OEM is as Miles said, Original Equipment Manufacturer item - It could have been used on several years of production and will work as original. Honda made changes to their parts as the cars were produced. This is why a good understanding of the parts manual for your country is necessary. I have noticed in collecting Chassis, engine and date of manufacture numbers that the Honda 600 Coupe came with a 20 motor as opposed to a 25 motor (first two numbers on the engine case) The 20 indicating the transmission used is a constant and not the 25 or full synchro transmission. Understanding these differences can save you time when ordering parts.
Steve Michelsen has an American or AZ 600 parts manual on his website. It's for American production vehicles. So there are differences.
Repo or Reproduction - is a part to replace an OEM part that is no longer available from the manufacturer. Some are good, others are not.
Quality Control is the note here. Make your needs known to the person supplying the part and you will do ok.
NOS - a new old stock part, should be in the original box or bag and have the manufactures part number on it. Here is where the problem lies. The Honda 600 is getting up in years, the rubber parts are getting hard and things like carburetor kits and pot metal or plastic parts can be shelf warn. The "NEW" part of NOS means it's 30+ years old.
I saw a carburetor that was under a bunch of other parts on a shelf and it was flattened from the weight of the items placed on top of it. Completely useless, but brand new. Also, a NOS part will carry the price of a new part, e.g. 1971 piston for 2008 prices.
Aftermarket - I think this has been gone over quite a bit, but the key note here is what you think your Honda 600 should look like. There are lots of side view mirrors out there that will do the job but are way off what the originals look like.
Rebuilt - This you can do yourself. Many items can be rebuilt by local shops and the part works very well.
Bill
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> 2cylinderhondas@yahoogroups.com [mailto:2cylinderhondas@yahoogroups.com] > On > Behalf Of > pommecoing > Sent:
> Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:44
> PM
> To:
> 2cylinderhondas@yahoogroups.com
> Subject:
> [2cylinderhondas] parts designations
> Thank a lot for your answers,
> When I started to read your posts, a
> few month ago, I used to make the
> confusion between "used",
> "remanufactured" and "aftermarket" parts.
> Partly because "aftermarket"
> should be translated by "remplacement" in
> french ! ("replacement" :
> "adaptable") But with experience, logic and
> your answers, it's not anymore
> confusing for me now.
> It's almost impossible to find N600 NOS, OEM, or
> aftermarket parts in
> France. We must deal with american or british
> sellers. We find
> sometimes used parts, but it's getting difficult.
> Hopefuly, prices are
> reasonable, although much higher than Mini's or
> Autobianchi' s or
> similar small cars.
> Thanks
> again