July 22, 2010

Filed under: Industry News — Tags: car servicing costs — admin @ 1:30 pm

The European Commission has adopted new Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (BER).

The new 2010 regulation is focused on creating increased competition within the Automotive Aftermarket within Europe.

Pervious regulation in this area was very weak and has been largely ignored by many manufacturers. The new regulation focuses on making sure parts, tools, technical information and equipment are made available to both fleet users and any repairers, including non franchised dealers.

Until now Car Manufacturers have been able to restrict the sale of genuine parts they purchase themselves from the Original Equipment Manufacturer. The new regulation will allow these parts manufacturers to supply parts through any channel including the franchised dealer network. This will mean original parts prices will fall; meaning the difference between the costs of substandard parts compared to genuine parts will fall.

In addition, it has been very difficult to determine the difference in the quality between genuine parts and low quality copies however now the OEM’s can use their logos and trademarks on their own parts so it will become easier to determine the difference in quality in parts.

It will now also be possible for the independent garage to deal with complex (Euro 5) compliant vehicles by accessing the relevant fault codes.

While this is obviously good news for the independent repairer it is also good news for the under-utilised franchised dealer as they will also be able to offer after service for multiple manufacturers.