Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
What else is santa bringing me for Christmas?
International Auto parts being in the Replacement market is constantly delivering quality with quantified justification into the market with very reasonable prices.
Sapura Brakes Technology of newly established past within the SIB group has again proved prowess from being singular supplier to modular fittings thus extending into corner modules, the latest being those of Proton Saga models.With excellent technology and partners , we offer these full range of products for all Proton and Perodua models,new Toyota,Honda and Naza models, Your Power Is Nothing Without Our Brakes.
And as to celebrate our entry into this field in the eighties, our springs have always been there for Proton from day one .In fact we have moved on to other marque models of Mercedes,BMW,Volvo,Renault and currently the Smart Norwegian Think Cars.Of the only auto steel manufacturer in the region,you really cannot go wrong with us..of performances and standard ones for basically all types of cars, there is nothing here we cannot handle.....ProRide Sapura: for the ride of your lives..
Why i need to change my motor oil
Changing your vehicle's oil is one of the most important things you can do to avoid bringing large bags of money to your mechanic later on.
However, there's a lot of controversy about exactly when engine oil gets old and how often it should be replaced with new oil. Because there are many factors at work — how you drive, the condition and age of the engine, the external environment you drive in, and stop-and-go versus highway driving — it's an inexact science. Owner's manual recommendations for oil and filter changes vary from 3,000 to 10,000 miles.
We recommend that you change your oil and filter every 5,000 miles. That's our best estimate. It may be too soon for many people and too late for a few, but for the vast majority, 5,000-mile oil changes will help your engine last to a ripe, old age.
You may want to consider changing your oil more frequently if:
* You drive like a knucklehead: jackrabbit starts, heavy acceleration or high-speed driving
* You live where the climate is extremely hot or cold
* You often drive on dirt roads
* Your engine is old and burns oil
* You frequently carry heavy loads (several mothers-in-law or other cargo)
Why do I have to do this?
Oil undergoes thermal breakdown due to high operating temperature. When this occurs, the oil becomes less effective as a lubricant. And without a good lubricant (read: expensive), parts of the engine rub together and wear each other out.
You'll need some type of oil-filter wrench; here are two sizes of socket-style cap wrenches — one fitted to an oil filter and the other to a 3/8-inch-drive breaker bar handle.
You'll need some type of oil-filter wrench; here are two sizes of socket-style cap wrenches — one fitted to an oil filter and the other to a 3/8-inch-drive breaker bar handle.
Oil also contains additives that have the ability to neutralize acids. Over time, these additives get used up and stop being effective.
Finally, oil can absorb water, dust and combustion byproducts and also hold them in suspension. Eventually, the oil gets saturated with this stuff and can't absorb any more. Then that stuff remains in the engine and can cause corrosion.
What happens if I don't do this?
Your engine won't last as long as it could. Oil serves many crucial functions, and clean oil performs those functions better than dirty oil. Oil is relatively cheap, and changing your oil every 5,000 miles is a very cheap insurance policy against major repairs down the road.
Is there any maintenance required between intervals?
Yes, you need to check the oil level every few hundred miles. With your car parked on a level surface, remove the oil dipstick, clean it on your brother's best shirt and then reinsert it. Remove it again, and check the oil level.
The dipstick shows the engine's oil level; the MIN marking means the oil is at the minimum operating level and is one quart low.
The dipstick shows the engine's oil level; the MIN marking means the oil is at the minimum operating level and is one quart low.
Ideally, it should be right at the full mark. If it's at or below the add mark, that means you're a quart low and should add a quart of oil to the crankcase. If it's in between the two marks, you can add part of a quart to bring it up to the full mark (the distance between add and full represents a quart, so use that to estimate how much of a quart you need). Be aware, however, that since oil flows slowly when it is cool, the dipstick may not immediately reflect any oil you just added. So estimate the amount of oil you need based on your first dipstick reading, and then check it again later that day or the next day to be sure you're near the full mark.
A word of caution: Be careful not to overfill your car's crankcase with oil. If you put in too much oil, the engine's crankshaft can actually come in contact with the oil. And because the crankshaft is turning at several thousand revolutions per minute, it can quickly whip your oil into a froth — like the steamed milk that sits on the top of a cappuccino. Why is that bad? Well, the oil pump can't pump froth very well, and as a result, it can't get oil to the parts of the engine that need lubrication. The result ... a hefty boat payment to your mechanic.
If you are low on oil, you can add any grade of engine motor oil you like — though we advise you to use the grade of oil recommended in your owner's manual.
Can I Do This Myself?
It depends on where you rank on the Car Talk do-it-yourself scale:
There are two kinds of screwdrivers?
I've successfully hung pictures around the house.
I've changed my own oil.
I've fixed things on my car that involve removing more than five bolts.
I've built a working nuclear reactor out of wood.
If you regularly run low on oil, be sure to report it to your mechanic. You may have a leak or may be burning oil — signs that you might be gearing up for a major boat payment to your mechanic.
Car Talk Tip: At some point, every engine starts to burn oil. Get in the habit of checking the oil from time to time, and you just might avoid having your engine melt down one day.
What is Shock Absorbers?
Shock absorbers are basically oil pumps. A piston is attached to the end of the piston rod and works against hydraulic fluid in the pressure tube. As the suspension travels up and down, the hydraulic fluid is forced through tiny holes, called orifices, inside the piston. However, these orifices let only a small amount of fluid through the piston. This slows down the piston, which in turn slows down spring and suspension movement.
All modern shock absorbers are velocity sensitive hydraulic damping devices – meaning the faster the suspension moves, the more resistance the shock absorber provides.
Because of this feature, shock absorbers adjust to road conditions. As a result, shock absorbers reduce the rate of:
* Bounce
* Roll or sway
* Brake dive and Acceleration squat
Shock absorbers work on the principle of fluid displacement on both the compression and extension cycle. A typical car or light truck will have more resistance during its extension cycle then its compression cycle. The compression cycle controls the motion of a vehicle's unsprung weight, while extension controls the heavier sprung weight.
SHOCK ABSORBER DESIGN
There are several shock absorber designs in use today:
* Twin Tube Designs
o Gas Charged
o PSD (position sensitive damping)
o ASD (Acceleration Sensitive Damping)
* Mono-Tube
Twin Tube – Gas Charged Design
gas shockabsorber The prime function of gas charging is to minimize aeration of the hydraulic fluid. The pressure of the nitrogen gas compresses air bubbles in the hydraulic fluid. This prevents the oil and air from mixing and creating foam. Foam affects performance because it can be compressed – fluid can not. With aeration reduced, the shock is able to react faster and more predictably, allowing for quicker response time and helping keep the tire firmly planted on the road surface.
Advantages:
* Improves handling by reducing roll, sway and dive
* Reduces aeration offering a greater range of control over a wider variety of road conditions as compared to non-gas units
* Reduced fade – shocks can lose damping capability as they heat up during use. Gas charged shocks could cut this loss of performance, called fade
Twin Tube – PSD Design
shockabsorbers_03 Ride engineers had to compromise between soft valving and firm valving. With soft valving, the fluid flows more easily. The result is a smoother ride, but with poor handling and a lot of roll/sway. When valving is firm, fluid flows less easily. Handling is improved, but the ride can become harsh.
With the advent of gas charging, ride engineers were able to open up the orifice controls of these valves and improve the balance between comfort and control capabilities available in traditional velocity sensitive dampers.
A leap beyond fluid velocity control is an advanced technology that takes into account the position of the valve within the pressure tube. This is called Position Sensitive Damping (PSD).
The key to this innovation is precision tapered grooves in the pressure tube. Every application is individually tuned, tailoring the length, depth, and taper of these grooves to ensure optimal ride comfort and added control. This in essence creates two zones within the pressure tube.
The first zone, the comfort zone, is where normal driving takes place.
The second zone, the control zone, is utilized during demanding driving situations.
Advantages:
* Allows ride engineers to move beyond simple velocity sensitive valving and use the position of the piston to fine tune the ride characteristic.
* Adjusts more rapidly to changing road and weight conditions than standard shock absorbers
* Two shocks into one – comfort and control
Twin Tube -ASD Design (Reflex )
shockabsorbers_04 A new twist on the comfort/ control compromise is an innovative technology which provides greater control for handling while improving ride comfort called Acceleration Sensitive Damping (ASD).
This technology moves beyond traditional velocity sensitive damping to focus and address impact. This focus on impact is achieved by utilizing a new compression valve design. This compression valve is a mechanical closed loop system, which opens a bypass to fluid flow around the compression valve.
Advantages:
* Control is enhanced without sacrificing driver comfort
* Valve automatically adjusts to changes in the road condition
* Reduces ride harshness
Mono-tube design (Standard Types)
shockabsorbers_05 These are high-pressure gas shocks with only one tube, the pressure tube. Inside the pressure tube there are two pistons: a dividing piston and a working piston. The working piston and rod are very similar to the twin tube shock design. The difference in actual application is that a mono-tube shock absorber can be mounted upside down or right side up and will work either way. In addition to its mounting flexibility, mono-tube shocks are a significant component, along with the spring, in supporting vehicle weight. Another difference you may notice is that the mono-tube shock absorber does not have a base valve. Instead, all of the control during compression and extension takes place at the piston.
During operation, the dividing piston moves up and down as the piston rod moves in and out of the shock absorber, keeping the pressure tube full all times.
Advantages:
* Can be mounted upside down, reducing the unsprung weight
* May run cooler since the working tube is exposed to the air
* Original equipment many import and performance domestic passenger cars, SUV and light truck applications
These information has been gathered from the Internet.
[tags]car, passenger, vehicle, shock-absorbers, absorber, ruhani-rabin, ruhanirabin.com[/tags]
Monday, October 18, 2010
Proton Inspira now officially open for bookings!
Proton has unveiled that Proton Inspira will be the official name for its Proton Waja replacement model, which has until now been only referred to by its internal codename, the Proton P3-90A.
The Proton Inspira is developed from a Mitsubishi Lancer with the choice of a Mitsubishi’s 4B10 1.8 liter engine with a 5-speed manual, a Mitsubishi 4B10 1.8 liter engine with a 6-speed virtual ratio CVT gearbox, or a top of the range 2.0 liter 4B11 engine with the same CVT transmission with added steering column paddle shifters.
At launch, the Inspira will have about 26% local content at launch, with the aim of raising it to 40% within the next few months and straight up to 65% within a year from the launch date once the local vendors have been fully prepped. It is built at Proton’s MVF plant.
Available in red, white, black or silver, the new Proton Inspira is now open for booking at any Proton dealer with a deposit of RM1,000. As an appreciation to early birds, Proton will be offering a 2 year (50,000km) free service package worth RM1,658 including parts and labor to those who take delivery of their brand new Proton Inspira for bookings made by the 15th of November 2010 that are delivered before the 31st of December 2010.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Nissan Leaf Is like Driving An I pod
IT is billed as the world's first purpose-built, all-electric family car and goes on sale in March.
The Sun has got its hands on the first Nissan Leaf in the UK and asked The Stig, ex-Top Gear driver BEN COLLINS, to test-drive it.
CLIMBING aboard the Leaf is like stepping inside an iPod.
The controls illuminate like a nightclub and chime a few soothing chords - the first and final sounds you hear from this machine.
OK, don't expect a punch in the ribs when you hit the accelerator.
The 80 kilowatts is the electronic way of saying a bit over 100bhp.
That puts owners lower down the food chain in terms of performance but they get their own back in so many other ways.
When the weather freezes overnight, you can remote-activate the Leaf with your iPhone in advance of driving to work and command it to defrost the windows.
And when it comes to servicing, the Leaf has no gearbox to shatter, exhaust to rust or oil filter to change.
Its electric motor and silent running gear ensure the only indication of motion is the rush of air as the carefully crafted suspension glides you along the road.
The Leaf has a top speed of 100mph and a range of 100 miles, so city dwellers should easily cope with the recharging.
And each refill at the socket will set you back a whopping £2.40 and take just 80 minutes from an express charger.
It will be possible to fill up at supermarkets and other enlightened outlets springing up around the country.
The Leaf is such a cushioned ride that the wheels caress manhole covers. When you lean on it for spirited cornering, the car responds with mild slippage from the front wheels.
All in all, it is superbly balanced, with its weighty battery cells fitted into the chassis floor to help plant the vehicle to the road.
The feather-light steering means it is not aimed at European tastes but a global market, so that anyone from an 80-year-old to a newly licensed teenager can guide the glowbox with ease.
The brakes feel normal, in spite of the complex systems working behind the scenes to harness "lost" energy.
Battery range will improve as technology advances and the Leaf's manufacturers adopt a leasing scheme that enables purchasers to upgrade their batteries.
Electric-powered vehicles were pioneered more than 100 years ago, so it's remarkable that the powers shaping human history have managed to conceal their advantages for so long.
The secret is finally out and the dawn of a new driving era is arriving.
The Leaf costs £24,000 and runs on British-sourced electricity. Hopefully.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Overview of Malaysian Automotive Sector
Automotive industry in Malaysia began in 1960s. It is marked as one of the most important industries under manufacturing sector to spur the country's economy. Before the introduction of automotive industry in 1960s, most of the cars in Malaysia were complete build-up unit (CBU) imported from other countries.
Shortly after the formation of Malaysia in 1963, government took the initiative to encourage more players to develop automotive industry. Then in May 1964, government formulated a set of policies to reinforce assembly for automobiles and manufacture the components locally instead of relying on imported parts.
When the assembly plants were officiated in late 1960s, besides boosting country's economy, the policy has also helped to reduce unemployment rate in the country. Since the implementation of first policy in the country, government have drafted more policies to expand the local automotive industry and invited more players to join the industry in an effort to mold the components locally.
According to the new policies, vehicles must contain a certain percentage of locally manufactured components while taxes would be charged and tariff would be imposed on CBU imports. In addition to that, distributors and dealers must apply for import licenses and to renew it every half a year with the government.
Six assembly plants were approved by the government in 1967. Among some of the manufacturers in the country around that time were Swedish Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd, Asia Automobile Industries Sdn Bhd and Tan Chong Motors. These plants were originally joint venture partnerships between local and European automobile manufacturers.
While the government's main objective was to encourage and expand home-grown components manufacturing, the plan failed because even right until 1980s, about 15 assembly plants made vehicles for Japanese and European manufacturers.
Then in 1984 under the leadership of the fourth Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, government made a crucial decision to launch a second phase of development projects for automotive industry. The National Car Project, Perusahaan Automobil Nasional (Proton) was officially launched in 1984.
Proton was a joint venture partnership with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation from Japan. The timely effort had proven successful with the launching of first national car, Proton Saga in 1985. To further expand and develop automotive industry in Malaysia, Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) was set up in 1992.
This time around, Perodua collaborated with several other manufacturers such as Mitsui & Co. Ltd of Japan, Med-Bumikar Mara Sdn Bhd, UMW Corporation Sdn Bhd, Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd of Japan and PNB Equity Resources Corporation Sdn Bhd.
Peordua marked its name globally as the first Malaysian car manufacturer to receive ISO 9002 and ISO 9001 certification from United Kingdom's Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA). During that period, the local automotive industry produced mostly Proton and Perodua cars. Approximately 90 percent of he vehicles produced by both companies were sold each year.
Over the years, Proton has produced wide range of innovative and sophisticated car models such as Wira, Waja, Perdana, Arena, Gen-2 and Exora. Some of the cars are even equipped with a new engine, Campro developed by Proton and its collaborator, Lotus International (United Kingdom).
Challenges to local automotive industry
The two major national car manufacturers were all geared up in 2005 to fit into the new framework proposed for ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). However, it was reported that Proton's sales drop drastically when AFTA was executed. When the new framework for AFTA was announced, Proton collaborated with Lotus engineering and Petronas-Sauber Formula 1 team to have own engine, Campro. The measure is important as it reflects Proton's new identity. Instead of resembling Mitsubishi cars, Proton can establish own identity.
While Proton has successfully came up with new models and new engine, Perodua is still far behind as the cars manufactured are still based on Daihatsu prototype cars. To remain firm in the market, Perodua must work harder in terms of R & D research to establish own identity. This is crucial if Perodua wants to enter the ASEAN market.
Aside from establishing own identity, one of the major challenges to local automotive industry is the ability to control the costs. To begin with, local cars are sometimes more expensive than foreign cars before tax and tariffs are imposed. To remain competitive in the market, former Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz once proposed Proton to reduce local production costs.
Even though the cost of local production is significantly higher than imported cars, the quality is not up to par compared to foreign cars. Therefore, it is difficult for Proton or Perodua to penetrate ASEAN market and compete globally with other giant car manufacturers. The only measure to ensure good quality of car is to have strict quality control.
To enter and compete in ASEAN countries, local manufacturers must plan to have a joint venture partnership with other dealers or distributors. Say for example, if Proton intends to penetrate and sell the cars in Vietnam, then strategic collaboration with local dealers or distributors is needed to ensure the operation runs successfully in foreign countries.
Shortly after the formation of Malaysia in 1963, government took the initiative to encourage more players to develop automotive industry. Then in May 1964, government formulated a set of policies to reinforce assembly for automobiles and manufacture the components locally instead of relying on imported parts.
When the assembly plants were officiated in late 1960s, besides boosting country's economy, the policy has also helped to reduce unemployment rate in the country. Since the implementation of first policy in the country, government have drafted more policies to expand the local automotive industry and invited more players to join the industry in an effort to mold the components locally.
According to the new policies, vehicles must contain a certain percentage of locally manufactured components while taxes would be charged and tariff would be imposed on CBU imports. In addition to that, distributors and dealers must apply for import licenses and to renew it every half a year with the government.
Six assembly plants were approved by the government in 1967. Among some of the manufacturers in the country around that time were Swedish Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd, Asia Automobile Industries Sdn Bhd and Tan Chong Motors. These plants were originally joint venture partnerships between local and European automobile manufacturers.
While the government's main objective was to encourage and expand home-grown components manufacturing, the plan failed because even right until 1980s, about 15 assembly plants made vehicles for Japanese and European manufacturers.
Then in 1984 under the leadership of the fourth Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, government made a crucial decision to launch a second phase of development projects for automotive industry. The National Car Project, Perusahaan Automobil Nasional (Proton) was officially launched in 1984.
Proton was a joint venture partnership with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation from Japan. The timely effort had proven successful with the launching of first national car, Proton Saga in 1985. To further expand and develop automotive industry in Malaysia, Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) was set up in 1992.
This time around, Perodua collaborated with several other manufacturers such as Mitsui & Co. Ltd of Japan, Med-Bumikar Mara Sdn Bhd, UMW Corporation Sdn Bhd, Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd of Japan and PNB Equity Resources Corporation Sdn Bhd.
Peordua marked its name globally as the first Malaysian car manufacturer to receive ISO 9002 and ISO 9001 certification from United Kingdom's Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA). During that period, the local automotive industry produced mostly Proton and Perodua cars. Approximately 90 percent of he vehicles produced by both companies were sold each year.
Over the years, Proton has produced wide range of innovative and sophisticated car models such as Wira, Waja, Perdana, Arena, Gen-2 and Exora. Some of the cars are even equipped with a new engine, Campro developed by Proton and its collaborator, Lotus International (United Kingdom).
Challenges to local automotive industry
The two major national car manufacturers were all geared up in 2005 to fit into the new framework proposed for ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). However, it was reported that Proton's sales drop drastically when AFTA was executed. When the new framework for AFTA was announced, Proton collaborated with Lotus engineering and Petronas-Sauber Formula 1 team to have own engine, Campro. The measure is important as it reflects Proton's new identity. Instead of resembling Mitsubishi cars, Proton can establish own identity.
While Proton has successfully came up with new models and new engine, Perodua is still far behind as the cars manufactured are still based on Daihatsu prototype cars. To remain firm in the market, Perodua must work harder in terms of R & D research to establish own identity. This is crucial if Perodua wants to enter the ASEAN market.
Aside from establishing own identity, one of the major challenges to local automotive industry is the ability to control the costs. To begin with, local cars are sometimes more expensive than foreign cars before tax and tariffs are imposed. To remain competitive in the market, former Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz once proposed Proton to reduce local production costs.
Even though the cost of local production is significantly higher than imported cars, the quality is not up to par compared to foreign cars. Therefore, it is difficult for Proton or Perodua to penetrate ASEAN market and compete globally with other giant car manufacturers. The only measure to ensure good quality of car is to have strict quality control.
To enter and compete in ASEAN countries, local manufacturers must plan to have a joint venture partnership with other dealers or distributors. Say for example, if Proton intends to penetrate and sell the cars in Vietnam, then strategic collaboration with local dealers or distributors is needed to ensure the operation runs successfully in foreign countries.
Automechanika ends on a high
Automechanika, the leading international trade fair for the automobile industry over the last 6 years, closed with record numbers with over 155,000 attendees from 180 different countries with a significant increase from outside of Germany.
"Never, in Messe Frankfurt's entire history have there been visitors from so many different countries here in Frankfurt. We join the sector as a whole in counting this year's Automechanika as a thorough-going success," emphasises Detlef Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt.
"4,486 exhibitors from 76 different countries have shown in no uncertain manner that the automotive sector is on the threshold of a new upturn. The sector's very positive mood throughout is reflected in the 155,000 or so visitors," continues Braun. "In all we have seen a significant increase of 5 percent in the number of visitors from outside Germany. And with it, Automechanika has once again demonstrated its position as the largest and most international tradefair brand in the whole of the automotive industry."
A key theme of this year's Automechanika was electro-mobility. As well as being about alternative propulsion technologies, this also specifically raised questions about the ways in which the aftermarket can prepare itself in the future for electrically driven vehicles. Beyond this, the focus was on technologies to reduce fuel consumption and on sustainable solutions for lowering emissions.
The sector's major associations also report positive developments in their field. From the point of view of Klaus Burger, President of the Federal German Association of Manufacturers and Importers of Vehicle Servicing Equipment (Bundesverband der Hersteller und Importeure von Automobil-Service Ausrüstungen e.V), Automechanika 2010 has exceeded the expectations of suppliers of garage equipment by a long way. "We were already beginning to see the first signs of a more buoyant market during the first half of the year. Automechanika has entirely confirmed this trend. The high demand for innovative workshop equipment and numerous specific orders from both inside and outside Germany show that people in the motor-vehicle sector are once again prepared to spend money. So that we are getting some very positive stimuli from Automechanika for promising developments in the market for garage equipment, which will last well into next year," explains Burger.
PAGE 2
Dr. Klaus Weichtmann, Director of the German Federation for Bodywork and Vehicle Technology (Zentralverband Karosserie- und Fahrzeugtechnik – ZKF) is extremely happy with the way things turned out at the trade fair: "Bodywork repair and paintwork found a new home in Hall 11. The quality of the discussions amongst trade professionals at the stands exceeded all expectations. Quite a few visitors ended up spending almost the whole day in this hall alone.
The new concept is now established. Of course, the ZKF will be there in 2012 - and so will many other exhibitors."
"After the financial and economic crisis with its negative impact on the motor-vehicle sector, Automechanika has given us some positive indications of the recovery," sums up Robert Rademacher, President of the Federation of the German Motor Vehicle Trade (Zentralverband des Deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes e.V). "The mood in the motor vehicle trades has definitely improved. The quality of business deals is on the up, though there is room for improvement in terms of quantity. All in all, we are very happy with the way things have gone at the fair and take away with us some very positive stimuli for the medium term," continues Rademacher.
"Vehicle servicing finds itself at the end of one era and the beginning of a new one" suggests Prof. Dr. Willi Diez, author of the Automechanika study from the Institute of Automotive Studies and Business (Institut für Automobilwirtschaft). "Automechanika has shown that there are more opportunities than risks in this change. That should encourage all players to approach the challenges of the market proactively."
Levels of visitor satisfaction at Automechanika 2010 were in the region of 95 percent. After Germany, the most represented visitor nations from inside Europe were Italy, Great Britain and France. Outside of Europe, it was China, Russia and the USA who ranked highest amongst visitor nations. In particular, the high level of internationality amongst the visitors, which has risen to some 56 percent (2008: 50 percent) was considered to be entirely positive by exhibitors.
Along with the "Automechanika Innovation Award" and the "Green Directory", the highlight this year was the first Automechanika Rally, with over a hundred vintage, classic and special vehicles taking part. The rally was organised in conjunction with the Association of the Independent Parts Market (Verein Freier Ersatzteilemarkt e.V.).
The next Automechanika Frankfurt will take place from 18 to 23 Sept. 2012. All relevant information and illustrative material on this year's Automechanika can be found at: .
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com.
Dr. Klaus Weichtmann, Director of the German Federation for Bodywork and Vehicle Technology (Zentralverband Karosserie- und Fahrzeugtechnik – ZKF) is extremely happy with the way things turned out at the trade fair: "Bodywork repair and paintwork found a new home in Hall 11. The quality of the discussions amongst trade professionals at the stands exceeded all expectations. Quite a few visitors ended up spending almost the whole day in this hall alone.
The new concept is now established. Of course, the ZKF will be there in 2012 - and so will many other exhibitors."
"After the financial and economic crisis with its negative impact on the motor-vehicle sector, Automechanika has given us some positive indications of the recovery," sums up Robert Rademacher, President of the Federation of the German Motor Vehicle Trade (Zentralverband des Deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes e.V). "The mood in the motor vehicle trades has definitely improved. The quality of business deals is on the up, though there is room for improvement in terms of quantity. All in all, we are very happy with the way things have gone at the fair and take away with us some very positive stimuli for the medium term," continues Rademacher.
"Vehicle servicing finds itself at the end of one era and the beginning of a new one" suggests Prof. Dr. Willi Diez, author of the Automechanika study from the Institute of Automotive Studies and Business (Institut für Automobilwirtschaft). "Automechanika has shown that there are more opportunities than risks in this change. That should encourage all players to approach the challenges of the market proactively."
Levels of visitor satisfaction at Automechanika 2010 were in the region of 95 percent. After Germany, the most represented visitor nations from inside Europe were Italy, Great Britain and France. Outside of Europe, it was China, Russia and the USA who ranked highest amongst visitor nations. In particular, the high level of internationality amongst the visitors, which has risen to some 56 percent (2008: 50 percent) was considered to be entirely positive by exhibitors.
Along with the "Automechanika Innovation Award" and the "Green Directory", the highlight this year was the first Automechanika Rally, with over a hundred vintage, classic and special vehicles taking part. The rally was organised in conjunction with the Association of the Independent Parts Market (Verein Freier Ersatzteilemarkt e.V.).
The next Automechanika Frankfurt will take place from 18 to 23 Sept. 2012. All relevant information and illustrative material on this year's Automechanika can be found at: .
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com.
Dr. Klaus Weichtmann, Director of the German Federation for Bodywork and Vehicle Technology (Zentralverband Karosserie- und Fahrzeugtechnik – ZKF) is extremely happy with the way things turned out at the trade fair: "Bodywork repair and paintwork found a new home in Hall 11. The quality of the discussions amongst trade professionals at the stands exceeded all expectations. Quite a few visitors ended up spending almost the whole day in this hall alone.
The new concept is now established. Of course, the ZKF will be there in 2012 - and so will many other exhibitors."
"After the financial and economic crisis with its negative impact on the motor-vehicle sector, Automechanika has given us some positive indications of the recovery," sums up Robert Rademacher, President of the Federation of the German Motor Vehicle Trade (Zentralverband des Deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes e.V). "The mood in the motor vehicle trades has definitely improved. The quality of business deals is on the up, though there is room for improvement in terms of quantity. All in all, we are very happy with the way things have gone at the fair and take away with us some very positive stimuli for the medium term," continues Rademacher.
"Vehicle servicing finds itself at the end of one era and the beginning of a new one" suggests Prof. Dr. Willi Diez, author of the Automechanika study from the Institute of Automotive Studies and Business (Institut für Automobilwirtschaft). "Automechanika has shown that there are more opportunities than risks in this change. That should encourage all players to approach the challenges of the market proactively."
Levels of visitor satisfaction at Automechanika 2010 were in the region of 95 percent. After Germany, the most represented visitor nations from inside Europe were Italy, Great Britain and France. Outside of Europe, it was China, Russia and the USA who ranked highest amongst visitor nations. In particular, the high level of internationality amongst the visitors, which has risen to some 56 percent (2008: 50 percent) was considered to be entirely positive by exhibitors.
Along with the "Automechanika Innovation Award" and the "Green Directory", the highlight this year was the first Automechanika Rally, with over a hundred vintage, classic and special vehicles taking part. The rally was organised in conjunction with the Association of the Independent Parts Market (Verein Freier Ersatzteilemarkt e.V.).
The next Automechanika Frankfurt will take place from 18 to 23 Sept. 2012. All relevant information and illustrative material on this year's Automechanika can be found at: .
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com.
"Never, in Messe Frankfurt's entire history have there been visitors from so many different countries here in Frankfurt. We join the sector as a whole in counting this year's Automechanika as a thorough-going success," emphasises Detlef Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt.
"4,486 exhibitors from 76 different countries have shown in no uncertain manner that the automotive sector is on the threshold of a new upturn. The sector's very positive mood throughout is reflected in the 155,000 or so visitors," continues Braun. "In all we have seen a significant increase of 5 percent in the number of visitors from outside Germany. And with it, Automechanika has once again demonstrated its position as the largest and most international tradefair brand in the whole of the automotive industry."
A key theme of this year's Automechanika was electro-mobility. As well as being about alternative propulsion technologies, this also specifically raised questions about the ways in which the aftermarket can prepare itself in the future for electrically driven vehicles. Beyond this, the focus was on technologies to reduce fuel consumption and on sustainable solutions for lowering emissions.
The sector's major associations also report positive developments in their field. From the point of view of Klaus Burger, President of the Federal German Association of Manufacturers and Importers of Vehicle Servicing Equipment (Bundesverband der Hersteller und Importeure von Automobil-Service Ausrüstungen e.V), Automechanika 2010 has exceeded the expectations of suppliers of garage equipment by a long way. "We were already beginning to see the first signs of a more buoyant market during the first half of the year. Automechanika has entirely confirmed this trend. The high demand for innovative workshop equipment and numerous specific orders from both inside and outside Germany show that people in the motor-vehicle sector are once again prepared to spend money. So that we are getting some very positive stimuli from Automechanika for promising developments in the market for garage equipment, which will last well into next year," explains Burger.
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Dr. Klaus Weichtmann, Director of the German Federation for Bodywork and Vehicle Technology (Zentralverband Karosserie- und Fahrzeugtechnik – ZKF) is extremely happy with the way things turned out at the trade fair: "Bodywork repair and paintwork found a new home in Hall 11. The quality of the discussions amongst trade professionals at the stands exceeded all expectations. Quite a few visitors ended up spending almost the whole day in this hall alone.
The new concept is now established. Of course, the ZKF will be there in 2012 - and so will many other exhibitors."
"After the financial and economic crisis with its negative impact on the motor-vehicle sector, Automechanika has given us some positive indications of the recovery," sums up Robert Rademacher, President of the Federation of the German Motor Vehicle Trade (Zentralverband des Deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes e.V). "The mood in the motor vehicle trades has definitely improved. The quality of business deals is on the up, though there is room for improvement in terms of quantity. All in all, we are very happy with the way things have gone at the fair and take away with us some very positive stimuli for the medium term," continues Rademacher.
"Vehicle servicing finds itself at the end of one era and the beginning of a new one" suggests Prof. Dr. Willi Diez, author of the Automechanika study from the Institute of Automotive Studies and Business (Institut für Automobilwirtschaft). "Automechanika has shown that there are more opportunities than risks in this change. That should encourage all players to approach the challenges of the market proactively."
Levels of visitor satisfaction at Automechanika 2010 were in the region of 95 percent. After Germany, the most represented visitor nations from inside Europe were Italy, Great Britain and France. Outside of Europe, it was China, Russia and the USA who ranked highest amongst visitor nations. In particular, the high level of internationality amongst the visitors, which has risen to some 56 percent (2008: 50 percent) was considered to be entirely positive by exhibitors.
Along with the "Automechanika Innovation Award" and the "Green Directory", the highlight this year was the first Automechanika Rally, with over a hundred vintage, classic and special vehicles taking part. The rally was organised in conjunction with the Association of the Independent Parts Market (Verein Freier Ersatzteilemarkt e.V.).
The next Automechanika Frankfurt will take place from 18 to 23 Sept. 2012. All relevant information and illustrative material on this year's Automechanika can be found at: .
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com.
Dr. Klaus Weichtmann, Director of the German Federation for Bodywork and Vehicle Technology (Zentralverband Karosserie- und Fahrzeugtechnik – ZKF) is extremely happy with the way things turned out at the trade fair: "Bodywork repair and paintwork found a new home in Hall 11. The quality of the discussions amongst trade professionals at the stands exceeded all expectations. Quite a few visitors ended up spending almost the whole day in this hall alone.
The new concept is now established. Of course, the ZKF will be there in 2012 - and so will many other exhibitors."
"After the financial and economic crisis with its negative impact on the motor-vehicle sector, Automechanika has given us some positive indications of the recovery," sums up Robert Rademacher, President of the Federation of the German Motor Vehicle Trade (Zentralverband des Deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes e.V). "The mood in the motor vehicle trades has definitely improved. The quality of business deals is on the up, though there is room for improvement in terms of quantity. All in all, we are very happy with the way things have gone at the fair and take away with us some very positive stimuli for the medium term," continues Rademacher.
"Vehicle servicing finds itself at the end of one era and the beginning of a new one" suggests Prof. Dr. Willi Diez, author of the Automechanika study from the Institute of Automotive Studies and Business (Institut für Automobilwirtschaft). "Automechanika has shown that there are more opportunities than risks in this change. That should encourage all players to approach the challenges of the market proactively."
Levels of visitor satisfaction at Automechanika 2010 were in the region of 95 percent. After Germany, the most represented visitor nations from inside Europe were Italy, Great Britain and France. Outside of Europe, it was China, Russia and the USA who ranked highest amongst visitor nations. In particular, the high level of internationality amongst the visitors, which has risen to some 56 percent (2008: 50 percent) was considered to be entirely positive by exhibitors.
Along with the "Automechanika Innovation Award" and the "Green Directory", the highlight this year was the first Automechanika Rally, with over a hundred vintage, classic and special vehicles taking part. The rally was organised in conjunction with the Association of the Independent Parts Market (Verein Freier Ersatzteilemarkt e.V.).
The next Automechanika Frankfurt will take place from 18 to 23 Sept. 2012. All relevant information and illustrative material on this year's Automechanika can be found at: .
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com.
Dr. Klaus Weichtmann, Director of the German Federation for Bodywork and Vehicle Technology (Zentralverband Karosserie- und Fahrzeugtechnik – ZKF) is extremely happy with the way things turned out at the trade fair: "Bodywork repair and paintwork found a new home in Hall 11. The quality of the discussions amongst trade professionals at the stands exceeded all expectations. Quite a few visitors ended up spending almost the whole day in this hall alone.
The new concept is now established. Of course, the ZKF will be there in 2012 - and so will many other exhibitors."
"After the financial and economic crisis with its negative impact on the motor-vehicle sector, Automechanika has given us some positive indications of the recovery," sums up Robert Rademacher, President of the Federation of the German Motor Vehicle Trade (Zentralverband des Deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes e.V). "The mood in the motor vehicle trades has definitely improved. The quality of business deals is on the up, though there is room for improvement in terms of quantity. All in all, we are very happy with the way things have gone at the fair and take away with us some very positive stimuli for the medium term," continues Rademacher.
"Vehicle servicing finds itself at the end of one era and the beginning of a new one" suggests Prof. Dr. Willi Diez, author of the Automechanika study from the Institute of Automotive Studies and Business (Institut für Automobilwirtschaft). "Automechanika has shown that there are more opportunities than risks in this change. That should encourage all players to approach the challenges of the market proactively."
Levels of visitor satisfaction at Automechanika 2010 were in the region of 95 percent. After Germany, the most represented visitor nations from inside Europe were Italy, Great Britain and France. Outside of Europe, it was China, Russia and the USA who ranked highest amongst visitor nations. In particular, the high level of internationality amongst the visitors, which has risen to some 56 percent (2008: 50 percent) was considered to be entirely positive by exhibitors.
Along with the "Automechanika Innovation Award" and the "Green Directory", the highlight this year was the first Automechanika Rally, with over a hundred vintage, classic and special vehicles taking part. The rally was organised in conjunction with the Association of the Independent Parts Market (Verein Freier Ersatzteilemarkt e.V.).
The next Automechanika Frankfurt will take place from 18 to 23 Sept. 2012. All relevant information and illustrative material on this year's Automechanika can be found at: .
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com.
A Better Choosing Experience..
When consumers are overwhelmed with options, marketers should give them what they really want: ways of shopping that lower the cognitive demands of choosing.
When Baskin-Robbins, now the largest ice cream chain in the world, opened in 1953, its line of 31 flavors — one for every day of the month — was a novelty. At the time, such variety was unheard of, and Baskin-Robbins used it to stand out from other chains. Cofounder Irvine Robbins said, “We sell fun, not just ice cream,” and part of the fun for customers was the experience of seeing and tasting so many new flavors. The company continues to emphasize variety; it has developed more than 1,000 flavors of ice cream to date, 100 of which are rotated through its stores in a typical year.
Today it seems obvious to offer consumers more choice — but the experience is no longer a novelty, or nearly as much fun. Whereas in 1949 the average grocery store stocked 3,700 products, the average supermarket today has 45,000 products, and the typical Walmart has 100,000 products. Online are even more options, including 27 million books on Amazon.com and 15 million date possibilities on Match.com. Heinz was long famous for its “57 Varieties,” and Burger King for letting you “Have It Your Way,” but newer businesses have upped the ante. Starbucks, already known for its 87,000 drink combinations, recently launched the However-You-Want-It Frappuccino, with “thousands of ways to customize your blended beverage.” Cold Stone Creamery claims that its menu of mix-ins provides more than 11.5 million ways to “customize your ice cream treat.” Long gone are the days when an array of 31 flavors knocked our socks off.
Consumers have grown accustomed to having a lot of choice, and many people still express a strong desire for having more options. But that doesn’t make it a good idea. There are neurological limits on humans’ ability to process information, and the task of having to choose is often experienced as suffering, not pleasure.
That is why, rather than helping consumers better satisfy their preferences, the explosion of choice has made it more difficult overall for people to identify what they want and how to get it. Thus, if the market for your product is saturated with choice, you can’t gain a competitive edge by dumping more choices into the mix. Instead, you can outthink and outperform your competitors by turning the process of choosing into an experience that is more positive and less mind-numbing for your customers. You can design a more helpful form of choice.
The goal of a new approach to choice should not be to manipulate consumers into making choices that aren’t right for them, but rather to collaborate in a way that benefits both of you. Although people tend to be skeptical of any attempts a business makes to “guide” them, when it comes to choosing, you truly can help consumers help themselves. To accomplish this, here are four actions you can take:
1. Cut the number of options.
2. Create confidence with expert or personalized recommendations.
3. Categorize your offerings so that consumers better understand their options.
4. Condition consumers by gradually introducing them to more-complex choices.
Offered together, these actions can distinguish your company. Rather than trapping people in a morass of alternatives, you’ll be one of those rare companies whose offerings rise to the top by raising customer spirits.
The Multiple-choice Problem
The peculiarities of consumer choice have been evident for some time. For example, in the mid-1990s, one of us (Sheena Iyengar) conducted a study of shopper selection at the Menlo Park, Calif., location of Draeger’s, a specialty grocery store renowned for its huge selection of produce, packaged foods, and wine. Iyengar realized that although she greatly enjoyed visiting the store, she often walked out empty-handed, unable to settle on just one bottle of mustard or olive oil when she had hundreds of options. Might other shoppers be experiencing the same problem, she wondered?
To find out, Iyengar and her collaborator, Mark Lepper, set up a jam-tasting booth near the entrance of the store. Every few hours, the booth switched between offering an assortment of 24 jams and an assortment of six. The researchers wanted to know which assortment would attract more people and which one would lead to higher sales. They observed the shoppers as they moved from the booth to the jam aisle, which boasted 348 varieties.
As might be expected, 60 percent of the incoming shoppers stopped when 24 jams were displayed, but only 40 percent stopped when six jams were displayed. Clearly, people found the larger assortment more attractive. However, when these same shoppers went to the jam aisle to pick up a jar, the shoppers who had seen only six jams had a much easier time deciding what to purchase.
By observing the shoppers and eavesdropping on their conversations, the researchers discovered that the small assortment helped people narrow down their choices, whereas the large assortment left them confused and unsure of their own preferences. Of those who stopped by the large assortment, only 3 percent ended up buying a jar of jam — far fewer than the 30 percent who bought jam after stopping by the small assortment. Taking into account the fact that the larger display was more popular, Iyengar and Lepper calculated that people were more than six times as likely to buy jam if they saw the small display.
These observations may seem to contradict what you already know about consumers. People like the idea of choice. It’s exciting to hear a list of exotic flavors and to see a wide wall of colorful jars, any of which can be yours. Having a larger number of choices makes people feel that they can exercise more control over what they buy. And consumers like the promise of choice: The greater the number of options, the greater the likelihood of finding something that’s perfect for them. In short, they believe that having more choice gives them more power and satisfaction.
But they overestimate their own capacity for managing these choices. Psychological studies have consistently shown that it’s very difficult to compare and contrast the attributes of more than about seven different things. When faced with the cognitive demands of choosing, people often become overwhelmed and frustrated. As a result, they may forgo the choice altogether, reach for the most familiar option, or make a decision that ultimately leaves them far less satisfied than they had expected to be.
We see this frustrated response to “choice overload” even when the decision has serious consequences. For example, in 2001, at the request of Steve Utkus, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at the Vanguard Group, Iyengar and her collaborators, Wei Jiang and Gur Huberman, tried to determine why so few of the 900,000 employees covered by Vanguard were participating in their defined-contribution retirement savings plans — also known as 401(k) plans. Analysis of the data revealed that participation fell significantly as the average number of funds in a plan rose. By controlling for individual-level variables such as age and income, as well as plan-level variables such as the size of the company and the extent of employer matching contributions, Iyengar and her collaborators showed that the decline in average participation rates was due to an increase in choice. When plans offered only two funds, 75 percent of the relevant employees participated; when plans offered 59 funds, the percentage of participants fell to 61 percent.
These findings are particularly significant when you consider the benefits of defined-contribution plans: compound interest, tax-exempt contributions, and employer matching in many cases. Even randomly picking funds is still a better financial move than not participating at all. At the time of the study, a 25-year-old median salary earner who chose to postpone participating in his or her 401(k) plan for just one year would have ended up with US$18,540 less in his or her retirement savings account at age 60 than an identical peer who chose to participate immediately and save 5 percent of his or her income (assuming a 9 percent total annual return on a mix of stocks and bonds). And yet many of the employees, overcome by too much choice, kept putting off the decision or just skipped it.
Moreover, Iyengar and Emir Kamenica discovered that the employees who participated made worse investment decisions, on average, when they chose from plans with more options. For every 10 additional funds offered in a plan, employees allocated 3.28 percent less of their contributions to equity funds (as opposed to bond or money market funds), and they were also more likely to avoid allocating any of their contributions to equities at all. Unfortunately for them, equities are virtually guaranteed to outperform bonds and money markets in long-term investments. Even employees in their 20s, who should have been allocating 80 to 90 percent of their contributions to equities (based on the accepted wisdom of financial advisors), became more likely to entirely avoid equities as the number of options rose, undermining their long-term financial well-being.
The deleterious effects of too much choice have been observed in other situations as varied as buying chocolate, applying for jobs, and making healthcare decisions. This presents a considerable opportunity for marketers, but it requires looking in a different way at one of the essential contradictions of consumer choice: People keep expressing a desire for more choices, and businesses keep expanding product and service options in order to fulfill this desire — but it often does more harm than good.
Don’t marketers have to give consumers what they want? Yes and no. We should give them what they really want, not what they say they want. When consumers say they want more choice, more often than not, they actually want a better choosing experience. They want to feel confident of their preferences and competent during the choosing process; they want to trust and enjoy their choices, not question them. As Irvine Robbins of Baskin-Robbins might have said, “They want fun.” And it’s your challenge to give it to them. The following four means will help you meet that challenge.
1. Cut their alternatives. You’ve heard it said that “less is more,” but rarely in the context of consumer choice. Most companies avoid reducing the number of products they offer because they’re afraid of losing shelf space to their competitors. But careful trimming can lower costs, increase sales, and improve the choosing experience for consumers. In the mid-1990s, when Procter & Gamble Company winnowed its 26 varieties of Head & Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo down to 15, eliminating the least popular, sales jumped by 10 percent. In a similar case, the Golden Cat Corporation got rid of its 10 worst-selling offerings in the small-bag cat litter category. This led to a 12 percent increase in sales and slashed distribution costs by half; the end result was an 87 percent profit hike. Another example comes from a 2001 study that tracked an online grocer that had made substantial cuts in the number of products it offered, across 94 percent of all the product categories. Not only did sales rise an average of 11 percent across 42 categories, but 75 percent of its customer households increased their overall expenditures.
If you’re working hard to explain to your customers — and perhaps even to your employees — the differences among the variations you offer, then it’s time to think about making a few cuts. In case the poor performers aren’t evident from sales figures, focus groups and online networks can help you separate the wheat from the chaff. Potential consumers should be able to zero in on a product’s defining characteristics and explain why it is (or is not) appealing to them. If people respond vaguely or inattentively, that’s a signal that the choices you offer are not distinct enough and should be consolidated.
2. Create confidence through recommendations. Reducing options works well when the variations between products are relatively small. But for highly differentiated goods — books, prerecorded music and video, clothes, and many housewares — you can’t get away with offering a small selection. (Even if you could, you probably wouldn’t want to, because niche purchases can cumulatively contribute heavily to sales.) Instead, you have to offer a wide variety while helping consumers navigate the complexity so they still have a positive choosing experience. How do you give consumers enough confidence to overcome the complexity of a large choice set? By turning to the people who already have that confidence: experts.
Through study and practice, experts in any field learn to simplify, categorize, and prioritize information, and to recognize patterns. This allows them to create order out of seeming chaos. For example, a chess player thinking eight moves ahead is presented with as many possible games as there are stars in the galaxy. He or she can’t possibly consider every option. The critical difference between novice and master is not the ability to consider more moves, but the ability to quickly eliminate the vast majority of moves and concentrate only on the most promising ones. The novice suffers under the pressure of choice, but the master knows how to relieve that pressure.
In high-choice conditions, the ideal consumer is the most expert consumer. That doesn’t mean someone with in-depth expertise in any one type of product. Most people don’t need to become specialists in jam or mutual funds to make decisions expertly. In fact, even if they did become experts, their knowledge would be limited to a specific domain and would not allow them to make better overall choices. However, novice consumers can become expert general consumers by learning to rank and structure their choice sets the way that experts do.
Marketers can thus help novices make more-educated guesses and create confidence in their choices by giving them easy access to expert reviews and recommendations. In other words, you can attract consumers by allowing them to skip over much of the information-processing component of choosing, thereby minimizing their cognitive stress and enabling them to make good choices. Even non-expert advice can prove useful when there is consensus among a large number of reviewers or when the consumer trusts the source. This is one reason for the popularity of shopping websites with user reviews (such as Amazon.com), and also for the growing popularity of retailers (such as Whole Foods or New York’s Fairway grocery chain) that post recommendations for some of the products they carry.
Another way to give consumers access to recommendations, especially when tastes vary or when a product has not been rated by experts or other users, is to set up automated systems that generate suggestions based on consumers’ expressed preferences. These systems, also known as “electronic agents,” are software programs that guide people by analyzing their prior purchases or their answers to survey questions. If consumers are willing to invest a little time teaching a well-designed system about their preferences, then the system can serve as a personalized expert for them. People don’t usually trust programs as much as they trust other people, but trust in well-performing electronic agents tends to develop over time.
For example, the Internet radio service Pandora has acquired 50 million users who tune in for an average of 12 hours a month, even though (or perhaps because) they cannot directly choose what they’ll hear. Pandora’s “mission” is to “play only music you’ll love,” and it accomplishes this by combining human expertise with an automated system. First, trained analysts determine the musical attributes of every song in the database. (Pandora calls this the Music Genome Project.) Then, when users tell the system what music they like, it searches for other music with similar attributes. As they listen to their personalized music streams, users can let the system know how well it matched their preferences. Eventually, the system comes to “know” the users well enough that they no longer have to provide feedback. They can just sit back and enjoy.
3. Categorize their options. You can also help novices by teaching them to emulate expert judgment. For an expert, there is no completely unique product or service; rather, each offering is a distinctive combination of attributes that the expert has seen before. Thus, where the novice sees 100 different items, the expert sees maybe seven or eight relevant qualities interacting in novel ways, with one or two important features that immediately stand out. The trick is to get the novice to see things as the expert sees them.
The easiest way to do this is to categorize. For example, Best Cellars, Wine Enthusiast’s Retailer of the Year in 2009, makes the choosing process a breeze for its customers by consulting with oenophiles in advance. It draws on their advice to limit its variety to 100 high-quality, reasonably priced wines. Since 100 wines could still be an overwhelming number for novices, Best Cellars divides the wines into eight simple categories, such as “fizzy,” “juicy,” and “sweet.” The novice has to deal with only eight units of information now, which can be managed fairly easily. Once the novice has chosen a category, he or she can choose a wine within that category by reading the detailed labels that accompany all the bottles.
To be sure, wine experts may not use the same categories that Best Cellars uses, but they apply the same principle when they make their choices. By pre-sorting the wines into categories, the retailer helps novices look at the world through expert lenses. Best Cellars cofounder Joshua Wesson says, “We all want simplicity when it comes to these types of decisions…. We try to make wine shopping as much fun as wine drinking.” Note that this is the flip side of what Baskin-Robbins did in its heyday. Both retailers have thrived by creating a better choosing experience. Back then, this meant giving customers more choice; now, it means giving them less.
To simplify the choice process, limit your categories to no more than 20, with 10 or fewer options in each. When you hold to these limits, consumers are likely to feel empowered by the number of choices, and are unlikely to miss any offerings that weren’t included. Iyengar and her collaborators, Cassie Mogilner and Tamar Rudnick, discovered this when studying the magazine aisles in several Wegmans supermarkets. The number of magazines available at various branches ranged from 331 to 664, but this number had no effect on buyer satisfaction. What mattered was the number of categories, such as “Health & Fitness” and “Home & Garden,” that each display provided. Arranging the magazines under a wider range of subheadings created the perception that the store offered more choice, even when the number of magazine titles was comparatively small. Customers in these stores also reported greater enjoyment of their overall shopping experience.
For novices, who may not be able to create categories on their own, the categories established by a marketer or retailer provide a framework for making sense of a large assortment, thus keeping consumers from being discouraged by the daunting task of choosing. Because these categories often make the same distinctions between products that experts make, they also provide a general overview of the field, which catalyzes consumers’ understanding of it and the development of their preferences within it.
4. Condition them for complexity. For certain kinds of decisions, you can set up consumers for success by encouraging them to learn from, and build upon, their own previous choices. This is especially valuable if your product is customizable.
For example, Iyengar and her collaborators, Jonathan Levav, Mark Heitmann, and Andreas Herrmann, conducted a study with a major German car manufacturer that allows customers to design their new cars from a long list of options, choosing everything from the engine to the rearview mirror. They presented the first eight design choices in different sequences to different groups of car buyers. One group had to first choose interior and exterior color, with 56 and 26 options, respectively. From there, they chose features in descending order by number of options, ending with interior decor style and gearshift style (which were each limited to four options). A second group of buyers encountered the same choices in reverse order, starting with the design elements that offered the fewest options and ending with the ones that offered the most. Although both groups eventually saw 144 total options across eight categories, the buyers who moved from high choice to low choice had a much harder time. They began by carefully considering every option, but they soon grew tired and settled for the default. In the end, they wound up less satisfied with their cars than the buyers who had progressed from low choice to high choice.
This research shows that people can handle a large number of options, if they start off in the shallows and then slowly move toward the deep, all the while building skill and nerve. Beginning with fewer options not only warms up consumers, it helps them better figure out their own preferences, which in turn enhances their choosing experience. Over time, practicing this choosing technique will condition consumers to cope with increasing complexity.
An Open Invitation
Each of these forms of customer engagement can be technologically enabled, for example, through online networks or social media. But the heart of this method lies in better design of the shopping experience, fueled by better awareness of human capabilities. When you take this approach, the goal of your marketing is no longer to give people what they say they want. Instead, your goal is to invite consumers to enter into a collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship with you.
From the outset, your design shows them that you understand how they think and respect their desire for both control and simplicity. The message is clear: In the short run, you are helping them navigate a bewildering and even debilitating world of options. In the long run, you are inviting them to choose you.
When Baskin-Robbins, now the largest ice cream chain in the world, opened in 1953, its line of 31 flavors — one for every day of the month — was a novelty. At the time, such variety was unheard of, and Baskin-Robbins used it to stand out from other chains. Cofounder Irvine Robbins said, “We sell fun, not just ice cream,” and part of the fun for customers was the experience of seeing and tasting so many new flavors. The company continues to emphasize variety; it has developed more than 1,000 flavors of ice cream to date, 100 of which are rotated through its stores in a typical year.
Today it seems obvious to offer consumers more choice — but the experience is no longer a novelty, or nearly as much fun. Whereas in 1949 the average grocery store stocked 3,700 products, the average supermarket today has 45,000 products, and the typical Walmart has 100,000 products. Online are even more options, including 27 million books on Amazon.com and 15 million date possibilities on Match.com. Heinz was long famous for its “57 Varieties,” and Burger King for letting you “Have It Your Way,” but newer businesses have upped the ante. Starbucks, already known for its 87,000 drink combinations, recently launched the However-You-Want-It Frappuccino, with “thousands of ways to customize your blended beverage.” Cold Stone Creamery claims that its menu of mix-ins provides more than 11.5 million ways to “customize your ice cream treat.” Long gone are the days when an array of 31 flavors knocked our socks off.
Consumers have grown accustomed to having a lot of choice, and many people still express a strong desire for having more options. But that doesn’t make it a good idea. There are neurological limits on humans’ ability to process information, and the task of having to choose is often experienced as suffering, not pleasure.
That is why, rather than helping consumers better satisfy their preferences, the explosion of choice has made it more difficult overall for people to identify what they want and how to get it. Thus, if the market for your product is saturated with choice, you can’t gain a competitive edge by dumping more choices into the mix. Instead, you can outthink and outperform your competitors by turning the process of choosing into an experience that is more positive and less mind-numbing for your customers. You can design a more helpful form of choice.
The goal of a new approach to choice should not be to manipulate consumers into making choices that aren’t right for them, but rather to collaborate in a way that benefits both of you. Although people tend to be skeptical of any attempts a business makes to “guide” them, when it comes to choosing, you truly can help consumers help themselves. To accomplish this, here are four actions you can take:
1. Cut the number of options.
2. Create confidence with expert or personalized recommendations.
3. Categorize your offerings so that consumers better understand their options.
4. Condition consumers by gradually introducing them to more-complex choices.
Offered together, these actions can distinguish your company. Rather than trapping people in a morass of alternatives, you’ll be one of those rare companies whose offerings rise to the top by raising customer spirits.
The Multiple-choice Problem
The peculiarities of consumer choice have been evident for some time. For example, in the mid-1990s, one of us (Sheena Iyengar) conducted a study of shopper selection at the Menlo Park, Calif., location of Draeger’s, a specialty grocery store renowned for its huge selection of produce, packaged foods, and wine. Iyengar realized that although she greatly enjoyed visiting the store, she often walked out empty-handed, unable to settle on just one bottle of mustard or olive oil when she had hundreds of options. Might other shoppers be experiencing the same problem, she wondered?
To find out, Iyengar and her collaborator, Mark Lepper, set up a jam-tasting booth near the entrance of the store. Every few hours, the booth switched between offering an assortment of 24 jams and an assortment of six. The researchers wanted to know which assortment would attract more people and which one would lead to higher sales. They observed the shoppers as they moved from the booth to the jam aisle, which boasted 348 varieties.
As might be expected, 60 percent of the incoming shoppers stopped when 24 jams were displayed, but only 40 percent stopped when six jams were displayed. Clearly, people found the larger assortment more attractive. However, when these same shoppers went to the jam aisle to pick up a jar, the shoppers who had seen only six jams had a much easier time deciding what to purchase.
By observing the shoppers and eavesdropping on their conversations, the researchers discovered that the small assortment helped people narrow down their choices, whereas the large assortment left them confused and unsure of their own preferences. Of those who stopped by the large assortment, only 3 percent ended up buying a jar of jam — far fewer than the 30 percent who bought jam after stopping by the small assortment. Taking into account the fact that the larger display was more popular, Iyengar and Lepper calculated that people were more than six times as likely to buy jam if they saw the small display.
These observations may seem to contradict what you already know about consumers. People like the idea of choice. It’s exciting to hear a list of exotic flavors and to see a wide wall of colorful jars, any of which can be yours. Having a larger number of choices makes people feel that they can exercise more control over what they buy. And consumers like the promise of choice: The greater the number of options, the greater the likelihood of finding something that’s perfect for them. In short, they believe that having more choice gives them more power and satisfaction.
But they overestimate their own capacity for managing these choices. Psychological studies have consistently shown that it’s very difficult to compare and contrast the attributes of more than about seven different things. When faced with the cognitive demands of choosing, people often become overwhelmed and frustrated. As a result, they may forgo the choice altogether, reach for the most familiar option, or make a decision that ultimately leaves them far less satisfied than they had expected to be.
We see this frustrated response to “choice overload” even when the decision has serious consequences. For example, in 2001, at the request of Steve Utkus, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at the Vanguard Group, Iyengar and her collaborators, Wei Jiang and Gur Huberman, tried to determine why so few of the 900,000 employees covered by Vanguard were participating in their defined-contribution retirement savings plans — also known as 401(k) plans. Analysis of the data revealed that participation fell significantly as the average number of funds in a plan rose. By controlling for individual-level variables such as age and income, as well as plan-level variables such as the size of the company and the extent of employer matching contributions, Iyengar and her collaborators showed that the decline in average participation rates was due to an increase in choice. When plans offered only two funds, 75 percent of the relevant employees participated; when plans offered 59 funds, the percentage of participants fell to 61 percent.
These findings are particularly significant when you consider the benefits of defined-contribution plans: compound interest, tax-exempt contributions, and employer matching in many cases. Even randomly picking funds is still a better financial move than not participating at all. At the time of the study, a 25-year-old median salary earner who chose to postpone participating in his or her 401(k) plan for just one year would have ended up with US$18,540 less in his or her retirement savings account at age 60 than an identical peer who chose to participate immediately and save 5 percent of his or her income (assuming a 9 percent total annual return on a mix of stocks and bonds). And yet many of the employees, overcome by too much choice, kept putting off the decision or just skipped it.
Moreover, Iyengar and Emir Kamenica discovered that the employees who participated made worse investment decisions, on average, when they chose from plans with more options. For every 10 additional funds offered in a plan, employees allocated 3.28 percent less of their contributions to equity funds (as opposed to bond or money market funds), and they were also more likely to avoid allocating any of their contributions to equities at all. Unfortunately for them, equities are virtually guaranteed to outperform bonds and money markets in long-term investments. Even employees in their 20s, who should have been allocating 80 to 90 percent of their contributions to equities (based on the accepted wisdom of financial advisors), became more likely to entirely avoid equities as the number of options rose, undermining their long-term financial well-being.
The deleterious effects of too much choice have been observed in other situations as varied as buying chocolate, applying for jobs, and making healthcare decisions. This presents a considerable opportunity for marketers, but it requires looking in a different way at one of the essential contradictions of consumer choice: People keep expressing a desire for more choices, and businesses keep expanding product and service options in order to fulfill this desire — but it often does more harm than good.
Don’t marketers have to give consumers what they want? Yes and no. We should give them what they really want, not what they say they want. When consumers say they want more choice, more often than not, they actually want a better choosing experience. They want to feel confident of their preferences and competent during the choosing process; they want to trust and enjoy their choices, not question them. As Irvine Robbins of Baskin-Robbins might have said, “They want fun.” And it’s your challenge to give it to them. The following four means will help you meet that challenge.
1. Cut their alternatives. You’ve heard it said that “less is more,” but rarely in the context of consumer choice. Most companies avoid reducing the number of products they offer because they’re afraid of losing shelf space to their competitors. But careful trimming can lower costs, increase sales, and improve the choosing experience for consumers. In the mid-1990s, when Procter & Gamble Company winnowed its 26 varieties of Head & Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo down to 15, eliminating the least popular, sales jumped by 10 percent. In a similar case, the Golden Cat Corporation got rid of its 10 worst-selling offerings in the small-bag cat litter category. This led to a 12 percent increase in sales and slashed distribution costs by half; the end result was an 87 percent profit hike. Another example comes from a 2001 study that tracked an online grocer that had made substantial cuts in the number of products it offered, across 94 percent of all the product categories. Not only did sales rise an average of 11 percent across 42 categories, but 75 percent of its customer households increased their overall expenditures.
If you’re working hard to explain to your customers — and perhaps even to your employees — the differences among the variations you offer, then it’s time to think about making a few cuts. In case the poor performers aren’t evident from sales figures, focus groups and online networks can help you separate the wheat from the chaff. Potential consumers should be able to zero in on a product’s defining characteristics and explain why it is (or is not) appealing to them. If people respond vaguely or inattentively, that’s a signal that the choices you offer are not distinct enough and should be consolidated.
2. Create confidence through recommendations. Reducing options works well when the variations between products are relatively small. But for highly differentiated goods — books, prerecorded music and video, clothes, and many housewares — you can’t get away with offering a small selection. (Even if you could, you probably wouldn’t want to, because niche purchases can cumulatively contribute heavily to sales.) Instead, you have to offer a wide variety while helping consumers navigate the complexity so they still have a positive choosing experience. How do you give consumers enough confidence to overcome the complexity of a large choice set? By turning to the people who already have that confidence: experts.
Through study and practice, experts in any field learn to simplify, categorize, and prioritize information, and to recognize patterns. This allows them to create order out of seeming chaos. For example, a chess player thinking eight moves ahead is presented with as many possible games as there are stars in the galaxy. He or she can’t possibly consider every option. The critical difference between novice and master is not the ability to consider more moves, but the ability to quickly eliminate the vast majority of moves and concentrate only on the most promising ones. The novice suffers under the pressure of choice, but the master knows how to relieve that pressure.
In high-choice conditions, the ideal consumer is the most expert consumer. That doesn’t mean someone with in-depth expertise in any one type of product. Most people don’t need to become specialists in jam or mutual funds to make decisions expertly. In fact, even if they did become experts, their knowledge would be limited to a specific domain and would not allow them to make better overall choices. However, novice consumers can become expert general consumers by learning to rank and structure their choice sets the way that experts do.
Marketers can thus help novices make more-educated guesses and create confidence in their choices by giving them easy access to expert reviews and recommendations. In other words, you can attract consumers by allowing them to skip over much of the information-processing component of choosing, thereby minimizing their cognitive stress and enabling them to make good choices. Even non-expert advice can prove useful when there is consensus among a large number of reviewers or when the consumer trusts the source. This is one reason for the popularity of shopping websites with user reviews (such as Amazon.com), and also for the growing popularity of retailers (such as Whole Foods or New York’s Fairway grocery chain) that post recommendations for some of the products they carry.
Another way to give consumers access to recommendations, especially when tastes vary or when a product has not been rated by experts or other users, is to set up automated systems that generate suggestions based on consumers’ expressed preferences. These systems, also known as “electronic agents,” are software programs that guide people by analyzing their prior purchases or their answers to survey questions. If consumers are willing to invest a little time teaching a well-designed system about their preferences, then the system can serve as a personalized expert for them. People don’t usually trust programs as much as they trust other people, but trust in well-performing electronic agents tends to develop over time.
For example, the Internet radio service Pandora has acquired 50 million users who tune in for an average of 12 hours a month, even though (or perhaps because) they cannot directly choose what they’ll hear. Pandora’s “mission” is to “play only music you’ll love,” and it accomplishes this by combining human expertise with an automated system. First, trained analysts determine the musical attributes of every song in the database. (Pandora calls this the Music Genome Project.) Then, when users tell the system what music they like, it searches for other music with similar attributes. As they listen to their personalized music streams, users can let the system know how well it matched their preferences. Eventually, the system comes to “know” the users well enough that they no longer have to provide feedback. They can just sit back and enjoy.
3. Categorize their options. You can also help novices by teaching them to emulate expert judgment. For an expert, there is no completely unique product or service; rather, each offering is a distinctive combination of attributes that the expert has seen before. Thus, where the novice sees 100 different items, the expert sees maybe seven or eight relevant qualities interacting in novel ways, with one or two important features that immediately stand out. The trick is to get the novice to see things as the expert sees them.
The easiest way to do this is to categorize. For example, Best Cellars, Wine Enthusiast’s Retailer of the Year in 2009, makes the choosing process a breeze for its customers by consulting with oenophiles in advance. It draws on their advice to limit its variety to 100 high-quality, reasonably priced wines. Since 100 wines could still be an overwhelming number for novices, Best Cellars divides the wines into eight simple categories, such as “fizzy,” “juicy,” and “sweet.” The novice has to deal with only eight units of information now, which can be managed fairly easily. Once the novice has chosen a category, he or she can choose a wine within that category by reading the detailed labels that accompany all the bottles.
To be sure, wine experts may not use the same categories that Best Cellars uses, but they apply the same principle when they make their choices. By pre-sorting the wines into categories, the retailer helps novices look at the world through expert lenses. Best Cellars cofounder Joshua Wesson says, “We all want simplicity when it comes to these types of decisions…. We try to make wine shopping as much fun as wine drinking.” Note that this is the flip side of what Baskin-Robbins did in its heyday. Both retailers have thrived by creating a better choosing experience. Back then, this meant giving customers more choice; now, it means giving them less.
To simplify the choice process, limit your categories to no more than 20, with 10 or fewer options in each. When you hold to these limits, consumers are likely to feel empowered by the number of choices, and are unlikely to miss any offerings that weren’t included. Iyengar and her collaborators, Cassie Mogilner and Tamar Rudnick, discovered this when studying the magazine aisles in several Wegmans supermarkets. The number of magazines available at various branches ranged from 331 to 664, but this number had no effect on buyer satisfaction. What mattered was the number of categories, such as “Health & Fitness” and “Home & Garden,” that each display provided. Arranging the magazines under a wider range of subheadings created the perception that the store offered more choice, even when the number of magazine titles was comparatively small. Customers in these stores also reported greater enjoyment of their overall shopping experience.
For novices, who may not be able to create categories on their own, the categories established by a marketer or retailer provide a framework for making sense of a large assortment, thus keeping consumers from being discouraged by the daunting task of choosing. Because these categories often make the same distinctions between products that experts make, they also provide a general overview of the field, which catalyzes consumers’ understanding of it and the development of their preferences within it.
4. Condition them for complexity. For certain kinds of decisions, you can set up consumers for success by encouraging them to learn from, and build upon, their own previous choices. This is especially valuable if your product is customizable.
For example, Iyengar and her collaborators, Jonathan Levav, Mark Heitmann, and Andreas Herrmann, conducted a study with a major German car manufacturer that allows customers to design their new cars from a long list of options, choosing everything from the engine to the rearview mirror. They presented the first eight design choices in different sequences to different groups of car buyers. One group had to first choose interior and exterior color, with 56 and 26 options, respectively. From there, they chose features in descending order by number of options, ending with interior decor style and gearshift style (which were each limited to four options). A second group of buyers encountered the same choices in reverse order, starting with the design elements that offered the fewest options and ending with the ones that offered the most. Although both groups eventually saw 144 total options across eight categories, the buyers who moved from high choice to low choice had a much harder time. They began by carefully considering every option, but they soon grew tired and settled for the default. In the end, they wound up less satisfied with their cars than the buyers who had progressed from low choice to high choice.
This research shows that people can handle a large number of options, if they start off in the shallows and then slowly move toward the deep, all the while building skill and nerve. Beginning with fewer options not only warms up consumers, it helps them better figure out their own preferences, which in turn enhances their choosing experience. Over time, practicing this choosing technique will condition consumers to cope with increasing complexity.
An Open Invitation
Each of these forms of customer engagement can be technologically enabled, for example, through online networks or social media. But the heart of this method lies in better design of the shopping experience, fueled by better awareness of human capabilities. When you take this approach, the goal of your marketing is no longer to give people what they say they want. Instead, your goal is to invite consumers to enter into a collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship with you.
From the outset, your design shows them that you understand how they think and respect their desire for both control and simplicity. The message is clear: In the short run, you are helping them navigate a bewildering and even debilitating world of options. In the long run, you are inviting them to choose you.
Hail..To The Ryder Cup Champs..El Maqnifique Europe!!
The closing ceremony brought the curtain down on one of the most thrilling Ryder Cups in recent years, with Europe’s triumphant Captain Colin Montgomerie describing it as “the greatest moment of my golfing career”.
Sky Sports presenter Di Stewart opened proceedings by dubbing the day a “magical Monty Monday”, and few in the joyous crowd were inclined to disagree.
The Rt Hon Carwyn Jones AM, the First Minister of Wales, then thanked the chairman and owner of The Celtic Manor Resort Sir Terry Matthews, before praising the sterling efforts of Jim McKenzie and his 110-man greenkeeping staff, who cleared 15 days worth of rain from the Twenty Ten Course.
They gave themselves a standing ovation – and rightly so – and the same privilege was afforded to the American Team, who were described as “great ambassadors for their country”.
Phil Weaver, board member and representative of Ryder Cup Europe, then took to the stage to present a silver engraved putter to Jim Remy, the President of the PGA of America, to mark the handover of The Ryder Cup from The Celtic Manor Resort to Medinah Country Club near Chicago, host venue for 2012.
After praising the Welsh people for their warm welcome and hospitality, Remy then handed over to America’s Captain Corey Pavin, who congratulated the European Team “for playing better than us – but only just”.
A clearly emotional Pavin also praised the “heart, resolve, sportsmanship and fine play” his 12 Team members had displayed in staging a stirring comeback on the final day, adding that he had been proud to captain the side, despite their narrow defeat.
His opposite number Montgomerie, who was welcomed to the stage with a raucous round of applause, labelled Pavin a “credit to golf” and his Team “a credit to their Captain”.
Turning his attentions to the host nation, he said: “We expected a great match, the eyes of the world were watching, and Wales definitely delivered.”
Montgomerie then moved onto the important role his Vice Captains played, labelling them the “best backroom Team in sport”.
But he reserved his highest praise for his 12-man Team. “They are 12 very special guys,” he said. “I asked them all to play with heart and passion, and by God they did.”
Mercedes launches celebrations in Paris 125 years automobile - On 29. January 2011 is 125 years ago that Carl Benz a Patent for a car with Gasturbinenmotor logged on - the celebrations on this anniversary, Daimler's chief Dieter Zetsche on the eve of the Paris Motor Show 2010 opened.
Last week was Julia Roberts here for the film premiere for its new strip Eat, Pray and Love to celebrate. Now step Daimler-chairman Dieter Zetsche with Mercedes-Marketingchef Joachim Schmidt on the red carpet of traditional Cinema UCG normandy at the Paris Champs-Elysees, the first glass on 125 years automobile.
“grading system” for Malaysian automobile workshops
Federation of Automobile Workshop Owners Association Malaysia has announced that they will be introducing a profiling system where customers will be able to ascertain prices and details of a workshop online.
The online system would offer better transparency and prevent consumers from getting conned, according to federation president Kong Wai Kwong. “For a start, the system will encompass about 500 PARS (PIAM Authorised Repairers Scheme) approved workshops in the country. Eventually, it will cover all our 2,700 members nationwide,” he went on to add.
The database will start by providing information on six high selling brands in Malaysia, which are Proton, Perodua, Honda, Nissan, Kia and Toyota. This makes up about 85 percent of cars sold in Malaysia.
The Federation will also be grading each workshop according to their manpower, methodology of repair work, machinery and materials available. “The workshops have to achieve the minimum requirement of the silver level. As they attain higher standards, they will be promoted to gold and eventually platinum,” he continued.
Both a sigh of relief for consumers and a warning to unscrupulous workshop owners, the new system will eventually force all workshops to take the straight road or face being run out of business. Previously only community forums could provide this service, but unfortunately lacked uniformity and direction. This is definitely one of those things that will be highly successful, if managed properly.
The online system would offer better transparency and prevent consumers from getting conned, according to federation president Kong Wai Kwong. “For a start, the system will encompass about 500 PARS (PIAM Authorised Repairers Scheme) approved workshops in the country. Eventually, it will cover all our 2,700 members nationwide,” he went on to add.
The database will start by providing information on six high selling brands in Malaysia, which are Proton, Perodua, Honda, Nissan, Kia and Toyota. This makes up about 85 percent of cars sold in Malaysia.
The Federation will also be grading each workshop according to their manpower, methodology of repair work, machinery and materials available. “The workshops have to achieve the minimum requirement of the silver level. As they attain higher standards, they will be promoted to gold and eventually platinum,” he continued.
Both a sigh of relief for consumers and a warning to unscrupulous workshop owners, the new system will eventually force all workshops to take the straight road or face being run out of business. Previously only community forums could provide this service, but unfortunately lacked uniformity and direction. This is definitely one of those things that will be highly successful, if managed properly.
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