Originally Posted by
Harvey Weidman
There is alot of misuse of terms. I remember in the 70s when Porsche parts came in a box marked " ORIGINAL-GENUINE". I explained many times that original would be the same as delivered and genuine would only mean it came from Porsche, not necessarly the original fittment.
Here is my start to explain the acronyms.
OE=original equiptment -- self explainatory, except the factory had the right to use other suppliers and versions, but they usually are the same.
OEM=Original equiptment manufacturer--built by the same supplier but not necessarily the same part as delivered. ie Fuchs makes wheels for Porsche and Mercedes among others. So you could advertise a Mercedes wheel as OEM. Same goes with ATS, Cibie, Recaro etc.
NOS=new old stock. Could be any of the above and there is no age for "old" on the new old stock. Oh yea, not just trial fitted or barely used; actually NEW and not used or fitted. We required the part to never have even been sold retail.
NLA= no longer available--means either it has been discontinued or replaced with a supersession.
SS or SSN=Superseeded by a new design OR supplier
GRV= remanfacturered part-may or may not be the original supplier or version
X=exchange-usually referring to electrical parts
XXX-color code needed
PET=online catalog
There are many others and I'm sure others will help cairify.
sorry for the bad spelling.
and dotto on what Eric said.
H