Severity of vehicle repair appraisals decreases in 2011 Q3: Mitchell

The severity of first and third-party repairable vehicle appraisals decreased to $3,036 in 2011 Q3 from 2010 Q3’s $3,408, according to Mitchell’s Canadian Collision Summary.
The Canadian Collision Summary is included in Mitchell’s Industry Trends Report.
“The average gross initial Appraisal Value, calculated by combining data from all first and third-party repairable vehicle appraisals uploaded through Mitchell Canadian systems in 2011 Q3 was $3,036 – a $372 decrease from 2010 Q3,” the report says.
The average initial gross collision appraisal value uploaded through Mitchell Canadian systems in 2011 Q3 also decreased from 2010 Q3, from $3,199 to $2,962.
During the quarter, the Canadian industry initial average gross third-party property damage appraisal was $2,409, marking a decrease of $683 from 2010 Q3 on vehicles with slightly older but higher values.
Labour rates increased in all provinces and territories surveyed by Mitchell, with the Yukon seeing the largest increase (5%) from 2010 Q3 to 2011 Q3, followed by Alberta (5%).
“As a general observation, recent data show that parts make up 44.9% of the average value per repairable vehicle appraisal, about 0.63 points more than the average allocation of labour dollars,” the report says.
“In addition, the overall year-over-year trend now reflexts an appreciable decrease in OEM parts use, an increasing volume of aftermarket parts dollars used by Mitchell-equipped estimators, relatively constant remanufactured parts use, and increasing LKQ (recycled) parts use.”