I made an interesting observation today about replacement parts. I have changed many parts on vehicles in my life. The original part always seems to be the best part. When I think about buying a car, I want to see as many original parts on it as I can, except the belts, hoses, clutch, and other things that are supposed to wear out in time. If I were to see something that was not original on it, I would start to ask myself why. For example, if a radiator was not original, I would want to know what happened to the original. It was likely replaced with an inferior one. Since I am not normally willing to purchase the dealer part, I am not expecting the replacement part to be to the same standard as the original was held. I have seen this many times with alternators. On our current car alone, I replaced the original with an original "rebuilt" alternator only to have it short out and almost cause an engine fire. I replaced that one with another, not a dealer part, and it has worked fine. So, I just don't expect the replacement part to be as good as the original.

I was pleasantly surprised Friday when we got some replacement brushes for our vacuum. The old ones were made of plastic where they met the metal transmission parts. Maybe this was intentional on the part of the manufacturer. All I know is when I called the local vacuum repair store and asked if they carried parts for my vacuum, they knew what part I needed before I even asked. The replacement parts however had a metal fitting where the plastic fitting had been before. I was shocked. It seems that the new parts are better than the old parts. As a side note, the vacuum now sounds like a jet turbine.