All About Japan Autos

Auto Express’s ‘Stop the Service Secrets’ campaign Support our call for all manufacturers to publish details of known problems with their vehicles.
Auto Express has launched a campaign calling for manufacturers to publish the details of known problems with their vehicles.

Currently, firms only have to publicly acknowledge registered safety recalls. For all other faults, such as reliability issues, they are able to keep owners in the dark!

Our investigation into the secret world of technical service bulletins – documents that details the symptoms, causes and fixes for known car problems – brought to light shocking flaws in the system, such as the Jaguar owner who had to find out from an Internet forum about a fault with his XJ8 that could lead to the engine cutting out at high speeds.

It also revealed how independent garages are often forced to send customers to franchised dealers because they can’t access the vital technical information on service bulletins.

We want firms to publish the details of known faults, online and for free, so that owners can see for themselves what problems affect their vehicles. The AA, RAC and the Retail Motor Industry Federation have all joined our call for manufacturers to make technical service bulletins public.  

RAC motoring strategist Adrian Tink said, “There’s no reason why info like this should be hidden in the depths.” And Edmund King, president of the AA, told us, “Anything that improves transparency in the mysteries of vehicle ownership would be a big help.”

Now we want to hear from you! Do you think it’s fair that car makers can keep quiet about problems with a product that you paid tens of thousands of pounds for? Do you want to be able to see for yourself what issues are affecting your vehicle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.