Volkswagen has not released a position statement on scanning for the “fundamental reason” that directions to do so already exist within repair procedures — and have for “quite some time,” a collision representative said Thursday.

“The message is there,” Volkswagen Canada collision program manager Scott Wideman told a VeriFacts Guild 21 call.

He said Volkswagen’s main concern as a manufacturer was that not enough body shops were consistently using repair procedures. “The messaging is: Refer to the repair literature.”

Wideman’s jurisdiction isn’t technically the U.S. However, his presentation’s information was meant to be applicable to America, Guild 21 call organizer and former longtime State Farm employee George Avery (Avery Knows) said at the beginning of the call.

Both the U.S. and Canada share the same Volkswagen repair literature, Wideman said. Only minor vehicle differences existed, he said, providing as an example the Canadian requirement that all cars have daytime running lights.

Volkswagen essentially states that if you disconnect anything electronic and reconnect it, the vehicle needs to be scanned, Wideman summarized.

“So, essentially our position is a post-repair position statement. … And that is pretty much across the board,” Wideman said.

He said a pre-repair scan was “obviously good for repair planning. It makes sense.” The procedure would yield more accurate estimates without cycle-time killing surprises at the end and was “a logical approach,” according to Wiseman.

“Post-repair scan is essentially a requirement,” he said, calling that the view of Volkswagen and Audi.

Wideman said that the industry had been talking about scanning for a while, but “in my mind, this is rearview mirror.” It was time to move on, he said, noting that the concept had been “documented and replied to by just about every manufacturer out there,” Wideman said.

“… From our standpoint, we just want people to … follow the repair procedures,” he said.

The next VeriFacts Guild 21 call will be held April 11.

More information:

Volkswagen erWin OEM repair procedure site

Featured image: The dashboard of a 2020 Volkswagen Passat R-Line is shown. (Provided by Volkswagen)