How the insurer helps reduce the bill at the body shop

When a motorist uses his insurance, he pays the amount of the deductible and relies on his insurer to settle all of what is due to the bodybuilder. It is only by comparing the amount of what he paid with the actual cost of the repairs that he is happy to get off so lightly. The motorist then develops a feeling of impunity, which comforts him in the illusion that his wallet is protected from the increase in repair costs: it does not matter that the bodybuilder always charges more for his services, as long as the insurer pays.

Parts are half the repair bill

This attitude leads the motorist to forget that the amount of the insurance premium (or the contribution to his mutual insurance company) increases at the same time as the cost of labor at the bodybuilder, the price of spare parts and energy. The gas and electricity consumed by paint booths? “Their prices increased by 49% and 50% respectively since the beginning of the year”, testifies a professional of the sector, who has no choice but to pass on this inflation to his prices. Inevitably, premiums and contributions are affected.

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However, “spare parts still weigh at least half of the amount of the invoice to the bodybuilder,” recalls David Thévenot, Covéa Auto Technical Service Manager. This is one of the consequences of French regulations which grant our national manufacturers a monopoly on the distribution of parts for which they hold the rights and designs. As a result, French motorists pay for their replacement bumpers, doors, fenders and mirrors almosta quarter more expensive than their European neighbors which can lead to competition. Because they have the choice to prefer “equivalent quality” parts that are much cheaper. The only difference ? The absence of the car manufacturer’s stamp.

Convince bodybuilders and experts to favor repairs and second-hand parts, rather than new replacements

In this context of galloping inflation, the professional meetings organized by the Covéa Group on June 21 took on particular importance. Founded in 2002 by the three mutuals Maaf, MMA and GMF (nearly 10 million vehicles insured in France), this company aims to “pool their purchases of services from repairers”. Clearly, it is for mutuals to join forces to Negotiate better rates with bodybuildersin exchange for which these repairers benefit on the one hand from a contribution of business, on the other hand from preferential conditions for their purchases of spare parts, paints and supplies.

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At the same time, the Covéa Group has a CESVI subsidiary, whose technocentre located in Jaunay-Marigny, near Poitiers aims to investigate alternative repair methods. The objective being, here again, to limit repair costs by demonstrating that the systematic replacement of the bonnet or shield by its new or used equivalent is not the most economical solution, “even taking into account the additional working time and the hourly rate of the workforce,” argues Christophe Petrynka, Director of CESVI France.

New tools and methods make repair economically viable

Each year, 600 to 800 of the 4,000 Covéa approved bodybuilders are invited to go to the CESVI technicentre to attend demonstrations of tools and repair methods. There, skeptical painters discover that it is now possible to achieve an invisible color match in the middle of a body panel, something deemed impossible until then. “No need to repaint the whole wing or the whole door after recovering from a scratch”, demonstrates one of the CESVI technicians. “The economy of products is significant: it translates directly to the bottom of the invoice”, insists this professional.

Repair techniques are also evolving on plastic body parts. A supply of easily malleable plastic material makes it possible to quickly fill in a gash which is generally worth to a shield to end up in recycling. Same thing for the brackets of a grille or a headlight: “I challenge you to detect the repair”, proudly asserts a technician while recalling that the objective is to restore the appearance of new.

The repair is sometimes less expensive than the systematic replacement, even for second-hand

When we know that for the same result, the cost of a repair is “on average 30% to 60% cheaper”, we better understand the Covéa Group’s insistence on making its repairers and experts aware of new techniques. These professionals listen all the more attentively as they know that the CESVI carries out its own impact tests on the most popular vehicles (15 to 20 each year), in order to complete the information contained in the barometer of the costs of repair published each year by the Security and Automobile Repair (SRA) organization. A reference used by insurers to adjust the pricing of their premiums and contributions.

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If the 400 experts from the Covéa Group also come to CESVI to hear the good word preached, it is because they have the power, in their reports, to “recommend that bodybuilders use second-hand parts or repair ”, emphasizes Bruno Lacoste, Expertise and Solutions Director for Compensation at Covéa. “To impose new repair methods, you have to convince the expert as well as the bodybuilder.”

According to BCA Expertise, no less than 45% of parts could be repaired rather than exchanged. “However, this proportion is tending to fall due to the proliferation of electronic driving aids,” observes François Brodier, engineer in the accident reconstruction center at CESVI France. They use sensors (sonar, radar, camera and soon lidar) housed in very vulnerable places. When the motorist has the good fortune of not having to replace a radar invoiced at 800 euros, he must still pay the cost of its repositioning and its calibration (between 90 and 250 euros). New requirements which presuppose the acquisition of new tools and know-how.

The bill is reduced by around 20% at the approved bodybuilder

When the part is too damaged to justify its repair, the bodybuilder is encouraged to consult the approved end-of-life vehicle (ELV) centers in his region. Although sold up to 70% cheaper, reused parts (otherwise called PIEC, for parts from the circular economy) only weighed 5% of the total body parts sold in France in 2020, compared to 3% in 2015. It’s not much. To these PIEC, it is however necessary to add the 15% of reconditioned parts, sold under the standard exchange: they also contribute to the circular economy.

Following this dual logic of second-hand and repair as an alternative to systematic replacement with new, motorists have every interest in following the advice of their mutual insurance company and contacting one of their Covéa-approved bodybuilders. On an average repair cost of 1,500 euros, “the approved repairer charges 350 euros less than the non-approved bodybuilder, without reducing his margin in euros”, underlines Bruno Lacoste. This is always good to take. For the insured as well as for the insurer.

The Covéa Group is therefore pleased that “three quarters of its 10 million policyholders use one of their 4,000 approved repairers”, which would generate savings “of the order of 20%” for the Group. It would be even more if the use of second-hand parts exceeded the 15% share of repairs observed in 2021. It was 11% in 2018 and the Covéa Group is aiming for 20% by 2025.