FIA calls for better access to technical repair information

Publication date: 06 June 2006

The increasing complexity of modern cars makes vehicle repair and roadside breakdown assistance evermore challenging. Road patrols and repairers depend on the ready availability of reasonably priced technical information needed for vehicle repair. Consumers must ensure that their vehicles are maintained to meet ever higher standards of safety and emissions, yet they are more and more constrained in their choice of repairer.

For the moment access to technical vehicle information is neither standardised nor open to all. Information given by car manufacturers to independent repair shops is often lacking detail, costly, difficult to use and of poor quality. In order to guarantee a good service to consumers a European regulatory framework enabling a competitive and efficient automotive aftermarket is urgently needed.

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) regrets that
• the CARS 21 report neither includes in its recommendations a statement on the consumers’ right to have access to technical information for vehicle repair nor identifies the means to achieve standardised open access,
• the OASIS standard, an appropriate technical solution to facilitate the entire car repairs market, developed with the support of the European Commission and the involvement of the European car manufacturers, is not implemented by European legislation,
• the draft EURO 5 regulation of the European Commission referring to access to technical information [COM(2005)0683] is under threat of being limited during the Parliamentarian process to regulating only emission related repair information,
• the European Parliament’s amendment in the first reading of the Recast Type Approval Directive [COM(2003)0418] referring to access to technical information was not taken further by the European Council.

During the annual plenary meeting of the FIA in Zagreb the European Automobile Clubs representing in Europe over 40 million motorists expressed their concern that the right to repair and the free choice of consumers to decide whether to use the repair network controlled by car manufacturers or an independent operators will be limited.

The Clubs carry out more than 10 million breakdown services per year so that motorists can continue on their journeys, in most cases without towing. Only having readily available standardised access to technical information will enable breakdown assistance patrols to deliver appropriate assistance to club members and consumers generally in future.

In the Zagreb declaration, the European Clubs have called upon the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council to ensure that all the necessary measures of facilitating access to technical information are enshrined in legislation and that the freedom of choice of consumers is put at the heart of automotive policy.

declaration_of_zagreb.pdf (26 KB)