A Word From Jack Gillis
CAPA Exec Says Distributors Could Have Avoided Fiasco
INDIANAPOLIS--CAPA Executive Director Jack Gillis told an ABPA audience at the Friday morning, April 30th, session that he could call his talk,“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.”
In addressing the distributors here at the 30th annual convention, Gillis said the current controversy over non-OEM structural parts could have been avoided if distributors had refused to accept anything but quality parts.
He observed, “Imagine the position you would be in right now if 10 years ago, 15 years ago, you simply said to your vendors that you wanted only CAPA-certified parts.”
Gillis downplayed complaints by manufacturers that getting a part certified by CAPA is too time-consuming and expensive, calling them unfounded.
“What has it cost you that you haven’t insisted on CAPA certification,” Gillis asked distributors in his address. “What is the expense to this industry of the continuing attacks against the aftermarket parts industry?”
He said the third party certifying organization began testing non-OEM bumpers more than a year ago and presented to its board “data showing significant inconsistency between car company brand parts and aftermarket bumper parts.”
“The majority of parts we reviewed did not compare favorably to the car company brand parts.”
This was even the case, he added, with some non-OEM parts that appeared visually to match the OEM.
He told the primarily distributor audience, “The bottom line is that none of us can look at these parts and make an informed decision about whether or not they will perform the same as car company brand parts,” he said.
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