Your car is making a strange sound or won’t start, so you go to a mechanic, and he or she tells you that you can save a little money by choosing aftermarket parts instead of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts. While that may sound appealing, the Service Team here at Mills Toyota uses only OEM parts and here’s why:

Made for Your Vehicle

OEM parts are the exact same parts that the manufacturer used to build your vehicle originally. The research and development team carefully designed and manufactured the parts to ensure perfect fitment and function with the other systems in your car. These parts are carefully built to the manufacturer’s specifications with the rest of the vehicle in mind. Aftermarket parts are typically copies of the manufacturer’s parts, but they may cut corners to cut costs, and that could cause other parts on your car to fail.

Quality Control

After research and development, car manufacturers send their parts to quality control. Because the reliability of a brand relies on the individual parts, each one goes through rigorous testing and heavy abuse to ensure that the parts can hold up. Many manufacturers even test their cars on the race track to make sure they can stand up to the demands of even the most aggressive drivers. Companies making aftermarket parts don’t have as many resources devoted to the quality of their parts, so they can’t invest as heavily in quality control. 

Warranty

There’s not much more frustrating than paying for parts and labor to repair your car, only for the same part to break again in a short amount of time. If you don’t have a warranty on the parts that you replace, you’ll end up spending more money in the long run by choosing aftermarket parts. While some aftermarket parts do offer a warranty, not all do. OEM parts are backed by a warranty, so that in the rare case that the same part fails again, you won’t have to pay for the same repair again.

You Get What You Pay For

If aftermarket and OEM parts are the same, how are aftermarket parts cheaper? Some aftermarket parts manufacturers save money by not offering warranties, but others use inferior materials and corner-cutting manufacturing processes to make the parts. By using weaker metal, plastic, or rubber, aftermarket parts manufacturers save money, but this leads to parts that fail much sooner. By choosing OEM parts, you can be sure that you’re using the strongest parts for your car, made with the highest-grade materials. 

Verdict

Aftermarket parts might save you money on repairs initially, but to be sure that the repair is done properly, and won’t cause you any additional headaches down the road, it’s best to use OEM parts on your vehicle. That's why you can trust the expert Service Team here at Mills Toyota to only use OEM parts. If you're in need of factory-certified service, schedule it online, and we'll get you and your ride back on the road.