The last vehicle I owned that I could actually work on was a 1970 Volkswagen pop-top camper. I was able to do most of the work on that vehicle myself — there was very little that couldn’t be fixed with duct tape and baling wire — and all the technical documentation was widely available.
Modern vehicles are much more complicated and require specialized diagnostic tools and technical documentation on which the manufacturers keep a very tight lid. Access to that information is showing signs of loosening up according to Kyle Wiens writing for the Atlantic. Wiens primarily cites the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act that gives vehicle owners the right to repair their vehicles wherever they like.
Massachusetts overwhelmingly passed the US’s first “right to repair” legislation in 2012, and in January 2014, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the Association of Global Automakers, the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association, and the Coalition for Automotive Repair Equality decided to ride the horse in the direction it was going and announced a national-level memorandum of understanding supporting “right to repair.”
Beginning in 2018, all motor vehicle manufacturers will be required to use a standard, open interface for accessing the vehicle’s service data and to sell tools and technical documentation at fair prices.
But, as Wiens notes, the memorandum of understanding isn’t law and none of the motor vehicle manufacturers have yet endorsed it. More importantly the American Automobile Association (AAA) does not support the memorandum because it excludes telematics (navigation, vehicle location, and wireless communication technologies).
At least it’s a start.
When Karen and I purchased our 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek, we also upgraded our iPhones to the iPhone 5s that supports Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy wireless required by Automatic, a dongle that connects to a vehicle’s on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) port and iPhone app. Together, they help you drive smarter by (privately) monitoring your driving habits, helping you locate the vehicle if you forgot where you parked it, and providing a text message to a primary contact in the case of a crash. Best, and most important of all, Automatic automatically decodes the check engine light on the vehicle, providing the code, plain-english translation, and solution. The parts manager at my Subaru dealer told me that Subaru charges its dealerships thousands of dollars for a hand-held device that does what my US$100 Automatic does.