Trump Signs a “Freedom to Fix” Order for Car Owners — Auto Dealers and Environmentalists Are Both Livid

President Trump signed a presidential memorandum titled “Lowering the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix” on June 29, 2026, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to clarify within 30 days what vehicle owners and independent repair shops may do to service emissions systems while remaining compliant with the Clean Air Act. The memo also instructs the EPA to deprioritize civil enforcement actions against drivers who act in good faith to restore their vehicles to original factory configuration, and to expedite review of aftermarket parts submitted by testing organizations for emissions compliance certification [1, 2]. The action mirrors a similar presidential memorandum Trump signed in February 2026 addressing right-to-repair for farm equipment, and follows a White House meeting earlier in June with executives from General Motors, Ford Motor Co., the National Automobile Dealers Association, and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation [2, 3].

Why It Sucks:

Independent Car Owners and Consumer Advocates

• It’s a memo, not law — it can vanish the next morning a new president is sworn in. Presidential memoranda carry no statutory weight and can be rescinded by any future administration without congressional action, meaning the consumer benefits promised — lower repair bills, access to independent shops — rest on nothing more durable than a signature that the next EPA administrator could effectively nullify on day one [1, 2].
• The 30-day EPA guidance window leaves owners legally exposed right now. Until the EPA issues formal guidance, independent repair shops and car owners remain potentially liable under the Clean Air Act’s tampering prohibitions with no clear legal protection between the date of the memo and whenever the agency acts — and critics note the EPA could slow-walk or significantly narrow the final guidance [1, 3].
• Aftermarket parts certification still runs through the same approval bottleneck. The memo directs the EPA to expedite review of parts submitted for compliance certification, but it provides no additional funding, mandates no specific timeline, and creates no legal obligation to act faster — leaving the certification backlog that has long blocked the independent aftermarket parts industry effectively intact [2, 3].

Auto Dealers and Manufacturer-Affiliated Repair Networks

• Dealership service revenue is the direct target of this memo. The U.S. auto repair market is heavily weighted toward manufacturer-authorized dealers who profit from parts exclusivity and proprietary diagnostic systems; the memo explicitly aims to open emissions-related repairs to independent competitors, cutting into a service revenue stream that franchise dealers have long depended on to subsidize lower vehicle sale margins [2, 3].
• Independent repairs create liability ambiguity that lands on manufacturers anyway. If an independent shop performs an emissions repair that later contributes to a vehicle failure or regulatory violation, legal disputes about responsibility between the manufacturer, the independent shop, and the vehicle owner generate costly and unresolved liability exposure that automakers argue the current authorized-dealer system was specifically designed to prevent [3, 4].
• Automakers were invited to the table, then overruled without a regulatory framework. The executives from GM, Ford, and NADA who attended Trump’s June White House meeting believed they were part of a collaborative process shaping the details; the memo instead directs the EPA to undercut their exclusivity model without the binding regulatory framework that industry groups requested to manage liability and safety standards during any transition [2, 4].

Environmental Groups and Clean Air Advocates

• Deprioritizing Clean Air Act enforcement is a license to tamper with emissions controls. The memo instructs the EPA to stand down on civil enforcement against drivers “acting in good faith” to restore factory settings — a standard environmentalists call unverifiable in practice, warning it effectively decriminalizes modifications that disable catalytic converters, diesel particulate filters, and other anti-pollution equipment that directly affects local air quality [1, 2].
• Independent shops lack the manufacturer diagnostics to verify emissions compliance. Major emissions control systems require proprietary manufacturer tools to properly calibrate and confirm compliance; environmental advocates argue that opening these repairs to shops lacking those tools increases the probability of vehicles being returned to roads still out of compliance, quietly eroding NOx and particulate reduction progress at the fleet level [3, 4].
• “Good faith” restoration is a standard regulators cannot meaningfully enforce. Environmental law experts argue that directing the EPA to use “good faith” intent as the threshold for deprioritizing Clean Air Act enforcement creates an entirely subjective legal test — one that courts cannot consistently interpret, that bad actors can easily invoke to justify illegal modifications, and that the existing text of the Clean Air Act does not actually support as a formal enforcement exception [1, 3].

Sources & Citations:

[1] The White House: Fact Sheet — President Donald J. Trump Lowers the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix
[2] The Washington Times: Trump signs order to give consumers more options to fix their cars
[3] Washington Examiner: Trump signs right to repair executive order for car owners
[4] The Epoch Times: Trump Signs Presidential Memo Promoting ‘Right to Fix’ Vehicles