What else will the big boys do to take our money .

[Sunny43.5]

Found this tonight it seems that the big manufacturers are going to make our servicing costs even more expensive .Aussie motorists to pay more for car servicing under new regulations

[brad]

I can see the automotive fleet of regional Australia becoming a sea of whatever dealership can survive in struggling country towns.

Kia has gone to 7 years warranty, road service & capped price servicing. If I read the fine print properly, the road service & capped price servicing is only offered if you visit the dealership once per year on their 15k/12m service regime.

Wasn't there a big stink in the UK a while back because they were trying to make "pattern" parts illegal - you'd have to by genuine parts for everything?

[Umai Naa!!]

Didn't you already post this?

[Transporter]

I don't see the future as bad, Howard. The workshops that aren't good will close down and their mechanics would go to work at the dealers. The good ones will survive and do even better than today. While the car owners will keep the car only for the warranty period, which they already do.

...after all, it's a free country and people are voting with their feet, buying a new cars every 3 years or more often. They don't need the local garages, they need a dealer's stamp in the book, so the car they trade in looks like it was serviced well and that's it.

Many workshops can match the capped price servicing, I do, and while we're talking about the VAG cars they can also get the manufacturer's software updates and technical support just I like do from overseas.

Other brands that can also get sw updates from overseas from them are:
VAG, MB, BMW, Renault, Volvo, Citroen and Peugeot, Jaguar, Volvo, Porsche. All they need is the Autologic, it's not cheap, but what is?

[Umai Naa!!]

Yeah, it's the workshops that haven't modernised their practices and business models that won't survive. Still a lot out there that don't even have an internet connection.

[brad]

I agree with both of you but most purchasers aren't aware that they have options beyond the dealer.

Have a look at most of the manufacturers websites & they all subtley imply that getting the vehicle serviced anywhere but a dealer will cause the car to explode & void the warranty (the word-smithing is quite elegant).

Only on Friday night a mate asked me what he should buy his wife as she's changing jobs & won't get a company car. I told him get a Kia Rio as she never looks after a car, gets minimal servicing and usually hands back her company drive with about $5k in minor damage. Anything better than a Kia would be casting pearls before swine.

I'd class her as being no different to 50% of vehicle owners.

transporter, because of how you have marketed yourself & positioned your business, i think you only see the "good cars" and don't deal a lot with the aging fleet of crap-boxes out there. There's plenty of them.

[Transporter]

transporter, because of how you have marketed yourself & positioned your business, i think you only see the "good cars" and don't deal a lot with the aging fleet of crap-boxes out there. There's plenty of them.

Yeah, I know and am aware of that there is a possibility that the days can come when I'll be dealing mainly with the old cars. Well, by then I could probably retire.

[Sunny43.5]

Yes Transporter you are right some people will only keep their cars regardless of brand for only the warranty period , that's fine if you have lots of disposable income . But in our case we cannot buy anything other than the Transporter van as it has to be customised to accommodate our wheel chair kids , so first thing is our van is the lowest price and in the most popular category . So trade in time comes around at end of warranty and you suddenly find out that the van which in our case has loads of extra money put into it has then become worthless to the point that dealers will only offer a low price . So what do we do just keep an endless debt to the bank ? might be fine for some but on a single income it,s not feasible , so we keep ours longer than most so servicing costs are an issue . My question is this why should Australia be different from the rest of the world , the laws in Europe and the US two of the worlds largest developed countries have laws to prevent this from happening . Manufacturers have to be open with their technology but not here it seems , it,s a bit like the recording industry and other ones for that matter , back in 1997 a cd released buy some local guys from our suburb {Savage Garden } was selling here for $32 the price in the US $18 someone is have a lend of us here all the time me thinks . Also reminds me that because of the protectionism granted to local car makers we do not get some cars from overseas makers . Okay yes there have been problems with some quality issues with some makes but the local guys jump up and down and scream out loud to the government and they get imports stopped because they see a threat to their market share . We can be thankful for two important things here guys like yourself and the others around Australia and then as it will transpire until the big boys figure out a way to stop them the Chinese who will no doubt just thumb their noses at the big boys and sell technology and whatever to whoever and probably copy the tools etc as well .

[Sunny43.5]

Well it looks like the ice is melting apparently Toyota are backing away from the arrangement so hopefully the car makers will come to their senses .

[Zaskar]

The latest Choice Magazine has something about manufacturers warranties NOT being voided under consumer law even with non genuine parts or non manufacturers servicing. I'll have to dig it up.