Auto repair facilities already have to give you your replaced parts if you ask for them, as long as you do so before the work starts. But should they be required to ask you if you want them?That’s the question posed by a bill being offered by Rep. Maurice Villeneuve, R-Bedford, a revival of a bill killed by lawmakers last session, which would require that customers sign a waiver to say they don’t want the replaced parts.Villeneuve contends that most customers don’t know enough to ask for them, and by the time the work is done — and want to see the old part, either to reuse it in some way or to check on the mechanic’s honesty — it has already been discarded, and it’s too late.“They’ll always find an excuse not to give it to you. This way, you sign a release form at the bottom of the work order if you don’t want the part,” he said.Last year, the House Transportation Committee unanimously opposed the bill because “of the limited interest in the motoring public of having parts returned,” but said it might reconsider the measure if it would help toward proper disposal of the parts. Villeneuve said he would add instructions on how to do so on the release form.Daniel McLeod, president of the NH Automobile Dealers Association, said he hasn’t seen the new bill, but the old one would have resulted in “another piece of paper” to create a “solution to a problem that we weren’t aware of.”Besides, he said, “sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for.” He worried that customers, who forget to sign the statement, might end up driving home with “worn tires in the back seat and break pads in their back seat.” And while the repair shops might not mind disposing of the parts in this manner, he said, “I don’t think customers will be too thrilled about it.” — BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW News source: NHBR