Car Repair Prices Rose 0.9% in October After Gains of 1.4% and 0.6%

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics measured motor vehicle repair prices 0.9 percent higher in October, after gains of 1.4 percent in August and 0.6 percent in September, a combined rise of about 2.9 percent in three months.
• Maintenance and servicing prices climbed 0.5 percent in October, while tires rose 0.3 percent and parts and equipment 0.2 percent, all slower than repair.
• AAA prices maintenance, repair and tires on a new vehicle at 11.7 cents a mile, which comes to $1,755 a year at 15,000 miles.

What Three Straight Monthly Gains Do to Your Next Repair Bill

Repairing a car cost 0.9 percent more in October than in September. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published the figure in its Consumer Price Index release on Tuesday, November 10, and the motor vehicle repair index had already climbed 1.4 percent in August and 0.6 percent in September.

Stack the three months and the gain comes to about 2.9 percent: 1.014 times 1.006 times 1.009 equals 1.0293. A repair that cost $500 at July prices would run about $515 at October prices if the invoice tracked the index. No shop prices its work by the national average, but the index shows which way quotes are moving, and for three months running that direction has been up.

Repair is a small slice of the index and a large slice of a bad week. BLS gives motor vehicle repair a relative importance of 0.412 on a scale where all items add up to 100. Motor vehicle insurance carries 2.510, about six times as much, so repair prices pull the national inflation rate far less than insurance does. The driver whose car is in the shop is not shopping by relative importance.

No 12-month change exists for any of these lines. A lapse in appropriations stopped BLS from surveying prices in October 2025, so most October 2025 indexes were never published and the year-over-year comparison cannot be calculated for them. The three monthly readings are the longest run that table 2 of the release offers, and they carry every compounding figure below.

What the October Numbers Say

Routine upkeep is climbing too, at a slower pace. The index for motor vehicle maintenance and servicing rose 0.5 percent in October after 1.0 percent in August and 0.6 percent in September, which compounds to 2.1 percent. The wider maintenance and repair index, with a relative importance of 1.065, rose 0.6 percent in October after gains of 1.1 percent and 0.7 percent, or 2.4 percent over the three months.

Parts and tires tell a quieter story. Motor vehicle parts and equipment gained 0.2 percent in October, 0.4 percent in September and nothing in August, 0.6 percent in total. Tires rose 0.3 percent in October after 0.4 percent in September and no change in August, 0.7 percent in total. BLS also publishes a narrower index for vehicle parts and equipment other than tires, and that one fell: 0.4 percent in October, 0.7 percent in September and 2.6 percent in August, down about 3.7 percent across the three months. BLS flags that index as built on a substantially smaller sample, which makes it a rougher reading than the others. Motor oil, coolant and fluids, another smaller-sample index, went the other way, up 0.3 percent in October after 1.0 percent in September and 2.6 percent in August, or 3.9 percent in all.

Set those readings beside the repair index and a gap opens: 2.9 percent for repair, 0.6 percent for parts and equipment, 0.7 percent for tires. The release does not split the repair index into parts and labor, so it does not say what drove the gain. It does show that the parts and equipment index and the tire index climbed a fraction as fast as the repair index.

BLS does not seasonally adjust the repair, maintenance, parts or tire series, and the footnote in table 2 says so. The monthly changes are raw price changes, the kind BLS points shoppers to when they want the prices they actually pay. BLS collects the prices each month in 75 urban areas from about 22,000 retail and service establishments, in person, by phone, on the web or through apps, so a single shop’s quote can sit well above or below the national reading.

What a Mile of Upkeep Costs, by AAA’s Count

AAA’s Your Driving Costs study, published September 15 in Orlando, puts the yearly bill for owning and running a new vehicle at $12,863, or $1,071.92 a month. Maintenance, repair and tires take 11.7 cents of every mile in that total. AAA covers retail parts and labor for the maintenance the manufacturer specifies, an extended warranty, repairs to wear-and-tear items over five years and one set of replacement tires.

AAA builds each category as an average over five years and 75,000 miles, so 11.7 cents a mile adds up to $8,775 over the life of the study. Five years and 75,000 miles is 15,000 miles a year, and 11.7 cents times 15,000 miles is $1,755 a year, or $146.25 a month. A car driven more or less than that will not follow the arithmetic exactly. AAA’s per-mile figure is an average across the whole study.

Put against the rest of AAA’s ledger, that $1,755 is smaller than insurance at $2,098 a year and bigger than license, registration and taxes at $802 a year. Upkeep runs at about 14 percent of AAA’s 86 cents a mile at 15,000 miles, and about two thirds of the 17.3 cents a mile that fuel costs, a figure based on regular gas averaging $4.152 a gallon over the 12 months ending May 2026. Drivers who want the fuel side of the ledger can follow the record November gas price and the state spread that goes with it.

Two limits apply. The study prices a new vehicle in its first five years, with a warranty built in, so it does not describe an older car. And AAA published it on September 15, before the October figures arrived. If the 2.4 percent three-month gain in maintenance and repair carried straight through to $1,755, it would add about $42 a year. AAA notes that real costs vary with driving habits, location and operating conditions.

The study now places electric vehicles and hybrids alongside gas models in the same categories. “By looking at EVs, hybrids and traditional gas-powered vehicles within the same categories, consumers can better understand how total ownership costs vary by powertrain,” said Greg Brannon, who directs automotive engineering at AAA. He added: “Looking at the full ownership picture—including depreciation and other expenses—can help consumers better understand the total cost of each option.” Upkeep is one line in that ownership tally, next to depreciation at $4,422 a year and finance charges at $1,184 a year.

Fees and Insurance in the Same Release

Registration was the vehicle fee that eased. State motor vehicle registration and license fees fell 0.6 percent in October, after no change in September and a 0.6 percent drop in August. The wider motor vehicle fees index, relative importance 0.495, rose 0.7 percent in October after falls of 0.7 percent and 0.3 percent, and parking and other fees jumped 2.7 percent in October after two 0.9 percent declines.

Insurance made the headlines and went nowhere over the quarter. Car insurance prices and used cars have their own story from the same release: the insurance index rose 0.7 percent in October, but it fell 0.8 percent in August and rose 0.1 percent in September, so it ended the three months flat. Repair is the line that has risen in each of those three months.

The car side of the ledger softened. Used cars and trucks lost 1.2 percent in October, more than reversing September’s 0.7 percent gain. New vehicles rose 0.2 percent, and the average new car price sits at a record. Gasoline, which BLS reports separately, rose 1.0 percent in October after 9.1 percent in September, seasonally adjusted. Before seasonal adjustment, BLS says, gasoline prices fell 0.7 percent in October.

How to Keep the Repair Bill Down

Ask for the estimate with parts and labor on separate lines. A single total hides where the money goes, and the CPI data shows parts and tires rising far more slowly than the repair index. AAA’s Repair Cost Calculator estimates parts and labor separately at AAA Approved Auto Repair facilities and factors in member discounts, which gives a quote something to be held against.

Ask the shop whether the job has parts options and what each one costs. Call a second shop for the labor rate on anything large and get both quotes in writing. The release cannot say whether parts or labor drove the repair gain, so compare both numbers between shops.

Keep to the maintenance schedule in the owner’s manual. It lists the work the manufacturer specifies, the same work AAA prices into its 11.7 cents a mile, and the servicing index is rising at a slower pace than repair. Tires are the other lever. Check pressure against the placard on the driver’s door jamb. Correctly inflated tires wear more evenly, and a set that lasts longer pushes the next purchase back while the tire index keeps edging up.

Budget for the line before the bill arrives. At 15,000 miles a year, AAA’s figure comes to $146.25 a month, a sum worth setting aside so a repair bill does not arrive unfunded. AAA’s Your Driving Costs calculator takes your state, annual mileage, driving ratio and vehicle year, make, model and trim to give a figure for your own car.

BLS publishes the November Consumer Price Index on Thursday, December 10, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. That release shows whether repair prices kept climbing, and the table 2 lines to watch are motor vehicle repair, maintenance and servicing, and tires.

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Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index Summary, October 2026
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Table 2, CPI-U by detailed expenditure category, October 2026
• AAA Newsroom: New Vehicle Ownership Costs Hit $12,863 Annually

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar