The Infuriating Reason That Car Repairs Are So Expensive
In The News Piece in The New Republic
pexels.com
Sept. 15, 2015
Barry Lynn was quoted in the New Republic about how auto manufactures have rolled up control of, and raised prices in, the car repair market.
Concentrated suppliers are becoming as lucrative as the carmakers themselves, so the patents represent an additional revenue stream. It’s part of a continuing effort to generate more money from every car over its lifespan. “Companies are increasingly able to spread the cost of a car over the usual lifetime in very creative ways that actually hide the real cost,” said Barry Lynn of the New America Foundation. “They can, for instance, engineer a couple key components to fail in year five, just after the warranty fails.”