The Certified Automotive Parts Association, the global leader in aftermarket part certification, performed its 25,000th Vehicle Test Fit (VTF). CAPA reached this historic milestone last month at its 22,000-square-foot Test Fit center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. CAPA also has a 14,000-square-foot Test Fit center in Irvine, California.
CAPA developed the Vehicle Test Fit (VTF) in the mid-1990’s to confirm the fit quality of the aftermarket parts it had certified, as well as their car company brand counterparts, on actual vehicles. CAPA made the test a certification requirement in 1999, when the first “VTF B” was performed. Since that time, “Vehicle Test Fit” and “VTF” has become recognized terms within the aftermarket industry, whether performed by CAPA or not.
After a part achieves CAPA certification, CAPA continues to use its unique VTF systems to confirm its ongoing conformance. CAPA has determined that both fully transparent comprehensive standards and ongoing compliance testing are the only way to insure functional equivalency to car company brand parts. As part of its robust quality complaint program, CAPA purchases complaint parts directly from the market to investigate the reported fit or appearance problems. In addition, CAPA purchases brand new parts directly from part distributors to monitor part quality. If nonconformances are observed, the manufacturer must take corrective action to bring their product back into compliance or CAPA Certification will be revoked.
“CAPA’s VTF process, as part of the CAPA certification process and as the best method to validate and monitor part quality after certification, has played the single most critical role in the industry’s acceptance of CAPA Certified Parts,” said Debbie Klouser, CAPA’s Director of Operations. “Even outspoken critics of aftermarket parts have come to realize that the CAPA Certification program is the best way to identify truly high quality alternative parts.
Collision repairers have installed over 70 million CAPA Certified parts since 1990, and with the recent addition of the CAPA 601 Radiator Standard, there are now six publicly available CAPA Standards, covering over 19,000 CAPA Certified part applications. “CAPA Certification has become the industry standard when it comes to containing repair costs without compromising quality,” said Jack Gillis, CAPA’s Executive Director. “One of the benchmarks of the CAPA program is full transparency; we provide access to the standards, test requirements and tolerances to anyone that asks.”
The Certified Automotive Parts Association, founded in 1987, is the nation’s only independent, non-profit, certification organization for automotive crash parts whose sole purpose is to ensure that both consumers and the industry have the means to identify high quality parts via the CAPA Quality Seal. CAPA is an ANSI accredited standards developer for competitive crash repair parts. For more information see CAPAcertified.org.
