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Group:
Thought you might be interested in this article from today's Congress Daily AM - I'd normally do a link, but it's a subscription service and you need a password, so I can't do that. It's an article about a battle on Capitol Hill between smaller auto shops and car makers.
FYI.
VP
COMMERCE
Small Repair Shops, Carmakers Battle Over Garage Rights
In a good old fashioned Capitol Hill fight, the little shop
owners of the car repair industry battled it out against the car
making giants Tuesday over how much information the independent
garages should get about fixing automobiles.
Spokesmen for the repair shops griped to the Senate Commerce
Consumer Affairs Subcommittee that carmakers were shutting them
out of access to key computer codes and diagnostic equipment
needed to repair new cars with all types of high tech apparatus.
In a packed hearing room packed with mechanics and parts
dealers in distinctive monogrammed shirts, the aftermarket car
industry supported a bill by Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., to
require original equipment manufacturers to provide information
needed to diagnose, service or repair a vehicle to the car owner
or repair garage. Carmakers opposed it as unnecessary.
"The independent aftermarket is in trouble," said Bill Haas,
vice president of the Automotive Service Association, which
represents 65,000 mechanics and others in the aftermarket
industry.
A survey by his organization said neighborhood mechanics turn
down 15 percent of all repair orders because they lack
information and must turn customers over to automobile dealer
service centers for help. That amounts to $18.2 billion in
annual losses, he said.
Haas said the problem is twofold- manufacturers are not
giving information and, when they do, it is too expensive.
This argument did not sit well with John Cabaniss, an
official of the Association of International Automobile
Manufacturers, or Greg Dana, of the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers.
Both said information was being supplied. Dana claimed the
real issue is over proprietary information - and automakers will
oppose releasing this.
Cabaniss said information is being supplied over the Internet
on the International Automotive Technicians Network Web site and
by January 2003 manufacturers plan to make available the
diagnostic tool and information currently available to
franchised dealers for all 1996 cars and light trucks.
"This isn't a bill about repairs, it's a bill about car
parts," said Charles Territo of the Alliance of Automobile
manufacturers in an interview with CongressDaily. He said that's
why the room was full of car parts suppliers and not mechanics
from "Joe's car garage."
But Bill Carl, who is from a CARQUEST parts supplier in
Winchester, Va., told CongressDaily that "it's not about parts."
Carl said, "If the small repair shops fail, so do the parts
companies."
He added that the reason that Joe's car garage mechanic "is
not here is because he is working - we're here to support
him."By Michael Posner
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posted by 216.127.8...
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