See also this topic:
http://www.theminifo...ll-joint-snaps/
BMH (British Motor Heritage) regulate the quality and license the sale and production of classic Mini spares on behalf of BMW and have received some flak in the past for taking legal action against unlicensed traders but I doubt they have the manpower to police the traders at every Mini show or those on the internet/ebay selling cheap unapproved parts shipped in from India or China. However if you are not happy with quality or safety of a Mini product please report it to BMH with as much information as you can supply on the source of the dodgy parts in question.........it may save someone else from being hurt or ripped off in the future.
Ex-editor of Miniworld magazine Monty Watkins interviewed John Yea Managing Director of BMH (British Motor Heritage Ltd) about this topic back in the Summer 2010 edition.
Extracts from MW article below:
"John Yea of BMH defends BMW's policy on protecting the Mini brand saying they have put a lot of effort into the BMH company when it was privatised in 2001 and facilitated the move of Mini tooling to BMH with their full encouragement, permitting the continued supply of bodyshells and genuine replacement body panels and subframes. He thinks a lot of classic Mini people are being misled. BMW have a lot of respect for the Classic Mini and they have tried very hard to get their managers to understand. They are very concerned how they are perceived by the classic Mini world but the Mini brand is extremely important and must be protected against imitations. A lot of genuine parts are no longer available and people should be ashamed at some of the stuff thats out there. For example, the genuine Rover Mini subframes had a minimum number of spotwelds deemed to be safe, researched in much detail. Cheap aftermarket copies have fewer spotwelds and people need protecting from this. Part of our role is to assist BMW, Licensing is to maintain quality. The problem we have now is that an awful lot of stuff is coming in from super cheap sources. BMW lawyers are looking for abuses of the logos and the brand and legal letters are intentionally intimidating, clearly stating the rights being contravened. If you get the letter please stop selling and tell us who manufactures the products in question. Manufacturers should come to BMH to assess the quality of the product, if quality is good enough but sales very small, we would probably charge a peppercorn sum, rather than a percentage of the wholesale price. Small scale makers should come and talk to us first if quality is good."
http://www.bmh-ltd.c...marks-useof.htm
Edited by mab01uk, 12 April 2012 - 09:09 AM.
