Mechanic Breaks Handle On Chevrolet Silverado. Then The Shop Tells Him He Has To Replace Entire Door Panel: 'What Do You Mean?'

When you break something on your car, you expect to be able to fix that one part—not have to replace everything attached to it. 

That ends up being a much more expensive repair in both parts and labor, not to mention how wasteful it is. And car owners aren’t the only ones catching on to how manufacturers are making once simple repairs costlier and more complicated. 

2023 Chevrolet Silverado Handle Replacement Gone Wrong

In a trending video with more than 128,000 views, content creator Thomas (@carsrme2), shared his frustration with auto makers.

“They are literally building these cars so that you throw them away when they break. Literally just throw them away when they break; don't replace it; don't fix it; just throw it away,” he said.

In the video, Thomas explained that he was installing a camera system on his 2023 Chevrolet Silverado when he accidentally locked himself out.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't loop the piece all the way through on the handle. So, basically the door was shut. I pulled on it really hard, door opens, but as you can tell, I broke this. Just a little plastic piece. I broke it. No biggie, no biggie,” he said.

Thomas figured he'd just order the part online, but it wasn’t so simple.

"I look online, can't find it. I understand it's a newer car; this is a '23. I'm like, shoot, let's call the dealer,” he says,

But when he called the dealer, he says they explained that they “can't just get the door handle.”

According to him, you have to order the entire door panel.

The panel, he says, comes bundled with a new window switch. Thoms didn't quite believe it until he took the broken piece apart himself.

"He's not kidding. It's like they've molded the plastic around it. You cannot get this off. You cannot get that out. What the heck?" he said.

He wasn't buying the idea that this was just normal wear, pointing out that the window switch, unlike the tiny handle clip that actually broke, deals with real wear on a daily basis.

"This should never break, right?" he said, referring to the handle. "But how many times have you placed a window switch in a car? It gets wet with water. What are you gonna tell me: I need a whole new door panel? It's only a cool $525,” he said in frustration.

Driver Weighs In

Content creator Vanessa Wingårdh (@vanessawingardh) reposted Thomas's Chevrolet Silverado story with some of her own commentary and got more than 352,000 views.

"The $525 Disposable Plastic Door Handle," the text overlay on her video reads.

"Just like how Apple has soldered all of the components together so that if you try to repair the iPhone, you break all the parts inside, that's what car manufacturers are now doing. Just like televisions, washing machines, vacuum cleaners—there used to be repairmen, and businesses that used to exist for things," she said.

She went on to say that all these industries are essentially in cahoots with the government so consumers have less autonomy over repairs. 

"There's a reason they want legislation requiring us to take our vehicles to the dealership. The dealership is going to price-gouge us on the parts and the labor," she claimed.

Gallery: 2023 Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 Bison

14

What Is The Right To Repair Movement?

The core complaint of the Right to Repair movement is that manufacturers across categories—phones, tractors, appliances, even hospital ventilators—have made it progressively harder to fix products by limiting parts access or restricting who's allowed to do the repair, a 2020 New York Times article reported. 

Advocates call this planned obsolescence, which is the idea that products are deliberately designed to have a short lifespan so people keep buying new ones. There's an environmental angle too: manufacturing new devices and appliances is resource- and emissions-intensive, and advocates argue that keeping existing products alive longer through easier repairs cuts down on that waste. 

Right to Repair advocates also argue that when a manufacturer is the only source for parts, tools, and repair information, they're free to charge whatever they want or push owners toward a bigger replacement than necessary, according to PIRG. 

Cars specifically have been a major front in that fight. Massachusetts voters passed the country's first automotive right-to-repair ballot measure back in 2012, overwhelmingly approving a law requiring manufacturers to give independent mechanics and car owners the same access to repair information as dealerships, including through the vehicle's diagnostic port, a measure that led to a national agreement between automakers and independent repair shops in 2014. 

Massachusetts voters went further in 2020, approving a follow-up measure requiring automakers to share repair data transmitted wirelessly, not just through the physical port. 

That law has been tied up in court ever since, with automakers suing to block it and enforcement still unresolved years later. Maine voters passed a similar automotive right-to-repair measure in 2023, though it's since run into pushback in the state legislature, too.

Manufacturers generally argue that restricting repairs protects safety and security. Apple has said it wants repairs "handled by a trained technician using genuine parts.” When Massachusetts put a follow-up right-to-repair measure on the ballot in 2020 specifically covering vehicle data, opponents ran a multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning it could expose personal vehicle data to hacking and stalking.

Right To Repair In The News

Last month, the FTC and attorneys general from five states reached a right-to-repair settlement with John Deere requiring the equipment maker to give farmers and independent repair shops access to the same diagnostic and repair tools previously reserved for its own authorized dealer network, the Associated Press reported. 

The order also bars Deere dealers from retaliating against owners who choose independent repair over paying Deere directly. It's the second right-to-repair settlement Deere has faced this year, following a separate $99 million class-action settlement with farmers in April. 

Deere will be under compliance oversight for the next decade. 

Drivers React To $525 Chevy Handle: 'We Need Right To Repair Laws'

The comments section was full of people trading their own takes on the trend.

“The irony is they’re making cars to be better for the environment, then get sent to the junk yard in 8 years,” a top comment read.

“The auto industry learned from the [home] appliance industry but didn't lower prices,” a person said.

“If ppl would stop buying they will change it, this also should be illegal,” another wrote.

“Evil modern engineering,” a commenter added.

Motor1 reached out to Thomas via Instagram and TikTok direct message, to Wingårdh via TikTok direct message and comment, and to Chevrolet via email. We'll be sure to update this if any of them respond.