Canadian vehicle owners are spending more every time they bring an aging vehicle in for service, and that is creating an interesting dynamic for the aftermarket parts distribution business.

According to the J.D. Power 2026 Canada Customer Service Index—Long-Term (CSI-LT) Study, the average amount spent per service visit on vehicles four to 12 years old has increased to $443 from $415 in 2025.

For aftermarket facilities, average spending per visit has reached $323, up 7% from $301 a year ago and 34% from $241 in 2020.

Independent shops are seeing an even larger jump. Average spending at independent facilities has increased to $363 from $311, despite their share of total service visits falling to 23% from 26% last year.

By comparison, at dealerships, the average amount paid for service has reached an all-time high of $566, up 5% from $539 a year ago and 51% higher than $375 in 2020.

In contrast, annual visits remain stable at 1.8 and 1.5 for dealership customers and aftermarket customers respectively.

For Canada’s driving public then, the dealership service customer’s annual outlay is $1018. The average aftermarket service customer annual spend is $484.

For those concerned that the increased in the cost of servicing this older cohort of vehicles may put  the sector in competition with replacing it with a new vehicle, one key fact should put those concerns aside. While service bills have increased 34% since 2020, the cost of a new vehicle has risen about 50% (from about $40,000 to about $60,000) and the average monthly payment has risen from in the $600s, to about $950. An increase of about $350 per month (up $4200 a year) over the same period.

Put simply, the cost to maintain a four to 12=year-old vehicle may have increased, but it’s still nowhere near the increased cost of replacing that vehicle.

Getting back to the aftermarket equation is the potential impact on parts demand. A higher average repair order generally means more value attached to each vehicle entering an aftermarket bay. But there is an important distinction between a larger repair order and a growing aftermarket.

Dealerships continue to capture nearly half of all service visits, compared with 28% for aftermarket chains and 23% for independents.

The aftermarket isn’t necessarily getting more repair opportunities, but it is getting more dollars attached to the opportunities it does capture.

That makes every customer particularly important.

The J.D. Power findings suggest there is some good news on that front. Aftermarket facilities outperform dealerships on several of the factors that have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction, including customer-focused service advice, getting the repair right the first time and a fast vehicle pick-up process.

That’s important because higher repair costs can put additional pressure on the customer relationship. When a $300 repair becomes a $500 or $700 repair, the shop has more explaining to do—and the parts supplier is part of that equation.

Distributors have an opportunity to help their shop customers manage that conversation through accurate parts information, availability, competitive pricing and options that allow technicians to recommend the right repair for the customer’s circumstances.

There is another longer-term issue revealed in the findings.

J.D. Power expects battery electric and zero-emission vehicles to account for 43% of new vehicle sales in Canada by 2035, rising beyond 60% by 2040.

While the aftermarket currently captures 51% of ICE vehicles serviced in the studied age range, it only captures only 34% of ZEV service occasions and 28% of the associated revenue.

That gap should be considered a longer-term concern for the entire aftermarket supply chain.

For now, an aging vehicle fleet is generating larger repair orders. But the opportunity isn’t simply to sell parts for more dollars, it’s to sell more parts.

Helping independent repairers retain customers, expand their capabilities and capture a greater share of the work as the vehicle parc changes should be the goal.

For distributors, that means the average repair order is worth watching—but so are the number of vehicles reaching the bay and where those vehicles are choosing to get serviced.

A bigger ticket is good.

A bigger aftermarket share is better.