Approving Diagnostic/Repair Centers-Does This Provide a Meaningful Service?

The Automobile Club of Southern California has a responsibility of responding to the needs of the motoring public. With the complexity and sophistication of today's vehicles, one of the major needs is for an improvement in automotive diagnostic and repair facilities. To meet this need the Club instituted its Approved Diagnostic/Repair Center Program five years ago. The dual purposes of this effort are to generally upgrade the quality of services rendered by the repair industry and to provide Club members with a means of securing quality repairs at realistic costs with recourse in those cases where a repair proves to be less than satisfactory.

This paper reports the process by which the program was instituted, the experience to date, the response of the motoring public, and some possible future programs.