The cost of auto body repairs surprises almost everyone. After close to 30 years in the industry I still share in this surprise more often than I would have thought. There are many reasons why repairs cost so much and three important ones are; safety improvements, cosmetic and style demands, and the almost unique characteristics of each incident of damage.

Safety improvements are hard to argue with. An airbag deployment can add $6,000 to the cost of the repair because of the cost of the airbag system components which have to be very carefully manufactured and tested. With a car that has a replacement value of $12,000 this $6,000 on top of the structural repair will cause the car to be written off. At Tsawwassen Collision we would prefer to fix the car and the owner may prefer to keep it, but if serious injury and long term rehab was avoided the airbag cost is a bargain.

Cosmetic and style issues may be easier to argue with, but it will not be an argument that can be won while people still value individualism and style. Twenty years ago cars had sealed beam headlights, which came in three of four different sizes and fit almost all cars. They were manufactured in the millions and as such cost not very much. Now every car model has a unique headlight shape and each is manufactured in quantities of thousands to hundreds of thousands. They are also much more complex units which have to be replaced as an assembly.

The unique characteristics of each accident mean that the repair process is individual to each accident. While there are certainly similarities and the right equipment and experience can increase repair efficiency there are not many opportunities to automate or standardize the repair into an assembly line process.

A quality repair shop will know how to do the right repair at the right price, but three factors above have a lot to do with what that right price is.