There is NO LAW Requiring Auto Makers to Stock Parts for 10 Years

I hear about this "law" all the time - but no one seems to know where it is written.

[stevelehto]

Several people have pointed me to a California statute which is in this vein but doesn't appear to cover automobiles: 1793.03b says

"(b) Every manufacturer making an express warranty with respect to an electronic or appliance product described in subdivision (h), (i), (j), or (k) of Section 9801 of the Business and Professions Code, with a wholesale price to the retailer of one hundred dollars ($100) or more, shall make available to service and repair facilities sufficient service literature and functional parts to effect the repair of a product for at least seven years after the date a product model or type was manufactured, regardless of whether the seven-year period exceeds the warranty period for the product."


But notice it's limited to an "electronic or appliance product described in subdivision (h), (i), (j), or (k) of Section 980"

which is:

(h) “Electronic set” includes, but is not limited to, any television, radio, audio or video recorder or playback equipment, video camera, video game, video monitor, computer system, photocopier, or facsimile machine normally used or sold for personal, family, household, or home office use.

(i) “Appliance” or “major home appliance” includes, but is not limited to, any refrigerator, freezer, range, microwave oven, washer, dryer, dishwasher, trash compactor, or room air-conditioner normally used or sold for personal, family, household, or home office use, or for use in private motor vehicles.

(j) “Antenna” includes, but is not limited to, a resonant device designed especially for the purpose of capturing electromagnetic energy transmitted by direct satellite or commercial radio or television broadcasting facilities. An antenna and its associated accessories are not deemed to be a part of a set and shall be considered, under this section, to be located outside or in the attic of a residence.

(k) “Rotator, ” when used in connection with an antenna installation or repair, includes, but is not limited to, an electromechanical device operated from a remote location to rotate an antenna on a horizontal plane. A rotator and its associated accessories are not deemed to be a part of a set and shall be considered under this section, with the exception of the directional control unit, to be located outside or in the attic of a residence.

I doubt a court would deem an automobile a "major home appliance" especially when it talks about appliances being used "in private motor vehicles."

It appears this law is aimed at electronics and appliances.

The search continues!

[smokajj]

As an automotive supplier I was required to keep tooling and supply replacement parts for 10 years after the end of production. This was a contract requirement, but not a law. In 1999, Ford made me build a mold for a 1986-89 tarus rear speaker grill that we misplaced. We had to go to a junk yard to reverse engineer the part, since Ford had lost the part drawings.

[ScottClevelandmi]

Urban legend or not… The fact that I can walk into a Napa and get parts for my 1977 F150 is nothing short of a modern miracle!

[ChiefWaller]

I heard this when i was in high school. Circa 1968. It was supposed to be 20 years. Until today I believed it was true. Thanks for setting me straight.

[tywal]

My son-n-law has a Harley Davidson Ford F150. Long story short: the truck struck a deer and destroyed frontend parts including the front bumper. The grill and bumper are unique to the HD version of and F150 and new replacements just aren't available for repairs. They finally found a used grill but bumpers don't exist anywhere new or used. The only solution was to send the damaged bumper to a company that specializes in restoring metal bumpers which costs more than purchasing a replacement IF one had been available. Surprise: Their auto insurance company covered the cost of restoring the bumper.

[sgriffith]

When I worked for Caterpillar, they had an explicit policy that said they would supply parts for at least 15 years after the last production of the model. In reality, they usually supplied them for longer than that based on the demand for the part and the field population of the equipment. They would supply a part for much longer than that but you might not like the price as it would have to be specially procured or made. Even if if was expensive, it could be cheaper than scrapping the machine. In practice, they dealer and Cat’s Service Engineering Dept would offer an alternative or could supply blueprints to have the part made.

[jilbertb]

My dad was a manufacturers rep for GM, Ford and Chrysler for the fabrics, trims and carpets.
After a model year, a company called Detroit Body Products would buy excess stock from the car manf and the producers, as well as body panels, trim, bumpers etc...
HUGE warehouse, so fun to go buy stuff to refurb cars. I got a Vega carpet and installed it into my MG. Fit like a glove. And sun visors.
They went out of business quite a while back, when the auto manufacturers outsourced the making of those parts.
The supplier I worked for in the 2000's made orig parts for aftermarket sales too. And upgraded parts, say adding air bag suspension to a pickup. Their business doubled from it.
Just gotta know where to look I guess? The guy needing the bumper should find out the manf and go directly to them.

[timfischer]

My son had a 2017 Jetta. We bought it used and it had a one-year warranty as it was certified pre-owned. At some point, the driver's seat broke: the manual mechanism that allowed for it to go up and down broke, and would slam down. Fortunately he liked it in the down position anyway, but we decided it should be fixed.

I took it in about July of 2023. The told me the part needed to be backordered. I asked if we were talking "weeks, months, years...?" and the guy laughed and said "well hopefully not months or years". As it got closer to fall, we called several times... my son goes to college out of state. They said there was nothing they could do but wait.

April 2024 came and my son totaled the car by hitting a deer. Seat was never repaired. We did not alert the dealership, and as far as I know there's still a pending order for this backordered part, and at some point we'll get a phone call telling is "it's in now!". It's been over a year and a half since I took it in.

[bleepbloopblahp]

In Australia we have "Australian Consumer Law" legislation that says of car manufacturers: "they will make available repair facilities or spare parts for a reasonable time".
How long is reasonable? They give a further example: "How much time is ‘reasonable’? This will depend on the type of vehicle. However, for a new vehicle, it would be reasonable to expect that spare parts will be available for many years after its purchase"

[dukebracton]

THANK YOU!!! I have been doing GM parts for over 30 years and hear this A LOT. The shortest I have seen was a hub cap for a 5 year old Camaro in the late 90's. On the other hand you can still get points and condensers !

[jeromemckenna]

2 years ago a car repair shop near me tried to repair the air conditioner in our 2009 Honda Civic. He knew how to fix it but could not get the part. This video and the comments have given me good insight as to why this was the case.

[Mick.Porter]

Once upon a time, I worked for a local GM as a ASE Master and had to work with our body shop for various electrical, frame and alignments. For the vehicles past warranty, the insurance companies used parts from wrecks or salvage yards. Whatever the source, the bumper covers were sent to a business in Flint that would repair the cover to look new. Just had to be painted to install it. I don't know if Flint Bumper Mart is still going but our body shop occasionally had to send the damaged plastic cover in due to no others available. Regardless, the bumper cover taken off the wreck was given to the FBM as a core. I just looked up Flint Bumper Mart and they are still in business in Burton and on Facebook.

[usseg]

I have a feeling it is one of those things where the manufacturers have just always done so with internal policies, but now they are starting to realize they dont have to and can prioritize the production of vehicles instead at least as far as the US is concerned.

[jdphelps]

I was a manager for a ford transmission plant and supervised 3 model ends while there. In each case after assembly ended there was additional production of selected replacement parts. The quantity made was determined by the design engineers based on to date warranty claims. Unfortunately in 2 cases the transmission was only in production for a couple of years. Also the part production schedule was short as the plant needed the equipment for a new design. If aftermarket demand is high enough the part may be outsourced to a secondary supplier, or not. Case in point is the front spindle for the f150, 250 and e150/250 that failed due to the excessive bearing play and is nearly impossible to find (used)

[Tom-BXR]

I've worked in three facilities of the same company that made parts for auto manufacturers --- many of the makes... both Domestic and Foreign. We made mostly grilles but we made various other trim pieces as well. We'd run production parts for the current models... and then we'd pull out old molds and assembly machines and run "service parts"... Our plant had a room full of injection molds and then we'd have assembly/inspection machines crammed all over the place... and then we had a pole barn section that was also crammed full of assembly machines... oh, the end-of-arm tooling for robots, too.
Our production parts were finished parts: painted and/or chrome plated with the emblem and all the clips, etc. installed.
Our "service parts" might just be chrome plated... or else they'd be molded but not painted, leaving that for the body shop to do... with emblem thrown in the box as well... but no clips or fasteners... these were in the individual boxes usually.
The production parts were sent to in reusable or returnable pack.. formerly cardboard and foam, then later, those were in molded plastic crates & bins that could be broken down & folded up to be shipped back to our plant and other suppliers.
Even in the supplier industry, we were told about this "10 year law" by our plant management, by corporate, and by representatives of GM, Ford, Chrysler, Nissan, etc... The auto manufacturers must be the ones who started this lie to make sure their suppliers kept their molds and assembly machines in working order for those times when they did order 'service parts'.

Chapter 2:
The manufacturer would provide the money for my employer to have the molds built, the assembly machines, and the robot end-of-arm tooling. There were times where my employer got money for something like robot end-of-arm tooling.... somehow, the project would have $20 to $30K for a robot fixture and it was build in our own plant with spare parts... not even $500 in some cases... Other times, we'd pay a shop to build them -- they'd be $2K to $3K usually, occasionally up to $5K or $6K. My employer scammed the manufacturers for every penny they could get... There were times when a newer grille would be about the same size as an older grille and we didn't make a new robot fixture at all... we'd just use the old one with a few adjustments.
But there were times they got $50 to $100K for an assembly machine and we'd actually spend more... using some of the "extra" robot tooling money. In any case... every program came through was a big money-maker for our plant from the injection mold, assembly machine, and robot tooling funds.

Ch. 3:
I was new... since I knew how to use a computer (as opposed to most of the others who worked there - they didn't want to do anything extra or learn anything new), they started having me order stuff. The first group of items was for more than $1M. $700K for a new Molding Machine, plus a bunch of auxiliary equipment: portable chiller, mold temperature controller {thermolator}, conveyor belt, material hoppers, material dryer, granulator, etc
Like a lot of places, everything was in the works and then suddenly rushed. For a few years, everything I ordered.. I'd print out the purchase order... along the bottom, it would say that it was not a valid purchase order (because nothing was approved yet -- things always had to be in the build process before they were approved or else the whole program would have been late... I'm sure they changed that now)... I was instructed to take those unapproved purchase orders, use a paper cutter to chop off the bottom section with the unapproved/invalid note, and then manually fax them to the equipment manufacturers... The first one I did was for this $700K molding machine.
It became a regular thing... And then they'd crack down on spending and supervisors from other departments couldn't get basic things: The tool room couldn't get hand cleaner but I'd order it by the case as a "robot part" and give it to them... We'd get those gallon cans of M30 hand cleaner in case of 6 for about $12... One time, I had a case with nowhere to stash it... because, everyone has to have their own hand cleaner... So, I opened the new case, folded the flaps to reclose it, smeared some greasy fingerprints on it, wrote "Spare Robot Parts" on it, and set it on top of a robot parts cabinet - I' figured it would disappear... but no one touched it... So, I left it to see how long it would it sat there for three years... and right before I was transferred to Michigan, the guys were in the shop and I put the box on their table and opened it. Some laughed, some cussed me.
After I was transferred to Michigan (near corporate), I had to order something and they went by the book... they didn't think it was funny at all. The purchase orders still would print the same way, with the "not valid" comment at the bottom. Within a week of telling my story there, the unapproved purchase orders now printed with a 'watermark' consisting of "this is not a valid purchase order" message diagonally across the page.

[newshodgepodge]

At the risk of being obvious, some of the "laws" that people only think exist make more sense than some of the word salads that are "on the books."

[SadPuppySoup]

I remember seeing a film in school in the mid 70's about our great manufacturing companies like the auto makers and remember them saying in that film made in the 60's that "the car companies will make enough of every part of every car so every person who owns a car can get it fixed for years to come." Every time I hear that it's a law I'm reminded of that and think that's where it mite of come from.

[robertrichards]

Over a 30 yr period, I worked for 2 Tier 1 suppliers of plastic injection molded parts to US, Japanese, and German auto manufacturers. Most of our customers required us to warehouse the molds for current and the last past model (sometimes up to 10 yrs. for same model parts). After that time, on several models, we were directed by our customer to send the molds to one of several customer molders across the states and Mexico of out-of-date parts who would continue the reduced volume supply of those parts for an additional 10 to 20 yrs. In the mid '90's, I found a supplier named J.C. Whitney who still had access to the mold for a '57 Chevy BelAir tail light mold.

[dogofwar]

A lot of people that bought EVs in the mid '10s are finding out that no one bothered to make a lot of spare parts for them. Especially the batteries.

[boblalonde]

I'm glad you covered this. I was gonna ask about it after the other video, but I got distracted by something bright and shiny. I grew up in family business in one of those businesses was a hardware and auto parts store and we believe that was the case too. I certainly heard it as long as 40 years ago.