Op-Ed: North Carolina is built for road trips—until your car breaks down. A bill before Congress could help.
By Kenny Kase
North Carolina’s mountains, beaches, and vibrant cities rank it among the top states in the country for hitting the road. While smooth summer travels are always the goal, a popped tire, broken engine, or minor collision can dampen a vacation.
For many families, the joy of a summer getaway may be overshadowed by the expense of paying huge sums and waiting extended periods for basic vehicle repairs and maintenance. North Carolina also ranks among the five most expensive states for car repairs – and automakers are actively working to reduce available repair options.
More and more, our technicians at Christian Brothers Automotive in Apex, North Carolina are unable to complete routine repair jobs and other tune-ups for customers we’ve been serving for over a decade. Our ability is hindered as a result of automakers who refuse to give independent repairers access to the limited, yet critical, vehicle data we need.
Today’s cars and trucks – and their repairs – are more computer-reliant than ever. Any parts or features with sensors, cameras, or other technology require specialized diagnostics and/or vehicle data to service and repair. In some cases, repairs that were once routine, like basic engine sensors or new ignition keys, now require proprietary software or dealership-only tools.
That’s not how it should work.
For example, we recently had a customer with a check engine light on. We found that the vehicle had a small emissions leak, but we were unable to complete the testing – despite having expensive scan tools in our shop. This manufacturer required a proprietary scan tool to perform the full diagnosis. Our customer did not want to go to the dealership because of the higher cost and two-week wait time to even get an appointment, but they had no other choice. For another manufacturer, even when we can access a diagnostic code on the vehicle, the manufacturer does not provide sufficient information in service manuals to repair many issues, so we have to send the customer to the dealership.
Automakers have spent years building up this web of unnecessary data access restrictions – giving them the power to force customers away from trusted local shops like ours and into dealership repair networks that are nearly 40% more expensive and less convenient for car owners.
Allowing consumers the right to repair their personal property is common sense – and it’s uniting a bipartisan coalition that wants to eliminate barriers to market competition and consumer choice. The bipartisan REPAIR Act (H.R. 1566/S. 1379) would bring an end to vehicle data access struggles facing more than 8 in 10 independent repair shops, according to an Auto Care Association survey.
The REPAIR Act is gaining real momentum in Congress, with more than 50 bipartisan supporters in the last session and nearly 40 combined (and counting) from both chambers this session. I’m encouraging Senator Ted Budd, Senator Thom Tillis, and the entirety of North Carolina’s congressional delegation to join their bipartisan colleagues and support the REPAIR Act – to stand up for the independent repair shops and drivers who keep our state moving.
If this trend continues, it won’t just hurt consumers; it could drive many independent repair shops out of business. North Carolina’s automotive care industry supports more than 90,000 jobs and contributes more than $24 billion to the state economy each year – real value that is at risk without action from Congress.
North Carolinians shouldn’t be forced to pay more and wait longer just to get back on the road. And small business owners should be lights and leaders in their communities, not shut out of the market by big auto manufacturers. Now’s the time for change – pass the REPAIR Act.
Kenny Kase has been in the auto industry his entire career, starting with washing cars at 15 years old for the local dealership and working his way up to an assistant service manager. He attended college at Penn Tech where he earned a B.S. in automotive technology management, then hired on by Chrysler Group LLC (now known as Stellantis) as a regional rep and spending the next 15 years working his way up through that company. He now owns his own independent repair shop in Apex, North Carolina with Christian Brothers Automotive.
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