Update: So, if your vehicle originally came with black bumpers from the factory and you need to replace them, you want "textured", not primed, as I thought. Primed would be if you want to have the bumper painted.

Still, if anyone has an opinion about the second part of my question regarding certified vs. non-certified body parts, I'm all ears.

 

I was researching headlights sometime back. The info I got from this forum and from other sites is that CAPA would be a perfect fit as well as have very good light pattern. The uncertified can be hit or miss. Very likely they would fit but the beam pattern and light output might leave something or lot to be desired. There was another certification (NAPA ??? not sure) where the quality is supposed to be almost as good as CPA certified products but not all the way. The price points increased in the order of not certified, NAPA and highest is CAPA. I ended up restoring the headlights. Even if I had bought new headlights, I would have bought only one set and wouldnt have comparison data.

With bumpers, only the fitment matters. I would suppose that not certified might do the job and CAPA certified may not be required. I am not too particular about how the car looks, the mechanical aspects are more important to me. I would most probably plonk my bets on the "not" certified bumper.

 

Thanks for the opinion. I noticed that also about headlamp assemblies. I think you mean NSF Certification as an alternative to CAPA? When I bought TYC headlamp assemblies, they had NSF certified and CAPA was a higher cost. The NSF certfied TYC headlamp assemblies appeared to be excellent quality. What I'm suspicious of or a possibility I'm thinking of is that TYC makes only one headlamp, but you you want it to be CAPA certified, they'll charge you more for it, and possbily NSF is a similar scenario, but possibly costs less. I don't know.

As far as bumpers go, I think the difference in quality might be the plastic doesn't get brittle and faded quickly if it's an OE or other high quality manufacturer and the cheaper ones will fade and get brittle more quickly.......or it's the same thing as I mentioned above in that perhaps some manufacturers are making just one type, but offering certification for more money? I again don't know.

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I knew it started with N. (NSF vs NAPA thingy)

The same manufacturer is offering the certified nd the non-certified versions of the product. Chances are that the manufacturing process and the materials used are the same. The quality control + number of rejects would increase the cost of the certified products. Come to think of it, the rejects from the certified line would likely be passed off as uncertified ones. Maybe that is the reason why uncertified ones are hit or miss in terms of fitment and or performance. This is me purely speculating. I have no industry inside knowledge.

 

That makes sense. Would be nice to know for sure. Perhaps some insider will fill us in.