Every Repair Ticket Just Got a $250 Tax. Here's the Math.

Parts cost more. You already know that. You feel it every time you write an estimate.

Tariffs are adding over $250 per repair order to the parts line. That cost flows through on the estimate. Insurers pay it. But the ripple effects, margin compression, cycle time drag, and cash flow pressure, land on you.

Most shop owners know costs are up. Fewer have done the math on what it's actually doing to their profitability. This post is about that math.

What's Actually in Effect Right Now

Section 232 duties on auto parts are active. That's a 25% tariff on a defined list of imported components. Steel tariffs are at 50%. Aluminum is at 50% as well.

The Supreme Court did strike down parts of the broader tariff agenda in early 2026. But Section 232 authority sits on a separate legal foundation. Those tariffs held.

About 44% of OEM collision parts sold in the United States are manufactured overseas, according to Autobody News. That percentage matters because it determines how much of your parts bill is actually exposed to these duties.

Aftermarket parts are affected too. They may not carry the same 25% component tariff, but they're made with steel and aluminum that does. The 50% tariffs on those raw materials flow through to aftermarket pricing. The calculator below focuses on OEM exposure because that's where the cleanest data exists, but your total tariff impact is likely higher.

Adding It Up Per Repair Order

The numbers that come out of the research are striking.

PartsTrader estimates that tariffs add approximately $100 to the parts line of an average repair order. That's before you factor in steel and aluminum separately.

Steel adds roughly $93 per vehicle. Aluminum adds $72. Broader import duties add another $90 or more depending on the specific parts involved.

You're looking at over $250 per repair order in tariff-related cost that didn't exist two years ago. On a shop doing 80 cars a month, that's $20,000 a month. $240,000 a year.

That is not a rounding error. That is a material hit to your P&L.

The April Inclusion Window

Section 232 has an inclusion window. It opens in April. During that window, domestic manufacturers can petition to add more parts to the list of covered components.

Right now, hoods, fenders, and bumpers are not on the list. Those are among the highest-cost collision parts in a typical repair. If they get added, the impact on your parts bill goes up significantly.

Nobody knows exactly what will be included. But the direction of this policy is clear. More coverage, not less. And the window is weeks away.

Why This Squeezes Your Margin

The tariff cost does flow through on the estimate. Insurers pay the price the parts cost. That part works.

But here's where it gets you.

Your parts margin is getting compressed. Suppliers raise their prices, and the markup doesn't keep pace. The dollar amount on the estimate goes up, but the percentage you keep on parts goes down. Over hundreds of ROs, that adds up.

Cycle times are getting hit too. Tariff-affected parts have more supply chain friction. Longer lead times, more backorders, more supplements when the price on the estimate doesn't match the price at delivery. Every extra day a car sits in your shop is a day you're carrying overhead without invoicing.

And if you're doing any customer-pay work, the conversation is harder. Insurance pays what it pays. A customer looking at a $6,000 estimate that used to be $5,200 wants to know why.

The tariff cost is real. It's flowing through every RO. The question is whether you've adjusted your sourcing, your margin targets, and your estimate process to account for it, or whether it's just quietly eating into your profitability.

What the IMR Survey Shows

An IMR survey from April 2025 found that a significant portion of collision shop owners had not calculated their specific tariff exposure per repair order. They knew costs were up. They hadn't quantified it.

That's understandable. Running the math takes time and a framework. But the shops that know their exposure are in a better position to have the right conversations with insurers, with suppliers, and with their own teams.

Run Your Own Numbers

The inputs are not complicated. You need your average parts cost per repair order, your OEM parts percentage, and your monthly car count.

From there, you can estimate your tariff exposure per repair, per month, and per year. It won't be perfect. The exact duty rate varies by part and country of origin. But a reasonable estimate is better than no estimate.

I built a one-page calculator that walks through this. Plug in those three numbers and you get your estimated tariff exposure at current duty rates, with a breakdown of what changes if the April inclusion window adds structural collision panels.

Comment "tariff" on the LinkedIn post and I'll send it to you directly, or download the Parts Tariff Impact Calculator here.

What to Do With This Information

Knowing your exposure doesn't solve the problem. But it changes how you approach several things.

It changes how you talk to your insurance reps. It changes how you think about parts sourcing and your OEM versus aftermarket mix. It changes how you approach estimate writing. And if you're thinking about what your shop is worth to a buyer, tariff exposure is a real line item in how buyers are underwriting collision businesses right now.

The shops that come out of this period in the best shape will be the ones that understood their cost structure clearly enough to make intentional decisions.

Running the numbers is step one.