Pricey Cares From Spares
Newcastle Herald
Saturday October 24, 1998
HOW many of us, when making the decision on which new or used car or four-wheel drive we should buy, consider the cost of repairs?
Never? Perhaps we should if a recent report from insurance company Australian Associated Motor insurers is anything to go by.
The report, The Nuts and Bolts of Car Repairs, highlights the differences in the prices of accident replacement parts for identically priced cars from different manufacturers.
And, says AAMI, some of those parts can vary by as much as 300% between vehicles.
The study found the discrepancies in the cost and availability of parts typically used to repair a crashed car, a parts package commonly referred to in the crash repair industry as a basket of parts.
The basket of parts used for the survey included front bumper, headlight, bonnet, right-hand mudguard, radiator, right front door, right quarter panel, rear bumper and right tail light.
The survey attacked the issue on two fronts, the first by direct comparison and the second as a percentage value of a car's market value.
In the first method it shows that the 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer 5-door has the most expensive basket of parts, 80% higher than its immediate competitor, Hyundai's 1996 Excel 5-door.
Using the second method it showed that the basket of parts for Ford's 1989 Laser 5-door represented almost half (45%) of the car's current market value of $6000, the highest proportionate value of all the vehicles surveyed.
But the biggest discrepancies were found not to be in the total basket of parts but with individual items.
The cost of replacing the rear bumper on the CC model Mitsubishi Lancer, for example, was $620, more than 300% more than the Hyundai Excel's $147.70 bumper.
Parts availability was also investigated and while the survey found that 82% of all manufacturer's baskets were available within half a day it also found some car makers were quoting delays of up to two weeks to source some parts from overseas.
In the four-wheel drive market some of the biggest discrepancies were found in the upper-medium class.
Comparisons between the current model Ford Explorer and Holden Jackaroo, both $39,990 vehicles, on a replacement radiator showed the Holden radiator costing $1095 and the Ford $322.19, a difference of about 300%.
Not surprisingly, comparative costs between similarly-priced sedans and four-wheel drives showed the sedans to have generally cheaper prices.
A basket of parts comparison between a current model VT Commodore (retail value $30,500) and a current Toyota RAV4 (retail $29,990) puts the Commodore's parts value at $1866 while the RAV's parts total $4299.32.
AAMI Corporate Affairs director, Mr Richard Jeffery, said repair costs were an important factor in determining premium prices with replacement parts making up 50% of an average repair bill.
`If the cost of replacement parts is excessively high (then) consumers' insurance premiums will ultimately rise.
`Furthermore, parts availability can also be an issue. If parts are not available new cars can sometimes be off the road for weeks,' he said.
Other survey costs showed the bonnet for a 1987 Ford Falcon was $425 compared to a 1987 Holden Commodore at $260, a 1989 Mitsubishi Magna's front door at $373 was substantially cheaper than that of a 1989 Toyota Camry ($639.54) and a rear tail light for a 1996 Hyundai Excel ($120.42) was cheaper than that of a 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer ($304).
© 1998 Newcastle Herald