Connecticut body shops are dealing with backorders on car parts and a labor shortage and because of that, it could take longer than it usually does to get a vehicle fixed.
"I’ve been in business since 1992 and this is the worst I’ve seen it as far as parts acquisition as I’m concerned,” Gino Dimauro, owner of Bryon's Auto Body in Newington, said.
Body shops are trying to get repairs done as fast as possible, but the combination of factors is causing body shop repair times to dramatically increase.
"We’re on the phone constantly, looking the Internet, looking on other dealerships across the nation trying to source parts and trying to get the parts here," Dimauro said.
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“Certain parts are available, certain parts are not. It gets frustrating because some parts are very small pieces that we need, but we can’t put the vehicle together unless we have that part first," he said.
For customers, it’s definitely causing an unprecedented delay
"We have one sitting in the back right now waiting for, going on four months now, waiting for a catalytic converter to come because it’s on back order," Dimauro said.
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And staffing levels are making it any better.
"We can’t get people to work. You know we have plenty of work to keep guys busy and my guys are working overtime because we’re trying to keep up but we need more people and we can’t get anybody to work," Dimauro said.
But even in trying times, this 30-year auto body repair veteran has hope and he just asks for customers to have patience and understand it’s a process. He said it’s not as easy as it seems to be, but they try to expedite parts from all over so customers are back in their vehicles within a reasonable amount of time.
