Identifix Founder Bill Sauer Receives AMI Annual Recognition Award

ST. PAUL, Minn.--Identifix, one of the nation’s premier sources of online and hotline diagnostic and repair information, today announced that Bill Sauer, AAM, founder of Identifix, received the Automotive Management Institute’s (AMI’s) most prestigious honor - the AMI Annual Recognition Award. The award is presented to an individual who has taken specific and significant action to encourage, enhance and support opportunities for automotive service industry professionals to improve their management and business skills.

The award was presented during the Automotive Service Association (ASA) Celebration of Excellence, held May 5, in Nashville, TN, by AMI Board of Trustees Chairman, John Francis, AAM. “For many years Bill has given endlessly of his time, knowledge and wisdom to guide and strengthen the Institute,” said Francis. “His leadership has helped AMI achieve great success.”

Sauer accepted the award and stated, “It is a great honor to receive this award and be recognized for my deep commitment to the automotive service industry and continuing education.”

Sauer earned the Accredited Automotive Manager (AAM) designation in 1997 and has served on the AMI Board of Trustees since 1999.

While serving on the AMI Board, Sauer helped to define curriculum and establish degrees for every position from the service writer to the painter and estimator, so each could have their own separate category of specialization. He also helped develop a wider offering of web based training, to help those that cannot take the time off work to train.

“I have been around AMI long enough to see what it has done for many, many shops that were floundering and after AMI classes were very successful,” commented Sauer. “Identifix provides shops with the technical information to help them fix cars but it will not do any good if cars don’t come in the door – that’s where AMI comes in; teaching shops the management and marketing skills,” Sauer added.

About Identifix:

Founded in 1987, Automotive Service Information, which operates under the brand name Identifix, has evolved into the nation’s best source for knowledge of what breaks on vehicles, what vehicles it breaks on, and how to fix those vehicles correctly. Identifix has built this knowledge base through continual analysis of data. The knowledge base is created from data gathered from the more than 250,000 annual calls it receives from technicians seeking diagnostic assistance for vehicle repair problems; its staff of 39 Master Technicians (with over 600 years combined years of experience performing vehicle diagnostics); and the nation’s most comprehensive on-site library of factory vehicle service information.

The Identifix products and services include: Repair Hotline™, Direct-Hit™, Repair Trac™, and consulting services to automotive equipment manufacturers. Identifix's most recent awards included 2003 MOTOR TOP 20 Tool and 2004 ASA Benefit of the Year. For more information visit: www.identifix.com.

About AMI:

AMI was established to answer the demand for continuing education tailored specifically for the business needs of the automotive service industry. The Institute offers the Accredited Automotive Manager (AAM) designation, the first business management accreditation exclusively for the automotive service professional. To date, AMI programs have attracted more than 160,000 enrollments throughout North America. AMI is a not-for-profit educational foundation to which tax-deductible contributions can be made. For more information about the Institute, its curriculum, or EXCEL, please contact AMI at (800) 272-7467 ext. 241, or visit the AMI Web site at www.amionline.org.