DELAYS COSTING DRIVERS BIG BUCKS

If you own a car, motorbike, or even a tractor, chances are you’re paying more than you should for repairs and servicing – all because the Government won’t act to mandate data sharing with mechanics.

It’s costing vehicle owners across Australia an extra billion dollars every year in service and repair bill makes it hard for independent mechanics to stay in business.

Modern vehicles are computers on wheels, and real-time access to digital files and codes is needed to complete many aspects of a repair or service.

Car manufacturers generally own and control this technical information and in many cases are the only sources.

The typical modern car has 10 million lines of software code. (To put that into perspective, a Boeing 787 has only 6 million lines of software code). If a mechanic doesn’t have the software, it's pretty hard to fix a lot of problems.

According to the ACCC, with the big car manufacturers keeping their information secret, it has created an artificial monopoly. That leads to two things: one is inflated prices of services and repairs at the dealer service centres and the other is small businesses being disadvantaged.

Everyone should be able to choose where they get their vehicle serviced, but the manufacturers’ control of this information pushes up prices, and limits the ability of independant mechanics to grow their business and generate more jobs.

People want to support their local businesses and they don’t like feeling they’re forced to go to the big manufacturers for their services and repairs.

There’s an easy fix. Reforms in the USA and Europe hav