Your car’s “check engine” light blinks on, so you take it to the local repair shop that you have been going to for years. The problem is, they can’t fix what’s wrong. It’s a problem only the dealer can correct.Even for simple repairs, today’s vehicle technology requires new, expensive tools and information that manufacturers and dealerships have and are reluctant to release.However, a bill in Congress could help independent repair shops and weekend mechanics by requiring automakers to share diagnostic codes.“(Car companies) are designing a car that limits repair options,” said Skip Potter, executive director of the Pasadena, Md.-based Chesapeake Automotive Business Association. The association monitors independent auto and tire service shops and their suppliers in Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia.“Some people have compared repairing a vehicle to buying a house,” he said. “If the refrigerator needs repair and you go back to the developer who built the house to fix it, it would cost more money and be inconvenient.”A coalition intended as a joint effort between car companies and independent shops exists to monitor the needs between the repair sector and the manufacturers, Mr. Potter said, but there is no legislation requiring carmakers to participate.This means any car company can pull out of the coalition at any time, he said.The Right to Repair Act argues consumers own their vehicles in their entirety and should be able to have access to the codes. Since about the mid-1990s, cars and all their systems have grown increasingly computerized.The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers’ Web site says the modern car packs 1,000 times more computing power than the Apollo 11 lunar module.“It’s almost like a monopoly,” said Gary Anthony, manager of Firestone Complete Auto Care on Bay Road in Dover, of the carmakers’ hold on their information.He said consumers don’t have a choice anymore but to go through a dealer for service needs.Many independent repair shops have had to purchase scanners that cost about $1,200 to read the computers on the newer cars, Firestone service manager Adam Pomales said, but they still don’t have access to all of the codes.“The information is proprietary,” said Jeff Townsend, owner of Townsend Bros. Chevrolet.“It could be used not just for fixing a car, but also counterfeiting parts, which would cause more problems than it would cure.”Dover resident Edward Garrison has his own cure for paying the price to repair a computerized car – he refuses to buy a new one and said he will stick with older models.“I prefer to work on my own car instead of taking it to the shop,” he said.When Mr. Garrison’s daughter showed him the engine in her 2006 Hyundai Sonata, he said it looked like half of the engine would need to be taken apart to fix one part.“Don’t come to dad to get it fixed,” he remembers telling her. “You will definitely need to go to the dealer for that.” News source: News Zap