Drivers are getting a break on car insurance, but not at the repair shop. The motor vehicle insurance index in the consumer price index fell 0.8% in August and was 5.1% lower than a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Sept. 11. Over the same 12 months, the index for motor vehicle maintenance and repair rose 5.2%, faster than overall inflation of 3.4%, including a 1.1% seasonally adjusted jump in August alone.
Autobody News, which tracks the figures for the collision industry, said the insurance decline was the largest 12-month drop since November 2020 and the index's fourth straight monthly decrease. It quoted Cox Automotive chief economist Jeremy Robb, who said maintenance and repair costs "drove much of the transportation services category's share of inflation over the past five years," citing the skill and time the work now requires.
Car-ownership costs in the consumer price index, August 2026
| Category | Change from July | Change from August 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Motor vehicle insurance | -0.8% | -5.1% |
| Motor vehicle maintenance and repair | +1.1% | +5.2% |
| Gasoline (all types) | +3.9% | +27.4% |
| Used cars and trucks | +0.4% | -2.3% |
| New vehicles | +0.3% | +0.6% |
| All items | +0.4% | +3.4% |
Monthly changes are seasonally adjusted; 12-month changes are not. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released Sept. 11, 2026.
Why repairs cost more
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety notes that, by the government's measure, the average price of vehicle repairs has risen more than 40% since 2020. In an Aug. 11 analysis, Matt Moore, chief insurance operations officer at IIHS and its Highway Loss Data Institute affiliate, listed several causes beyond the sensors that are often blamed. Headlights are more sophisticated, SUVs and pickups dominate sales, and ordinary cars carry features once limited to luxury models. Nearly two-thirds of new vehicles have all- or four-wheel drive, and more than half have turbocharged or hybrid engines or are fully electric.
Crash avoidance systems do raise the cost of a given repair. In an HLDI comparison of otherwise identical 2017-22 model year vehicles with and without a bundle of driver assistance features, collision claim severity was about 10% higher for the equipped cars. But those vehicles had about 10% fewer collision claims and almost 40% fewer property damage liability claims. Overall losses were about 5% lower under collision coverage and almost 30% lower under property damage liability. "Every crash avoided is a deductible you don't need to pay," Moore wrote.
Will the relief last?
Not every measure agrees on where premiums are headed. Insurify, which analyzes insurance quotes, put the national average full-coverage premium at $2,237 a year at midyear, up 1% since the end of 2025 after a 6% decline in 2025, according to Repairer Driven News. It projects increases in 32 states in the second half of 2026, led by Connecticut at about 4%, and cites rising maintenance and repair costs among the reasons.
For owners, the takeaway is to treat the CPI decline as an opening rather than a guarantee. Prices vary widely by state and insurer, so comparing quotes at renewal is the most direct way to capture lower rates. When budgeting for a car, plan for repair and maintenance bills that have been rising faster than inflation, and remember that crash avoidance features, while expensive to fix, are associated with fewer claims overall.