Diagnostics

Most of us expected that a dramatic shift towards the end of car-buying and private ownership would be here by now, but prophecies that a high percentage of millennials would turn their backs on car ownership by 2019 seem to be premature.

That said, we must note that ridehailing services such as Uber, and soon to be released autonomous vehicles, are a major threat to private car ownership. In simple terms, we just don’t use our cars very much. Transportation statistics around major cities worldwide confirmed longstanding claims by urban planners that, on average, cars are parked 95 percent of the time. This car “in-use” percentage was calculated by first using data on the number of car trips and their average time, then survey results about the time we spend driving, and finally formulated from reports on the distance and average speeds cars travel.

The average of this arrives at five percent, or less, as the time cars are in use. Urban planners are most concerned with the burden on infrastructure that storing all those under-used cars on cities have. A benefit of this shift away from mass car ownership would result in “huge parking space savings,” helping make cities denser, more efficient, and more liveable.

Obviously, it’s not just the car park storage space, but the cars themselves, that are being wasted under our current private ownership system. Sharing vehicles, either through existing services such as taxis, or Uber, and through automated vehicles that could be summoned as needed, would lead to significantly lower overall spending on cars.

A lot of a vehicle’s depreciation is due to new models being released every year with new features, as well as sun damage and corrosion which takes place while the car is sitting still.

Today the motor industry has recovered a bit from its post-recession nightmare. However, there is a growing population of transit-loving, bike-riding, ride sharing “next generation” coming soon and in the future will probably start a big shift in spending away from the body of steel and plastic that, mostly just sits in your driveway.

But let’s not start preparing a funeral just yet for the private car! For those of us who repair cars your job is still safe as New Zealand’s new vehicle registrations increased 7.9 percent to 14,169 in May this year from the same month a year earlier, marking the strongest level for May since the Motor Industry Association began collating the data in 1975. Registrations of passenger vehicles and SUVs jumped 11 percent to 9,276, while commercial vehicle registrations rose three percent to 4,893.

New Zealand new vehicle sales hit an annual record for the fourth year running in 2017 as the economy is buoyed by low interest rates and record migration, and this year new vehicle sales are running 2.7 percent ahead of last year.

So it’s probably time to update your old outdated scanner to accommodate the new variations of automotive technology introduced over the last 10 years. A perfect upgrade is the unrivalled Launch 2018 edition X431 PAD III.

Buy a new 2018 edition Launch X431 PAD III during spring and get our new USA-made hand-held Auto Scope and Secondary ignition tester for 50 percent off the RRP.

We have received another shipment for the X431 PAD III at an incredible price so you now have no excuse to not upgrade that old Launch, or other old-type scanner that sits in your office and gathers dust. Trade in and save now. The all new genuine Launch PAD III scanner now provides up to 99 percent coverage from early 1990s to the latest vehicles.

All our Launch scanners are genuine and come with 99 percent world makes coverage and guaranteed to cover more manufacturers and models than any other scanner on the market.

All our Launch scanners are NOT OBD code readers posing as scanners, like some other scanners on the market. They not only read fault codes and clear, but reset service lights, code injectors, airbags, key reprogramming, throttle bodies, etc., transmission adaptions, which include Audi, VW, Skoda channel codes and advanced service procedures. Call us to find out more details and of course we can provide finance for the cost of what you would make from one diagnostic scan per week. Based on finance on a Launch X431 PAD III set over two years. It just makes sense.

Warning notice: We have switched off some Launch scanners in the last few months bought from illegal channels. Do not buy from Trade Me or others trying to sell Launch pretending to be genuine; they will be dealt with by head office. If they are claiming they are a NZ master dealer get the scanner serial number and let us know. We can verify it, but we may switch off any scanner purchased through illegal channels. Don’t buy a tool which fails to work as described, or find it's a clone and cannot be registered, repaired or supported. Here at LaunchNZ we are only a phone call away. All enquiries please call me at 021 241 4885 for a quick response.