Aftermarket February 2023

www.aftermarketonline.net FEBRUARY 2023 AFTERMARKET 3 CONTENTS BUSINESS 8 Big issue: VED on EVs 14 Neil Pattemore: Supersize that? 16 The future of tyre-buying? 18 Kalimex: Get set grow! TOP TECHNICIAN/TOP GARAGE 20 Top Technician/Top Garage 2023 underway TECHNICAL 22 Aftermarket of the future 24 Frank Massey: New year, same vehicle faults 26 Andrew Marsh: Tale of the UK aftermarket 28 Repairify: Running to stand still? IN FOCUS 30 Batteries and chargers 32 MOT 40 Oils and lubricants 44 Brakes 46 Diesel PLUS... 51 Competition/General products 52 On the road: IAAF Annual Conference 56 Garage visit: Erme Valley Autos 58 EVs and hybrids 60 Training update 64 Recruitment 66 Teabreak TOMORROW COMES TODAY Editor | Alex Wells alex@aftermarket.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 345 Managing Director | Ryan Fuller ryan.fuller@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Contributors Dee Blick | Neil Kennett | Andrew Marsh | Frank Massey | Neil Pattemore | Martin Pinnell-Brown | Michael Welsh Operations Manager | Emma Floyd emma.floyd@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Marketing Executive | Hope Jepson hope.jepson@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 371081 Finance Department accounts@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Chief Executive | Ian Atkinson ian.atkinson@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Published by | DFA Aftermarket Media Ltd 192 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1BE Alex Wells, Editor Average net circulation July 2021 to June 2022 19,073 @aftermarketmagazine @aftermarket01 @aftermarketmagazine ISSN 2516-9149 Aftermarket is published 10 times a year and is sent free of charge to applicants meeting the publisher’s criteria. All others may subscribe at £60 per anum, £120 Europe and £150 rest of the world. While every care is taken to provide accurate information, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or ommisions, no matter how caused. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior consent of the publisher. The views of contributors do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher. Copyright: DFA Media Group 2023. W elcome to the first Aftermarket of 2023. Considering how eventful the last few years have been, you’ll forgive me if I hope we can just potter around until December, with no big ructions to disturb things. Unfortunately, that’s not how things work. With energy costs for business still a big concern, and the 2030 deadline on new internal combustion engine vehicle sales getting closer, a lot of work needs to be done to keep businesses moving forward. Hopefully though, we can have some fun along the way. For example, Both Top Technician and Top Garage 2023 are now open for entries. Whether you are a mechanic or you run a business, this means you need to turn to page 20 to see how to put yourself forward for either (or both) competitions. Who knows, come October and the Top Technician and Top Garage Awards Evening, you might not have enough hands to hold all of your prizes. What else is on the slate then? On the legislative side, Neil Pattemore has returned to us, with his thoughts on what the expiration of the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (MV-BER) might mean for the sector, and what might replace it. Turn to pages 14-15 to see what’s new, and how everyone in the sector can play their part. Moving over to the broader business front, the retained marketer for Kalimex, author Dee Blick is back with more of her patented marketing tips. That is on pages 16-17. Moving over to the technical side, Neil Kennett is back to bring more from tomorrow, today in the Aftermarket of the Future section. You can find that on pages 22-23. Speaking of today, Frank Massey also finds himself in 2023, and yet he is seeing the same faults that were put under his nose from years ago. How can this be? Turn to pages 24-25 to find out. Meanwhile in order to look ahead to 2030, Andrew Marsh is looking back to the pre-2019 days in the first of a trilogy of articles considering the likely future shape of the car parc, and what this means for you. You can’t spend all your time looking that far ahead though, and with this in mind, Martin Pinnell-Brown is examining how to run a workshop business when energy costs are so high. You can find this on page 28. Elsewhere in the issue, we have a full report from December’s IAAF Annual Conference. You can find this on pages 52-55. We also managed to get all the way down to darkest Devon to drop in on 2022 Top Technician winner Andrew West at Erme Valley Autos. It was great to see him post-win. However, on our way back, we got so lost down those narrow country lanes that it took over an hour to leave the immediate area, as a result of some local roadworks and a resulting folded-in-on-itself diversion outside the village that seemed to have been designed by M.C Escher: Imagine the film LABYRINTH, but with all west- country accents. Actually, I wonder if some local goblin had turned one or two of the signs around, thereby creating the issue, but I digress. We also have features on batteries and chargers, diesel, oils and lubricants and a mammoth look at the MOT, with everything from the ongoing impact of 2020’s MOT exemption, to the roll-out of connected equipment covered. Is that enough to be getting along with? Enjoy!