Nationwide Autocentres has invested about £500,000 into a multi-franchise diagnostics system, which it is now trialling at five sites.

The company has been developing the system with an unnamed supplier for almost two years to solve problems caused by having to buy different diagnostics equipment to handle all marques. The new system can be updated online.

“We've never had any problems getting diagnostics information from the manufacturers – our technical manager handles that,” says Tom Dunn, Nationwide Autocentres managing director. “The problem stems from having separate diagnostics machines for each car. Now we have one piece of kit that can do a large amount of the work required for fault code reading and light setting on most cars. All 182 Nationwide branches will eventually have this equipment.”

Nationwide has also bought 15 repair vans, which are being fitted out ready to hit the roads within the next few months. Dunn calls them mobile technical assistants and says they will have access to manufacturer data and diagnostics equipment.