The lost parts department

[bigstraight6]

I ventured into my local Toyota dealer to purchase a few parts today and was quite surprised at how parts departments have changed since I worked in them, in fact said Toyota dealer doesn't have a dedicated parts department as such, in the corner of the new car showroom is a combined parts/service reception counter area that looks rather like one of those coffee shops in the corner of a Waterstones store with of course a hot drinks self service area offering a bewildering array of coffee and tea.

 

I made my request to the service/parts operative, and a 'runner' had to bring the parts over from the separate workshop building. It left me feeling that the 'parts department' exists purely to supply the workshop, and that the selling of parts to a punter is not encouraged. When I worked at a VW/Audi main dealer parts department back in the 80's we had a large showroom area with impressive displays of accessories and service parts like filters and spark plugs, and on the parts counter were 2 huge microfiche readers, happy days!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

True. Parts departments also used to have long counters, and very knowledgable if slightly surly blokes in long workshop coats with a biro in the top pocket.

[eddyramrod]

You mean they don't still? Oh dear!

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

My local Jag main dealer has one, complete with surly yet knowledgeable fat bloke with a biro. They don't have microfiche readers, but they do have a computer terminal on which a customer can access Jaguar Classic Parts.

Maybe it depends on the dealer or on the make of car. Quite a few people buy classic parts from Jaguar main dealers since you don’t pay the delivery that way. I also think they still service quite a few old Jags there - last time I was in they had a Series II Daimler Sovereign in for its annual service and MOT and an XJ40. The Series II was the colour of an avocado bathroom suite.

[Vanny]

My local Citroen Dealer has a parts desk, with computer, which typically i end up driving for them because i know their parts system better than they do! On the plus side, i then ask for discount and get it, so not the end of the world, and better than them ordering the wrong part.

[trigger]

My local Ford garage still a separate room and counter for parts but the local Nissan dealer just had a room purely to serve customers in for a service, when you asked them for parts they seem disgusted that you had dared ask them.

[Largactil]

Had an issue with this a couple of years back, when changing the cambelt on my MX5...

 

The thermostat housing 'o' ring was knackered - Being a 'flat' / flush fitting style 'o' ring, as opposed to a rounded one, I searched motor factors high and low, as well as plumbers merchants for the right size.

 

Having failed, I went to the local Mazda main dealer's parts department counter - Who not only seemed disgusted I'd want to work on my own car, but happily informed me that it'd take 3 days to order one in. A fecking 'o' ring. (And "no - we didn't have any in the service garage that we can sell you".)

 

Frustration / need to get the car back on the road made me use a 'rounded' ring of the correct diameter, which stood slightly proud of the 'o' ring indent - And led to a cracked thermostat housing as I torqued the nuts...

[fordperv]

Unfortunately the day's of blokes with knowledge working on parts desks has come to an end, you get the odd dealer who employs someone who has a clue but the rest employ people who know how to look something up on a computer with no mechanical experience, you get the same in parts shops e.g. Eurocarparts where 90% of the workforce has never held a spanner, it's the same in the parts shop I work at I'm the only one with relevant knowledge the rest are salesmen who look for parts on the computer system

[Timewaster]

Unfortunately the day's of blokes with knowledge working on parts desks has come to an end, it's the same in the parts shop I work at

 

I quit 5 years ago. Slowly but surely, the more knowlegeable move on and get replaced by disinterested teenagers on minimum wage.

[trigger]

I went into John Grose Ford last year when I was after a oil breather pipe for my Cortina on the off chance, the chap there just reeled out this 7 digit number of the top of his head, said I'd have no chance and started reminiscing about the good old days when he knew all the part numbers and they had stock of everything, mine you he's been there 30+ years he was telling me.

[beko1987]

Ford of Marlow have a good parts desk

Pug/Citroen of High Wycombe have a good parts desk (Had the entire air intake tubing for my 206 at half 1 on a Thursday)

 

And we have an all parts and euro car parts.

 

I think I'm spoilt! Why the fuck I always need their urgent services at bollock o clock on a Sunday is an annoyance!

[Cavcraft]

My local Citroen Dealer has a parts desk, with computer, which typically i end up driving for them because i know their parts system better than they do! On the plus side, i then ask for discount and get it, so not the end of the world, and better than them ordering the wrong part.

 

Haha, I still remember going to the Citroen dealer in Chester (where Ben Whitehouse used to be) and the young lad behind the counter denying Citroen had made a car called a BX. When I suggested he looked out of the window at the car I'd come in he had to go and get the main man out of the back of the stores.

 

Lookers in Chester have a part place as described in the OP> Go to the desk, ring a bell then wait, with parts coming a day or so later. Trouble is you may just as well whang down to Deeside Industrial Estate where the actual parts depot is.

[panhard65]

I used to work in the parts department of a renault/vauxhall dealer back in the mid '80's when I left school. At the time I was told you needed at least some mechanical knowledge. I can still remember the part numbers now. The mechanics were always very fussy about what they would fit. I remember when the renault 21 came out and the genuine spark plugs were ac delco. They had a fit and insisted it was wrong and they would only fit champions to a renault. I always thought it was a load of crap but on the turbo's it is a must they hate anything other than champion plugs. Now it seems you need no knowledge at all the bloke at euro car parts didnt have a clue what a fuego was when I wanted a power steering belt

[Mr_Bo11ox]

‘Euro piss flaps’ (as my mate calls it) is a special case, they have always employed clueless but smartly-dressed goons who give you incorrect/non-fitting parts with 87% success rate.

 

I used to love going in Bishops’ Rover dealers in Hexham, their man Colin Pyle knew it all.

 

‘I’m after a wiper switch for a Austin 1800, 1975’

‘That’s a late one, is it the landcrab shape?’

‘yes’

‘So it’s the square rocker switch with the chrome bezel? 2 position I think’

‘That’s the one’

‘Hmm, I think we’ll struggle with that, I’ll put it on a round robin though, someone might have one on the shelf somewhere’

2 days later:

‘Your switch is here’ Fuggin brilliant man.

 

Sadly after years of flogging shite to Northumbrian farmers through BL’s wilderness years they lost their Rover franchise in about 1995 when they resisted being forced to spend bazillions on a complete rebranding of their site, GREAT WORK ROVER

[fotorabia]

I use MercBits in Huntingdale here in Melbourne..real down to earth guys..they sell MB genuine..but also act as a breakers..im usually in the shop-counter where i get what i need...but last week they told they were breaking a 300D..so i went across to their breakers workshop which also had a 450SLC about to die in it..and there was something rare and unique on the 300D which has been put under the counter for me..i will reveal once ive paid for it..but great company..its a 3rd generation owned business..

[Pillock]

Newbolds VW used to have a good parts place - quite "accessory-based" when you walk into the little room but that looks better to car buyers than a load of O-rings and some pipes. The guys I've spoken to seem to be fairly clued up - I went in for some really obscure parts like a set of Scirocco Storm decals ("Wow, you've got a Storm? Has it got the leather? They were well posh! By the way, you've got no fugging hope of getting those stickers" sort of thing) and are quite happy to find cheapest ways of doing stuff - rear washer nozzle for a Polo was £6 where other dealers were insisting that it's a wiper arm assembly I need at £40-odd.

 

They're not all great though, there's a plastic pin that fixes Golf/Passat/Touran rear window regulators, total cost £2.50 or something, where if you look on ETKA it only ever offers the entire regulator at £170. Went into two other dealers who point blank refused to order a pin, even when I had the part number. "Computer says you need this part". Ended up typing the part number into eBay and found someone selling them, still in VAG packaging.

[Cavcraft]

Oh aye, VW: went to my local dealer last year for some fuel pump seals. First bloke was great, very helpful indeed. The following day I rang to order another one and the bloke who answered was one snooty tosspot alright. I think asking for a part for a car twenty (or whatever) years old must have been worse than asking if I could dig his gran up and bum her before wiping my knob on his wife's best tea towel. Well they can go and suck spiders as far as I'm concerned now.

[Pillock]

The ETKA system VW/Audi/SEAT/Skoda/Porsche use is widely (and completely illegally) available on t'internet, so nothing winds them up more than popping in with a list of part numbers and doing their job better than they can. It's also brilliant for looking up obscure parts, like my Audi 90 had a "taxi kit" available including taximeter, wiring for roof signs etc.

 

I suppose they have to put up with a lot of chuff, plenty of people asking for "the metal bit that goes between all those rubber pipes and the wiring box thing down by the front left bit of the big square thing" but still, customer service and all! Or is it just that the dealers make thousands on a new car, hundreds on servicing, but only a few pence on me going in for a expansion bottle cap for a 1990 Golf. Is there any legal requirement for them to support cars by selling parts directly?

[Mash]

I don't think I've been in a main dealer parts department for years, these days it seems better to trust an internet based marque specialist.

 

I used to love going to Armstrong Massey, the Rover dealer in Beverley. Most of the senior guys had been there since early BL days. Rich on the parts counter was very knowledgable and could usually suggest alternatives if they didn't have or couldn't get the bit you wanted. The counter was all grimy and the parts books well thumbed.

 

If all else failed, the scrapyard was next door too!!

[CreepingJesus]

I was a bit unnerved myself, going into Arnold Clark Volvo in Kirkcaldy a while back, for a lightswitch. No parts counter to lean on? Having to ask at the Fiat reception for the parts guy to come out? He was good, albeit that he gave the impression of not having seen daylight for quite some time. Not having said switch in stock, when it's common to a whole bunch of models was a poor show tho'.

Last time I worked in parts, in the early 90's, we had a counter with a steel plate top, a crap Klix machine and loads of knowledge! Local garages used to come to us for all sorts of service bits, 'cos we were happy to delve into the AC Delco fiches and work out what would fit what. A lot of contemporary VAG service parts were common, for one. The parts manager used to remind us to accommodate such requests, 'cos it was a sale after all.

Also, the fun and games I had one afternoon, using the primitive email system, to find an ignition barrel for a Mk1 CF. With Luton's help, I tracked one down to a dealers' in Cardiff. It was posted up in a couple of days, and got some guy's old camper on the road, and off on holiday! That's how it should be...

[Lacquer Peel]

I've been to the local Citroen dealer today to check if they can get a suspension hose for my Xantia. The guy at the desk knew what the part was before I finished reeling off the number and printed a diagram for me, shame it'll take a few days to arrive. Would buy a C5 Exclusive from them if I had the money. All the small Citroens look gash.

They also sell Ssangyongs, the new Korando looks neat.

[fordperv]

well today had another 1st hand experience of retarded parts desk workers, i called my local ford dealers armed with ford part number as most of you know most pre 95 stuff isnt recognised by etis now, at first the lovely chap told me the part number was wrong, i kindly explained well its from my part and the number cross references to a list of different manufacturers as long as your arm so would you like one of their part numbers as an alternative (1-0 to me) so we went through it the long way and he bought up a few different choices so i told him the exact one i wanted but he then tried to get cocky and told me theres still a couple of choices so i explained the differences (2-0 to me) he then says well it doesnt give the differences on my system and he didnt like that one bit so then just said we cant get one anyway so on my lunch went to see an old school guy at a local breakers who said yeah ive got one on the shelf went straight to it with no fuss and i left a happy boy with my faith in knowledgeable blokes restored

[theorganist]

The only parts department I have been in in recent years is at the Renault garage in Stourbridge. The "parts department" is in a shed round the back of the showroom, for which you have to go outside. It is manned by quite a helpful guy. They seem to keep very few parts however!