How to buy VW parts.

NOS, Genuine, OE, OEM, Aftermarket. What do these mean?

OE = Original Equipment. This denotes the part was manufactured by one of the many suppliers of parts to assemble your vehicle on the production line. The part will be as good as any item carrying the VW Logo. Examples: ATE and FAG make Brake hydraulics, master cylinders, wheel cylinders, calipers, etc. for VW. Bosch makes many of the electrical components; Zimmermann makes brake rotors and drums; Pagid and Jurid make brake pad and shoes; LUK and Sachs make Clutches; Pierburg makes fuel injection parts. Boge and Sachs make Shock Absorbers; Mahle and Kolbenschmidt make engine parts and so on... there are hundreds more OE Suppliers to the Volkswagen Audi Group.

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer - Same as OE. Hence OE VeeDub is our name because we carry mostly Original Equipment parts for Volkswagens and we are not allowed to include the word Volkswagen in our company name, so OE VeeDub. We are in no way associated with VAG, the Volkswagen Audi Group or Volkswagen of America.

NOS = New Old Stock. Genuine VW item no longer available from Volkswagen but item is Genuine VW.

Genuine VW = Genuine VW Part - generally still available from Volkswagen. But wait....
There is Genuine VW Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, United Kingdom, South Africa and others. Genuine VW means the product is manufactured to VW tolerances; however, in our experience, products made in Europe are better than those made elsewhere, even if they carry the VW Logo.

Aftermarket German = Generally good quality, but not Original Equipment supplier. example: Meyle, Torpries. (I believe these are not OEM suppliers but they might have the odd item they supply to VW).

Aftermarket from other countries. Beware, especially aftermarket products from China and Brazil.

• Example: An OEM German Front Hood Seal, VW Part number 113 823 731B sells for $19.98 from OE VeeDub. (It costs us around $14.75 once we have paid the freight and import duty). The seal is made by the original manufacturer to VW, the shape is correct, the six nipples to attach it at the top are correctly formed, and above all it is made of the highest-quality blend of EPDM rubber as supplied to VW. It will last for over 20 years without cracking even in the Arizona climate!
• The same part number, 113 823 731B in aftermarket quality retails $5.95 (Southern California supplier retail price October 10. 2009) (Southern California retail price for the German aftermarket: $32.95). The cost for the aftermarket part from the major import houses is $2.10, less if imported directly from Brazil (about $1.50). And the cost for Chinese-made part is $0.75.
  
  Guess what? If you fit a Brazilian or Chinese part to your vehicle. it will take you three times as long to fit as the OE seal and it will crack within 6 months, less than a year even if you never take the vehicle out of the garage.

This is just an example: Now if you apply the same logic to Brake Parts for instance. A Brazilian wheel cylinder costs around $12 to $14 and an OE German one around $19.90. The aftermarket wheel cylinder will very likely fail after 2 years, the OE German one after 20 years. Which is the cheaper in the long run? Then, you have safety to consider. Even if you only use the vehicle on weekends, do you want your family to end up in the hospital, while your pride and joy is towed to the junk yard?

When purchasing parts, always ask or look on the web site for the Country of Origin or manufacturer. If in doubt, call or e-mail the supplier before placing your order. If they don't know, or are not prepared to give the information, you can be fairly-sure it is poor aftermarket quality.

'Lifetime Warranty' - what's that about? BEWARE: It's the biggest con going. Most times, 'Lifetime Warranty' covers the lifetime of the part, not your lifetime or your vehicle's lifetime. 'Lifetime Warranty' doesn't cover shipping or workshop time to fit the replacement every 2 years. When you fit an aftermarket floor pan gasket, do you really want to lift the body off your vehicle every 6 months, or 2 years if you are lucky to replace the seal???? And who decides if the lifetime of a wheel cylinder is 2 years or 6 months? The owner of the company who sold it to you!

When I see 'Lifetime Warranty' offered on an item - whether it is an automotive parts or anything else - I am immediately suspicious and unlikely to purchase from that company.

Let's talk 'Cost plus % discount' schemes. Companies claiming they sell for 'Cost plus 10%' ... what a load of old bologna!! They might sell one or two items for cost plus 10%. In fact, I've checked a few of these companies out, and it is more like cost plus 57%. Do you really think they can cover their electric, salaries, rent, phone, web site, advertising , etc by selling at cost plus 10%? If they are lying about this, what other whoppers are they telling?

When it comes to VW parts, we at OE VeeDub know where to find quality, and which brands to steer clear of. I hope this helps some of you guys and ladies - thanks for reading, and for being our customer.

Cheers,
Richard*

*say - who is this Richard guy?

I am the owner of OE VeeDub. I've been in the VW Parts business since 1978 when I managed “The Beetle People” in Manchester, England. In 1984/85 I traveled overland in an old British army truck from Katmandu (Nepal) to London via Nairobi (Kenya). We would have like to have taken a VW but there wasn't one that would have made it across the Sudan and Central Africa at that time. The Syncro wasn't available yet and a Baja or Thing wouldn't carry 16 people plus food and equipment!

Back in England I owned “Eurovolks” with my good friends and partners Phil and Kevin, a VW repair shop and parts supplier in Liverpool, England. Later I worked for a VW and Bosch workshop and parts supplier called AVW (Alternative Volkswagen) in North Wales. From 1994 to 1999 I was manager of the Export Department at URO Automotive, a large VW wholesale parts supplier who sold parts to most of the replacement VW parts distributors in Belgium Holland, France, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Scandinavia, Greece, Turkey, Australia, Kenya, West Africa, Canada and the United States.

In April, 1999, my family and I moved to Woodland Park, Colorado, to work for Rocky Mountain Motorworks. I didn't like the direction RMM was being taken, so in 2000 we started OE VeeDub in order to supply Original Equipment parts.

I've owned as my daily driver numerous VW Bugs. The first was a 1965 Sunroof, followed by a '67 highly-tuned street Bug, '74 Jeans Beetle, '57 walk-through Bus, '59 Double Door, 1959 Samba, numerous Type 3s, a '74 Type 4 model 412, a 1969 Thing, '75 RHD Thing, 79 German Thing (yes, they made them in '78/79!), a '72 Bus, '78 Camper, '80 Vanagon Camper, '86 Doka (Double Cab) Diesel, '88 Syncro Doka, '90 Syncro Tristar Doka, '90 Syncro Panel Van, 90' Syncro Pickup, '90 Westy (see on our web site), a 2000 TDI Golf and a 2007 2.5 Rabbit... plus a few Audi's, and one Peugeot though they don't really count!