High Intent: Raising the Bar on Safe Repairs

by Douglas Begin, MABA Vice President

When in the Course of automotive commerce, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the economic bands which have connected them with an oppressive Insurance Industry, and to assume among the powers of the marketplace, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Fair Trade entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of the motoring public requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Vehicles are created to be safe, that they are endowed by their Designers with certain unalienable Standards, that among these are Structural Integrity, Functional Reliability, and the pursuit of Total Indemnity – That to secure these rights, Repair Facilities are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Policyholder and the precision of the Manufacturer – That whenever any Form of Insurance becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish the subservience to it, and to institute new standards, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.

A History of Repeated Injuries

The history of the present insurance cartel in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the independent repair shop and the unsuspecting consumer. To prove this, let the facts be submitted to a candid world.

•  They have refused their Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good, specifically those regarding the Right to Repair and the fair adjudication of labor costs.

• They have forbidden their Appraisers to pass Estimates of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till their Consent should be obtained; and when so suspended, they have utterly neglected to attend to the safety of the vehicle.

•  They have called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable and distant from the reality of the garage floor, for the sole purpose of fatiguing us into compliance with their cost-cutting measures.

•  They have kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies of “Preferred Vendors,” without the Consent of the independent business owner, effectively steering the populace toward those who would sacrifice quality for the sake of the Carrier’s ledger.

•  They have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our expertise, and unacknowledged by our engineering standards; giving their Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

•  For cutting off our Trade with fair and equitable Labor Rates;

•  For imposing “Prevailing Rates” upon us without our Consent – rates frozen in a time long past, while the cost of technology and living soars;

•  For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts;

•  For transporting our profits away to out-of-state shareholders under the guise of “efficiency.”

The Failure of Redress

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Corporate Power, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free industry.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Insurance brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their claims departments to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over our bays. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our technical training and the heavy investment required to fix the modern automobile. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common interest to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in Economic War, in Peace Friends.

The Proclamation of Independence

We, therefore, the Representatives of the Massachusetts Automotive Repair Industry and the aggrieved Policyholders of this Commonwealth, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Repair Bays, solemnly publish and declare, that these Shops are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Businesses; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Insurance Dictates, and that all political and economic connection between them and the Carriers, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Businesses, they have full Power to levy Fair Labor Rates, contract for Quality Parts, conclude Safety Inspections, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Businesses may of right do.

The revolution is not merely a change in paperwork; it is a restoration of honor to a trade that keeps the citizens of Massachusetts mobile and safe. We are the front lines. We are the guardians of the consumer’s second-most valuable asset.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. The time for humble petitioning has ended. The era of the Independent Repairer has begun.

Will you stand with us?

Want more? Check out the July 2026 issue of New England Automotive Report!