Out of the Crisis.Org

[Louis Altazan]

The proliferation of oil, lubricants and fluids in recent years has left many shops screaming ENOUGH! There are dozens of transmission fluids, coolants and even engine oil viscosities. Just keeping up with what goes into what can be a challenge, let alone stocking all of the different varieties. It almost seems like a battle between what engineers can dream up and what shops can deal with.

If it were a battle, I believe it is one most shops are ill equipped to fight. In today’s litigious society, can a shop afford to not follow OEM guidelines in this regard? I have heard several arguments, on both sides and for me the answer is no. The majority of arguments against using the OEM product revolve around cost. Either it cost too much to stock the recommended products or older vehicles don’t justify the expense.

I don’t feel this is a decision a shop should make. While the client may balk at the higher price, many courts hold they were not qualified to make that choice. Rather, they depended [paid] the shop to advise them. While I don’t always necessarily agree with this line of thought, it may be a hard to defend against. This is particularly so if the plaintiff “does not recall” the advise to the contrary.

Most judges and juries for that matter know little or nothing about a vehicle. On one side we have a person, they see much like themselves. This person has a "damaged" vehicle, documents from the manufacturer stating only a certain product should be used and an “expert” stating they were not. On the other side we have a business, that is supposed to know what should be used, arguing they substituted it to save a few dollars? The other argument might be that the plaintiff, who has no knowledge of the vehicle, told the [expert] shop to use the wrong product?

It is not possible to avoid all risk in business. There are some risk that can be avoided. In this case, is the savings worth the risk?

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Louis Altazan
Owner/Manager AGCO Automotive Corporation
Baton Rouge, LA