Local auto repair shops sending jobs back to the dealership due to ‘financial restraints,’ costly tech for new cars
As the technology in new vehicles becomes increasingly sophisticated, local repair shops, like Ted’s Auto Clinic in Chicago, owned by brothers George and Chris Geropoulos, face mounting financial and logistical barriers to repairing modern cars.
The auto repair shop, opened by their father in 1982, is increasingly unable to service newer cars, which often require a special scanner and a subscription service to access the car’s computer to perform diagnostics and make repairs.
“It’s one of those things. As time goes by, we have to focus on more cars we can actually service and turn away work on a lot of the ones we cannot. A lot of the reasons we cannot service a car is because of financial constraints,” George told Fox 32 reporters.
These scanner subscription tools, he reports, can cost between $65 and $40,000 per year, depending on the car type. These tools prevent hackers from accessing the car’s computer and exploiting vulnerabilities.
But it appears — thanks to the expense — that they’re also preventing some mechanics from being able to service certain vehicles. Here’s why that could be bad news for consumers.
In 2015, Andy Greenberg was driving a Jeep Cherokee when hackers took over his vehicle. They blasted the air conditioning, cranked the music, and even blurred the windshield with wiper fluid. Then, they cut the transmission, leaving the Cherokee stopped in the middle of the interstate with cars lining up behind it. Greenberg was the victim of a zero-day exploit that allowed hackers to access multiple systems in his vehicle.
Luckily for him, the hack was expected — he was a willing participant, allowing hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek to show how these exploits could be used to disable vehicles. Since then, car manufacturers have made drastic changes to how car mechanics can access car computers. New cars now feature “gateway computers” — secure systems that manage everything from the vehicle’s engine to safety features and prevent unauthorized access.
These gateways require costly tools and software to access, which often come with steep subscription fees. Independent shops must purchase the initial scan tools — the Geropoulos’ universal tool ran them between $4,000 to $5,000, and it works on multiple types of cars.
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