Martha Caron bought the right car in the wrong state. She found out the hard way that advanced safety features on her new Subaru couldn’t be switched on, simply because she’d purchased the car in Massachusetts.
It’s another skirmish in the raging fight against the Massachusetts automotive right-to-repair law that was enacted by public referendum in 2020, and has been snarled in legal challenges ever since. The law requires carmakers to let independent repair shops access digital data transmitted wirelessly by millions of late-model cars.
Subaru and another automaker, Kia, have been especially aggressive in resisting the law. While other companies are counting on a long-running federal lawsuit to overturn the statute, Kia and Subaru opted to shut off the features in their vehicles that are covered by the law.
Advertisement
Over a year ago, Caron, a retired attorney, took delivery on a 2023 Subaru Crosstrek from a dealership in North Reading. A major reason for her purchase was Subaru Starlink, a subscription package of digital services that include a feature to automatically call first responders in the event of a crash.
“This is why I made the leap to the 2023 model,” said Caron. “Safety.”
But when she tried to activate the Starlink system, nothing happened. After multiple phone calls to Subaru, she recalled, “somebody at tech support said to me, why are you bothering if you’re in Massachusetts?”
Caron had not known that since the summer of 2021, Subaru has refused to activate Starlink on new cars sold in Massachusetts. Since January 2022, Korean manufacturer Kia has stopped offering a similar service called Kia Connect. Both companies say it’s the best way to avoid violating the state’s right-to-repair law.
“Being forced into that decision was a disservice to both our retailers and our customers,” said Subaru spokesman Dominick Infante. “We look forward to a resolution that allows us to get back to providing the products and services our Massachusetts customers love.”
Advertisement
Caron complained to the office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, saying that she wasn’t informed that Starlink was unavailable, and that she should have been given a discount on the car. But the attorney general’s office declined to get involved. That’s no surprise; during the June 2021 trial of the automakers’ lawsuit, Campbell’s predecessor ― now governor ― Maura Healey said the companies could comply with the right-to-repair law by switching off telematic services on new cars.
Switching off Starlink and Kia Connect deprives consumers of many popular features, such as the ability to remotely start the car, shut it down if it’s stolen, track teenagers when they go for a drive, and many others. And since consumers pay around $100 to $150 a year for these services, switching them off eats into the carmakers’ profits.
But the Massachusetts law was merely supposed to ensure fair competition in the car repair business by sharing vehicle data with independent repair shops. Why so much collateral damage?
Because all these features rely on “telematic” systems, in which the car is connected wirelessly via cellular connections. General Motors’ OnStar, the first telematics system for passenger cars, was introduced in 1996. But today, telematics are standard issue, found in 72 percent of all new cars sold worldwide in 2022, according to research firm Berg Insight.
Advertisement
The same telematics that can call for help in an emergency can also send an automatic notice to the dealership that a car is due for, say, a wheel alignment.
Owners of independent auto repair shops want access to this real-time diagnostic data so they can compete with the carmakers’ franchised dealerships. For example, a car owner could subscribe to a service that would send the data to his local mechanic instead of the dealership.
This is why the independent car repair industry fought so hard to get the Massachusetts Data Access Law on the books. They hope it’ll serve as a template for federal legislation.
But carmakers say the Massachusetts law would make it far easier for hackers to steal digital information from cars, and even to seize remote control of vehicles. A letter sent this week to carmakers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the threat is so severe that carmakers must not comply with the Massachusetts law.
One way to do that is to simply deactivate the telematic features, as Kia and Subaru have done. But that option is leaving some consumers angry and frustrated. There’s no telling how many, but a spokesperson for Campbell said her agency has received at least seven complaints about it.
Middleborough resident Tony Lawrence hasn’t griped to Campbell’s office about not getting Starlink on the Subaru Outback he bought last November.
“I wasn’t upset,” Lawrence said. “I was disappointed.”
He used Starlink on his previous car, a Subaru Forester, and loved it, especially being able to remotely start the car in winter to warm it up.
Advertisement
He never considered switching to another brand that still offers telematic features, because he and his wife love Subarus. “Nothing I could do about it,” said Lawrence. “This was the car we wanted, with or without.”
And even buying a car in another state didn’t help Tom Palmer. The former Boston Globe reporter, now a media consultant, traveled to Kansas City to buy a new 2022 Subaru Outback at a time when new cars were hard to find. “I sent them the money and I got the plates here,” said Palmer, who lives in Natick.
But when the dealer saw the vehicle was registered in Massachusetts, he refused to activate Starlink.
“I was quite disappointed,” said Palmer. “It made me question the right-to-repair law that I had supported before.”
Caron’s story, however, has a happy ending, because she owns a second home in New Hampshire, where Starlink is still available. When she informed Subaru, the company agreed to activate her Starlink service.
“I went and checked it,” she said, “and the little green light turned on.”
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at hiawatha.bray@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeTechLab.