Another thing that I find worrying is the manufactures being able to read a breadcrumb trail of every item that has been accessed on the vehicle by anybody including independents and obviously with on-board GPS they will know where this occurred and after a quick look on Google earth street view will know the name of the garage. God help the people that create a fault on the vehicle by doing something wrong, or failing to code a part correctly after replacement because you didn't know this was required, you may have got away with this in the past but not in the future.

You say "Never seen the motor trade change so quickly" I think things are going to speed up drastically in the near future. Lasers, Radars, Cameras, Telemetry systems, Fuel cells, Autonomous vehicles, 3D printed parts, etc etc and all the new vehicles being pushed onto a lease with a manufactures servicing package due to the ever increasing costs.

Only last Thursday I attended an IMI event about new Volvo vehicles and was told about a windscreen replacement (which MUST be genuine Volvo) costing £1500 plus the coding and calibration. I lost count of how many different materials were used in the body production and Volvo are now doing deals to get the vehicles back in house after an accident to ensure they are repaired correctly with the right materials and procedures.

Fun times ahead? or Worrying times?

Graham