At 03:58 PM 5/13/2015, kenneth wilford (Van-Again) wrote:
>Gene, I have seen this many times over the past 16 years.  OE suppliers to
>VW, selling their part to the aftermarket.  For some reason either they
>aren't allowed to leave the VW emblem on the part as part of a contract
>with VW or maybe they just don't want to get sued because VW is very
>jealous of their logo.

Naturally they can't  sell you a VW part directly; VW parts are only
available from VW, at VW's markup.  VW would be all over them like a
cheap suit if they did.

They could be selling you production over-runs, or items that failed
QA to meet VW spec, or regular production at full spec intended to be
sold aftermarket, or regular production at reduced spec intended to
be sold aftermarket.  Or any mixture of the above.  Only they know which.

Or, of course, a different company could be counterfeiting the OE
part.  But assuming Kostal are indeed the OEM it still could be any
of the above.

Yrs,
d