Genuine Rover, or OEM parts?
 

Just looked at Rimmers' prices for front suspension arms, and noticed that genuine Rover is literally 2 x OEM price. Has anyone had bad experience of the cheaper ones? Am I going to need to replace the cheaper ones after a much shorter interval than Original Rover? And what mileage is that likely to be? I currently do around 18,000 per year, mainly motorway and A roads, but with 10miles a day on fairly bumpy country lanes. Both front ones advisory on last MoT, next MoT due in November.

OEM implies that the parts were made by the original supplier and in theory the quality should be the same. Keep in mind that most MGR parts for sale today were made long after they went bust. (Particularly fast moving parts like front lower arms) With parts like this it is likely that the only difference between the originals and the OEM is the lack of a box.
Mind you, I recently bought and installed an OEM timing belt tensioner and shortly after replaced it with an MGR unit. The parts were identical with the exception that the OEM part did not include instructions. In that case it did make a difference!:duh:

I would check what they mean by genuine!
When were they made and who made them and where were they made?

my understanding is that Rimmers class genuine as coming from x-part.

macafee2

And parts coming from X Part are only as good as X Part want them to be or are capable of suitable inspection of quality. What guarantee do we have of that?

Thanks for the advice guys. I am making an assumption that if Rimmers say the cheaper ones are OEM quality, they have been tested against original manufacturer's standards, and are not any old unregulated tat. Otherwise they are putting THEIR (Rimmers') reputation on the line. Proof of the pudding, I guess! Time will tell.

Same as in Rover days. Parts comming from Unipart/Xpart were only as good as they wanted them to be.

In some cases the parts fitted in the factory, on the line, were not necessarily identical as those offered as aftersales spares.

The parts fitted on the production line need to last the warranty period of 3 years, the parts you buy afterwards only need to last 12 months.

When we shop for replacement parts for our cars we rarely ask for the part with the longest warranty but the cheapest. We need to start asking for better quality parts.

As the number of our cars fall so does the potential for any manufacturers bothering to make an effort to produce higher quality parts.

I fear that boat has already sailed..............

Check for TRW arms on autodoc in Germany, and don't bother with the Chinese variants stocked by XPart/Rimmer Bros as "OEM GENUINE" etc etc etc.

Brian :D

As above and they are priced very competitive links below.

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/trw/2201802

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/trw/2201803

I purchase quite a lot of items from AutoDoc as they sell quality ;)