Comment Log Display

C & F Auto
2090 Placentia Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
949-646-6910





March 19, 2007
California Air Resources Board
c/o Clerk of the Board
1001 I Street
Sacramento, Ca 95814

Re: Notice of public hearing to consider amendments to
California’s emission warranty information reporting and recall
regulations and emission test procedures.

Dear Members of the California Air Resources Board:

For more than forty years I have owned and operated a mom and pop,
neighborhood auto service and repair shop. I precede the Bureau of
Automotive Repair and the Smog Check Program, and do remember the
dirty air. The 15 year 150,000 mile warranty proposal is an
example of “the road to clean air is paved with the best
intensions.” Let me explain.

In the sixties, seventies and the eighties I serviced and repaired
only two brands of cars, Volkswagen and Audi. Volkswagen sales slid
in the late seventies, but the good news was that Audi sales were
expanding at the same time. As luck would have it a news program
call Sixty Minutes aired a program the purported to show Audi’s
having unintended acceleration. You know that Audi was completely
cleared of any wrong doing, but the damage was done. 

Audi fought back by bring on new models and renaming all their
cars, but the one thing that they did that brought my business to
its knees was to offer a 10 year 100,000 mile power train
warranty. Normally we expect to see new cars remain with the
dealer for the first three years, but when Audi went to ten years,
we lost the next seven years of service and repairs. Talks with our
then current customers to ask why we were not getting their
business were answered with, “Audi has given us a ten year
warranty and they say if we miss a service or the factory parts
are not used that we will forfeit the warranty.” We tried to
explain that any qualified person could keep the warranty in
effect, but to no avail. Many asked if we were willing to go to
court with them to fight Audi on these matters. A business
decision had to be made. 




We abandoned all hopes of getting Audi service and repair work and
looked to other German makes that we were compatible with. With a
major invest in tools, training,
parts, and information and we took on BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes.
We lost money for a few years, but not sight of our dream.

The 15 year 150,000 warranty will kill the entire aftermarket.
Unlike my predicament with Audi, there are no other cars to work
on and we will never survive for fifteen years with out any work.


Paul Frech





Owner, C & F Auto

President, Automotive Trade Organizations of California

Past president and current Newsletter Editor, Automotive Service
Councils of California Orange coast Chapter

Executive Board Member, California Automotive Business Coalition