A twist on the ‘Pottery Barn Rule’ will help consumers.
By JOHN FUND
Inflation remains stubbornly high, and leading the sticker shock of high prices are auto repairs. They increased by a staggering 23 percent last year, a problem exacerbated by a combination of supply-chain problems, worker shortages, and the ever-increasing prevalence of high-tech cars.
A bipartisan group of House members — who seldom agree on anything among themselves — has introduced a pro-consumer, pro-market bill to lower repair prices.
“According to the American Automobile Association, a third of American drivers can’t afford the costs of an unexpected car-repair bill without going into debt,” Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, told me. “Motor vehicles have headlamps, bumpers, and grilles that often cost hundreds of dollars more when purchased from an automaker rather than from an independent manufacturer. Consumers deserve the right to have more auto-part repair options.” Issa and his colleagues have introduced the Save Money on Auto Repair Transportation (SMART) Act.
Right to Repair is a twist on the old “Pottery Barn Rule”: If you break an item in a store, you’ve bought it. The Right to Repair idea is that if you purchased a product, you own it, and you should be able to repair it. Car companies, for instance, would be required to provide access to such items as manuals, parts, and diagnostic tools, and they would be prohibited from requiring that all repairs go through them. The satirical TV show South Park once brilliantly lampooned how software locks, voiding warranties if independent repairs are made and limiting the availability of parts — giving manufacturers a monopoly on repair.
The national interest in Right to Repair laws is being mirrored at the state level. In April, Colorado became the first state in the nation to allow farmers to fix their own tractors and combines without waiting precious days for an official factory technician to show up — often to just make a simple programming tweak.
Source: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/04/right-to-repair-is-gaining-momentum/