We’ve all heard of reconditioned and remanufactured engines, gearboxes and so on, but now it seems that complete remanufactured cars might be on the agenda.
Manufacturer-supported remanufactured components have been around since – well, in the UK I can trace activity back to the 1950s! Back then major components like engines and gearboxes often needed rebuilding at 60-70,000 miles, and the engine would almost certainly have needed a ‘decoke’ or top-end overhaul at about 30-40k.
To support this, manufacturers provided their own in-house factory reconditioning services. The best-known of these was probably BMC/BL’s ‘Gold Seal’ scheme which provided engines and gearboxes that were rebuilt to totally as-new standard. They also came with the exact-same warranty as brand-new components, albeit that was only a year back then.
Another well-known and well-used scheme was the Lucas B90 overhaul process for components such as dynamos/ alternators, starter motors, wiper motors, control boxes and so on. As with schemes such as BMC’s Gold Seal, Lucas B90 components were accepted within the trade and by motorists as being every bit as good as new, but cheaper.
In recent years though, manufacturer-backed reconditioned components have become less common. There’s much less demand for fully-rebuilt engines due to massively longer service lives, and while components are rebuilt, these days rotating electricals and so on are generally supplied through aftermarket suppliers rather than manufacturer-supported ones such as main dealers. However, it seems that some manufacturers are looking at reconditioning – or, as they’ve historically preferred to call it, ‘remanufacturing’ – again. This time, though, there’s one big difference...
Rather than individual components, it seems complete remanufactured cars might well be on the agenda! Toyota and Renault are already on the record as having schemes that are well beyond being just ideas, and it’s known that other manufacturers are looking at it seriously.
This is, of course, something that’s linked to the switchover to electrically-powered cars. These have far fewer components anyway than petrol/diesel vehicles, and things that are carried over such as transmissions are a lot simpler. It’s also now perfectly possible to make bodyshells that don’t corrode.
The main expensive EV components which does, though, have limited life are the traction battery and the traction motor, plus stuff like wheel and transmission bearings. Manufacturers are already supplying remanufactured traction batteries, and motor rebuilds require similar techniques to alternators and so on.
Still at an early stage
Relatively few details have been revealed and what has been disclosed is liable to change. However, Toyota have said that they are looking at taking a car back to a factory “after its fi
