We are moving away from our agreement with Maintbook and are pleased to announce that from the October book onwards we will supply our own in-house Service, Maintenance and Repair data. This will affect Gold Book (Car) and Monitor (LCV) SMR budgets and also our consumer Total Cost of Motoring (TCM) products.
This change is the result of a great deal of analysis and consideration as we want to ensure that our customers benefit from the best data available. We believe this can be achieved as a result of this change, providing superior vehicle coverage combined with the most rigorous research and analysis by industry experts.
This change to our in-house data is free. There will be no alterations to file layouts or format, which will remain unaffected, and the changeover of data will be instantaneous with no negative impact on your systems. In fact we predict minimal disruption during this changeover period.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is happening?
Data supply is changing from the old supplier to an in house dataset following our acquisition of Derwent Management Service Ltd.
Why are we changing data supply?
We want to make sure that our customers receive the best data available and we believe that this new data will be a more accurate reflection of running costs.
What is the date of the changeover?
1st September 2014.
How will this change of data affect our existing systems?
Existing systems will not be affected as the data will be transferred internally in exactly the same file formats (ASCII or Windows). The switch to this new data will be instantaneous.
What sectors will be specifically affected?
This will affect fleet and manufacturing customers who take CAP’s Goldbook, Monitor, Car or LCV data.
What new advantages will this new data offer?
We believe that we are on the whole faster to include changes to service intervals, tyre sizes and labour rates that impact the running costs. This would also no doubt contribute to some of the initial changes in running cost. Our data allows us to offer our customers greater vehicle coverage, more accurate data and more frequent updates. Hundreds of thousands of vehicle histories will be available to help drive component replacement baskets, replacing the existing historic view of parts replacements as used in the previous data. Combine this with the rigorous research and analysis undertaken by CAP’s industry experts and we’re confident that our customers will be in a stronger position to make better budgeting decisions.
Is this new data going to cost more?
No, customers will not be charged any more for this new improved data.
Why have your valuations changed?
We now use our own auditable data collection process rather than an outsourced supplier. Our BurnRate product, which includes 390,000 passenger cars and 50,000 light commercial vehicles, gives us access to 6 million individual invoiced lines of data. We can also indicate when costs for tyres, brakes and clutches need to be included instead of anecdotal information. We also now use a range of different sources for things like tyre prices, giving us more regular updates and very good indicative prices.
Which vehicles are most affected?
The vehicles with the largest changes between suppliers tend to be the more niche vehicles with a few exceptions:
- Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes AMG C and E Class, Smart on the whole we believe the anticipated cost is greater than previously communicated
- Audi all models, BMW (see below), Porsche Macan and most Skoda models we believe will cost less than previously communicated
Why do BMW and Mini have lower running costs?
Our new SMR numbers now include the benefit of taking Service and TLC packs.
Why are tyre and brake costs now generally lower?
Our wear rate data is based on the information held within our BurnRate product which indicates that on average these items last longer than the previous assumptions.
Why is the ‘Others’ element more expensive?
The ‘Others’ section now includes different information including an MOT at month 36 (previously not included), a cost for wiper blades and a contingency value that accounts for suspension, bushes, DPF replacements, bulbs and consumables.
Why is there a bigger difference with LCV than Cars between 60,000 and 80,000 miles?
At this point our data shows that whilst some vehicles do have a clutch replacement by this point it is certainly not all of them, so we do not include 100% of a clutch for all vans.
Why do we think the new values are better?
We have cross checked the SMR of vehicles with the greatest differences against indicative industry values and in the vast majority of cases we appear to have a more realistic view. In the few instances where we are at variance we are checking manufacturer service schedules, labour rates, tyre sizes and wear rate data to justify our position or to amend data that does not match manufacturer specified data (see below).
CAR
LCV
Contact us for more information
If you have any questions or concerns regarding your SMR data, please email smr@cap.co.uk and we will respond as a matter of urgency.
