Online parts catalogues have revolutionised the way both garages and motor factors work, making parts identification a much faster and easier process. Most catalogues have a high degree of accuracy, but what happens when a catalogue cannot find an answer, or recommends an incorrect part? 

Ireland has a unique car parc in Europe, influenced heavily by our right hand drive neighbours in the UK, as well as a high rate of Japanese imports. Because most parts catalogues are based on general European data it can mean a significant number of cars on Irish roads are either not covered, or have incomplete or sometimes inaccurate information. 

The bilstein group, which offers the febi, Blue Print and SWAG brands, has recognised this issue and can uniquely offer not only a comprehensive online parts catalogue that can draw on the global resources of one of the major international parts suppliers, but also fine tune the catalogue through the expertise of its team on the ground in Ireland. 

This means that when a vehicle is identified that may fall out of the scope of the normal catalogue platforms, the bilstein team will actively work to identify parts for this car and not only make this available to customers at the time, but also ensure that partsfinder is updated to reflect this, making it the most up-to-date and relevant catalogue for the Irish market. This is especially useful when it comes to identifying parts for many Japanese made imported used cars. The team also liaise with vehicle registration services to correct or complete data. 

Ronan Conneally of bilstein says, “partsfinder is unique in the amount of information available on home Japanese used imports. We base this on both our own research and customer feedback. We will generally have parts for these cars in our range, but often you need on the ground knowledge to make the link between the parts and specific model data.” 

The partsfinder platform even allows customers to requests updates to the catalogue through its Future Article Notification System (fans). This is a global system that allows customers to request additions to the bilstein group brand ranges and is used by many Irish users. 

Colin Kennedy of bilstien also explains that partsfinder offers many other advantages as an effective parts ID system. He says, “The partsfinder Number Search tool allows you to search for parts offered by bilstein group brands using an OE reference number, making most parts searches very quick and easy. If a customer is unsure on an item, they can compare the part on the car with the high quality online image or compare the component dimensions.”  

Partsfinder is a free service that can accessed at partsfinder.bilsteingroup.com