More than 40 years ago, a body shop owner named Dave Adams began giving away refurbished vehicles to those in need. Over time, the giftings were formalized by AkzoNobel as the Acoat Selected National Benevolence Program. Inspired by the impact of these efforts, the National Auto Body Council® (NABC) began donating vehicles as part of the Recycled Rides® program in 2007.
Adams will be recognized for his initiative and role in the vehicle giveaways during the NABC Recycled Rides ceremony Nov. 5 at the 2024 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, NV.
Autobody News talked to Adams about what inspired him to gift cars in his early 20s and how the initiative evolved.
A self-described motorhead, Adams began working at his father Kay’s collision repair facility in Utah in seventh grade and continued through high school. After graduating, he joined United States Steel for a few years. Although he enjoyed it, he missed being in the shop. When he was 23, Adams opened his own facility, Dave Adams Classic Auto Repair, in Orem, UT, with two employees.
Dave Adams grew his business to include four locations with 75 employees.
“I had a pretty good head start because of my involvement in my dad's business and people knew me locally,” he recalled.
About four years into running his business, Adams started a towing company. Occasionally, he found what he considered to be decent cars with minor damage.
“I didn't know what to do with them other than take them to the junkyard,” he said.
To help support the community, he started giving away vehicles to people who needed “a hand up, not a handout.”
Adams considers his mother, Beppy DeHaas, who worked at his shop for 20 years, the inspiration behind this effort. Over the years, he recognized how hard she worked as a single mom raising three boys. While Adams was in elementary school, he remembers a neighbor offering to paint his mom’s old car, a four-door AMC Rambler.
“My mother loved the color purple and he painted it purple metal flake,” recalled Adams. “It was a wreck. Just imagine a four-door Rambler with a purple metal flake paint job.”
Adams considers his first official car giveaway “with thoughtfulness” to be a blue Ford Taurus station wagon. Once it was fixed up and painted, his next thought was, “How do you give a car away?”
He went to the nearby unemployment office and asked one of the counselors if there were any clients who had job opportunities but no transportation.
“The counselor just happened to have a family standing there with two little kids,” said Adams.
With the Ford keys in hand, Adams told the father, “If I could have a minute of your time, I would like to help your family with transportation by giving you a car.”
Adams drove the family to the Department of Motor Vehicles, paid to get the car licensed and plated and then funded the first six months of insurance.
About three weeks later, Adams was driving home and stopped at a gas station. He noticed a Taurus station wagon with curtains on the side windows, two thermos ice coolers in the back and a little mattress with two kids on it. He realized the car was the same one he had given to the father in need.
“We didn't have much conversation other than me asking how he was doing,” said Adams.
The man remembered Adams and thanked him for the station wagon. He had been working for about three weeks and nearly had enough money to rent an apartment.
“I probably cried driving away because my first thought was, ‘I didn't only give him a car, I gave him a house to live in while he could prepare for a home,’” he shared.
That was the same year Adams began creating a process to give away vehicles. At the time, he was president of the Utah Valley State College (UVSC) Alumni Association. The school had a technical program where Adams took classes over the years and later became a mentor. The college offered an option called Turning Point, where adults could learn basic skills to help find a job.
Adams contacted the coordinators and asked for a list of people who had great potential but no transportation.
“I would do my due diligence, evaluate the people, and then decide who should receive a car,” he said.
He also received letters from residents who knew somebody who needed help.
Adams and his employees repaired the vehicles and painted them using products donated by AkzoNobel. He contacted the recipients to let them know they had won something and invited them to bring their families to his shop.
“We never had anybody not come,” he noted.
A luncheon was set out and a big bow was placed on each vehicle. Adams also filled the cars with gifts for the kids and held a presentation, talking about the collision industry and thanking the person for coming to the luncheon.
“Then I would say that the biggest reason you’re here is that you and your family are getting a car today,” he said. “It was just so awesome.”
Dave Adams said he never donated cars for accolades. His goal was to help those less fortunate.
The vehicle giveaways were mainly held at his facility during the holidays. Every year, Adams gifted at least one car; sometimes, it was three or four depending on whether he found somebody who really needed help.
In 1999, Adams shared the vehicle gifting idea with his Acoat Selected North American Performance Group (NAPG) members as part of the new ideas contest. At first, the reaction he received from about 70% of the men was very negative.
“They couldn’t believe I would give someone a car and then walk away,” he said.
In response, Adams told them that until they had experienced it, they wouldn’t understand.
“Knowing that you have made such a difference in 10 minutes that would change their life forever is amazing,” he emphasized.
Although many shop owners weren’t in support, he said 100% of the wives, business partners or secretaries at the meeting were blown away.
“The biggest influence in my life is my wife, Shelly,” Adams said. “If my wife told me, David, you'd better do this, that's something that I would have needed to do.”
Adams ultimately won the new idea contest, although many in attendance wanted proof the program would benefit their businesses.
Following the meeting, Adams contacted local news channels and invited his friends to the next car giveaway. At the following performance group meeting, he showed VHS recordings of every major channel headlining the donation, as well as a full-page color print newspaper ad.
“I gave them solid proof of what they could get financially if that was their goal and the men were eventually blown away, too.”
However, Adams said that was never his intention.
“I never did this, not even once, to get my shop any accolades,” he shared. “My goal always was to help those less fortunate by giving cars away.”
Recognizing the benefits and impact of the vehicle giftings, AkzoNobel adopted the program and named it the AkzoNobel Acoat Selected National Benevolence Program. It became an official part of the Acoat Selected NAPG, available to all Sikkens users. Later, the name was shortened to the National Benevolence Program.
The goal was to present refurbished cars to deserving individuals or organizations during the holiday season. Participating shops worked with local charitable organizations to help identify an individual or group in need of a vehicle. Many also contacted local vendors to receive donations for insurance coverage, parts, oil changes, car washes, tires, car seats and toys.
“The mission of the community relations program was to generate goodwill at the local level while improving and promoting the image of the collision repair industry,” said Rick Fifer, central business services manager at AkzoNobel.
A newspaper ad for Dave Adams' shop.
To help support participating shops, AkzoNobel provided a media list, an event planning and media relations guide and signage.
In 1999, fewer than five cars were given out. Just five years later, 45 were gifted.
“Participants said that initially, they were looking forward to receiving some free publicity, but after experiencing their first giveaway, most agreed that they would do it again without any publicity because they loved the ‘feel-good’ factor of giving back to their communities in a time of need,” Fifer shared.
In 2005, Fifer said AkzoNobel felt it would be beneficial to involve a nonprofit organization in the initiative to increase its credibility and garner more media attention so it would not come across as a paint company or body shop attempting to get free publicity.
AkzoNobel approached NABC about getting involved in the project and helping it grow. The company also provided its standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the program, which led shops through a formalized process to source, repair and gift vehicles.
Two years later, NABC started Recycled Rides.
AkzoNobel ended its National Benevolence in 2018, urging the handful of legacy participants to maintain their giftings under the NABC banner.
Since 2007, more than 3,300 vehicles have been donated as part of Recycled Rides, valued at approximately $47 million, according to the NABC website.
Adams, who was involved with vehicle giftings for about 35 years, has many fond memories of the experiences.
One of the giveaways was held at a community college basketball game during halftime. “It was so cool,” he recalled. “They let me drive the car up on the lawn to the entrance to the stadium.”
Another memorable giveaway was to a lady who had a daughter with a disability.
“We had to figure out a way to help her with special needs,” said Adams. “During the giveaway, the young daughter’s grandfather came up to me in tears, and his whole heart poured into my shoulder. It still makes me tear up.”
Adams also developed special relationships through his involvement in the donations over the years.
“AkzoNobel helped me tremendously. I don't think my business would have grown to the extent it did had it not been for the Acoat Selected program,” he shared.
Adams remembers being invited to an AkzoNobel meeting in Washington, D.C., shortly after AkzoNobel took over the initiative.
“I walked up the stairs and there was a full-size cardboard image of me at this big event. I was blown away,” he said. “They called me the grandfather of the Benevolence Program.”
For many years, Adams used salvaged and repaired vehicles or purchased cars himself for the giveaways. Local wrecking yards offered to donate parts for repairs.
“Sometimes, it took a little nudge, but eventually, I got enough people on board that I didn't always have to buy the cars,” he said.
When the giftings were coordinated under the National Benevolence Program, insurance companies often donated vehicles.
“Farmers Insurance was one of my largest direct repair facilities that I worked with. A great friend of mine who was an adjuster, Mont Collier, helped me set up part of the program with Farmers Insurance,” he said.
Adams’ wife, Shelly, and children Nick, Tanaca and Noah, always supported the vehicle giftings. Nick and Tanaca both worked at the shop for several years and Adams’ brother, Joe, was employed there for more than 20 years.
When he was 46, Adams sold his business to a small conglomerate. “It was a five-year contract sale and they defaulted in four years,” he explained.
Adams was initially hesitant about taking the shop back but decided to move forward.
“Fortunately for me, I had many friends in the business and people knew me well enough that we were back on top within four months and profitable,” he said.
Over the next decade, Adams grew his business to include four locations with 75 employees; he also managed a dealership location. He later sold to Gerber Collision & Glass.
His advice for shop owners considering gifting vehicles is to get involved personally.
“For it to manifest and build and grow, the owner has to have the heart, the willingness and the wanting to do it,” he said. “To do that, you've got to dive in headfirst.”
He compares it to unconditional love.
“You have to go into this with a clean heart, have no expectations and know that you’ve done a great thing,” he emphasized. “Don't look back; just move forward and be proud of helping your community.”
After selling his business and retiring, Adams said it’s an overwhelming feeling to receive recognition during the NABC ceremony.
“After a certain amount of time when you have been out of an industry, you start feeling irrelevant,” he said. “This recognition puts relevancy back into my life and I think it will for the rest of my life. It really puts a cherry on the top of everything I worked for.”
Stacey Phillips Ronak