An assessment of the capabilities of small scale automotive workshops in how to service new vehicle models

Abstract

The automobile industry is changing very fast with newer models being completely different from traditional vehicles. Thus skills acquired in repairing older vehicles might not be relevant for these newer models. This has the potential of making some artisans redundant and can be reversed with training of artisans on vehicle diagnostic kits. Therefore the main aim of this research was to assess small scale automotive workshops in Ho to ascertain their capabilities to service and carry out maintenance work on new model vehicles. The study also sought to know the influence of both formal and informal institutions on these workshops. The research design used was the descriptive survey type. A sample size of 98 was used and the sampling techniques employed were: representative sampling, purposive sampling and snowball methods. Five research questions were used to guide the study and the instruments used to collect data were observation, unstructured interview and questionnaire. The data was analysed by the use of frequency tables and in some cases, the tables were supported with Pie Charts for better understanding. The study revealed that the capabilities of the workshops under study to service and carry out maintenance work on new model vehicles were below expectation.