We have already written about the honest tiers — genuine, OEM and aftermarket brake pads — and the short version is that a good aftermarket part from a real manufacturer is often the sensible choice.
Counterfeits are a different subject entirely. They are not a cheaper tier. They are a part pretending to be something it is not, made to a specification nobody published, sold in packaging designed to defeat exactly the check you were about to make.
The scale of it
Mercedes-Benz reported seizing more than 1.5 million counterfeit parts in 2024. That is one manufacturer, in one year.
In Saudi Arabia the enforcement is active and ongoing. Authorities reported seizing more than 3.6 million counterfeit goods, closing 1,245 facilities and referring 1,379 people for legal action, in figures published in December 2025. Auto parts have their own history here: a Ministry of Commerce operation found Chinese-made oil and air filters being relabelled as German, American and Japanese, alongside more than 160,000 empty counterfeit boxes — with genuine parts displayed at the front of the shop to satisfy inspectors.
That last detail is the one to remember. The people doing this have already thought about the check you were going to perform.
What a fake part actually does
An oil filter is the one that frightens us most. A turbocharged European engine depends on oil pressure and clean oil, and the filter has a bypass valve and an anti-drainback valve that a counterfeit typically imitates in shape and not in function. A filter that collapses, or that lets oil drain back on shutdown, produces a dry start every morning. The damage is cumulative and it does not announce itself.
A brake pad is the one that is dangerous. Friction material is engineered for a temperature range. Jeddah traffic — stop, start, heat soak, a long descent — sits at the top of that range. A counterfeit pad that fades at a temperature a real one handles is not a slower stop, it is no stop.
A sensor is the one that costs you money for months. A fake oxygen sensor or mass airflow sensor that reads slightly wrong does not fail. It just quietly makes the engine run badly, throws codes that point elsewhere, and gets chased by three workshops.
How to check
Read the part number, not the brand. Every genuine and OEM part carries a number. It should be on the part, not only on the box, and it should match the number for your car’s VIN. A supplier who cannot tell you the part number is telling you something.
Look at the part itself. Casting quality, the crispness of stamped text, the finish on machined surfaces, the weight in your hand compared to what it replaced. Counterfeits are usually convincing in the box and much less convincing out of it.
Know that the security features are getting better. BMW and KURZ SCRIBOS introduced the first digitally verifiable hologram strip for spare parts, announced in August 2025 — it combines dynamic optical effects, microtext and hidden markers with a digital check. Worth knowing the limit, though: verification runs through a dedicated app used by trained professionals, so it is not something you can do yourself at the counter.
Be suspicious of the price, in the right direction. A part that is somewhat cheaper is a real market. A part that is dramatically cheaper than every other source is not a bargain that everyone else missed.
The check that actually works
Honestly? You are not going to authenticate a hologram in a car park. What you can do is make it impossible for the question to be avoided.
Ask for the part numbers on the invoice. Not "brake pads front". The number. It takes a workshop no effort if the parts are what they claim, and it is awkward if they are not.
Ask for the old part back. You are entitled to it where it is environmentally safe to hand over — that and the rest of your rights are in when a car workshop gets it wrong. Seeing the part that came off tells you it came off.
Keep the invoice. If a part fails early, the number on the invoice is the difference between a warranty conversation and an argument.
How we handle it
We put part numbers on every invoice, we hand back old parts, and we tell you which tier a part is — genuine, OEM or a named aftermarket manufacturer — before it goes on, not after. That is not a favour. It is the practice that makes counterfeiting hard to hide, and it is why we can write this article without discomfort.
If you have had work done elsewhere and want to know what is actually on your car, bring the invoice. We can check the numbers against your VIN.