Right to Repair Act Could Help Us All
Generally I think it's unnecessary for the government to intervene in matters of commerce, but there's been a movement growing for some years now which could make a difference in the lives of both do-it-yourself mechanics and those that pay to have a shop do the work. There is a piece of legislation called the Right to Repair Act that has been making waves on both a state and national level. It's basically the automotive version of an open records law.
You see, right now, the auto manufacturers are under no mandate to share information about their cars. They don't have to give independent shops access to things like schematics, tolerances and other details about the car's systems, so they generally don't. The Right to Repair Act would compel automakers to share this information, which would allow shops that aren't affiliated with dealerships to do expert repair work on your car. It would also mean that the info would be published, and then you would have access.
So far, it's been an uphill battle to see any movement on the law. It's biggest hurrah on a federal level came in 2005, but it didn't survive. The good news is that some states have been working on adopting versions of the Act. Currently Oklahoma is looking really good, and other states like New Jersey are on the ball. New activity on a federal level seems promising, but the lobby for the manufacturers and dealers is strong, so who knows whether it will go anywhere. They did announce some official hearings in May of last year and commissioned a study to see where the state of things are at this point in terms of the sharing of information.
If the dealerships were always on the up-and-up, and continually provided excellent, honest service across the board, I wouldn't even be mentioning the proposal. But we all know such is not the case, which is why so many of us are forced to do work ourselves or take our car to a trusted mechanic rather than leave it at the dealer. I'm not in any way trying to imply that dealership service departments are shady (not all of them anyway), but the fact that they hold a monopoly on the juicy information means that they are under no pressure to try very hard. Some do anyway, and we should support any dealership that's run by honest, hard working supporters of their brand of auto.
It's certainly something to look into, and if your state has a lobby, you should probably support it. It's up to you. For more information on the Right to Repair Act, check out RightToRepair.org where you can read all about it.
Comments
Dear Sir, I know there would be some down side to this, but after paying $350. for a front brake job, at Cloverdale Shell in Winston Salem NC, I think it is needed. Why not a web site people could report on rip offs.
Your article conering dealership and trused mechanics hit stuck a cord with me.
I owned a 1995 Ford Escort that my wife mostly drove. We bought new from adealer. It started runing like it was hitting two to three cylinders. Since it only had four it wasn’t doing very well. I took the car to the dealership where we had purchased- after 2.5 hours the service manager came told me that the had ran evry test possible and conluded that three of the fuel injectors were pluged. This was on a Monday. When I asked him what it would cost he quoted me a price of about $500.00. I asked him when he could do the repair; he said he had to order the parts which would take ten days. I said ok. After paying the $79.00 dollars for diagnostics I left. I was working on the road then and decided to drive the car that week- I poured the fuel injecter cleaner everytime I filled up with gas- all to no avail. On Friday as I was on my return trip home- I thought to myself that sometimes it is runing on two, three and four cylindeers so they cant be pluged up therefor it must be a firing problem. The local Auto Parts store, Auto Zone, was only 10 miles further down the road from where I lived so instead of going home I drove there- the car missing all the way.
At Auto Zone i purchased a set on spark plug wires and installed the in the parking, about a 10 min job. I started the car up and immediately knew I had fixed my prblem- needless to say I was furious. The following monday morning I was back in the ford dealership- with the old spark plug wires in my hand. I plopped them down on the service manager desk and asked him if he knew what they were- of course he did. I informed him that they were the problem with my escort. He said he couldn’t understand that- his to mechanic did the work. I said I paid you $79.0 for something didn’t get and would have probally forked pver an additionally $500.0- I want my $79.00 dollars back- no problem he said. I left the dealership figuering it had just been a mistake- maybe!
On wednesday of that week I received a telephone call from the dealership’s parts department- he said: The sparkplug wires you ordered for a 1995 Escort are in! Myseryed solved the dealership was intentionall trying to rep me off. I have not had a car serviced at dealership since. By the way I drove that Escort for serval more years and racked up a 150,00 miles before I got rid of it.
I think it’s rediculous that this information isn’t granted to an owner upon the purchase of a vehicle. You pay how many thousands of dollars and all you get is a little booklet that tells you when to use park and when to use drive. Maybe the manufacturers don’t need to post all the info online for anyone to see. It would be acceptable to include the service manual(s) with the car, as you should only need information pertaining to your car. That is the purpose of the bill, isn’t it? To fix your own car?
The Auto Repair industry has gained so much from communication and computer technology. We at Garagemasters, a Phoenix Auto Repair and Transmission shop, depend on industry standareds and supported information about the automobiles we repair. Small shops like us could provide so much more to our customers if we were givin accurate information.
Poe said “it’s rediculous that this information isn’t granted to an owner”. Try looking for it. Every car maker in the US already has this information available. http://www.nastf.org has an index of websites to get “all the info online for anyone to see” – service manuals, wire diagrams, owner manuals, even training classes. Some are free, some are really cheap, but I’m sure the dealerships are paying more for a franchise than it costs to access these websites. Maybe Matthew can explain why they are trying to make a new law for something that is already out there and works fine the way it is?
Evan,
Most OEMs charge for the information. For instance, it’s about $7000 a year for Volvo technical data. Can independent shops afford to pay every time they pull a car into the bay for service? If they paid the annual charges for all OEMs the cost would be huge. Even on a case by case basis it adds up very fast. Also, there is often a delay of a year or more before independent shops have access to the information.
Autorepair – I understand that the most expensive example is Volvo, but most companies have cheap access, such as 48 hours of access for $19.99, that can handle random makes that show up once in a while. If you specialize in one make, pay the $300 to $500 average for annual access to that OEM website. The dealerships don’t get the information for free – they are paying franchise fees just like any franchised business. And this law in Jersey isn’t going to make it cheaper for independant garages. Check the ASA website for training on how to get info now. They are helping shops work with the websites that exist, instead of spreading rumors. The current Federal regulations require that info is available to independents the same time it is made available to dealerships – there is no delay.
Here’s the thing, Evan. In the past, any DIY’er or independent shop could buy the factory shop manual with all the spec’s needed to do virtually any repair, cost was very affordable, perhaps $20-50, or maybe a few hundred for the incredibly detailed manuals for marques like Porsche. Now, many auto makers are not releasing this info unless you are a franchised dealer. That is like putting a DIYer or independent shop out of business. I hope people can retain the right to repair our own vehicles, or get an independent shop to do so if we don’t want to get our hands dirty.
After finding out he local Ford dealer wanted $500.00 to replace rotors/pads on my ‘04 Taurus, I decided to do it myself. For $350, I replaced it myself with BETTER than OEM spec parts. Dealer couldn’t explain why basic carbon metallic pads/rotors that should cost about $150.00 required $350.00 in labor. Their quote did NOT include calipers either.
It’s very difficult to find information (electrical, etc) on some vehicles unless you spend the $100-$200 on the ’shop manual’ for that vehicle from the manufacturer. Even online it’s difficult. As someone who repairs his own cars, it would be nice to obtain this information or be able to take it to an independent shop w/out having to be backed into a corner when looking for certain pieces of information.