The Affinia Global Brake & Chassis division of Affinia Group Inc. has released the results of a survey of automotive repair shops to better understand their concerns regarding master cylinder replacement.
“For years, a trend has developed among master cylinder suppliers to ‘de-content’ their product,” says Tod Lange, product manager for Affinia’s Raybestos brand master cylinders. “In order to keep the purchase price low at the WD and jobber level, many suppliers are blending new and remanufactured master cylinders into one line.”
The three key findings of the survey are as follows:
● 95% of technicians prefer new units to remanufactured product because the parts arrive complete and ready to bench bleed and install.
● Technicians don’t want to re-use old parts, especially if they don’t match the original components.
● Their concerns about comebacks significantly increase when reusing components from old units.
“As part of our commitment to the AASA’s Know Your Parts campaign, we took a serious look at what we can do to educate our channel partners and resellers about the importance of using high quality parts,” says Jeff Stauffer, senior vice president of global marketing for Affinia Brake & Chassis. “Market pressure is forcing everyone to find ways to cut costs, but those savings should never come at the expense of safety, performance and customer satisfaction.”
While the cost savings of remanufactured master cylinders may seem attractive at first, their proliferation in the marketplace is causing confusion and frustration among technicians, due in large part to increased comebacks. Stauffer said, “The expansion of low quality, remanufactured master cylinders is causing irreparable damage to the aftermarket’s image and it’s negatively affecting the reputations of technicians nationwide.”
For more information on the Raybestos brand new master cylinders or other Raybestos brake and chassis parts, visit www.raybestos.com or call (800)323-0354.
