CAPA (the Certified Automotive Parts Association) is an advocacy group for non-OEM aftermarket parts makers.
CAPA say their goal is “to provide the auto repair industry with a reliable, trusted means for identifying replacement parts comparable to parts from the original equipment manufacturer”. They promote “CAPA-certified” aftermarket parts as being equivalent to OE components. But numerous rigourous tests have found aftermarket headlamps, including “CAPA-certified” ones, are significantly inferior to OE lamps in performance, durability, and construction, however—not to mention other problems with aftermarket lamps—and the organisation’s requirements for headlamps amount to “must look like the original part, and must meet the applicable regulations”—without regard to the difference between meeting the regulation and matching the OE part. And a CAPA video purporting to show the superiority of “CAPA-certified” parts actually compares only an OE component and a non-“CAPA-certified” aftermarket replacement.
CAPA have also “verified” the range of headlamp mount tab repair kits we reported on last Autumn, for 11 Jeep Grand Cherokee headlamps and six GMC Sierra headlamps. The organisation say “CAPA Verification differs from its Certification Program in that there is not a car company service part available for comparison to the aftermarket part (…) parts that have been CAPA Verified have been proven to meet Verification Program requirements”.
CRS CEO Maurice Paperi says the mount-repair parts are fabricated by additive manufacturing, and Vice President Steve Arnone says they use a nylon substance able to perform physically and chemically like the OEM mount, in a nonstandard 3D printing process—he wouldn’t explain in detail, but said the process can simulate the same grain structure of the original injection-moulded mount.
CAPA say the headlight kits “were verified following a testing process which included material testing, vibration testing, and vehicle test fit”.