Dealer Parts Dept. Rant

[50yr Street Mech]

$ 50 bucks for a cabin air filter ?!?!?! Just the filter ???!!!! And you just changed it to boot........I'm old now, with a bum back. Still recovering now from my 2nd back surgery. I'll be 59. There are a lot of things I cannot physically do anymore, ( motor & tranny swaps for example ) So I take it to the dealer, but, I bring MY parts for them to use. They have no problem with that because their STILL makin $$$$ on the labor. I brought them 3 CATS for my 13' Pilot. They were Walker Cats. They made them fit, no questions asked. The Walker Cats were a lot cheaper than OEM Honda Cats that's for sure. Frig em !!! Dealerships are a train wreck, just like you said above. They can't acquire good mechanics, and the white collar end is just as bad. I walked thru the garage and there were parts , old and new, all over the place. An engine over there, a tranny over here. A total mess. Made my garage look pristine. I'm just glad I can still do most of the basic work myself, for now. Just need to go easy on what's left of my back.

 

[JMJNet]

There are parts that are cheaper at stealership and some are cheaper at RA or local part store.

My experience is for Toyota and Lexus stealership.
I have bought parts like PCV cheaper at Toyota or Lexus stealership than local part store.
Some parts, I need to use stealership for example, I need a rear wheel bearing for a toyota, bought 2 aftermarket NSK and Raybestos, both have non-working speed sensor. So I had to get a Genuine Toyota part at 3x.
Unfortunately, I have to pay the mechanic 3 times before installing the working Toyota part.

Moral of the story, we need to know what to buy from stealership or from other sources.
More importantly, which stealership to buy from if you have to go to stealership.
Comparison shopping usually can help but it takes time.

 

[andrew_j]

I end up using dealer for parts when friend does work. Easier all around.

$ 50 bucks for a cabin air filter ?!?!?! Just the filter ???!!!! And you just changed it to boot........I'm old now, with a bum back. Still recovering now from my 2nd back surgery. I'll be 59. There are a lot of things I cannot physically do anymore, ( motor & tranny swaps for example ) So I take it to the dealer, but, I bring MY parts for them to use. They have no problem with that because their STILL makin $$$$ on the labor. I brought them 3 CATS for my 13' Pilot. They were Walker Cats. They made them fit, no questions asked. The Walker Cats were a lot cheaper than OEM Honda Cats that's for sure. Frig em !!! Dealerships are a train wreck, just like you said above. They can't acquire good mechanics, and the white collar end is just as bad. I walked thru the garage and there were parts , old and new, all over the place. An engine over there, a tranny over here. A total mess. Made my garage look pristine. I'm just glad I can still do most of the basic work myself, for now. Just need to go easy on what's left of my back.

The only downside of bringing major parts and being installed if allowed. If they install your new parts and they are defective or improper fit you pay labor hourly what it took. That includes installing new part.

If you install the parts supplied for dealer it’s irrelevant they are defective or fail. The labor and part are covered.

 

[bdcardinal]

I think many dealers don't have much interest in selling parts. Even at matrix pricing or beyond, volume is low so profits are minimal compared to the service dept or selling entire cars.

If you want to sell parts at a higher volume, it requires a different physical layout (my Ford/Toyota dealer rarely has a place to park), more shelf space, more people (payroll) manning the counter and more $ tied up in inventory -- assuming heavy-handed manufacturer overlord policies even allow this.

I dunno, ALL of my local dealers make it clear they don't really care about selling parts. My Subaru dealer even has a borderline-ludicrous cutoff time of 10:30 for getting something on tomorrow's shipment. So, if you decide you need something at 10:40a, you'll get it day-after-tomorrow, best case.

But I learned long ago to not get frustrated. With capitalism if someone doesn't want your business there's someone else who does.

But don't EVER come at me with talk about "keeping your money local" for the benefit of local businesses or tax coffers.

Some insights from the parts guy end of things.

New laws in some states force the manufacturer to reimburse dealers higher dollar amounts on warranty repairs. We went from the traditional cost+40% on Ford warranty to cost+90.89%. To get this we had to submit a certain series of customer pay repair orders to show what we would have theoretically made as customer pay over warranty. T?his has allowed us to focus more on our biggest parts customer: the service department. They are probably 70-75% of our sales. Retail is maybe 5% of our total sales with wholesale making up the remainder. What is also nice is we get full markup on things like engines and transmissions under warranty instead of an arbitrary handling allowance. We also get to bill out full profit on battery arrays for Lightnings and Mach E's even though they are exchange items. I have a bunch of wholesale customers that I love taking care of, but we don't advertise for more. We were actually thankfully able to stop doing a lot of collision parts sales. There is no money in it for most dealers especially when you consider all the warranty fraud that is common in the collision industry. It was nice getting to tell problem child accounts that we didn't have to beg for business anymore.

As far as order cutoff times, that is based on the manufacturer. Our Ford cutoff is 4PM for next day. We tell people 3:30 because well it does take time to process the order. Mazda is pretty much the same, but we can only put in orders Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for next day delivery.

I try to be not the typical parts guy that people talk about online. However sometimes we get grief from all over the place and we are just people too.

As far as pay, I am hourly plus commission based on department profit. It provides for a thankfully comfortable living and I am very thankful to the ownership of our dealer for letting me work for them as long as I have (so far 18 years).

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Sounds like, to me, that you're not a flop You should let everyone know which dealership you work at so we don't get steamrolled by morons. A needle in the haystack has been found ! YAY Actually, after 3 attempts, I did find a good, reliable Honda dealership here in New York. So, in you're defense, they are out there.. ..finding one is the problem. I'm sure the place of you're employment is much better than others

 

[MCompact]

The Ford dealers in Louisville are essentially hopeless; one of my friends couldn't pick up his car at Oxmoor(ons) Ford after a warranty visit because they couldn't find who had the keys. I once emailed the parts department at Bill Collins Ford asking if they had a particular transmission oil in stock, I received a reply that they had 8 quarts on hand. I made a special trip to the dealer and the guy at the parts counter said that they were out of that oil. I mentioned the email and he tells me, "Ya shouda called, those email guys are always wrong." I think the Ford stores in my area have a strict policy of not hiring service staff with opposable thumbs.
In contrast, my BMW, Jeep, and Mercedes dealers have all been first rate.