Technician Point of View – Euro Based Domestics

[Ryan]

Hi everybody, I had a thought recently, and wanted to ask those who are technicians for one of the Big Three (Ford, GM, Chrysler) how the recent influx of European (or even Asian based) vehicles has affected the way you work on that brand. For example, new Buicks being German Opels, new Fords like the Fiesta or Focus, and Fiat based Chryslers. These European derived cars certainly have different design characteristics than the traditional American cars that you may have learned on/worked on for years. Are you experiencing new difficulties with these new models that never were an issue for that brand before?

I know “imported” models have shown up in the domestic’s fleets before, as well as components from different cars, but it seems recently there are a lot more. It has to be different from a design/engineering perspective to work on a new Fiesta/Focus versus an old school Crown Vic or Taurus for example.

I’m very interested in hearing from technicians on this subject. Thanks!

Topic

[Carlos]

What I can say, cars have become smaller and more fuel efficient. Trucks have become bigger and longer wheel base. These trucks today are way more fuel efficient then the trucks 10 years ago. The only thing we are seeing more are Hybrid cars, built in WIFI, Navigation Systems, Intelligent Vision Displays and a whole lot of electronics coming out. Were constantly studying on how these systems work so we can repair them. New tools are needed at times to diagnose these modules. Ohm’s law still applies.

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