Parts Availability

[yellow69z28rs]

Obama admin changed the 10 year law on OE replacement parts to only require them to build them 5 years
In hindsight I feel this was a move to help the OEs reach the government mandated CAFE standards by letting them cease production and warehouseing of gas vehicles to make the massive switch to electric.
GM could have supported there customers anyway like some of the other OEs are
We get the shaft..
Just my opinion...

[el ess A]

A U.S. president nor his admin on its own can't just change a law that affects the general public or privately owned companies.

Last I checked, there is NO such "law" or federal mandate concerning run of the mill repair parts be manufactured by nor stored by a car manufacturer. Even during the warranty period. If you disagree, please point me to that CFR that states the contrary. I haven't found one. There may be mandated recall situations where the manufacturer must come up with a new part or something to fix a safety recall or some other one-off situation, but other than that, there's no federal law on the books that I'm aware of concerning how long a manufacturer must supply repair parts.

Generally speaking, the warranty period, if given (not required by law) usually has covered parts being made and stored by the manufacturer to ensure the dealerships can fix cars during the warranty period. Because they do offer warranties, the After that, it's pure luck of the draw, or if there's profit to be made. Demand makes it profitable, as well as some insurance companies who have a dog in the fight, to help reduce costs of insurance by having parts available.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act covers warranties, not repair parts or production and storage of said parts. Although, it behooves the manufacturer to be able to repair the vehicle if a covered part needs replacing. And they simply have to repair the covered defect in accordance with the warranty. I've looked over most of the MMWA, and it doesn't really discuss repair parts availability.

There's also vendor contracts. If say, some vendor made some parts for GM, and the contract was for 5 years for whatever reason, then, depending on the content, it's very likely GM would have to honor purchasing those parts for 5 years. After that, though, they could be defunct. So there's other forces behind car parts availability. But no federal law.

It all comes down to money. If the parts aren't profitable, then they're likely going away. It costs money for dead stock to sit on the shelves. That's why JIT production methods came to be in the first place. Did you know that some "dead stock" just gets tossed in the dumpsters at parts warehouses? Sometimes they're auctioned off on pallets and such and end up in third party warehouses, but they have been known to take perfectly good parts and toss them. Tax writeoff. No big deal to them.