How to Confirm Vehicle Fitment Before Ordering Crash Repair Parts in Australia

The VIN: use it every time

The VIN is a 17-character code unique to your vehicle. For MG and Chery models, it's the single most reliable piece of information for confirming fitment — it encodes the exact build variant, not just the model name. When we cross-reference a VIN against the parts catalogue, there's no guessing involved.

The easiest place to find it: open the driver's door and read the sticker on the B-pillar or door edge. It's also on the base of the windscreen (readable from outside), on the compliance plate under the bonnet, and in your registration papers or insurance documents. All four should show the same number.

For panel shops managing insurance repairs, requesting the VIN from the vehicle owner before ordering is worth building into your standard workflow — especially for Chinese-brand vehicles where model-year variants are more frequent than most customers expect.

OEM numbers: the fastest route to the right part

If the damaged part is still accessible — even if it's cracked or missing chunks — turn it over and look for the OEM number. On MG and Chery body parts, it's usually moulded directly into the plastic on the inner surface of bumpers and trim panels, printed on a label on the back of headlight and tail light assemblies, or stamped into metal on brackets and reinforcing bars.

On the Chery Omoda 5(T19C platform), numbers look like 602002028AA (front grille), 605000532AA (left headlight), 605000533AA (right headlight). Reading one of these off the damaged unit removes all ambiguity — there's no variant to guess.

For commonly replaced parts like front bumpers and headlights, the OEM number on the damaged unit is the fastest path to ordering. The VIN is useful when you don't have the old part — but when you do have it, the number on the part itself is definitive.

Registration is a useful starting point

If you don't have the VIN handy, a rego plate number is a reasonable starting point. We can use it to look up the vehicle in NEVDIS and pull the make, model, year and compliance details. For a lot of repairs that's enough to confirm the right part.

Where registration alone can fall short is on vehicles with multiple variants within the same model year — the MG ZS is a good example. A 2021 plate tells us it's Gen 1, but it doesn't tell us whether it's petrol or EV, or which grade level. For those cases we'll use rego to narrow the field and follow up on the specific detail we need. Include your plate number when you submit a quote request and we handle the lookup from there.

Photos: send the whole car, not just the damage

A photo of the damage close-up tells us what's broken. A photo of the front or rear of the whole vehicle tells us what generation and grade we're looking at — which is often more useful. The bumper profile, grille shape and headlight design are all visually distinct between MG ZS generations, for example, so a wide shot of the front end is enough to confirm which generation parts apply.

Photos are also useful for spotting co-damage that isn't always obvious from a description — a bent bracket behind the bumper skin, a cracked fog light bezel that gets missed in the initial assessment, a guard that's buckled along the top edge. Sending the full vehicle context upfront means the quote comes back with everything identified, rather than finding the additional damage mid-repair.

Common fitment traps with MG and Chery vehicles

MG and Chery update their vehicles more frequently than most established brands. Within a single model name, there can be three or four distinct sets of body part OEM numbers covering different production periods — and none of them cross over.

A few specific traps that catch people out regularly:

• MG ZS Gen 1 vs Gen 2 — the 2022 redesign changed virtually everything on the front end. A bumper from a 2020 ZS will not fit a 2022 ZS. Even the fog light cut-outs are in different positions.
• MG ZS petrol vs EV — the ZS EV has a different front bumper to the petrol model within the same generation. The grille treatment differs because the EV doesn't need the same airflow opening.
• Omoda 5 grade variants — Sport, Luxe and Executive grades have different PDC sensor counts and some grades have a front camera. The bumper for a camera-equipped vehicle has a specific cut-out that the non-camera bumper doesn't.
• Model year vs build date — "2022 model year" on the compliance plate doesn't always mean the vehicle was built in 2022. Vehicles built in late 2021 are often sold as MY2022. For running production changes, the build date (encoded in the VIN) matters more than the model year on the rego papers.

How fitment confirmation works in practice

Every order through 888 Auto Parts goes through a fitment check before dispatch. When you submit a quote request, we cross-reference your vehicle details against the parts catalogue, confirm the exact variant that applies to your build, and flag any co-damaged components worth noting. The quote comes back with fitment confirmed — not just a part number.

This step is included at no additional charge. It applies to trade customers — smash repairers, panel shops, mechanics — and private buyers equally. The reason it exists is straightforward: a wrong-part dispatch costs everyone time, and returning a part from regional WA or far north Queensland is not a quick fix.

Submit a quote requestwith whatever vehicle detail you have — VIN, rego, OEM number, photos, or a combination. We'll work with what you send.