Dealer Warranty & Recall Reimbursement Rules

HB 648 (2026 Ky. Acts ch. 83), effective July 15, 2026, rewrote KRS 190.046 for Class 7 and heavier vehicles. Dealers get parts at acquisition cost plus a 30% margin, reimbursement of technician training, diagnostic hardware/software and special-tool costs, and actual labor hours unless proven unreasonable by clear and convincing evidence. Component manufacturers are also bound, and claims cannot be required sooner than 90 days after service. Promotion claims also get a 90-day window.

Massachusetts added General Laws chapter 175 sections 231 and 232 effective July 9, 2026. The new framework creates a permanent auto body labor reimbursement rate advisory board, requires recurring surveys of auto body shops and insurers, and directs the insurance commissioner to hold a rate hearing and establish a minimum statewide or regional auto-body labor reimbursement rate if the survey shows insufficient competition. The first survey must be conducted by January 1, 2027.

Virginia's 2026 Motor Vehicle Glass Act took effect July 1, 2026. Before repairing or replacing damaged motor-vehicle glass, a glass repair shop must notify the customer whether the vehicle has an advanced driver assistance system and, when it does, whether manufacturer-recommended calibration or recalibration is needed, whether the shop intends to perform it to manufacturer specifications, and where the customer should go if the shop will not perform it. When calibration or recalibration is performed, the shop must provide written notice of whether it succeeded and direct the customer to a certified dealer or qualified specialist if it did not.

California BAR's approved regulation changed reporting deadlines for automotive repair dealer business information. BAR's current guidance says business address changes must be reported within 14 days and other listed business-license changes within 30 days.

New Jersey P.L. 2025, c.140 took effect April 1, 2026. The law expands franchisor-paid repair reimbursement to include diagnostic work and recall/service-plan work, revises retail labor-rate, labor-time and parts-markup calculations, adds protections around chargebacks and part-price manipulation, addresses electric-propulsion-battery returns, and creates compensation for certain used vehicles held under stop-sale or do-not-drive recall notices when parts are unavailable.

Beginning January 1, 2026, Washington increased the fee on retail sales of new replacement vehicle tires from $1 to $5 per tire. The buyer pays the fee to the seller, the seller must collect it, and retailers may retain 25 cents per tire for waste-tire management costs.

Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 50 amended ORS 650.158 and 650.161 effective January 1, 2026. The changes address diagnostic and repair compensation, retail labor and parts rate submissions, manufacturer response timelines, corrected claim resubmissions and recall-repair compensation.

The Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2025 (Chapter 604) created a $5.00 per-tire fee on the first sale of a new tire in Maryland, starting January 1, 2026, and raised the tire recycling fee from $0.80 to $1.00 per tire. Both apply to tire dealers' first sales of new tires, including tires on new or used vehicles sold, and are filed by the 21st of the following month.

Connecticut DMV says that effective January 1, 2026, Section 14-15e requires all individuals listed on a dealer or repairer license application to be subject to a background check.

Maryland Chapter 207 of 2025 took effect October 1, 2025. A mechanical repair contract may not contain a provision excluding coverage for an issue identified in a technical service bulletin, and a guarantor or provider may not deny a claim solely because the diagnosed issue appears in a technical service bulletin.

BAR adopted amendments governing mobile and referral Automotive Repair Dealers, including sections 3351, 3351.7.1 through 3351.7.3, 3371.1 and new section 3371.2. The changes took effect October 1, 2025.

Ohio Revised Code 4517.52 was amended effective September 30, 2025. The section requires franchisors to compensate franchisees for qualifying warranty and recall labor and parts at retail-based rates and expressly includes qualifying diagnostic work, including technician time communicating with franchisor technical assistance.

LB 667, approved May 15, 2025, amended Neb. Rev. Stat. 60-1438. Franchisors may not unreasonably deny dealer requests to change a uniform warranty time allowance or add diagnostic or repair time for a specific vehicle. Manufacturers must justify denials of a dealer's declared parts markup. Parts furnished at no or reduced cost must be paid at the dealer's markup on fair wholesale value, and the maintenance items excluded from rate calculations are now listed.

HB 1515 (2025), signed April 11, 2025 and effective August 1, 2025, amended North Dakota's motor vehicle warranty compensation law (NDCC ch. 51-07). Warranty labor is paid at the dealer's average retail rate multiplied by the time guide the dealer uses for customer-pay work (named by written notice), and a manufacturer can challenge a submitted labor rate or parts markup only by showing it was materially inaccurate.