Thanks to all (Ken, Jim, David) I believe this is clear to me now.  We want
to avoid the junk aftermarket switches (notably Meyle) and go with the
genuine OEM, which is now Kostal.  After explanations from Ken and Jim that
the switches being sold as Kostal, which are unbranded (in fact DEbranded,
with the original markings ground off), now you David expand that those
really could be just about anything.  That's good enough for me!  Vanagon
care and feeding continues to be an adventure ...

On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 11:47 AM, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
wrote:

> 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
>