Posted by Rob Drinkwater on July 6, 2004, 10:43 pm, in reply to "Block Exemption"
The law states that parts must be of 'matching quality' to those originally fitted by the VM, means products such as Mann Filters, NGK plugs etc, where they are supplied to VMs or are of equivalent quality. This counts out some of the cheaper brands for instance. If say it's a VW & you fit MANN Filters, then you are fitting OE parts therefore they are of 'matching quality'. If you wish I can obtain from my office a transcript of the third revision of the Block Exemtion rules for implementation October 2003. However, when I last looked at them they ran into several hundreds of pages & was basically legal talk, if you were to find this on the 'net it would really be no use to you. If you do a search via the net you might find what you need.
As said above, the new rules basically split parts into three catagories:-
Original equipment - The actual parts fitted on the production line (Remember that some parts from dealers do not fall into this catagory, such as some of those found in the Vauxhall Trade Club, they fall into the next catagory).
Matching Quality - Part made by the same manufacturer as those fitted on the production line, or parts made by other manufacturers that meet the specifications of those fitted as OE within + or - 15% of the original performance.
Other parts - Any aftermarket parts that do fall into either of the above two catagories.
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Rob Drinkwater. Business Development Manager - CAFTEC Division. Camberley Auto Factors Ltd.