In 2010 my car failed its MOT on the front lower arms (rear). The car is an 05 and had about 200k miles on. The arms were the originals so I decided they were obviously not under too much stress given how long they had lasted. I opted for the cheaper of the two offered by ECP at about £65 per side.

Today I had to replace them again! They lasted about 30k before the ballpoints were clunking nicely and the bushes were shot (and yes, I did load them up before torquing the bolts)

I have now fitted Lemforder arms from ECP which were about £80 per side with the forum discount. Interestingly they look identical to the original arms (which I still have), with the only difference being a grind mark where the original as have an Audi logo. Do Lemforder make the original items?

Anyway.... Just goes to show, you really get what you pay for!

ECP sell a large quantity of parts which may originate from dubious sources. China and India (for braking components) come to mind.

Worse than that, there is in my experience some degree of misrepresentation. The supply of Chinese shock absorbers in a shiny cardboard box with "Stossdampfer" printed on it in large letters implying a German brand name is a good example.

Stossdampfer is simply German for shock absorber - who are they trying to fool?

Not straightforward people to do business with in my experience, although the properly branded stuff is fine - Conti belt kits and Pagid braking components are reasonably priced from them, for instance.

Caveat emptor.

rotodiesel.

To be fair to ECP, last time I went in my local branch for some bits I was offered the "cheap" option, or some "decent" ones. The guy behind the counter said the only good thing he could say about the cheap option was that it was "errr cheap" and they really weren't very good.

After all it shows why you pay more for genuine parts. Some makes do parts for Skoda but not the same standards as they might cut costs to sell replacement parts. After all you also get warranty for manufacture parts that you wont get for them cheap onces. When you looking to keep vehicle then always consider getting genuine parts.

I've no problem with using ECP, but always use the best quality ones they do. Learned that the hard way 20 years ago, replacing an outer CV on a Scirocco. Money was tight, so I bought the cheap one. Fitted it, dropped the car back on to the wheels, went to fit and torque up the hub nut- and it wouldn't go on, as the thread wasn't formed correctly, so I got to do the job all over again with an OE-quality joint.