Haas said the industry is going to see drastic changes in technology, not only on the service side but mainly on the manufacturing side, which is going to heavily impact the service side.

"The good old days are gone. They just keep getting further and further away," Haas said, as he showed a picture of a 1986 Chevy Citation.

Quoting Lee Iacocca, he added, "The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it's good and grabs the new just as soon as it is better."

This, Haas said is a common theme for shop owners, who have to keep up with the rapidly changing industry by purchasing the latest equipment, sending their technicians to top-notch training, and preparing themselves for the vehicles of today and the future.  

"You have to be prepared for what's coming," he said. "Things are changing pretty fast, and sometimes you have to get yourself in the position of being the one that makes a change."

One area that is changing quickly is electronically controlled systems in vehicles, Haas said. Today, 10-15 percent of the systems in the automobiles in service bays are electronically controlled, he said, adding that the number will soon increase because 50 percent of systems in cars that are being built by the manufacturers today are electronically controlled.

Other changes in the industry that Haas touched on include hybrid vehicles, telematics, hydrogen vehicles, direct-shift gear boxes, adaptive cruise control, and constantly variable transmissions.

For example, Haas said, at this point hydrogen-fueled vehicles cannot be serviced because there is no infrastructure to support them or shops equipped to service them.

"It is estimated now that for a facility to be up to code to have a hydrogen vehicle in it, the average shop would have to invest a minimum of $10,000," he said. "You have to have special vents in the roof of your facility, alarms, and equipment to remove the hydrogen from the vehicle before you start servicing it." 

 
Not only are shops unequipped to service those vehicles, there is also no history behind for fuel-cell vehicles or hybrids. Therefore, nothing known about the internal combustion engine applies to those vehicles, Haas said.

"There is really very little education on how a hybrid really works," he said. "We need to learn 'why' it works, not just how to work on it, and that starts at the manufacturing level."

Haas said that technology in vehicles is changing at such a rapid rate that dealership technicians cannot keep up. He said that Audi reported in 2006 that they were investing $15.7 billion through 2011 to expand its vehicle models from 22 to 40. In the same year, in the same month, an Audi spokesperson reported that dealership technicians are not prepared to deal with the technology they are building into the vehicles.

Haas concluded by proposing a question to all shop owners. "Are you eager to continue learning?"  He emphasized that point by adding, "Because diagnosis is going to be critical to your future." Haas said it is only going to get more difficult every day as the technology in vehicles continues to increase. "Think about what you do today compared what you were doing 10 years ago," he said.

"We can wish for the good old days, but they are never coming back," he said. "But the good old folks are you guys that continue to go to training and invest in new tools and equipment that you need to better your business."