For something like crossmembers, I’d stick with OEM. I’m pretty sure sales in the US for this platform were 400-500k annually from 2009-2013, so there’s a lot of rust free salvage options in the south central and southwestern US. The issue you may run into is that in those areas, AWDs are less desirable/needed, and I believe that at least the front crossmember on the AWD is different from the RWD.

 

Everywhere I'm reading, no one is buying aftermarket. I'm looking for some positive reviews for the aftermarket piece before I consider it. Like if I barely drive and I'm only going from A to B, can I get away with getting the aftermarket??

 

Just ran the prices and apparently aftermarket (Z1, parts stores, OEM, etc) are significantly higher priced than salvage parts - either local pick up or ebay.

So my deductive guess is that people are saving $$$ by purchasing used instead of aftermarket, especially since as @socketz67 noted, there are lots and lots of salvage G's sitting in the recycler's yards.

This is mostly a price point decision. If I were in the market for a replacement, I would just check my local yards first, then if that didn't pan out, I would be going to ebay. I would just make sure the salvage part is rust free.

if that fell through, i would go aftermarket or OEM, whichever is cheapest at the time. It's a chunk of stamped steel with a few welds, not that complicated, so I imagine the aftermarket guys are doing as good of a job as the OEM.

 

Probably true in your area, but not mine. There are plenty of active G's on the road in my area but not many in the junkyards, i've called and asked the yards online and no one carries the part. Even if they did, we have 4-5 months of snow/salt here so I can't expect any used parts to be reliable here. So far, the aftermarket Z1 https://www.z1motorsports.com/chassi...hoCjlsQAvD_BwE seems to be the cheapest option at $200 USD. I'd probably get it shipped to a nearby US state and drive over.

But surprisingly, the OEMs posted from the Japanese retailers have been good too and $400-$500 cheaper than buying OEM from Canadian websites, if they are in fact the real prices. It just sucks that prices went up 50% since @ILM-NC last posted in Feb 2024... still though, <$600 incl. shipping (yuck, look at that shipping cost) for the OEM is still the lowest price I'm seeing. If push comes to shove I'd order it, I guess.