Dealership Parts Depts

[Ben]

How do dealership parts departments manage to hire clerks that can keep a straight face when quoting prices to customers? I was forced to go to mine today because I needed a spare key, and it's the programmable kind that I can only get from the dealer (for $50!!!).

While there, I thought, what the heck, I needed a bottle of Cetane booster so I asked for a price, figuring if it's a couple bucks more, whatever, it saves a trip. Price for Motorcraft PM-22-A Cetane booster at dieselfiltersonline.com? List, $6.99, their price $5.69. Price at dealership? List $20, discounted price $16.99. Ya gotta be freakin' kidding me!!! I don't know how they live with themselves.

[Brad Johnson]

Some dealerships are like that. Most of my local Ford dealers at least try to be cost competitive (and usually are).

Brad

[yesitsloaded]

I used to work for a repair shop that would order parts from the dealer ship from time to time. They always treated me like crap because they knew that we were doing services that the dealership loves to overcharge for. There was even a time that the Volkswagen dealership wouldn't sell us filters so that owners had to go there. A lot of the dealership guys are the mall ninjas of the automotive world.

[K Frame]

No different than any other first-line part from the name guy.

Try buying Dell ink or memory.

The one thing I will pay top dollar for for my Subaru is the air filter element. I've heard a LOT of people complain that after market filters choke the car out. I thought I'd try a Fram, I've always had good luck with their air filters over the years.

Dropped it in, went for a drive, and ended up at the Subaru dealership buying an OEM element for 4 times what I paid for the Fram, which I tossed.

People weren't kidding, the Fram TOTALLY choked out my car.

The second I put the OEM element in things were good to go.

[yesitsloaded]

I'll go with you on that with the exception of K&N. Mitsubishi hates me because I drive an obscure car (86 Starion) and they hate having to order me filters. The place in Jackson tried to tell me my car didn't exist so they wouldn't have to order the head gasket. Oh well, the Felpro hasn't let me down yet.

[Ben]

Some dealerships are like that. Most of my local Ford dealers at least try to be cost competitive (and usually are).

That's what I was actually expecting. The only reason I thought to ask for a bottle of this stuff at the dealer was because on a diesel forum I peruse, more than one guy mentioned buying it at the dealer for closer to the six bucks, versus the sixteen bucks.  I actually bought my truck at an out of town dealer. I'll have to stop by their parts dept one day for kicks to see what their prices on filters and stuff are like.

Luckily most any Motorcraft part that's not available at Walmart is available online for a fair price. Harder to find some OEM stuff, like Mike's Subaru filter at other than the dealer. I run into that with my Trooper on occasion. Fortunately that dealer, though still somewhat high, is more in line with "real world" prices.

[Thor]

I had to buy tires for my wife's Ford 500. After checking the local places and Sam's Club, turns out the local Ford Dealer had the lowest prices.

[onions!]

You don't want to pay dealer prices?Don't shop at the dealer.Simple.


"Chip" keys we sell for up to $43/.The blanks can go for up to $30 & they still need to be cut.On a $1500 machine that needs to be updated occasionally.

You want to complain about the high cost of O.E. parts?Make sure you send your regards to the UAW.

[Paddy]

ou want to complain about the high cost of O.E. parts?Make sure you send your regards to the UAW.

I'd suspect that lots of O.E. parts are made in turd world countries whose workers never heard of the UAW.

[Sergeant Bob]

You want to complain about the high cost of O.E. parts?Make sure you send your regards to the UAW.

Just make sure you don't interrupt them during their 1 hour, taken every other hour, break. 

I wonder if that has something to do with it?

[onions!]

ou want to complain about the high cost of O.E. parts?Make sure you send your regards to the UAW.

I'd suspect that lots of O.E. parts are made in turd world countries whose workers never heard of the UAW.

You're absolutely correct.A large percentage are imports.That said,members of both the UAW & Teamsters are the ones that disseminate,transport,package,& ship them to the dealers.

[Paddy]

Aha!  I did not know that, but it makes sense.

[Brad Johnson]

Not to mention that the high cost of production here (due mostly to union-mandated wage and benefit packages) prompted the move to places with cheaper labor.

Brad

[onions!]

Apologies for the terse answer I made earlier.I hear the "costs more @ the dealer" line/whine weekly.
Not poking fun @ anyone here but,there's more to it.

For the years that I was a counterman/manager for a NAPA store (late eighties thru mid-nineties) we needed to operate at an average gross profit,well our target anyways-kind of a pie in the sky dream usually,of 45%.In a store that grossed $125,00/month we'd end up with,after expenses,under 5k in net profit.

At the GM dealership I've worked in for the last several years we do about the same gross $$$ but w/a GP of under 25%.Personally,I rarely see 23% GP/month.

A different perspective?My NAPA store had two managers,6-7 counterpeople,4-5 drivers,& an in-store inventory of way under a quarter million dollars.We also did have a huge warehouse w/over 95% part number coverage only a half hour away.


OTOH,the dealership I frequent has a mgr,an asst.,& three parts guys.We also have one driver & a shipping/receiving dude.Sounds like a better ratio,yes?We also have over a million dollars in inventory to pay for-and still have to order about a third of the parts we sell daily.Oh & our main warehouse is three hours away & we get billed for shipping.Because we are a medium duty(bigger commercial trucks)dealer we also get parts shipped in via Fed Ex ovn & ground daily from warehouses accross the US & Canada.We get billed for the shipping on those too.

A few years ago we called a Tuffy shop across town to compare a brake job for a (then) few year old newer body style GMC.Our labor rate was higher,the cost of our brake pads was higher,& our rotors were noticeably more expensive.

IIRC,it went something like:
our labor -$70/hr. theirs $40
our pads $65.theirs,$39.99
our rotors $125.theirs <$90
That said,we have GM trained primadonna technicians-they have Bubba.Our pads are O.E. replacements-ie.the same as the truck was built with.Theirs?Under $10/set-sometimes waaay under.I know because I sold pads to Tuffy when I worked at NAPA.Same w/the rotors,ours are identical to what the truck was built with & theirs were made in the Peoples Republic of Budha Budha.


There's more than just dealer gouging(though that certainly happens for a few reasons,not just greed) that makes a part cost more @ the dealer.

[wooderson]

Not to mention that the high cost of production here (due mostly to union-mandated wage and benefit packages) prompted the move to places with cheaper labor.

Yeah, if only unions would accept maquiladora wages, we could have held onto all those factory jobs. Sure, the people working there couldn't support a family (or themselves), but we'd damn sure have held onto the jobs.

[Declaration Day]

Not to mention that the high cost of production here (due mostly to union-mandated wage and benefit packages) prompted the move to places with cheaper labor.

Brad

Cheaper labor is only half of the reason.  Work ethic is the other.

[Sergeant Bob]

Not to mention that the high cost of production here (due mostly to union-mandated wage and benefit packages) prompted the move to places with cheaper labor.

Yeah, if only unions would accept maquiladora wages, we could have held onto all those factory jobs. Sure, the people working there couldn't support a family (or themselves), but we'd damn sure have held onto the jobs.

Yeah, well, when a stinking just hired in floor sweeper makes in the neighborhood of $20 and hour it could be part of the reason. Or maybe having to keep alcoholics and drug addicts on the payroll for years before they can get rid of them. Guys sitting around on forklifts most of the day sleeping (only loading his required three trucks per day) might add to the problem. People simply punching the blanks out of the holes in transmission castings working only 4 hours out of an 8 hour shift and sleeping the other 4 hours (not to be disturbed, don't want them getting carpel tunnel). Guys that work other jobs while they are not working at the plant and catch up on their sleep at work.

I drove truck (not union by the way) and hauled auto parts and molten aluminum to UAW plants for over 10 years and I got to see a lot of why American cars and parts cost so much.

[Declaration Day]

Thanks, Sergeant Bob, for validating my last post. 

[Ben]

Apologies for the terse answer I made earlier.

No problemo man. I work for the govt -- I'm always getting accused of gouging people.

[Marnoot]

Regarding the transponder keys, there is a slightly cheaper way to go about it. I bought an appropriate model transponder-key blank on eBay, which I then took to a nearby locksmith who had the equipment to do transponder keys. He cut it and programmed my car to accept it. I don't remember how much it was said and done, but I do remember it was a good $40 less than I'd have had to pay at a dealer.