Start your engines! Ask anyone who drives a car and you will hear the the same thing: the buying doesn’t stop when you drive out of the lot. In fact, in 2017, the automotive aftermarket in the U.S. was an industry worth $287 billion.
Through 2020, the projected compound annual growth rate of the automotive aftermarket is 3.6%. Whether you have purchased a brand new vehicle or a used one, there’s always something new and exciting available to make your car even better than the day you purchased it.
These aftermarket parts can be categorized in two different groups. The first group is accessories. The second group consists of performance parts, and sometimes these are import performance parts. Customers have the choice of having their vehicles serviced, or of doing it themselves. Let’s have a look at what items make up these two categories.
Accessories are items that are made to be added on after the sale of the original vehicle. These accessories can be designed for customization of the vehicle, like a monogrammed initial plate. They can also be designed for comfort, such as plush seat cushions.
Accessories may also be added for safety (extra mirrors, for example), convenience (extra cup holders, perhaps) or performance. Performance parts could include a fuel surge tank for high power output, or Cosmis wheels for racing, for instance. Or, they may be related to the type of car–for example one may need Acura performance parts, Hyundai performance parts, or Mazda or Subaru performance parts.
The other category, import performance parts, deals with parts of the car that have been rebuilt or remanufactured due to various causes: for example, wear and tear. Also, damage to a fuel surge tank from an accident, for instance. Certain foreign cars require import performance parts, which are specialized items.
It is an exciting hobby for many do-it-yourselfers to work on their cars. Clearly this is true, since by 2020 the automotive aftermarket industry is projected to reach $722.8 billion worldwide.
Finding accessories and import performance parts can turn any vehicle into a statement of one’s own personality. Remember the movie ‘American Graffiti’? If ever there was a movie that celebrated the love affair that humans have with their cars, that was it.
And everyone involved in the automotive aftermarket industry is delighted that cars bring people so much happiness–and that cars bring them such substantial profits. Totally a two-way, win-win, street!