Posted On: March 13, 2007, 12:50 pm CDT

Posted By: gill fin

Well put. Some aftermarket parts are good and some are not good. My experience as an agent includes the following - the local body shop knows that my company would prefer a less expensive aftermarket part if possible, but will leave it to the bodyshop if they say they can't find a suitable aftermarket part, and my company will approve an OEM part no problem. Also, someone asked for honesty about after market parts. Our auto policy clearly states we retain the right to use after market parts when reasonable. So, if the body shop can find them, about 5% of the time, and they are good, the body shop will use them. The other 95% of the time they use OEM. And for that we get sued. I know other lesser companies arent that accomodating, but for us thats how it works. Oh yeah, my company was the first to lose a court case over aftermarket parts. The rub? No client of ours ever testified that they suffered in any way as a result of our contract. The plaintiffs were ford, chevy and dodge.