US collision repair shops are experiencing significant delays obtaining OEM parts manufactured in Canada, particularly for Chrysler and Dodge vehicles, due to new tariffs and trade policy changes that have complicated the automotive supply chain between the two countries.
- Bluegrass Collision Center in Kentucky reports extended delays and missing delivery dates for Chrysler and Dodge OEM parts, with some repairs taking 1-2 months instead of 2 weeks.
- The Trump administration imposed a 25% Section 232 tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts in 2025, with an additional 50% duty on certain Canadian goods effective August 22, 2026.
- When OEM parts are unavailable, collision shops increasingly turn to aftermarket and recycled alternatives, which creates competition among multiple repair facilities seeking the same limited inventory.
- Parts delays stem from multiple factors including tariffs, manufacturing availability, OEM backorders, and distribution decisions—not tariffs alone.
- Canada introduced counter-tariffs on September 8 covering $27.6 billion of US imports at rates of 15%, 25%, and 50%, escalating the trade dispute further.
An American collision repairer is speaking up about disruptions to supply chains providing OEM parts manufactured in Canada to U.S. repair facilities.
Bluegrass Collision Center general manager Derek McAllister said his Louisville, Kentucky, facility is seeing the greatest impact on Chrysler and Dodge repairs, with some replacement parts now arriving after extended delays — and others carrying no estimated delivery date at all.
“Chrysler and Dodge, that’s where I’m seeing the biggest impact,” McAllister told Collision Repair. “They don’t even give me an estimated delivery time. They’re just going, ‘Hey, we can put the order in and cross your fingers.’”
The delays come as the Trump administration has substantially changed the rules governing automotive trade with Canada. Since 2025, the U.S. has imposed a 25% Section 232 tariff on imported vehicles and specified auto parts, although individual parts qualifying for preferential treatment under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement are currently exempt from the parts tariff while Washington develops a system for applying it only to their non-U.S. content. Non-USMCA-compliant Canadian goods have separately faced a 25% U.S. tariff, while a new Section 338 measure imposed a 50% duty on certain Canadian goods effective August 22, 2026. That newest measure does not stack another 50% onto automotive goods already subject to Section 232.
The result is a considerably more complicated trading environment for an industry whose supply chains were designed around parts and materials moving repeatedly across the Canada-U.S. border.
That complexity does not, however, establish that tariffs themselves are responsible for each delayed component McAllister is seeing. Parts can also be affected by manufacturing availability, OEM backorders, distribution decisions and shortages elsewhere in the supply chain.
McAllister said the explanation reaching the shop is often considerably less detailed.
“They’re just telling me that things are on a more rigid delay sometimes,” he said.
McAllister previously told Louisville broadcaster WHAS11 that the problem has affected body panels, hoods, doors and fenders. In some cases, he said, a repair that would ordinarily take about two weeks can instead take one or two months depending on whether the required parts can be found.
When the OEM channel comes up empty, Bluegrass Collision starts looking elsewhere.
“I’ve got to outsource parts from other vendors, like aftermarket parts and recycled parts,” McAllister said.
That can move the shortage downstream. When several collision repairers are unable to obtain the same OEM component, McAllister said, those facilities begin chasing the same pool of recycled and aftermarket alternatives.
“If there’s guys out there looking for the same part because they can’t get it either, then it tightens up where I’m getting it from,” he said.
McAllister declined to assign the disruption to one government or one policy.
“I think there’s enough blame to go around,” he said. “I’m not in the minutiae of who, what, where. Again, I just know that somebody’s stalling out and it’s affecting the little guy.”
The latest escalation is still unfolding. Canada introduced another round of counter-tariffs on September 8, covering $27.6 billion of U.S. imports at rates of 15%, 25% and 50%, while existing Canadian counter-tariffs on U.S. automobiles remain in place.
For Bluegrass Collision, however, the issue is already much more immediate: cars that need parts, parts without delivery dates and an increasingly crowded search for alternatives.
Asked whether he would welcome a return to more normal trade between Canada and the United States, McAllister's answer was simple.
“Obviously, yeah.”
