Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Fourth Generation NY Auto Body Shop Relies on Autel for Diagnosing Cars with ADAS

Alpha Collision & Car Care in Garden City, NY, is a fourth-generation family business that performs its in-house diagnostics with the help of Autel’s industry-leading ADAS Calibration Package.

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If you ask anyone on Long Island about Alpha Collision & Car Care in Garden City, NY, they will tell you this fourth-generation family business runs a shop that does it all and does it well.

Their extensive menu of services includes full collision and mechanical repair, glass work, some restoration work, fleet services, towing and in-house diagnostics, with the help of Autel and its industry-leading ADAS Calibration Package.

Shop Manager Vinny Sinigalli Jr. is only 24, but he is already a seasoned pro. He runs a crew of 17 and repairs 150 to 200 vehicles every month. He’s proud of what his grandfather, father and uncle have achieved over the years and is driven to continue their legacy.

Much of their success can be credited to over-the-top customer service and using OE repair procedures to fix many of today’s cars that are packed with more computers than were in the original NASA landing module.

The shop values Autel’s amazing products and customer service support.

Back when Sinigalli’s father, Vinny Sr., entered the industry, ADAS was just a dream and autonomous transportation was something out of a sci-fi movie.

“I remember one time, my dad got frustrated trying to scan a new vehicle with ADAS and he said, ‘We didn’t have to deal with this (blank) back in the 1970s and 1980s!’” Sinigalli said.

For several years, the shop relied on local car dealerships for the lion’s share of their diagnostics. But when pre- and post-calibrations became a bigger part of the picture, the Sinigallis knew taking their diagnostics in-house was going to be a smart investment.

With a large number of 2021 and 2022 vehicles coming into Alpha Collision & Car Care every month, the Autel tech support team has been working with Sinigalli and his crew to confirm calibration issue solutions if and when they happen. Working with newer model systems means his team needs access to the latest vehicle coverage and system diagnostics to properly repair and accurately calibrate every vehicle.

Autel is more than just another vendor for Alpha Collision Car Care, Sinigalli said.

“Use of their powerful diagnostics software has increased our business," he said. "The AutoScan feature with ADAS module identification has helped team members easily confirm which vehicles are equipped with sensors or not, before completing the pre-scan and more accurately outlining blueprinting estimate costs.”

Alpha Collision Car Care is now known in its community as the area’s ADAS experts, with other shops and even dealerships reaching out for help.

“Many of the collision repairers in our area are still trying to job out their diagnostics," Sinigalli said. "They’re competitors, but we don’t mind helping them. In the end, it all comes down to safety, which is more important than dollars and cents.”

The Autel MaxiSys ADAS Calibration Tool has become the backbone of Sinigalli’s diagnostics. He and his crew can rely on the fact all of their tools from Autel provide them with...

...complete diagnostic functionality and enable them to perform comprehensive and precise ADAS calibrations. With software that’s updated constantly in order to work on every car they fix, Autel MaxiSys ADAS tools are ideal for shops like Alpha Collision that perform every aspect of collision and mechanical repair.

If the crew at Alpha Collision needs to take their diagnostics on the road, they also have an Autel MaxiSys ADAS Portable Calibration Tool—MA600. The frame can be easily folded and disassembled quickly, and both of their systems work in conjunction with their MaxiSys diagnostic scanner. It’s a high-powered 8-inch advanced diagnostic tablet featuring expanded software and cloud-based data and repair services.

Alpha Collision & Car Care is now known in its community as the area’s ADAS experts.

Sinigalli is delighted to be associated with Autel for several reasons, with training and customer support a big part of the overall equation, he said.

“At this point, myself and two of my techs can use the equipment and we’re in the process of training one more person to do the diagnostics,” he said. “Maybe the best part of the whole thing is that we don’t have to take vehicles to the dealerships. If we ever encounter a problem, we contact Autel and get next-day answers. Their responsiveness is refreshing and the hardware is well-made, so we rarely have issues.

"We also get great product support from our local exclusive distributor of Autel systems, Autopart International in Hempstead, NY. They’re very knowledgeable about the equipment and are extremely willing to do whatever we need to keep us up and running at all times.”

When Vinny Jr. hits retirement age, it will be 2063 and autonomous vehicles will be the norm rather than the exception. Will Sinigalli and his crew be able to stay up on all of the new vehicles, some of which will likely fly or swim into his shop?

“I’m happy to be in this industry and excited about what the future will hold,” he said. “But as long as we have a partner like Autel, we will be able to diagnose any type of vehicle---self-driving or not!”

To download a PDF of this article, click here.

To read more auto body shop profiles from the June 2022 Shop & Product Showcase, click here.