Right to Repair: What’s the future of the automotive aftermarket? Zainal Abidin, 22/09/2024 2:09 Stellantis halts construction of Ontario electric vehicle battery plant Wally Dingman hates having to turn away customers. It’s what’s kept him in the auto repair business for 40 years. Like the 371,000 Canadians working in the aftermarket industry, Dingman is more than qualified to repair a vehicle. Yet, in the modern age of repair, just knowing how to do so is not enough. “Every day it’s getting more difficult to carry out repairs,” Dingman said. “Our scan tools and our repair software have limited access to information because it’s being held by the manufacturer.” Dingman owns Caughill Automotive in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. His shop is one of 10 aftermarket repair shops that service the town of just under 10,000. As vehicles become more digitized, so, too, become the tools required to diagnose a vehicle for a repair. Older vehicle models would provide information directly to a technician, so long as they have a tool to access the On-Board Diagnostic port, whereas newer models share certain information only with the dealer. The problem? Dealers aren’t in turn sharing that information with the aftermarket. It has put in jeopardy a $15.7 billion aftermarket industry, a cornerstone of Canadian society for decades. This … Continue Reading
What Car Mechanics Never, Ever Do To Their Own Cars Zainal Abidin, 29/08/2024 Your car can be one of the most expensive and important investments you’ll ever make, but many of us don’t give our vehicles the kind of maintenance attention they need. Mechanics and technicians would know: As the doctors of cars, they see it all. “My job is to give you an overall state of health of your car, so you can make educated decisions on what to do with it, and to alert you to things that you may not know about, and that you won’t necessarily recognize or see,” said Bogi Lateiner, a Phoenix-based master automotive technician and the owner of Girl Gang Garage, a network that provides hands-on training for women in the trades. Too often, technicians say, we are making maintenance decisions ― or failing to do so ― in ways that create potential safety hazards and can lead to costly mistakes. We speak with car repair experts about their own big “won’ts” as lessons for us all: 1. I won’t neglect car maintenance. Elena Popova via Getty Images “I equate oil changes to brushing of teeth,” master automotive technician Bogi Lateiner said. “‘Can you get away with just brushing your teeth once a month?’ You’ll survive, … Continue Reading