Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
NO aftermarket mfgr sweats the details like OEM. None.
I would respectuflly disagree with that at least in regards to hard parts. Body panels you always go OEM IMO. OEM hard parts are made to a good enough standard. They are not bad as a rule but I would not rate them as top quality. From what I see they are medium quality and vastly over priced. Either that or they are nothing but repacked aftermarket parts with a price tag 2-3X's greater than the afetrmarket price.
Corners will be cut to save wherever they can with OEM parts. Such as not adding grease fittings to suspension parts whereas aftermarket generally come with them. The car mfg cuts the zerk and saves 5 cents a part( that adds up over millions purchased )which means it fails sooner because it can't be properly maintained. OEM brakes generally stink too as do shocks.
You certainly aren't getting junk when buying OEM ( usually ), and it wiill definitely fit right, but that doesn't mean it is a betetr quality part than an aftermarket part. I can almost always get betetr quality, with proper fit, for less money aftermarket. Again, body panels not included.
It's okay to disagree, no apology necessary. Of course there are exceptions to be found.
But the point was that OEM receives outrageous dynamic testing and is heavily CAD/CAM developed, tested exhaustively, tortured under bad conditions, etc.
Few AM sources have the kind of pockets to do the extensive testing to truly validate the part like the OEM. I do agree they always look at the pennies and would save a nickel if they can, but I feel overall they are usually the best choice for most pieces.
Note that our OEM brakes go over 100k miles on 4.5 ton vans. Always. And the factory shocks on my truck were Bilstein! So there's exceptions to every "rule".