The automotive aftermarket isn’t just about fixing what’s broken anymore; it’s about predicting the next breakdown before it happens.
That’s the message from longtime aftermarket expert Derek Suen on this episode of Auto Service World Conversations. In a world of rapidly changing vehicles and tightening margins, professionals across Canada and beyond are being pushed to think differently and act faster, he said.
The biggest example of that comes from the fact that the days of only reacting to failures are long gone.
“Ten years ago, ideation was mostly about reacting to failures, seeing what’s happening in the field and seeing what’s breaking and making a better version,” he said during the episode, recorded at AAPEX 2025. “Today, I think it’s a lot about predicting what’s going to fail next. Vehicle technology has exploded.”
He points to the blend of old and new tech rolling into Canadian repair shops on top of the fact that the Canadian average vehicle age sits at 10.5 years. That means technicians must juggle aging mechanical components with cutting-edge electronics, from hybrid systems to advanced software that runs deep into every car part.
Where do these ideas for solutions come from?
“Most of our great ideas, they don’t start in the lab,” Suen explained. “They actually come when a technician gets really frustrated in the bay and they just need someone to talk to, to vent their frustration.”
These real-world setbacks force ideas to be documented, patterns found and solutions crafted that are going to save customers time and money.
“One major opportunity in Canada, especially, is data collaboration,” Suen observed. “Connecting what the tech see, what the distributors move and what the manufacturers plan.”
Having spent much time working in the European market, Suen was asked what lessons we in North America could learn. Suen pointed to the fact that they’re ahead on electric vehicles and sustainability, a future that North America is just starting to embrace.
Canadian companies, he stressed, need to communicate better, break down silos, and watch for trends at the edges of the market.
“If there’s one thing that we all really need to improve, it is communication, breaking down silos between techs, jobbers and manufacturers, and the supply chain is only as smart as what the data shares.”
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