This was in this mornings Minneapolis Star and Sickle. No need to worry Wellstone is already on top of it.
Clash over computer car codes comes to Capitol Hill
Rob Hotakainen
Star Tribune
Published Jun 24, 2002
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- At Jerry's Body Shop in Mankato, Minn., a $2,500 repair job was completed recently on a red 1996 BMW.
The accident made the airbag light go on, and making it go off was a complicated affair. Geralynn Kottschade, the shop's general manager, said the owner couldn't take the car home for days, until her husband made arrangements to drive it 70 miles to a dealership, where employees had access to a computer code that made the light go dark.
"It would be nice if they could give you the codes. . . . Ideally, I'd like to fix the car for the customer, with little or no delays," Kottschade said.
As more cars go high-tech, independent mechanics and repair shops complain that they're sometimes being deprived of the computer codes they need to keep the newer cars running.
Calling it a case of "blatant collusion," Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., earlier this month introduced a bill that would force manufacturers to share the codes necessary to run diagnostic tests and perform repairs.
Wellstone said the livelihoods of thousands of small repair shops are in danger, adding that "the last thing that America needs is another industry where all the little guys . . . are driven out."
"It is terrible for our communities who lose business and jobs, and reduced competition means higher prices for consumers," Wellstone said.
Scott Lambert, executive vice president of the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association, said that manufacturers have a right to restrict access to their technology.
"From a business standpoint, it's diluting our franchise" to make the codes public, he said. "A franchise becomes meaningless."
Tom Bonfe, the owner of Bonfe's Auto Service and Body Repair on West 7th Street in St. Paul, said that he routinely tells customers with Chryslers to go directly to the dealer if they have problems with their antilock brake systems or airbags. He said there's no doubt that he's losing business.
"It's not only that I'm losing it, but I'm giving it to the dealership," he said. "And that's what they want."
William Abraham, executive vice president of the Greater Metropolitan Automobile Dealers Association of Minnesota, said that manufacturers "want it to be repaired right the first time. . . . All things being equal, they'd rather have you repair them at a dealership because they know they can get the job done right."
Wellstone said that auto manufacturers "are acting like a cartel, and it is hurting independent auto mechanics and car owners alike." And Kottschade agreed.
"Who owns the information that's stored in the vehicle?" she asked. "Do you own it when you buy the vehicle? Or does the dealership own it? . . . If you are denied the availability to take it to the shop of your choice because they cannot service the vehicle, I guess it would be a cartel."
Proponents of the legislation say it would save consumers money by giving them more choices.
Wellstone has sent a letter to his colleagues to try to line up cosponsors for his bill. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House by Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y.
"This is all about whether or not consumers have a right to take their cars to mechanics they know and trust," Wellstone said. He said his bill has been endorsed by the American Automobile Association (AAA), which has 44 million members, and the Automotive Service Association (ASA), the trade association for automotive service professionals. At its convention in April, the ASA conducted a march to Capitol Hill to ask Congress for relief.
Bill Haas, a spokesman for the ASA, which represents 12,000 members, said that a membership survey found that 10 percent of all vehicles that are brought to independent repair shops cannot be repaired because of withheld information.
Supporters of the legislation say the problem is an unintended consequence of the 1990 Clean Air Act. Congress mandated that all vehicles built after 1994 had to be equipped with a computer system to monitor emissions. But computer systems have advanced and now control such things as brakes, ignitions, airbags, steering mechanisms, climate control and sound systems.
Don Seyfer, the owner of Seyfer Automotive in Wheat Ridge, Colo., and the former chairman of the board for ASA, said that it took him a day and a half to figure out why the electric door locks and windows on a 2000 Honda had quit working. He said he could have figured it out much more quickly if he had had access to the computer codes.
Seyfer said that manufacturers have different standards governing how they'll share their information.
"A lot of the European manufacturers are not good," he said. He gave the highest marks to General Motors, saying they have "always worked with the independents to make sure that their cars always get fixed right. And isn't that the goal of everybody?"
Bonfe, whose business has been in his family since 1950, said he just lost out on a $600 to $700 repair job when he had to send a St. Paul woman with a 1996 Ford to a dealership. He hopes that Congress will intervene.
"If there was one computer, one language that they all use, that's a dream-case scenario for anybody that works on cars," he said.
Lambert, of the car dealers association, said there is no evidence that independent repair shops are being driven out of business, and he said that consumers enjoy "a wealth of options." He said that no products are more regulated than automobiles, adding that manufacturers must be concerned with safety equipment, recalls and warranties.
"They have a right, I think, to restrict who has access to all of that technology," he said. "Otherwise, they're left with people they don't have any relationship with working on vehicles that they're still responsible for."
Abraham said that dealerships can keep up-to-date on training for employees in such things as electronics, which other shops can't always offer.
"The old garage mechanic is gone," he said. "In fact, the term 'mechanic' is gone. They're called technicians now. These people have to be very intelligent people. They're working on computers, and it's a high-tech industry. . . . How does the guy that's in a little town of a population of 500 people get educated about the electronics of a $30,000 new automobile?"
Wellstone said he will abandon the legislation if manufacturers negotiate an agreement with small operators. But if that doesn't happen, he said, he plans to ask for a hearing and hopes to bring independent mechanics to Capitol Hill. He said that manufacturers are trying "to shove these mechanics aside, basically to make them expendable."
"The unfairness of it could not be clearer," he said. "I mean, I think people get it. . . . It's little guy versus big guy."
-- Washington Bureau correspondent Shira Kantor contributed to this report.-- Rob Hotakainen is at
rhotakainen@mcclatchydc.com .
