Auto repair costs have soared more than 50% since 2020, doubling the overall inflation rate during the same period. With the average repair bill now exceeding $800, many hardworking families are facing an increased affordability crisis.
Fortunately, Washington is starting to recognize that preserving repair choice and competition is critical. In June, President Donald Trump addressed the problem in remarks from the Oval Office, explaining that automakers “don’t want people to fix their car,” noting that not letting car owners fix their own vehicles is “strange.” He went further last week, signing a memorandum to the Environmental Protection Agency reaffirming “the freedom to fix” and underscoring that the right to repair is “really common sense.”
America’s 270,000+ independent repair shops agree that not letting people fix their own cars is strange. To make it worse, automakers are systematically restricting repair data and parts as vehicles become more advanced — all to steer more service business into their own networks.
We appreciate the president for shining a light on this issue and taking important action to improve the lives of millions of Americans — and now, the ball is in Congress’s court. We urge lawmakers to build on Trump’s actions and codify the automotive right to repair into law.
Congress has a ready-made solution in Rep. Neal Dunn’s (R-FL) REPAIR Act. This bipartisan legislation would restore fair access to vehicle data, tools, and parts information that independent repair shops need to compete.
Automakers’ motivation for restricting repairs is obvious: It benefits their bottom lines. New cars are expensive, and folks are hanging onto their cars longer than ever before. Slower new car sales mean less warranty repair and maintenance work will be moving through manufacturer dealerships, creating an incentive to monopolize the post-warranty service market as much as possible.
In turn, we’ve seen vehicle manufacturers quietly wall off necessary repair data from their service market competition with proprietary platforms and software locks. The behavior is spreading across the industry: Half of U.S. independent shops are forced to send customer vehicles to manufacturer-controlled networks month after month. There, consumers face up to 36% higher repair bills on average and wait three times longer to get back on the road.
Take Ford, for example. The company keeps essential repair data, known as telematics, inside its own service network. That data powers a program called Ford Mobile Service through remote diagnostics, pre-diagnosis, and service scheduling via its app. Drivers are routed to dealerships before independent shops have a chance to compete. Even the Wall Street Journal has taken note, reporting that Ford “is beefing up its use of connected data to steer owners to its dealers.”
Vehicle manufacturers claim that there isn’t a problem, as they claim they already share the necessary repair information. American small business owners, and the data, both disagree: In a recent survey, independent repair shops said vehicle data access is now their single biggest concern, with 84% of such shops identifying data access as extremely or very important. A separate national survey found that 6 in 10 independent shops run into data access issues weekly.
Multiply those barriers across hundreds of thousands of independent shops, and the problem’s true size comes into focus. Repair restrictions impact a supply chain that touches every congressional district — parts makers, distributors, technicians, small business owners, drivers, and more.
Accordingly, a coalition of 50+ bipartisan lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with support from more than 85% of Americans, has come together around a commonsense way to outlaw automakers’ behavior: the REPAIR Act.
CAR REPAIRS HAVE NEVER COST MORE. CONGRESS CAN FIX THAT
Trump has signaled that this issue deserves attention, and Congress knows it must be addressed. This year has already seen momentum through subcommittee action on the REPAIR Act. Now lawmakers can finish the job by advancing the legislation as a vetted solution to automakers’ increasingly problematic market behavior.
Washington does not get many issues capable of building such strong consensus; lawmakers would be remiss to waste this one.
Bill Hanvey is president and CEO of the Auto Care Association, which represents the entire supply chain of the independent automotive aftermarket, including America’s 270,000+ independent repair shops.