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280EZrider asked, "I would love to see a list of which of these aftermarket parts companies are reputable and which are not."
From everything that I have read and seen, it would be my considered opinion, that when it comes to rubber suspension parts, I would ONLY use genuine OE factory parts. Not OEM and not aftermarket. It is just false economy on these types of parts to use anything but MB branded replacement components.
In reading this thread, there seems to be a misunderstanding of the terms OE, OEM, and aftermarket. OE and OEM are NOT the same. M.B.Doc has it right (of course).
OE = genuine factory parts with a full replacement warranty. It will have the tri-star on nearly every part and will be replaced under warranty, by a Mercedes dealer (labor included), no matter who installed it the first time (as long as it was installed properly, of course). I think most OE parts are warranted for two years, if I remember correctly.
OEM = is just a manufacturer that might make one type of part for MB, but sells other types of parts also. So, for example, say that Febi makes the OE factory power steering fluid for MB, but supplies MB with nothing else. (MB sets the quality standards of the fluid, buys it from Febi, and sells it, branded MB, to you.) Febi can claim to be an OEM, for instance, but they have absolutely no requirements that they must follow on the quality standards on the suspension parts that they might manufacture or repackage from someone else.
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