I wish I had an inside track on Crown's business model. It would be REALLY cool if, after Mopar loses interest in selling the part, Crown stepped in as the new reseller for the same OEM with the same part meeting the same specs, but without the Mopar logo.
Probably not how it works, but would be a lot cooler if it was.
Not generally how it works. When an automaker launches a program, the different suppliers and vendors (Tier 1, anyway) have to build the tooling for any new parts they win contracts for. That tooling is the source of many long and contentious negotiations with the OEM regarding who owns what, who’s paying, and how much. In layman’s terms, if something is in direct contact with the part, the OEM pays for it. So, in the case of our radiator, the plastic tanks could be molded in a tool that is wholly owned by Chrysler or its a mold with an insert that is owned by Chrysler. Either way, the supplier is under contract to only use that tooling for Chrysler and no one else.
Once the program goes to service (the model is phased out) things get a bit sketchy. Depending on the supplier and the OEM, they will contact for 20 years of replacement parts. Could be they make them when needed (almost never) or they forecast what the usage should be, make a couple big runs, and store ‘em. When they are gone, they are gone. Either way, that tooling is not generally accessible to any aftermarket vendors, and by this time in its life, they would not want it anyway.
People like crown and Omix-Ada are paying license fees for the part designs and making their own tooling, as cheaply as possible. They are also employing cost saving measures, so generally that means changing the design slightly to make the part less expensively. Sometimes, it works out ok. Mostly it doesn’t. Hard to get top notch design engineers out of the OEMS to work for the bottom feeding aftermarket suppliers.
