Past, present and cars of the future
Our Editor looks back and forwards with his old colleague, Neil Kennett, who is joining the mag’s roster of regular contributors
Published: 14 June, 2022
Neil, we worked literally alongside each other in the RMI press office for years. What do you remember most about those days?
Oh, where to start? We used to joke that nobody ever leaves the motor industry, and here we both are 20 years and several kids later. I joined in early 2003. You were already the Press Officer and I was Website Editor. I also worked on Forecourt magazine and the fuel protests were huge news at the time. The poor petrol retailers took loads of stick, quite unfairly because they earnt very little from fuel sales. Imagine the outrage if the protestors had known what a gallon would cost today. There were a lot of strong opinions about Block Exemption, authorised repairer status and emissions too, so in some ways we’ve made incredible progress, and in other ways it’s the same old industry tensions.
Then one day you left to go freelance…
Yes, sorry about that. I completed my NCTJ journalism course by passing the 80-words-per-minute shorthand exam, admittedly at the second time of asking, and launched Featurebank in 2007, offering journalism and PR services. From the start the trade titles were brilliant. I got writing gigs with Aftermarket, among others, and ticked a few items off the bucket list – writing race reports for Autosport, interviewing legends like Sir Stirling Moss and covering a consumer court victory for Auto Express.
The PR side picked up nicely too. The Mail on Sunday naming MyCarCheck its “No.1 cash-saving app” was an important early win, and I worked for Euro Car Parts for years, back when Sukhpal was in charge. I wrote all sorts for them – internal and external comms, ad copy –press releases about landmark moments like becoming part of LKQ and buying up all those Unipart sites. Those were big deals which made international headlines. I’d admired ECP since a press tour of the old Wembley site – they had teams of people with headsets on selling like something out of Wall Street.
I hadn’t seen that in the aftermarket before – it was next level.”
Speaking of the silver screen, at some point you got into TV
The Dispatches? Superb experience. It was called Secrets Of Your Car Insurance, but really it was about the bodyshop industry. The heavy lifting was done by another old RMI contact, Andrew Moody, a panel beater who became a solicitor and barrister specialising in automotive law – quite a unique skillset. In 2012, he sent me a hefty bundle of paperwork outlining how some approved repairer networks were operating to the detriment of both bodyshops and consumers. I suggested it was either a book no-one would read or a TV programme, so we took it Channel 4.
It made waves and we ended up at the House of Commons with Andrew presenting to an All-Party Parliamentary Group. We stood up for what was right even though it involved taking on some seriously powerful organisations. I’m still very proud of that. To make you feel old, I’ve recently started doing PR for Andrew’s son, John. He’s 21, a qualified pilot and he’s built this fantastic In-House HR system, an online human resources solution developed specifically with repairers in mind.
We can’t go any further without getting into driverless cars. I can’t believe you haven’t mentioned it already.
What can I say? I’m obsessed. I was writing more and more about ADAS and in 2018 I wrote a cover story for the IMI, ‘Autonomous now: the shift to self-driving’, which was a gamechanger for me. The response was overwhelming and it convinced me to launch Carsofthefuture.co.uk to raise the standard of debate. So much of the coverage is misguided, overly simplistic or plain wrong, with driverless cars frequently presented as the harbingers of a Terminator-style apocalypse. I set out to promote informed voices of reason and now I’ve written over two hundred thousand words about it.
It’s a shame, given everything Tesla’s done for electric cars, that so many hyperbolic headlines are caused by its confusingly-named Full Self-Driving (FSD) package. It simply isn’t self-driving as the rest of the industry understands it. Conflating assisted and automated is dangerous, because it risks drivers misunderstanding what their cars are capable of. Things are coming to a head in America with a group called The Dawn Project taking out a full-page advert in The New York Times with the tagline “Don’t be a Tesla crash test dummy.” They’re offering $10,000 to “the first person who can name another commercial product from a Fortune 500 company that has a critical malfunction every eight minutes.” Ouch!
Honestly, I find Tesla’s approach so frustrating. It’s not only ill-advised, it’s counterproductive, because news of so-called driverless car crashes dents consumer confidence. Why gild the lily? True self-driving has seismic potential and it’s coming soon. If adopted sensibly it will dramatically improve safety and combine with zero emissions, mobility-as-a-service and active travel to completely transform road transport.
Notice the “if” there. None of these outcomes are guaranteed and now is a crucial time in terms of public perception. These are safety-critical issues and utmost clarity is vital. For the near future at least, the best advice is that drivers need to be alert at all times. To promote that message, I’ve just signed a new media partnership deal with Reuters for their flagship Auto Tech 2022 event. I get to interview Sammy Omari, vice president of autonomy at Motional, and Xinzhou Wu, head of Xpeng Motors’ Autonomous Driving Centre.
Now you’ve got me started! I’d like to emphasise that I still love cars and driving. However, I firmly believe that self-driving will be utterly transformative. It’s a fascinating area with unique selling points, increasingly distinct from traditional automotive, and it forces us to face some uncomfortable truths: that 95% of the time most cars are just taking up space and depreciating; and that well over a million road deaths occur worldwide every year. Connected and autonomous vehicles will need maintaining and repairing, of course, so the aftermarket absolutely needs to be part of this conversation.
Which brings us nicely to your new Aftermarket of the Future column
Indeed! From next month I’ll be bringing you all the self-driving news with implications for the aftermarket. This is such a fast-moving sector. Over the last few weeks alone we’ve had: the announcement of a major driverless trial in Milton Keynes, which on closer inspection turns out to be not quite as described; An opinion poll of 1,000 UK adults by BSI finding that 70% see benefits in connected and automated vehicles, but 59% would feel more confident with an onboard safety operator; Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, reiterating that he wants the UK to be a world leader in driverless; Lastly, Mercedes becoming the first automotive company in the world to meet the demanding UN-R157 standard for a Level 3 system.
We’ll look at the latest cutting-edge tech, some frightening proposed changes to the Highway Code and much more.
Alex Wells: “That’s great Neil. We are sure our readers will be fascinated. See Aftermarket of the Future in our next issue and for any queries please email neil@self-drivingpr.com”
- WHO REALLY OWNS YOUR BUSINESS?
Life is always changing and as we all get older we start to remember our younger days and reminisce about how ‘things ain’t what they used to be.’
For example, a century ago, horses were still an everyday mode of transport and every village had a blacksmith to re-shoe them. As time moved on, getting to work was done on foot, by bus or by bike – which if you were lucky, may have had an engine. To service these two wheeled modes of transport, every village had a cycle shop who often covered both pedal and motorcycle versions.
As the UK economy developed, many people aspired to owning a car for improved mobility. I recall how difficult it was for my father being able to afford to buy the family’s first car. It may have had leather seats, but there was no heater, so journeys in the winter were no fun. My father also conducted most of his own maintenance, as did many other vehicle owners, but this gradually started to be provided by the local garage and the aftermarket as we know it today was developed.
Evolution
For the last four or five decades, although the aftermarket has evolved, the basic business models have not fundamentally changed. People and businesses acquire vehicles and these vehicles get serviced and maintained by the main dealer or the independent workshop. Competitive choices exist for locations, labour rates and the spare parts. As vehicles have become more sophisticated with the introduction of electronically controlled systems, the ability to access the technical information needed to diagnose, service or repair the vehicle has become ever-more critical and legislation has been needed to ensure that competitive choices can still be offered.
To be able to repair today’s vehicles has therefore been about the appropriate training and equipment, supported by local marketing to attract vehicle owners into your workshop. This is relatively straightforward and more of an education process than a revolution of the basic business model – but this is starting to change.
The future is being seen as ‘mobility’ and ‘mobility services’ and the way that this is developing will fundamentally impact the Aftermarket as we know it today.
There are a number of key reasons why the future will impose a change to today’s business models. The types of motive power are already evolving and this rate of change will increase. This in itself will change the type and volume of work that traditionally has been provided to vehicle owners. Vehicles may still have an internal combustion engine, but this will be part of a hybrid system, which is more likely to be petrol than diesel – but it will include some form of electric motor – either as a direct drive unit, or as a 48 volt ‘mild hybrid’, but in both cases with energy recovery functions that reduce the amount of braking and consequently the replacement of brake system components. This situation is further increased if the vehicle is fully electric, when there are far fewer service and maintenance requirements. However, these vehicle types will only create an evolution of today’s business models.
Revolution
The revolution comes when you consider the change of vehicle ownership that is increasingly happening and the rate of which it will increase. The ‘good old days’ of aspiring to own a vehicle is no longer the case for the younger generation and a whole new range of ‘mobility services’ are being developed – especially as fully autonomous vehicles are introduced in volume. In many cases this means that the vehicle owner changes from being an individual to become a corporate organisation or even remains the vehicle manufacturer themselves.
This fundamentally changes the way that servicing and repairing the vehicle will take place. Firstly, the corporate owner of the vehicle will want to decide where and for how much their vehicles are being serviced and maintained. However, this may rapidly expand into a demand for lower hourly rates, together with a further demand of what parts are used. At best this creates a direct negative impact on your profitability, but it may go further.
Further requirements
There may be a further requirement for specific levels of both technical and management competence, which may require specific standards and management processes to be verified and maintained – increasing costs whilst margins are squeezed. Corporate organisations may also expect a national contact and administration function, which as an individual independent workshop it will be impossible to provide, so now you may need to consider how to be part of a coordinated national group with centralised facilities to be able to be ‘part of the game’. However, on the plus side, as part of a larger group you may also be in a stronger position to negotiate with the larger vehicle operator organisations, so it may not be all bad news.
If the vehicle manufacturer remains the owner of the vehicle, then they may also require that you handle warranty work – at the lower warranty hourly rates, together with the specific contracts that the vehicle manufacturer will also expect to ensure that their ‘standards’ are maintained. Ultimately, as vehicle ownership models change and ‘mobility services’ become the norm, each element of your business is likely to be managed by the requirements of the corporate organisations. This is not a legislative issue, but a direct consequence of changes in mobility service models and their commercial impact.
Significant impact
The good news is that independent garages will still be needed, but the most significant impact will be the squeeze on your hourly rates and spare parts margins, in much the same way as insurance companies have controlled accident repair centres. Ultimately, this may also impact your ‘modus operandi’ by imposing technical, management and reporting requirements. This creates the simple question – you may still be the legal owner of your business, but in reality, who controls your actual day to day business – you or the mobility services vehicle owner?
Now may be the time to start thinking about joining forces with other independent workshops – probably as part of a national soft franchise or an association – otherwise it may be a case of united we stand or divided we fall.
- The safe operation of vehicle lifts: Part three
Here is a question we hear quite often: “I now have my new lift installed so I can start using it immediately, correct?” Actually, no. As a business you need to ensure you meet a number of conditions before handing it over to the mechanic to start using it for servicing vehicles.
The first thing you will need to do is have the lift inspected. This means a thorough examination by a ‘competent person’. This is a legal status, not just somebody who looks at the lift and says it looks okay to use.
This requirement comes under the Health & Safety Lifting Operation and Lifting Equipment Regulation (LOLER). The person who conducts the thorough examination must be independent of the installation process, so do not expect the installation engineer to complete this certification. You should check before buying your vehicle lift if the company supplying/installing your lift will be offering this service inclusive or if it is an optional extra. Otherwise, you will have to engage an independent inspector. Many business insurance policies for garages and workshops will include the thorough examination of lifting equipment by default. Again, check with your insurance provider before engaging an independent inspection.
Note: A thorough examination is not a one-time process. It needs to be conducted every six months to continue meeting LOLER requirements. This should not be confused with the maintenance of the lift that needs to be done/scheduled to meet the H&S Provision and Use of Workplace Equipment Regulation (PUWER). We suggest you think of it like the cars you work on for your customers. Service work is oil/filters/ adjustments etc, while a thorough examination is like an MOT. It is an inspection/certification that proves the lift is safe to continue being used.
Risk assessment
The next step before using the lift is to complete your risk assessment for the operation of the lift. This may sound basic, but you should fully review the operation of the lift and note any potential hazards that could occur. This includes any controls/steps required to ensure the safe operation of the lift from the person operating to anybody else in the vicinity. The next step is to ensure you formally go over the operation of the vehicle lift with all users of the lift. This includes reviewing the risk assessment specifically covering what to do in case of an emergency/problem with the lift. Finally record everything, names date time etc and keep it in a safe place.
Going back to the maintenance for a moment, PUWER sets a legal requirement of the equipment owner to have in place a formal maintenance schedule for workplace equipment. We strongly recommend you contract a GEA member company to conduct your lift maintenance at regular intervals on your behalf to ensure your meeting your H&S requirements.
Note: the vehicle lift operator manual may offer specific regular preventive inspections on a Daily/weekly/ monthly basis, always check the manual/supplier’s guideline for this information to keep your lift safe and in top condition.
For more information visit: www.gea.co.uk
- Lucas Oil Products: Sure Start Premium Starting Fluid
Lucas Oil Products has launched Lucas Sure Start Premium Starting Fluid, which is a troubleshooting and utility tool designed for use with both diesel and petrol engines in passenger cars. The 50% ether blend also includes a lubricant. It joins other products in the range, including Lucas Complete Engine Treatment, Diesel Deep Clean, Engine Oil Stop Leak, Fuel Stabilizer and Heavy Duty and Pure Synthetic Engine Oil Stabilizer.
www.LucasOil.com
- Milton Keynes #1 for automotive business start-ups
Forget concrete cows and roundabouts; Milton Keynes is the best place in the UK to start an automotive business, according to a new study.
- Common people
How do you go about diagnosing a common fault that you have seen before and all the symptoms match? Do you go ahead and fit that new part with no testing? Do you go straight to where you think the issue will be or do you test to be sure regardless of the situation?
You may or may not recall several articles ago, in the May 2020 issue of Aftermarket, I had a Land Rover Discovery 3 which would not start after being jump-started incorrectly and was fixed by reflashing the engine control unit software. Well, strangely enough, I was recently presented with a Range Rover Sport with near enough the exact same initial symptoms and fault codes. I want to show how starting afresh and testing, instead of jumping to the same conclusion, prevented a misdiagnosis.
Customer complaint
The customer’s complaint was that the vehicle would crank over but would not start. They said previously that the vehicle had started showing an intermittent no-start condition after sitting for a short period of time, for example to go into a shop. Once they returned, the car would crank and not start. The customer had discovered though that if they then waited five minutes and tried again, the vehicle would then start and be okay for the rest of the day. However, by now the symptoms had slowly become worse and no amount of cranking would start
the vehicle.
As always in my diagnostic process, the first step is to confirm the customer complaint and look for any tell-tale clues along the way. Yes it seems silly on the face of it to crank the engine over knowing it will not start, but an experienced technician may pick up a clue which will give direction where to go next so it always pays to always confirm the complaint. On this occasion confirming the complaint revealed no clues so it was on to the next step and to check for fault codes and review some live data.
Multiple fault codes
As can be seen in Fig.1, we have multiple fault codes stored for all different circuits and systems on the vehicle so where do we start? As in previous articles I have written, I always like to split them up into a list and put the most likely causes at the top and start there. Looking at the list we have five fault codes and I felt three could cause the no-start.
There are a number of likely causes. It could be a lack of fuel pressure, as the fault code states it is too low. The DC/DC converter fault also is another clue, as this converts the 12V supply from the battery and boosts it up to 60/70v to open the fuel injectors. The fact that code is stored could be another reason the engine will not start and the system voltage low fault code as this could indicate the control unit isn’t receiving the voltage it should to operate correctly.
The other two fault codes I felt could be put to the bottom of my list. An EGR fault most likely would not cause a no-start issue on this particular engine and there are two fitted due to the the engine being a V configuration. Having plenty of experience with this engine, I have seen many stuck open and closed EGR valves not cause the customer’s complaint due to the pipework configuration so it could be ignored for now. Lastly, there is the control box fan fault. This is a small fan mounted next to the engine ECU to control its temperature and would also not cause a no-start complaint.
Live data
My next step was to consult live data and look at module voltages and fuel pressure as these were at the top of my list. Cranking the engine while monitoring rail pressure showed there was next-to-no fuel pressure being generated, so this is one of the reasons the engine will not start. In that case, why do we have a low system voltage code and a DC-DC converter fault logged? With reference to Fig.2, looking in the module voltage section in live data showed why we have 0v for battery voltage and 3v for the DC-DC converter. As I mentioned, this should be around 60-70v on this particular vehicle so this explained the reason for the other fault codes. I then decided to pull up a wiring diagram and look at how the engine ECU was supplied power to formulate a plan of attack for these faults.
