There's a quiet fight in Washington that could decide whether the shop down the street can still fix your car.
It came up again this week when Ford CEO Jim Farley was asked point-blank about people repairing their own vehicles. His answer leaned on safety, and the example he reached for was the Bronco. Which is a strange hill to pick, since a Bronco is about the simplest modern Ford you can buy. Unbolt the doors, pull the top. Caveman-easy.
But the Bronco isn't really the point, and neither is your driveway. Modern cars run on data. Their computers hold the information a mechanic needs to diagnose them, and automakers want to keep that data locked behind their own doors. If they win, the independent shop that's kept your family's cars running for 20 years gets shut out. So does the aftermarket that keeps a 15-year-old car alive after the manufacturer stops caring.
The mechanism is a bill called the REPAIR Act, currently tucked into the federal highway bill. Language protecting access to vehicle data was recently stripped out, and small-business groups are pushing to get it back in.
If you own the car, you should get a say in who fixes it. Look up the REPAIR Act, and if it matters to you, tell your representative.
What's your take? Should any qualified mechanic be able to work on a new car, or do the automakers have a point?
https://www.thedrive.com/news/fords-ceo-doesnt-want-you-fixing-your-new-bronco-he-says-its-about-safety
As you might expect I fully support the right to repair. The only caveat would be while the car is under warranty I understand it needing to be dealer serviced to maintain the warranty. If you own it you should be able to mess with it.
I don't like the safety angle either. Lots of things get ruined or taken away in the name of safety. Compare growing up 50 years ago to today.
It would be surprising if we found a dissenting voice on a car site like this.
Oh boy, where to begin? As the owner of an independent collision shop, this is nothing new to me. The manufacturers have been moving toward certified repair shops for at least ten years now. The question has always been: To what end? They always claimed that it was about safety and protecting brand image by ensuring repairs are done properly. After having been certified by Honda, Subaru, and Ford, I can tell you that it's all a load of BS. It has nothing to do with fixing them right. They just make sure that you check all the right boxes and buy the many thousands of dollars worth of equipment that they want you to and you're rewarded with a plaque to hang on the wall. They just want someone to throw under the bus when something doesn't get fixed right and someone gets hurt. Every year at renewal time, they would raise the bar and make you buy more equipment and then pay their extortion "subscription" money. I dumped them all. Until they tell me that I can't buy parts from them any more, I'm not wasting my money. It's only a matter of time before they're successful in getting the law changed though.
My new theory is that they're worried that all of the ADAS systems that they're adding won't get calibrated properly if an independent shop or owner repairs them and something very bad is going to happen. We use an outside vendor for calibrations and some cars need $1200 worth of calibrating for a minor repair. So what happens when these things get to be 15 years old and someone needs to have a cheap repair done on them? Think a cash-strapped owner is going to pay for all of the calibrations that it needs? Nope. And what if those uncalibrated systems are part of some level of self driving? Yikes.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. As you can see, this is a hot button issue for me.
No matter what they do to stop it, it's only a matter of time before some gifted kid with his laptop hacks their proprietary software.
Looks what Cobb Tuning did to Subaru years ago. There's tons of programs like Hondata and Forscan out there.
There already several brands that either require an OEM scan tool to access anything of value in their newest cars or others, like Chrysler products, require you to have a subscription to unlock their secure gateway, even with an aftermarket scan tool. The latest Mercedes cars, I can’t even get in to to check engine codes with my Matco scan tool. It’s already here. The funny thing about Honda and Subaru is how outdated their factory scan tools are. I had to buy them when we were still certified on them and they might as well have been running MS-DOS.
This has happened with Porsche since 2024. Even their proprietary PIWIS will not work for MY24+ unless it has an active authorized dealer subscription and the unit has to be attached and logged into the internet to perform any of the functions. So good luck resetting the oil change reminder or let alone any minor programming even as simple as whether the horn sounds on lock/unlock, battery replacement, etc, etc, etc. I'll keep our 2021s and '14.
There is a cross society trend to make everything a subscription. Not just cars. Not a fan of this trend.
Also the "An app for everything" is getting annoying.
The wife unit bought a new tower fan for the living room. It has buttons to control it but they only do the very basic on/off functions. To use everything, you need to download the sketchy app from China and use Bluetooth.
TThe loss of some tactile controls in the cockpit of cars is becoming more and more annoying. F For example, Tesla took away the turn signal stock.
Yeah, I just wasted half of my morning trying to get logged into Toyota’s repair manual site and renew my….you guessed it…subscription.
No turn signal stalk makes sense in a BMW 😆. Not sure about Tesla,
What's the difference between a BMW and a Cactus?
Correct me if I'm wrong but you used that joke 2 weeks ago.
Tesla is leading the way with vehicle subscriptions. You used to be able to buy Full Self-Driving outright, and it stayed with the car. Now it’s a flexible monthly subscription that you can turn on or off as needed—which is a nice touch. Tesla owners already tend to see their cars as high-tech devices rather than traditional vehicles, so this subscription model feels especially natural for them.