Only one person can ensure better service, you!

Every new vehicle should come with something called a “Book of Life”. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The ready book would cost barely one dollar for the vehicle manufacturer to produce.
  • It would take only moments for the workshop and owner to fill in at each visit.
  • And it would give the existing owner, any future owner, a workshop, and anyone else who needed to know, a truly “full” service history.  

Every new vehicle should come with something called a “Book of Life”. A few do. Most don’t. This document, which does not need to be much bigger than a chequebook, should live in the glovebox and represent the vehicle’s “service” record from birth to death. There could be a simple, pre-printed page (leaf) for each 5,000 km service interval. On one side could be a check-list of all the items that should be changed or adjusted or lubricated or cleaned or at least looked at and easy-tested at that particular mileage.  On the other side should be an equally simple form to record the date, place, mileage reading, and the workshop’s stamp and signature confirming that everything on the list had been attended to. Between each leaf there could be a blank sheet for notes on anything arising from the service, and for the owner to record any other work done between services.

BARELY ONE DOLLAR

The ready book would cost barely one dollar for the vehicle manufacturer to produce. It would take only moments for the workshop and owner to fill in at each visit. And it would give the existing owner, any future owner, a workshop, and anyone else who needed to know, a truly “full” service history.  What’s not to like? A big part of the answer is probably dangling from your steering column at the end of a piece of string. It will be a small, flimsy card supplied by the workshop at the last service – giving perhaps a few scribbled ticks next to a list of half-a-dozen service items (oil, plugs, greasing and three filters) plus the due mileage for the next service. For that is what most vehicle owners think a service is, and workshops are in no hurry to disabuse them of that misconception.  In every field from computers to plumbing, including motor vehicles, few technicians have the skills to make excellence their most profitable strategy.  There’s a widespread entrepreneurial culture (all the way from jua kali to big corporations) that thinks “cheating” and “clever” are synonyms… and that customers are know-nothing suckers. It’s up to you to ensure they are not right.  A proper service should attend to at least 100 different items. And a “Book of Life” would list them, specifically, in ink. And if workshops did attend to them all, with diligence and expertise, your vehicle would be more reliable, more durable, more economical, more comfortable, and all around run better... and each part and the whole would last longer and retain a higher value.  That does not mean you have to become a qualified auto engineer and a d-i-y enthusiast. But it does place the onus on you to regularly check the vehicle yourself, and to select and supervise your service agent conscientiously. If a workshop gives you a flimsy card with a few ticks on it, ask them what it means. What did they change, what did they replace it with, what did they adjust, what did they clean, what did they check and test? And for further insight, ask them what they did not do. The quality of service you get will never be better than the quality you actively demand.