Enterprise Mobility: U.S. length of rental down to 15.5 days

Overall Length of Rental (LOR) for Q3 was 15.5 days, which is nearly a day lower than Q3 2024.

A new report from Enterprise Mobility states that the change is similar to declines in Q1 and Q2 of this year.

“We have previously discussed the outsized impact on LOR in 2022 and 2023, given the post-COVID effects of vehicle production and supply
chain issues,” the Enterprise Q3 LOR report states. “When we compare Q3 2025 to Q3 2021, overall LOR is currently 0.3 days higher; in Q3 2021, LOR was 15.2 days; in Q3 2020, LOR was 12.3 days.”

Alaska recorded the highest overall LOR at 19.8 days, followed by Rhode Island at 19.4 days and West Virginia at 19.3 days.

Ryan Mandell, Mitchell International’s vice president of strategy and market intelligence, says alternative parts usage could be impacting LOR.

“Alternate parts utilization is at an all-time high with 40.6% of replacement parts being classified as aftermarket, recycled, or remanufactured,” he said in the report. “In Q3 2024, that number was 38.3%. Even with an expected decline due to supplement development, we can still expect the final number for Q3 2025 to end above what we observed during the same time period the year prior.

“Generally speaking, alternative parts are less prone to delays and back orders than OEM parts, resulting in faster throughput and keys-to-keys cycle times. The percentage of parts repaired also rose to 17.0% (up from 15.4% in Q3 2024).”

In Q3 2025, drivable LOR was 14.4 days, a 0.7-day decline from Q3 2024. Non-drivable LOR was 21.2 days in Q3 2025, down
1.1 days from Q3 2024. Total loss LOR was 13.9 days in Q3 2025.

According to Mandell, total loss frequency declined from 20.9% in Q3 2024 to 20.3% in Q3 2025.

“The primary reason for this decline was the slight increase experienced in total loss market values (1.78% in Q3 2025) as a result of consumer-driven demand for vehicle purchases (both new and used) in order to take advantage of pricing before any potential tariff impacts felt by OEMs were passed along to consumers,” he said.

Greg Horn, PartsTrader’s chief industry relations officer, added that there was a significant reduction in the overall median delivery days in Q3 — 6.8 days compared to 9.5 days in Q3 2024.

“All part types had reduced delivery days, but we noted the biggest decreases were for new OEM and OEM price-matched parts,” he said in the report. “For specific states, the PartsTrader data aligned with Colorado at 3.3 fewer days, California with 2.9 fewer days, and both Nebraska and Texas with 2.4 fewer median delivery days.”

John Yoswick, CRASH Network editor, attributed the modest LOR change to scheduling backlogs at shops not changing much over the summer.

“Not since the second quarter of 2021 had the national average backlog of work at shops been less than two weeks, but it’s been at that level (1.8 weeks in July) for two consecutive quarters this year,” he said in the report. “In the nearly nine years since the surveys began tracking backlogs, the percentage of shops with no backlog had never exceeded 20% (outside of the pandemic year of 2020) until the two most recent
quarters.”

In Canada, the Q3 LOR was 14.8 days, a 0.3-day decline compared to Q3 2024. Drivable was 12.2 days (down by 0.1 days), non-drivable was 26.3 (down 0.2 days), and total loss was 18.4 (down 1.6 days).

“More parts are being repaired as insurers look to offset potential price increases resulting from tariffs on auto parts, and shops are looking for strategies to improve margins in a tightening labour market,” Mandell said. “In Q3 2025, 17.1% of parts entered on estimates were written for repair, compared to 15.6% in Q3 2024. This number will most certainly degrade somewhat as supplements are processed; however, it is rare to see more than a full percentage point of post-quarter-end decline, indicating we are likely to see a net increase in repair percentage in Q3 of this year once the data is fully mature. With more parts being repaired, shops are less impacted by parts procurement delays.”

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Maps provided by Enterprise Mobility