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On 30 Mar 2006 at 14:59, Jason Weigel wrote: > OEM-Original Equipment Manufactured I've always thought of this as Original Equipment Manufacturer. While reasonable people can disagree on this, it allows the distinction between OE (Original Equipment) parts, which are the exact same parts supplied with the car, and OEM parts, which are parts made by the same people who made the OE parts, but they can be slightly different. In some cases they are definitely inferior. For example, Bosch is an OEM to VW, they made the FI, electrical, and ignition parts for our cars. If you went to the VW dealer and bought a replacement for one of these parts, it would be exactly what VW thought you deserved, and it would have both the Bosch part # AND the VW part # stamped on it. It is an OE part, the same as the one that came on your car when it was new. OTOH, if you went to a Bosch dealer and bought the "same" item, it would ONLY have the Bosch # on it. In that case it is an OEM part but not an OE part. In this case, the lack of the number would generally be the only difference and the OEM part is just as good as the OE part. There are some examples of OEM parts, however, which might come from the OEM supplier, but they don't meet the VW standards, so they are OEM, but not OE and not as good as OE. I can't actually think of any good type 3 examples of this right now, but I've seen BMW water pumps made by the OEM which were definitely not finished to the the same level of quality as the OE part. Both were available at the same time, but the OEM part was cheaper and clearly so. -- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~