Heartland Institute: Aftermarket and Recycled Parts Don't Need Excessive Government Regulation

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new report from the Heartland Institute, a national free market think tank, commends the use of alternative auto parts—both recycled and aftermarket—and warns governments against regulating them too heavily. In the study, released for the opening of NACE, the International Autobody Congress & Exposition, authors Alan Smith, a Heartland Senior Fellow, and Eli Lehrer, National Director of Heartland's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate, find many benefits associated with the parts. Among them:

Cost Savings: Aftermarket and recycled parts cost far less than originally manufactured components. In addition, the competition from these parts pushes down prices for replacement parts made by car manufacturers, giving consumers millions of dollars of savings every year.

Environmental Benefits: The use of aftermarket and recycled parts saves significant energy for consumers and producers alike.

Safety: Even particularly safety-sensitive salvage parts such as undeployed airbags, when properly reinstalled, have been tested to operate at the same specifications as when new, saving potentially enough in repair costs to make the difference between a repairable vehicle and one which is "totaled" for insurance purposes.

Quality: According to government reports and rigorous testing by private certification associations, there is no evidence that alternative parts, on balance, are of lower quality than new original equipment parts.

Smith and Lehrer argue that a wide variety of government efforts to limit the use of the parts is likely to hurt consumers. These efforts include limitations on the use of replacement undeployed airbags and scrap tires that have until now been used as a fuel supplement for several key manufacturing processes.

"Certainly, consumers should and generally already do have the right to know when alternative parts are being used," says Smith. "Nearly all of the federal and state level efforts to limit or eliminate the use of alternative parts serve to line the pockets of automakers while bringing no benefits to consumers. The government needs to keep its focus on safety, and not side with particular commercial interests to the detriment of vehicle owners."

The full text of the paper is available online at http://www.heartland.org/full/28555/Regulatory_Issues_Affecting_Recycled_Auto_Parts.html

SOURCE Heartland Institute