When it comes to replacing parts on your car, you’re generally faced with two options; you either purchase genuine OEM parts which come supplied or recommended by the manufacturer of your vehicle or you take the decision to purchase what is known as aftermarket parts. In general terms, genuine OEM car parts are Original Equipment Manufacturer parts and are those which come supplied in the car when it was new. When you take your car to be serviced or repaired at your local dealership, it’s genuine OEM parts which they use. If, on the other hand, you take your car to an independent garage or buy parts yourself from eBay or one of the many aftermarket parts retailers, you generally won’t be buying OEM parts, unless they’re specified as such. To take a look at the difference between these two options, we’ve teamed up with Cox Motor Parts who specialise in genuine OEM Honda parts.
Aftermarket parts are, in short, any which aren’t sourced from the vehicles manufacturer. Of course, aftermarket parts vary in quality and some may impact upon the performance of your car. Of course, aftermarket parts are generally less expensive than OEM parts, however in some instances, you can pick up genuine parts from a leading dealer for not much more than the aftermarket ones. Is it really worth risking the performance of your car for a few quid? Not as far as we’re concerned! One benefit of aftermarket parts is the availability and variety, with many different options being available for all vehicles from a whole host of independent retailers. Whilst they all must meet certain standards, however, you must ask yourself the question of why would you replace a part in your car with something which wasn’t in there to begin with? The saying you get what you pay for really is true with aftermarket car parts and some are certainly of an inferior quality, not to mention the fact that in some cases there’s literally hundreds of parts to choose from and unless you really know what you’re buying, you could end up buying the wrong part.
OEM parts, on the other hand, are those supplied by the manufacturer (or in cases where they don’t manufacture the parts, those used by them in the car when new) and, as such, are usually far easier to purchase. Buy from a genuine dealer and you’ll find one part for your model, not many different ones with differing quality as is the case with aftermarket parts. The big deciding factor on purchasing OEM parts, however, comes with the quality. It is with only these parts that you’re able to guarantee that the parts will work exactly as the ones you’re replacing and that your car will still continue to perform at it’s very best.
OEM parts are more expensive (often only slightly), however in our opinion, it’s worth paying a little bit more and having that assurance that you’re replacing like with like and that your vehicle will continue to perform as it’s meant to!
