Interest rates and inflation are having a ripple effect on the cost of maintenance and repair in Canada, which in turn has influenced vehicle owners to keep their vehicles longer.
That is according to J.D. Power’s recently released 2024 Canada Customer Service Index—Long-Term (CSI-LT) Study; it explores the sting that owners of vehicles 4-12 years old are feeling as auto repair costs continue to climb. The company said visiting the dealership can cost on average $465 — up from $432 a year ago. Trips to independent shops have also increased to $273 from $262.
“With inflation pushing auto repair costs upward and interest rates making larger-ticket items like mortgage payments and new-vehicle purchases more expensive, owners are being hit with a ‘double whammy’ and have to make different decisions in order to balance their budgets,” said J.D. Ney, Automotive Practice Lead at J.D. Power Canada, in a statement.
Ney said as more owners decide to have their vehicles repaired instead of buying a new one, auto repair shops have an opportunity to attract more lucrative business “by excelling in the service factors that drive customer satisfaction, mainly saving time and convenience.”
Based on J.D. Power’s study, 40 per cent of visits to dealerships and 24 per cent of visits to aftermarket shops were for repairs. In 2021, those figures were lower, at 31 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.
As for rankings, Lexus dealerships are highest in the dealership segment for a third consecutive year, having scored 836 on a 1,000-point scale). Mercedes-Benz dealerships (818) rank second and GM dealerships (810) rank third.
