The crux of the bill is this: Groups, reportedly led by smaller, mom-and-pop repair shops, are pushing for manufacturers to provide -- for a price -- the same diagnostic and software information that they make available to dealerships, critical components of which are commonly withheld from local car repair shops (which are often forced to bring the vehicle to the dealership for critical repairs at extra cost). By doing so, it's argued, customers would have free rein to choose their repair shops for any and all issues with their vehicle while keeping costs down and reducing the time their car is in the shop.

However, many major manufacturers, including Chrysler, Ford, GM and Honda, are strenuously opposed to the bill. According to a representative for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, as quoted in the Washington Post, the bill is nothing more than a "thinly veiled attempt" by parts manufacturers to gain access to information that would allow them to replicate cheaper versions of manufacturers' proprietary original equipment.

Of course, as pointed out over at Jalopnik, there's nothing in the bill about making the information available to competing parts manufacturers, and obviously any independent repair shop that sold or otherwise disseminated said information would open itself up to a world of hurt in terms of intellectual property violations. The opposition is of course about keeping a tight rein on proprietary information, and keeping the dealer network -- which benefits from such exclusive access to the diagnostic and software info -- as happy as possible.