Where Did Motor Vehicle Repair Activities Go in Rev. 5?

In ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, repair of motor vehicles is placed in Division 95 in Section T, Other service activities. That move separates repair from trade, which now sits in Section G. A garage that repairs cars therefore has a different statistical home from a showroom that sells them, even if both businesses work with the same vehicles.

What Is the New Home for Vehicle Repair, in Plain Terms?

Repair of motor vehicles is placed in Division 95 in Section T, Other service activities, in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division. That sentence is short, and it repays a slow reading, because it moves vehicle repair away from vehicle trade entirely. Trade now sits in Section G. Repair sits in Section T. A garage that repairs cars therefore has a different statistical home from a showroom that sells them, even if both businesses work with the same vehicles, use similar vocabulary, and serve the same drivers.

How Does Repair Differ From Trade on a Workshop Floor?

On a workshop floor, the difference is visible in what changes hands. Repair restores a vehicle to working order, while trade transfers ownership of a vehicle from seller to buyer. A workshop that replaces brakes, services engines, and fixes bodywork illustrates Division 95 repair in action. The vehicle arrives faulty, worn, or damaged, and leaves in working order, still owned by the same person. No sale of the vehicle itself takes place in that transaction, even though parts may be fitted and a bill may be paid.

A parts counter in the same building illustrates the opposite side of the line. Selling wipers to walk in customers is trade, because ownership of the wipers passes to the buyer, who takes them away as goods. The two activities differ even under one roof, and even when the same staff member moves between them during a day. Maintenance that is part of a repair service is repair work, while selling a replacement part on its own is trade. The boundary turns on whether the transaction restores an existing item or transfers a new item, not on the building where it happens.

What Happens When One Business Both Sells and Repairs?

A business that both sells and repairs needs a principal activity view, which this guide does not determine. That view asks which strand dominates the business as a whole, and it cannot be answered from a shop sign, a website heading, or the order in which services are listed. It needs a look at the work itself: how much of the business is selling, how much is repairing, and how those strands relate to each other in practice. The UNSD structure and national guidance should be checked for mixed cases, because a mixed business is precisely where a quick guess is most likely to mislead.

Consider a firm with a showroom at the front and a workshop at the back. Customers may buy a vehicle in the morning and book a repair in the afternoon, and the firm may present itself as a single vehicle business. Statistically, Rev. 5 asks for a more divided description. The selling strand belongs with trade in Section G, and the repairing strand belongs with repair in Division 95. Where a single heading is required for the business as a whole, principal activity provides the framework, but the framework still needs evidence about the work, not just a preference for one strand over the other.

Why Group Repair Across Product Types at All?

Rev. 5 from the UN Statistics Division, covering motor vehicle repair activities, has 22 sections from A to V, 87 divisions, 258 groups, and 463 classes, endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2023. That scale explains why this guide stays at the level of ideas and examples. The exact wording for a specific repair heading lives in the UNSD detail, and a reader who needs precision should move from section to division to group to class, testing each description against the workshop work in question.

Vehicle repair has a clear new address in Rev. 5, and this guide has described that address without turning description into a ruling. It is statistical classification information only, and it does not settle any reader’s code, principal activity, or registration. A workshop or record that needs a formal heading should be checked against the UNSD wording and confirmed with the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record.