© 2010 Quality Digest Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
By: Raissa Carey
As auto making evolves and cars increasingly become simply computers on wheels, independent repair shops are facing a new kind of problem: trying to decode and read cars’ on-board computer systems in order to diagnose problems and hopefully repair them.
It’s common knowledge that automakers provide this type of information and the proper repair equipment to their own dealership service centers, yet independent repair shops must sometimes take extra steps to get that same information. This could lead to extra time and cost for consumers who prefer their independent mechanic over a dealer’s service center.
That’s where the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act (HR 2057) comes in.
If passed, the legislation would require automakers to provide the same service information and tool capabilities to independent repair shops as they do for their franchised dealer networks.
But this is already the case, according to Angie Wilson, vice president of marketing and communications at Automotive Service Association (ASA), the leading organization for owners and managers of automotive service businesses.
“Any independent repair professional has access to the same information as auto dealers,” Wilson says, adding that in 2002 ASA signed an agreement with all automakers to ensure that they would make this kind of information available to everyone. “If [auto repair shops] do see a gap, they can take any concerns regarding services and information directly to the manufacturers; so even if a problem surfaces, there’s already a system to solve that.”
Also opposing the bill are organizations such as the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM), which is concerned that the bill would burden dealers and automakers with additional costs to correct a problem that doesn’t exist.
AIAM’s director of government affairs Paul Ryan points out that a review by the Federal Trade Commission in 2006 “… found no evidence of a systematic problem related to the inability of customers or auto repair shops to acquire the equipment needed to repair cars or access information needed to make timely repairs."
“In fact, the FTC found only two relevant complaints as the result of an automated search of its more than four million complaints during the previous 10-year period and none in the random sample of some 6,700 complaints related in any way to auto repair,” adds Ryan.
The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is also against “Right to Repair.”
“Any bill—federal or state—is unnecessary because the private sector already provides cost-effective access to any information necessary to service or repair vehicles,” it states on its web site.
"I think today if an independent repair shop can’t get a car fixed, it could be because that’s the business model of that facility,” says Wilson. "Today’s high-tech vehicles require high-tech tools, so independent repair shops might have chosen to not invest in the tools and processes to be able to fix that particular vehicle"
Some professionals like Bill Boutwell, executive director of the Massachusetts Independent Automobile Dealers Association, who grew up in the automotive industry and has been in every facet of it, argue that yes, it’s true some information is available, for instance an instruction to, “replace the alternator.” But the instructions don’t give the model number or code.
"I can finish about 85 percent of a job, but we end up hitting a wall and have to take the car back to the dealership,” he says.
Take a fuel pump, for instance. Often, independent repair shops can replace a burned out fuel pump, however, the car won’t start because its computer system won’t recognize that the pump was replaced. And back to the franchise dealership the car goes.
“In other words, the information is available, but it’s incomplete. All we’re asking for is to level the playing field,” he says. “We don’t want anything special.”
There are other groups such as the Tire Industry Association, the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), and independent auto repair businesses lobbying for the “Right to Repair” bill to pass.
“We support each motorist’s right to patronize the auto service facility of their choice and seek to have repair information equitably available to every repair shop in the country,” says Roy Littlefield, executive vice president of the Tire Industry Association.
These businesses and 40-plus congressmen say the bill allows car owners to have the right to choose where they want to repair their cars, it authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate regulations to protect consumers, and promotes competition in auto maintenance and repair.
“The common denominator in all this is organizations saying that either the information is already available or should be available at the franchised dealers, and others saying it’s not. If that’s the case, then what harm would the legislation do if passed?” concludes Boutwell.
An independent mechanic for more than 30 years in the Austin, Texas, metropolitan area, Gilbert Valdez says the bill isn’t necessary. According to Valdez, many people who work at independent shops aren’t certified or trained technicians; in fact, many of them can barely read simple manuals, or work with computer software or diagnostic equipment. So to give them manufacturer information doesn’t make any sense, since they aren’t prepared to do the job in the first place.
Moreover, he says, dealerships have spent a lot of money on software and training and should not have to share that information. Valdez, who is a certified mechanic and has invested thousands in software and diagnostic equipment, says he rarely has to send a car back to the dealership.
“Before they pass a bill like that, they should worry about making sure that the mechanics that are out there are certified,” he says.