For the past 33 years, the F-150 has remained as America’s number one selling vehicle model, and the new aluminum-bodied models are keeping this momentum. With this in mind, it is important for consumers to understand the reason the new material comes with a higher price tag for repairs.
The IIHS has found that front-end repairs for the aluminum-bodied vehicles could be expected to rise as high as $4,147, compared to the $3,759 repair costs of its steel bodied counterpart. When repairing the back-end, costs for the aluminum models became even higher, reaching upwards of $4,738 (with the steel models being significantly lower at $3,275). Overall, the estimated repair costs for aluminum models were 42% higher, with labor reaching a full 22% higher costs than the steel-bodied F-150 models.
Eric Lyman, vice president of industry insights at TrueCar, had this to say on the topic: “Ford had to have done their due diligence. This is the goose that lays the golden egg, their bread-and-butter vehicle, the key to their profitability. I would expect that they were not foolish to bring this vehicle to market without fully understanding what those repair costs would be and how that would affect residual values and ownership costs.”
In addition to the higher repair costs, these findings are expected to affect the premiums on the insurance costs of aluminum-bodied F-150 models. Chevy has taken notice of these potential pitfalls in the model’s cost-effectiveness, and has highlighted the strength of their non-aluminum bodied vehicles in their most recent advertising campaigns. Comparing the repair costs and time of F-150 models to the recent Chevy Silverado model, Chevy points out that costs for fixing their vehicle average at about $1,755 less, and take about 34 days less to have the repairs to perform on average.
With these new statistics in mind, buyers interested in the new aluminum-based F-150 model should take special care to check how their purchase could affect both their personal finances and their insurance premiums.