Strange how a lot of these 'cheaper spares' are the same products they actually sell at the main dealers. Makes you sick :/
Sick is one word, positively fuming and slightly unhinged (prolly due to lack of sleep though) is another term.
What really annoys me is not only is it utter crap for the most part, but also, how do I get parts for a 1968 car then? I doubt MG Rover will have any of the bits I might need in stock. And what about aftermarket parts like better brake pads, stainless exhausts, etc? Or is the problem anything cheaper, meaning anything more expensive than dealer parts will be allowed?
I seriously hope that this idiotic crap never sees the light of day, as I can see it having a pretty huge impact on motor factors, independent garages, and all sorts of aspects of motoring. With any luck the businesses concerned will get together and tell the red tape merchants where to shove it.
Which will mean that even the current rip off prices charged by manufacturers would at least double overnight, especially with the prospect of absolutely no competition on the horizon.
Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to introduce some sort of compromise legislation, such as any major components which are 'essential' to the 'safety' of the vehicle should at least meet, or even exceed the original manufacturers specification.
In fact it could have a completely opposite effect, especially as no doubt many more people will put off 'essential' maintenance due to cost reasons.
Not only that, the irony is that a lot of parts in a new car are sourced from independent manufacturers.
Depends. If they're OEM parts, it doesn't apply. It refers to copies of other's designs.
I read something in The Engineer which really made me sick...
Some egghead nutter is working on the concept of intelligent fasteners: put simply, main bolts/nuts etc that cannot be released without the appropriate electronic key.
The idea being that the fastener cannot work loose under load (sort of a hugely complicated locknut), and cannot be tampered with by "unauthorised" personnel - that'll be me and thee then!?
The article soon swung into the territory of presuming that only main dealers would have the "legal" right to hold these electronic keys, as supplied by the original car manufacturer. (Actually, it's not just confined to cars obviously.) Oh, and you might be surprised how small these things can go, so it could also apply to non-critical items like trim and so on.
I waited and waited for the April Fools notice but saw none...
Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
So if it comes in....
There goes all the non-OEM exhausts that Kwik-Fit and their ilk fit.
There goes all the brake pads from all bar a couple of OEM manufacturers, so no choice of compound.
There goes the replacement mirror glass for a couple of quid from Halfrauds.
There goes all the windscreen glass used by most of Autoglass et al.
Easy enough to alter the design slightly to get round any copyright.
I'm trying to work out which European Country only allows you to buy OEM parts, I seem to have bough nonOEM parts from almost anywhere.
Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
How d'you alter the design of a windscreen?
How many people are wiped out annually here in the UK, through not using OEM parts?
I would hazard a guess that a greater number are killed due to the incompetence of 'professionals' fitting OEM parts incorrectly.
Also what recourse has one got against a manufacturer whose timing belt fails in the fast lane of a motorway, 30,000 miles before it's due to be replaced, because of a shoddily designed OEM tensioner?
The message from Adrian contains these words:
Make it .1mm thicker - or 2mm more bulge in the middle - you'd never notice.
Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
So how come that same theory can't be applied to all the other parts produced by non-OEM manufacturers?
The design of a mounting flange for a water pump is slightly modified. The fixing tags on a front wing or bumper. The adjusters on a headlight.
All things that can be simply amended without affecting the function.
It's either the end of all those non-OEM replacement parts, or a complete non-issue, depending on what the courts determine is the "design" of the part.
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