The latest quarterly Crash Course Report from CCC Intelligent Solutions showed total auto claims counts being down 8.5% year over year through July — and things didn’t improve for collision repairers much in August, according to a CCC presentation at the recent annual CIECA CONNEX conference in Nashville.
Repairable claims counts were down even further, 10.4% through August, compared to the same period last year, said Kyle Krumlauf, director of industry analytics for CCC. He said there are differences among the decline based on coverage type, with comprehensive claims — primarily hail, flooding and storm-related claims — down 15.3%.
“This year we have seen significantly less volume from weather-related claims,” Krumlauf said. “June, July, August, especially for states like Colorado, Nebraska and Texas, we’ve seen significant decline in weather-related or comp claims.”
The total cost of repair for repairable claims has risen to $4,774 in the first half of 2025 — up from $4,708 in the same period last year — but the 1.4% rate of increase year over year pales in comparison to the rate of growth the prior five years, when repair costs were rising between 5.1% in 2024 and 15.7% in 2022.
“We haven’t seen these small of increases in repair costs in 15 years or something like that,” Krumlauf said. “There are a number of aggravating and mitigating factors that are playing into it. First of all, the number of parts per repair is down by about a half part per repair through the first half of this year.”
He credits that decline to the aging vehicle mix — given that older vehicles require fewer parts — and the increase in total losses.
“More of those heavy hit vehicles that require more parts are not getting repaired, they’re getting totaled out,” he said.
The percentage of claims resulting in a total loss this summer was down from its peak late last year, but remains higher than a year ago.
There’s also been almost a full hour of decline in the average number of labor hours on repairable claims in the first half of this year (26.7 hours) compared to the same period each of the last two years (27.5 hours on average).
“Same thing, older vehicles in general, are changing the average,” Krumlauf said.
Consumers also continue to take on more of the cost of repairs by increasing the deductibles on their auto insurance coverage.
“You see almost a 6% decline in [claims with] $500 deductibles, and almost a 6% increase in $1,000 deductibles,” just since 2021, Krumlauf said.
He also shared data on front-end and rear-end collisions, showing there’s been some increase in the percentage of front-end claims for vehicles 7 years or older, which likely include fewer ADAS features. The percentage of claims for current model year vehicles are also up somewhat, but there are declines in the percentage of those claims for vehicles 1 to 6 years old.
The average total cost of repairs continues to increase this year, but at a much slower pace than most of the past 15 years.
“I think the reason for that is people getting familiar with the technology in their new vehicles,” Krumlauf said.
Just over 23% of all non-comprehensive claims were total losses in May, June, July and August, Krumlauf said — about a percentage point higher than in the same months last year, but down from 24% and 25% in late 2024 and earlier this year. Krumlauf echoed other speakers at the conference who predicted a rise in used-vehicle pricing in the coming months, which could help reduce total losses.
“We’ll continue to see used vehicle values increase, especially as new vehicle value prices increase,” he said. “Cox Automotive said that they anticipate we might see a $50,000 average transaction price on new vehicles by the end of this year, the first time ever.”
Indeed, just days after Krumlauf’s presentation, Kelley Blue Book announced the average new-car buyer paid $50,080 for their vehicle in September.
John Yoswick