IMR Inc.

Sending well wishes for the New Year ahead to all of our colleagues, partners and friends!

Over the last two years, 95.6% of shops - regardless of size - reported more hybrid electric vehicles coming in for service.

Medium-sized shops with 4-7 bays had the highest increase of hybrids in the shop, at 97.2%

Read the full Insight for more on the impact of hybrid and battery electric vehicles at independent repair shops:
https://bit.ly/3VxO0Xu

Do you think parts suppliers are keeping independent repair shops up-to-date on the latest battery and hybrid electric vehicle trends?

Our latest insight on this topic shows that 56.2% of shops do think their primary parts supplier keeps them informed on this important industry topic.

Read more from our latest Insight here: https://bit.ly/3VxO0Xu

The U.S. workforce is struggling to fill a massive gap in the skilled trades industry right now, and the issue may possibly worsen over the next ten years.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are millions of skilled trade job vacancies, and 39% of households surveyed fully agree that there are unfilled positions in the automotive service industry, providing high job security for automotive technicians.

Read more about the perception of trades as a career path in our latest Insight:

U.S. Household Perception of the Trades Report 2022 | IMR Automotive market research firm, IMR published an in-depth 'Trades' study with a focus on automotive technician careers. Download the report.

Wondering what portion of the average independent repair shop's business is made up of battery electric vehicles (BEVs)?

According to our latest survey results, approximately four vehicles out of every 100 serviced are battery electric (3.9%). Additionally, 54.6% of independent repair shops report servicing BEVs at their location.

Read more from the full Insight below.
https://bit.ly/3VxO0Xu

We asked independent repair shops how often they would go to an another supplier, other than their first call, for national branded parts.

The results may surprise you. Of those surveyed, 0% of shops said that they always or never go to a second supplier for national branded parts. Whereas 10.3% said they did so frequently, 66.7% said they did occasionally, 17.9% said rarely and 5.1% said very rarely.

Read more from our latest Insight below.
https://bit.ly/3Te4xOL

Wondering what the most popular reasons were for delayed vehicle maintenance in 2021? Insights like this are critical for companies serving the automotive aftermarket.

The top three reasons were that the service was too expensive (36.8%), not having a convenient time to take the vehicle in (21.9%) and that the repair was not necessary for vehicle drivability (16.2%).

Find more data like this in the latest Factbook, here: https://bit.ly/3v2nvhb

Do you think those responsible for parts purchasing at independent repair shops know what brand is in the private label box?

Our survey results recently found that 20.8% of parts purchasers knew, up from 19.6% in 2021! We also found that shops with one to three bays were more likely to know the brand in their private label boxes.

Read more at the Insight linked below.

Automotive Repair Shop Parts Study: Private Label Vs. National Brand 500 independent automotive repair shops informed IMR as to the importance of private label & national branded parts. See updated 2022 results.

Over the past 3 years, repair shops have had to make critical choices around parts purchasing.

In August 2020, 33.9% of shop owners cited the pandemic's impact on customers as a primary reason for increasing their private label parts purchasing. Then, in January 2021, that number increased to 57.9%. Now, as of August 2022, 0% of shop owners reported the pandemic as a reason for increasing private label purchasing but rather they've cited the effect of inflation on their customers as the driving factor.

Read more from our latest Insight below.
https://bit.ly/3gdQwlJ

A total of 21.3% of vehicles on the road have delayed a service or repair and vehicles that are 12-years-old and older have delayed service or repair at a higher rate compared to younger vehicles (26.6%).

Find more critical insights like this from IMR, Inc. in this year's Factbook here: https://bit.ly/3v2nvhb

Curious about volume of repair orders, or cost per order reported in 2021 by independent repair shop owners?

The shops surveyed reported an average of 41.37 repair orders per week with an average labor rate for each service at approximately $91.61 per hour, totaling $501.07 on average per repair order.

Find more critical insights like this from IMR, Inc. in this year's Factbook here: https://bit.ly/3v2nvhb