MA – Right to Repair

[SpawnedX]

This has been talked about a little bit due to some of Eric’s videos. I want to kind of clarify what was really passed and why.

First let me give you the ever so brief break down of what happened.

– Independents complained saying they should get free diagnostic tools and free access to the manufacturer’s system to keep the market competitive.
– Manufacturers said “if that law passes, we will just close down our operations in those states.”
– Bill was reworked to be that the manufacturer’s had to offer the tools at a competitive price. Competitive pricing is determined to be the same prices they charge the dealerships. Because the dealerships do not get those tools for free, they pay for them, so why would the independents get them for free?
– Basically they already had this, AllData bought the information from the dealers and put it in their system and independent shops could subscribe to that. Now, on top of things like AllData, the manufacturers have to offer access to each of their systems, for a daily fee that is basically a monthly subscription divided by 30. However, they will have to pay for access to each different manufacturer’s system, there is no collective of information. It has to be offered as daily access because the independent does not always have that car brand in the shop.
– The biggest change is that the manufacturer has to offer their special tools for sale. You want a Subaru Select monitor? No problem. Just pay the 7,500.00 or so the manufacturer charges the dealer for one. Want our battery analyzer? No problem, pay the couple of grand for the handheld or close to 5 grand for the standalone.

That is all the Right to Repair act in MA has done and that’s about all they can do without the manufacturer’s just walking away with their product and jobs. Because just think of how many independent shops in a state there is, if the manufacturer had to provide all that information and tools for free, they would not be profitable in that state as is.

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[Larry Bloodworth]

Eric,

I saw one of your videos referring to the legality of reprogramming ECMs on vehicles. I tried to find the video, but couldn’t. I wanted to bring a recent article I found to your attention. It was in a recent issue of Automotive News.

J. Larry Bloodworth, CMAT

[Author]

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