Computer Revolution

For the best part of a century the internal combustion engine relied on carburettors and skilled mechanics. Today the average family saloon has more computer power than the first spaceship to land on the moon. Vaughan Freeman reports...

Autotrade April 2000 “The Diagnostic Dilemma”

Computers have changed cars out of all recognition. The current trend ensures ever more sophisticated engine management and electronic systems being fitted to even the smallest and cheapest of cars. It presents the car service and repair industry with its biggest challenge, one that involves independent garages investing not just in the right diagnostics equipment, but also in the training. It is also a massive opportunity.

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Already car-makers and components firms are working on 42-volt dual-battery systems able to handle all the electronics equipment we will see on the cars of the future. Steve Davies, marketing manager of Sykes-Pickavant, said: "The extent to which electronics will dominate future cars is shown by the fact that we can expect to see the first 42-volt systems on cars in five years or so and we will see diagnostic equipment in the workshop evolve to cope with that.”There is a lot of growth in the market for independents who push hard, who make sure their technicians and mechanics are properly trained and have the right equipment and the right information to ' go with it. Those workshops will make money. The workshop that does none of those things will go out of business."

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Steve Davies at Sykes-Pickavant agrees with the idea of a continuing shift towards hand-held equipment: The big box has had its day. Often cars have a driveability problem, or an intermittent fault, and the diagnosis needs to be made while driving the vehicle. That is impossible with big box equipment.

"Large trolley-based engine and vehicle systems analysers have practically disappeared. There are still certain vehicle manufacturers that like such equipment in their franchised dealerships, but few independents want to invest in something so large, and there is no need to. “Where once you needed something the size of a wardrobe in your workshop, now you only need something the size of your hand to do the same job. Trolley-based is now largely confined to gas analysers. Sykes-Pickavant has whole-heartedly gone with portable, hand-held equipment, which has the adaptability and power of big boxes, but is not much bigger than a paperback book. Our competitors are thinking along the same lines, so we are not alone in this point of view."

"Diagnostic work is a must rather than an option for the independent," says Davies: "There will be fewer independent workshops as we know them today in coming years. The ones that stay will evolve get more specialist and better equipped, and will concentrate on certain areas, rather than being more generalised workshops."