Telematics And Remote Diagnostics

Dealers Slow To Embrace New Telematics Technology

Extract of conference presentation to motor industry service personnel April 2003

I'm not sure how many of you have picked up on this, but BMW has recently announced that it intends to move into remote diagnostics.

In theory, the car will arrive at the dealership with a ready-to-run list of whatever problems have occurred during the time since it was last in the dealer service bay.

This ought to make life a lot easier for dealership workshop engineers. This ought to save a considerable amount of time and energy - for a start there will be a much-reduced need to carry out test drives in an attempt to replicate a sporadic misfire or the like - and lead to greater efficiency. No more riding around in the boot of the car to try and trace an occasional thunk or bang from the back suspension, no more having to hook up the car to a gas analyser on the rolling road. A lot less hassle altogether. By the time it arrives for its service, the vehicle has transmitted a full report of its condition and provided the dealership with full details of the required remedial work.

But if this is so, why are car dealerships so lacking in enthusiasm for this emerging technology?

I have had a couple of interesting conversations recently with service managers (and yes, I know I must do something to improve the circles in which I mix...) and their reaction to offboard diagnostics was lukewarm, bordering on freezing. When pressed, neither could come up with a realistic explanation for their antipathy. But they did give a number of clues as part of their litany; foremost amongst their concerns seemed to be that there was a very great risk of losing valuable turnover, thanks to the reduced amount of time that the cars would be in the workshop. The other primary concern seemed to be with the reliability of information coming from the vehicle; one went as far as to say, in true Luddite fashion, that you can't rely on technology - only on the eyes, ears and fingers of good mechanics. One of the service managers, who works for a Ford dealership, went as far as to say that he was grateful that his dealership deals only in blue oval mass-market cars; "They'll never get that sort of stuff, thank God..." was more or less what he said to me.

All of which seems pretty symptomatic of the attitude of service engineers and technicians - and if you think this is a peculiarly British syndrome then think again; the same applies in France, Spain, the USA, even in that cradle of high technology, Germany. Perhaps in common with the problems of sales staff within dealerships - who seem utterly indifferent to selling telematics systems unless there is a healthy commission dangled in front of their noses - these are indicators of all that is wrong with the concept of independent sales and service franchises. And in turn explains why DaimlerChrysler, Ford and others are actively seeking to buy back dealer sites. Having direct control over the marketplace for their brands makes a considerable amount of sense to vehicle manufacturers. In addition to the obvious control over vehicle prices, there is another advantage; rather than having cajole their franchise operators into adopting or promoting new technologies, they can simply issue an edict that they are to be taken on board with effect from whatever date is decreed.

The concept of franchised dealers is rooted in the early days of the motor industry, when manufacturers started to increase production and needed to open up sales outlets in distant places. Back then the only way to achieve such expansion was to get into bed with far-sighted and capital-rich individuals, people who knew the local marketplace and also knew those with sufficient wealth to become car owners. At that time the opinion of one member of Britain's House of Lords was that only a handful of people would ever have the ability to be able to drive a motor car; today there are some 237 million cars on the roads of Europe. And three times as many again in the rest of the world.

In the earliest days of the industry local knowledge was everything; the development of the industry relied on networks of contacts. Today the millions of drivers on the world's roads can be contacted easily via media as diverse as radio, television, phone calls, letters and the rest. The car manufacturers can get their hands on development capital, too.

All of which means that the reasons for establishing a network of franchised outlets have long since been negated.

Daewoo came close to succeeding in developing the perfect model for vehicle distribution and sales, by having all regional outlets under the same control as the importers in each country. It was only the financial shenanigans of the parent company back in Korea that killed the dream. Until then, the established motor manufacturers were looking with increasing levels of envy at the Daewoo model, aware that not only could they exert close control over new car prices and second-hand residual values, but they could also quickly issue diktats ensuring that any intended changes in strategy could be imposed, rather than requested. Had Daewoo got the telematics package that they were developing into place before the empire crumbled, then the management would have been able to rest assured, safe in the knowledge that it would have been actively sold by its retail staff.

And it is that type of retail operation that is needed if remote diagnostics or location-based services are to be actively promoted to the public. On past form, if it is left to the staff working in franchised dealerships, then any initial enthusiasm will soon be subsumed by the diversion of having to ratchet up sales of new cars.

What the dealers seem to miss completely is that this new technology - and believe me, what BMW are doing today Mercedes-Benz will offer tomorrow, and Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors the day after - provides a neat way of improving customer satisfaction. One of the biggest piles of complaints received by consumer organisations centres on the level of service that drivers get from franchised dealer workshops. Occasional faults don't often show up under artificial conditions, and nothing is more likely to annoy a driver than to realise a couple of days after getting the car serviced that the problem still exists. Remote diagnostics allow a far more refined and sophisticated way of unearthing those problems, and that in turn means that the chances of achieving customer satisfaction are far higher. Which in turn means a far more substantial prospect of getting return business from drivers.

And if that doesn't convince dealers that they ought to be investing in remote diagnostics, then nothing will.

Dennis Foy

 

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