Hamilton, Ontario — May 2, 2017 — Total losses seem to be on the rise over the last few years, according to the results of our latest survey.
Collision Repair magazine runs new surveys every week. Our next survey looks at subcontracting, specifically mechanical and glass work. You can participate in the new survey at this link.
Respondents were asked to indicate if they thought total losses over the last three years had increased, decreased or stayed the same. The majority of our survey respondents (65 percent) indicated that they thought total losses had increased over this period. The minority opinion (35 percent) indicated that total loss levels had remained relatively flat over that time. None of the repairers surveyed indicated that they had seen a decrease in total losses.
The various insurance customer satisfaction studies released by J.D. Power over the last few years have all tended to indicate that total loss claims negatively impact customer satisfaction for insurance carriers.
Total losses seem to be much more common for some respondents than others. The majority of those surveyed (53) indicated that fewer than 10 percent of estimates written resulted in total loss. A further 38 percent indicated that they were seeing total loss numbers between 10 and 20 percent. The smallest group we found in our survey were those indicating that between 20 and 30 percent of estimates resulted in a total loss. These shops comprised just 9 percent of responses.
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Finally, we asked our readers to give us a ballpark average age for total loss vehicles.
The largest group (43 percent) indicated that the average total loss vehicle was between six to eight years old. The next largest group, at 37 percent, said the average total loss was between three to five years old. We also received some responses from the other ends of the spectrum. At the low end, 3 percent of respondents noted that the average total loss vehicle was between one and two years old. At the high end, 17 percent of respondents indicated that the average was nine years old or older. Regional differences and clientele variations may help to account for this.
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The “average” age of a total loss vehicle seems to be between six and eight years{source}<br/>{/source} old, but numerous outliers exist. |
Our next survey looks at subcontracting in collision repair. The survey takes less than two minutes to fill out and can be found here. Make sure to watch for results next Wednesday on collisionrepairmag.com!
