Service Bay Blues

REPORTER: There aren’t many neighborhood garages like Tony Menget’s in Calgary.

TONY [Background]: … replace the thermostat on it, which…

REPORTER: As you drive in you’re greeted by an old red and white Volkswagen Beetle welded onto large metal spider legs. People in the automotive aftermarket industry – the ones who work on your car after you buy it – say their industry is in crisis. The National Automotive Trades Association says half of the independent garages wonýt be here in three years. Tony Menget says mechanics are losing customers.

TONY: We had a BMW here a little while ago that we were trying to access information on and we have a scanner that we spent $7,000 on. And on this particular model, we couldn’t do it. It’s no point us going any further with it so that’s when we recommend to the customer – as much as we hate to do that – is to take it to the dealer and have them check it out.

REPORTER: Technology has drastically changed over the years. Today’s top line vehicles outfitted with more than 50 computers making it a thousand times more complex the Apollo 11 that went to the moon. But itýs the car manufacturers, not independent mechanics, who are familiar with the technology. Menget says those manufacturers are not particularly willing to share information.

TONY: They are making it even more difficult as time… as the newer models come out. We just want to be able to operate on a fair ground and have as free a say as maybe the dealerships would have as a conglomerate.

REPORTER: Glenn McNally used to run his own garage. He got out of the business because he couldn’t gain access to information and tools and he was losing customers. Today he trains mechanics in Ontario and British Columbia. He is also a part of the National Automotive Trades Association. He hears stories like this one all the time.

GLENN: He couldn’t buy the darn tool and all he’s trying to do is an alignment adjustment. He ended up having to, through somebody he knows, grease somebody at a dealership and get them to order it on the sly for him. And all he wants to do is set the alignment. Bribes, I mean, I’m doing it all the time. I’m paying people under the table for access to stuff. Yeah, we’re all being put in a position of having to do things through very indirect channels.

REPORTER: Buddy Bell is shop foreman at this Chrysler dealership in Calgary. He’s holding a tool any mechanic would love to have.

BUDDY: This is our what they call DRB3. This is our, our factory scanner.

REPORTER: This scanner is only made available to the dealership. That’s a big problem for an independent.

GLENN: Right now in Canada, to properly service a 2003 Chrysler would require a tool called a DRB3. It’s a quite expensive tool. It’s approximately an $11,000 Canadian investment. But here in Canada right now there is a directive from Chrysler that that tool cannot be sold into the general aftermarket.

BUDDY: We have all our service manuals are on online here…

REPORTER: Bell says there is nothing he can do except empathize with his competitors. He couldnýt do his job without his computer.

BELL: This is… this is another step in the industry that the aftermarket doesn’t have. This is an online portal in Canada right to the engineering department so the only people who have access to this system are employees of a dealership, employees of Chrysler.

REPORTER: But it’s not just Chrysler that’s withholding information says Glenn McNally – it’s also Ford and manufacturers of most foreign vehicles including BMW, Toyota, Honda, and Mazda. Canadian independent mechanics order most of their tools, equipment, and software direct from the motor company but for the past couple of years they’ve been denied access to the latest tools and data. Ray Datt is the president of Automotive Industries Association.

RAY: Canadian companies or Canadian repair facilities could get on the Internet and go to the United States to a manufacturer’s web site and pay for the equipment the same as they could in the States. We’re starting to see the Canadian access to that kind of information being turned off. The minute you provide a Canadian credit card they’re saying this information is no longer available in Canada.

REPORTER: But across the border it’s a different story. Manufacturers have to sell diagnostic information and tools at a reasonable cost to the independents. It’s the law. In the U.S. they have the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. All mechanics have to abide by these emissions standards. So manufacturers must provide all the necessary information. Now the Americans are pushing it further and have introduced the Right to Repair Act in Congress, which would force manufacturers to provide all diagnostic tools and information to the independents not just the emissions-related material. But that doesn’t help Canadians. None of the car manufacturers say they are intentionally running shops out of business in Canada. Their priority is with their dealership. Mazda Canada says the technical information is their own intellectual proprietary software and doesn’t have to be shared. Ford Canada admits Canadian independents can’t order from the manufacturer. And the only reason Americans can is because it’s the law. John Jelinek speaks for Ford Canada. He says it’s up to the independents to buy from the dealers.

JOHN: We want them to get the proper shop manuals and wiring diagrams to make the proper repairs on our vehicles and to do that they need to go purchase them from the Ford dealer.

GLENN: That is misleading. The dealer will not sell you the… You know what, I would invite that gentlemen to a give me a contact name here in Toronto and I will go there with my credit card in hand and I will attempt to purchase the entire kit. It won’t happen. Weýve been in contact with Ford on the web site issue and we’ve been told no. You know, there’s no access. It’s the U.S. only. It’s due to license issues number one. And number two, it’s not their current market strategy to make that service available in Canada.

REPORTER: But this can be solved. What the Canadian government needs to do says McNally is enforce their own regulations. In 2000 Environment Canada adopted U.S. emissions regulations harmonizing Canadian standards with the U.S. EPA. In 2003, the EPA made amendments forcing vehicle manufacturers to provide independents with the same information and tools as they do to the dealers at a reasonable cost. Environment Canada chose not to adopt that change.

GLENN: The government needs to put in place what was there at the time. They need to enforce the U.S. EPA regulatory change, which was a result of a massive study. Do you know what, our reality is far worse than the U.S. I mean there is a lot of distance in our great country here between repair shops.

REPORTER: Environment Canada doesn’t see it that way. The department says they are not capable of doing everything the EPA does. Besides they say it doesn’t appear to be a big enough problem in Canada. Try explaining that to garage owner Tony Manget.

TONY: It’s free enterprise. I think just because a customer goes and buys a certain product of a vehicle doesn’t necessarily mean that they are married to that product.

REPORTER: His long time customer Belinda Plowman agrees.

BELINDA: … the number. You know I try and look after, you know, the local businesses because these great big box stores are just killing the country.

REPORTER: That’s what the automotive aftermarket industry in Canada is attempting to prevent. But unless the Federal Government sees this as an issue as their counterparts do in the United States, the corner garage could become a thing of the past. Aziza Sindu, CBC News, Calgary