Why High-Tech Cars Are Costing More To Repair

A Price To Pay for Safety Technology

You find many new vehicles on the road these days that sport all kinds of high-tech safety features that should help avoid a crash. There’s automatic emergency braking, blind-spot detection, forward-collision warning, and so on. These advanced safety extras have the potential to reduce collision fatalities for driver, passengers and pedestrians alike. However, experts say that if these vehicles meet road accidents, the cost of repair to those cars will be quite huge.

According to some industry publications that provide vehicle repair cost estimate services, there was observed a 2% increase in average repair costs from 2016-17. It’s been rising beginning in 2010. When the electronic content in a vehicle increases – to address vehicle safety or convenience – you also add to the overall cost and complexity of repair. The more parts are added, additional labor is required for resetting, calibrating and scanning operations. Automakers need to understand recommended repair procedures.

What high-tech features are we talking about? There are sensitive safety components located in bumpers, side mirrors and fenders; if damaged, they need sensor calibration and repair. There’s advanced driver assistance system technology being placed on high-production, low-cost vehicles, not just in luxury cars. A case in point, if you have to remove the mirror from the car door to paint the door handles and everything, you may have to recalibrate the security system, the interlocking system, and the blind-spot monitoring. It’s a multilayered process. Also, the use of materials like high-strength steel, magnesium, aluminum and carbon fiber in vehicles, and the use of crumple zones, can complicate the repair process.

Hence, the experts say, that when making repairs it is important to follow the automaker guidelines for vehicle repair, and paying the necessary price of safety.

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When your car, whether high-tech or otherwise, needs repair and calibration, come to your trustworthy car repair shop this side of Seattle. We have the area’s best technicians, and we treat our customers right.