A decline in the number of bodyshops will see a longer waiting time for crash repair, according to automotive analysts Trend Tracker.
Safer cars, fewer miles driven and rising insurance write offs have all contributed to less demand for collision repair.
Trend tracker predicts the number of body repair shops will decline by more than a fifth over the next five years. This could lead to a shortfall in repair capacity as soon as 2010.
The UK Car Body Repair Market study shows that while the UK car population has risen 18% from 1998-2008. Collision repairs have only risen 1% though.
There are estimated to be 4010 specialist body repairers in the UK, 36% fewer than 10 years ago.