For The Second Consecutive Year CarMD Finds Michigan Most Affordable State for Check Engine Repairs; Connecticut Drivers Paid Most for Parts and Labor in 2016

When vehicles have check engine light problems, the leading culprit is a faulty oxygen sensor (O2 sensor), which is the most frequently diagnosed repair in 35 states. The cost, including parts and labor, to have an oxygen sensor professionally installed can vary from $233 in Michigan to $296 in Vermont. Parts costs alone can also vary from state-to-state. The average O2 sensor part costs $169 in Connecticut, which is nearly 34 percent more than the part cost in Michigan ($126). Properly operating oxygen sensors are important to a car's performance and to the environment. If left unrepaired most check engine light-related problems, including a faulty O2 sensor, can negatively impact a car's fuel economy and cause damage to other car parts like the more costly catalytic converter, which averages $1,190 to replace.

"As we track check engine light repair data, we have noticed a trend in which the states with the highest repair costs tend to have a higher frequency of expensive repairs that could have been avoided if vehicle owners were more diligent with scheduled maintenance and had repairs made shortly after the check engine light came on versus driving it in hopes it would go off," said David Rich, CarMD's technical director.  "Many drivers ignore check engine light problems because it seems like their car is driving just fine or they don't like the initial quote, yet don't realize that ignoring it will almost always end up causing additional costs and repairs down the road."  

A leading provider of automotive diagnostic information, CarMD publishes this annual state-by-state ranking as part of its CarMD® Vehicle Health Index™ to bring awareness about the importance of check engine light health in order to reduce cost of ownership. CarMD also offers CarMD Garage Vehicle Health Reports where vehicle owners can research upcoming maintenance items, identify predicted check engine light failures, and find related parts online.  

CarMD's ranking of the five states/districts with the highest car repair costs in 2016:

CarMD ranking of the five states/districts with the lowest car repair costs in 2016:

Key findings:

Labor and Parts Costs: Vermont vehicle owners paid the least for labor ($141.13). Drivers in Mississippi paid the most for labor ($174.61) on average. Michigan drivers paid the least for parts ($182.77) while parts costs were highest in Connecticut ($250.52). Factors that contribute to average parts and labor costs include vehicle type, make and age; type of repair needed; parts availability; difficulty of repair and hourly labor rates.

Repair Costs Vary by State: The same repair can vary in cost from state to state. To replace a car's mass air flow sensor – a common check engine light-related repair – the average cost is $327 in Hawaii, while the same repair costs $393 on average in Montana. To replace a throttle body assembly, it costs on average $521 in Michigan, but it will run you as much as $735 in North Dakota.

CarMD's state ranking of repair costs was derived from analysis of 11,541,253 repairs identified for model year 1996 to 2016 vehicles from Jan. 1, 2016 through Dec. 31, 2016 reported to and analyzed by CarMD's nationwide team of ASE-certified technicians. All 51 U.S. states/districts, including the District of Columbia, are represented in this Index. The repairs are related to a vehicle's on-board diagnostic (OBD2) system, which is standard on all vehicles manufactured since 1996. It monitors emissions-related systems within a vehicle, triggering the check engine light when a problem occurs. CarMD does not report on problems that are outside the scope of a vehicle's OBD2 computer monitoring such as tires, and mechanical parts like belts and hoses.

About CarMD
Based in Irvine, Calif., CarMD is a leading provider of automotive diagnostic information, products and services that leverage and empower the capabilities of the on-board diagnostics (OBD2) port. CarMD's network of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE)-certified technicians has built the largest, most current database of OBD2-related expert repairs and associated costs from which CarMD draws its Vehicle Health Index™ reports. This Index is released each summer to provide vehicle owners and the industry with a state-by-state analysis of car repair trends and costs. For information on CarMD's products and third-party software service solutions, visit www.carmd.com.

(Below is a complete ranking of U.S. states/districts in order of most to least expensive car repair costs in 2016.)

SOURCE CarMD

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