Dealer parts - why aggravate myself and the parts guy?

I get a free oil change with my new truck. As I wait I wander to parts to get a price on the factory tie down loops. Over $100 for four. All the eBay Chevrolet legit dealers sell them for $78 and free shipping.

When I mention it to the guy he's totally annoyed with me and states he can't sell below cost and I'll probably pay $50 for shipping. Then I suggest they look into selling on eBay.

I feel bad annoying this guy but it's easier to buy from eBay or Rock Auto - no wonder everyone's running from brick and mortar. Are you doing the same?

Believe it or not,but my local Mazda dealer is cheaper and quicker than rock auto for most of the things I need for my 93 miata.

They're also a Ford dealer, and Ford parts are 1.5 times the cost of rock auto. I also tell him that, sometimes they'll price match, some things they're stuck on the price.

In California, my local Mazda dealer (Roseville Subaru Mazda) was almost half the price of rock auto, but they do a ton of business with the local tuner crowd.

I think it really just depends on the brand of vehicle and the dealership in question.

Late edit: if I get there before noon, I will have it the next day, which can be really helpful with some projects. I haven't ordered anything really bizarre yet, but even the cas for the miata was next day.

Depends on the dealer. I buy genuine Toyota filters from the local dealership cheaper than the local parts places sell their house brands.

It varies dealership to dealership, and situation to situation.

I had a hinge break on my Mazda Tribute--couldn't drive the car, and needed it ASAP. Called every parts store in the area, every Ford, Mazda, and former Mercury dealership as well. The only one that had it in stock and could get it to me quickly was 3x the cost of Amazon with next-day delivery. Sorry, Brick and Mortar, Amazon wins.

On the other hand, something for my Miata (can't remember what right now....) was way cheaper at the Mazda dealership than I could find online. Same dealership annoyed me though after I was quoted $35 on the phone to remove and replace locking lugs, and when I went in they told me $150.

I was surprised to find that the oil filter for my Kawasaki motorcycle was only $4 and change at the dealer. I was intending to buy online, but why bother, when the dealer's price was so reasonable. Even their oil was fairly priced, and I knew for sure I was getting the correct product.

Besides, they are nice at the dealer, and answer all my stupid questions with a smile.

When I bought parts for the Champ though---- Rock Auto was the way to go. I was so blown away by how cheap prices were, I bought stuff I didn't need......just in case.

I consistently get parts from our local Ford Dealer for less than what I can get them from our local parts houses. I'm in Canada so RockAuto can be cheaper but time and exchange rate kills the fun.

Holding inventory costs money. If you're near one of the manufacturer's warehouse, you don't need to carry inventory on your own so you've just cut your costs. All the dealers in the LA area can get anything they need within a few hours, here in GJ it would probably take a week. That can be a big difference between a random dealer and a dealer selling online.

If you needed those parts NOW, you'd be going to your dealer instead of eBay. That's their competitive advantage.

They're also marking up parts prices to keep the labor cost down.

coming from selling parts online at a dealer let me weigh in on this.

IT's not profitable. Period. The only way to make money is by volume. To compete with the larger online retailers, you have to sell at 5-10% above your cost (not Honda, what honda sells to the dealers for). Then you have to pay someone to answer the phones, pack and ship the parts and handle the sales etc. Honestly, in 3 years, with growing sales year over year we were still in the hole financially.

It's a completely E36 M3ty business to be in. Everyone yells at you because you charged too much. No one wants to wait for Fed Ex to deliver. You have to fight the shiny happy people that charge back their card, or use stolen cards. Paypal screws you over every chance they get. As a seller, Paypal is the worst for protection.

My closest Mazda dealer parts counters refuse to match Mazda Motorsports pricing on identical part numbers, even with shipping thrown in.

Needed a wiper arm last year, and called the dealer, they wanted over MSRP for it, and did not have it in stock, and would likely take a few days to get there. Bought it from a vendor on Amazon for a smidge under MSRP, and probably got it faster than if I'd gone through the dealer.

Duke wrote: My closest Mazda dealer parts counters refuse to match Mazda Motorsports pricing on identical part numbers, even with shipping thrown in.

That's because MM pricing is subsidized by Mazda for a selected and verified group of customers. AFAIK it's basically at cost.

I like the parts counter at my local Ford dealer. Their prices are fairly reasonable, they get things the next day (faster than even Amazon, really), and they are very professional and friendly.

I have always been willing to pay a bit extra for good customer service, friendliness, and supporting local businesses.

Here's what I don't get, and it kills me...

If you Google "Genuine (insert brand here) parts", you'll get a slew of dealership parts departments, each using the same part lookup, and offering parts at reduced prices.

In my particular case, one such dealer is Fairway Chevrolet. It's about 8 miles from my house.

BUT... they won't match their own price for counter sales. WTF?

Even with the cost of shipping - and it only takes a day, because they are EIGHT MILES AWAY - I can order parts from them online and have them delivered to my door for less that I would pay walking up to the counter.

[shakes head]

Bobzilla wrote: IT's not profitable. Period. The only way to make money is by volume.

I'm not an MBA, so I'm having trouble making sense of this statement.

"Not profitable", to me, means you are making 0% profit. If you sell a million of them, you are making 0% of a million.

Where's the money?

You obviously don't know how the new economy works. It was key to the 2000 tech bubble - lose money on every sale, but make up for it on volume!

Bob does explain it. You have fixed costs. In order to cover those fixed costs with a very low profit item, you have to sell a lot of them. Maybe more than is actually possible.

EvanR wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: IT's not profitable. Period. The only way to make money is by volume.

I'm not an MBA, so I'm having trouble making sense of this statement. "Not profitable", to me, means you are making 0% profit. If you sell a million of them, you are making 0% of a million. Where's the money?

Well, if you had kept reading you would have seen the explanation:

To compete with the larger online retailers, you have to sell at 5-10% above your cost (not Honda, what honda sells to the dealers for). Then you have to pay someone to answer the phones, pack and ship the parts and handle the sales etc. Honestly, in 3 years, with growing sales year over year we were still in the hole financially.

You have to have that same person handling 10x the orders to make an actual profit. 3 years in and they were still in the red from start up with growing sales year over year. Add in all the headaches that you get with it and trust me, no sane person would get into it.

Selling at 5-10% above cost is a little more than 0% profit. Now it makes sense. Thank you.

It still doesn't make sense to me how Fairway Chevrolet charges less to pay a guy to shove it in a box than shove it across the counter. (And even if they use free USPS boxes, there's still the costs of packing materials.)

In reply to EvanR:

Selective reading. Selling at 5% above cost does not mean you made a profit. You still have to pay the person that pulls, packs and ships it, along with the electricity, the building the overhead etc. There's a reason why typical profit margin on the parts are about 40%. it takes that much to pay salaries and keep the doors open. Plus site maintenance, paypal and credit card fees etc.

We didn't allow local pick up either. Tried to keep the two businesses seperate.

I ordered some plastic clips for the Lexus from China on eBay and got 20 for $1.68. It took about a month to get them, but they weren't crucial so I didn't mind. I think it would have been around $9-10 to get them on Amazon or somewhere else. Now, even the Chinese paying whatever they pay for labor couldn't have made a profit on that.

In reply to Basil Exposition:

It's funny you mention that. My favorite direct from China distributor has been changing things. Tons of stuff is now free just pay shipping, of $1-3. No idea how they're still supplying stuff.

One other thing I like about the dealer, they can pull up an exploded diagram of what in working on, with part numbers. So if I don't know what I broke or the right name, we can print it out and look.

I will drop this bit. I worked in the muscle car restoration parts business for a long time. We bought a LOT of parts from a local Chevy dealer, stuff they had on the shelves or could still get from GM. We marked up the price and sold it as correct for restoration, because it was the exact same part for decades. Anyone could have bought it at the dealer for way less, but since we were the "experts" we made a fortune of them.

Bobzilla wrote: There's a reason why typical profit margin on the parts are about 40%. it takes that much to pay salaries and keep the doors open. Plus site maintenance, paypal and credit card fees etc.

I agree. I bet you can't make money selling for less than 40% markup without absolutely insane volume and working your guys to death. All the fees add up so much and shipping is so expensive and labor is relentless in its cost. I do not envy anyone that tries to make a living at it. I sell stuff online for "extra side money" and my cost is basically zero and it's still not worth selling low dollar value stuff because fees and shipping costs just eat it all up. And that's without any labor or overhead costs at all.

It's a great side gig if you can get the stuff cheap and are selective about what you sell ($50 is my current "absolute minimum" below which I toss/recycle/donate the stuff). But man, what a brutal field to try to employ people in.

Again, I'm not an MBA, so I don't understand. However, I'm not an unintelligent guy, either. If I ran a business for 3 years without profit, and I couldn't foresee making one in the future, I'd find a different endeavor.

Those Ford SUV tailgate glass hinges that mtn was talking about earlier in the thread? I heard there was a market for those. They sell for $6/pair at the Pic-A-Part, and they don't rot here in the desert. I bought four pairs, but only one of them sold on eBay. So I quit, because I wasn't in it to lose money.

slefain wrote: I will drop this bit. I worked in the muscle car restoration parts business for a long time. We bought a LOT of parts from a local Chevy dealer, stuff they had on the shelves or could still get from GM. We marked up the price and sold it as correct for restoration, because it was the exact same part for decades. Anyone could have bought it at the dealer for way less, but since we were the "experts" we made a fortune of them.

Knowledge has a value!

EvanR wrote: Again, I'm not an MBA, so I don't understand. However, I'm not an unintelligent guy, either. If I ran a business for 3 years without profit, and I couldn't foresee making one in the future, I'd find a different endeavor. Those Ford SUV tailgate glass hinges that mtn was talking about earlier in the thread? I heard there was a market for those. They sell for $6/pair at the Pic-A-Part, and they don't rot here in the desert. I bought four pairs, but only one of them sold on eBay. So I quit, because I wasn't in it to lose money.

When the owner tells you to keep trying, you keep trying. THis was just one third of the business. We also had the wholesale side with shops/body parts, we had the in house repair/shop as well. We made money overall, but the internet side was a loss.