About 46 percent of repairable vehicle estimates in the fourth quarter of 2021 contained at least one line item for any vehicle diagnostic scan, according to the 2021 CCC “Crash Course” released last month.
Fifty-eight percent of current-year or newer repairable vehicle appraisals included a scan charge, and 55 percent of estimates discussed the job on vehicles 1-3 years of age. For vehicles 4-6 years of age, the proportion sat at about 50 percent in the fourth quarter.
“Those numbers are pretty healthy,” CCC director and industry analyst Susanna Gotsch said Friday.
It’s a significant gain over a couple of years ago. In the fourth quarter of 2021, those 0- to 6-year-old vehicles saw scanning percentages between the low 20s and low 30s. On the whole, only a nothing more than 20 % of all repairable appraisals contained a scan back then.
OEM procedures and finest practices hold that a vehicle diagnostic check should take place at least one time during the course of a repair, with lots of automakers promoting a minimum of two scans — one before the repair to catch damage, and something after it to ensure the vehicle is back to proper condition. CCC found 75 percent of 2021 appraisals having a scan included “two distinct scan entries on average.”
“Pre- and post-repair scans on appraisals have become dramatically during the last many years, particularly around the newest vehicles where scans help ensure all damage is identified and the vehicle is returned to pre-accident condition,” CCC wrote in its 2021 “Quick studies.”
Still, the CCC data doesn’t demonstrate the type of universal scanning you’d expect based on the guidance from OEMs.
Now it’s possible that some repairable vehicles sustained too little harm to merit a scan. Subaru, for instance, orders body shops to scan its “vehicles from model year 2004 and forward involved in a collision.” That OEM says it “defines a collision as damage that exceeds minor outer body panel cosmetic distortion.”
However, the average repairable vehicle in CCC’s estimates this past year appears to have suffered more than minor damage. The typical repairable vehicle claim in CCC cost $3,421 to fix and needed 11.1 new parts. Only 12.6 of collision claims and 24.2 percent of liability claims saw estimates of under $1,000 — and people proportions are down from a few years ago.
It’s also possible that repairers are scanning vehicles but neither they nor insurers are recording this on an estimate. What this means is CCC’s analysis, which searches for scanning-related keywords within vehicle sheets, wouldn’t happen to be in a position to detect the work.
Other repairers and insurers might have written estimates together with a scanning line item which carried free. Gotsch confirmed that her analysis excluded any operations of a $0 cost.
Asked if such zeroed-out scanning operations existed, she said, “I do think it’s happening enough it probably would give a certain percentage additional along with what we should see if you find electric power charge.”
Gotsch also said she knew of some shops which charge for digitizing involving an OEM tool. However, if they’re able to use an aftermarket device, “they might not charge for it,” she said.
The fourth-quarter 2021 appraisals containing scans billed out an average of $128 altogether for that work, CCC reported. As noted above, the majority of the estimates containing scanning work included more than one scan entry, and CCC said simultaneously individual scan lines averaged $64. This is down from what CCC known as the peak of $99 within the third quarter of 2021.
Remember 2021?
The CCC stats on 4- to 6-year old vehicles are particularly interesting, for this was about five years ago that scanning really leapt in to the industry consciousness having a series of 2021 OEM position statements.
If your body shop or insurance company in 2021 was agreeing that “of course, the most recent models should be scanned,” while questioning the necessity to check older vehicles, then logic would dictate you in 2021-21 needs to be conntacting scan every vehicle 4-6 years of age. It’s still exactly the same technology and model years you said needed diagnostics then.
Only a little more than 30 % of repairable vehicles aged 7 years or older carried a scanning line item during Q4 2021, according to CCC’s data.
This is potentially problematic. Automaker guidance and customary sense still support scanning some or all vehicles in this range.
The younger end of that 7-plus year-range would include vehicles that were still pretty new during the time of the 2021 position statements, such as a 2021 model year. And the more advanced of this range continues to be likely new enough to need a scan. Other CCC data shows the typical vehicle gets totaled after 9.68 years.
DRPs
Another CCC analysis published in “Crash Course” looked at DRP facilities. That study found only 40.3 percent of DRP repairable vehicle appraisals contained scanning during the year ending Oct. 31, 2021.
However, 59.1 % of dealership body shops in a DRP were scanning vehicles in that time, based on the estimates.
