Alliance Study: Car Parts Cost ?Outrageous'

NU Online News Service, Oct. 9, 4:09 p.m.EST?

" demonstrates "that auto owners and their insurance companiescontinue to pay outrageous prices to repair damaged vehicles usingso-called ?genuine' parts supplied by car manufacturers."

In studying car parts for various models over the past 21 years,the Alliance said that it has found the cost of rebuilding avehicle with original equipment manufacturer parts generallytriples the car's original cost.

"The cost of repairing damaged automobiles accounts for between40- and 50 percent of the insurance premium for most auto insuranceconsumers," said Kirk Hansen, Alliance director of claims.

Crash parts costs have "a significant, direct impact on theprice consumers pay for auto insurance. Expensive parts result inmore costly repairs, which in turn result in higher premiums. Inaddition, many vehicles that should be repaired must be totaled dueto the high cost of car company parts," Mr. Hansen said.

The Alliance noted that the Certified Automotive PartsAssociation in Washington had announced recently that between 1999and 2002, it had put 1,907 "genuine" car company parts through anextensive vehicle test fit, and discovered that 50 percent of theparts did not meet CAPA standards for fit, finish andappearance.

The Alliance said that despite the questions of quality thatthis raises, car companies consistently market their parts as"genuine" and charge an average of 60 percent more than genericparts supplied by independent manufacturers.

To help hold down the cost of vehicle repairs while assuringquality, the Alliance said it supports the sale of competitivereplacement parts certified by CAPA.

To earn the CAPA seal of approval, the Alliance said, a partfrom an independent manufacturer must pass stringent tests by anindependent laboratory to assure that it is equal or superior toits car company counterpart. The only difference is price, theAlliance said.