Ive dealt directly with this nonsense for some years now, in that John Deere was adamant about farmers not fixing their tractors, even if they knew how, but to instead call on a certified John Deere supplier.
Given how often such breakdowns involve software rather than hardware this has become an especially testy point and I’m aware of more than a few American farmers who obtained black market software patches from their peers in Eastern Europe, where anti-communism has bred a deep mistrust of being dependent on either government or large corporations.
Such software dependency also means that features of the machines are simply not switched on because that requires an annual subscription payment!
Now the same shit is hitting the US military, where they’ve just cancelled the M-10 Booker light tank, even though they’ve taken delivery of 80 vehicles, partly because at 38 tons it wasn’t light enough to be air-dropped, which was a key demand, but also this:
Another issue that irked both Army officials and lawmakers stuck with the bill for the Booker was the so-called Right-to-Repair terms in its maintenance plans. The contract under which the Booker was purchased required that the Army use the Booker’s builder, General Dynamics, to address a wide range of parts and maintenance issues that Army mechanics could have addressed on their own.
…
We have many instances where, for two dollars to twenty dollars, we can 3D-print a part. We know how to 3D print a part. We have the 3D printer, but we have signed away the right to do that on our own accord, and that is a sinful activity for the leadership of the Army to do to harm our soldiers. And so that is the type of thing that we are no longer going to be willing to concede to the private industry.
Rather a shame as the previous mention I’d seen of the M-10 was in 2023 when I included it in an article on our new military world, where another US Army spokesman had sung the praises of its development:
“It’s been a tremendously successful program… on schedule, on budget, and performing well in testing,” according to Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, the program executive officer for ground combat systems. The first tanks… er, combat vehicles, should be delivered to the Army later this year.
Oh well. That’s the military for you – and the military contractors! Let’s just hope that the new B-21 bomber, which I noted in that same article had similar praise for the speed and cost control of its development, doesn’t suffer the same fate.
No Minister 
How would they cope in that tank movie ‘Fury’, if they have to call in a contractor all the time?
It is a real issue and with the computer increasingly involved and warranty issues it will only get more complicated.
As a poor farmer back in the last decade of last century I bought a Saab 9000 first owned by Rod Deane Res Bank gov.
I was the 4th owner and bought it as a Category “D” so no warranty, around a year later it just stopped on the road and to their credit Wellington European replaced the computer at my labour cost.
That Massey Ferguson in the photo won’t have any electronics and is easily repairable. It’s main issue is simply been too small.
The story behind that MF-135.