It’s strange, the things you remember. If someone asked, I’d have to say it’s almost always a mixed bag of conversations, more than a few hard lessons and about a million observations and experiences.
I’m not sure anyone can tell you exactly what actually triggers the holographic brain to recreate whatever occurred in the past; but, just about everyone has experienced an instant replay so vivid and real it was almost as if you were there all over again.
I just had it happen a moment ago while looking for something to write about this month. I was moving down the mental list of chaos, confusion and frustration that is the service side of our industry, when I got to the new blower motor we had to replace late this afternoon under warranty because it was just too loud.
All of a sudden, I was fourteen years old again, standing beside my father in the office of our service station in Brooklyn while he was teasing a long-time customer who had just proudly announced that the brand new Lincoln Continental he purchased “rides just like a Cadillac.”
I wasn’t remembering the office — I was in the office. I could feel it, smell it, maybe even taste it. I was there!
I was there and I could hear my Dad say, “If it was a Cadillac ride you were looking for, why didn’t you just go out and buy a Cadillac? Nothing is going to ride more like a Cadillac than a Cadillac!”
I think my father was on to something. Nothing is more like the thing it is being compared to than that thing itself! But, what has this got to do with anything you and I have to talk about? A lot, actually, especially if you allow product failures like the one mentioned above into the discussion. If you do, you just may find yourself drowning in the debate of dealership parts versus aftermarket parts that continues to rage within the industry.
Original equipment parts are, well, original equipment! And you won’t have to go deep within the repair community to find someone willing to stand up and testify about the form, fit and function of factory parts. Nor, will you have to go very far to find someone equally passionate about the quality and cleverness of an equivalent aftermarket part re-engineered for lower cost or longer service life.
Like most shop owners and technicians, I understand the debate as well as or better than most because I get to live it. I understand the pros and cons, the benefits and dangers, on a level few distributors or manufacturers ever will because the decisions I make, like the quality of the parts I choose, determines whether or not my business will experience a profit or a loss.
There was a time I would have gone to the mat on behalf of my aftermarket suppliers — the brands I learned to know and trust. But, I’d be lying if I told you that my faith remains unshaken. You see, it seems like there isn’t a week that goes by where I am not confronted with an unexpected and sometimes very costly parts failure from one of those trusted aftermarket companies.
Today, it was a blower motor purchased through a well-known supplier manufactured by a well-known company. It fit and it worked, you just couldn’t speak in a normal voice inside the passenger compartment while it was running. It was loud — oppressively loud and ultimately it had to be replaced.
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Can you guess what it was replaced with? It shouldn’t be hard to come up with the right answer. It was replaced with an original equipment part that fit, and worked, and was just as quiet as the original blower was when it was new. Just for the record, this was the second time this year an aftermarket blower motor had to be replaced with a dealership part for the same reason.
Perhaps, there is a higher tolerance to background noise in China. Or perhaps noise is just another thing they don’t seem to mind compromising.
All kidding aside, both factory blowers were made on this side of the “Big Water” and both noisy aftermarket blowers were made, well, elsewhere.
If this is a battle you are serious about winning, if this is something you care about, perhaps it’s time for someone to build something of such incomparable quality regardless of its country of origin: something so good, it would become the de facto standard of excellence and people would have no choice but to compare anything and everything else to it.
