Many Spare Parts have become expensive in recent years. Also because the car manufacturers have a kind of monopoly on body panels and the like.
Auto spare parts are becoming more and more expensive. The prices for visible components such as fenders, lights or windows have increased by an average of 6 percent within a year, as the insurance umbrella association GDV reports. Individual parts such as a radiator grille have become 9 percent more expensive. With the increase, a long-term development continues. While the consumer price index has increased by 2013 percent since 13, spare parts have become an average of 44 percent more expensive. Trunk lids have increased by 60 percent, taillights by 67 percent.
Spare parts are subject to a law
The GDV traces the trend back to the almost monopoly of car manufacturers in the case of visible spare parts. The so-called design protection prevents visible body parts from being reproduced and sold by third-party suppliers, unlike technical spare and wear parts. A change in the law has already been decided, but will not take full effect until 2045. The insurers criticize this as an obstacle to free competition. Not least because, in addition to consumers, they are also severely affected by the expensive parts: In the past year, property damage to a car cost the motor liability insurer an average of around 3.100 euros, around five percent more than in the previous year. In 2013 this value was 2.400 euros