Polo Z03

iTrader: (1)

Been pondering the thought . . . and would like to hear our fellow board members take on the subject.

Original Equipment Manufactured vrs New Old Stock

Are they the same? . . Are they different? . .

Looking forward to the responses.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Depends.

OEM = Original Eqpt... i.e. what was used on the production line

NOS = New Old Stock... i.e. usually, replacement parts from "back in the day", still hanging around unused

It all depends on whether whatever whoever put in whatever box back whenever, happened to be the same as OEM. Can be different for every single box. No way to generalize that.

tealman92

Same thing if oem is new. Today oem usually means used factory parts

thtanner

iTrader: (1)

Well, NOS can refer to anything that is New Old Stock.

You probably are talking about NOS OEM vs New OEM.

New OEM parts may be mfg in different countries of origin than the NOS OEM part originally was. Other than that, the part should be identical. Quality *should* be the same. Only thing you may see with some OEM parts is they redesign them at some stage, and apply the re-design retroactively to the old part numbers.

As far as value and for shows? I couldn't tell you as I think some of the value people give things is utterly stupid.

thtanner

iTrader: (1)

OEM doesn't always indicate a used factory part. ACDelco still makes brand new OEM parts for our vehicles (specifically the OE line, not the Professional line)

okfoz

OEM - I had a 1983 Rivera, I was rear ended and I got OEM rear bumper guards, they were the little vertical bumper pieces. The first set I got lasted a long time, they looked great, until I got bumped again in the back, the replacement second set lasted 1 year and they were rusted, I took it back to the Bump shop, and they replaced them, and again in 1 year they were shot. They were ALL GM parts in GM Boxes, they showed me the boxes. COme to find out, they were GM parts that were made "by" GM by someone in CHINA. I litereally would have been better off getting an OK set out of a junkyard.

NOS - New Old Stock. This implies to me that if you bought a part from a 1967 Camaro, that the part was probably made around that time, they are not newer manufacture, but period correct.

If it was up to me... I would prefer NOS over OEM. But for the most part OEM is good.



John

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer. Same company making a part, but it may or may not be made in the same manner, with the same tooling, or of the same materials as 20-30 years prior. The AC Delco example above is a great one. OEM means they made the original, with the implication being that the replacement part they sell you will perform to the same standards as the original (OE) part. They should know, as they designed and engineered the original. It does not guarantee it will look identical. But it should functional identically. Like a spark plug or spark plug wire. They many not be the same color, material or shape as the original, but they will work as well as the original, meeting OE specs.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

OEM = Orignial Equipment; which is, what was used ON THE PRODUCTION LINE.

As we all know, there's LOTS of things you buy at the parts store, whether from Delphi (the current owner of the brand name formed from the merger of the spark plug company owned by Albert Champion after he left his first company which was named Champion, and Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., after both became GM divisions) or anyone else, that DON'T match what was supplied during original manufacture. Many OE parts simply aren't available outside the factory during manufacture. In which case, NOS might be as close as you can get (assuming that the "old" part is "old" enough... after all, by whatever time whoever put whatever into whichever box and placed it "in stock", it might have already changed), but the NOS part STILL WON'T match the OE part exactly.

Batteries, belts, hoses, glass, and tires are good examples of this situation, whereas "ACDelco" is NOT.

F-body-fan

I have often felt like some oem body parts might sometimes be sub-par parts for the assembly line. I have boughten several parts like bumper covers that were GM from the dealer & fit like heck. Could be the way they were handled, boxed or maybe were produced long after the cars were in production.

I have had far worse luck with aftermarket stuff, but even oem or nos sometimes isn't as good as what you would expect. Depends on the part of coarse......

chazman

iTrader: (4)

As has been stated, the problem with OEM new parts is that they are merely functional replacements for the original OEM parts. They serve the same function, but they don't necessarily look the same.

skinny z

From working in the auto industry I've found that:
From the outset, original OEM parts become NOS parts. Hoods, doors panels, deck lids are all produced in abundance so as to provide replacements. Any of these that end up in an inventory somewhere eventually become New Old Stock. That is, at one time they were new but over time they have been rendered as old . Finding an NOS part is getting a part that was at one time an exact replacement for what came down the line because it was manufactured at the same time and place as the assembly line part was. GM would stamp out millions of hoods (as an example) that went onto our 3rd gens. In addition, they stamped out a million more that were to be used as collision replacements, etc. If you go to GM today, it's unlikely you will find an NOS hood but you will find a replacement that is a substitute. It could be referred to as an OEM replacement hood but as we all know, that isn't entirely the case.
By the strict letter of the law, an OEM part should be just that. An Original Equipment Manufactured item and is likely to be sourced from any number of places. What's more, in the same model year, the assembly line parts could be of any manufacture and as such all get the name OEM. I've seen boxes of widgets from brand "X" be substituted directly by brand "Y" to satisfy the assembly line. It's become a little blurry what OEM actually means now as it also includes what compares to the original OEM stuff but really isn't. That's why we get OEM replacement parts that don't fit and we've all experienced that. That couldn't happen with the originals as they actually had to fit the cars that they were designed for.
So in a nutshell, an NOS part is the way to go if you can find it. We've searched the country for NOS parts of our 67 Chevelle. Coming across a NOS quarter panel is pure nirvana. We would pick that up at almost any cost.
It's my understanding that companies like Year One started out as re-sellers of the NOS parts they purchased from dealers across the continent. Sort of like hoarding. These were sold at a premium. Eventually the NOS supply runs out and these same companies would then sell OEM replacements which we all know aren't necessarily the same as the NOS. Ever try to fit a Goodmark fender onto one of our cars? NOS it isn't.

Polo Z03

iTrader: (1)

Great feedback and reads, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

GCrites80s

I recently installed new OEM turn signal lenses for my IROC. They weren't as smoky as the stock '87s and were made in China. I still like them, though.