Think your garage charges too much?

[Gibbo2286]

Here's possibly the reason.
https://garagewire.co.uk/news/the-risin ... t%20garage

[wurlycorner]

This is true - but then it's been a perenial truth throughout all generations of vehicle development.

[mickthemaverick]

Yes I agree but the big problem at the moment is the mismatch between cost to be able to supply and actual demand. Would you invest 15k ish in order to be able to earn £30 profit a couple of times a week?

[wurlycorner]

Thinking on this more and arguably, the plethora of multi-make very capable after market scan/diagnostic tools these days might actually mean a significantly lower investment than the early days when ECUs started to be fitted to vehicles and the only options were the hugely expensive individual oem diagnostic scanners, or after market tools that were single make only (meaning you had to buy multiple of them if you were not a specialist shop)?

[bobins]

I think the tech bods will have already thought of that - you can read them with one code reader, but there'll be different levels of subscription bands depending on how many vehicle manufacturers you want to deal with and diagnose Never pass up the opportunity to make money !!

The thing that worries me with modern cars is less about servicing costs and more about the expected lifespan of the electronics. You can bet your bottom dollar that the electronic components will be built with the lowest possible cost in mind. All it'll take is one crapacitor on a board to fail and you'll have to source a new board..... and if there's no new boards to buy......... time to buy a new(er) car.

[mickthemaverick]

Bobins, I think you've summed up my reasons for spending money on refreshing my car's running gear throughot over the last year, in the hope that it will see me to the end of my driving days

[bobins]

Indeed, Mick. I've come to the conclusion it's worth me spending up to £10k on refreshing or 'restoring' my current pick up truck rather than spending £15k+ on a half decent second hand one. A mate got a new Isuzu one a couple of years ago and has regretted every bit of it - he wishes he'd spent the money and kept his old one on the road.

[wurlycorner]

I think the tech bods will have already thought of that - you can read them with one code reader, but there'll be different levels of subscription bands depending on how many vehicle manufacturers you want to deal with and diagnose Never pass up the opportunity to make money !!

The top end scanner/diagnostic machines used as example in that story (£4k Launch tool) is an 'all in' price that covers every make/model the tool supports. There's no additional fee per manufacturer/model. You buy it and get the lot.
Same holds true for the less expensive DIY+ level tools (circa £500 launch etc.). An 'all in' price for every make/model the tools supports - it just has less functionality than the top tools i.e. no module reprogramming/oscilloscope support etc.
Only the cheaper diagnostic tools charge for additional manufacturer/model etc. (though you can still buy 'all-in' subscriptions there too - my THINKCar subscription covers all makes/models).

The thing that worries me with modern cars is less about servicing costs and more about the expected lifespan of the electronics. You can bet your bottom dollar that the electronic components will be built with the lowest possible cost in mind. All it'll take is one crapacitor on a board to fail and you'll have to source a new board..... and if there's no new boards to buy......... time to buy a new(er) car.

I don't necessarily think the quality of the electronic components is less (in fact in some ways it may be better). The bigger issue now is that they are 'batch' produced and they require very high tech manufacturing facilities - once that batch has been made, it's done. No more will be made or could be made without mass-production.
In many ways it's the rest of the car that's no longer made to be repairable or last as long (on the X7 it's the mechanicals that fail way earlier than previous gen C5's and are also NFP way sooner).
I don't see lifespan of the electronics being the issue (perhaps screens and the stupid on-piece exterior light clusters aside) - but when they do fail, you won't be able to get them repaired or replace them. The EU are looking into that in (particularly non-replaceable LED bulbs) since they recognise WEEE is a serious problem and ability to repair is one way to reduce waste.

That said, I'll circle back to my first point and people said exactly the same when the first ECU's were put in cars... Yet after-market has developed to be able to repair, reprogramme and 'clone' them (look at the capability BBA-Reman had for PSA stuff, for example). There are specialists out there...