10/07/2020
By Ron Jedraszek owns Park Street Auto Repair in Beverly QUESTION 1
I've been servicing cars in Beverly for more than 30 years. I grew up in here, and so I've known many of my customers for decades. Because of the relationships I have with them, now their kids are come to me too. I'm the guy they come to because they trust me and they trust my prices, which are significantly lower than dealership costs.
I've built a good business and not a day goes by that I'm not grateful.
That is why I'm urging a yes vote on Right to Repair, Question 1 on the Massachusetts ballot. Car manufacturers have started to restrict access to the codes and other diagnostic information that I need in order to fix your car by moving it to new, wireless platforms that are included in today’s more computerized cars. If Question 1 doesn’t pass, there’s a good chance that in a few years I won’t be able to fix your car and you’ll be steered to the dealer for more expensive repairs.
Since the original Right to Repair passed in 2012, there has been a revolution in car technology. You’ve seen it—touch screens and fender sensors, rear and front cameras, parking assist and the like. Unfortunately, that law had a loophole that allowed automakers to restrict access to certain mechanical data now that some of it is transmitted over wireless connections to the automaker’s servers. Increasingly I can’t get the diagnostic information that I need to fix cars like I used to.
As of this year, 90 percent of new cars are equipped to transmit this data wirelessly—there are virtually no “simple” or “basic” cars anymore. No one predicted this back in 2012.
I'm sure you've seen the negative ads by our opponents, the big automakers, trying to scare you about safety concerns and alleged access to personal data. Those of us who have been through it before can tell you it is almost the exact the same thing that they said when they opposed the first Right to Repair, a law that has been working admirably for nearly 8 years.
The truth is that the automakers want to steer repair business to their dealers, plain and simple. The move towards wireless transmission of mechanical information makes it easier for them to do it. Dealers don’t make as much on car sales as they used to, so they need to make it up with expensive repairs.
Automakers certainly have a profit interest in keeping all the repairs at their dealerships, but anyone with basic common sense knows that this is not in the consumer’s interest.
Question 1 preserves the same car repair rights that you have now as a consumer in the face of this new wireless technology in cars. That current law requires manufacturers to provide a wired port that we can plug into and get codes that correspond with your car's systems and tells us what is wrong with the car. All Question 1 would do is allow us access to the very same information, but through an app connection that you, the car owner, controls and can choose who to provide access to.
The language of the ballot question, written by the Attorney General and Secretary of State, is clear: repair shops could only access “wirelessly transmitted mechanical data related to their vehicles’ maintenance and repair.” And even then, it is only with the car owner’s permission—kind of like today when you drive in and invite me to plug in and diagnose your car, just updated for new technology.
My small business and more than 1,500 small repair shops across the state have banded together to urge a yes vote on Question 1. We need it to stay in business, keep our technicians employed, and continue repairing ever-more complicated cars and trucks. Consumers need it to preserve their choice in car repair and the ability to shop around for repairs.
Please help us continue to serve you and keep the repair market fair by voting yes on 1.
