Executive Summary

The automotive services market includes car servicing and mechanical repair, car body repair, and breakdown and recovery services. In 1997, the total value of the market was estimated at £11.65bn. The market is virtually static in volume terms and showing only marginal value growth.

Car servicing and mechanical repair takes the largest share of business, worth an estimated £6.8bn in 1997, equivalent to 58.4% of total market value. Car body repairs were worth a further £4.2bn, while car breakdown and recovery services generated a total income of £650m.

This is a highly competitive market served by a variety of business sectors. Of these, franchised dealers and fast-fit operators are gaining share of the market, at the expense of independent garages and small chains. Consequently, the total number of outlets is falling, although their throughput of servicing repair jobs is generally rising and the outlets themselves are growing in size. Nevertheless, in terms of number of outlets, the market remains oversupplied.

The short-term outlook for car buying is less promising than of late, while long-term, the outlook for motoring itself is under threat from government and environmental influences, as well as from changing work and travel patterns. Fewer cars and less motoring would mean a drop in servicing and repairs. At the same time, the improving quality of cars heralds a period of less frequent servicing and repairs. All this points to a fairly static market in the near future.

Between 1998 and 2002, Key Note forecasts that expenditure at current prices on car servicing and repairs will rise by 14.9% to reach £7.82bn, while expenditure on car body repairs will rise by a slightly higher 15.7%, to £4.91bn.

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