Date:         Wed, 28 Apr 1999 03:19:15 +0200
Reply-To:     Per Lindgren <lindgre@ONLINE.NO>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Per Lindgren <lindgre@ONLINE.NO>
Subject:      German parts Was: Rear Bumpers
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

The Bus Depot wrote:

>   Geez, I
> have genuine German ones for 1/4 that price!

One thing that puzzles me: why are you american so crazy about German parts? I
have followed the US and European VW scene for several years through VWtrends
and the internet, and many places you can get Brazilian parts for half prize of
German. Ok, the overall quality of most German parts are better, but remember
that many of these parts are made by independent companies, in many cases not
even an OE manufacturer for VW.
One example I know of, from the short period I worked at an auto dismantler, we
sold new bodyparts for most German and Japanese car, from various non-OEM
manufacturers. The body parts for Japanese cars were generally crappy, made in
Taiwan or China. German parts were better, but still....
The best example we had, was one guy that came up to us, buying a new front
bumper for a Golf3 after backing into another persons car. He decided to take
the cost himself, to keep his insurance bonus at level. He sent the bumper to
get painted, got it back, and proceeded to mount it, and it was too narrow to
fit. By a whole 2 inches! A German bumper! of course, we gave him his money
back, but we didn't get our money back from the Norwegian representative,
because it was painted. To this day, this bumper hangs on the wall as a symbol
of "pirate" parts, even though the store sells them to this day.
The Morale of the story would be that just because the parts are German, doesn't
automatically guarantee OEM quality.

Of course, I have no means to say that Bus Depots parts are not good (they may
very well be, I have not had the luck to try them yet), just be aware of a false
sign of quality that is seen all over the car industry.

PerL
88 Syncro