Automotive repair demand trends improved in September versus the prior year's period, according to a Northcoast Research report.
The report is based on the results of a survey encompassing feedback from about 300 independent repair shop across the country, and is done in partnership with VehicleServicePros.com.
Northcoast contacts are speculating that low fuel prices will led to discretionary repairs and maintenance in the coming months because consumers have more disposable income to fund maintenance, and will be driving more.
The data also suggests that the improved demand trends were due to car owners’ have a relatively healthy attitude toward traditional preventative maintenance combined with some minor flow through of pent-up demand that has been waiting on the sidelines.
Nearly 19 percent of the respondents indicated that their customer base opted to perform more routine maintenance in the period than they normally do. Respondents in both Texas and Florida last month suggested that consumers dramatically altered spending habits on repair and service work during August as they prepared for the massive hurricanes.
The value of the average repair order continued to benefit from a higher mix of medium and heavy-duty repair work, largely caused by an aging car parc, which typically requires higher-priced hard parts, more parts per job, and more man-hours.
"The trend of installing more technologically advanced parts in late model vehicles is also helping to support the average ticket despite the fact that core inflationary pressures remain fairly muted," the survey analysis reads.
Technicians who responded to the survey also suggested that the sales gains in the period were driven by positive ticket trends, as traffic levels were virtually flat.
"Traffic was the softest across the Great Lakes, Northeast, and Upper Mid-Atlantic regions of the county," the survey analysis reads. "Despite the deceleration in traffic trends during September, we firmly believe that the improvement in traffic and ticket trends since the end of 1Q17 supports our thesis that the softness earlier in the year was primarily due to transitory headwinds, including warm winter weather, a late tax season, restrained consumer spending, and cooler-than-normal spring temperatures rather than emerging secular headwinds."
“The typically busy season during the early part of the summer was really slow for us, while the typically slow back-to-school period was extremely busy," says an anonymous survey respondent from Illinois. "No rhyme or reason to what’s driving people into the shop or keeping them away. This has been an odd year.”
