r32

If so the impending EU legislation will close you down. They want all car (vehicle) repairs to be only done by manufacturers authorised franchisees.

R2RC. Protecting the Rights of the Independent Automotive Aftermarket

Doesnt seem right to me some how.....

mykp

this has been going on for a while, personally I think if they pushed such a law through it would have a two fold affect.

1/ people would repair their own vehicles with little or no knowledge of what they where doing.

2/ people wont repair their vehicles

3/ it will force older cars off the road as changes in mot practises in germany have done

Dedrater

I've read about this before, I just can't see it happening tbh, in any case franchised dealership mechanics are absolute garbage, I would rather take my car for repair at the local gypsy camp, it wouldn't go near any of them clowns anyway.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Ditto, the one time I took a car to a franchised dealer for a body repair, i was treated to watching the mechanics doing a nice smoky burnout/slide in it whilst I waited for my lift.

sti-04!!

So hows this going to work, if you have a haulage company & keep costs within the business by having your own repair centre ?
Soz i am too lazy to read the link.

All Torque

I had my MOT over xmas and the garage owner who did it told me about this, he said that the manufacturesare not going to relese any software updates to independant garages which will need to be done as part of a service, thus forcing cars to go back to the dealer.
Oh and also before long part of the MOT will require your car to be plugged into a diagnostics machine to see if the ECU has any fault codes presant thus screwing us for more money to make sure we keep our cars in peak running order, no more quick fixes to turn the EML off now its got to be sorted properly.

scoobyboy

excellent bring it on!

cster

Restraint of trade and anti-competition issues may well slow that lawmaking process down IMO.
It looks good on paper - but as pointed out - the franchised services are crap.
I don't take my car to independants because they are cheaper - it's because they aren't a bunch of monkeys.

The Zohan

Why is this a good idea?

Leslie

I use an independent, its called "Me"!

Les

stilover

They've done a u-turn on the 2 year MOT, so I'd expect the same to happen on this.

The Government aren't going to want to make loads of independant garages go out of business now. At least I hope they don't. My best mate has a garage, so he'd be one of the casualties.

jonny_693

iTrader: (5)

There would be thousands redundant, its not going to happen. A lot of main dealers sub bodywork out to a 3rd party anyway as they don't all have paint and body faciltys in shop.

oadamo

iTrader: (1)

first ive heard of this. me and my dad are opening a garage in a couple of weeks. hes been a mechanic for about 30 years and ive been one for about 10. i asked him about this and he said it would never happen because of how many garage there are out there. its just cost us a load on buying the fault code reading equipment and we can read almost any car code with it.
adam

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

And imports who may be refused by Subaru Dealers!

bugeyeandy

It only makes a difference if your car is still under the manufacturers warranty and as no one is buying new cars anymore I can't see it being a problem.
As for software, there's plenty of enterprising companies out there who already manage to get around that problem.
Big deal about nothing really IMO.

r32

As this is EU crap, we dont have a veto on this stuff any more. I wouldnt bet against it.
I dont think its just while the vehicle is under warranty.

scoobyboy

main dealers all the way get rid of these so called specialists who can't really make it as proper techs!!!

Dedrater

imo, they are infinitely better than any main dealer, who here has ever had a really good experience at a main dealer? I have only ever had my car back damaged, not repared properly or an extra few hundred miles added for no reason at all.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

There are bad garages in all areas: Main dealerships owned by large groups (Pendragon, IM etc), Smaller independent chains (Brindley, All-Electric etc), single garage independent dealerships (rare). Specialists (claimed or otherwise) and all-brand non-affiliated garages (both individual or large chains).

Whatever is on the big sign above the garage means little IMO: Its down to the staff, their equipment, experience and the owner's business/moral ethics. Bigger groups however will be focused on profitability; that trickles down to the shop floor in stricter time constraints per job, plus inflated parts and labour changes. The best floor staff in world can't do a good job if they are forced to cut corners or intentionally up-sell.

Fact is, there is not many garages that have existed in the same guise under the same ownership for 40 years. Most have been bumped (financially) and restarted, bought out, sold out, closed for good or changed management.

The ones that have survived without needing to change, can owe alot to good accounting and a very loyal customer base. Its easy to get new customers in the door; Branding, "Specialising", Advertising are all tools of the trade. However keeping hold of the good customers (the ones that pay the bills and come back) is the key. Lose them, lose the business.

Also one needs to know how to manage and get rid of bad customers (before they run up legal bills and court cases - in both directions). As a few of them (justified or unjustified) going against their favour will easily force a small business to go under.