Buying Parts Through the Repair Shop

I want the 100% parts and labor warranty that the repair shop offers.
That costs money and part of that comes from the mark-up they'll apply on the parts. You really don't want to go down this road.... Are you going to question them on the price of the part(s) ? Will you stop using them because they marked them up "too much" ?
 
There are several Toyota dealerships with good reputations that sell online. In this instance, I want the 100% parts and labor warranty that the repair shop offers. I can't get that if I supply the parts.
Sooooo…. Then why don’t you ask the shop you want to do the work, to quote the job? They can say no, or they can quote it. If they do and you know the retail price on the part, then you can ask for consideration. At that point, depending upon the shop rate, you might want to just go to the dealer…
 
The Toyota dealer I gets parts from has me in the computer at 35% off list which is a real sweet deal. Most places only get 20% off and maybe 25% if you ask nicely and buy often. For a retail customer, some dealers will give you 10% off if you're a senior or a vet, but you have to ask.
 
I'm having a local shop do a repair for me, and they will be getting the needed parts through Toyota. As a general rule, do repair shops get a discount when buying parts through the dealer and will the customer (in this case, me) be paying about the same as I would if I bought the parts through the dealership myself? Would the repair shop even buy the parts through a dealership, or might they get them from some wholesaler or warehouse that supplies the dealership?

If you supply the parts, then you are unlikely to get parts and labor warranty on the job, simple as that. Some shops will not even accept customer supplied parts for installation. You are cutting into their profit margin. It's quite usual to have shops have a 100% mark-ups on the 'actual cost' of the parts.
A retail customer walking up to a parts counter at a dealership can generally wrangle a 5-10% discount. A repair shop will generally be able to get a 10-20% discount from the dealership, depends on how much business they have with the dealership. How much will they pass on tot he customer, probably not much. You are likely to pay list retail to the repair shop or maybe even more, if they feel you are not aware of the dealership price. Unless you are friends with the owner of the repair shop, it's unlikely you will save much money by supplying your own parts. But you could have the benefit of knowing that your actual parts were installed.
 
Usually 20% off MSRP for shops. Parts margin of 50% is fairly common. So, $80 part gets sold to you at $160.

I was a bike mechanic for a number of years (pedal, not engine) to pay for school and to pay for the hobby. I saw the same… the part would usually msrp at almost double the cost to the store. As an employee, I could get a discount or “pro deal” certain specials from the manufacturers. I was amazed at the markup, but also quickly learned that nobody was getting rich, including the owner, and we had to charge those prices to make paychecks that didn’t even exceed the definition of poverty. Business costs. People are expensive. Businesses need profit to survive.
 
There are several Toyota dealerships with good reputations that sell online. In this instance, I want the 100% parts and labor warranty that the repair shop offers. I can't get that if I supply the parts.
You basically have to shop around. For Mercedes, a Mercedes dealer will actually install a part for you if it's a genuine Mercedes part and OEM Mercedes parts get the a 2 year warranty by default and labor is always 1 year. So you could shop the job around to other Toyota dealers and see if they will allow you to either bring a genuine Toyota part or check with the parts department and see if they will price match an online price. For motor mounts, I bet your indy warranty is only going to be a year and they're kinda hard to screw up so I wouldn't even worry about the parts/labor warranty. I bring parts to my indy all the time and have rarely been burned by bad parts. Mostly because I try to avoid cheap parts because you end up realizing that about 2/3's of the job is labor so it's not worth it to save a few dollars on a cheaper part. Then if you get a good part, it's not going to fail within a standard one year warranty on parts and labor anyway.
 
A shop will have an amount they need to gross on a job. They bill parts and labor. In order to keep the labor rate in line with other area shops, they may mark up parts a significant amount. Everyone would love to pay a garage labor rate of $50 per hour, but that ball joint that was $50 at O'Reilly's might have to be billed out at $250. They try to keep both costs looking reasonable on on your repair bill.
 
Independent shops can source their parts from a number of difference sources; could be the dealership, NAPA or any other parts retailer or even WORLDPAC. Granted it's not uncommon for them to markup their prices, a lot times it's not too far off from what you would pay retail. There is one advantage though; if a part that was sourced by the shop fails, it's on them to source a replacement from wherever the part was purchased and you won't be charged labor a second time.
 
I highly recommend ordering your Toyota parts from LaGrange Toyota. They run great sales here and there and usually free shipping over $75.

 
From what I've experienced, my local shops seem to double the cost of parts.

My last experience with this was for a cat-back exhaust system for my 2015 Nissan Versa. The exhaust system looks like something off a scooter.

Cost for me to buy it from Napa would be around ~$250.

A local shop charged me $600 for the same Napa junk, but it's what was available. One hour labor @ $100/hr. and $500 parts. Tax kind of gets "absorbed" if you pay cash for certain circumstances. :sneaky:
 
Independent shops can source their parts from a number of difference sources; could be the dealership, NAPA or any other parts retailer or even WORLDPAC. Granted it's not uncommon for them to markup their prices, a lot times it's not too far off from what you would pay retail. There is one advantage though; if a part that was sourced by the shop fails, it's on them to source a replacement from wherever the part was purchased and you won't be charged labor a second time.
Exactly! And probably the primary reason I want to get the parts through the repair shop.
 
The shop wants to cover the cost of the time it takes for ordering the parts and the billing for the parts.
 
I'm having a local shop do a repair for me, and they will be getting the needed parts through Toyota. As a general rule, do repair shops get a discount when buying parts through the dealer and will the customer (in this case, me) be paying about the same as I would if I bought the parts through the dealership myself? Would the repair shop even buy the parts through a dealership, or might they get them from some wholesaler or warehouse that supplies the dealership?
It's not atypical for a dealer to have a wholesale counter for shops.
 
I'm sure the mechanic I use when I need one marks up parts but it must not be much because he will also let you furnish your own parts which I usually do. In a case of furnishing your own parts he raises his labor rate from $55 per hour to $60 per hour to offset the profit on parts.
 
Will I be paying about the same price as I would if I bought the parts from the dealer? Thanks!

No way to know for sure. The shop is free to mark up the parts as they see fit. And they may not get the same pricing from their supplier as in the past.
 
I saw the same… the part would usually msrp at almost double the cost to the store. I was amazed at the markup, but also quickly learned that nobody was getting rich, including the owner, and we had to charge those prices to make paychecks that didn’t even exceed the definition of poverty. Business costs. People are expensive. Businesses need profit to survive.
It's amazing how many people don't understand this. The simplest way I've found to explain it is to ask them if it would be okay for the employer to pay them the same amount (per week, per month, whatever) as their expenses are (per week, etc). I mean, as an employee, they don't need to end up with "profit", right ?
 
Probably more. But it depends on the shop. Some have huge mark ups. Firestone is one of them. They marked up a ball joint for one of my cars (before I learned how to do it myself) 100% and they got the part at Autozone.
That's it? I paid $100 for a $20 National wheel bearing at Firestone. I know the shop I work at ordered a water pump for me and their at cost price was $80, customer price would have been $260.
 
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