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Dan Brooks is the co-owner of Capitol Car Care, an independent auto repair shop in Augusta.
Last November, Maine voted overwhelmingly for the right to repair their vehicles where they choose. The right-to-repair referendum passed with 84 percent of the vote, an almost unprecedented show of support. Automotive right to repair is now the law in Maine, and it makes sure car owners and their chosen mechanics have access to critical diagnostic data, data that could otherwise be hoarded by auto manufacturers in order to force consumers into their dealerships for repairs.
Despite the clear directive of Maine voters, some in the Legislature are now seeking to roll back the consumer protections provided by right to repair through a bill ( LD 1911) that would strip critical parts of the law away. LD 1911 would effectively gut the right to repair, and harm both car owners and Maine’s independent auto repair industry.
LD 1911 strips three major parts of the right-to-repair law away: Direct access by car owners to their wireless repair info, called “telematics”; the attorney general’s task force that would provide oversight of the data transfer process; and the right to due process for car owners or repair shops who are prevented from accessing vehicle diagnostic data.
Telematics access is a key component in the repair of increasingly complex vehicles. Put plainly, without telematics access, many types of repairs on newer vehicles cannot be done. The point of right to repair was to prevent automakers from locking their customers into a lifetime of dealership dependency. Without telematics access, this is exactly what will happen.
The current right-to-repair law also directs the attorney general to head up a task force that will ensure the data transferred from consumers’ vehicles are protected, and that the data sought by car owners and their chosen mechanics are in fact accessible. Stripping this provision, as outlined in LD 1911, could put the big automakers in complete control of your vehicle’s data with no oversight, leaving the door open for both malicious and commercial access to your information.
LD 1911 also weakens the right to repair by relegating data access disputes to the civil court system. That means if an automaker refuses to provide diagnostic data to you or your chosen mechanic, they would not face penalties for breaking the law. Instead, you or your mechanic could be forced to sue the big automakers to get access to your own information to repair your own car. Suing a gigantic multibillion-dollar corporation is an impossibility for most Mainers and most Maine independent repair shops. By pushing this to the civil court system, LD 1911 makes the right to repair virtually unenforceable.
Without these three provisions, the right to repair can no longer provide the consumer protection it was intended to provide. And it could again put car owners in the position of being forced to take their vehicles to the dealerships to get repaired. This not only infringes on the freedom to choose that Mainers voted for in November, it could also drive up the cost for Maine consumers.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office in March released the findings of an investigation into the right to repair. In the report, the GAO noted that a rollback of the right to repair would hurt low-income and rural consumers the most by driving up repair costs and travel time. In Maine, that means forcing car owners to drive sometimes hours to get to a dealership.
Also in March, Consumer Reports released a survey of more than 10,000 of its member car owners that showed a clear preference for independent repair shops, based on price and quality of service. They noted that “Dealership service departments receive low ratings due to their high prices,” and that “independent facilities stood out for their trustworthiness, reasonable prices, knowledgeable mechanics, and good reputation.”
Mainers don’t want to be forced to dealerships to fix their cars. And the rollback of the right to repair through LD 1911 would not just hurt consumers. Maine’s independent auto repair industry supports more than 9,900 jobs, driving more than $1.1 billion in economic activity across the state. If LD 1911 passes, those jobs could be at risk, along with the economic impact of independent repair shops in communities all over Maine.
On behalf of the countless Maine car owners who choose to repair their own vehicles, the coalition of hundreds of Maine independent repair shops who fought for the right to repair, and the hundreds of thousands of Maine voters who supported last November’s referendum, we strongly urge the Maine Legislature to protect the right to repair, and to vote “no” on LD 1911.
