United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548

January 31, 2001

The Honorable Byron L. Dorgan
United States Senate

The Honorable John F. Tierney
House of Representatives

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency responsible for reducing accidents, deaths, and injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes on the nation’s highways, estimates that over 6 million automobile accidents occurred in the United States in 1999. To repair crash-damaged vehicles, consumers spent over $8 billion and bought over 61 million sheet metal and plastic body parts (including exterior fenders, bumpers, hoods, and doors). Consumers and body shops that repair crash-damaged vehicles have a choice in many instances of buying new replacement parts from either the original equipment manufacturer or other sources, commonly called aftermarket manufacturers. These aftermarket manufacturers produce their parts by copying the design of the original vehicle parts.

Concerns have been raised for many years about the quality and safety of aftermarket crash parts.1   A number of auto manufacturers and repair shop owners argue that aftermarket crash parts are inferior to original parts and pose a possible safety risk. Conversely, many aftermarket manufacturers and auto insurers argue that aftermarket crash parts can be equal in quality to original parts, are safe, and can cost up to 65 percent less than the original equipment manufacturer’s parts. Public awareness was heightened in October 1999 after judgments totaling over $1 billion were entered against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in response to a class action complaint concerning the use of aftermarket crash parts. The trial court concluded that State Farm breached its insurance policies by requiring the use of aftermarket parts that did not return damaged vehicles to their precrash condition. The court also found that State Farm’s conduct violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.