Vehicle repair prices have risen 6% on average since the start of the year.
A trend that the crisis has accelerated but which could prove to be lasting, as consumers increasingly turn to sophisticated vehicles whose parts are expensive to repair.
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Containment is not shaping up to be a period of heavy use of our vehicles.
And yet most cars have certainly cost you a little more this year, especially if you have had to make repairs.
Prices have in fact increased by 6% on average since the start of the year.
A price increase which was especially noticeable in the third quarter, once the stocks of automobiles were well reduced, due to the closings of factories linked to the containment last spring.
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Professionals in the sector were therefore faced with the start of a shortage in spare parts and tires.
An observation drawn up by Christophe Rollet, general manager of the Point S Group, who sees another reason linked to the health crisis: "the decrease in travel during confinement has reduced claims. Some repairers may thus be inclined to increase a little. their prices to compensate for the shortfall ".
A lasting trend
More structural reasons also explain these increases, according to Christophe Rollet.
For example, the arrival of more and more technologies in our cars complicates the manipulations necessary to replace a windshield.
“Ten or fifteen years ago, we paid for the glue, the labor, the windshield, and that was it. Today, we need specific tools because windshields have on-board cameras, sometimes on the front windshield and often the rear windshield. We also have to train the teams. All of this comes at a cost. "
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This upward trend in prices is likely to continue, in particular because of changing consumer preferences in terms of automobiles.
They are more and more buyers of SUVs and sedans.
However, their parts are more expensive to repair.