b'Dear Partners,It is said that Aristotle stated the whole is more than the sum of itsexpect. High quality most of the time or almost all the time is parts.Despiteallhisinsightheprobablydidnthavethesimply not good enough for the whole then to be trusted.automotiveaftermarketinmind,butthatwisdomapplies perfectly to what our industry represents. Therefore,weeliminatepartsorsupplierswithoutregardto history or signi\x1dcance if the failure rate exceeds our standards, no Anyvehiclesperformanceisdeterminedbythequalityofitsmattertheeconomicimpact.Wewillnotincludebrandsand parts, how well they work together and the overall health of themanufacturers in our o\x1fering that have not stood the test of time. separate systems. We all remember the legendary stories of theYou cannot achieve 500,000 miles by rolling the dice on a supplier old107and123Mercedesmodelsthatregularlypassedthewith products that have questionable quality.500,000-mile marker or even 1,000,000 kilometers. In the dealers showrooms nothing indicated that these cars performed betterTaking the risk on a part means taking the risk on a vehicles safety, thanothermodels,butthesumofthereplacementpartsperformance, and reputation of repair. To protect you from that, deliveredthismiracleperformanceovermanyyearsastheywe built our catalog and programs with the same philosophy for populated the roads around the world. the last 48 years. And, whoever said cars shouldnt last 500,000 milesThereverseistrueaswell,onebadpartcanruintheentire vehicles performance and safety. Therefore, the commonly usedWishingyouthatthewholeofyourbusinessisevenmore good,better,bestphilosophyforo\x1feringalternativequalitysuccessful than the all of the parts that contribute.optionsforthesamepartnumberissomethingSSFhasnever done.InthatcontextgoodgenerallymeanshopefullyYours,su\x1ecient and cheap enough to ignore the de\x1dcits. We strive for our program to be more than the sum of the 67,000 parts we o\x1fer. And more in this context means, delivering the con\x1ddence that every part and every supplier we o\x1fer can be fullyThomas BeertrustedtodelivertheperformancethecarshouldbeabletoCEO'