Are technical service bulletins being used to generate defects in cars which need repairing?

I am a director of a company with two MoT stations, a couple of repair garages and a couple of tyre depots. I have worked with the same company for 30 years and in the motor trade all my life. I am the company contact for VOSA and obviously get to know their staff well. Informally I was recently informed that VOSA is getting very concerned by manufacturer recalls that are spurious. The aim is to get the owner into the main dealer, "sort out" the defect, then give the vehicle a free safety check and present the owner with a list of defects that need rectifying. This tallies with customers bringing their vehicles to us with these defect lists and we unable to confirm the dealer's diagnosis. Is this an isolated case in our area or are you getting other reports of this?

I guess you are referring to TSBs, where the franchised dealer gets in touch with the customer to warn him of a service update rather than a full-blown VOSA vehicle safety recall. My understanding is that most TSBs are carried out during a franchised service. If owners don't go to the franchise for services then the franchise loses touch with them (thinking they have sold the car) and they are not made aware of TSBs.

My Mazda 6 was recently called in to correct a potential defect. A guy came to pick up the car and left me with a CX-5 for a week. Then he called to tell me car was ready and we swapped back. I don't see any widespread evidence of spurious TSBs to get cars in to sell more work on them. I can imagine it happening, but my 100 reader emails a day do not carry any widespread evidence of this.

Answered by Honest John on 8 June 2013

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