BETHESDA, MD — The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) today urged Congress “to wait no longer, but to move as soon as possible to enact the Motor Vehicle Owners Right to Repair Act of 2005 (HR 2048).” The statement is part of testimony given by AAIA’s vice president for government affairs gave at a hearing held on May 17th before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.
“While AAIA has fully supported the legislation, we were hopeful last summer that a non-legislative agreement could be reached that would for a third party voluntary enforcement program,” Lowe stated. However, Lowe told the Subcommittee that those negotiations broke down over three key issues, availability of aftermarket tools with all capabilities necessary to repair vehicles, access to issues necessary to initialize and repair anti-theft immobilizer systems, and how the organization that oversees the agreement will be governed.
Lowe outlined to the Subcommittee steps he said AAIA and other aftermarket groups took to bring the groups back to the table to negotiate on the remaining issues, but were rejected by the manufacturers. Based on the car company response, Lowe stated that “it appears clear to us that the manufacturers despite all of their public talk do not want to resolve this issue and are hoping the legislation goes away.”
While Lowe stated that the current discussion targeted at formalizing NASTF is a step in the right direction, “the discussions currently taking place at NASTF appear to be making changes that will move us further away from an acceptable agreement. The bottom line is that we should not be reinventing the wheel, but instead be building on the progress that we made in the BBB negotiations,” Lowe said.
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