CRP Automotive relies on its engineering team and a committee of shop managers and technicians to develop and market replacement parts whose quality and ease of installation often surpass those of the original part.

At his booth at AAPEX, David Hirschhorn, product manager for CRP Automotive, presented several examples of parts developed by his company that correct problems frequently encountered with original equipment parts.

For economic reasons, but mainly to reduce the weight of vehicles and improve fuel economy, many parts that used to be made of steel or aluminum are now made of plastic,” he explains. Parts will often fail prematurely. The unfortunate thing is that sometimes these are small, inexpensive parts that take hours to replace,” he says, showing us a plastic cooling system fitting and its metal equivalent developed by CRP.

Understanding technicians

He also points out that a market like ours, characterized by large temperature variations, is particularly taxing for thermoplastic parts.

CRP’s research and development department is very active in finding solutions by developing more robust replacement parts.

However, this research is supported by the recommendations of a committee of advisors who are none other than the technicians who work directly in the workshops on the cars.

“Our goal is to ask them what they would like to have on hand to do the job,” Hirschhorn continues. We want a quality part that’s going to meet their customers’ expectations for reliability, with all the hardware needed to install it.”