Modifying your car

When buying automotive parts, there will always be a cheaper version of that specific part that your looking for. Depending on what exactly your looking for sometimes you might get away with using the cheaper priced one but in the long run it won't really be worth it just to save a couple of dollars. Chances are you'll might need to replace the cheap part again in the future. Sometimes when you buy cheap car parts there is a chance that it might not be a direct fit for your car even if it says that it's made for your car or that the part you are installing doesn't even work in the first place. “And we kept calling stores and having them bench-test that alternator and it turned out that out of like seven or eight stores that we called, at five or six of them the alternator wouldn’t even work out of the box.” (Sasseen) This quote is from Marc Buchea, who's a mechanic at a private garage who wanted to see how good the quality of cheap quality parts were, he went to several stores and even though only a couple didn't end up woking straight out of the box, that still shouldn't happen with a product with that has never been opened or used before. 

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If you're not sure where to buy good quality parts, you can always buy OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts. Some pros to buying OEM parts is that you can buy the part that you are looking for from your cars dealership. You also don't have to worry about the quality and if it'll fit good because it is the original part. Some cons to buying OEM parts is that its more expensive. Also that if the part that you are necessarily looking for has had a defect on it and it happens to multiple cars that is the same as your car then going aftermarket would be a better choice. 

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When buying aftermarket parts you always make sure that the brand is well known. "Some aftermarket parts are equal to or in some cases better than OEM parts." (Gould). Almost all of aftermarket parts are cheaper than the OEM ones. Some companies actually try to take a part better than the original one. They use the original manufacturer part and see what is wrong with it in order to improve it. Just because it's cheaper it doesn't mean that its bad quality. But as the old saying goes, if the price is too good to be true then stay away. The reason why is because if the item you need is for example 50% cheaper than the average price the manufacturer might be using a lower quality material that might not last in the long run.