Erwin Kicks Out Private Individuals?

Today, I received this email.

"Dear Erwin (siehe Fehlerdatenbank) User,"

We would like to inform you that, starting December 18, 2025, the Erwin (siehe Fehlerdatenbank) webshop will no longer be available to individual customers but will be exclusively for business customers.

You can use your packages, but that's it; there's a limit.

Why does the corporation believe it is prepared for the wave of lawsuits? Does anyone know how they plan to comply with the requirements of the EU's "right to repair" directive, which will come into effect in July 2026?

Sunny greetings from the lake.

Okay, please provide the German text you would like me to translate into English. I will only provide the translation.

Hello,

I also received that email this morning. It's outrageous. Now that the company is short on money due to their stupid decisions, they are resorting to underhanded tactics and forcing people in contract workshops?

Another stupid decision by them.

Best regards, Rainer.

It doesn't seem to affect many people... Well, some people don't read anything anyway, not even circuit diagrams or repair manuals, and others will just find it somewhere else.

In my opinion, this is a ridiculous stunt by the corporation that only makes the brand less appealing and won't bring anyone to the authorized workshops. Anyone who believes this is simply naive and doesn't understand reality.

I think it's really shitty.

I don't believe that the EU's "right to repair" directive applies to cars. It seems they are actually taking a step backward with things like diagnostic encryption, etc.

Anything that makes a car more affordable or accessible to the average person is being opposed.

dieselschrauber wrote:

It doesn't seem to affect many people... Well, some people don't read anything anyway, not even circuit diagrams or repair manuals, and others just find it somewhere else.

I'm also wondering how quiet it is. This will be a huge problem for professionals who aren't working in workshops but still want to work on their own cars.

Malte1408 wrote:

I think it's really shitty... I don't believe the EU's "right to repair" directive applies to cars. It seems they are actually taking a step backward with diagnostic encryption and other measures. Everything that makes a car more affordable or accessible to the average person is being fought against.

R2R definitely also applies to cars, but this year the commission has clearly stated that manufacturers are allowed to impose costs, identification procedures, and equipment requirements. This is now being made so expensive and complex that independent workshops are barely able to win lawsuits. Private individuals are no longer intended to be included.

With the Cyber Resilience Act coming into effect in 2027, this option will finally be closed off. Currently, it's still possible to partially avoid having to purchase new OEM parts and contracted dealer services at exorbitant prices by using used parts. However, that possibility will completely disappear then.

Ste.Bo wrote:

R2R definitely also applies to cars, but the Commission has made it clear this year that manufacturers are allowed to impose costs, identification procedures, and equipment requirements. This is now being made so expensive and complex that independent workshops are barely able to win lawsuits. Private individuals are no longer intended to be covered by this.

May they? Or rather, must they? I believe it's more the EU with its bureaucracy and green regulations, rather than the manufacturers themselves.
They could have charged Erwin €80 per hour instead of €8 per hour 25 years ago, but they didn't. Nothing would have happened if they had.

That's not really a "rescue and rehabilitate" approach, but rather a path towards cold expropriation.

It's simply the Green Party's intention to add another layer to their anti-car policies.

Opel experienced the same thing during the transition from GM to PSA. Combined with their new spare parts policy (which Volkswagen has now also adopted), this ultimately led to Opel's disappearance from relevance.

Modern cars cannot be economically maintained without a good tester and the corresponding documentation; that's simply how it is.

I'd like to know what basis someone used to make that decision. Ultimately, good support is a form of advertising, just like Audi in Formula 1. Although, I'm not even sure about the F1 thing; hardly anyone watches it anymore.

If you were to look at which vehicles private individuals, independent workshops, and VAG dealerships are requesting, there wouldn't be much overlap. At dealerships, the number of pre-facelift Mk8 Golfs is already significantly decreasing. The same goes for the Golf 6 in independent workshops.

In reality, there's hardly anyone who works on vehicles that are 5 years old or newer besides the dealer.