The fear keeps them in.”

More people are walking away from crashes unharmed today thanks to vehicle technology designed to absorb the force of impacts, but this also means that even low-speed mishaps can require high-dollar repairs, Gilliam said.

“The cars these days cannot be hit very hard,” he said.

Long gone is the time when a dent was fixed with a hammer and some body fill, he said. Most fixes today require a complete replacement of the part. Gilliam said a recent minor fix on a 2004 Mazda sports car cost $3,600. “That was just a scuff.”

North Idaho shop owners say business is especially brisk. They say many of their crashes have come from the region’s new residents. Many of the newcomers moved from southern states, where the only winter driving skill needed was knowing how to put up the top on a convertible.

“They came up here last winter and thought, ‘Hey, no problem,’ ” said Paul Solamito, owner of Lake City Auto Body in Coeur d’Alene. “Well, now they’re going to experience a real winter.”

Solamito said his shop has been nearly “overwhelmed” by the number of wrecks. “We’ll be backlogged all the way to March. We’re going to have every stall full and a two or three week outlay through March. That’s just with this storm. If we get black ice or an ice storm, there won’t be a body shop in town that will have the capacity.”

Rick Anderson, owner of Jerry’s Body Shop and Sunset Towing, has been trying for months to double the size of his 10-person repair technician work force. Anderson even placed advertisements in newspapers 120 miles away to get ready for the volume that can come in with a typical North Idaho winter.

But the sheer number of newcomers and strength of the storm means it would take an army of mechanics to keep up with the onslaught of wrecked vehicles, Anderson said. The situation was made worse after several smaller repair shops closed after last winter.

“No snow, no business,” he explained.

Anderson said he doesn’t know yet how many vehicles will come into his shop, but he knows he will be busy. His office staff was on the phone constantly during the storm providing repair estimates. His 10 tow trucks were so swamped they could only respond to emergencies. Many of the calls for tow trucks were from new residents stranded at the top or bottom of steep driveways or hilly roads, Anderson said, noting that real estate brochures don’t play up the fact that 100 inches of snow is not unusual for North Idaho. Several drivers called and asked to be towed up roads leading to their homes.

“We literally had to turn them down and couldn’t help. It’s emergency-basis only,” Anderson said, standing a few feet from a Toyota Avalon that needs $9,000 worth of body repair work.

More often than not, those stranded by steep, icy driveways had four-wheel drive vehicles, Anderson said.

That trend was also noticed by Shawver. Of all the wrecks coming in from the snow and ice, “the majority of them are four-wheel drive,” he said. “When you have a four-wheel drive and studded tires, people feel invincible.”

Shawver said he tries to console the distraught drivers. Modern lives revolve around vehicles. The backlogged shops mean many drivers won’t see their cars again for weeks, he said. Insurance often provides temporary reimbursement for a rental car, but many drivers will exhaust this benefit before their vehicles are ready.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to tell anybody – that I can’t fix your car until after Christmas,” Shawver said. “It’s like cutting off their legs.”

Shawver is already running two shifts at his body shop. His workers are becoming exhausted by the long hours, but the wrecks keep coming. More vehicles were being dropped off by the hour. Shawver’s impound yard was at full capacity. Every available space around the shop had a parked wreck. On the side of the garage was a smashed Dodge Grand Caravan minivan. The vehicle still had the sticker from the dealer.

“Happened the day they bought it,” Shawver said.