Toronto, Ontario — Like the troubled sibling who feels they receive all criticism and no praise, the collision repair industry rarely enters news headlines for its positive characteristics, and again finds itself in the crosshairs of a prolific news outlet for the high cost of repairs.
The New York Times published a story on Monday under the headline “Why Car Repairs Have Become So Expensive”, which draws from a number of sources familiar to collision repair professionals, including Ryan Mandell from Mitchell and automotive influencer Sandy Munro, as well as representatives from the IIHS’s Highway Loss Data Institute and Rivian.
The article takes aim at many issues well-known to the collision repair industry, most notably the increased prevalence of small, delicate electronic components that, when damaged in a collision, can cause minor repairs to be quite costly.
Mandell expressed that repairs resulting in a return to pre-loss condition are few and far between these days, saying that such a feat is “harder than at any point in history.”
The case of a Rivian driver who was rear-ended and left with a whopping $42,000 repair estimate was later brought forward.
The case illustrated both the exorbitant cost of a normal routine repair on an advanced, modern electric vehicle, as well as the perils of investing in what could essentially be considered a boutique automaker, given Rivian’s comparatively small, non-franchisee repair network.
Data from Mitchell shows that electric vehicles, on average, cost $2,400 more to repair than traditional ICE vehicles, largely due to EV automakers like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid who specialize in luxury vehicles priced upwards of $40,000.
Hyundai and Nissan EVs, on the other hand, cost only about $800 more to repair, according to the same data.
The efforts on the part of automakers to make their EVs more repairable were also noted, however, as the article pointed toward sensors used by BMW that guide technicians toward damaged components, thereby limiting the potential for guesswork or accidental damage.
