In May 2023, the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (MVBER) will expire.
Among other things, this regulation allows independent garages to service new cars without voiding their manufacturer warranties and forbids restrictions on the availability of original-equipment parts, tools and technical information.
It's part of the European Union's Block Exemption rules, which are designed to enable competition, and without it, independent garages could find life much tougher and car owners could find their repair and servicing bills more expensive.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is assessing the current regulation with a view to recommending the government replace it with a new one.
As part of that assessment, it's considering the EU's recent evaluation of the outgoing rules, in which it stressed the need to give independent vehicle repairers continued access to the tools, training and information they require in order to compete with franchised dealers.
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However, the EU also highlighted new challenges facing independent repairers in the form of the increased use in cars of on-board digital technologies, the development of alternatively fuelled vehicles (which require specific expertise, tooling and spare parts) and, crucially, the rapid growth in vehicle-generated data.
"Access to vehicle data is key to consumer choice," said Frank Harvey, head of member services at the Independent Garage Association. "However, how easy that data is to access and how much it costs is equally important and something we hope the CMA will consider in its review of the MVBER."Steve Scofield, head of business development at the Institute of the Motor Industry, said that vehicle data – which ranges from a car's digital service record and the data captured by the driver's phone and sat-nav to the performance and fault data that the vehicle sends to the manufacturer and component suppliers – is crucial to independent garages' survival.
"In the future, access to this data will be business-critical to the independent repair sector," he explained. "Franchised dealers already have that access, but the agency model could give them and manufacturers even greater control of it, putting independent garages at a disadvantage."
The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) says that among the problems its members have experienced are manufacturers refusing to provide access to data or granting it only when it suits them, charging for it and restricting access to vehicles' on-board diagnostics ports by preventing third-party devices from connecting to them.
Mike Hawes, chief of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), told Autocar: “Now the UK has left the EU, it needs to develop legislation that addresses the rapid changes in the industry in terms of technology and market behaviour.
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Some one man businesses going to close then?, most are just as good as a Franchise the difference being the small business is usually cheaper.
Many of these modern cars will be beyond economic repair after 7-10 years in any case.
In what way? What evidence? This has been said for 20 years, and it's still not happening. I ran a scrap yard, end of life cars came through, none were scrapped because of complex systems being uneconomic to repair, it's mostly a myriad of mechanical issues that a succession of owners haven't fixed or corrosion that kills cars off. I'd say the centralised control units, less switches, and using electric motors will be way more reliable than catalysts, alternators, water pumps, clutches, big end bearings, etc, etc.
As I said many of the cars built today will be beyond economical repair after 7-10 years because the repairs are ridiculous, things like sealed electric steering units are £3,500 to replace so then end user can have different steering weight, lane assist and self parking as the inital owner, unseen expensive things is why 7-10 years old computerized cars are going to be written off. Why do you think older cars are worth more money that they used to be, I'll tell you people got burned and saw the light. Do you see anyone advising that you buy any E60 5 series in general or do you see them recommending the E39?
Both perspectives are right - and wrong - to an extent - because why next-generation cars will be written off is different to why older cars are written off. 405 is right about the cost of modules. The types of headlight units that are filtering down from premium to volume, for example, are generally unrepairable but can cost thousands to repalce. Active safety systems in the bumpers (being solid state) are unlikely to wear out, but like the headlights, if you damage one in a front end impact the cost of replacement and recalibration could be more than the car is worth. Vehicle structures are becomming a hybrid of multiple types of steel and aluminium with a provusion of fixing systems; difficult and expensive to repair, needing specialist equipment and expertise. So, I don't see cars wearing out any quicker, but I do see more being written off due to the cost of accident repair, even very minor accidents. The interesting uknown here is the impact of madatory Autonomous Emergency Breaking.
That attitude from Audi is disgraceful. They are trying to promote themselves as green yet will not provide critical spare parts for a decade-old car.
'Right to repair' should be enforced across the industry, so that existing cars aren't scrapped because of the unavailability of spare parts.
Seems like Audi disagree on the RS6 parts. No idea who is right. Someone saying that 5 years on your own is unproven innuendo to me, I was still able to get A2 parts easily... 15 years seems OK to me, and after that specialists will make pattern or improved parts if there is demand.