Potential Loss of Independent Garages!!!

[Fat Audi 80]

Please take a look at this website. I was alerted by my local garage after my service today.

We are in danger of having the motor manufacturers dictate that ONLY they can service our cars!!

I have signed here:

http://www.r2rc.eu/petition.php?lang=en

Info here:

http://www.r2rc.co.uk/home/content/view/27/97/

Cheers,

Steve

[Error404]

I don't need them anyway

[Sonic]

signed... what another complete joke of legislation.

The sad thing is that im not actually suprised.

[Fat Audi 80]

The legislation must be being driven by some savage lobbying by the car manufacturers...

[anton]

i dont really see how this could ever happen to be honest, all indys would instantly go out of business and the car manufacturers would have a monopoly. i'm not convinced the powers that be would even allow this to happen, and i would have thought most manufacturers would give out the rights anyway. just out of good will. they would struggle with capacity i think.... also it means a huge increase on people working on their own cars! something i think the government would LOVE to ban!

Ant

[europeanme]

signed...what the hell do the manufacturers want...

[Al Wyn]

signed...what the hell do the manufacturers want...

You, me and uncle Tom cobbley to buy a new car every 3 years

[Al Wyn]

Oh and signed

[S2central.net]

They couldn'y pull this off in the USA - its why Bentley manuals exist amongst other things like the ISO/OBD-2 standard that all manufacturers must comply to for an open interface to test emissions etc etc - thank you California for leading the way on that - there was litigation in the US many many years ago to prevent this kind of shyte with dealers trying to throw their weight around... Knowing full well that it would lead to uncompetitive situations which could only make life worse for car owners.

[s2driveruk]

what a load of toss. It was only recently that some EU legislation allowed any garage to service a vehicle to manufacturer specs and enable the warranty to be maintained????? I've signed but fully expect this wont go the distance anyway...

[S2central.net]

I don't need them anyway

Unfortunately that attitude won't work either - just cos you (and me) can work on our own cars. If Audi and others are not legally obligated to sell specialist tools and documents then there is a good chance they will stop doing so. That makes it pretty damn hard to do a lot of big tasks on the car...

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Signed.

My local indy repairer has a scheme where he shares the purchase of the requisite equipment for diagnosis with another local garage - the cost of some of the "black boxes" is quite shocking, and when they are required for just one repair they are prohibitively expensive.

It's this sort of co-operation that some smaller garages will have to utilise to continue to provide independent service.

[Jas11n]

what a load of toss. It was only recently that some EU legislation allowed any garage to service a vehicle to manufacturer specs and enable the warranty to be maintained????? I've signed but fully expect this wont go the distance anyway...

Bingo.
It's not about not letting "us" take our cars to an indie garage, it's about cars still under warranty.
Before 2002, if you had your car serviced or repaired anywhere other than an approved manufacturer garage, ie, a dealership, then you would invalidate the warranty.
The block exemption regulation enabled an owner to get their car serviced and repaired wherever they choose without fear of the warranty being affected.
Even without the block exemption rule, there's no law to stop you taking your car wherever you want.