Yet in other countries there is a lively trade in used cars >5 yo. I suggest that australia's pampered car dealers are merely out of touch with the market.
Greg,, the manufacturers are out of touch with reality!
I have 40 + years in the industry and the manufacturers have to a large extent pushed out small workshops for servicing and mainteneance as has been their want for decades.
The cars them selves whatever brand cost more to repair than replace,, they are becoming the three year 100000km throwaway consumer item. yet by legislation us poor stupid dealers have to [in this state at least] warranty them for 15 years or 200000km.
This includes internal heating cooling systems suspension brakes,engine trans and all the whiz bang electronics. Which are the biggest grief.
EDIT,, the VW scenario at the moment actually means that some used car dealers are legally liable to rectify the illegal cars. I doubt it will happen. Since the OEM seems able to get out of it. But a bit scarey for all. remember some of these cars are in effect old clunkers @ 5 years old.
The VERY FEW cars that do go O/S [besides the stolen ones!] go to markets that accept them if they run. No warranties, no roadworthys, no pollution laws for cars that the manufacturers do not provide parts for. Which in Oz is 7 years. Yeah right! The aftermarket picks the eyes out of it with cheaper fast moving parts,, except when the manufacturer has a hissy fit. To my knowledge in the last 2 years that has been Holden, Toymota and Ford and I believe VW too. only on some random parts, sometimes parts that are so way overpriced as to be rediculous. Yet these same manufacturers IF they do supply have them made by the cheapest tender and on the odd occasion are absolute junk,, or just do not fit at all.
Hands up all repairers who see generic el cheapo parts come out of genuine packaging,, worse sometimes not even that. Just the manufacturers sticker.
Yet alone the dealers who buy generic parts then sell then off at genuine prices. That happens a lot,, generally obsolete parts too be fair but sometimes current too. That is ALL the mainstream manufacturers and importers in this country.
The Euro and smaller brands generally work on backorder. When enough orders are there they have the part made. Or just bring the parts in from overseas.
The bike industry has done this for decades. My brother runs the workshop for a major dealership and is often storing well in excess of a million bucks worth of bikes. Often for weeks and occasionally months. This itself a problem for both space and insurance. IF their was ever a major fire, explosion, terrorism etc the liability is really unclear.
And cars take up a LOT more space. Euro dealers sometimes have holding yard elsewhere for the dead cars. Though a bit hard for disabled crash jobs or cars not on wheels. And on occasion they get trapped in the yard too by other broken cars when the parts do turn up.
Edited by Lee Nicolle, 14 November 2015 - 07:06.