Auto repair industry trends: where drivers go and why

The biggest auto repair industry trends are aging vehicles that need more work, a steady shift of service visits away from dealerships, and customers who choose shops based on trust, transparency and convenience. This report compiles Cox Automotive's 2025 Service Industry Study and 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study, AAA's driver trust survey and Census business counts.

Cox Automotive's 2025 study surveyed 1,974 vehicle owners aged 18 to 75 who had serviced a car in the previous 12 months, fielded in April and May 2025. Its 2026 study surveyed 2,502 consumers with a service visit in the past year and 500 dealership fixed operations leaders. J.D. Power's CSI study is based on 55,210 owners and lessees of one- to three-year-old vehicles.

More service is going to independent and general repair shops. Cox Automotive found dealerships handle 12% fewer service visits than they did in 2018, and its 2026 study shows the dealership share of service visits falling from 33% in 2018 to 29% in 2025 while general repair rose from 25% to 27% and quick lube from 12% to 14%.

Even owners of new cars are drifting. Cox found only 54% of people with cars two years old or newer went back to the dealership for service, down from 72% in 2023. Price is not the main driver: Cox found average repair costs of $261 at dealerships in 2025 compared with $275 at general repair shops.

Mobile service is now measurable. Cox's 2026 study tracked independent mobile service and manufacturer mobile service at 2% of visits each in 2025, categories it did not track in 2018.

Cars are older and owners are keeping them longer. Cox Automotive reports the average vehicle age trending to 12.8 years in 2025, up from 12.6 years, and its 2026 study found 61% of owners have held their vehicle five years or more.

Service costs rise sharply with age. Cox estimates service cost per mile at $0.20 for vehicles up to five years old, $0.47 for six to ten years and $1.10 beyond ten years, with about 80% of ten-year service cost falling in years six through ten. Cox estimates a customer's lifetime service spend at $12,398, based on 2.4 visits a year over 8.4 years of ownership.

Owners are also more willing to repair than replace in some years and less in others. Cox found preference for repair when costs are high fell from 70% in 2022 to 53% in 2024. Consumers start to consider trading in rather than repairing at a repair cost of about $3,195.

There is a sales opportunity hidden in that decision. Cox's 2026 study found 33% of service customers are highly interested in getting a trade-in value during a visit, but only 14% said a provider shared one.

Many drivers do not fully trust repair shops. AAA's national telephone survey of more than 1,000 drivers (published in December 2016 and still its most recent on the topic, per FenderBender's coverage of the sample) found two out of three U.S. drivers do not trust auto repair shops in general. Even among Baby Boomers, the most trusting group, only one in five said they totally trust the industry.

AAA found 76% of those who distrust shops cite recommending unnecessary services, 73% cite overcharging and 63% cite negative past experiences. AAA estimated roughly 75 million motorists, about a third of U.S. drivers, had not found a trusted repair facility.

Recent data shows the same issues. Cox's 2025 study found 45% of vehicle owners are dissatisfied with their dealership service experience, mainly because of unexpected costs and poor communication. In J.D. Power's 2025 CSI study, trust scores were highest among Boomers (6.24 on a seven-point scale) and lowest among Gen Z (5.77).

Communication and getting the repair right the first time drive satisfaction. J.D. Power's 2025 CSI study found four of the 10 most influential factors relate to communication: focusing on customer needs, keeping customers informed of service status, meeting the customer immediately on arrival and contacting the customer after service. The immediate greeting happens only about half the time.

First-time fix matters too. J.D. Power found 12% of repairs are not completed correctly on the first visit, most often because the work did not correct the problem (30%) or parts were not available (28%). J.D. Power also found appointment wait times remain longer than 2018 to 2022 levels.

Showing the customer the problem helps. Cox's 2026 study found 49% of consumers who received photos or videos say they are more likely to approve recommended services, and average out-of-pocket repair orders were $640 with photos or videos compared with $410 without. Cox also found 55% of owners consider comparing costs online very important, and 16% used an AI tool to research their last service provider.

There were 84,127 general automotive repair establishments with paid employees in the U.S. in 2023, and 169,142 across all automotive repair and maintenance. Monvell summed the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns 2023 county records for NAICS 811111 and the 8111 industry group to reach those totals.

Most shops are small. In the same data, 65.0% of general repair shops had fewer than five employees and 88.4% had fewer than ten. A shop that size usually has one or two people answering phones, writing estimates and talking to customers while also running the floor, which is exactly where the communication steps in the J.D. Power study get skipped.

The dealer side is large too. Cox Automotive, citing NADA, reports dealership service and parts revenue of over $156 billion in 2024 from more than 270 million repair orders, and service and parts made up 13.2% of dealership income, up from 12.4% in 2023. Cox also found owners who service at the dealership are much more likely (74%) to buy their next car there, which is why dealers are working to win service customers back from independent shops.

For an independent shop, the data is good news: customers are moving your way and older cars need more work. For a dealership service department, the risk is losing owners who would otherwise return. In both cases, the shops that communicate clearly about cost and status earn the trust that AAA found so many drivers lack.

Steps that follow from the findings:

• Send photos or videos with every inspection recommendation. Cox found it raises approval and average repair order value.
• Give status updates by text at set points (diagnosis, approval, parts arrival, ready for pickup) so customers do not have to call.
• Confirm the estimate in writing before work starts, and get approval for any change. Unexpected costs are the top source of dissatisfaction.
• Follow up after the service. J.D. Power counts post-service contact among the most influential satisfaction factors.
• Send service reminders based on mileage and age. With vehicles averaging 12.8 years and lifetime service spend over $12,000, a returning customer is worth far more than one visit.
• Make pricing and booking easy to find online, since 55% of owners say comparing costs online is very important.

Monvell builds the text updates, approval links, service reminders and call handling that keep customers informed without tying up the service desk. The free digital audit shows how your current setup handles calls, estimates and follow-up.