Right to Repair/Modify Cars Threatened

[xbacksideslider]

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/auto ... r-repairs/

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/

Automakers are asking the U.S. Copyright office, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to bar any work that may affect their software, to include the hardware/software interface on grounds of public safety and an assertion of ownership of the software that is incorporated into the product that you bought and paid for. That is, they are asking for a recall, or abolition, of the normal "personal use" exception that we all now enjoy, as for instance to watch a copyrighted TV show.

[Tetge]

This should not concern you since I am not even sure that any of the machines that you own have more than a magneto as far as electronics go. So, I assume since the protection that the nice corporations want is for their software, this will ot impact other mechanical repairs, such a changing tires or mufflers or windshield wiper blades? But, in truth, there are some vehicles out there already that have to be worked on by a dealership, for all practical purposes, as the proprietary test equipment is either not available to independents or is so expensive that they can't afford it. I know that shops can't read the specialized error codes on my friend's old Lincoln Mark VIII, and only the Lincoln dealer can, and they charge ridiculous amounts to do so. And, I have heard that the ECU controls all functions on a VW, and that only the dealerships can fully read out and perhaps repair modern VW's. I am sure that the list goes on and on.

Of course, if you go for old technology and thus avoid the real possibility that you will not be able to fix, modify. your new machine, you face different issues, as parts get hard to come by for those antiques, and there have been significant performance gains with modern, computer reliant machinery. It might be cost effective overall to suck it up and buy a long term maintenance contract and pay John Deere. Then you just go out and plow the field and listen to country music up in the sound proof air conditioned cabin. This generally works out better than walking behind a mule, sweating in the hot sun. And, when you finish for the day, you can go over to FarmerOnly.com .....

[SonicVenum]

I wonder how much of this is a result from pressure put on the manufacturers by their dealer networks. It seems to be a widely held belief that dealerships make the bulk of their money from service rather than from vehicle sales. With internet shopping and no-haggle dealerships (like Carmax), margins on car sales are ever decreasing. Making new vehicles serviceable only by manufacturer-related dealerships guarantees this much-needed revenue stream. That's terrible for consumers because dealer service prices are usually ridiculous. My boss insists on taking our trucks to a local GM dealer for service. Only the oil changes are worthwhile. Anything else is a rip off. I research everything we do, and we typically pay more for parts on top of the high (~$100/hr) labor rates. I changed the water pump on one of our trucks. Dealers charge ~$1500 for the job, and I did it for ~$150 in parts and specialty tools. Even with my daily rate included, we came out up $1000+ on that job.

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

They also make a bundle on extended warranties that they weasel out of honoring at every chance