This legislation also gives the motorist the right to
have their vehicles serviced at the garage of their choice without invalidating
warranty so long as the garage uses replacement parts of the same quality as originally
fitted. The European Commission are reviewing this legislation and they are leaning towards
NOT renewing this legislation.
What this means in practice is that the independent garage will be unable to repair
and maintain vehicles and will go out of business. This puts in jeopardy 665,000
businesses and 3.5 million jobs across Europe.
With the closure of independent garages the
motorist will lose the freedom to choose where they have their car serviced – they
will have no coption but to use the vehicle main dealers.
The labour rates charged by vehicle main dealers
in the UK are already on average double those of the independent garage (source
Gipa)UK. How much will the motorist have to pay for servicing in the future?
To learn more about R2RC visit
www.r2rc.co.uk, www.r2rc.eu or
www.figiefa.org.