EU Euro 5 legislation is slowly taking effect across the European Union. On the face of it, it is legislation aimed at ensuring that car-makers produce cars with reduced emissions in the future and while this is indeed the case, it also has some important implications for the aftermarket.

The EU policy makers have made it clear that easy and clear access to information on vehicle repair and maintenance is key to effective vehicle maintenance and to this end, this information must be available to all repairers. Car manufacturers thus must ensure that independent operators have easy, restriction-free and standardised access via the internet to information on the repair and upkeep of vehicles, without discrimination in favour of dealerships and official repair workshops. This obligation covers on-board diagnostic systems and their components, diagnostic tools and testing equipment. What’s more the EU is also strict about charges for this information saying, they must be reasonable and proportionate.

Coupled with the latest block exemption rules what this all means is that the days of restricted manufacturer technical information should be over. Independent garages and dealers from other franchises should soon be able to log on to any car makers website and access technical information such as details of parts references and   software required for service, repair, diagnostics and re-configuration of ECU’s.