FOX Business’ Madison Alworth talks to Peyton Knight, owner of Knight’s Automotive Repair in New Jersey, about what customers can expect.
A New Jersey auto repair shop owner warned Monday that the cost of “everything is rising” and consumers will face steep increases when fixing their cars.
Peyton Knight, the owner of Knight’s Automotive Repair, told FOX Business’ Madison Alworth during a live interview on “Varney & Co.” Monday that he used to fix engines for around $4,500 but now charges $9,500 due to cost pressures.
“We’re waiting months and months to get the product as well,” he added, noting the difficulty of getting engines.
Knight also noted that the cost of tires has increased by 40% since the start of the pandemic.
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An auto repair shop owner looks at the current inflationary environment and discusses what customers can expect. (iStock/iStock)
“The tires, they go up every day,” he told Alworth.
He added that the cost of brake discs, the metal discs attached to the wheels of the vehicle, has increased by 20%.
Knight provided the information two days before investors digest the consumer price index and core CPI, which are expected to rise from 8.6% to 8.8% in the previous reading, as the followed Trading Economics.
Last month, it was revealed that inflation remained painfully high in May, with consumer prices hitting a new four-decade high, exacerbating financial stress for millions of Americans.
The Labor Department said last month that the Consumer Price Index, a broad measure of the price of everyday goods, including gas, groceries and rents, rose 8.6 % in May compared to a year ago. Prices jumped 1% in the month-long period from April. Those figures were both higher than the headline figure of 8.3% and the monthly gain of 0.7% predicted by economists at Refinitiv.
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The data marked the fastest pace of inflation since December 1981.
Used car and truck prices were up 16.1% year over year and new vehicle prices were up 12.6%. Motor vehicle maintenance and repair costs rose 6.1% in May from the same period last year and rose 0.5% from April to May, according to data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last month.
Knight noted on Monday that many people have turned to used parts amid price increases, which, in turn, is driving up the prices of those parts as well.
“Now a used transmission that I could have gotten for $400 or $500 now costs $2,500, so everything goes up,” he pointed out.
Knight also pointed out that people are hanging on to their cars for a longer period of time, opting to fix them as prices for new vehicles have soared.
Thomas Maoli, President and CEO of Motor Cars, assesses the shortage of technicians plaguing the auto industry.
“First of all, it’s hard to get newer vehicles,” Knight said, noting that customers “can’t get them, even though the cost of new and used vehicles has gone up.” considerably”.
“So people are investing a lot of money in their used cars,” he continued, pointing out that he “sees a lot of people spending more money than they normally would.”
“If it was going to cost $3,500 or $4,000, they might not go,” Knight said, noting that a few people last week spent around $6,000 fixing their cars.
“They don’t want to get into new cars, they know the cost,” he said.
The average car on U.S. roads is 12.2 years old, Kelley Blue Book noted in May, citing a recent S&P Global Mobility report, which analyzed registrations across the country to generate the data.
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Tom Maoli, president and CEO of New Jersey and New York-based Celebrity Motor Cars, told “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on Monday that “getting parts is impossible.”
Maoli said he “can’t get tires for the cars”.
“When you call the dealerships, we’re two weeks late on appointments just because we can’t get the parts,” he continued.
“The supply chain is strong and the technicians, they are hard to find,” added the owner of six luxury car dealerships.
He went on to note that “the technology in these vehicles is getting so dramatic that it’s hard to get technicians who know how to work on these cars.”
Maoli also pointed out that there is another challenge in the mix.
“All these manufacturers are coming out with electric cars and these technicians don’t know how to work on them, so the costs are going up,” he told host Neil Cavuto.
