BETHESDA, MD — The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) delivered compelling testimony on the impact of the Right to Repair Act on small businesses at a special hearing of the House Subcommittee on Workforce, Empowerment and Government Programs of the Small Business Committee about the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act (H.R. 2048) held yesterday.
“Passage of Right to Repair legislation is critical not only to the thousands of small businesses that comprise the automotive repair industry, but also their customers who depend on local repair shops to keep their vehicle operating safely, cleanly and dependably,” said Aaron Lowe, AAIA’s vice president of government affairs.
The legislation introduced by Reps. Joe Barton, R-TX, Edolphus Towns, D-NY and Darrel Issa, R-CA., requires that car companies make available to independent service facilities, the same service information and tools available to the new car dealers.
Commenting on the September 2002 promise by the car companies to make all information available to the aftermarket, Lowe told the subcommittee that “the promises of the car companies, while progress, does not go far enough to either resolve our current issues or to ensure the future of a competitive repair market. Our central issue with the promise is that it is not enforceable. Should any of the car companies determine to walk away from it, there would be nothing that our industry or the other car companies could do to hold them to their promise.”
“Of further concern is the National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF) that was cited in the letter as the enforcement entity for the promise. By nearly any objective measure, NASTF is not an enforcement group, but simply a clearinghouse for information request from the technicians that are routed to the responsible car company. Once there, it is up to the car company to decide how to answer. NASTF as an entity does not force or negotiate a resolution on behalf of the independent technician,” Lowe commented.
“The bottom line is that while promises help move the ball forward, our industry cannot rest its future on them without some hammer to ensure everyone stays at the table. Car companies have racked up a long track record of withholding needed information and tools and they make too much money on the aftermarket to accept anything less,” Lowe said.
Lowe called on Congress to pass the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act during this Congress, stating that “this legislation will ensure that the small businesses that have worked hard to serve their customers and keep America on the road will be able to continue to do so. It also will ensure that their customers will continue to enjoy the most competitive and effective aftermarket in the world.”
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