Agreement with new car dealers adds fuel to ‘right to repair’

Agreement with new car dealers adds fuel to ‘right to repair’
By Ira Kantor | Wednesday, June 20, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Automotive
Bay State new car dealers and the Right to Repair Coalition have agreed to a compromise bill that, if passed, will avoid a November ballot question fight over whether car makers have the right to sell special tools and computerized repair codes to any shop for a fair price.

The Coalition, which represents 40 consumer and after-market organizations and more than 2,000 independent repair shops across the state, and the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, which oversees 410 new car and truck dealers in the Bay State, said today they sent a joint letter to state lawmakers asking them to act on a Right to Repair legislative proposal in advance of a final July 3 deadline for certified signatures on the ballot initiative to be submitted to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Both organizations said they preferred a legislative solution to the issue as long as it contained “strong consumer protections and remedies as proposed in the ballot initiative.”

Art Kinsman, spokesman for the Right to Repair Coalition, said the compromise proves new car dealers and independent repairers have customers’ best interests at heart.

“Our fight has always been with big out-of-state car manufacturers on this issue. Now legislators can be assured that the Right to Repair legislation before them will be a great benefit for all their constituents who make a living in the local automotive repair business,” Kinsman said. “Of course, the greatest beneficiary is the car owner, who will have a true, unfettered choice of where they get their cars fixed.”

The bill, which has long stalled in the Legislature, ensures car owners and independent repairers have access at a fair market price to purchase the same diagnostic and repair information and diagnostic scan tools that manufacturers provide to their franchise car dealerships.

If passed, car manufacturers would have to utilize a universal interface tool designed to access repair information for all manufacturers makes and models starting in 2016.