Imitation spares for cars

[Bereta_Eder]

It is the word?

Genuine spare parts are more expensive but imitation might not be safe?


What do you think? Your experiences?

[Bereta_Eder]

I hit my head now because I forgot to tell the guy to put genuine spare for some job he's done and he went ahead and put a imitation. Grrr... OK it was cheaper and he said noone has ever complained but grrrrr....

[VetLegion]

Be careful. There is a lot of trash out there.

As an extreme example, my father once bought a part of gas stove on a city fair from a street salesman. It leaked gas and it colleced in one part of the stove and blew up. Fortunately, not much of it. It happened that the part had a tiny hole that was painted over and thus invisible. But still there.

On a car, I wouldn't risk it with brakes and other life support systems. But if you want a radio and buy a false kenwood, no problem.

[Bereta_Eder]

I know. I think the same way.

It was the gas pump? It was leaking gasoline inside the car so they changed the gas pump just above the reservoir below the back seats.

And the genuine one was just 50 euros more. It wasn't a huge difference. But I think they never put on the genuine one in the cars they fix. They always put on the imitation.

Too late now, but I was a bit pissed.

[duke o' york]

I don't understand why they put the cheaper thing in as policy. Surely they want to put the more expensive one in so that their mark-up is greater, and they make more profit from the single transaction. I'd expect you to have to ask the garage to put a cheaper part in. Unless they're charging you the rate for the more expensive one but using the cheaper....

[Bereta_Eder]

He's a friend of a friend. He tries to keep prices low for me. But I forgot to tell him I wanted genuine. Anyway, he said if there is need for something to be genuine he'll tell me. But still I would feel safer if that was the genuine particularly with 50 euros difference.

[axi]

In general, auto industries always put a large overhead on spare parts, so all imitations are cheaper for that reason.

Also imitation manufacturers are more outsourced than auto industries.

Imitation chassis parts (doors, bumpers, hoods, etc) are a bit cheaper than the original counterparts also because they use a tad less and worse quality material than the originals. In most cases, when you've already wrecked the car once, you don't mind if your doors will begin corroding in 10 years instead of twelve. So you definitely can use those. Of course, the smartest thing to do is to go buy some used genuine parts, from an auto yard. There are shops stuffed with all parts you can imagine, all along Liosion or Thivon avenues, f.e.

To come to engine parts, this is a little bit trickier. An imitation water pump or headlight set won't hurt you, but for more serious stuff, I don't know. I don't know if you can buy an imitation clutch f.e. As for used stuff, you should know that some things you can buy without worrying much (like steering and suspension parts) but parts that see life-related use (like the engine itself, the camshaft, the gearbox and differential) require you to know well the conditions they've been used in so far, because most nasty stuff can't be easily found by inspection. You could get a bargain or you could get a disaster.

And NEVER EVER put second rate dispensibles on your car (I mean stuff that is changed during regular service: oils, filters, bearings, flanges, valves, belt drives, etc) Change your oils more frequently than required. A bad 2 Euro part could screw your whole engine.

As for electronics, I don't know how much they wear out and their purchase cost in comparison to installation costs, so I can't help.

[OzzyKP]

It depends on the mechanic. I used to work at an autoparts store, some of our customers (mechanics) swore by the premium parts, others always went with the cheap stuff. Same with the walk-ins.

I think most people just went with the cheap brands.

[Ted Striker]

My friend's mother got into a crash because the auto shop put imitation brake pads on the car, and they were more "slippery" than the originals.

[Bereta_Eder]

Thanks for the information.

[Dinner]

You get what you pay for and the Chinese make a big business of selling low quality parts and trying to pass them off as name brand parts.