Body shops rejoice at the sound of new business, a law that was long overdue for change has been overhauled to give leeway to insurance companies allowing them to legally repair vehicles that they were once forced to total even after, in certain situations, many of the repairs had been completed. The new Nevada law, NRS 487.790 has been amended to exclude not only the costs of painting, towing and replacement of single parts to restore vehicles to their pre-loss condition, but also to exclude (this is the good part) the cost of “replacing electronic components in accordance with the specifications of the manufacturer” in calculation of a legal total loss. There’s not a body shop owner in Nevada that isn’t affected by this, and there’s not an insurance company in Nevada that isn’t affected in a positive way.

A significant percentage of vehicles that are totaled will now be deemed repairable which not only will please customers who have recently been, in these difficult economic times, forced to purchase a vehicle when they may already be living at their limits–putting them in extreme financial difficulty. Just because an airbag deployed and pushed the vehicle $500 over the legal limit in the past, the insurance company is forced to dutifully offer the customer the ability to retain salvage or accept payment for their vehicle (less applicable deductible). Today this arbitrary threshold is starting to seem a little less arbitrary with the electronic components now being excluded from the equation. Some in my circles have estimated that nearly 10% of vehicles today that are totaled would now not be considered a total loss, which presents the body shop industry with more work and has potential to create more jobs. Perhaps the newly changed law isn’t yet the summum bonum but who knows, maybe our local economy will benefit a little from this?