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Back-Ordered Car Parts Delaying Repairs for Weeks to Months by Kelsey Gibbs, News Channel 5
Sometimes weeks and oftentimes months—this is how long it can take for many car repair shops to receive part orders these days. This is causing a huge backlog. Childress Collison Center in Nashville, TN, said not all, but a few of the cars in its shop have been waiting a month or longer just for one part. “There’s no one manufacturer that’s hadn’t been affected by it. It’s just been across the board. With Hyundai, I’ve had to wait about three months for a couple of things; Jaguar, I waited
about six months for one piece to finish it,” said Charles Childress. Childress has been repairing cars for more than 30 years, but these past two years have been more difficult than years before. He said not all but a few of the cars in this shop have been waiting a month or longer for just one part. “I mean it’s been anywhere from a door handle, a mirror, a door.” A combination of backed-up vehicle part orders and a labor shortage means it’s taking longer for body shops to repair vehicles. See Back-Ordered Car Parts, Page 8
New-Vehicle Prices Flirt with Record High in May New-vehicle average transaction prices (ATPs) increased to $47,148 in May, according to new data released by Kelley Blue Book, a Cox Automotive company. Prices rose 1% ($472) month over month and remain elevated compared to one year ago, up 13.5% ($5,613) from May 2021. The average price paid for a new vehicle in the U.S. in May was the second-highest on record, behind only December 2021, when ATPs reached $47,202. New-vehicle inventory days’ supply stayed in the mid-30s in May—holding steady since
mid-January—while customer demand remained stable. These conditions enabled most dealers to continue selling inventory at or above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). The average price paid for
a new vehicle has been “over sticker” throughout 2022. In May, new vehicles from Honda, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz See New-Vehicle Prices, Page 14
Vol. 13 / Issue 5 / July 2022
Ford Says $69,554 Markup to F-150 Lightning Was an Error Ford said a Florida dealer’s markup doubling the price of an F-150 Lightning was a “dealer error.” The Blue Oval also said the Lightning in question was a demo vehicle. How the sticker ended up on a not-for-sale demo unit was not explained. “This is inaccurate. The dealer confirmed this was an error and the MSRP was input twice online. In fact this [is] a demo unit and not for sale. The sticker was removed within 24 hours,” Ford Communications Director Mike Levine said on Twitter.
Credit: RDeFran/F-150 Lightning Forum See Markup to F-150, Page 10
Insurers Too Late for Subrogation in Auto Parts Price-Fixing Case, Court Rules by Jim Sams, Insurance Journal
Insurers waited too long to intervene in anti-trust litigation that brought settlements requiring dozens of auto parts manufacturers to pay a total of $1.2 billion to resolve price-fixing allegations, a panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled June 1. In a published decision, the appellate panel affirmed a U.S. District Court ruling that denied a motion to intervene filed by Financial Recovery Services on behalf of eight insurers that sought “equitable subrogation” for the payments it made to insureds for the total loss of their vehicles. FRS did not seek to intervene in the litigation until long after settlement negotiations were concluded and final-approval hearings were held in 41 coordinated cases. The 6th Circuit panel said in its opinion that allowing intervention would require the court to revisit issues that were settled while FRS “watched from the sidelines.” “Allowing FRS to claim subro-
gation rights after settlement would uproot earlier efforts to define classes, expend considerable resources to amend allocation plans and increase costs associated with the claims-administration process, thereby reducing the amount of settlement proceeds available,” the panel said in an opinion written by Justice Karen Nelson Moore. Attorneys representing consumers in 2012 filed anti-trust lawsuits against dozens of auto manufacturers. The Department of Justice launched an investigation into price-fixing allegations, resulting in guilty pleas by 26 manufacturers that paid millions in fines. The civil lawsuits were consolidated into a single case assigned to the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan in Detroit. The court approved four separate settlement agreements between the plaintiffs and 73 of the defendants from 2016 through November 2020. FRS, a third-party administrator for auto insurers, did not get See Price-Fixing Case, Page 19
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