"NOS" vs "NORS" ?

"NOS" - "New Old Stock" - replacement parts used by the original car manufacturer when the cars were originally produced.

"NORS" - "New Old Replacement Stock" replacement parts made by manufacturers other than the original manufacturer of the automobile.

Occasionally, the automobile manufacturers would tool up and run a series of parts after the original cars were built. While these are generally known as "NOS", in my opinion, they are really "NORS". Oftentimes the replacement parts from the original manufacturers were sub-standard in some way. It can get complicated, because some manufacturers would save sub-standard production parts and supply them to dealers as replacements. Are these "NOS"? Your guess is as good as mine.
 
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With respect, it is a bit more complicated than that as the car companies did not manufacture all of the parts that they used in the production of their vehicles, then as now. So, NOS parts are those originally used in the manufacture of the vehicles whether produced by the car company or one of its original equipment (OEM) suppliers. NORS parts are not ones used in the original production of the vehicle, but are service parts offered by companies other than the vehicle manufacturer (including those made by its OEM suppliers) which are frequently, but not always, as good as those used by the vehicle manufacturer to produce the vehicle. Another synonym for NORS is 'aftermarket', but you could argue as some do that parts that Bob Drake, for example, produced twenty years ago are NORS parts. While literally 'aftermarket' I think of NORS parts as having been produced in the same era as the vehicle was produced.
 
"DavidG" is right again (as usual). In changed one word in my original post to reflect this. Can you tell which one?
 
Back when I first started messing with older cars (shortly after I could walk I think) you could still get a lot of body parts. They were like the quality you would get from some body shops for damage repair. Not as good as OEM but really not all that bad of quality. These parts started getting harder to find and the replacement parts started becoming near worthless.
 
My view:
NOS = OEM parts by the original vendors that supplied the auto makers.
NORS = Aftermarket replacements by different manufacturers that supplied auto parts stores.
 
DavidG said:
And older modern era reproductions are being passed off as "NORS".
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I agree, these parts should clearly be called "reproduction". I like to think there are 3 classes of unused parts: NOS, NORS and reproduction.

This is a great thread, all swapmeet buyers and sellers should read.
Paul J.
 
Words don't actually mean anything in particular and are completely interchangeable by way of substitution. See also: "Mint condition".
 
It gets even murkier considering that some NOS parts supplied by Ford after the original year of production were made by manufacturers other than the OEM source. You can almost date some of these by the printing on the boxes that contained them, as supplied from Ford. Even though it was supplied by Ford, it may not look like the original and might be of lesser quality.
 
OK now, let's throw one more wrench in the works. In recent years, we're seeing the term "LICENSED BY FORD". SOME folks, especially those new to the hobby, are taking that term to mean that Ford actually produced the part. Fact of the matter is something along the lines of the producer of the part wanted to use the word " FORD" either on the part itself, or in the description of the item, and that a "licensing fee" has been paid to the Ford attorneys so as to allow such reference to Ford. In other words, Ford doesn't, want you throwing-around their name without first paying dearly for the privelage. DD
 
V8COOPMAN said:
OK now, let's throw one more wrench in the works. In recent years, we're seeing the term "LICENSED BY FORD". SOME folks, especially those new to the hobby, are taking that term to mean that Ford actually produced the part. Fact of the matter is something along the lines of the producer of the part wanted to use the word " FORD" either on the part itself, or in the description of the item, and that a "licensing fee" has been paid to the Ford attorneys so as to allow such reference to Ford. In other words, Ford doesn't, want you throwing-around their name without first paying dearly for the privelage. DD
Click to expand...

And to add a bit to this... "Licensed by Ford" does not necessarily mean the part is correct per the seller's description nor does it mean the part is identical to the original.
 
Kube said:
And to add a bit to this... "Licensed by Ford" does not necessarily mean the part is correct per the seller's description nor does it mean the part is identical to the original.
Click to expand...

I a lot of cases I have seen are not even close!
 
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