With changes in technology, the car audio aftermarket will need a robust certification program for installers and retailers, and so we are encouraging industry members to support MECP certification.
An active, well -promoted, certification program can help the aftermarket fight legal battles in the future that could arise over who can install new technologies in cars.
Car companies are already fighting to block independent shops from working on cars. And with the advent of semi-autonomous cars, some say there will be a push to further limit who can tamper with in-car electronics.
Plus, we applaud a new effort by the MECP that will soon make it easier to promote retailers who hire MECP techs, which we’ll get to a minute.
Federal rule making is in the works on new vehicle to vehicle (V2V) technology that may include aftermarket V2V. In fact, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said this month that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could produce general V2V rules by January. One industry member, Keith Lehmann, a consultant to car companies says there may be lobbying efforts by car companies to limit where consumers can go to get V2V installed in their cars.
We have been unable to confirm this, but we can confidently state that the car companies are increasingly trying to limit who can work on today’s complex vehicles. Only last year, car makers won a ruling from the Fed that said the software code in cars falls under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and so consumers and by extension retailers can’t work on infotainment systems in certain cases.
For the aftermarket to fight back, it needs to point to its credentials as true experts in car electronics.
The industry already has a certification body through MECP, run by the Consumer Technology Association, which just happens to be the lobbying arm of the 12 volt industry in Washington DC, so it can help fight for the rights of car stereo retailers and point to their expertise through MECP.
But it’s even more personal for store owners. Here’s how.
At some point next year, MECP will list the stores that employ technicians who are MECP certified on their public web site. This is new; until now, only the MECP techs were identified.
The new high tech data base will even tell you which location in a chain a particular MECP tech works for. It will be kept up to date and it will provide the public a resource for finding qualified installers. It will help retailers get the credit they deserve for hiring MECP techs.
The CTA will start promoting MECP more aggressively, it said, once its new web site goes live, which should be within the next month (but the full MECP data base will debut next year).
Todd Ramsey who helps lead the MECP program said, “Once you have been MECP certified it is an excellent marketing opportunity. People will say, ‘but consumers aren’t educated about certification in our business.’ They may not ask for it, but if they see …people in the shop are certified, it’s another sales tool to instill confidence in the shop,” he added.
Larger chains like Best Buy and Car Toys, already recognize MECP’s importance. Best Buy has over 1,500 MECP certified techs and has been hiring only MECP techs since January.
Car Toys’ Jim Warren said, “Car Toys considers MECP to be a pivotal component of our installation program…Car Toys has supported MECP from day one – and helps to provide guidance through our involvement in CTA.”
It’s time to stop downplaying the need for MECP. Actually, at a time of semi-autonomous cars, the need is greater than ever.
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Our industry needs backing from manufacturers, the MECP program is a joke, because it gains you nothing but a piece of paper to hang on the wall that says you took a test and know some things. You can maybe sell that to 10% of your customers who care about it. Most consumers don’t even know what it is. I took the test when it first appeared in 1991, got Installer First Class, and not one employer ever cared about it, nor compensated better for it. I’ve been doing installs for 26 years now, and nothing has changed. Sure, there are a few shops that *require* the MECP to be hired, which semi-promotes training and learning, but if it represents almost nothing to consumers, it has no real value you can sell for. The big name manufacturers should promote at the very minimum, a doubling of their warranty, up to 5 years, if the product is installed by an MECP certified installer. That Sony/Pioneer/Kenwood/Alpine/JVC/Clarion deck just gained more value to the consumer because they had you install it, and got an extra free 1 year of warranty on a $99 radio.
Cars are NOT getting easier to work on, they are much more complex, the new dash kits and integration modules are expensive and take MORE TIME to install and program, we have to learn new cars and systems every year to keep up. We work hand in hand with our dealerships and service departments, and in return they give us access to service manuals, wiring diagrams, etc. which we can read and decipher, to help trace problems, AND make us more educated for new installs.
I spend more time selling our skills and expertise, rather than the product, which the customer usually knows enough about in this day and age of internet anyways, while my MECP certificate fades and gathers dust….
We ARE 12V specialists. It’s high time we started promoting AND getting ourselves compensated for that fact.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it can’t just be the retailer. This needs to include the manufacturers. Manufacturers could have been using MECP as a tool for to work with retailers to validate warranties for years. If the industry truly felt it could stand behind MECP then the industry could be using MECP as a way to validate warranty on product as well as authorizing a dealer to sell their product. If you want to sell brand “X” then you have to have MECP certified installers. If the customer wants to receive the warranty on brand “X” then it needs to be purchased and installed at a MECP certified shop. This would also help with internet sales. Just something to think about.
I love Trevor’s Red Seal program and Barry’s ‘Requirement’ requirement that manufactures make of their dealers. Boiling it all down, 75% of 12 volt retailers really do not know what they are doing and are not qualified to sell, service, install or otherwise – any thing with wires attached to it. Never mind the complexities of cars and technologies on the horizon, these ‘shops’ do not know the cars of the last 2 decades! God help us.
It will also justify higher hourly shop rates. It amazed me when dealers tell me their rate is so low do to the competition in their market. This would help set them apart from the bottom feeders.
Well said !!! No question the Self Driving Car is a different animal than what most of us are used to. Adding electric stuff to cars may now have significantly more potential “law of unintended consequences” impact. While the car’s computers are likely better shielded from EMI than we are used to, the safety concerns are/will be significantly elevated and therefore under higher scrutiny by car makers, numerous government agencies and consumer/driver/pedestrian advocate groups. In olden times the mistakes were putting a screw through the gas tank or body panels or interrupting a wire that triggered a dash warning light. NOW the result might be the car fails to brake in time to avoid a life altering catastrophe.
The mobile electronics community, retailers, vendors, reps, distributors and anyone who makes their living in this business should be working to get out in front of legislated certification for installing folks and businesses. In that fashion we manage the outcome. Otherwise the outcome will be managed for us which may just manage us outta the business. “Would you like an apple pie with that egg McMuffin…?”
Ive said it before and Ill say it again. There needs to be a red seal program for installers in order for us to be taken seriously. That is the only real option for credability.
I have been beating this drum for over 20 years. I am not the only one. MECP and store accreditation can and should be a REQUIREMENT to sell and install any reputable 12V product line. That would move the ball forward. Who will be first? I’ll wait here.