Vehicle repair cost statistics show how much U.S. consumer units spent on maintenance and repairs in 2023, while also revealing how spending varied by income, household structure, housing tenure, race, education and occupation. Related transportation, insurance and collision-severity measures provide context, but they are not interchangeable with an individual repair invoice.
Key Vehicle Repair Cost Statistics
The most useful figures for understanding the U.S. vehicle repair-cost picture include:
- In 2023, U.S. consumer units spent an average $975 on vehicle maintenance and repairs.
- In 2023, U.S. consumer units spent $3,845 on other vehicle expenses, a broader category than maintenance and repair.
- In 2023, average gasoline spending was $2,449 per U.S. consumer unit in the United States.
- In 2023, transportation spending averaged $13,174 per U.S. consumer unit in the United States.
- From 2021 to 2023, other vehicle expenses rose 8.5% for U.S. consumer units, although the category is broader than repairs.
- From 2022 to 2023, other vehicle expenses rose 0.3% for U.S. consumer units.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $655 for the second income quintile in the United States.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $1,657 for the highest income quintile in the United States.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $1,764 for consumer units with pretax income of $200,000 or more.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $788 for consumer units whose reference person was age 25 to 34.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $1,171 for consumer units with a reference person born from 1965 through 1980.
- In 2023, the average household vehicle count was 1.9 vehicles per consumer unit in the United States.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $1,230 for homeowners with a mortgage.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $713 for renters.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $756 for Black or African-American consumer units.
- In 2023, vehicle maintenance and repair spending was $1,152 for consumer units whose highest education was a bachelor’s degree.
- From 2020 to 2024, material-damage claim severity rose 47% in the U.S. auto-insurance claims measure summarized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- In 2024, vehicle insurance spending rose 12.3% for U.S. consumer units.
Contents
- Key Vehicle Repair Cost Statistics
- National Vehicle Repair Cost Statistics and Recent Trends
- Vehicle Repair Spending by Income
- Vehicle Repair Costs by Age, Generation and Household Structure
- Vehicle Maintenance Spending by Housing and Geography
- Vehicle Repair Costs by Race, Ethnicity, Education and Occupation
- Related Vehicle Insurance and Collision-Cost Trends
National Vehicle Repair Cost Statistics and Recent Trends
The 2023 national baseline is $975 per consumer unit for vehicle maintenance and repairs. This is an annual average across all U.S. consumer units, including units that reported zero spending, so it is not the price of a typical repair visit.
The Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Release Date: 2024-09-25 presents the annual, not seasonally adjusted BLS series. The dollar figures are rounded to the nearest dollar in the ALFRED series.
| U.S. measure | Period | Average or change |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle maintenance and repairs | 2023 | $975 per consumer unit |
| Other vehicle expenses | 2023 | $3,845 per consumer unit |
| Gasoline | 2023 | $2,449 per consumer unit |
| Transportation | 2023 | $13,174 per consumer unit |
| Other vehicle expenses | 2022–2023 | 0.3% increase |
| Other vehicle expenses | 2021–2023 | 8.5% increase |
The Consumer expenditures in 2023 report shows that “other vehicle expenses” is broader than maintenance and repair, while transportation includes vehicle purchases, fuel, insurance and other expenses. Those categories should therefore be used as ownership-cost context rather than added to the repair figure.
In 2024, transportation expenditures rose 1.1%, vehicle insurance spending rose 12.3%, and vehicle purchases spending declined 3.6% for U.S. consumer units. The Consumer expenditures in 2024 also reports that vehicle insurance spending rose 11.5% in 2023; these are related ownership measures, not direct repair spending.
Vehicle Repair Spending by Income
Income-group averages show a wide spread in annual maintenance and repair spending. Because the BLS averages include zero-spending consumer units, they describe spending per consumer unit in each group rather than the bill paid by households that needed a repair.
| Income-defined population | 2023 spending per consumer unit |
|---|---|
| Second income decile, 11th–20th percentile | $479 |
| Fourth income decile, 31st–40th percentile | $849 |
| Second income quintile, 21st–40th percentile | $655 |
| Sixth income decile, 51st–60th percentile | $972 |
| Seventh income decile, 61st–70th percentile | $1,177 |
| Eighth income decile, 71st–80th percentile | $1,236 |
| Fourth income quintile, 61st–80th percentile | $1,207 |
| Highest income quintile, 81st–100th percentile | $1,657 |
| Pretax income $150,000–$199,999 | $1,525 |
| Pretax income $200,000 or more | $1,764 |
These observations come from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Release Date: 2024-09-25. Income bands and percentile groups are BLS-defined populations, and the averages should not be generalized to every individual within them.
Vehicle Repair Costs by Age, Generation and Household Structure
Age and household composition provide additional context for annual repair spending, but generation is defined by the reference person’s birth years and does not measure vehicle age.
- Consumer units with a reference person age 25 to 34 spent $788 on vehicle maintenance and repairs in 2023.
- Consumer units with a reference person born from 1965 through 1980 spent $1,171 in 2023.
- Retired consumer units spent $783 in 2023; this is an occupation-defined group, so not all older consumers are included.
- Hispanic or Latino consumer units spent $886 in 2023.
- Other married-couple consumer units spent $1,506 in 2023; this is a BLS composition category.
- One-parent consumer units with at least one child under 18 spent $769 in 2023.
- Single consumers with no earner spent $459 in 2023.
The Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Release Date: 2024-09-25 supplies the age, generation, demographic and composition series. The retired, one-parent and no-earner classifications are specific BLS-defined groups, and all annual averages include zero spenders.
Vehicle availability also varies across these contexts. The Consumer expenditures in 2023 reports 1.9 vehicles per consumer unit overall, compared with 1.2 for reference persons under 25, 2.2 for reference persons age 35 to 44, and 1.4 for reference persons born in 1945 or earlier.
Vehicle Maintenance Spending by Housing and Geography
Housing tenure separates annual repair spending into three distinct 2023 averages. Homeowners with a mortgage averaged $1,230, homeowners without a mortgage averaged $956, and renters averaged $713 per consumer unit.
The Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Release Date: 2024-09-25 identifies these as U.S. housing-tenure averages that include zero-spending units.
Regional vehicle counts help describe ownership context, but they do not measure repair incidence or repair prices. In 2023, the average was 1.7 vehicles per consumer unit in the Northeast, 2.0 in the Midwest, 1.8 in the South and 2.1 in the West.
Household size showed a similar ownership pattern: one-person consumer units averaged 1.1 vehicles, while four-person consumer units averaged 2.4 vehicles in 2023. These vehicle-count figures are from Consumer expenditures in 2023 and should not be treated as repair-cost comparisons.
An older observation provides limited historical context: urban consumer units spent an average $875 on vehicle maintenance and repairs in 2020. The ALFRED series is annual and not seasonally adjusted, and this 2020 figure should not be read as a current estimate.
Vehicle Repair Costs by Race, Ethnicity, Education and Occupation
The 2023 BLS-defined race and ethnicity categories show different annual averages, but they should be interpreted within the survey classifications rather than as universal estimates for every person in a demographic group.
| BLS-defined population | 2023 spending per consumer unit |
|---|---|
| Black or African-American reference person | $756 |
| Asian reference person | $829 |
| Hispanic or Latino reference person | $886 |
| Non-Hispanic White and all other races excluding Black category | $1,031 |
| Highest education: high-school graduate plus some college | $859 |
| Highest education: associate degree | $990 |
| Highest education: bachelor’s degree | $1,152 |
| Self-employed-worker occupation group | $1,362 |
The race, ethnicity and education values are from Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Release Date: 2024-09-25. The non-Hispanic White and all-other-races measure is a composite BLS category excluding Black, not a universal White-only estimate, while education is based on the highest education of any household member.
The self-employed-worker value comes from the repair-series presentation in Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Release Date: 2024-09-25 (repair series). It is an occupation-defined consumer-unit average, not an individual mechanic’s charge.
Related Vehicle Insurance and Collision-Cost Trends
Insurance and claim-severity statistics help explain the wider cost environment around vehicle ownership, but they do not replace direct maintenance-and-repair measures. The BLS 2024 report summarizes external claim data as estimates, so the figures below should be read as collision-cost context.
- From 2020 to 2024, bodily-injury claim severity rose 20% in the U.S. auto-insurance claims measure summarized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- From 2020 to 2024, material-damage claim severity rose 47%.
- From 2020 to 2024, total-loss claim severity rose 29%; total-loss claims are not ordinary repair bills.
- From 2020 to 2024, major speeding incidents rose 10%, while minor speeding incidents rose 16%.
- From 2020 to 2024, distracted driving rose 10%.
The Consumer expenditures in 2024 reports these claim-severity and driving-risk figures as summarized context. Claim severity is broader than consumer-paid repair cost, and the speeding and distracted-driving measures describe risk behavior rather than repair spending itself.