Florida fighting super warranty regulations

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is taking a cue from California and looking into clean air regulations similar to those now in place in the Golden State. In addition to vehicle emission standards, the proposed bill would include "super warranty" regulations that many say could drive business away from independent repair shops.

Aaron Lowe, vice president of regulatory and government affairs at the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), has been quoted as saying that the super warranty bills have been popping up in a lot of states and that Florida is still considering the adoption of the California rules. However, he does add that the AAIA is concerned about the bill and would "like to nail it at its source."

The California legislation, which has been in place for little more than a year, calls for a 10-year, 120,000-mile warranty on all auto parts, effective on all new vehicles beginning in 2010. Opponents within the aftermarket fear that once dealership repair shops bring in the warranty repairs, they will move into “upsells” such as oil changes and other preventive maintenance — costing the independent repair shops, which traditionally perform these services, business and revenue.

George Erhard, former owner of Industrial Automotive parts, and executive director of Florida Automotive Industry Association, says that the automotive industry isn't against clean air — it's against extended warranties. "If you extend the warranties to the dealerships, the aftermarket is not going to get business. The longer the warranty on a vehicle and its parts, the less business there is for the aftermarket."

Several organizations, including the AAIA and the Automotive Service Association (ASA), have joined together to lobby against this proposed bill for the above-mentioned reasons. ASA has even sent a formal letter to the Department of Environmental Protection, asking it to conduct an evaluation of the economic impact of such a regulation on independent repairers before moving forward with the proposal.

Although it would seem that car manufacturers would benefit from the proposed legislation, almost every manufacturer is against the concept of a super warranty. Steve Douglas, a member of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM), commented on the situation in the May 2007 issue of Aftermarket Business.

"The automobile manufacturers (including both the Alliance and AIAM, who collectively represent every automobile manufacturer in the U.S.) opposed this regulation from the beginning and offered several alternatives that did not include the draconian requirements including the extended warranty," he says.

This is one of those rare occurrences when the aftermarket and automakers are in agreement about an issue, says Lowe. "The car manufacturers are on our side. They would just as soon not have this liability and have been fighting it as well," he adds. "More people need to know this is going on. I think it is a big issue for our industry in the future."

Interestingly enough, Erhard said he had not heard about the proposed regulation until he was contacted for a comment on the issue. But he is concerned about the possibility of such legislation becoming a reality, and has pledged to bring up the matter at an upcoming board meeting of the FAIA.

"If (the state is) considering it, I think the issue may be pushed farther on," Erhard says. "We have to protect the aftermarket. If the warranties spread to the point that you can only buy hard parts from a dealership, the aftermarket won't be able to survive."