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Auto Parts Stores And DIY’ers
Many DIY’ers have readily available cheap scanners and often are buying the first error code with a part name on it. Do you realize how many unneeded oxygen sensors they sell? Every year they sell hundreds of thousands of unneeded sensors, solenoids, etc. only because “the scanner said so”. The DIY’er isn’t dead, but a proper diagnostic routine is. I was in the transmission repair industry all my life with a 40-year career. A lot changed not only in transmissions but the whole damn car changed.
More and more computers, chips, and multiple CAN networks. They last longer with less maintenance. When I started, vehicles were expected to last only 100K miles. It was a regular occurrence at our shop to be doing a transmission on a vehicle with less than 50K miles on it. Good God, vehicles back then only had 5-digit odometers. Now they have 6-digit odometers and a 300K mile life expectancy. Just look at the EVs. Those are million-mile vehicles with little maintenance and connected to the internet of over-the-air (OTA) updates and reprogramming. They can even buy extra features and options with OTA communication after they already made the original purchase. But it’s often been said that any type of new technology takes 30 years to be widely adopted, I think EVs are just starting on that path. ICE-powered vehicles will only diminish over time, but I doubt if they will ever completely go away.
Additionally, there are a lot of shops that can’t diagnose; they only do parts swaps. This created a whole new industry with mobile programming and diagnostics. While most of what you say is true, I think there will always be DIY’ers, tinkerers, and hot rodders to be served by the auto parts market. Snake oil-type additives, stop leaks, and fix-alls will always be popular. Equally true, the wannabe DIY’ers, tinkerers, and hot rodders are slowly going away for just the reasons mentioned. We have a 2021 RAV4 Hybrid which my wife picked out and really loves. The owner’s manual is 768 pages and the infotainment and navigation manual is 242 pages. Combined, that’s over 1K pages. Now THAT’S some serious technology training. There are so many buttons, switches, knobs, and software options we feel more like we’re flying the space shuttle than driving a Toyota. I no longer own a shop or rent the building. I now take my truck into a shop instead of working on it myself because I’m retired with few tools.
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