Whether through an accident or general wear and tear, it’s likely you’ll need spare parts for your car at some point during your ownership.  Modern cars can easily have in excess of 12,000 individual components, are many are manufacturer or group specific.

There are several types of part available and below is some insight on the differences.

1. OEM / genuine
2. Aftermarket / pattern
3. Green / recycled

what is an OEM / genuine part?

OEM stands for ‘Original Equipment Manufacturer’, meaning that these parts are officially produced by the vehicle maker. As they’re backed by the car manufacturer, they are specifically designed to be fitted at original build point and as replacement parts for the vehicle .

Pro's & Con's

These are manufacturer created parts, made to extremely tight tolerances, using the best materials and rigorous quality control.

This means that they will fit, work and were designed to fit perfectly on your vehicle, whether component or panel.

You do pay a small premium but I always think of it like butter vs spread. They look the same, perform the same function but toast is always better with butter.

what is an aftermarket / pattern part?

An aftermarket part is manufactured by a 3rd party, outside the control of the manufacturer.

Pro's & Con's

Aftermarket & Pattern parts are usually less expensive than OEM / genuine but often that's where the benefits stop.

They are usually a pattern or copy of the original and in the case of safety critical we certainly wouldn't recommend using them. Saying that, there are a lot of aftermarket parts you can use. From personal experience replacing a headlamp, I used a pattern one, the only difference when I compared them side by side was one of them had a VW stamp (and therefore a premium) and the other didn't. But apart from that they were identical in every way, as the particular manufacturer made lamps for VW.

But it is always worth checking.

Panels historically don't fit very well and tend to be not as well made.

what is a green / recycled part

Unfortunately the waters have been muddied by "greenwashing" and green & recycled parts are very different.

A true green part should be sourced, manufactured and shipped being as close to carbon neutral or net zero as possible, and the companies involved must have very good and demonstrable green credentials.

A recycled part is either b stock from a manufacturer and may have been repaired or more than likely taken off a scrapped car.

Pro's & Con's

Green and recycled parts can often be cheaper and can tick the environmentally friendly option. But with recycled parts, these are often off damaged or scrapped vehicles, could have been subject to a previous repair and could be a different colour to what you require.

Bodyshops are generally unwilling to fit or spray recycled parts as their history is unknown and generally don't fit very well.