Automotive Repair News Today

Lisa Foshee [00:00:05]:
This is Automotive Repair News Today with Lisa Faucher. And I think I need to go back and look at this, but I think you might be the most recurring guest I've had.

Lisa [00:00:17]:
Wow. I'm excited about that.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:19]:
I think this is your third time.

Lisa Foshee [00:00:20]:
On, so I think if somebody else has been on three times, that's it. So at least your time.

Lisa [00:00:25]:
All right, great.

Lisa Foshee [00:00:26]:
So congratulations.

Lisa [00:00:27]:
Thank you.

Lisa Foshee [00:00:27]:
You have accomplished that milestone. How do you feel?

Lisa [00:00:30]:
I mean, I feel great about right up there with beating Wayne Gretzky's goal record, which we're also on the countdown for. So that's good.

Lisa Foshee [00:00:37]:
Is that, is that for real?

Lisa [00:00:39]:
Yeah. Who Alec? I can't say his last name. I can't pronounce it right, but he plays for the Capitals.

Lisa Foshee [00:00:46]:
Really?

Lisa [00:00:47]:
Yeah. He's nine goals away.

Lisa Foshee [00:00:49]:
Okay. I did not know that's happening. Yeah, see, I'm big into the major sports like basketball, football, baseball, but I don't follow hockey. Disc. Well, not a major sport, but I am big into disc golf, so I didn't know that was happening. That's crazy.

Lisa [00:01:04]:
Yeah. That will be a big milestone.

Lisa Foshee [00:01:06]:
Yeah. Not as big as this, though.

Lisa [00:01:08]:
No, exactly. I mean, I put them in the same category.

Lisa Foshee [00:01:11]:
Right. Yeah. Glad we have our priorities there. So. But another big milestone, speaking of milestones, is what's about to happen this year that I feel confident and I think you do, too. I do that. Right. To repair the repair act that just got reintroduced is going to get passed.

Lisa Foshee [00:01:29]:
So we talked at Apex in Vegas back in November. Lots of what has changed. Congress has changed and the bill just got reintroduced last week. So tell me the latest.

Lisa [00:01:47]:
Yeah, I think the last time we visited about this, like you said, it was at Apex and we were just.

Lisa Foshee [00:01:52]:
Got to recession and we were, we.

Lisa [00:01:54]:
Were sort of at the end of the seven states of grieving about the bill in the 118th Congress. So we took a little time, everybody.

Lisa Foshee [00:02:01]:
Regrouped and the funeral's been had.

Lisa [00:02:03]:
Yep. As one does. But no, you're exactly right. We are so excited about the momentum that we have carried into the 119th Congress and where we are with the bill. So you're right. It was reintroduced a couple Weeks ago by Dr. Dunn, our original four sponsors, Marie Glus and Camp Perez, our congressional shop owner, Warren Davidson, Brendan Boyle. But the really exciting thing is, in addition to those four, we had 12 additional original CO sponsors, again bipartisan.

Lisa [00:02:36]:
So it got dropped with 16 co sponsors. We're up to 20 now. I think, again, really, really important that it stays bipartisan because as you know, it really is a. It's not a D issue, an R issue. It's very much, you know, a people issue.

Lisa Foshee [00:02:52]:
Yes.

Lisa [00:02:52]:
So we, you know, we'll have to go through the same steps that we went through before. Most likely, we'll have to have a hearing before the Energy and Commerce Committee will get a vote out of Energy and Commerce and hopefully get it to the floor. In the meantime, we are focused very strongly on getting a companion Senate bill this time, because, if you recall, that was something that we ran out of time to do in the 118th. So that is priority number one, frankly, at this point. Yeah. But, you know, there continues to be so much energy around the issue. It's exciting.

Lisa Foshee [00:03:25]:
Yeah. So, by the way, you probably hear some background noise. We are at vision Kansas City, 2025, recording, kind of in the middle of everything. So hopefully, hopefully the audio quality is good. I think it is, but these mics are pretty good. Thank you, Hollyland. So tell me the timeline, though. So it just got reintroduced.

Lisa Foshee [00:03:47]:
I think we may have talked about this before, but give the listener and myself a refresher on where you think or where you expect, how long you think this will take.

Lisa [00:03:57]:
You know, I think realistically, it will take us the duration of the 119th Congress. It's just the way these things go. And they have, you know, anybody who's reading the news knows that the Trump administration has an energetic agenda. They have a lot of things they're trying to get done. So we just want to make sure the Repair act is one of those things. But I will tell you, there's a lot of energy in Washington, you know, not being political, whether you agree with what's happening, not agree with what's happening, they are showing up to work and they are trying to get things done. And so that is positive for anyone who's trying to run Legislation Nation. So we're very excited about getting started so that, you know, you got to start to move.

Lisa [00:04:46]:
So getting that bill dropped and introduced and all of the good press that was around, it was great.

Lisa Foshee [00:04:51]:
Right.

Lisa [00:04:52]:
The other thing that you mentioned, I feel really lucky to be here at this conference at Vision because these are the folks that are on the front lines of ready to repair. I mean, these technicians are living this every day. And I've had the opportunity to talk to so many techs and so many shop owners about what this means to them and how they can get engaged and help and, frankly, how we can help them and best advocate for them. So to really have the opportunity to be on the front lines of the industry here has been. It's been a great couple of days for us at Auto Care.

Lisa Foshee [00:05:26]:
So do you think it happens this year? Maybe next.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:31]:
You said the whole term.

Lisa Foshee [00:05:32]:
So you're saying next year.

Lisa [00:05:34]:
It could happen next year, this year. I mean, that would be amazing. I think just realistically we all should psychologically plan on the two year, expect.

Lisa Foshee [00:05:43]:
The worst, hope for the best.

Lisa [00:05:44]:
Exactly, exactly. But, you know, we are doing everything we can to keep the momentum going. But what the point I definitely wanted to make, and we talked about this some in November also, is because the enormous hard work that, that the industry did in the last Congress in terms of sending letters and visiting Capitol Hill and talking to their legislators, that has enabled us to do our job in D.C. without having to call on people every day to support this effort. Because that's really what we're trying to do is frankly, give everybody a little breathing room while we go get done what we can get done. The corollary to that is because we're giving everybody a break. When we call for help, it means it's really time. And when we call and say, excuse me, send those letters, meet with those Congress people, have them out to your shops, it means that it's go time.

Lisa Foshee [00:06:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. So my dad's a pastor and he always says nothing. This is a consistent thing for pastors who lead churches. But he's like, you know, I can preach from the Bible, I can share what I think God is telling me about what you do in your life, but I can't be the only person who goes to tell other people, that's the congregation, that's you. And so I kind of feel like that's similar here where you're on the front lines, you are in D.C. you're talking to the powers that be. But the shop owners and the other people in the industry kind of need to help do the work, too.

Lisa Foshee [00:07:26]:
So, you know, when you tell it's time for those letters, it's time for those letters, it is such a privilege. You can only do so much.

Lisa [00:07:31]:
That's exactly right. And, you know, while certainly I am confident they love to hear from me, who they really love to hear from are their constituents, their taxpayers, the people who are offering jobs in their districts. And that's what everybody in the industry is doing. So absolute team effort. It's going to take all of us. The automakers are not giving up. I mean, you know, I guess we could talk for a minute about Massachusetts.

Lisa Foshee [00:07:59]:
Oh, yes. Yeah.

Lisa [00:08:00]:
So you know that again, In November, we were checking the obituaries of the judge in Massachusetts to see if he died because we, the case had been languishing for so long. In January, out of the blue, we got a notice that it had been reassigned to a new judge. And within six weeks, that new judge had taken briefing, had an oral argument and issued a 47 page decision in our favor saying we won, which was phenomenal. I suppose I was naively hopeful that maybe that would bring the automakers to the table to see how we could all talk about moving this forward. But they have indicated that they're going to appeal that decision next week when it's due on March 17th. And so, you know, that will just continue sort of the overhang of litigation in Massachusetts. And I think that just makes getting this federal bill done so much more important. So 50 state applicability, all automakers, we can all move on with our lives.

Lisa [00:09:10]:
So that's really what we're trying to do.

Lisa Foshee [00:09:13]:
What does that do, though? I don't know if it's necessary to have good standing, good relationship with the automakers. I mean, I think it should be. But if that bill gets passed, that's not what automakers want. So does that provide tension that will be more challenging to have to go through with that relationship if the repair act gets passed? Yes.

Lisa [00:09:40]:
Oh, gosh, I don't think so.

Lisa Foshee [00:09:41]:
Really?

Lisa [00:09:42]:
No, I really don't. I mean, the automakers agree and use the statistic that we use, which is that 70% of outer warranty repairs get done in the aftermath.

Lisa Foshee [00:09:53]:
Oh, yeah.

Lisa [00:09:54]:
So there's no dispute that we need them, they need us, and the consumers need all of us. So I think once the bill gets passed, everybody is just going to move forward and do business. We're all going to go out and compete for the benefit of consumers.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:10]:
Then why not go ahead and do some of that? If you're going to be forced to, why not go ahead and just release some of the information?

Lisa [00:10:17]:
I continue to believe that it is twofold and this is just Lisa's opinion. I have no idea what they're thinking. But I think, number one, because they're big companies, they don't want laws, they don't that tell them what they have to do, just as a general proposition.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:34]:
I get that. Yeah.

Lisa [00:10:35]:
Number two, I think they, and we've talked about this, they are collecting all of this data in these cloud servers that they control terabytes of data that they need to monetize. That is their business model going forward. And that's fantastic for Them, But I think they are so concerned that any inroad into that walled garden of data, no matter how much it makes sense, will be a slippery slope to them having to give away all of that data and then not being able to implement their business model.

Lisa Foshee [00:11:11]:
So they're probably coming at it from the perspective of, in the negotiation, you always start with the highest possible number. That way, when it does get worked down, you actually come to where you want to be.

Lisa [00:11:22]:
That. Yeah, I mean, that may be it, but again, you know, they're there. If that is their thinking, it's flawed for so many reasons. Number one being that we're not asking for any of this data for free. You know, we have always.

Lisa Foshee [00:11:35]:
Yeah, you'll pay for it.

Lisa [00:11:36]:
Yeah, we'll pay for it. We just want to pay the same as the dealers, pay less their discount and rebate programs. And then we're going to go out and compete like hell. We're going to have better coffee and better service and better customer relations and do what we've always done.

Lisa Foshee [00:11:48]:
Yeah. Oh, I've always said. I think you agree with it. You've already kind of alluded to it, but it's just 70%. They can't repair all the cars they need aftermarkets.

Lisa [00:12:00]:
What are they going to do? Do you go buy Walmart, put in bays? I mean, it doesn't make sense. It just. Yeah. When you step away from it and take sort of the emotion out of it and the fact that it is the livelihoods of everybody in this room, it just doesn't make walking around sense why they're fighting this so much. But they are, and they spend millions and millions of dollars fighting it.

Lisa Foshee [00:12:23]:
So the Trump administration, you said that they are aggressive, they're getting to it. You said it's going to be interesting to see where it is on the priority list. Do you have any indication of where it could be, how far low or how far up it is on the priority list of things they want to get done? Because I think, you know, what I've seen the Trump administration do, obviously, is all the tariffs. They want to keep things in the US And Honda is moving one of their plants from Mexico to, I think, Illinois, because they got to. You have to. And I think that's kind of the idea is to bring jobs here. That's what they want to do with these tariffs. And so the focus is on US stuff.

Lisa Foshee [00:13:12]:
This is a big US issue. So didn't know where you. If you have an idea where it could be on the priority list. Yeah.

Lisa [00:13:18]:
I mean, I don't want to speculate on that because obviously they all have different lists depending on where you're sitting in Congress. But what I will say, and it's the point that I think you're making, which is if they are looking for a voter friendly issue, we're it voters.

Lisa Foshee [00:13:37]:
That's true.

Lisa [00:13:38]:
Love this.

Lisa Foshee [00:13:39]:
That's true. It would look good on them.

Lisa [00:13:42]:
75% in Massachusetts, 85% in Maine. You ask anybody walking down the street, if you just paid $80,000 for a vehicle, should you be able to fix it where you want to fix it? 100%. Yes.

Lisa Foshee [00:13:55]:
No matter what party you're in. That's yes. That is a yes.

Lisa [00:13:58]:
So the message that we are carrying to Capitol Hill is if you guys need an issue that all of your voters are gonna love, we're here. You know, this is that issue.

Lisa Foshee [00:14:14]:
Yeah.

Lisa [00:14:15]:
And the only people, as we've talked about, that disagree with it are the auto manufacturers and their dealers.

Lisa Foshee [00:14:24]:
Money.

Lisa [00:14:25]:
Yeah. And again, it's business. I get it. But it just doesn't make walking around sense that you shouldn't be able to fix your car where you want to fix it, especially when it's cheaper and faster.

Lisa Foshee [00:14:39]:
Yeah. What else, anything else that you think needs to be out there in the ether?

Lisa [00:14:46]:
Well, you talked about the tariffs. You know, I think that business loves certainty. And I think the uncertainty of the tariffs is, you know, you talk to anybody in this room causing, you know, a lot of consternation, a lot of stress. Right. People, people don't know whether to buy, to sell, to hunker down, what to do. So, you know, we, we at Auto Care are, we have positioned ourselves as a source of data and facts about the impact of the tariffs because, you know, the policymakers are going to do what they're going to do for the reasons they do it. But to see the hard numbers, this is how many products this affects. This is what happens when you take them across the border multiple times.

Lisa [00:15:32]:
You know, this is how integrated these supply chains are. And this concept that just with a magic wand, you can unwind all that and go back to a purely American supply chain. And I don't think anyone really believes that, but you have to appreciate, you know, remanufacturing complexities associated with that and the real costs. At some point these tariffs will get passed down.

Lisa Foshee [00:16:03]:
Yeah.

Lisa [00:16:04]:
There's just no way to avoid that. I don't think so. And that may be a decision that the administration is willing to take for these other goals that they're trying to achieve, we'll just have to see. But in all cases, a huge topic for folks.

Lisa Foshee [00:16:23]:
Yeah, yeah.

Lisa [00:16:24]:
And then the workforce initiatives, you know, we continue. And that's why, you know, seeing a conference like this is just amazing. But continuing to look at ways to make sure that money that is available is being used to encourage people to enter into the trades. You know, Congresswoman Glusenkamp Perez, who's one of the champions of the Repair act, also has a bill to allow the use of 529 funds to buy tools for trades. Covers laptops, it should cover tools. So that's something, you know, we're really excited and passionate about also.

Lisa Foshee [00:17:03]:
Thank you, Lisa.

Lisa [00:17:04]:
Thank you. Yeah, I'm looking to, you know, break the record and hopefully come back a fourth time.

Lisa Foshee [00:17:09]:
I mean, there's things that need to be talked about. So I think there's a good chance.

Lisa [00:17:14]:
All right.

Lisa Foshee [00:17:14]:
There's a good chance.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:20]:
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