Thread: Dealers or Stealers?

Originally Posted by chunk

I went to the local dealer down here in the gong last week looking for a part for my drivers door lock on the disco (a round grey piece of plastic that fits on the back of the lock barrel) if anyone has one PM me.

anyway the dealer checked and said that you have to buy the whole lock, then in the same breath he said "give All four x 4 spares a try we get a lot of our parts from them". Well at first I was thank full that he had given me another option but then I thought about how many people that may have payed for brand new parts and actually had second hand parts put in without their knowledge.

I know when my mate had his land rover parts buisiness going that they use to buy coopers filters off him when they ran out of land rover ones. I know they are the same filter but there is a big price difference depending on which box there in.

just makes you think, are you really getting what you pay for.

I have dealt with and recommend Fourx4 spares. They also import new parts and I have brought many new parts from them for my rebuild project. Great source for second hand parts as well.

I don't have a problem with Four x 4 spares I have delt with them myself. I just would have expect the dealer to get parts from land rover.

Dealers are stealers, and it rythmes,
here is a little tale, some years ago, the steering box on my pajero, started leaking, out of the top , where the adjusting nut is. I went to the dealers, mitsubishi at sutherland, the parts guy got up the schematic on the microfiche and it showed there were two o-ring seals. Problem solved, had to order them in ,two o rings, the shock was the price the bigger one was $11 the smaller one $10. ( not much bigger than the diameter of a beer can.) for two o rings, job done,leak fixed.
not long after i was at cbc bearings and there on the counter was a rack with all manner and size of o rings, i picked out two that were the same size, the price $2.20 . The bloke behind the coutner told me they supplied a lot of the dealers with similar items, that ended up in name brand boxes.

So how is that for a mark up.

john

ps, i am allergic to parts from dealers for that very reason.

I once worked for a dealer who shall remain nameless here, but on some bolts we ordered to put a 800% markup on them!!

I bought 2 wading hole screws/plugs for the disco some years ago in Wollongong at the dealer. I'll never forget the price - $13 each.

I have worked for a few dealers over the years & I have never seen 2nd hand parts being sold as new parts.
I also can't believe that a dealer would go to the trouble of re-packaging non genuine parts into genuine parts boxes. I know that LR Australia sources a few small parts locally (some bearings, accessories, early Defender A/C parts) that are sold as genuine but that's LR themselves, not the dealers.

Also, most dealers are just as shocked as the customers at the prices of some genuine parts. While the car is under warranty, they have no choice but to use genuine parts from the manufacturer.
Once the car is out of warranty, they can (with the customers permission) source parts from outside sources. These often are the same part, just different packaging. Of course, they don't have the same back up that the genuine part has in the event of a failure (ie, parts warranty only instead of parts & labour warranty) but that's a known risk.

Originally Posted by JohnE

. The bloke behind the coutner told me they supplied a lot of the dealers with similar items, that ended up in name brand boxes.

So how is that for a mark up.

john

ps, i am allergic to parts from dealers for that very reason.

When Leyland Truck & Bus were the LR/RR distributors and few Australains had any experience of aluminium engines, and even fewer used inhibitors in coolant, Leyland used to sell the recommended additive for the RR/Buick aluminium engine in GM parts boxes with a Leyland sticker and number stuck on. bought locally from a GM-H dealer and WOW! margin added on.

Try these on for cheek.
Truck distributor- any accessories and/or modifications requested by a dealer were list priced at cost plus 210%. The dealer got 22.5% off list. Reasoning- We are doing the work and should make more than the dealer.

Construction equipment distributor- spare parts were priced at cost into store plus 150%. Reason, greed. Trade discount - no, we are the trade, anyone who buys off us is an end user. A major customer, a very large mining coy. was begrudgingly given 10% discount.

The answer to the question is Stealers every one of them no matter what way you look at it.

They talk about overheads and wages while the chare out at $150 per hour and 400% markup on a baldwin filter or 500% on a fuel pump which was bought from repco is not just to cover overheads.

It's no wonder that even most new cars on the road wouldn't pass a RWC as it is too expensive to have it serviced by the people who are meant to know, which most of the time isn't true either.

They charge the earth and pay their mechanics pitance and load them up with so much work that they don't have time to really get to know each car as it comes through.

A mate of mine works for a Subaru Stealership and he had to do 40 odd services the other day and a clutch on a WRX which takes around 2 hours where they allow 45mins but don't allow for you to remove all the covers and exaust and drain fluids etc.

He copped a warning because he didn't get all his services done and he didn't have lunch or smoko so there is another word for his service manager but I can't say it on the forum.