The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a $2.6-billion chunk out of Canada’s automotive service business, in keeping with a brand new examine by J.D. Energy Canada.

The 2021 Canada Buyer Service Index — Lengthy Time period Examine reveals that the service marketplace for automobiles 4 to 12 years previous has fallen to $6.6 billion in 2021 from $9.2 billion in 2020. It attributes the drop to a discount in kilometres pushed spurred by work-from-home measures and different pandemic restrictions, in addition to a scarcity of service choices in some markets.

The variety of service visits dropped by 20 per cent 12 months over 12 months, and of the service visits remaining, aftermarket service outlets not solely captured the vast majority of clients (54 per cent), the aftermarket additionally elevated its market share to 44 per cent of whole business income from 40 per cent in 2020. J.D. Energy stated this reverses a pattern that had proven new-vehicle dealerships growing their share of service enterprise.

The information wasn’t solely gloomy, nevertheless. J.D. Ney, the automotive observe lead at J.D. Energy Canada, stated a few of these service visits have been extra precious than beforehand.

“We’re seeing the impact of broader macro-economic forces within the automotive area,” he stated in a information launch. “Apart from the decline in service visits and income, there’s a shiny spot for the service enterprise. Many automobile homeowners opted to make costlier repairs to their present automobile slightly than commerce it in for a brand new automobile or soak up the added price of a pre-owned automobile, the place we’ve seen costs soar these days.”

The examine additionally ranked buyer satisfaction on a scale of 1,000 factors: total satisfaction with dealerships and non-dealership service operations ranked 791, which is unchanged from 2020. Satisfaction was larger with non-dealerships at 796 than with sellers at 786. 

Audi dealerships ranked highest in total buyer satisfaction at 825 level (additionally out of 1,000 factors), with Nice Canadian Oil Change (823) and Volkswagen dealerships (817) rounding out the Prime 3.

The examine measures satisfaction and supposed loyalty amongst homeowners of four- to 12-year-old automobiles and analyzes buyer expertise with guarantee and non-warranty work. It was based mostly on the responses of 8,101 homeowners and was performed between April and June of 2021.