The New Jersey Assembly passed the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to
Repair Act (A.B. 803) Monday by a vote of 49 in favor, 22 against and 8
abstaining. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Introduced by Assemblyman Reid Gusciora (D-Mercer), the legislation is
designed to ensure that New Jersey independent repair shops have the
same access to service information, tools and software that vehicle
manufacturers make available to their new car dealers.
Passage by the Assembly came only days after the Assembly Consumer
Affairs Committee approved the bill by a 3-2 vote. During the hearing,
independent repairers testified about problems they’ve experience in
obtaining access to information and tools needed to repair their
customers’ vehicles. Shop owners claimed that they often are forced to
tell their customers that the dealer is the only place to go for
certain repairs or, in some cases, they will take the vehicle back to
the dealer themselves rather than tell the customer they cannot
complete the repair.
Aaron Lowe, vice president of government affairs for the Automotive
Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), testified that the service and
parts business is becoming a growing percentage of car companies’
profits and therefore, independent repair shops are becoming more
dependent on car companies and their dealers for tools and information.
“The commercial interests at stake in the vehicle repair market demand
that right to repair legislation be enacted to ensure a level playing
field where consumers continue to have a choice of where they have
their vehicle serviced,” Lowe stated.
The Automotive Service Association (ASA) and the National Automobile
Dealers Association (NADA) oppose Right to Repair legislation. The two
groups contend that independent repairers do have equal access to
vehicle information.
In a letter to the U.S. Congress sent last year, ASA said, “The service
information, diagnostic tools and training needed are already available
in the marketplace. Therefore, legislation forcing the disclosure of
proprietary data would be unnecessary and counterproductive. NADA and
ASA assert that the information necessary to diagnose, service and
repair vehicles is already being made available to all parties in the
automobile repair industry through third-party private sector companies
and automobile manufacturers.”
Other groups testifying in favor of the bill included the Alliance of
Aftermarket Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP-NJ), New Jersey
Gasoline-Convenience-Automotive Association (NJGCA), Citizen’s Action,
National Federal of Independent Business (NFIB) and AAA.
For more information, visit www.righttorepairnj.org.
