What is different about servicing European vehicles?
Europeans – The stereotype varies by country – conservative, flashy, excitable, boring and demonstrative – and that’s just the cars – the same can be said for the people!
There certainly was a time when the characteristics of cars from different European countries rather reflected the stereotypes of the inhabitants. Conservative British Rovers and Jaguars, flamboyant French Citroens and Renaults, excitable Italian Fiats and Alfas and excellent but predictable Mercedes and BMWs. This was somewhat matched by the parts makers from those countries. I am sure we all have a few tales to tell around Lucas electrics (The Prince of Darkness!) from the 60’s and 70’s vintage British cars (one of my favourites was the three position Lucas switch - dim, flicker and off.)
With the growing internationalism of the car industry and common ownership across a variety of brands a lot of that is no longer really true as cars today move more towards a common theme.
Brands are keen to keep some of their character, but it is now done whilst keeping within industry norms.
Apart from the design this also applies to the mechanics of the vehicles, which means the servicing requirements of modern Europeans are not that different to Japanese, Korean or Chinese vehicles.
The main challenge might be the slightly harder access to spares due to the smaller car parc for some of the brands in the New Zealand market, but the aftermarket suppliers such as Repco, NAPA and BNT all now carry a comprehensive range of European spares, meaning there are good options beyond the franchise side of the industry. A lot of the wellknown OEM suppliers such as Dayco, Bendix and Bosch are European based so have a strong connection with European brands, so have an extensive range of parts.
There will be less recycled parts available but again there tend to be dismantlers that specialise in different brands which aids in finding parts you might need.
So there is no need to be scared of servicing modern European cars as they are not the prima donnas of yesterday!