For 18 consecutive years, the Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA) has been deemed acceptable by the New York Superintendent of Insurance pursuant to the Fourth Amendment to regulation 64, as a qualified certification program for crash parts produced by manufacturers other than the original equipment manufacturer.
New York law states that if aftermarket crash parts have not been certified by CAPA, the manufacturer or distributor of the part must issue a written warranty attesting that the non-certified aftermarket crash part equals or exceeds the comparable car company brand crash part in terms of fit, form, finish, quality and performance if the part is to be used in insurance paid repairs.
"CAPA takes the guess work out of finding high quality, fairly priced parts for insurers, repairers and, most importantly, the consumers they serve," said Jack Gillis, CAPA executive director. "Genuine CAPA Certified replacement parts are brand new and have been tested to match all of the important characteristics of the car company brand part that they replace. By insisting on CAPA Certified parts, New York state consumers, insurers and repairers can be confident that the fit, finish, safety and material content will match the car company brand part."
Over the next few months, CAPA says it will be reaching out to the insurance and collision repair industries to be sure they understand the potential risks associated with non-CAPA Certified parts. Energy absorbers that explode, hood latches made of the wrong materials and headlights that don’t meet federal motor vehicle safety standards are a few of the problems CAPA says it has discovered with non-CAPA Certified parts. Shortly, CAPA says it will be releasing CAPA’s Part Quality Watch, which will take a look at some of the problems associated with non-CAPA Certified parts.
More information:
The Certified Automotive Parts Association
