Autobody News: Celette Benches Help TX Shop Repair Vehicles Properly According to OEM Specifications

CARLSBAD, Calif., July 31, 2018 (Newswire.com) - NOTE: This June SPS profile was originally published in print in June 2018 and online in May 2018.

The number one goal at Park Place BodyWerks is to provide first-class service by treating customers like no other collision repair facility in the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex.

The technicians wouldn't want to do the kind of structural repairs that we do without the Celette benches. Every technician who uses them absolutely feels they are crucial to proper structural repairs.

Eric McKenzie, Director of Body Shop Operations, Park Place BodyWerks

With locations in Dallas, Fort Worth and Grapevine, BodyWerks is part of the Park Place family of dealerships, which was founded by Ken Schnitzer in 1987 with a single Mercedes-Benz dealership on Oak Lawn in Dallas. Over the last 30 years, the business has grown to include 14 dealerships that represent luxury brands, such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and McLaren.

Park Place has received numerous awards for being one of the top employers in the nation, as well as for its outstanding service and customer satisfaction. Eric McKenzie, director of body shop operations, said Park Place also has the number one volume collision repair and paint and body shop facility in Texas.

“The reason we have been so successful as a dealer group is because of our reputation in customer service,” said McKenzie.

Since the company was first established, the Park Place team has always strived to provide the greatest experience for customers. An important part of this is repairing vehicles properly according to OEM specifications.

The company is highly certified for all of the luxury brands they sell. These include Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Volvo, Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti, Jaguar, Maserati, Rolls Royce, Lotus, McLaren, Sprinter, and Land Rover. 

“Those names ring out to consumers as high-end and not the easiest to obtain,” he said. 

He said this demonstrates the company’s efforts to stay on top of training and ensure technicians are prepared to work on the vehicles their clients drive. 

“We have no DRPs and receive all of our work from the dealer network,” he said. “I think the fact that we have so many high-end OE certifications and keep up with the latest training and equipment sets us apart from most.”

The company also ensures it utilizes the best equipment available on the market to restore vehicles to their pre-loss condition. He said Celette benches have been instrumental to their business. 

When McKenzie began working at Park Place 11 years ago, the flagship location in Dallas/Fort Worth was using one Celette bench. Since then, they have added two more to that location and purchased a Sevenne XL Celette bench at each of their new locations. 

“The technicians wouldn’t want to do the kind of structural repairs that we do without the Celette benches,” McKenzie said. “Every technician who uses them absolutely feels they are crucial to proper structural repairs.” 

He said the use of a Celette bench with dedicated fixtures eliminates the guesswork when doing a repair. 

“The structural components can be replaced without any question, unlike non-dedicated fixture systems, which don’t have that sense of security,” McKenzie said. 

As a result, he said technicians can be 100 percent confident that the structural components they are replacing are going in exactly where the OE has specified. 

More than anything, his technicians like how precise the equipment is, and they have no concern of any error. 

“It is a phenomenal product,” he said.

McKenzie said Celette has provided the collision centers with excellent support and been very good about coming to the shop to conduct annual bench inspections and providing training refresher courses as needed. This is important to Park Place because several of the OE shop certifications require annual bench audits to ensure they have all of the components they need and that everything is in working order. 

In addition, Celette provides training at its own locations in Illinois, Michigan, Arkansas, New Jersey and Northern and Southern California. 

“They have plenty of support to cover any section of the country,” he said. 

In addition to the support and training provided by Celette, technicians attend Mercedes-Benz training on a yearly basis. During the instruction, the luxury brand allocates a portion of the course to setting up a vehicle on a Celette bench, so the technicians are well-versed and refreshed on how to set up the vehicles on the bench.

Currently, the company’s top priority is to follow OEM procedures 100 percent of the time. This includes scanning every vehicle before it leaves the shop and ensuring the vehicle is safe and restored to pre-loss condition. 

“We feel as collision repairers, it is our duty to 100 percent, unequivocally follow the manufacturers’ guidelines at every step of the way, no matter what anyone else says,” said McKenzie. 

That means replacing parts with those that the OE specifies and following every single procedure while depending on state-of-the-art equipment, such as the Celette benches. 

“It’s important to us that our clients return to a safe vehicle that won’t put them at risk,” McKenzie said.

Park Place BodyWerks
Location: Dallas / Fort Worth
Metroplex, TX
(214) 443-8250
parkplace.com

Company At A Glance...
Type: Collision Repair
Facility Employees: 150
In Business Since: 1987
Number of Locations: Three
Combined Production Space: 170,000 square feet (combined)

Celette
1-800-CELETTE
(235-3883)
celette.com

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Source: Autobody News