One of the scourges of Greek roads are abandoned motorcycles. Some they have suffered major damage and are not being repaired, some because owners have abandoned them because they no longer want them, other they are stolen, etc.

The process to be removed from the from the State takes from 3 months to 3 years. All of that time this motorcycle it pollutes the environment and also takes up parking space. You can't park your car because such an abandoned bicycle is standing there often rotting and some of them are on the sidewalk !

Some sneaky locals use them to reserve space for themselves, some with shops put them in front so that no cars are parked and the storefront is not visible, some Cafe owners put them in front of the sidewalk to make it appear that they have other motorcyclists as their customers. If you try to remove it by yourself sometimes they shout ''leave it as is, it's mine" and other lies so you have to wait for the Municipality to take it or you have to act by yourself with other ways.

Few nights ago we had mud-rain here, i was returning from work it was late, i was tired and i wanted to find a place to park my car to go home. I found one but there was a huge scooter which didn't allow me to park properly, was sone of the ones that i have described you above. Came out of the car, tried to move it a bit but was heavy, i was sin a hurry the ground and my hand were slippery so the disaster came. That damned scooter rolled back, i didn't manage to catch it at once so it hit my rear left rear light (or tail light), a ''craaack'' was heard and immediately i knew that i was in trouble. Chane my day schedule, search to find another, pay money which i had for other purposes, install by myself etc.

I have changed them both in the past with original Hella and i knew how to do it but in the procedure i notice 2 weird things that's why i opened this topic.

I didn't want to install an aftermarket one because:

there would be difference in colour with the original on right side plus they have told me that due to cheap ABS plastic and not proper molding may not fir proper and water could come inside the trunk so i start searching for original in good condition.

3 shops and nothing happened, i was disappointed because the cost for 2 new original fro UK would be around 120 euro with the shipping-Customs fee (not in EU any more) and i didn't want to order a used one from local market without see it first because in the photo of the e-shop looks good but in real may differs.

In the 4th shop (VW group parts) told me that they have new aftermarket for 30 euro and new original Hella for 40 euro, i was surprised and i asked: How come? They answered that have them in shelf for years and offered them in a good price to get rid of them.

What's the reason to pay to have one new and one used? So i bought two of them (left-right side), in front of me brought the box cut the seal-tape and show them to me.

I paid and went home very happy.

Here are in factory wrapping

but when i went to the car to installed them i noticed some things.

As you can see the original had no gasket so i had to use the one from the existing.

The left side was good but the right side had some marks of deteriorating.

which means if there is another accident and try to remove it it maybe cut in pieces of became as ''toast'' as we say here (many pieces like detritus).

As you can see from the factory they have used hot iron to ''erase'' the Skoda Logo and the part number, the question is why?

They have the stamp Hella made in Czech Republic other letters as PMMA, marks etc as the previous but why they ''blurred'' those two things?

Take a look a Chinese from Skoda-parts.com half the price of here in GR (in UK shops the original has 51 euro).

https://www.skoda-parts.com/data/items/352/5fa278cc01ba2_xl.jpg

Has a gasket on

https://www.skoda-parts.com/data/items/352/5fa2808f140ab_xl.jpg

plus the PMMA letter, the mark from the molding like the original etc.

https://www.skoda-parts.com/data/items/322/5e2eb66ae69a9_xl.jpg

isn't this strange?

In the future i wonder where i could find a set of new gaskets?

Perhaps the contract for Hella to supply VW expired so marking not allowed and need to remove(?), Hella is big enough not to want to upset the likes of VW. China can make enormous profit and still sell items at very extremely low prices whether it upsets any company or not and VW were desperate to be in China, who will soon own VW no doubt.

You can make up your own seals, it's not like you remove the light cluster very often either.

You certainly don't paint a very inviting portrait of Greek cities, but then I expect many cities all over the world are the same, too many people wanting to be a too smaller area, yet more and more people want to be in cities!

10 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

As you can see from the factory they have used hot iron to ''erase'' the Skoda Logo and the part number, the question is why?

I've seen this before on INA tensioner for my Cordoba. They grinded away all VW markings, because it was not sold as a genuine VW part, but INA-branded part.

3 hours ago, Papez said:

I've seen this before on INA tensioner for my Cordoba. They grinded away all VW markings, because it was not sold as a genuine VW part, but INA-branded part.

I have seen this in the past with Maserati parts,exactly the same as in a Ferrari but more expensive, the same with Bentley parts which are exactly the same with a VW model (since VW owns the Bentley) but also more expensive !

12 hours ago, nta16 said:

China can make enormous profit and still sell items at very extremely low prices whether it upsets any company

Almost identical.

I wonder if next time (which i don't wish it) worth to buy a set of Chinese.

On 19/04/2026 at 10:16, D.FYLAKTOS said:

I wonder if next time (which i don't wish it) worth to buy a set of Chinese.

Depends on which Chinese company and which manufacturing place is used and their level of quality control at any particular time, some Chinese suppliers/manufacturers come and go so much with what they make or remain in that business or what contracts they have at the time - often a bit of a gamble with varying risks.

The first ones (factory) were from HELLA made in Germany, those made in Cz.

There is no consistency in Chinese products no matter if it's a Led light or camera mirror, one day the list is full the very next day "this product not excists".

No spare parts available, if it damaged even a little bit or broke you send it for recycle.

Edited 25 April25 Apr by D.FYLAKTOS