When it comes time to buy replacement parts for your car, there are four different categories to consider. Number one is the used part. Now used parts are the cheapest way to go, and for older cars or something that may be very, very difficult to find, it may be your best choice. But remember with a used part, you have your highest exposure to shortened life and possibly less reliability. But in many cases, like I say, that is best.

Now another case is what we call the rebuilt part. Now rebuilt parts, they take them, disassemble them, and they find all of the worn components and they replace those to bring them up to the standard that they were when they were new. But they don’t go beyond that as a typical rule. And that’s where our next two categories come in. We have re-manufactured and we have new parts.

Well, new of course speaks for itself. But re-manufactured, that’s what we’re really concerned with here. Re- manufactured, consider that many times to mean that it is re-engineered. Because what they do when they re-manufacture a part, is they find anything that may have gone wrong with this as a pattern failure when it was new, and they re-engineer it to correct those shortcomings. Like this drive axle, for instance. Maybe it had a problem with the rubber boots on it, so the re- manufactured unit would have a higher quality or a different design to address that problem. Or maybe it was in the CV joints, so the re-manufactured unit would have the most current design and the most reliable components used in it. It is indeed re-engineered.

Now that also holds true for electronics parts. You know, igniters and ignition modules and things like that. A lot of these show significant pattern failures when they’re first introduced to the market, and as time goes on these failures are addressed, and that’s what they do when they re-manufacture one of these components. They put new circuitry in it. They redesign the insides of it to make it very reliable. And because you’re getting a significant savings as opposed to new, these are many times your best choice.

So weigh the advantages and disadvantages, pick the style of part that best suits your needs and your vehicle, and you’ll get good, reliable service and you’ll save some money, as well.