Car Care Products

Car makers are stating that safety, not profit, is behind a renewed focus on counterfeited car parts.

The car industry is growing increasingly nervous about the number of fake or replica parts infiltrating Australia. With reports of oil filters being stuffed with toilet paper and brake pads containing compressed grass, these have caused alarm among car manufacturers.

But the industry admits it is at a loss to prevent the import of bogus parts many of which look like the genuine article, in the genuine packaging, without the help of Customs and other Federal authorities.

Last year over 4000 counterfeit parts were seized by Customs from a workshop in suburban Melbourne. The haul prompted Toyota and other manufacturers to assist Customs in ways to detect fake parts from the genuine articles.

In some cases the parts are bought by repairers who believe they have bought the real deal. In other instances, repairers are obtaining the parts knowing they are fake.

But counterfeit parts are now starting to appear for luxury vehicles, prompting Mercedes-Benz to increase the scrutiny of its parts distribution and auditing processes. For example, its computer system now correlates parts inventories with service work carried out by each dealership and can check if there are any discrepancies.

“We’ve not had any reason to have a particular cause for concern but we are taking steps to at least make sure that every part that goes into a Mercedes car at a Mercedes dealership is the genuine article,” said Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman David McCarthy. “I wouldn’t even call counterfeit parts sub-standard, they’re way below that. They’re actually risking people’s lives.”

He said any dealer found using counterfeit parts would be “in serious trouble” and could risk losing the dealership franchise. Hopefully no dealer would be stupid enough to risk the loyalty of their customers; it’s the most important thing they have.

“It is a criminal act, pure and simple,” says the chief executive of the FCAI, Andrew McKellar. “Anyone who willingly puts a motorist’s life at risk ought to be aware of the consequences not only for that motorist but also for themselves.” He said it was “only a matter of time” before an accident was deemed to be caused by a counterfeit part. He believed most repairers fitting counterfeit parts probably believe they have the genuine item.

Toyota Australia says it is regularly notified of the importation of counterfeit parts.

“There are usually inconsistencies with markings on packaging material and the parts themselves, indicating that parts are counterfeit,” says Divisional Manager for Toyota’s Customer Service Division, Matthew Callachor. “It is often quite obvious to us that certain parts are not authentic Toyota items, but to busy workshop owners, or an untrained eye, it would be easy to overlook.” One of the problems for the industry is that it is difficult to measure just how widespread the problem is.

However car makers deny the awareness campaign is designed to boost sales of genuine parts.