https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/12/11/people-are-freaking-out-why-electric-vehicles-might-doom-your-neighborhood-auto-mechanic/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-national%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.5134625c7cae I don't think anything in this article was really surprising but liked the comment about technology compressing time.
Personally, I think local auto shops will be around for a long time. Sure, things like oil changes may get people in the door on a regular basis. But it probably isn't the oil change that makes them a load of cash. People will still need yearly vehicle inspections, new tires, wiper replacements, A/C refrigerant or leak repair, work on shocks / struts etc. So there might be a thinning of the herd. But overall I think most of the successful businesses will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
I have experienced this at my local auto shop - they didn't want anything to do with those complicated regenerative brakes so I had to go to the Nissan dealer. Even there, they only let their trained Leaf mechanics touch the Leaf. After the brakes, I came back a few months later to switch to my winter tires and they'd only let the Leaf guy do that - it's a tire rotation for Pete's sake! They're dedicated tires on dedicated wheels! And the Leaf guy didn't even register the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) on the new tires in the new location! I can see why the the local guys don't want to touch it when the trained guy at the dealership couldn't get it right, but I agree with the article that they have to get with the times. TPMS has been mandated since 2007. More and more cars are going to be hybrids or electrics with regenerative brakes. The future is knocking.
