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Milestones: Columbus Auto Body
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Business New Haven
11/24/2003
By: Melissa Nicefaro
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Columbus Auto Body
487 Columbus Avenue New Haven. CT 06519
Phone: 203-865-3155 Fax: 203-752-1117
Ownership: Vincent DiLauro, Anthony DiLauro
Milestone: 75 years
Timeline: Columbus Auto Body was founded in 1928 by Vincenzo DiLauro, an Italian immigrant who settled in the Columbus Avenue neighborhood of New Haven. DiLauro married his natural mechanical skills to the opportunities he saw in the booming automobile industry and started his own auto-repair shop.
Today, Columbus Auto Body stands on the original site and is owned and operated by the third and fourth generations of the DiLauro family: grandsons Vincent (president) and Anthony (vice president), granddaughter-in-law Mary Ellen (comptroller), and great-granddaughter Jennifer (towing operations manager).
Vincenzo ran the business from 1928 until he passed away in 1944. Then his three sons took over. They operated the business until 1964, when two of the three brothers left the business. Vincent's and Anthony's father stayed on and ran the business until 1968, when he passed away and the current owners - Vincent and Anthony - took over.
The business has grown steadily over the years.
In the early 1970s, Vincent and Anthony branched out into the towing business. Wrecked cars is the DiLauro brother's forte, but they've also added auto detail work, front-end alignments, under-car service and mufflers to their repertoire.
Achievements and Accomplishments:
The DiLauro brothers' largest achievement, they say, is customer satisfaction.
"Our proudest achievement here is having satisfied customers." Vincent DiLauro says. "The people who come here when the need arises recommend people. One thing that's stayed the same is our focus and our attention to customers. We all strive here - not just myself as president - for happy customers."
Aside from relying on word-of-mouth advertising, a four-page "Discover Columbus Auto Body Works" newsletter is mailed four times a year to Columbus' customer base. The newsletter addresses car safety, car repair, new technology, and a bit about the auto body company.
Columbus also advertises on WELI-AM radio during rush hours. "We've done that for a number of years and have been very successful with getting the word out," DiLauro notes.
Four tow trucks comprise what DiLauro calls the company's "marketing arm." Columbus has two light-duty trucks, one medium-duty and one heavy-duty flatbed.
Columbus technicians are trained and certified through the towing association's training sessions. Auto body technicians and auto paint technicians also go through regular certification processes.
"We do an awful lot of training where we bring in various manufacturers like DuPont and 3M and with their help, we're able to do training that's continuous," DiLauro says.
The auto body shop as grown over the years to 20 full- and part-time employees. The towing operation runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"This year has been a good year, but it's weather-related," DiLauro says. "Somebody always benefits from the bad weather." Rain and snow has played a part in influencing the business climate.
Looking Back on a Changing Industry:
Technology has brought about many changes in the car-repair business.
"Today we do a lot of replacement of parts, personnel has to have a considerable amount of training, the design of the automobile today is not only metal, there are many other products," says DiLauro. "There are computers in the vehicles.
"Education and training for employees is something we put a lot more time into and it's very much needed in order to do this," he adds. Today's equipment has changed drastically in the 35 years DiLauro has been with the business.
"There was a lot more repairing of cars back then, and car paint only came in two colors: black or black," DiLauro quips.
Now there are down-draft spray booths for painting and a variety of types of paint.
"There used to be one type of paint: lacquer. Now we have base coat, clear coat, and a tri-coat system where you have a color base coat and coatings that are applied next and clear coats on top of that. In some cases you've got a tri-coat with a pearl additive."
Technology has made the complicated painting process somewhat easier as computers are used in mixing paints. Estimates and bookkeeping are also now done on a computer at the auto body shop.
"Technology has enhanced our business and computers are a great source for referencing parts," DiLauro says.
"It's more challenging today, dealing with the business and change in the car-repair climate," DiLauro says. "We work for the owner of the car and not the insurance companies. We are not a direct-repair facility used by insurance companies. That's changed the industry - insurance companies have gotten more involved with the claims processing.
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