Modern Vespa

Today, it's Harley; Tomorrow, maybe Zero?

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/23/23180054/ftc-harley-davidson-westinghouse-right-to-repair-warranty-violations-consent-order

I haven't spent any significant time thinking about this issue - most of my vehicles are old and - in the case of my SAAB - practically abandonware

That being said, it seems like a tricky/complex one. I definitely think the right to repair one's own vehicle should be protected. I also think OEM equivalent or improved parts should be allowed. But I also understand the companies' perspectives on this - many third party parts I have used have been inferior to OEM, forcing an early replacement or a return to OEM parts. Often times these are marketed as "stock equivalent". I also am not a professional mechanic, and know many people worse than me in that regard who are working on their vehicles anyway. So by forcing warranty support regardless of such issues (if I understand correctly) this seems to create a financial vacuum for the companies.

TLDR: if I use quality 3rd party parts and do a good job, I think the companies should preserve the warranty, but if I suck at my "repair" work and/or use inferior parts to what the company would have provided it seems a bit unfair to make them clean it up.

I'm sure there are gray areas in the laws themselves I'm not appreciating that address my concern to some degree

Right-to-Repair does not mean that the manufacturer must honor their warranty. If they can show that bad maintenance or a faulty repair caused a warranty covered failure, they are not obligated to cover the failure under the warranty. But they cannot refuse warranty just because maintenance/repair work was performed by a third party. This is what Harley-Davidson was doing. They were refusing warranty coverage even though there was no indication the third party work was subpar.

-Craig

Thanks for the clarification. I wonder how reliably that is established, though? I mean... thinking about every time I've ever called an ISP for anything and they immediately claim it must be something I did on my end. I assume there must be a small field of legal experience dealing with disputes between customers and shops on this gray area of whether you are at fault or they are

My understanding is that it is up to the manufacturer to provide the evidence that a third party repair caused a problem that allows them to deny warranty coverage. Here is the rub though... they can easily deny coverage without providing the evidence of subpar work. It is up to you to pursue it further (usually requires legal action). That could end up costing you more than just paying for the repair yourself. They know this and they take advantage of it.

-Craig