The fight over who gets to fix your car landed inside the White House this week, and President Donald Trump came out of the meeting sounding firmly on the side of weekend wrench-turners. According to the Detroit Free Press, Andrew Frick, who runs Ford Blue and Model e, sat down with the president alongside representatives from General Motors and motorsport magnate Roger Penske to talk about vehicle repair policy.
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Ford confirmed the meeting took place and said the conversation centered on “repairing vehicles,” but the automaker declined to elaborate. Trump, on the other hand, had plenty to say, and his takeaway was not flattering to the executives in the room.
10 Automotive Gadgets Worth Checking Out
Trump’s Blunt Recap of the Meeting
By the president’s account, the carmakers were lobbying for legislation that would make it harder, not easier, for owners to service their own vehicles. “We had the auto industry in yesterday. They don’t want people to fix their car,” Trump said, recounting the exchange. He claimed he found the request baffling, telling the group it was the first time he had heard of such an idea.
Trump went further, suggesting the stakes for ordinary drivers were severe and framing the issue as one of personal freedom. He praised the mechanically gifted classmates of his youth who, in his telling, could take an engine apart blindfolded even if arithmetic was not their strong suit, and signaled he intended to push back against any effort to box those people out.
Why Automakers Are Wary of Right to Repair
The ability to repair your own vehicle has been a given since cars first hit the road, and independent shops have long depended on it. In recent years, though, manufacturers and tech-leaning companies have grown more protective of their systems. Their argument is that opening up encrypted electronics to anyone could hand a roadmap to hackers, with potentially dangerous results. Ford has been among the more vocal opponents of broad right-to-repair rules for a while now.
Follow the Money
The economics help explain the urgency. American drivers are keeping their cars longer than ever, and they are increasingly steering away from dealership service bays in favor of independent garages. Over the past eight years, the share of repairs handled at franchised dealers slipped from 33 percent to 29 percent. During the same stretch, the count of independent repair shops climbed from 266,000 to roughly 300,000, a trend that eats directly into one of the most profitable corners of the dealer business.
Notably, Ford rolled out a fresh advertising push this week aimed at expanding repair support for older vehicles, a move that sits somewhat awkwardly against the backdrop of its repair-restriction lobbying.
