Are High-Tech Cars Killing Auto Repair Shops?

"Auto industry insiders have waxed poetic about the safety benefits of the 'software-defined vehicle' - which also enables revenue-boosting data collection and subscriptions that make it safer to be an auto executive too," writes Wired. "Less talked about are the consequences of computerized cars at the auto shop."Fixing complex vehicles requires increasingly expert and expensive knowledge, and tools that are in limited supply.... [T]he upshot can be that it takes longer to get your car fixed. The trend is worsened by an ongoing decline in the number of U.S. auto shops, driven by consolidation and owners taking retirement.... There are now significantly fewer places to get your car fixed in the U.S. than there were just five years ago. One industry publication found that for every active service bay inside U.S. auto shops there were 225 cars and trucks on the road in 2016. Now there are 246 vehicles per bay. Pandemic supply-chain jams for computer chips and auto parts, and a nationwide labor shortage of car technicians, have worsened the problem. Cars took an average of 2.1 days longer to repair in 2021 than in 2019, according to CCC Intelligent Solutions, which sells software to automotive and insurance agencies, nearly 11 days in all. Industry experts say the problem will only get worse. "In 10 years, I see a lot fewer shops, and I see a lot more people looking for shops," says Rick White, who coaches auto repair shop owners through his company, 180biz. An industry survey taken late last year found 96 percent of shops reporting delays, with an average scheduling backlog of 3.4 weeks, compared to 1.7 weeks in late 2019.... Some brands of vehicle can only be calibrated with specialized and expensive tools.... In all, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire the tools and make the shop adjustments to repair just a few car makes. That's before the cost of training workers to use those tools, with shops paying thousands each year to keep their staff certified to fix specific cars. Investing for the future, then, can set shop owners back by millions. Wired interviewed the former owner of a collision repair shop. Their assessment? Shop owners are just "fed up... we went from a very simple industry to a very complex industry."

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