[nomel]

> They too are buying from the same chinese OEM, just their "brand sticker" gives them the power to charge a high premium

This is actually incredibly false. I have several collages that came from the automotive industry, for automotive chips. The automotive industry is not using the same Chinese OEM parts, for any of the safety critical ICs, which come in some of those expensive OEM parts.

In fact, they have incredibly complicated processes, with full supply chain lockdown/inspections, to keep cheap Chinese knockoffs out of the supply chain, in direct response to human death from Chinese knockoffs making it into the supply chain. When a knockoff is used, and it makes it into a car, that vendor is blamed, when someone dies. Vendors put extreme pressure on these companies to make sure they don't make the news for killing people/recalls.

All of that, obviously, adds a premium over the unqualified knock offs.

I'm not sure about structural parts, but I suspect it's similar.

[rasz]

Doesnt have to be Chinese vendor. https://www.youtube.com/@M539Restorations prides himself on using OEM parts, but he often goes directly for actual manufacturer because that source tends to be much cheaper than BMW dealer. The only difference is marker/machining over BMW logo on the part.