Guys,

The 'hidden costs' of using of fitting substandard parts is indeed well documented. I hear many war stories from Trade Diagnostic Customers and Techs who come on training.

The problem is what to do about it.

A few ponderables:

1) If the distributor says that its matching quality (see the statement about Bosch stickers above) but it clearly isn't, what to do? Is the standard used for matching quality the cold resistance value, surely not? Where do I as a workshop owner find the standard and check my parts against it?

2) Perhaps you could go to your trade body and complain (see comment above about trade organisations getting off their backsides and doing something about it). Well, who will you complain to? Perhaps the RMI. But they seem to be all at sea, with key people such as Mike Owen defecting to a new body, the IAAF, who are positioning themselves as the new RMI.

But hang on, wait a minute, the IAAF is essentially the ADF (motor factors make up the largest part of this bodies membership), so you'd have to ask are they really going to be interested in sorting this out, or prosecuting their own members?

Good news though, some notable industry folk, including Mr Massey (who as Mrs Massey stated earlier in the post, is vocal about the poor quality aftermarket parts) is on a garages committee of the IAAF. Phew, we may be saved after all! He can use his position to champion this cause and get the problem sorted.

3) You tell your customer that only OE parts will be used during the repair, and risk walking away from a potentially troublesome job. You have to be in full control of the job (and it's quaility) if you are going to stand behind it.

The old saying of Good, Fast, Cheap rings true once again. If it is Good and Fast, it won't be Cheap; if it is Cheap and Good, it won't be very Fast; And if it is Fast and Cheap it won't be very Good.

Cheers for now

James.