Trump Just Learned About Right to Repair. Ford and GM Are Panicking.

President Trump just got a crash course in one of the automotive industry’s most bitter and long-running battles, and the automakers’ panic is already showing. In a recent Oval Office meeting ostensibly about coal plants, Trump mentioned a June 3 sit-down with Ford, General Motors, and Penske Racing owner Roger Penske to discuss Right to Repair legislation. He called the whole thing “strange” and claimed the manufacturers “don’t want people to fix their car.” So far, so accurate. What’s interesting is that Trump seemed to be encountering the concept for the first time—or at least playing it that way—which means a sitting president is now paying attention to an issue the industry thought it had quietly buried.

Ford CEO Jim Farley immediately rushed to defend his company’s stance in a video interview with the Detroit Free Press, which tells you everything you need to know about how seriously Detroit is taking this moment. Farley’s argument was predictable: safety and liability. He pointed out that while he can personally fix a 1973 Bronco, letting someone work on a new Bronco at home “would put people’s lives at risk.” It’s a line the industry has been pushing for years, and it falls apart the moment you actually think about it for more than five seconds.

The Real Reason Automakers Don’t Want You Fixing Your Car

Let’s be honest about what’s actually happening here. This isn’t about safety—it’s about money. The average vehicle is now staying on the road for 13 years, and Cox Automotive data shows that dealer service revenue has declined 12 percent since 2018. When people keep their cars longer, they need more repairs and maintenance. When they can’t do that work themselves or take it to an independent shop, they have to go to the dealer. That’s the real equation automakers are protecting.

Farley tried to frame Right to Repair as something that costs owners money—saying repairs “have to be done at a reasonable cost”—but he conveniently ignored that the whole point of Right to Repair is to give owners access to diagnostic tools and repair information so they can do that work affordably in the first place. Right to Repair advocates have long argued that manufacturers use proprietary information and specialized tools as a way to lock customers into dealer networks, which is exactly backwards from what Farley is claiming.

The security argument—another favorite of the industry’s Alliance for Auto Innovation lobbying group—has more merit on paper. Modern vehicles are computers on wheels, and yes, there are theoretical risks if someone could access and modify onboard systems remotely. But here’s the problem: that’s not actually what Right to Repair advocates are asking for. They want access to diagnostic information and repair procedures so they can fix their own cars, not so they can hack them.

A Toothless 2014 Agreement That Changed Nothing

The industry’s go-to defense is a 2014 memorandum of understanding signed by major automakers that supposedly committed them to sharing diagnostic and repair tools with independent shops and private owners. The problem? It’s completely non-binding and has zero enforcement mechanism. The memo covers vehicles from 2002 onward for diagnostic info and 2018 onward for onboard computer access, but it’s full of loopholes—telematics systems and immobilizers are explicitly carved out, and there’s a sprawling definition of “trade secrets” that manufacturers can use to block almost anything.

Worse, there’s no government oversight of whether companies are actually living up to the agreement. If a manufacturer doesn’t provide the promised information, an owner or independent shop can request it and get 30 days for a response, but there’s no teeth behind that either. Fast forward a decade, and it’s clear the voluntary approach simply hasn’t worked. Ford has even been running a recent ad campaign designed to push owners toward dealers for service rather than independent shops—a move that makes sense only if the company knows it’s losing the battle in the court of public opinion.

Trump’s Sudden Interest Could Actually Change Something

Here’s where it gets interesting: Trump is now publicly aware of Right to Repair, and he seems to think it’s a weird issue for automakers to be lobbying against. In true Trump fashion, he vaguely promised to “get it all straightened away” without any specifics, but the fact that a president is talking about it at all changes the dynamic. Ford and GM clearly didn’t expect this.

The irony is that Right to Repair should be a bipartisan issue. Conservatives love the idea of actually owning your property and having the freedom to maintain it yourself. Progressives like the environmental angle—keeping older cars on the road longer by making repairs accessible reduces waste and the need for new vehicle production. The only people against it are automakers and dealers worried about lost service revenue.

Trump’s comments suggest he instinctively gets this, even if his understanding is surface-level. He reminisced about people from his youth who could “fix an engine blindfolded,” which is a pretty honest acknowledgment that something valuable has been lost as cars became more complicated. The fact that it took a presidential meeting for him to even hear about this issue is damning, and it says something about how effectively the auto industry has kept Right to Repair out of the political mainstream despite years of efforts by advocates.

What Happens Now?

Trump didn’t specify which Right to Repair legislation he was referring to, and there are multiple bills floating around Congress with different approaches. Some focus on mandatory access to diagnostic data, others on parts availability, and some on the ability to repair agricultural and medical equipment in addition to vehicles. The automakers will lobby hard to either kill these bills or water them down to the point of uselessness—the 2014 memorandum is basically their template for what “compromise” looks like.

But Farley’s nervous response suggests the industry knows the calculus has changed. When a president says something is “strange” and promises to fix it, even in vague terms, it tends to get people’s attention. The automakers are betting they can convince Trump that Right to Repair is actually about safety and security, but that’s a tougher sell when you’re looking at a guy who just said he knew people who could fix an engine blindfolded and made it sound like that was a good thing.

The real test will be whether Trump actually follows through with anything concrete, or whether this disappears from his radar once the next shiny object comes along. Either way, Ford and GM are officially on notice that Right to Repair isn’t a niche issue for enthusiasts and independent shops anymore. It’s reached the Oval Office, and that changes everything.

Sources: Car and Driver