I think that innovation has both helped & hurt the industry. End users are willing to investigate & try the latest & greatest forklift ( as long as the price is within reason ) but then get stung when the unit needs service. I've seen it mulitple times- either the dealers rates are outrageous, parts are backordered or unavailable or the tech (which is supposed to be trained on these high tech machines ) can't repair the unit.

I've been called to a new customers with a brand new machine, asking if I can fix a paticular problem that the dealer can't seem to fix ( multiple calls for same symptoms- different parts put on- each service call was invoiced- customer had to call to remind dealer that unit is under warranty ). This is all inconvient & costly. At some point people start shying away technolgy knowing that it's costly to fix.