> The only real solution is longer warranties > maintain availability of replacement parts That sounds like requirements for military use. On a civilian level

> The only real solution is longer warranties > maintain availability of replacement parts That sounds like requirements for military use. On a civilian level, there are certainly other, less hard-nosed possibilities. Legislature could mandate the following instead: • The manufacturer is forbidden to prevent a supplier from offering replacement parts on the free market. • The manufacturer is forbidden from coercing a supplier to slightly modify a standard part just to make it incompatible and thus cripple third-party repair. • The manufacturer must supply a repair manual with component data sheets and schematics so that a suitable replacement part can be produced by third parties. Thus we return to the standard of repairability we enjoyed in the previous century. These ideas are free to implement or certainly magnitudes less expensive than keeping stock of replacement parts which takes the wind out of the sails of opposition to these changes in ordinance or law.