Main dealer parts departments, WTF?

[Hendry]

Had the car in for its MOT today and its going to need front pads and discs soon, so set about pricing them up. I obviously phoned up the usual local parts places and motor factors as well as the usual Euro car parts, GSF etc but also thought I'd call the main dealers out of curiosity for comparison for shits and giggles and as sometimes dealer parts can be cheaper.

 

Anyway, called up the Renault dealers in both East Kilbride and Motherwell, who incidentally are also both Parks Motor Group dealers.

 

East Kilbride quoted me £36+vat for pads and £107+vat for discs, for the exact same parts at the Motherwell branch it was £22+vat for pads and £55+vat for the discs so nearly half the price. WTF!

[dugong]

Maybe they've started running a scrapyard out the back.

[Pillock]

Maybe one got the wrong parts. Sods law says the more expensive ones are correct. For example, my Focus has a choice of two different sizes of disc with corresponding different pads. Even a vin lookup doesn't give a hint, you have to look at the size stamped on the caliper.

[Richard]

I think you can get different grades of parts even from main dealers.

[New POD]

Ah-brake parts. A few years ago, I used to go into a Vauxhall dealer, find out the retail price, phone up the local motor factors, get a couple of prices, and then go back to the Vauxhall dealer and ask him to price match. Then I joined an owners club and got a Vauxhall trade club card, and found that the trade price is 25% less than the local motor factors.

 

Yesterday I ordered a set of front Discs and pads for my 2.2 2004 diesel accord, which arrived today, brand: Mintex, for £86, which was £60 cheaper than any local motor factor or GSM or euro car parts. But I'm yet to actually go near a dealer in 3 years, so didn't bother.

 

Any way Mister-auto. If the parts fit on Saturday I'll be happy.

[Hendry]

Ah-brake parts. A few years ago, I used to go into a Vauxhall dealer, find out the retail price, phone up the local motor factors, get a couple of prices, and then go back to the Vauxhall dealer and ask him to price match. Then I joined an owners club and got a Vauxhall trade club card, and found that the trade price is 25% less than the local motor factors.Yesterday I ordered a set of front Discs and pads for my 2.2 2004 diesel accord, which arrived today, brand: Mintex, for £86, which was £60 cheaper than any local motor factor or GSM or euro car parts. But I'm yet to actually go near a dealer in 3 years, so didn't bother.Any way Mister-auto. If the parts fit on Saturday I'll be happy.

Vauxhall Trade Club prices are superb, that's the reason why I always check main dealer prices when I need parts.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I thought VX trade club had lost its way recently- ECP have been cheaper (although I realise you can't better genuine parts).

[oldford]

The dealer doesn't set the retail prices, it's usually done by the importer.  With factors parts I find that they're not always correct, fit first time or perform as well.

 

It amazes me how many people think that parts prices should reflect the value of their car, as in 'You're havin a larf, £100 for brakes?, the car's only worth £300', I bet they don't try this on when they fill the fuel tank.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

They're all jokers really, and Ford are invariably the biggest piss takers. £140 for a pressed steel Ka sump? They can FRO.

 

They all moan and bitch about losing profits, but they'd all mke a lot more money if they put more common sense into parts pricing. Sure, they want to sell new cars not fix old ones but the likes of Ford must realise that if they were the amongst the cheapest suppliers for parts for their cars, they would sell an awful lot more, increase turnover and thus profit. It won't prevent them from selling more new cars either.

 

As for discs and pads, there is no need to go to a dealer. ECP sell Pagid stuff which is superb, and you can bet no car manufacturer actually makes its own discs and pads.

 

 

This weeks prize pisstake:

 

E46 320d Garrett turbo. From BMW it's £1450. Same part in a Garrett box from Turbo Technics, £760. That's just fucking greedy - no need for that.

[twosmoke300]

Vauxhall ( and probably others) have different quality parts for some trade applications , brakes etc . So sometimes genuine is no better than factors

 

As far as manufacturer prices go there is just no logic in it . Im sure they have 2 tombolas , one with part numbers and one with prices.

 

Crankshaft sir , thats £33

 

OOo you want a trim clip . thats £456

[Micrashed]

15 YO Micra K11 drivers door mirror - £68 for the housing, another £18 glass and I walked off before he quoted for the retaining nuts.

 

£8 pattern part off eBay.

[dugong]

15 YO Micra K11 drivers door mirror - £68 for the housing, another £18 glass and I walked off before he quoted for the retaining nuts.

 

£8 pattern part off eBay.

Or £5 from a scrapyard. Not even an Autoshiter could use a door mirror as a pair of brake pads, so it's all mint and crispy.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

A couple of weeks ago the crank position sensor on my Chrysler failed.

Phoned Chrysler main dealer £156- 4 days delivery.

Local factor £48- on the shelf.

No brainer, lay under car for 2 hours removing covers and shields , burning arm on exhaust etc to discover it's the wrong part- how I laughed!

Noticed Mercedes logo and part no. on the old one, so phoned Merc dealer-£28 on the shelf. It was 11.55 on a Saturday morning so wouldn't be time to get the car mobile and get to dealer before they closed at 12. 'No problem' says the parts guy' Pay on the phone and I'll drop it off on my way home'

That's service!

Allmaindelazizntshit etc

[chaseracer]

My experience of Merc stealer parts guys (fnarr!) is equally positive. Which is just as well... 

[Hendry]

Vauxhall ( and probably others) have different quality parts for some trade applications , brakes etc . So sometimes genuine is no better than factors

 

As far as manufacturer prices go there is just no logic in it . Im sure they have 2 tombolas , one with part numbers and one with prices.

 

Crankshaft sir , thats £33

 

OOo you want a trim clip . thats £456

On the whole I'd agree with that, I think Vauxhall at one point when I enquired about wiper blades for my dads old vectra C said they had about 4 different ones to choose from on each side, no difference in them as they weren't those new fangled plastic framed "flat blade" ones, just good old metal with a thin bit of rubber, they had 4 different part numbers and 4 different prices but when the guy brought them out for me to check which were the correct ones even he couldn't tell the difference.

 

Renault have a cheaper brand too called "Motrio" but that range doesn't do discs for a mk3 Clio only pads so the discs are the proper factory ones.

 

Btw I looked up the discs on ECPs and GSFs websites, £30quid each on 1, can't remember which i.e. per single disc, dont come in pairs so theres a special note on the listig saying add them to basket twice to get a pair so almost as much as the genuine ones, and that's another thing what's the deal with selling single discs, I always thought these and pads came in pairs as you weren't meant to do one side but not the other, this makes that process seem normal to an oridinary non car enthusiast customer

[CortinaDave]

My OMG moment with main stealer pricing was a couple of years ago. Needed a boost hose for my TDCI Mondeo. A 10 inch long bit of radiator hose basically.

 

£85 plus VAT. The parts guy actually said "I'm embarrassed to even tell you the price"

[Asimo]

Ford chap sold me a new key for the Transit. £35 ish. Now they want £50 for programming the van to recognise the key. 

 

Sods

[jbz2079]

Aye, all this new fangled electronics, it's just like shooting fish in a barrel for franchised Stealers.

 

I know they have to buy the gear to do these jobs, but trying to get their outlay back from the first couple of

customers that need the service is a bit rough.

 

The one that gets me is they can charge you £100's just to recover the car, van, truck whatever run it on the computer and tell you they are not sure what is wrong with it!

 

No so long ago we had a Sprinter that just stopped, we towed it back to base and checked for anything obvious.

 

Like disconnected plugs, broken or rubbed through wires, and a good look through the fuel system.

 

After a long hard look I took the crankshaft sensor out to find the end mangled and metal particles stuck to the mangled end.

 

I changed the sensor but it still would not start so it was decided to tow it through to the Main dealers.

They had it ages and didn't fix it either despite changing various sensors and fuel system components.

 

Eventually we had to go and get it back as the owner needed the stuff it was carrying when it broke down.

 

When we got it back, we had a bloke local to us have a look at it, he came in his car and spent 30 minutes on it

then said, there is no signal from the crankshaft sensor.

 

I explained I had replaced it and showed him the old one.

Take the gearbox off and have a look in there, something is not right. he said.

 

The pressed tin part that passes the sensor had broken up, so no signal to the ECU.

One new flywheel and clutch kit later, it started and ran perfectly.

 

Makes you wonder who looked at it at the dealers. maybe the tea boy!

[brickwall]

Car manufacturers make half their profit through supply and fit of spares. How the deal works with the Franchises is not known to me.

[cort1977]

I have heard it said that manufacturers don't make much on new cars and make most of their profits through parts.   Clearly this must vary depending on the manufacturer and model, a base mondeo for a hire fleet won't have much of a margin whereas Porsche clearly make a massive profit on anyone who gets busy with the options list.

[Vince70]

I find half the time it's trying to get through to the parts department that's the problem...

 

Normally you have to get through to the reception first which takes 5 minutes on the phone who then have to put you through to the service department, Who then decide decide not to bother picking their phone up so you then have to try this procedure about 10 times before giving up and wasting about an hour of your life..

 

That's what I found the other day when trying to get through to the Suzuki main dealer for a rocker cover gasket for a Baleno, I gave up in the end and went down the eBay route.

[saucedoctor]

The Jaguar Aston Martin dealer in Belfast operates a discount scheme on parts (Jag bits are cheap anyway). If the car is over 5 years old, there's 30% off most bits. And they still have a Flying BL Plughole sign inside the Parts Department.

[brickwall]

I like that

[Bobthebeard]

Normally you have to get through to the reception first which takes 5 minutes on the phone who then have to put you through to the service department, Who then decide decide not to bother picking their phone up so you then have to try this procedure about 10 times before giving up and wasting about an hour of your life..

Just like ringing up anyone nowadays really. Apart from my mum, who has no reception, service department or 'hold' facility on her phone. Not great for actually buying car parts or insurance though.

Plus she keeps somehow pressing the phone buttons with her ear which causes long bleeping noises thus drowning out the conversation.

Hope that helps.

[gordonbennet]

I bet those prices won't apply when they've finally found the right sodding bits, French brakes are a bloody nightmare, how can they manage to fit 4 different bloody patterns of pads to the same car in the same year, you always have to take the old parts or you'll be driving there and back for ever,

 

I've just received a parcel today, bought all 4 discs and new pads all round for the Outback, Mintex too, the lot for £130 and free delivery only one choice in pads for the model, and the only option was two diameters of rear discs, why can't other makers make life so easy.

 

E-Parts on ebay, my new favourite supplier of brake stuff.

[twosmoke300]

I got brembo discs and pads from Opie oils online . Even though they are about 2 miles from me .

They were for my Saab but always use apec stuff on customers cars and never had a bad one yet .

[New POD]

 

 

 

This weeks prize pisstake:

 

E46 320d Garrett turbo. From BMW it's £1450. Same part in a Garrett box from Turbo Technics, £760. That's just fucking greedy - no need for that.

 

 

Ah Garrett.  I worked for Honeywell Engine Boosting Systems as a manufacturing engineer in 1998 to 2000. My job was introduction of the UK assembly lines for the Variable Nozzle Turbo's for Ford.  IIRC the one's for BMW came from France. (Or Italy, or Romania)

 

We had an employee deal where you could buy any Turbo at cost price, but no more than 3 a year.

 

To give you an example.  We sold a wastegated turbo to Ford for the Mondeo for about £110, and their dealers in the UK would retail it at £1100.

We also did in the UK at another plant, remanufacture, and they sold turbo's to the aftermarket distributors (like turbo techniques) for about £450, who retailed them at about £650.

 

Employees could get a new turbo for about £80. 

 

The Ford VNT has an intregral manifold and turbine housing, and there's about £25 of cost in that.

 

I need a manifold for my accord Diesel and Honda want £350.   

 

Funnily enough I remember Gordon Ramsey say, on one of those programs where he tries to fix doomed restaurants, "Multiple the cost of the ingredients by 10 to get the price"