The engine reconditioning industry has been in existence for some eighty years. From the early 1990’s, engine design improvements have collectively increased the expected lifetime of an engine by 200% minimum. They once lasted 100,000 kilometers and now last 3 to 500,000 kilometers when maintained correctly. Accordingly, the engine reconditioning industry has suffered severely from a shrinking market. However, whilst the industry has shrunk, the degree of difficulty involved when correctly reconditioning the modern engine has left a specialist market; albeit somewhat smaller than it once was.
One very large element, that once drove the industry in Australia, became the elephant in the room. The growth of the industry from the early part of the twentieth century saw the development of the huge REPCO group of manufacturing companies that included the dominant engine reconditioning plants and workshops around Australia. These Repco companies, and their workshops, provided apprenticeships, staff training, technical support engineers, and regular releases of their latest technical data for the better part of the whole industry. Since the demise of this group of engine reconditioning companies during the late 1980’s, a huge void has developed and many in our group saw that this needed to be addressed.
The company, Engine Action International Pty Ltd, was established to provide a means of networking engineering data and business information among the partners who established the company and to those businesses that share the same business culture. This involves the confidential exchange of very valuable knowledge on machining techniques and skills used when working on the very latest engine designs, their design problems that surface after leaving the manufacturer, and where best to purchase the necessary replacement parts. The partners also share business data by way of inter-firm comparisons on a whole range of balance sheet items. The objective is to provide each business with better management tools and data. This has assisted in co-ordinating a hard core of industry people to address problems that have threatened the viability of their industry.
Along the way, it became apparent that consumers have been largely unaware of the engine reconditioning industry. Vehicle owners took their problems to a motor mechanic. Well, this trade has changed a great deal, other options to a reconditioned engine have developed, and some of these have been over-promoted to the detriment of the vehicle owner. The engine reconditioner needs to address this by better marketing and a change in their business model.
One step is to develop a consumer section on this web site to act as a means through which the partners can provide information to help the consumer become an informed buyer.
Whilst most of the data held on this web site is protected by security codes, the consumer information is open for all to see. The partners believe that this will give the best basis for the consumer to make a decision on the engine repair that their circumstances require.
The partners also hold the belief that this part of their new business model will lead to a more efficient industry and assist in its’ on-going viability