Servicing Your Car
Car servicing is and will always be a necessary evil in most people’s eyes. Cars, like every other kind of machine, require regular servicing. This is not only to keep things running and people safe, but it is also a legal requirement. Now, in the past the choices that people hand in terms of who could service their vehicle were pretty small.
It seemed, at one point, that all an independent or local garage had to do was simply look at your car and the warranty would be null and void. Car manufacturers were acting, to put it simply, like cartels. They told you who could service your car and they dictated whatever price they desired. Any technical information about their vehicle was kept under lock and key and only garages that they either owned or were affiliated with could see the information.
Happily, in 2003 this all changed in the UK when a set of rules called the Block Exemption Regulations came into practice. These made it a requirement for car manufacturers to share technical information with the independent market, meaning that local garages could at last service vehicles without the warranty being affected. This meant that all of a sudden prices could no longer be set by whatever the “big wigs” in the corporate chains – who rubbed shoulders with the car manufacturers – wanted. With the independent garages suddenly in the picture, prices became competitive.
Seven years on and this is still true. In fact, things are, arguably, even better for the car owners. Over the last seven years internet based companies have formed meaning that competition is – for lack of a better term – more competitive than ever.
Now it’s true that we all hate being forced to spend our hard earned money, even more so when we’re told what we have to spend it on. Instead of servicing their car I’m sure plenty of people have more exciting things that they could do with the money.
However, this open and fair market created seven years ago with the introduction of the Block Exemption Regulations has helped to take the sting out of spending on car servicing. This is because consumers are able to shop around for the best deal available to them. They don’t have their arms tied behind their backs by the vehicle manufacturers.
Thanks to low overheads and a network of affiliated garages – instead of owning them outright – a lot of the online companies can offer your car a service at a far reduced cost. Companies such as – who are already an extremely successful and low-cost tyre retailer – have a network of garages, all of which are independently owned. They are able to offer customers savings on car servicing that can be up to 60% when compared to “main high street” dealers, which not only benefits car owners, but the independent garages who are at times struggling to make a living with the bigger chains trying to control the market.
Now although servicing your car is not the most exhilarating use of your money, you can rest assured that through booking a service with an online company – like the previously mentioned – your bank balance won’t take too much of a beating and at the same time you can take comfort in the knowledge that, as long as the Block Exemption Regulations are in existence, your warranty will remain intact – no matter who you decide services your vehicle.