is aftermarket going sour or...

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
I swear there is no testing anymore,and component parts are straight off the econo shelf.Example is new waterpumps.No matter the brand they are China sourced,and use the cheapest seals and bearings the Chinese can buy.


I recently replaced the water pump on my Nissan. Advance Auto had GMB pumps made in Thailand, but they were close enough to the original Atsugi pump. I ended up buying an Aisin from Carquest, which was more expensive but was made in Japan.

So, if you do some shopping you can sometimes find non-Chinese pumps.

 

[JetStar]

I too did a stint on the other side of the counter back in the late 70's early 80's at an independent parts store, mostly commercial accounts. Back then we had good parts and lower cost parts. Saw many times shops install the value line, and charge retail for the name brand part to the customer. For walk ins, the customer would usually go for the cheaper part by default, this is true. I used to ask them to consider if they were going to keep the car when choosing parts. IIRC we made more on the value line of parts. Really, it started going south when Autozone, Advance, etc... started moving in and pretty much run the independents out, reminds me of the Walmart model. I rememeber back then Autozone used to carry name brand parts.
It is a catch 22 give them what they want, which oh by the way, is the same thing you make the most margin on.

 

[Spazdog]

At one point in time, the aftermarket part was often better than the original. It was developed specifically to fix the shortcomings of the OE part that made it fail in the first place.

At Western Auto, domestic car alternators and starters were remanufactured for us by Delco. Ironically we also had actual Delco reman alternators and starters. The only difference I could tell was that the Delco boxed reman starters had new nosecones.

It's our fault as consumers. I don't know how many times the vastly superior part was just a few dollars more but the purchaser demanded the cheapest anyway.

Same thing with tires. I would get a fairly large Spiff for selling higher end brand name tires and could negotiate the price to a certain degree. Would the consumer want to purchase a Michelin, Dunlop, or Pirelli at a reasonable price? Nope. They wanted the $15.99 tire in the sales ad. They wanted it to perform and last like the Michelin though and would come back to complain that it was noisy or bad in wet weather. It's a $15.99 tire!!!! it is amazing in wet weather for $15.99!

I carried the OE Valeo mono-wiper for Mercedes Benzes. You would think that a Mercedes Benz owner would understand the price difference. Nope. They wanted the $2.99 poly-carbonate plastic tracked refill and then complained that I didn't sell it at half the price because they only needed one.

We also had a case full of Craftsman tools back when they were still made in the USA. We also had a 5% price guarantee.
"I can get that wrench for $2 down to Autozone"
"Yeah, but it's a Chinese Great Neck wrench. This is a Craftsman."
"I guess that price guarantee is a lie then.

We created the monster. O'Reilly, Autozone, et-al.... only responded to our demands. I'm certain they would like to sell higher quality/higher profit margin parts but would soon find themselves non-competitive if they did.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Lots of junk out there.Many parts are made in Mexico and China now,that used to be US or Canada,and quality control has gone straight down.I swear there is no testing anymore,and component parts are straight off the econo shelf.Example is new waterpumps.No matter the brand they are China sourced,and use the cheapest seals and bearings the Chinese can buy.The housings look good,but those dont move and fall apart...


The Gates timing belt kit for my PT Cruiser had:
USA made timing belt
Canadian made tensioner
Japanese made idler
Chinese water pump.

I seriously considered purchasing another water pump but everything I found was Chinese.

 

[sciphi]

Some cars don't have much of an aftermarket following outside of online. The two cars in my signature come to mind. Finding anything for the Fit in a local parts store is impossible. So OEM is often the only local choice for our cars, if they even have the part in stock.

 

[Duffman77]

With a few exceptions I dont know why you would want an OEM part. The auto makers ceased to be manufacturers decades ago and went the route of assemblers. They only manufacture major assemblies like engines, transmissions, axles, frames, and some sheet metal stampings and even many of these components are outsourced (Cummins engines, Borg Warner, Aisin, ZF transmissions, AAM or Dana axles...).

Most of the time many parts are made on the same assembly line and boxed in different manufacturers packaging. Why pay more for the same junk?

 

[Kestas]

Every time I visit RockAuto for my needs I see a myraid of choices and prices. That's when I post on auto forums for a query on quality and value for the list of parts. I want the best bang for the buck. And yes, it is typically the higher priced items.

I do respect it when the parts are listed as "service grade" or "professional grade", giving the owner a deliberate choice on quality level. Sometimes a person doesn't care for "the best" if he is only trading the car in or fixing it for sale, or otherwise knows he's only hanging on to it for a short while until the car is completely consumed.

Personally, I treat my cars as though I'll be keeping them forever, and usually I do hang on to them seemingly forever.

 

[zzyzzx]

I agree with the person who wrote it's because people are too cheap to buy good quality parts is why was can't get good stuff anymore.

 

[SLCraig]

It's rare to get a good aftermarket part, but they do exist.

I can think of a few examples, but not many.

 

[antiqueshell]

My experience is that finding quality replacement parts for European models is much easier than for US and Asian models.

All you need to do is look for the OEM suppliers which many times still produce their replacement parts in Europe, or the USA, and the prices are very reasonable too.