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alkonaut a day ago

The right to repair thing is a spectrum. On the one hand you have the John Deere inkjet model. But on the other end you have the normal car manufacturers who don't make it impossible, but who incentivize using 1st party repair. Are we talking about that being against right to repair? Because that feels somewhat hard to legislate.

E.g: A car has 1 year warranty. But the warranty is extended by one year so long as you service it with manufacturer, not a third party. This doesn't prevent me from servicing with a third party for half the price, but it might not be worth doing that. And I would think twice about buying a car which is only a few years old unless it's serviced completely at first party, due to issues that could arise with warranty claims.

Could legislation be made that says "If you repair at a third party, or even repair yourself, and you know what you are doing/do it according to the recommendation, then the manufacturer has to give the same warranty they would have if you serviced it at them"? Because that feels insane. The warranty is just a kickback for using their expensive service, getting you to the service place/showroom regularly etc.

sidewndr46 a day ago | parent [-]

In the US the Magnuson Moss Warranty act explicitly forbids what you are describing

alkonaut a day ago | parent [-]

I think something similar applies in many parts of the world, _but_ I also think that the response from the OEMs is basically "fight the warranty claims hard when there is third party service involved, and just honor the warranty with a smile otherwise". Basically malicious compliance is what they have to resort to. And as a car owner I'm lazy and afraid of conflict. So I happily pay X% more for the service to get the no fuss warranty (And the OEM shop is even happier).

avgDev a day ago | parent | next [-]

In order to deny a warranty claim the US, the manufacturer has to prove the issue has been caused by a modification or servicing.

Why would anyone want to service their call at a stealership? The prices are unfair and the quality of techs is awful. Better to find a small reliable shop.

sidewndr46 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

the couple times I ran into this, I basically just threatened them with legal action & they relented