Auto collision repair costs to increase: report

Software maker Mitchell International Inc. recently released predictions for the property and casualty insurance and automotive repair industries, forecasting lower prices for recycled parts, an overall increase in the cost to repair damaged vehicles and an increased demand for cloud computing.

“The average industry cost to repair auto collision damage will increase,” San Diego-based Mitchell stated in a press release. “This will occur in part, to the softening of salvage values, putting more borderline vehicles in the ‘repairable’ column rather than ‘total loss.’”

The firm predicts “an overall inflation” of parts, price and labour prices this year plus an increase in new car sales.
“Combining these factors with the 250,000 total loss vehicles expected out of Hurricane Sandy will depress salvage car values in 2013,” Mitchell stated. “For consumers, this means that there will be an increase in the availability of recycled parts for vehicle repairs at a lower cost.”

The company also predicts this year that insurance carriers “will begin to consolidate cloud computing vendors and realize the benefits of working with a single provider, such as streamlined and accelerated deployment of new offerings, reduced operational costs and improved data exchange and information sharing.”