The legislation would provide consumers with the choices and convenience they want when it comes to picking a repair shop to fix the cars and trucks they paid for.
The Right to Repair Coalition said it had achieved major success last year in raising awareness of the need to enact legislation that would require the big car manufacturers to sell the needed repair information to local repair shops. The group said that not all of the necessary repair information is available to independent, neighborhood car repair shops.
Formal sessions for the Massachusetts Legislature ended on July 31st, 2010, and even though the Right to Repair legislation passed the Senate unanimously, the House of Representatives was unable to take action on the bill before the session ended.
“We support the Right to Repair bill because it simply makes good sense for our members, and for all motorists,” says Mary Maguire, director of public and legislative affairs at AAA Southern New England. “Passage of Right to Repair will provide drivers with more affordable choices and greater convenience when it comes to car repair, and that represents a real victory for the motoring public.’
The group says that Right to Repair legislation would ensure better choices for consumers if independent shops had the same non-proprietary repair codes as the new car dealerships. Repair shops will pay for the data, which would increase competition and result in lower prices for consumers.
