In an initiative to win garages over to its new range of Champion original equipment specification plugs Federal-Mogul Aftermarket is offering vehicle technicians a free set to test on their own cars. The company has mailed thousands of garages in Britain and has asked VTs to fill in and return a response form by the end of July to claim a free set.

The idea is to prove to garages - inundated with spark plug references and increasingly reluctant to keep stocks of plugs on site - how simple ordering a specific OE plug can be. Federal says its new OE concept has already sparked a dramatic change in factor and installer plug-buying habits as they warm to the idea of one range of advanced plugs where each reference is either the actual OE specification or has been OE tested for equal efficiency, emissions, performance and lifespan.

Rob Clulow, Federal-Mogul Aftermarket's marketing manager, says the programme was introduced after research showed the spark market had become overcrowded with products.

“Spark plug part number systems have become over complicated as carmakers have needed more advanced plug designs,” he says. “We've counter-balanced the sheer volume of part numbering in our new OE programme by introducing a short code system covering more than 90 per cent of the vehicle parc with just the top 50 part numbers.”