Právo: ČR flooded with dangerous Asian car spare parts

Prague, Oct 20 (CTK) - Cheap spare parts coming mainly from China and other Asian countries that are of a bad quality and not approved for Czech roads are flooding the Czech market, daily Pravo writes Saturday.

It says the spare parts that save the driver a couple of hundred crowns may raise the danger of a traffic accident and insurance companies may not pay the driver the premium if they find out that he used unauthorised spare parts.

The car maker may consider the use of such part a breach of the warranty terms, Pravo writes.

"Asian producers export to our country copies of the same shape like the original parts. But the material, performance as well as service life are different," Pravo quotes Tomas Jursa, director of a firm that supplies spare parts to Skoda Auto and others.

Importers estimate that cheap Asian production constitutes up to 12 percent of the 350,000 wheels sold in the Czech Republic annually.

Tests showed these wheels' strength is less than one third of the brand ones and the wheels also have other defects. Air leaks from them because of poor-quality welds, screws fall off from them, and the like, Pravo writes.

A layman will hardly tell the poor-quality product from the original, Pravo writes.