The car importer demanded 600,000 kroner for a back seat. That is, for a car worth 150,000 kroner. The driver's insurance company is in shock.
It's not just bumpers, lights and batteries that are expensive for new cars. Apparently, rear seats are too.
The insurance company If tells Motor.no that they are facing a bill of 600,000 Norwegian kroner for a back seat for a car worth 150,000 kroner.
To put it into a Danish context, this equates to a new back seat in a car for just under 100,000 kroner costing almost four times as much.
– We got a price of 600,000 kroner for a new back seat, says Vidar Brustad, head of pricing and purchasing at If, to Motor.
Gjensidige, which like If is present in Denmark, has also experienced similar prices for new spare parts for used cars. However, according to Motor, neither company will disclose which cars this is about.
According to the insurance companies, this is about protecting relationships with both the car brands and their importers. However, the companies would like to confirm that these are prices they have received for replacing damaged parts in customers' cars.
Insurance companies are horrified by the high prices. And if this continues, there is only one place to get the money – from customers in the form of even higher insurance premiums.
Insurance prices – especially for cars – have already skyrocketed in the past few years. It certainly doesn't help that people in electric cars generally cause more and much more expensive damage. Read more about it here .
At Gjensidige, communications manager Bjarne Aani Rysstad is also surprised by the other prices for new spare parts. For example, the insurance company is dismayed that something as simple as a rubber strip costs 10,000 Norwegian kroner.
– How can a simple rubber strip on a door cost 10,000 kroner, asks the communications manager rector-like.
According to competitor If, the prices of spare parts have increased by an average of 45 percent in four years. That is, from just before the corona pandemic in 2020 to 2024. Some brands have even increased their prices by 62 percent.
In this way, even a stone chip can develop into damage, with the workshop bill running up to 100,000 Norwegian kroner, equivalent to 65,000 Danish kroner.
A tiny stone can accidentally hit the windshield, sensor, headlights and other sensitive parts of the car. And then the bill runs into tens of thousands of kroner, says Gjensidige.
