FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Santa Fe Springs, Calif. (January 31, 2023) – Premiere Services, originator of CAT-Converter Express, the insurance industry’s first dedicated and fully-managed, end-to-end national program for catalytic converter theft and replacement claims, reports its Top 20 Catalytic Converter Theft Claim Markets of 2022, and the Top 10 Most Victimized Vehicles of 2022, by frequency of insurance-related claims.
Los Angeles/Orange County tops the list for the fourth consecutive quarter of 2022 and remains the perennial leader in catalytic converter theft claims. Oakland/San Francisco followed closely behind. Both California and Texas had four markets in the Top 20 of 2022. The highest increases year over year were seen in Phoenix and El Paso.
Top 20 Catalytic Converter Theft Markets of 2022
* Top market in all 4 quarters of 2022
** Markets with highest YOY increases
Los Angeles/Orange Country also has the dubious honor of being the top market for wheel and tire thefts in 2022, according to Premiere Services.
Top 10 Most Victimized Vehicles for Catalytic Converter Thefts in 2022
While the cost of replacing a vehicle’s catalytic converter can be costly for all vehicles, owners of RAM Series trucks were especially impacted as those repairs frequently can cost upwards of $10,000 each.
As the leading provider of insurance-based replacement services, Premiere Services tracks and reports insurance-related losses. For 2022, frequency across all markets combined has been up 22% YTD and almost 150% since 2020. The average cost of repair also continues to climb, with nearly a double-digit increase in costs per claim.
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Year-to-date increase in frequency across all US markets0%
Increase since 2020“The frequency and cost of catalytic converter theft losses continue to grow nearly unabated. Every week there is another news report detailing this theft epidemic,” says Chris Sestito, Chief Operations Officer. “The rise in the value of the precious metals found within catalytic converters and the low-cost availability of the tools capable of quickly dismantling them from vehicles makes for an ideal environment for thieves to commit these crimes."
Chris Sestito
Premiere Services
Further complicating the situation is a very challenged supply chain for catalytic converters and related parts. Despite these challenges, Premiere Services’ CAT-Converter Express service is making it possible to complete catalytic converter replacements in an average of 5 days “Keys to Keys” (the time between when they receive the vehicle and when the repair is complete) and have a 98.5% repair success rate in 2022.
Says Sestito, “Our dedicated staff has allowed us to make CAT-Converter Express a scalable service that reduces by half the typical repair cycle time we are seeing industry-wide, and our refined processes are also helping to reduce overall loss costs. Altogether, we are delivering an enhanced policyholder experience for our insurance carrier clients.”
About Premiere Services
CAT-Converter Express is a national service that handles theft and vandalism claims for all private passenger vehicles and the majority of commercial vehicles. Claims handlers can send an assignment to Premiere Services via CCCOne®, warm transfer phone call, email (claims@premiereservices.com), or through Premiere’s secure online quick claim portal found at https://premiereservices.com/quick-claim-form/. There are no setup fees, additional costs, or IT integration needed.
Premiere Services has been exclusively serving the insurance claims industry for 30 years. The company was started after Mark Puente experienced a theft loss, and after the claim was finished, he felt “there had to be a better way”. That has been the guiding principle for the company since 1991.
For more information or to set up a demo, please contact Premiere Services at 800-479-9945 or via email at demo@premiereservices.com.
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