How State Bills Shape Auto Repair Costs And Choice

A lot of the biggest threats to the automotive aftermarket don’t start in Washington. They start quietly in a statehouse, inside a bill that sounds harmless until you read the fine print.

Stacey Miller is joined by Donovan Ringo, our director of state affairs and grassroots at the Auto Care Association, to break down what it really takes to monitor and respond to fast-moving state legislation across nearly every state in session. Donovan shares how his background at NAPA, from emerging EV strategy to hands-on workforce development, shaped the way he thinks about advocacy, training pipelines, and the future of auto repair. We talk about the real-world issues members flag every day, from parts restrictions and insurance steering to apprenticeship programs, scholarships, and state funding that can make or break technician recruiting.

You’ll hear concrete examples of what’s happening right now: Utah language tied to OEM procedures that can effectively push OEM-only parts, Kansas momentum that mirrors Maine and Massachusetts right to repair efforts focused on access to OEM data, plus the on-the-ground reality of monitoring similar bills in Iowa and Georgia. We also dig into why “equivalent quality” definitions matter, how we educate lawmakers on certified aftermarket parts, and why a strong grassroots network and the Auto Care PAC (ACPAC) support help the industry show up with clarity and credibility.

If you care about right to repair, consumer choice, repair affordability, and a healthy aftermarket workforce, this conversation connects the dots and shows where you can plug in. Subscribe, share this with someone in your state, and leave a rating and review so more people find the show.

To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org.

To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast

Transcript

Welcome To Traction Control

Stacey Miller 0:13

Welcome to Auto Care ON AIR, a candid podcast for a curious industry. I'm Stacey Miller, Vice President of Communications at the Auto Care Association, and this is Traction Control, where we chat about recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean to the industry featuring guests on the front lines. Let's roll. We are back on Traction Control, and I'm super excited because I have a new colleague to introduce everybody to today, Donovan Ringo. He's our director of state affairs and grassroots at Auto Care Association.

Donovan Ringo 0:44

Hey, Stacey, I'm glad to be on the show with you. Been a fan forever, so it's all so great to have the Auto Care shirt on today.

Stacey Miller 0:49

Dude, I've been a fan of you, and to see you bleed orange right now just makes my entire life.

Donovan Ringo 0:55

No, no, no. I'm excited to have this opportunity to talk about what I'm going to be doing with the Auto Care Association.

From EV Strategy To Scholarships

Stacey Miller 0:59

Absolutely. Super proud to have you. Um really experienced in the aftermarket, super passionate. Um you come from Napa. Tell me a little bit about what you did at Napa before you jumped over to AutoCare.

Donovan Ringo 1:10

So uh when I was at Napa, I managed the emerging technologies business. So uh there was a time where like EVs were gonna be like the new hot thing. So Napa wanted to be the leader in that space. So identifying who the key suppliers are, what is gonna be our strategy to service them, and it was great. It was great. Then there was this election that happened, and then everything kind of changed from there. Uh so I took a pivot and I focused on uh uh workforce development with uh Napa. So what we were doing was how do we put money in hands of kids that actually want to be in the automotive space? So uh scholarships as well as uh providing tools for them as well. So it was really fulfilling. We were working with school districts across the country, uh, but this position came available, and I said, you know what, I'd be a little interested in finding more about it.

Stacey Miller 1:57

I mean, you show a tremendous amount of passion in everything that you do, and a lot of the roles that I've seen you do require you to be on top of everything at every moment, and you're really good at that. So I think that's really reflective in your role now. So tell me a little bit about what you're doing for autocare now and what your vision is for that.

State Affairs And Auto Care PAC

Donovan Ringo 2:16

I love you say that. It's controlled chaos, and I think that's what I thrive in for sure. So I am the director of state affairs and grassroots effort for the Auto Care Association. So I've been tasked with how do we take what we've done so well of m monitoring like federal rights repair and the Repair Act, how do we take that energy and that effort and apply it to the 50 states we have in this country? So um I'm actively monitoring the bills that are going on. Right now, we have about 48 of the 50 states are in session right now. So it's very active. So there's bills happening, there's changes happening all the time. Our stakeholders and uh our members are contacting me saying, Have you seen this bill uh come across your board? So I have to evaluate them and really look at kind of what are the core principles of the Auto Care Association to determine what is our support or opposition for it. So that's the state affairs side of my job. So I have the grassroots side. So um, you know, I'm in charge of the pack, right? We have the autocare pack. So utilizing our network as well as having the members donate into our pack so that we're able to fund initiatives at the federal level to really uh make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do as an association. So it's really exciting for me to be able to actually get out here, meet with our members, identify what their wants and needs are, and then fulfill that.

Stacey Miller 3:35

A lot of hats. And I think um most of our members are used to hearing us talk about things at the federal level, like right to repair. Um, but one of the things that we didn't emphasize enough was the state level and the legislation, because yes, right to repair is very broad and it affects all of us, but there are things that affect our member businesses every single day, and they come hard and fast at the state level. And they they kind of come out of nowhere, right? Like you're probably monitoring hundreds of bills right now to know how they're impacting people. So from I see things come across the desk like Magnus and Moss, catalytic converters, airbags, um, safety inspections, right? It's just kind of runs the gamut, and these little laws, they're not so little, um, they can really affect some of these businesses, which is why it's important for you to be on top of them and help us create positions on them.

Donovan Ringo 4:25

Yeah. No, I mean, you're right. It it's all of our members have different wants and needs, and then identifying kind of what those wants and needs are to make sure that we're representing them correctly. But we have great coalitions that the association is a part of. There's regional associations that we support as well, where it's I believe many hands make work light. So as long as we are in the aftermarket, we always talk about it like, hey, you know, behind closed doors we're enemies, but facing the public, we are all one aftermarket. So I think that's great. Um, so really just how do we figure out, like, okay, so if these let's take EPR laws or come into effect, those are affecting our, you know, our wholesale distributed partners, where a shop wouldn't really care about that, but we still have to be able to engage on that and act on that. But our shop owners may care about simple things like, hey, they're changing the the tax code or they're changing how apprenticeships, scholarships, or apprenticeships are working in my state. So staying active on there and making sure that we're able to influence that, I think, is going to be the key for this success in this role.

Stacey Miller 5:33

Absolutely. What's uh what's kind of hot at the state level right now? Can I put you on the spot?

Donovan Ringo 5:37

No, yeah, no, really, what's hot right now in Utah, uh, Utah is one of those fast, inferior states. They only have a legislative session like 90 days, so I don't know what they do for the rest of the year. So any of our uh listeners that are in Utah, man, it's you guys are it's kind of scary. But there's a bill uh 119, and what this bill is, it's ultimately on paper, it's an insurance bill. But what it's doing is it's steering the um repair shops who fix vehicles, so body shops and repair shops. It requires OEM procedures, and if you read OEM procedure, they require the OEM part, so it becomes an outlaw of aftermarket parts. Um, and then when it looks at the language, it says, hey, we're looking for equivalent quality to OEM part, but there's no, I mean that's what's the definition of that subjective. So, you know, we've been trying to work with the sponsor of the bill to really get that language fixed in there, but that's the key priority that we have right now because that session's so short. Okay, and we oppose that, obviously. Of course. Not not into that. But in you know, in retrospect, in Kansas, Kansas has a rights of repair bill that actually mirrors what's going on in Maine and Massachusetts right now. Really? So it's great. They they've seen the success, they understand that, and what it does is it creates a actually a council to actually identify and keep track of when whenever there's a situation where the OEMs are not sharing data, that they're you know holding the OEMs accountable where a shop can actually sue an insurer or the OEMs because they can't get that data. Wow. So it it just keeps adding on as more states start supporting rights of repair. I I think it's amazing because it makes the federal bill make more sense.

Stacey Miller 7:20

Yeah, it's like more support, more, more backing, right? And then I think so.

Donovan Ringo 7:28

It is. So the Iowa bill is similar to Utah. So it it's the the OEMs are really trying to throw spaghetti at the wall to kind of see what sticks because people think of aftermarket and they think you're getting some cheap part that was, you know, shipped it with some obscure from overseas, and they don't realize that like aftermarket parts are quality parts. I mean, there's a certifying standard when it comes to aftermarket parts. So it's our duty as the association and our members to really educate our lawmakers and say, come to a facility, come see how great these parts are, where you don't need to put a brand new OEM part on a 2002 Dodge Durango. Right. It's just not needed. Um, especially how like economically strapped Americans are today. It it just puts a tax on Americans that a lot of these lawmakers aren't really thinking about. They're just kind of taking the language of a bill and submitting it without really doing uh the due diligence to understand how it's gonna affect in the long run.

Stacey Miller 8:28

Could not agree more. That is the that is the sole purpose of AutoCare Association and the work um that you're doing. And then tell me what's going on in Georgia.

Donovan Ringo 8:36

Yeah, so in Georgia, uh similar, uh once again, similar bill in Georgia. But what's good about Georgia is um I actually took the time to actually meet with the sponsor of the bill, went under the gold dome, and uh had the conversation I just had with you, and you know, he was like, didn't even know that. I didn't even know that Georgia aftermarket was so large. You know, I told him, I was like, hey, you have a lot of WDs right here in Georgia, like you're hurting this business. So, you know, he's working right now with his team to fix the language to ultimately hopefully be a little more uh positive for aftermarket parts in the language. But we don't know until we actually see the bill, so you can only take him for his word. But Georgia's sessions are slow. Some things take multiple sessions to happen. So the sponsor, as well as our partners, don't feel anything's gonna happen this cycle. So George is like a monitor, it's like high risk, but we're just gonna monitor that one to see kind of what comes out of it.

Stacey Miller 9:28

Dang. And that's just four out of I'm sure hundreds that you're on top of.

Donovan Ringo 9:33

It's it's a busy, it's a busy game, but no, it's exciting. It's like whack-a-mole.

Grassroots Plan And Youth Engagement

Stacey Miller 9:37

Oh my god. I'm amazed right now. Um, and also really excited because I'm hoping that um, you know, folks are really saying like autocare has got, you know, your back. We're on the ground in the states following all of these things. Um, and Donovan's here advocating for you. So some of what you do is also grassroots, and I think that's really important because that's kind of where we see all the constituent support to help influence the decisions of legislators when they're hearing from constituents in their district, right? They want to hear from the people who are paying the taxes, who are bringing jobs, who are contributing to their communities. So at the state level, tell me just a little bit about why it's important that members are involved in grassroots and what you're doing.

Donovan Ringo 10:16

No, I think you hit it on the head. And really, well, the strategy that I really want to build is how do we leverage our communities first, right? We have some amazing communities in the association that do some great things. So, how do we take that energy and say, hey, you're now gonna be our champion on the ground level? You know the shops that are gonna be active, you know who's gonna be loud, you know who's gonna be vocal. Let's reach out to them, let's let's get them involved. Let's let's work with your team, let's let's film some content and really just educate our lawmakers and and make some good you know good trouble. You know, like I say, you know, we have to be advocates for our commun uh for our um association, we have to be advocates for our business. But I I think that's how it's gonna work. So after we get the communities engaged, then it's figuring out how do we start bringing more people to the table. Because the association has been around for a long time, but there's still a lot of people that don't even know the association exists that's in the aftermarket. Yeah. So being able to activate that grassroots, it's gonna bring more visibility. Ultimately, people are gonna better understand what the Auto Care Association is about. So, and then thirdly, it's how do you engage the youth? You think of any movement that happens, how do you get the youth involved? How do you get them excited about what they're doing? A lot of people come into this industry, they're like, hey, I need a job, or hey, my family's always done it. But for them to say, hey, I have a voice, let me use my voice to actually protect what's making my family money and keeping me employed. So those are kind of the three strategies I want to develop in this role and just excited to kind of roll those out to the membership.

Stacey Miller 11:49

I'm super excited about this, especially when we're talking about activating our youth. Obviously, you have experience and workforce development. That's something that AutoCare is really primed to take action on at the state level. We're looking at apprenticeship programs, we're looking at grants, we're looking at funding and trying to figure out from the state level to the federal level how do we make this industry more enticing and get more development in those programs. So I'm really excited to see what you bring because I know you've you did a lot of really great work at Napa on that too, and can bring some lessons too of our fight there. Of course, yeah. Awesome. Anything else we should talk about?

Women In Auto Care And Wrap

Donovan Ringo 12:20

Yeah, no, um, you know, I'm I'm here, you know, like I said, uh I'm here to be part of the association. I mean, uh here at Women in AutoCare, so you know, big uh ally for women in the aftermarket. I think, you know, it's an important conference that we put on because it's a safe place where women can grow and develop within their, you know, themselves as well as their business. And you don't have to fit, you don't have to deal with all the the days and out that you're dealing with. So I think it's amazing. I've had a ball here. I mean, I've been running around for three days. Like, you know, I I think I've been pinned a woman in autocare. So I'm definitely in there. So uh it's a great conference. So yeah, no, I'm excited to be here.

Stacey Miller 13:00

Your initiation is complete. We couldn't be more happy to have you. And this isn't the last time that we're gonna see you on the podcast. We're gonna work to bring our audience more consistent state affairs updates and let them know what is happening on the road as you're there. So, Donovan, thank you so much for joining us.

Subscribe Rate Review And Learn More

Donovan Ringo 13:14

Of course, thanks, Stacey. I appreciate the opportunity. Cheers. Cheers.

Stacey Miller 13:17

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care on Air. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode. And don't forget to leave us a rating and review that helps others discover our content. Auto Care on Air is a production of the Autocare Association, dedicated to advancing the autocare industry and supporting professionals like you. To learn more about the association and its initiatives, visit autocare.org.