Right to vehicle repair is about keeping America moving

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

For millions of Americans, owning a reliable vehicle isn’t a luxury, it’s an essential resource for getting to work, taking their kids to school, and meeting the everyday demands of life. As an independent auto dealer for more than 30 years, I’ve helped put tens of thousands of vehicles into driveways across the country. I’ve also watched rising vehicle prices and increasingly restrictive repair requirements make reliable transportation harder to afford.

Independent dealers are a critical part of America’s transportation ecosystem. Each year, we inspect, repair and recondition millions of used vehicles before returning them to the road — work that’s essential to both safety and affordability. Reconditioning extends the life of good used vehicles and gives consumers dependable transportation well below the cost of buying new. But that work depends on access to the same tools, parts, software, and repair information available to franchised dealers. Today’s vehicles run on sophisticated software and interconnected electronics that have made them safer but also made repairs increasingly dependent on manufacturer controlled diagnostic systems and data. When manufacturers restrict that access, independent repairs become slower, costlier, and sometimes impossible, and those costs land squarely on consumers.

Congress has a chance to fix this. With new vehicle prices at record highs, the used market has become the main path to ownership for working Americans, and Rep. Neal Dunn’s (R-Fla.) REPAIR Act offers a bipartisan way to protect it. The bill ensures independent dealers and repair shops have access to the same service information, diagnostics, software updates, parts, and specialized tools available to manufacturers and their authorized networks, without requiring manufacturers to disclose trade secrets or compromise vehicle cybersecurity.

It simply lets consumers, not manufacturers, decide where their vehicle gets fixed. The administration has already signaled support for this approach and now Congress should follow through and enact it into law. Some stakeholders have resisted this change, but protecting consumers’ freedom to choose where their vehicle gets fixed should outweigh any interest in protecting a closed repair network.

Competition produces better outcomes. When consumers have real repair choices, prices come down. When independent dealers and repair shops can recondition vehicles efficiently with affordable parts and accurate repair data, they get vehicles back on the road faster and pass the savings on to customers.

The biggest winners under the REPAIR Act won’t be independent dealers or repair shops; they’ll be the millions of Americans who depend on affordable transportation to support their families and build their futures. Keeping cars on the road shouldn’t depend on who controls the repair information. It should depend on who delivers safe, high-quality service at the best price. Congress should act now and pass the REPAIR Act.

Don Griffin is the chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association and the co-founder of CarHop Auto Sales.

Tags

consumers

Franchised dealers

Neal Dunn

REPAIR Act

Vehicle manufacturers

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