Legislature Makes it More Difficult to Use Inexpensive Car Parts

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 6/20/2016 | Jarrett Skorup

[minnesota_bound]

I bought a after market interior door handle for about $10 for my 2003 Honda Accord and installed it myself in about 15 minutes.

If the politicians had their way I would be forced to buy the much more expensive OEM door handle and make an appointment and wait for to have the dealership install it.

[tet68]

Do not buy a reman master cylinder for instance.
Honed out but with the same seals...it won’t last.
I have replaced many in 70 years.

[BobL]

I tend to agree with you. People EXPECT their newer cars to be put back to “as new” condition after a wreck, particularly if it’s not their fault. 5 years is a VERY SHORT TIME for a car these days, since they last at least 12 years (at least for non-UAW cars). I drive a car over 20 years old - the last thing that I worry about is keeping it OEM. But my wife, who does have an almost-new car - yea, I’d like it to stay as close to OEM as possible, at least until it becomes my car (LOL).

[BobL]

“Yep...big time on the brake pads. Some professor ought to do a study with the cheap import brake pads and regular pads. I’ll bet they last only half as long.”

While I agree, brake pads are not the main thrust of this story. As far as brake pads go, they’re cheap, and even the OEM markup leaves them cheap enough to use in all cases. It’s when you get into body parts. If the car is relatively new, as with this 5 year deal - it seems to me that restoring to OEM should be done. If more than 10 years old - who cares, as long as it’s not dangerous to drive.

[BobL]

“There are plenty of quality manufacturers of non-OEM auto parts.”

I agree. I use Chinese drive axles - they work great, and are the same price as US rebuilts (of which I have had some major problems). Also no core charge.

Bottom line - if Autozone (or NAPA, or whoever) tries selling dangerous stuff, like ball joints that fly apart, they will have some HUGE LAWSUITS to deal with.

While I generally do not like our tort system...it works for stuff like this. NAPA, Autozone, and the others need to be (and are being) VERY CAREFUL regarding what they sell if failure means injuries or deaths.

[BobL]

“Many people on this thread obviously don’t work on their own cars. I’ve kept cars running just fine for years with non-OEM parts at less than half the cost or better.”

Most people think that having a computer in their car means that they can no longer work on it. I tell them what you probably tell them, which is two things:
1) For many items, like brake jobs, oil changes, and many smaller items - NOTHING HAS CHANGED - it was (relatively) easy in the past, it still is.
2) For most of the new stuff (emission controls, engine speed and crank position sensing), the computer TELLS YOU when something is wrong. It’s not even fair, compared to the old days when you had to find the root cause of a rough engine with a few blunt instruments.

Not to mention that YouTube will practically walk them through just about ever repair under the sun. Personally, I try to avoid YouTube, as it’s like cheating - part of the challenge is figuring out how to do stuff. But that isn’t even needed anymore.

[BobL]

“Do not buy a reman master cylinder for instance.
Honed out but with the same seals...it won’t last.
I have replaced many in 70 years.”

Yea, I’ve had similar experiences with rebuilt hardware - they simply CANNOT match OEM. Even new Chinese is likely better than American rebuilt, at least in my experience.

Rebuilding is VERY COMPETITIVE. If your product lasts 20,000 miles it is ‘good enough’, if it lasts over 100,000 miles, it is ‘too good’ meaning that more expense than necessary was made in bringing the product to that level.