Honda Genuine Parts vs. Aftermarket

Why use genuine Honda parts?

This is a question that comes up from time to time and we believe that it’s worth addressing. As consumers you are always looking at ways to maximize the money that you spend on services and products regardless of your annual household income. You work hard for your money, and as a result the best product and performance is expected.

When it comes to using parts for routine maintenance and repairs to your Honda why should you settle for any less than the best? The truth of the matter is that the nature of our economy is driven by the price that we see on a product or for a service. In some instances, it’s very easy to comprehend the correlation between the quality of a product or service, the asking price, and whether it’s worth it. For example, when you are shopping for produce in the grocery store you can tell by looking at bananas if they are worth buying or not based on their appearance. You can feel an avocado to determine whether it’s ripe or past its prime before you commit to the purchase.

For the average consumer, automotive parts are very difficult to determine the difference between a genuine Honda part and an aftermarket part by simply looking at it. One of the reasons why quality differences can’t be determined in this manner is that many aftermarket parts are either cloned or re-manufactured versions of the genuine Honda parts. What you can’t see are the shortcuts that were taken in either the design or quality of components used in the part in order to achieve a lower price point.

Consumers are enticed by lower prices especially when an unplanned repair is required. In this type of situation budgets are much tighter and the lower price of an aftermarket part might make sense at the time, however unbeknownst to the consumer there may be serious ramifications to using a lesser part on their vehicle that can result in a second or even third replacement due to part failure. This is not only an inconvenience due to the time you sacrifice to return for the replacement and depending on the warranty the labor for the replacement may not be covered so there’s a monetary cost as well.

With genuine Honda parts you have the confidence that the new part that’s replacing the worn part is engineered to an extremely high standard set by Honda, and the part and associated labor to replace the part should if fail due to a defect is covered by Honda’s 1-year/20,000km warranty (some conditions/exceptions apply). In other words, if your wheel bearing required replacement at 190,000km it would stand to reason that the genuine Honda replacement wheel bearing will last just as long given the same conditions as the previous wheel bearing. For most people this equates to never having to replace that bearing again.

At Stratford Honda we know that you rely on our expertise and honesty when it comes to repairing and caring for your Honda, which is why we always recommend using only genuine Honda parts. Your Honda will thank you in the end!

Questions? Contact Josh at 1-855-540-1824.