The repair time for Mercedes-Benz cars in Russia will increase due to the disconnection of online services that allow you to quickly detect and eliminate the cause of the breakdown. According to Izvestia, BMW owners also faced a similar problem.
The German concern Mercedes-Benz has completely disconnected Russian dealers from its software, Izvestia was told in the press service of the distributor of MB Rus.
Access is restricted, among other things, to online systems for maintenance and troubleshooting.
“Indeed, dealers are disconnected from the manufacturer’s online software systems. In some cases, the lack of access to online systems will lead to an increase in repair times,” the distributor said, promising that service and repair of machines will continue based on “accumulated experience and knowledge.”
A source familiar with the situation told the publication that now the key problem is the increased time for car repairs, and this applies not only to Mercedes, but also to BMW. Dealers make every effort to honor customer warranties; Third-party software and equipment sold on marketplaces help to circumvent the restrictions, but “in fact, the term“ official dealer ”is losing its meaning,” the source of the newspaper summed up.
There are workarounds: for example, some dealers connect to services through European IP addresses or contact other firms, since third-party companies most often develop online services, said Jan Haytseer, vice president of the National Automobile Union (NAU). In his opinion, part of the diagnostics will go offline, and disabling the software may create risks of problems with the alarm and coding of car keys.
The Mercedes systems, until they were turned off, collected information about the technical condition of the car, which made it possible to identify and quickly fix the problem in a few seconds, said Petr Shkumatov, a member of the public council at the main department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow. He warned that dealers and service stations will have to look into third-party software.