My daughter's car is literally at the local stereo shop right now getting the dashcam hardwired in.

My wife and I have dashcams. Six days after having hers installed, her car was totaled by a distracted box truck driver. We only had back one month from the collision repair after another accident where she wasn't at fault. The other driver had a blowout on the highway, bounced off the center divider, and then took her out. The cops fully attributed the collision to him in the report. A month later, our insurance informed us that he changed his tune, and said my wife hit him.

Dashcams are a must.

I think the pandemic induced parts shortage and labor shortages have also driven up the cost of collision repair. Also, cars are so much more complex today, what was minor fender bender 25 years ago ("a scratch"), could today involve recalibrating radar, parking sensors, de-crumpling crumple zones, etc.

Interesting, I'm going to look into this in my area.