Tegger wrote:
<snip>
> The primary problem for aftermarket is that OEM development and tooling is
> created with minimum 3-year warranties and high-volume production in mind.
> The aftermarket operates on far lower volumes, and usually competes on
> price and not quality. This leaves much less in the way of resources to,
> for instance, send molds and stamping dies back over and over again until
> they are "just so". For OEM, getting a tool "just so" can literally take
> months of expensive revisions. Aftermarket just hasn't got the money for
> that.
<snip>

IMO, the question becomes where one chooses to draw the line. For many
parts I will not settle for less than OEM. For others, I will go
aftermarket without a second thought. I have yet to have a problem with
a decent aftermarket thermostat that I haven't had with an OEM
thermostat, and the both seem to last about the same length of time. In
fact, I seem to recall that the thermostat in my 1991 Accord is a
decade-or-so-old aftermarket one, and it works just fine. Cheap ones
are pretty obviously cheap ones, and I don't use them unless there is no
choice (and then I plan to replace them quickly).

Maybe I've been lucky, but I have been working on cars for a long time
(and did so professionally for a few years when I was in my 20's, which
was a Long Time ago), and this is not a one-off experience.

Honda's OEM quality is not always impeccable, either. I'm not sure how
many exhaust pipes I've replaced over the years on my '91 but the dealer
did the first one under warranty (!) and decent aftermarket (e.g.,
Bosal) pipes last easily as long as the Honda ones at a lower price.
There is likewise no reason I can discern to buy Honda brake pads or
rotors or axles. Honda electrical parts of this vintage are prone to
cold solder joints over time, and I don't know whether they ever
re-spec'ed the solder or procedures to fix that, but I do know that
things like aftermarket alternators and starters (and I have seen a cold
solder joint in an original OEM Honda starter that I repaired by
reflowing it) have proved quite reliable.

The local dealer is very cooperative in being competitive for most parts
with aftermarket prices, so as it happens I usually buy OEM for the
Accord (and did likewise for the '90 Civic) but I am not wedded to the
notion that all OEM parts are substantially superior to all aftermarket
parts, as it's simply not the case in my experience.

--
JRE