Owners of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Volkswagen complain about cars being blocked after contacting uncertified service stations, Izvestia writes. The reason is in the security systems of the cars themselves, which communicate with the manufacturer’s servers and mistake “garage” interference for an attempted theft. In this case, unlocking from an official dealer may take several hours.
After service at the nearest service station, owners of blocked foreign cars imported under the “gray” scheme turn to the officials for help. For example, one buyer of a new BMW wanted to Russify its interface in a nearby workshop, after which the multimedia system and dashboard stopped working. At the dealer of the brand, the firmware was reset to factory firmware – in German – and the car started working.
At the same time, the dealers themselves use “alternative” software, since they are disconnected from the official software: this year, concerns began en masse to block Russia’s access to their online services. Mercedes-Benz did this in August, followed by BMW and Audi.
Owners of new premium-segment cars mainly face blocking of cars, since it is mostly expensive cars that are imported “in parallel.” However, models of mass brands also have a risk when connecting to uncertified equipment, dealers warn.
Meanwhile, no one wants to buy “official” European and Korean cars: they gather dust in dealer warehouses. Budget Kia, Volkswagen and Skoda are sold out, and more expensive models cost too much compared to more modern Chinese cars. Despite this, dealers are in no hurry to reduce prices.
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