Took my mom’s Camry in to the Toyota dealership to get an oil change and state inspection. My “advisor” has been the same person for the past 15 years. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. I was telling her how upset I was that I couldn’t take my iPhone to have its battery replaced at a computer shop anymore. I could only take it to an Apple Store. She said “and that’s happening here too.” “What do you mean?” I said. She leaned over and whispered that soon Toyota would no longer share diagnostic data to private mechanics and technicians. That future Toyota models could only be serviced at the dealership. At first I was mad. But then it sorta made sense. Still mad and feel sorry for private car garages though.

Your thoughts?

All mfg will try it. Unless the right to repair laws are passed. John Deere's and Cat are playing in this realm. I personally think it's wrong. The mfg and dealers are all salivating at the idea. I know when I took my Camry in for new struts they were floored it never been there. I said I did my own work and if these struts weren't lifetime guarantee it wouldn't be here.

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The manufacturers are certainly hoping to be able to make that a reality. There is a ballot measure up for a vote in Massachusetts this November that addresses it, and I expect to see a continued push for it. In Massachusetts, currently the requirement is that manufacturers must make any data they can access by physically plugging a diagnostic tool into the car readable by anyone. Because of the way the law is written manufacturers have realized that they don't need to make wireless access to data available to everyone. If you are interested in reading more on it Forbes has a decent article here.

I’m not sure what all they could really do to make sure it’s only serviced at the dealer, I’m pretty sure the obd system is regulated by the government so they couldn’t really change that, and they already have Toyota specific diagnostic codes that can only be read with tech stream on a laptop but I’ve never encountered a problem that would require that info to fix.

I guess they could do something like getting rid of the dipstick like BMW has done, but that just makes working on them a pain in the ass, not impossible. I doubt consumers would put up with the kind of stuff John Deere and Cat do.

Not to mention service advisors have no clue what the manufacturer plans to do, even the dealership owner doesn’t really know much, probably just some rumor being spread around.

Get ready for the lawsuits lol

Time will tell.. I would suspect lawsuits from it.