Oregon
State law entitles a franchised dealer to be paid for warranty parts and labor at what it charges its own nonwarranty customers. If you propose that rate and the manufacturer does not contest it, the law presumes it fair and reasonable. Most Oregon stores have never put a proposal in front of the factory at all.
ORS 650.158 · Predelivery preparation and warranty service; dealer compensation
What you are owed
Retail rate
Warranty parts at the amount you charge nonwarranty customers, and labor at your retail hourly rate, as long as the amount is not unreasonable. Diagnostic work must be reasonably compensated too.
Your proposed rate
Presumed fair
If the manufacturer does not contest your proposal and you have otherwise complied, your hourly rate and parts amount are presumed fair and reasonable.
The claim clock
30 days
A warranty claim not disapproved within 30 days is effectively approved, and payment is due within 45 days.
Recovering the cost
Prohibited
The manufacturer may not recover any part of what it pays you by reducing amounts due or by a separate charge, surcharge, administrative fee or other fee.
Why It Is Not A Form
Oregon's presumption only attaches to a proposal that complies. That proposal is built out of your own paid nonwarranty invoices, under rules that decide which of that work counts. The statute sounds generous, and it is. It is also specific about what the manufacturer may contest, and a proposal that does not hold together is exactly what it will contest.
Oregon carves out less work than many states, which lets more of your repair work count. The categories it does exclude are routine lines on any service menu, and whether a given line falls inside one depends on how the work was done and written up.
The fairness presumption belongs to a dealer that otherwise complied with the statute. A proposal with gaps gives the manufacturer grounds to contest, and a contested rate has no presumption behind it.
Once a year the manufacturer may verify your hourly rate or parts amount and lower compensation going forward if your rate has decreased. Winning the rate is one job. Keeping your customer-pay pricing where it was is another.
Oregon compensates recall and campaign repairs under its own section, as a distinct remedy. Treating those repairs as part of the retail-rate proposal confuses two different entitlements.
The Part Most Dealers Miss
Oregon does not ask a dealer to win an argument. It asks the dealer to make a compliant proposal. If the manufacturer, distributor or importer does not contest it, your proposed hourly rate and parts amount are presumed fair and reasonable. The burden of objecting sits with them.
And the law closes the back doors. The manufacturer cannot recover the cost by cutting what it owes you or by adding a surcharge or fee, and it cannot reduce your recall compensation, pull you from an incentive program or charge you back simply because you filed a claim. The right is clear. What decides the outcome is a proposal that gives them nothing to contest.
We Do This For You
John Fairchild has run more than 400 warranty reimbursement filings himself. You do not pull the repair orders, decide what qualifies, or argue the categories. We build the submission, you review it before it goes anywhere, and it goes out under a rate we are prepared to defend.
Most filings come back in 45 to 60 days. That depends heavily on the manufacturer, and on whether they ask for additional repair orders before they answer, which every statute allows them to do.
And because your rate is proven out of your own customer-pay pricing, we do not stop when the letter is sent. The platform runs the daily discipline that protects that pricing all year, which is what decides how high you can go the next time you are allowed to ask.
No cost, no obligation. We will tell you the rate you could defend today and whether filing is worth running at all.
Summary of ORS 650.158 as published by the State of Oregon, reviewed July 2026. Statutes change; we re-verify before every filing.