Autolytics (Pty) Ltd is a business focused on quantitative performance statistics for the Motor Body Repairer (MBR) industry. Motor Body Repairers are routinely required to share their data with the various manufacturers and insurers. Recently Autolytics gathered and analysed a substantial sample of over 200 000 repairs completed in 2019 by premier motor body repairers in South Africa. Some fascinating insights were revealed. For the purposes of this analysis repairers to exotic vehicles (McLaren, Rolls Royce, Ferrari etc) and heavy commercial vehicles (MAN, Scania, etc) were excluded.
Some insights:
- 60% of the repairs were covered by insurance claims at an average repair value of R20 000 – while the cost of repairs not paid for by an insurance claim averaged around R8 800, (VAT excluded).
- Although it does differ by manufacturer on an overall basis 47% of the repairs are completed at manufacturer approved MBRs, but most likely driven by warranty requirements, this differs by the age of the vehicle.
We looked more deeply at the differences between repairers where the vehicle is repaired by a Manufacturer Approved Repairer or not:
The main factor driving the fact that repairs at “Approved” repairers are more expensive (on face value) it must be born in mind that these repairers focus on the quality of the repair, not just the cost; to explain in most cases genuine parts would be used by an approved repairer who would also be properly equipped and appropriately trained, a non-approved repairer doesn’t operate with these constraints.
Often insurers send vehicles (even those still covered by a manufacturer’s warranty) to non-approved MBRs to save costs – but this may not always be in the customers best interests.
Average cost of repairs
The key components of a typical motor body repair include parts, labour, paint and miscellaneous items. The chart (right) shows the relative contribution of these components. Not unexpectedly the biggest cost component is parts.
Note how the average cost of repair differs significantly by vehicle brand.
Best performing brands include:
- Citroen,
- Fiat,
- Opel,
- Peugeot,
- Renault,
- Suzuki,
- Toyota and
- Volkswagen.
The most expensive brands in this analysis included
- Alfa Romeo,
- Audi,
- BMW,
- Jaguar,
- Jeep,
- Land Rover,
- Lexus and
- Mercedes-Benz.
Average repair time (in days)
The average repair time (from quote to completion measured in days) also differs by brand.
We have found that the repair time is most often affected by the availability of parts. The best performing brands in this analysis of 2019 repairs were:
- BMW,
- Ford,
- Hyundai,
- Kia,
- Mercedes-Benz,
- Porsche,
- Renault,
- Suzuki,
- Toyota, and
- Volkswagen.
Brands that on average take the longest to repair were:
- Alfa Romeo,
- Chevrolet,
- Citroen,
- Isuzu,
- Lexus,
- Mahindra,
- Mitsubishi,
- Peugeot,
- Range Rover, and
- Subaru.
For more information contact: graeme@mbrsolutions.co.za or majortom@missionctrl.co.za