More vehicles today are equipped with advanced crash-avoidance and safety-system technologies, and are built using more advanced high-strength steels, exotic metals, and composite materials than ever before, all designed to enhance passenger safety.
Modern vehicles are engineered as an integrated assembly of parts that work together as a single system to ensure predictable performance, safety, and durability in the event of a crash. These vehicles undergo extensive testing by both automakers and federal agencies to ensure that all components function cohesively when you need them most.
Original Equipment (OE) collision replacement parts are designed and manufactured to the same specifications and tolerances as the parts originally used in your vehicle. They are the only parts that have been proven during vehicle development to provide the intended level of protection as a complete system. When installed using factory-recommended materials and procedures, OE parts deliver the same structural performance characteristics as the originals.
In contrast, new aftermarket collision parts may not be made from the same materials or to the same tolerances and specifications as OE parts. They are also not tested with the rest of the vehicle’s system during development. As a result, these aftermarket parts may not match the quality of OE parts, and integrating them into your vehicle could alter the crash performance that was originally engineered.
Many automakers have expressed concerns that such repairs could impact the performance of critical vehicle safety systems in the event of a future crash. They have issued statements (see above) to alert repairers and collision estimators to these potential risks.
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