Technical complexity and the steadily increasing use of electronics in modern cars are continuously driving up the repair costs of used cars.
According to a damage analysis by the Freiburg insurer Car Garantie, which is based on the evaluation of around one million expired used and new vehicle guarantees for all brands and models, the average cost per damage event reached a high of 572 euros last year.
In terms of the frequency of damage to used vehicles, the fuel system including the turbocharger was again at the forefront of assembly damage in the previous year with a share of 19.7 percent, followed by electrical damage (18.3 percent). This does not include defects in the convenience electronics, which accounted for a further 10.3 percent of the damage. In third place was engine damage with 10.7 percent. The damage rates for air conditioning (7.7 percent), transmission (5.6 percent), braking system (3.2 percent), safety systems (2.6 percent) and steering (2.1 percent) were comparatively low.
If you break down the damage according to the amount of the costs, the picture shifts, as expected. Here engine damage was by far the top. For them alone, Car Garantie had to spend 23.6 percent of the total regulatory costs in the previous year. The increasing trend towards downsizing the engines - reducing the number of cylinders and displacement, coupled with the increased use of turbochargers - is obviously having an impact here. According to the experts from testing organizations and engine reconditioners we interviewed, this results in a decrease in service life compared to previously common design criteria. The fuel system including turbocharger (18.8 percent) came in second place for regulatory costs, followed by transmission (11.8 percent) and electrics (10.5 percent).
The largest part of the damage, namely 29.0 percent, occurred with the insured used vehicles during the first 5000 kilometers after the vehicle was purchased. With 49.6 percent, almost half of all damage occurred within the first 10,000 kilometers. The Freiburg-based guarantee insurer has also been recording damage to electric cars since 2018. Their quota was low at 0.1 percent in 2020, but has now tripled due to the increasing number of units. In relation to the total volume of insured vehicles, around 1,000 cases of damage were registered.