What the filing is
Most US states have a dealer franchise law that lets a dealer ask the manufacturer to pay warranty labor and parts at the dealer's retail rates. The dealer proves those rates with a set of qualifying customer-pay repair orders, and the manufacturer has a limited time to approve or rebut.
Choosing the repair orders
Each state sets how many repair orders to submit and the time period they must come from. A common pattern is 100 sequential qualifying customer-pay repair orders or 90 days of them, whichever comes first, but the details differ by state and the manufacturer will check them.
- Exclude routine maintenance such as oil changes, tire rotations and alignments where the statute does.
- Exclude discounted, internal, fleet and accessory work.
- Use repair orders recent enough to meet the state's freshness rule.
Computing the rates
The labor rate is qualifying labor sales divided by qualifying labor hours. The parts markup is qualifying parts sales divided by their cost, minus one. Price the annual uplift by applying the difference to last year's warranty hours and parts cost so the store knows what the filing is worth before it goes in.
Submitting and following up
Send the repair-order list, the calculation and the statute citation in one package and keep proof of delivery. Diary the manufacturer's response deadline; a missed deadline can strengthen the dealer's position under some statutes. Re-file when the store's rates change materially.
Updated November 5, 2026