OEM procedures are industry standards: NATA

The National Automotive Trades Association of Canada (NATA) has acknowledged that repair standards suggested by original equipment manufacturers should be considered industry standards.

In a press release last week, NATA said most repairers assume the repair procedures suggested by original equipment manufacturers are standards by default, but it has never been officially established.

NATA and its affiliate associations have now joined with other major associations in the United States and Australia in acknowledging as much.

The Automotive Retailers Association of British Columbia (ARA-BC), the Automotive Service and Repair Association (ASRA), the Automotive Trades Association of Manitoba (ATA Manitoba), the Hamilton District Autobody Repair Associatino (HARA), the Automotive Aftermarket Retailers of Ontario (AARO), the Collision Repair Association of Nova Scotia (CRANS), the Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC), and the Saskatchewan Association of Automotive Repairers (SAAR) have released the following joint statement:

“As the largest association of grassroots collision repairs in Canada, we hereby recognize published repair procedures, as provided by automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEM) as the official industry recognized “Repair Standards” for collision repair. These standards, where they exist, shall be the basis for the establishment of training, testing, repair practices and documentations.

Whereas we acknowledge the OEM repair procedures are incomplete in comparison to the full scope of vehicles and repair operations which exist in the marketplace, the OEM published repair procedures shall serve as the baseline for industry repair standards, with the recognition that further development of procedures will be necessary in areas not covered by published procedures.”

As well as Canada’s National Automotive Trades Association, and the Collision Repair Specialists of Australia, other associations signing on to this statement are 22 U.S. state associations, as well as the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers , the Automotive Service Association, the Society of Collision Repair Specialists and the Assured Performance Network.

For further information, please contact NATA.