Adding small cars may subtract repair work

OEM TRENDS

Automakers are shrinking the size of their vehicles and that may shrink the numbers of cars you get to fix, if speculation holds true that lower price points will drive more totals among small cars.

In response to the increasing gas prices, the slump in SUV sales and high new car prices, automakers are bringing a new generation of small cars to the U.S. market. Those cars have been fixtures on the roads in Europe and Asia for years, but they are brand new in North America.

"What we are seeing is the decline of large trucks. People bought trucks as big, haul-things-around vehicles, but they are very costly to run-same thing with SUVs," says Mary-Beth …