Thread: Why are parts so overpriced in Australia?

Originally Posted by PhilipA

I think things are changing rapidly in Australia.

There are now numerous Land Rover Ebay shops for LR parts and if you enter "Range Rover" or "Discovery" there are pages and pages.

I feel for early Ebay adopters like Gary at CLR who once was one of a few vendors, who are now submerged by dozens, as the barriers to entry are quite low.
Steering boxes have come down enormously. It used to cost $700 to recondition a box, now a new box with drop arm is $800, or even $655 from one vendor.

It is obvious that many of these people are buying direct and not through companies with high overheads like Rovacraft.

Recently I have had real problems with buying cheaper stuff from UK as the quality has been crap, and there is little comeback as the cost to return the goods is prohibitive.

Just this week I am having a discussion with a UK vendor who turns out to have sent the wrong stepper for my 3.9 and is arguing black is white that "all Range Rover V6 and V8" have his stepper. When I tell him there is no such thing as a V6 Range Rover Classic he doesn't seem to compute. Then he says that my plug must be wrong even though there was only one plug from 1989 to 1995 when it changed. His stepper has the little dimples that determine how the plug enters in the wrong place, I defect I can only think of as a mistake in manufacture.

I guess it was my fault for looking for a cheapy as a spare.

I reckon we should try local first and only when we think it is a real rip off go to places like LR Direct who seem to know their stuff and offer different qualities at different prices, and then buy OEM quality as the knock off stuff seems to be getting worse and worse.

Regards Philip A

what makes you thing Gary imports everything direct and doesn't go through local suppliers??? the reason parts have got cheaper is due to the higher Aussie $ against the pound. And the competiveness of other sellers. The way you keep pushing Gary's business do you have shares in it?

JUst my opinion but when ever i have dealt with anyone regarding Landrover parts and the said person has been of pommy lineage they have wanted exorbitant prices or if the price is right the parts have been of inferior quality. my examples are and you wont like it. but here they are and i stand by this .
Sunshine coast Landrover parts dealer YOU know the ones (exorbitant pricing) lots of poms in there and very ****ty service that I have experienced
1 member from aulro ( no names) here,, but he was pom( has parts, that I need. offered for ridicualous price then when i agreed told me parts werent for sale yet he sent me the message saying they were in the beginning
A local gentleman lives close to me wanted to sell me stuff and then come round to my parts stuff and take wat he needed for nothin that friendship didnt last long .

I may enjoy landrovers and they maybe from england but I am yet (and I am 36) but I am yet to meet a english gentleman .
thats my 2 bob
i know it is a bit of a pom bash but TBH that is the only problem i have had buying parts for my landies is when i have to deal with a pom
no offense intended

Greed has a good bit to do with the price structure here. One company I worked for added 210% to cost into store. They did give 22 1/2% to 27 1/2% discount to their dealer network. Another added 150% to cost into store and did not give discount to anybody except bedgrugingly 10% to a major mining company who used to order parts by the truckload.

I buy bits from retailers in the USA, have them sent by air mail, and always receive them miles cheaper, commonly 1/2 & 1/3 of the Oz price, than the local distributors who buy at wholesale and ship in bulk.

what makes you thing Gary imports everything direct and doesn't go through local suppliers??? the reason parts have got cheaper is due to the higher Aussie $ against the pound. And the competiveness of other sellers. The way you keep pushing Gary's business do you have shares in it?

I didn't say Gary imports direct. Maybe you should take English comrehension lessons. In fact he buys from Rovacraft AFAIK.

Gary is a member of the site, vs many others who are not.

What is wrong with having an opinion, and BTW what have I said boosting his business. To say I feel for the fact that he took the punt early on an Ebay store and is now submerged by many others seems to me to suggest that he would be finding increased competition difficult, and probably encourage others to look at other vendors.

I do not know how he feels about it but that is an observation I have after looking at Ebay.
And the $655 steering box I highlighted is not from him, but from another vendor.
OK now I will give him a plug. I use him because he is an approachable bloke who seems to know his stuff and has been very helpful. He has taken responsibility when he stuffs up eg sending UJs with short grease nipples that you cannot get a gun on, and cheerfully fixed problems. He is probably not the cheapest around , but has been reliable.

I have no commercial interest in his business, and I find it hard to understand how someone on the forum could take umbrage ( that word means get upset ) at a customer praising good service.
I don't do it often
Regards Philip A

Rather than just whinge about the cost of local parts , I emailed a local supplier to find out what the deal was. I said I want to order a part for my D2 from you guys but I could get it 25% cheaper from the UK if I ordered direct. This is what he said:

Good question, basically, there are 2 big importers in Australia, they have the exclusive distribution rights, they get the product at distributor prices and then sell wholesale to the likes of me and other retailers.

They don't just have Terrafirma rights, but also Bearmach, Allmakes, Britpart, Lucas, etc. At the moment, only one wholesaler has the Terrafirma deal so they are exploiting the product whilst they can.

As usual, here in Australia, big companies will test owners brand loyalty to profit, because they always get away with it. It frustrates me to no end, if they had vision, they would see that by making the products available at realistic prices, this filters through to the end user, which then makes land rover a good proposition to anyone out there thinking of which 4x4 to buy, and the land rover would become a far more popular vehicle, thus generating greater turnover of parts and accessories, and ensuring longivity of their own business' without constant cash grabbing and penny pinching.

They go about it completely the wrong way, instead of rewarding land rover owners, they seem to want to punish them??? as I said, they are testing loyalties. I could go on, but I'm sure you get my point of view and where I stand on this. God, none of the wholesalers even drive land rovers, it's us poor retailers on the front line who are the real enthusiasts, and speaking for myself, trying to offer parts at the lowest possible price to assist other enthusiasts, and we drive landies, many of them! Please feel free to share my views with anyone.

Sean

I have included Sean's name as he has clearly stated that I can share his views with others (maybe he didn't mean all of AULRO but what can you do? )So rather than sit around complaining, why don't we as AULRO members let the wholesalers know they are killing the retail spares business in Australia? I want to help Australia by buying locally but it is not the local retailers fault. It is the wholesalers who are licenced to distribute products. Something has to change. Perhaps we should contact the likes of Bearmach etc and let them know what is occuring in Australia. I'm sure they are unaware.

Before you rip my head off - this is just my opinion. But I'll stand by it - we have to support Australia by supporting Australian jobs and retail businesses.

Pricey.

I'd always advocate buying locally, certainly back home I'd prefer to deal with the smaller local retailers than the 'big boys' so to speak, but when it comes to LR parts and dealing with the 'locals' here in Oz, I always get the impression I'm being ripped off. Perhaps that's because I'm a 'pom', perhaps that's because the prices here are indeed bloody ridiculous. To say that it's just the poms ripping people off here is just downright offensive, it's something that happens across the board IME. Ultimately a business will push the marketplace on cost, but being too high is counter productive, the world isn't full of mugs anymore and the advent of the internet has highlighted tat.

When it comes to the parts for my cars, I'm not ashamed to buy them from the UK and save myself a ****load of cash & hassle. There are a few main dealers on the forums these days who are prepared to price competitively to get business and having spoken to / dealt with a couple I've had nothing but good service and quality parts.

It's fair to say however that the shipping / freight companies have cottoned on to the amount of stuff being shipped personally to Aus and the prices have rocketed. It's a competitive marketplace but the parts suppliers tend not to have to the time nor inclination to shop around for the lowest price, so that's the one element you have to take on the chin. For me though, ordering from the UK LR dealers and suppliers is the way to go at the moment. I know I own an expensive car, but I've worked hard to get it and I'm not prepared to be ripped off just because I'm seen as 'being able to afford it'. Being charged double or triple locally what I can buy it for elsewhere is just taking the ****.

As for shipping in bulk, yes it can be done but there's that freight cost element again. My wife's other car is a 1979 Triumph Spitfire and I was rushing around finishing the restoration before moving out here so spoke at length to a number of the specialist breakers & parts suppliers. One Triumph place had a chap in (also from Melbourne) buying a few bits for his GT6 whilst on a business trip. He bought about £1500's worth of stuff and left it for them to package up and carried on with his 2 week trip. At the end of his trip he came back to the shop with an order totalling £15k. His mates had realised he was in the UK and sent him a list of stuff as long as your arm, to the extent the shop sorted out a small container and they filled it whilst he was there. Bonnets x 3, half a dozen complete drivetrains (all rebuilt), panels, interior & exterior trims etc. Even paying the exchange surcharges on all the mechanical parts, the shipping & duty when the crate landed this chap reckoned they were still saving about 40%. Also, some of the gear just wasn't available here anyway, so had to come from either the UK or US. The Triumph place reckoned they were sending 3 or 4 packages a week to Aus since the exchange rate went in favour, but he commented the freight companies had doubled the rates in the last 3-4 months.

Ebay has opened up the marketplace, but it's a minefield of quality and crap and certainly buyer beware. Find places you trust to deal with and stick to them.

wow........
Its the wholesalers fault..... grab your pitch forks, were going after these evil business's.

May i ask all the buisness genius's on here what an appropriate margin of profit a buisness should run? Does 30% sound to greedy?
what do you think of this scenario?

Part X uk cost 35.40 pounds
landed price( included freight/taxes) $81.42 + 30% = $105.84

$105.84 is the wholesale price of part X
Land rover list $358.70

How can a wolesaler make that any cheaper?

whats going to happen when you start buying all your parts overseas and the local workshop cant compete, and puts his labour rate up so he can feed his kids, but then goes out of buisness anyway and you have to take you TD5 discovery to the local mechanic doesnt know what his doing!
You will all know what it feels like to pay thru the nose for you servicing then!

Enjoy your land rover, shop around and stop complaining, its so boring!

Originally Posted by gusthedog

It is the wholesalers who are licenced to distribute products. Something has to change. Perhaps we should contact the likes of Bearmach etc and let them know what is occuring in Australia. I'm sure they are unaware.
Pricey.

I would love to know who the 2 big wholesalers are, hmm wonder about starting another wholesale company as competition. As for the pricing over here Bearmach probably don't care. They sell a lot of stuff to 2 big importers and won't care what the importers charge. As sated earlier the freight companies have got wise to this and are now charging like a wounded bear for delivery to Aus.
Afew more examples.
Full set of Bilstein shocks including steering damper $500 AUD delivered to my door from the US.
LRAI 400 GBP delivered to my door from the Uk ($1100 AUD supply only here).
I could buy a full OME suspension kit from the US cheaper than I can get it over here and it's made over here (although probably in China these days).
I buy new shoes and shirts for work from Marks and Spencer in the UK as they are much much cheaper than over here and better quality. They do a standard 15GBP delivery charge no matter how big your order.

Ivan