As a customer of ZF Aftermarket, we offer both Sachs and Boge brands for sale on our marketplace channels, so our customers can benefit from availability of quality OEM matching suspension components.
There appear to be some misconceptions about both brands, that we have heard from some customers, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to clarify matters.
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, originally Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, and commonly abbreviated to ZF, is a German car parts maker headquartered in Friedrichshafen, in the south-west German state of Baden-Württemberg.
ZF are the owner and manufacturer of both the Sachs and Boge brands. Both brands have a full range of shock absorbers and dust cover service kits.
The products themselves are identical, there is no material difference between a Sachs shock absorber or a Boge shock absorber. All Sachs and Boge shock absorbers are built to the same OEM quality matching specification.
In fact the only difference is the design of the box they are packed into, and the brand logo on the sticker applied to the product when it is packed. Pictured above is a shock absorber removed from a Boge branded box labelled 32-T39-A, the exact same shock absorber would be packed into a Sachs box as equivalent part number 314 934, both part numbers are carried on the same label.
Here are some responses to customer comments we have received:
“Boge is an inferior brand to Sachs”
“Boge is Sachs’ ‘budget’ range”
We’ve had a few customers making comments such as the above, and we’d like to state based on what we have presented already, that this assertion is materially untrue.
Sachs and Boge shock absorbers are made in the same factory, and some will end up in Sachs boxes while others will end up in Boge boxes.
If the products themselves are identical, then one brand cannot be considered inferior or superior to the other.
Also, the cost price for both brands to distributors is exactly the same.
“These aren’t genuine Sachs/Boge as they’re not made in Germany”
Such is the way of the world now, as with many other automotive component manufacturers, even well known companies such as ZF and others outsource much of their product manufacture to factories in other countries around the world.
Many of Sachs/Boge shock absorbers are now manufactured in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and others, but you can be assured that unlike other cheaper or generic aftermarket brands, that all ZF products are manufactured to their own exact high quality OEM specifications, no matter where they are made.
As a recognised distributor of ZF Aftermarket products in the UK, all Sachs, Boge and Lemforder products that we sell are delivered to us direct from ZF in Germany, and all carry a full warranty; it is not our business to sell any fake or counterfeit products.
“I ordered a Sachs product but you sent me Boge instead!”
We receive stock level reports daily from ZF Services UK, however there are occasions when we may place an order and be advised that a product is currently out of stock at the time, as it may have sold out since the last stock update.
In the interests of avoiding customer disappointment, we have chosen to source the Sachs or Boge equivalent instead, knowing ourselves that there is no material difference between the two brands.
However while many customers have either not noticed or not really been bothered, we do accept that some customers have taken issue with this substitution, mainly for the reasons already stated above.
So we will in future endeavour to inform all customers if we have to make a substitution, and give you the choice to continue with or cancel your order.
However it is our hope that after reading this article, you’ll understand that you’re not being “ripped off” or “conned”, and that fundamentally you’re still getting the same product that you ordered.
