Right to Repair: Access Is Coming. Capability Isn't Included.

Bottom line up front: the independent repair world is slowly winning its fight for access to the data, tools, and software that automakers keep behind the dealer wall. It's a good fight and worth winning. But here's the part that doesn't fit on a bumper sticker — getting access to the data was never the hard part of this job. Being able to use it is. Access is the door. Capability is the work, and no law hands you that.

Where things actually stand

Massachusetts and Maine put vehicle data access into law. A 2014 agreement between automakers and the aftermarket already commits manufacturers to give independent shops the same diagnostic and repair information they give their dealers. And in 2026, Congress has been moving: a narrowed version of the REPAIR Act got folded into a broader vehicle bill that would make those agreements federally enforceable, while a competing proposal — the SAFE Repair Act — puts the emphasis on safety and making sure repairs actually restore systems like ADAS and brakes.

It's advancing. It's not fully settled. And reasonable people disagree on the details: independents want a level field on competition and cost, while automakers raise safety, cybersecurity, and the question of who owns the data a car generates. Those are all fair points. But step back from the politics, and the operational truth is the same no matter which version becomes law.

Access was never the bottleneck

For a shop like ours, the wall was rarely "we can't get to the data." You could usually get to a subscription or pull up a procedure. The wall is everything that comes after:

• Knowing what the data actually means
• Having the OEM software running on a machine that won't drop in the middle of a flash
• Holding the credentials the secured work requires — NASTF VSP, gateway authentication, the accounts each automaker controls
• And the years of pattern recognition that separate the stored code from the actual fault

Hand every shop in America a dealer login tomorrow and most still couldn't program a DME or calibrate a radar correctly — because the login was never what was stopping them.

What Right to Repair changes — and what it doesn't

Give it its due. What it changes is real: it keeps the door from being slammed shut, and it protects independents from a future where the dealer network has a monopoly on the information needed to fix a car. About 70% of post-warranty repair in this country runs through independent shops — that access matters, and it's worth protecting.

What it doesn't change is the investment required to walk through that door. If anything, broader access raises the stakes on capability. When everyone can get the data, the thing that sets a shop apart is the part the data can't give you.

Why this is good news for shops that did the work

We spent years building the capability side — the credentials, the OEM subscriptions most shops don't want to carry, the tooling, the documentation, the reps. Right to Repair doesn't threaten any of that. It validates it. It removes the last easy excuse — "the dealer won't give it to me" — and puts the spotlight exactly where a serious shop wants it: can you actually do the work?

If you run a shop

Don't wait for a law to make you capable. Access is trending your way — use the runway to build the thing access can't hand you: training, credentials, the tooling to back them up. And where a job is past your capability today, sublet it to someone who's already built theirs, and keep your customer while you grow into it.

If you own the vehicle

Right to Repair is genuinely in your corner — more competition, more choice, lower cost over time. But "my shop can get the data" and "my shop can fix it right" are two different questions. The first one is getting easier to answer yes. Make sure you're asking the second one too.

Where this lands

The right to repair is worth fighting for, and we're glad to see it moving. Just don't mistake the door for the room. Getting in was never the hard part of this work — doing it right is. And that part, we've already built.