What's The Difference Between OEM And Aftermarket Headlights?
If you’re looking to replace a headlight in your European vehicle, it can be a bit daunting looking through the number of options available. You have two basic choices you can go with:
- A new OEM headlight
- An aftermarket headlight
OEM units are remarkable for their ease of installation and known value. Aftermarket headlights can have many unintended effects on your vehicle if you’re not careful. We highly recommend OEM headlights on your European vehicle because they offer more value and longevity. Here's why OEM headlights provide such a great value:
High-Quality Materials
For safety components in your vehicle, like headlights, you should use only the highest quality materials. With high quality components, you can be confident your headlights will:
- Burn brighter
- Last Longer
- Encounter fewer electrical issues
Headlights built using less-than-high-quality materials often have electrical issues, can cause an unwanted draw on the battery, flicker or dim, and have premature failure. High-quality materials are what many European car manufacturers use in their OEM cars sent to dealer lots. Some of these high-quality materials include:
- Dense polycarbonate headlight lenses
- Precise lens patterns to ensure the best visibility
- Electrical connectors that match those on your vehicle
- OEM-style housing
- Long-lasting seals
- Long-lasting bulbs
While many aftermarket headlights may offer one or two high-quality materials, it is unlikely they will use all of them. Often you run into electrical connector issues, meaning you have to modify the new connector or the one on your vehicle to connect the headlight.
Testing
OEM headlights go through thousands of hours of testing during the development of your vehicle. This testing ensures they are both efficient and safe. Many factors like brightness, longevity, appearance, and aim are considered and worked over to provide the best performance for your vehicle. All OEM headlights must pass 65 specifications to ensure they can enter production.
Fitment
An OEM headlight is part of your vehicle’s original design, ensuring it will fit properly and light the road ahead. The dimensions will always be correct and electrical clips should work correctly, given you are using the correct part numbers.
Unlike OEM headlights, aftermarket headlights are manufactured separately from the vehicle. They will often have issues with fitment. A modern headlight's complex shape and styling mean that aftermarket headlights will hardly ever fit perfectly.
As mentioned earlier, aftermarket headlights also often use different electrical design specifications than OEM headlights. This discrepancy can cause issues ranging from improper lighting to an electrical drain on the battery, and even outright failure.
Price
For many, one of the most significant drawbacks to replacing headlights with OEM units is the price. Especially on European vehicles, the dealership markup can be huge. Thankfully we offer many different OEM European headlight options at discounted prices for many brands, including Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and BMW.
At Suburban Parts Plus, we’ve been delivering high-quality OEM parts for over 70 years. We offer OEM-level parts for 19 different makes, and have 54 locations around the U.S. for fast shipping coast to coast. If you’re looking to replace your headlight, look no further than Suburban Parts Plus.