Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1400/2002 of 31 July 2002: Future developments within the E.U. car market.

Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1400/2002 of 31 of July 2002: Future Developments within the E.U. Car Market 3 Introduction Our dissertation paper deals with the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1400/2002 of 31 st July 2002 on the distribution of motor vehicle within the European Union. As this new legislation will have relevant impact on the motor industry within the European Union we thought it would be interesting to study the possible effects that it will have on the car industry market. In order to do this we analysed the most important issues raised by this new legislation focussing our attention on the existing link between the manufacturer and the dealer, on the provision of after-sales services and the degree of quality provided to final consumers. As it is our belief that this link is extremely relevant as the quality of the services offered to the client may depend upon it, we chose Toyota Motor Corporation as a case study, as this company is a promoter of quality through out its organization, from the production line to the service enjoyed by Toyota clients. The reasons that motivate what seems to be an unusual choice of dissertation title lies in the fact that the car industry has always been of special interest to the writer. Throughout the course of studies we pursued this subject both through various internships one of which at Mercedes-Benz Italia in Milan which gave us the chance to see how an after-sales service area is organized, how assistants approach the customers and how these respond. Projects that were carried out during the four years in ESE frequently dealt with the car industry namely PSA Peugeot Citroën and Toyota Motor Corporation. These research works further convinced the writer that the car industry was a topic of great interest owing to its rapidly changing environment, its competitive situation and the very aggressive policy of market share seizure carried out by very large conglomerates. This sustained interest over a long period of time brought to our attention this new legislation which is not well known, so much that the only people at present familiar with it are the expert in the field and the operators of the same. We thought that an analysis of the same would also give us the chance to understand a bit better the way in which the European Union works and the working of a market within a new context such as this one. Although at times it has been rather difficult to find suitable material and information we found that this work has contributed to our knowledge of the field.