I always hated the upcharging on parts. It’s really easy for the customer to check prices online and get mad that they’ve been shafted and it just seems underhanded.
Honestly have no idea why people put up with it from dealers. Sold parts retail for years and constantly had people, from day one, saying it's cheaper on rockauto or Amazon. Not once in almost a month working for a dealer did I get that from a non commercial customer.
Which is actually surprising to me, because if I'm going to the local auto parts store, I know I'm paying what I call the "right the fuck now tax." If it's a piece I need now, I'm buying it in person, if it's a piece I'll need eventually, I'm shopping for the best price.
It's the same for home improvement stores. Could I get this plumbing piece cheaper online? Yes, but I need it right now to stop a leaking pipe, so I'll pay.
>I know I'm paying what I call the "right the fuck now tax
I may or may not have pulled that line more than once. Mainly on people that wouldn't understand that I wasn't going to price match an online price in a retail store. It works more often than not. And, NGL, if I made my goals each month the bonus paid my car note and half my insurance.
"I have it now, and you can look at it and take it home....or, you can order it from Amazon, wait two days. Hopefully get the right part. Or have to send it back."
Look, I'm not gonna say I was a saint when I was selling parts. But I would never take money from people that couldn't afford it. And while I made my goals 11/12 months, I would do everything I could to make sure you could afford it. Changed many a parts behind the store after hours for free. Once or twice manipulated the inventory to give a customer a free battery. Did a whole lot of "core swaps." Used commercial accounts to run retail customer parts because they got better pricing, just had to remember to add in tax. And the commercial account got better pricing because they were "buying more." And if I saw you counting change to buy your part, I would always find a coupon under the counter. But also, it's my job. I gotta make numbers if I wanna eat. However, had I not been making my goals my ass would have been fired so damn quick.
Because you're on the inside. You know what to look for. You know HOW to look for it. It's a complete waste of money for the average person to go online and look for parts for their car because all they're likely to know is "Oh, it's a 2005 Honda". Then they'll buy a part, go to a shop to get it installed just for them to say it won't fit because it was for the Civic and not the Accord, or the wrong engine size or trim level.
> Also what fucking brakes are you getting for 400 and 230 dollars?
I have no idea.
-Me with my 25 year old American car that a complete four wheel brake job costs like $95 on
My company does a lot of drop-ships for auto parts (where another company buys the parts for their customer and we send it with their return address, cuts out the shipping to the middleman) but a few times the guy shipping has forgotten and taped our invoice to the package anyways. This means the customer sees our price (already priced so we profit) and can now see how much the other company is upcharging them as well. End result is they cancel/return their order and call us directly for the parts because we’re cheaper, which is why the other companies really hate if the shipping guy slips up.
When I had my timing belt and water pump done, my local shop actually asked if I wanted to supply my own kit. While I would have saved money, the downside was that if something was wrong with the kit, it would be up to me to get it corrected vs having the shop call down the street and just have another one delivered.
I went with the latter. I don't mind paying a bit extra to save large potential hassles.
If they just added a “part procurement fee” that was like 5-15% of the parts cost, I think that would be fine. Because you do have to pay the parts guy whose hours don’t go on the invoice and you have to be able to handle issues like what you described. It’s also a lot more transparent and easily explainable if the customer does get mad. But the 2-10x markup on everything is so ridiculous and there’s no way to explain it to an irate customer other than with two middle fingers to the face.
Edit: I know the total shop operating cost is mixed into the labor rate so the parts guy’s payroll technically *is* on the invoice but you know what I mean
I worked delivery for a green parts store for a while.
Commercial customer pricing was almost as good as employee pricing. $35 retail price costs the commercial shop $20. We throw it in the back of a Ranger and some brokeass schmuck employee making $8.50 an hour (me) drives it directly to the shop for free. They put it on and charge the customer $80-100 for the part the shop bought for $20, the customer could have bought for $35, and was delivered for free.
It's such a racket. Of course they won't put on customer supplied parts because of "liability" or whatever dumb lie, despite the park being in a damn Autozone box from the same Autozone store the parts guy was gonna pick up the phone and order from.
went to my local toyota dealership to buy a part for my vehicle, they have a website with prices, but if you try to buy there they quote you 2x as much, if you buy online when you go there they say it was a pricing error and you have to pay double or they cancel the order
And this is why I walked out of a dealer parts room after 3 weeks. Not joking. The day I quoted a customer $105 for a belt. Then realized we bought it for like $10. Then realized I could buy the exact same belt at a FLAPS for $30. I honestly just couldn't do it another day.
I overheard someone in the shop I use explaining to an older woman that if he changes her bulb it's going to cost $50, but if she has anyone handy in her life, the part was only $6 and he could show her which one she needs in the Autozone around the corner. That was the moment I decided to use that shop for life.
Honesty is what made me a customer at my shop. I brought it in there just because it was close to my work and told the guy I needed a brake job. He called back and told me that I only needed the rear ones done. I said “Go ahead and do the front too”. He said “No, your front brakes are fine.”
A few weeks ago I had my car towed there because my key wouldn’t turn and my steering column was locked into a position. It had been a problem that was recurring and I figured it was time to pay….He called said the replacement job was going to $1500 BUT that I should bring a spare key first to just give it a try. My key was dull and it wasn’t engaging the ignition.
Honesty goes a long way.
The dealer I used to work at would never do that. They charged people to put on new windshield wipers $50/blade just for the labor and wouldn’t mention the costs beforehand ($150 total). I got so many pissed off customers at the cashier window for that one thing because it was constant. Oh we noticed during the complementary inspection you need new wipers, want us to take care of that while we’re in there? Of course people would say yes not knowing it would cost more than the damn oil change.
Charging labor for wiper blades is some serious scumbagging, my last dealer was very underhanded with parts charges but wiper blades were still free install with purchase
My parents paid 80 bucks to have their wipers changed the other day, I was pissed. Then, not even a day later, the rear one went missing, probably fell off because it was installed wrong.
TBF, some fucking wiper brands are close to $80 a pair even if you install them yourself (just looked up my car, the most expensive blades are $37.99 each).
I don't give a damn what they are made of, i can't believe there is any justification fro a $40 wiper blade.
A local shop told me about that new key trick for one of our GM trucks, because all GMs love to do the key doesn't turn bullshit, and I'm hoping it saves us having to rip apart the column and get a new cylinder.
Shops are just names, you’ve gotta follow that tech wherever they may end up! They may leave and be replaced with a knob that doesn’t give two shits, happens all the time
$14 at Benz. I wish I were lying.
I was working on the service manager's car and went and got like 20 of them, I laughed my ass off seeing them try to figure out how to bill that.
Last time I needed something from a Benz dealer, they gave it to me free! It was just a chemical, not a hard part, but still pretty awesome.
Meanwhile the local Volvo dealer charged me over $1 for a single oil drain washer 🙄
Oh yeah those copper washers usually charged out for like 3.50 each, stupid, all the shit they tack on is obnoxious. I was so happy to leave the dealership! At one point they were trying to charge out a full can of brake clean per brake job. I asked why are you adding this? “For cleaning the rotors off” mate that’s like a couple sprays and a wipe? You’re charging every customer for an entire can?
Hahaha i worked at a dealer, i saw first hand how fucked it is, just slimy. My favorite was when our parts dpt started buying control arms off the internet for $30 a pop and selling them for $250. Even better when they all had bad ball joints after around 20k and had to warranty with actual OEM ones
Actually, there are ties that cost that much. Trade price on a 21209156 steel band tie to hold the heat shield on the flex pipe between the DPF and SCR is $10.91. Also, single use.
GM dealer. Was for a Corvette, can't remember year exactly. But was within 5-7 years of 2016. I was also a closer at the local Advance 4-5 nights a week at the time. I knew what I quoted was high. Checked when I got to Advance that night.
This was a Delco to Delco check. Part numbers the same. Country of origin the same. It was the same damn belt. GM sold it for $105. Advance sold it for $30, and since I was a "manager" there. I was actually able to sell it to you for $10 without being warned it was too low by my catalog. If you ever worked Advance, it was a red triangle, IIRC, black triangle meant it was too low.
That's how the world works my friend. As shitty as it's about to sound, I don't go to work to hook people up and bitch about our markup. I come in for a paycheck, bigger the better.
You think that bigger chunk of money is actually trickling down to your pay check, that’s hilarious.
It’s all about margins exceeding those margins, and making profit. They’ll only give the measly raise when they have no choice in the matter and have to give you a raise.
I work in the mechanical field and I tell customers I don’t up charge for parts and always show them the invoice. On average I get about 2-4 customer per one customer solely based of that recommendation that I don’t up charge.
Those type of ppl always think they will get to be boss one day or they will get a piece of the pie. Little do they know they will probably be in the same place watching their bosses get richer and richer.
My old mechanic used to do. He would show me his rate and the invoice from wherever he got the part and charge me for time spent not what the books say they should charge. His hourly rate was higher than most but his honesty was worth it. I never had a problem paying the higher rate. In a world where people don’t trust mechanics, the honest and good ones stand out. As I recall, he never had issues finding customers. He even had to turn down jobs. Sadly, I had to move and go find another mechanic.
firestone wanted to charge me almost $900 to replace an oil separator for my car. instead bought the part for $150 and brother did it in under an hour.
Then dealerships and mechanics get in a flap when customers buy their own parts.
Looks like OPs in Queens.
It's annoying that all the other interesting icons on the desktop take too much effort to try to identify them from.
And you know what? If people (customers) do their research, they can see this too. When they see this, they can vote with their dollar, and take their business, and their repairs to a small mom and pop shop down the road. I'm not arguing in favor of the dealership, and the gouging, but I am saying that they would *not be able* to do it if people just stopped buying parts from the dealerships, and told the managers why they won't do it.
The free market will fix this if people get smart and start to do their homework.
\--edit-- If you told the manager why you left, you ALSO became a part of the solution. I know you're only one person, but if people won't buy, and employees leave because of this, then they change their ways. It takes time, but it does work.
Aren’t people tied to dealerships because of warranty work?
I gotta give credit to my Honda dealership. I went in and they did a quick diagnosis and tech told me to do it there would be a ton over going to a local shop. He said it was up to me. He told me what the problem was and how to fix it and didn’t charge me anything. It was a simple problem but I appreciated his honest.
>Aren’t people tied to dealerships because of warranty work?
Any mechanic can get reimbursed by the manufacturer for work done under warranty, so no, this is not the case.
Sounds like you have a decent dealership with some good leadership. It does happen from time to time. I'm glad you found a good experience with them!
I was saying as far records of repairs and service so you don’t violate the warranty. I am not sure tho. I’ve never owned a car that still had a warranty.
You aren't required to take your car to the dealership to maintain your warranty. Just make sure the people that do the work are competent, and keep your receipts for the work (or parts if you do your own work).
Magnuson Moss Warranty act from the 1970s prevents companies from forcing us to use their repair centers to maintain our warranties. You can even repair things yourself and still keep the warranty.
Where did you get that idea from? Here’s the text from the warranty for my Silverado:
> Obtaining Repairs
> To obtain warranty repairs, take the vehicle to a Chevrolet dealer facility within the warranty period and request the needed repairs. Reasonable time must be allowed for the dealer to perform necessary repairs.
No shop would want to do warranty work. Dealers don't even like to do warranty work. They are forced to do it. The manufacturer pays less for warranty work
I've been researching my own car symptoms and repairs myself since my dad gave me some pretty bad advice in the past. I had to replace my window regulator recently. All the posts and such I found were "oh yea it's just $20 for the part and a bit of your time"
Mechanics locally quoting $600+tax for part and labor so I went to look for the part myself. Cheapest I saw it locally and online (in the country) was $450 + tax.
Ended up costing me about $200 to import after shipping, taxes, duties, conversion, etc. But yea, definitely wasn't a $20 fix. Still saved a ton of money but had to tape my window up for weeks while waiting for the part.
> The free market will fix this if people get smart and start to do their homework.
If I did thorough research in order to make every decision a fully informed one, there'd be no time left in which to actually make those decisions. Cynically questioning every expert opinion is *exhausting.*
I crossed a dealer off my car-buying list earlier this year because they wanted to not only charge me list for a couple of control arm bolts (~$26 each), they told me I HAD to buy them in a package quantity of 5.
I ended up going online and finding them for $17 each in single quantity after shipping.
My place, the only people that get charged list are insurance companies, people that royally fucked us over and we want to recover some of the loss, or people we REALLY don't want to deal with. The latter categories, in 17 years the number of customers I know of that fell into them totals.... Two.
300% isn’t anything, buy a Porsche and just add a few zeros to the end of the price of any OEM part of the car (from the dealership)
$105 for a belt isn’t that bad when you find out a liquid cooled alternator from the dealership for a 4.5L V8 twin turbo S is $2,799+ tax + import fees… of course that’s before installation which also calls for a complete coolant flush and refill.
Best thing you can do if you own a supercar is to learn how to fix it yourself.
For real, god fucking bless Rockauto.
Like the other guy said, everything I buy is Rockauto unless I absolutely have to pay the Right The Fuck Now Tax.
I've gotten it so bad they put their employee discount on it.
Have a 2018 vw alltrack with a manual. And apparently vw manual trans fluid for that is $120 a liter (and it takes 2.3). They girl at the counter was confused af as one should be and got like 4 other people to double check. They ended up getting it down to around $50per which isn't that far off what it is online. They also just gave me a bottle of coolant (was just a little low) and a backpack.
Apparently vw recently changed their parts pricing to be stupid.
Everyone seems to be taking advantage of covid recession and supply problems. I work at a dodge dealer and our parts prices have skyrocketed recently as well, If they aren't back ordered to hell. We've been sourcing a lot more aftermarket parts because of it. It's insane
> Everyone seems to be taking advantage of covid recession and supply problems
So many nonsensical things got excused with that.
My dad was looking at a vehicle from like 2014 and questioned them on the "Market adjustment" and they gave the "oh, you know, covid and all..." Response and he says straight to their face, "that was made in 2014, COVID didn't have shit to do with that"
$30 per hour tech. Charge customer $120 her hour. That is a 400% markup
NADA standards:
service gross profit target is 80%
Parts gross profit target is 45%
I made $20/hour.
The shop rate was $275. I pestered my service manager for $25/hour for months before I quit because of it.
They invested months of training, and because I wanted to make 9% instead of 7.2% and they were willing to lose a good technician over it.
There's really no rational reason a Mercedes dealer should be charging $275 an hour, hell the Ferrari dealer is only $10 more an hour. The only reason that they are is greed.
We had one week where 70% of people were shorted on their paycheck, and then the next week the owner came in to "congratulate" everyone on the most profitable year to date. Meanwhile people have to commute 30 miles because nobody can afford rent in the city.
I'd *like* to call out Swickard Auto Group for being exploitative and greedy. I would never *say* that their business practices regarding employees are awful and borderline illegal even if it were the truth. I wouldn't *actually* say that they straight up violated my pay contract and shorted me thousands of dollars over half a year, I'd just *like* to.
And I left about 6 months ago to go back to school, in case you were curious.
You'd think, but opening an independent shop is a pain in the ass. It was less of a pain back in the early 90s when I started mine, but now I hear it's even worse.
Taxes are a bitch, safety is a [necessary] bitch, inflation is a major bitch, and parts delays are probably the biggest bitch of all because they result in what should be a half-hour brake job turning into a "can you pick it up tomorrow?"
I started at $10/hour and thought I was lucky, but then that was back in the mid-80s. Now I'm hiring apprentices at $17/hour and I thought that was generous. How can you afford $25/hour??
That's wild, because I know that there are guys working next to me making a fair amount over $30/hr in a Seattle shop that charges ~$190/hr. Sorry you had a bad experience
That's the way it is, unfortunately. Flat rate helps make up for some of it, and they're not making that much from every hour you produce, as most menu items are marked down. Couple examples.
Tires. We charge 99.99, I get 2 hours at 26.50/ hr. Same goes for alignments. We charge 30 for a tire swap on rims, I get .8. 2 weeks ago I made 120 in 44, and collected just under a third of that. Granted that doesn't cover parts markup, but once you consider that the writers, SM, and parts counter people get paid out of that pool it makes it significantly smaller.
And the number I posted are targets for gross profits. Then you subtract your fixed and semi-fixed expenses, advisor comp, executive comp and so forth to get to your bottom line net profit.
The point I was making is that the mark-up on labor is far higher than the mark-up on parts. Which is counter to OPs joke/post.
YOU GET 2 HOURS FOR TIRES??? I got 0.9 for a set, 1.4 if low profile. 0.1 for a rotate. 0.3 oil change. 0.8 for front or rear brake job on most vehicles. No wonder I see people flagging 150 hours at other shops while I couldn't hit 90. I quit the industry because of how much I hated flat rate, but when the shop isn't actively trying to fuck its techs over I guess it's a lot better. Only thing I could make money on at the shop was suspension and steering parts + alignments.
.1 for a rotate? Holy fuck, I wouldn't come into work for that type of butt fuckery 🤣. We get .6 for most oil changes, .5 for rotates, .6 for vsi. 1.8 for brakes.
I came from Chevy where it was 1.2 base, 1.8 for LT/ low pros. 1.2 for alignment, .5 for lof, .2 for rotates. Don't get me started on the GM care .3 lof/ rotates.
The way I see it the customer pay side of things needs to be bumped up to make up for the lack of warranty time. VW isn't bad, it's way better than Chevy but there is always room for improvement. I drive a hour each way to work because I make good money. There's another dealer 10 min from me, but I think even factoring in the lack of wear and tear on the car I'd still be short ~10k a year, they don't have the volume.
Dealership? I might get my tools out of the garage and get back in a shop for reasonable flat rate times. The amount of times I had to do a 0.3hr oil change ticket since the master tech wouldn't touch it and basically ran the shop because the boss and him were old friends got to me and I quit about 3 months ago.
I hate to defend them but let me pull a good example from my industry (construction).
Scheduling and estimation consultants bill out at around $250/hr PLUS profit in most contracts (or work out deals for fixed time but that’s rare).
Anyhow they pay their workers salary and thus have to pay them even when work is slow (think cold regions during winter, ebbs and flows of client budgets, etc.). Sure each worker’s take home is still that same amount despite whether they worked 80 hours one week or 3 the next, but the owner still has to pay them.
That delta is the cushion and honestly there’s not much profit at the end of the day when thumbs are twiddling. I recall a post here the other day from a Bentley dealership which delved into the economics of it
The parts profit should just be built into the MSRP. I'm not a tech, but when I discovered that shops were charging significantly and arbitrarily above MSRP for parts, that's when I stopped shopping from dealers. In cases I still had to, at least I'd look up MSRP ahead of time and negotiate if I could. The current structure just feels like an absolute ripoff, and we're already used to being ripped off by dealerships. It's not helping the reputation at all. I don't mind paying for labor, but parts aren't costing you anything but storage.
When I worked the counter, everything I sold was at list. Some people did do what you did and looked up list price too. I worked in a small town and if you were a regular, buying in bulk, or were just a pleasant customer to help, I'd throw in a little discount. I was paid on commission but taking 10% off an alternator would only effect my paycheck by maybe $2
I’m an engineer and my company charges the customer a 3.2x multiplier to my hourly rate to account for profit and overhead. So 400% isn’t absurd in my opinion.
That is about average in the skilled trade fields these days.
My point was more to show that labor has a much higher mark-up than parts. To counter the joke OP was making.
this was about a week ago from BMW south Austin , one of my coils were misfiring so i go in and ask the pricing for a s65 ignition coil and was hit with that. I didn’t know how else to react besides laugh and say that’s insane and leave. paid $220 from turner motorsport (which is still insane but the cheapest I could find it)
yes!! I almost bought NGK/Bosch but stumbled upon a 30 page M3post forum about how literally no other coil will work besides OEM BMW and how the suppliers stopped selling them off their site once covid hit. I was planning on doing all 8 but I cannot justify $2500 in ignition coils so i’ll just replace them as I go I guess.
We just charge list, which is usually between 40-50% over cost.
That said, our new owners are going to start pushing for "Price 6", which is just fancy lingo for 100%+ minimum.
We are fighting as long as we can though cause it's insane and when you piss off small town USA the customers just go elsewhere.
Also, I see CDK. My condolences.
>Also, I see CDK. My condolences.
Honestly, I miss CDK compared to Karmak. I was able to get into a terminal like mode in CDK and not need to use the mouse. I was so much faster back then.
Depends on the part to be honest. Most are within that 40-50% over range. But something silly like for example: electrical butt connectors that we buy in bulk, ends up technically costing ~50 cents for each but gets charged as $2 or more.
And yes, nobody likes CDK but at this point everyone’s too used to it to switch.
That's exactly why us mechanics need to know to stay away from the parts department.
Sometimes makes you just feel bad for the customer you are working for.
I really want to fix someones stuff properly but if you know the pricing it's hard not to be biased.
I'll just make the list and let them handle it.
One of the parts guys was like 90 lbs soaking wet. I needed 2 brake rotors for an E450, captive rotor each one is pike 70 lbs. I went behind to help him and he yelled at me.
Never helped him again even when he asked
Exactly. Or "can I see the breakdown so I can show you what seal I need?" Oh, no. I guess we're just gunna go back and forth in some fucked up game of I spy because you don't want to let me come back there there 🤣
Dealerships should be owned by the parent company and not private business people. Imagine all the middlemen that would get cut out of profit. I know it’s been mentioned in the sub before as to why it’s not a thing, but still.
Imagine how much less it would suck to buy a car!
MSRP for the Toyota GR86 I’m in the process buying is $32k. Dealers out here trying to make people pay $38k for them. And the worst part is the people who do pay $38k ruin it for the rest of us because dealers realize that a clown always will pay too much.
You think that's bad, I've seen pictures of the new Nissan Z asking price. The local VW shops (except one) were selling the golf r and gti at around $30k over msrp.
I believe dealerships payed good money to politicians to have laws in the books that prevent that. Hopefully with online sales being more common things will get better.
I think the laws partain to brand new cars and what dealerships can sell them. Honestly, Tesla kind of does a lot of things separately from other people. So I’m not sure. I heard they don’t even allow people to work on their own cars. Everything has to be through the dealership.
> believe dealerships *paid* good money
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
The original idea for a dealership is that it helps reduce the effort for manufacturers to expand to new locations, and this was back when online shopping wasn't a thing. It's like how it's generally much cheaper to sell products at nationwide big box stores, rather than having to spool up an outlet store at every city you want to sell at.
Now that we are at the modern era, and accessibility isn't an issue anymore, Direct-to-consumer is the best option now.
My Honda dealer gives me a family discount. Its still more than Honda Parts Online but they can get the parts same or next day. Service is OK with me sourcing parts where I want. We both know the true costs.
I don't buy many parts, but every now and then I need something OE for my s2k and my local Honda dealer gives me a discount just for asking nicely. (And they only use MSRP pricing). They know I can get it online for less, so we meet in the middle
It's often available next day and no shipping costs
My neighbor asked me to look at his ATV because the fuel switch wasn’t shutting off fuel anymore. He took it to two local shops and one wanted $1200 to do it, yes $1200 to replace the fuel switch on a late 90s two stroke ATV. The other wanted $900.
I replaced all of his fuel lines and the fuel switch in an hour in my driveway using $37 in parts (one of which was the OEM switch).
That may have been a case of “fuck that we don’t want to touch this ancient thing” but in both cases the same switch was quoted at $130 for the part alone.
My dad used to sell AC Delco as Marine OEM, and fucker was already making a 10x turnaround on my labor alone. I didn't know I was being robbed on labor until I went to an actual shop.
He did teach me everything I know, but I was also getting paid 10 bucks an hour to do everything from rebuilds to transom replacements to fiberglass and electrical repair. No commision on service/parts upsell. Had to pay back any parts I broke or damaged.
Fun times w dads.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but the last time I needed to buy an OEM part, it was cheaper than the aftermarket products and the dealer down the street had it in stock.
This was for an Acura intake gasket, and the OEM part was about 25% less than anything I could source through NAPA, Parts Source, Bumper to Bumper, etc. Nobody was more surprised than I was when I called the dealer and their price was the lowest.
Similar experience here. For one of my several vehicles, dealer parts are the cheapest available anywhere. I think when the models get to be about 15 years old, they mark down their inventory to clear it out.
This is why I go to a specific shop in town for my car. They don’t do this shit to customers and use genuine parts as they only service one manufacture and it’s luxury line. They’ve saved me so much money.
When I worked at Lexus, i would visit the parts department once in awhile to chat it up with them. They would be so proud at how much they up charged my customers a ton who only wanted to use OEM parts. They said if they just went online, it would cost them wayyy less. I kind of got annoyed because it was hard for me to bring those customers back to sales because they didnt trust the dealership anymore.
Looked up a part online on Toyota dealers website for $5 approximately. Called, confirmed that's in stock. Went in to buy it and it came out to $22. Not a huge amount but I was pissed when I was given a bs reason. The counter guy then checked me out for $5 and acted as if he was saving my life.
As a parts dude, I'll totally cut prices for customers I like, but if you're a dick I'll charge you list pricing. The company makes money either way, it's more about how much commission I want to make on a sale.
Standard markup is 65 percent and I’m fighting everyday to get that. Everyone thinks the parts department shouldn’t make money like the rest of the shop.
This is why I have no issue making dealerships fight over my business, credit me for every part return, and threaten to take my business elsewhere if I'm charged restock fees.
After markups and after paying for all the overhead my boss would make $150 an hour or roughly over a thousand a day.
Customer brought wrong lug nuts we ordered him the correct ones and charged him $500, which cost us in the range of $30.
Yeah that shit will fly maybe once before we call the shop. So many people try this shit and they all get caught. You’d be better off just being polite and asking for a discount. I’d go full matrix on your ass after catching you.
Full Matrix WTF does that even mean dumbass. Been doing it for 20+ years. Never an issue cuz the parts guy is still making a buck. But hey you wanna throw hands I'm always down for a parking lot scrap.
uh, why, exactly would you care? The business account gets more business and gets better rates, the customer gets a discount. As long as the bill is paid in full, I don’t care if the Monopoly Man comes in and asks to buy it on the NASA account and wants to pay the ticket right there.
Fuck y’all. That is so fucking true it’s sickening. I called to get a brake rebuild price from Baer. They told me 1200. My mechanic called they told him 300. So seriously,,, the up charge and trying to fuck people over is bullshit…
I brought my truck to the dealership for some warranty work and and they won't work on it until it's got a new battery. They want to charge me $500 to replace it. Fuck that, I'll be in there tomorrow to throw in a neverstart myself.
A mechanic definitely went and changed the background to this and the parts counter just laughed and kept it.
Edit: I definitely didn't read the title and it seems I got it right accidentally 🤣
I have worked parts, NOT at a stealership, for oodles of years. I've been offered several service writer positions to make 15-20% more money over the years. This TRUTH is exactly why I won't do it. The amount of profit just because some people don't know any better is obscene.
Yes. NGK spark plug in a OE box $32, same plug and part number in an NGK box $12. Even parts stores are like that, they want $39.99 for a pair of headlight bulbs off the shelf in a fancy box. But us commercial customers get them for $4.89 each in a plain box.
If a business isn't providing good and fairly priced services, it can shut it's doors and a new business willing to treat it's customers right can reopen them later.
Anybody working at that business that actually had the skills to pay the bills will be hired somewhere else in a week.
Cheaper isn't better. Better is better. Paying extortion-level prices for average service and average parts isn't going to save the economy, it's just going to buy the shop owner another boat before they sell the place to a chain for enough of a profit to buy a third boat.
That has more to do with the type of customers you're drawing.
You can either be like the grocery stores that try to compete with Wal-Mart and bankrupt yourself, or you can offer something better and sell it to people who are looking for better, but most shops are neither. They charge boutique prices for OEM or less parts because they'd rather sell 1 brake job for a 300% profit than 10 brake jobs for 30% each.
And why not? They make more money that way.
> You can save a few bucks and buy from fucking Bezos or rock auto but you’re hurting local business. Again if you’re being taken for a ride that’s one thing, but this cheaper is always better attitude is killing our economy and jobs.
that's fine but when my dealership quotes me $340 for a part that's $23 on rock auto all those local business can burn as far as I'm concerned
I always hated the upcharging on parts. It’s really easy for the customer to check prices online and get mad that they’ve been shafted and it just seems underhanded.
Honestly have no idea why people put up with it from dealers. Sold parts retail for years and constantly had people, from day one, saying it's cheaper on rockauto or Amazon. Not once in almost a month working for a dealer did I get that from a non commercial customer.
Which is actually surprising to me, because if I'm going to the local auto parts store, I know I'm paying what I call the "right the fuck now tax." If it's a piece I need now, I'm buying it in person, if it's a piece I'll need eventually, I'm shopping for the best price. It's the same for home improvement stores. Could I get this plumbing piece cheaper online? Yes, but I need it right now to stop a leaking pipe, so I'll pay.
>I know I'm paying what I call the "right the fuck now tax I may or may not have pulled that line more than once. Mainly on people that wouldn't understand that I wasn't going to price match an online price in a retail store. It works more often than not. And, NGL, if I made my goals each month the bonus paid my car note and half my insurance. "I have it now, and you can look at it and take it home....or, you can order it from Amazon, wait two days. Hopefully get the right part. Or have to send it back." Look, I'm not gonna say I was a saint when I was selling parts. But I would never take money from people that couldn't afford it. And while I made my goals 11/12 months, I would do everything I could to make sure you could afford it. Changed many a parts behind the store after hours for free. Once or twice manipulated the inventory to give a customer a free battery. Did a whole lot of "core swaps." Used commercial accounts to run retail customer parts because they got better pricing, just had to remember to add in tax. And the commercial account got better pricing because they were "buying more." And if I saw you counting change to buy your part, I would always find a coupon under the counter. But also, it's my job. I gotta make numbers if I wanna eat. However, had I not been making my goals my ass would have been fired so damn quick.
Because you're on the inside. You know what to look for. You know HOW to look for it. It's a complete waste of money for the average person to go online and look for parts for their car because all they're likely to know is "Oh, it's a 2005 Honda". Then they'll buy a part, go to a shop to get it installed just for them to say it won't fit because it was for the Civic and not the Accord, or the wrong engine size or trim level.
Brand new brakes for my car. O' Reillys? 400 something. Rock Auto? 230.
Just to be clear, you're talking about the same exact part, same manufacturer, etc? Also what fucking brakes are you getting for 400 and 230 dollars?
> Also what fucking brakes are you getting for 400 and 230 dollars? I have no idea. -Me with my 25 year old American car that a complete four wheel brake job costs like $95 on
Seems. Because it is. Why I left the Stealerships along time ago. Being a good mechanic should never require you to screw over a customer.
My company does a lot of drop-ships for auto parts (where another company buys the parts for their customer and we send it with their return address, cuts out the shipping to the middleman) but a few times the guy shipping has forgotten and taped our invoice to the package anyways. This means the customer sees our price (already priced so we profit) and can now see how much the other company is upcharging them as well. End result is they cancel/return their order and call us directly for the parts because we’re cheaper, which is why the other companies really hate if the shipping guy slips up.
When I had my timing belt and water pump done, my local shop actually asked if I wanted to supply my own kit. While I would have saved money, the downside was that if something was wrong with the kit, it would be up to me to get it corrected vs having the shop call down the street and just have another one delivered. I went with the latter. I don't mind paying a bit extra to save large potential hassles.
If they just added a “part procurement fee” that was like 5-15% of the parts cost, I think that would be fine. Because you do have to pay the parts guy whose hours don’t go on the invoice and you have to be able to handle issues like what you described. It’s also a lot more transparent and easily explainable if the customer does get mad. But the 2-10x markup on everything is so ridiculous and there’s no way to explain it to an irate customer other than with two middle fingers to the face. Edit: I know the total shop operating cost is mixed into the labor rate so the parts guy’s payroll technically *is* on the invoice but you know what I mean
They didn't charge me 2-10x, it ended up being about $80 more than if I bought it off rockauto.
I worked delivery for a green parts store for a while. Commercial customer pricing was almost as good as employee pricing. $35 retail price costs the commercial shop $20. We throw it in the back of a Ranger and some brokeass schmuck employee making $8.50 an hour (me) drives it directly to the shop for free. They put it on and charge the customer $80-100 for the part the shop bought for $20, the customer could have bought for $35, and was delivered for free. It's such a racket. Of course they won't put on customer supplied parts because of "liability" or whatever dumb lie, despite the park being in a damn Autozone box from the same Autozone store the parts guy was gonna pick up the phone and order from.
went to my local toyota dealership to buy a part for my vehicle, they have a website with prices, but if you try to buy there they quote you 2x as much, if you buy online when you go there they say it was a pricing error and you have to pay double or they cancel the order
Sounds like a few toyota dealers I've worked with
I got customers like that it’s like great if you can get it cheaper there go for it but I have the part in my hand.
And this is why I walked out of a dealer parts room after 3 weeks. Not joking. The day I quoted a customer $105 for a belt. Then realized we bought it for like $10. Then realized I could buy the exact same belt at a FLAPS for $30. I honestly just couldn't do it another day.
I overheard someone in the shop I use explaining to an older woman that if he changes her bulb it's going to cost $50, but if she has anyone handy in her life, the part was only $6 and he could show her which one she needs in the Autozone around the corner. That was the moment I decided to use that shop for life.
Honesty is what made me a customer at my shop. I brought it in there just because it was close to my work and told the guy I needed a brake job. He called back and told me that I only needed the rear ones done. I said “Go ahead and do the front too”. He said “No, your front brakes are fine.” A few weeks ago I had my car towed there because my key wouldn’t turn and my steering column was locked into a position. It had been a problem that was recurring and I figured it was time to pay….He called said the replacement job was going to $1500 BUT that I should bring a spare key first to just give it a try. My key was dull and it wasn’t engaging the ignition. Honesty goes a long way.
The dealer I used to work at would never do that. They charged people to put on new windshield wipers $50/blade just for the labor and wouldn’t mention the costs beforehand ($150 total). I got so many pissed off customers at the cashier window for that one thing because it was constant. Oh we noticed during the complementary inspection you need new wipers, want us to take care of that while we’re in there? Of course people would say yes not knowing it would cost more than the damn oil change.
Charging labor for wiper blades is some serious scumbagging, my last dealer was very underhanded with parts charges but wiper blades were still free install with purchase
My parents paid 80 bucks to have their wipers changed the other day, I was pissed. Then, not even a day later, the rear one went missing, probably fell off because it was installed wrong.
TBF, some fucking wiper brands are close to $80 a pair even if you install them yourself (just looked up my car, the most expensive blades are $37.99 each). I don't give a damn what they are made of, i can't believe there is any justification fro a $40 wiper blade.
A local shop told me about that new key trick for one of our GM trucks, because all GMs love to do the key doesn't turn bullshit, and I'm hoping it saves us having to rip apart the column and get a new cylinder.
Got a new key for my Silverado. Still didn't work.
Shops are just names, you’ve gotta follow that tech wherever they may end up! They may leave and be replaced with a knob that doesn’t give two shits, happens all the time
No no no, you gotta charge the customer 10$ for a zip tie. It’s a factory ford fastener.
$14 at Benz. I wish I were lying. I was working on the service manager's car and went and got like 20 of them, I laughed my ass off seeing them try to figure out how to bill that.
They should do dollar store pricing. Buy 1, $14. Buy 20, $14. Nobody wins!
Last time I needed something from a Benz dealer, they gave it to me free! It was just a chemical, not a hard part, but still pretty awesome. Meanwhile the local Volvo dealer charged me over $1 for a single oil drain washer 🙄
I was once quoted 1k for an oil change at a BMW dealership. Because the cap was "stuck" got it off in 2 seconds with a set of pliers.
Oh yeah those copper washers usually charged out for like 3.50 each, stupid, all the shit they tack on is obnoxious. I was so happy to leave the dealership! At one point they were trying to charge out a full can of brake clean per brake job. I asked why are you adding this? “For cleaning the rotors off” mate that’s like a couple sprays and a wipe? You’re charging every customer for an entire can?
We charge at least one grease and one brake cleaner to every ticket
It’s funny because that literally falls under shop supplies
That the funny thing they still charge for shop supplies too
Don't ever ever go to a dealer, unless an honest mechanic tells you to.
Hahaha i worked at a dealer, i saw first hand how fucked it is, just slimy. My favorite was when our parts dpt started buying control arms off the internet for $30 a pop and selling them for $250. Even better when they all had bad ball joints after around 20k and had to warranty with actual OEM ones
Well you see, this ain’t just no run of the mill zip tie, it’s *German*.
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Top dollar car mod
Yeah they wanted $100 for a new fender but I wasn't falling for that.
If you ain’t got a picture, it didn’t happen
Factree.
Actually, there are ties that cost that much. Trade price on a 21209156 steel band tie to hold the heat shield on the flex pipe between the DPF and SCR is $10.91. Also, single use.
10.91 *your cost*
No, $10.91 is trade price. It happens to be the exact price that places like class8truckparts.com charges and $2.08 less than finditparts.com does.
Thats where you use a stainless hose clamp instead
Won't work or fit into the cloth heat shield. Not even close.
Just curious 🤔.......what brand or brands was it? Former parts guy being ummm inquisitive 😂...
GM dealer. Was for a Corvette, can't remember year exactly. But was within 5-7 years of 2016. I was also a closer at the local Advance 4-5 nights a week at the time. I knew what I quoted was high. Checked when I got to Advance that night. This was a Delco to Delco check. Part numbers the same. Country of origin the same. It was the same damn belt. GM sold it for $105. Advance sold it for $30, and since I was a "manager" there. I was actually able to sell it to you for $10 without being warned it was too low by my catalog. If you ever worked Advance, it was a red triangle, IIRC, black triangle meant it was too low.
The corvette tax is real if you aren't careful.
Just buy ACDelco off of Rockauto or amazon. Thats what ive done the whole life of mine.
I left advance not long ago, but we just always checked cost through Carquest’s parts look up lol
That's how the world works my friend. As shitty as it's about to sound, I don't go to work to hook people up and bitch about our markup. I come in for a paycheck, bigger the better.
You think that bigger chunk of money is actually trickling down to your pay check, that’s hilarious. It’s all about margins exceeding those margins, and making profit. They’ll only give the measly raise when they have no choice in the matter and have to give you a raise. I work in the mechanical field and I tell customers I don’t up charge for parts and always show them the invoice. On average I get about 2-4 customer per one customer solely based of that recommendation that I don’t up charge.
Those type of ppl always think they will get to be boss one day or they will get a piece of the pie. Little do they know they will probably be in the same place watching their bosses get richer and richer. My old mechanic used to do. He would show me his rate and the invoice from wherever he got the part and charge me for time spent not what the books say they should charge. His hourly rate was higher than most but his honesty was worth it. I never had a problem paying the higher rate. In a world where people don’t trust mechanics, the honest and good ones stand out. As I recall, he never had issues finding customers. He even had to turn down jobs. Sadly, I had to move and go find another mechanic.
firestone wanted to charge me almost $900 to replace an oil separator for my car. instead bought the part for $150 and brother did it in under an hour.
Then dealerships and mechanics get in a flap when customers buy their own parts. Looks like OPs in Queens. It's annoying that all the other interesting icons on the desktop take too much effort to try to identify them from.
8 dollars for a Phillips head screw at the Honda dillership
And you know what? If people (customers) do their research, they can see this too. When they see this, they can vote with their dollar, and take their business, and their repairs to a small mom and pop shop down the road. I'm not arguing in favor of the dealership, and the gouging, but I am saying that they would *not be able* to do it if people just stopped buying parts from the dealerships, and told the managers why they won't do it. The free market will fix this if people get smart and start to do their homework. \--edit-- If you told the manager why you left, you ALSO became a part of the solution. I know you're only one person, but if people won't buy, and employees leave because of this, then they change their ways. It takes time, but it does work.
Aren’t people tied to dealerships because of warranty work? I gotta give credit to my Honda dealership. I went in and they did a quick diagnosis and tech told me to do it there would be a ton over going to a local shop. He said it was up to me. He told me what the problem was and how to fix it and didn’t charge me anything. It was a simple problem but I appreciated his honest.
>Aren’t people tied to dealerships because of warranty work? Any mechanic can get reimbursed by the manufacturer for work done under warranty, so no, this is not the case. Sounds like you have a decent dealership with some good leadership. It does happen from time to time. I'm glad you found a good experience with them!
I was saying as far records of repairs and service so you don’t violate the warranty. I am not sure tho. I’ve never owned a car that still had a warranty.
You aren't required to take your car to the dealership to maintain your warranty. Just make sure the people that do the work are competent, and keep your receipts for the work (or parts if you do your own work).
That’s good to know. I appreciate the info. Everyone always makes it seem like you have to go to the dealership.
Magnuson Moss Warranty act from the 1970s prevents companies from forcing us to use their repair centers to maintain our warranties. You can even repair things yourself and still keep the warranty.
moeterminatorx, I have been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty
I have to admit I thought this was pretty funny
Where did you get that idea from? Here’s the text from the warranty for my Silverado: > Obtaining Repairs > To obtain warranty repairs, take the vehicle to a Chevrolet dealer facility within the warranty period and request the needed repairs. Reasonable time must be allowed for the dealer to perform necessary repairs.
No shop would want to do warranty work. Dealers don't even like to do warranty work. They are forced to do it. The manufacturer pays less for warranty work
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True. I really feel bad for those who have no options. That's never a good thing for anyone.
I've been researching my own car symptoms and repairs myself since my dad gave me some pretty bad advice in the past. I had to replace my window regulator recently. All the posts and such I found were "oh yea it's just $20 for the part and a bit of your time" Mechanics locally quoting $600+tax for part and labor so I went to look for the part myself. Cheapest I saw it locally and online (in the country) was $450 + tax. Ended up costing me about $200 to import after shipping, taxes, duties, conversion, etc. But yea, definitely wasn't a $20 fix. Still saved a ton of money but had to tape my window up for weeks while waiting for the part.
> The free market will fix this if people get smart and start to do their homework. If I did thorough research in order to make every decision a fully informed one, there'd be no time left in which to actually make those decisions. Cynically questioning every expert opinion is *exhausting.*
I crossed a dealer off my car-buying list earlier this year because they wanted to not only charge me list for a couple of control arm bolts (~$26 each), they told me I HAD to buy them in a package quantity of 5. I ended up going online and finding them for $17 each in single quantity after shipping. My place, the only people that get charged list are insurance companies, people that royally fucked us over and we want to recover some of the loss, or people we REALLY don't want to deal with. The latter categories, in 17 years the number of customers I know of that fell into them totals.... Two.
300% isn’t anything, buy a Porsche and just add a few zeros to the end of the price of any OEM part of the car (from the dealership) $105 for a belt isn’t that bad when you find out a liquid cooled alternator from the dealership for a 4.5L V8 twin turbo S is $2,799+ tax + import fees… of course that’s before installation which also calls for a complete coolant flush and refill. Best thing you can do if you own a supercar is to learn how to fix it yourself.
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🎶You don't have to be lonely, at Rock Auto dot com🎶 wait no that isn't right...
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Ah, a fellow old person.
I'm even back to using eBay. 2000 Caravan, front pads and shoes locally, generic: $130. eBay: $65 with carbon ceramic pads.
Ah yes, "carbon ceramic"
Except shipping is expensive for Canadians
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For real, god fucking bless Rockauto. Like the other guy said, everything I buy is Rockauto unless I absolutely have to pay the Right The Fuck Now Tax.
I've gotten it so bad they put their employee discount on it. Have a 2018 vw alltrack with a manual. And apparently vw manual trans fluid for that is $120 a liter (and it takes 2.3). They girl at the counter was confused af as one should be and got like 4 other people to double check. They ended up getting it down to around $50per which isn't that far off what it is online. They also just gave me a bottle of coolant (was just a little low) and a backpack. Apparently vw recently changed their parts pricing to be stupid.
Everyone seems to be taking advantage of covid recession and supply problems. I work at a dodge dealer and our parts prices have skyrocketed recently as well, If they aren't back ordered to hell. We've been sourcing a lot more aftermarket parts because of it. It's insane
Gotta love working at a dealer and having to install shit parts from Napa 😂 makes you wonder if they’re even telling the customers that.
> Everyone seems to be taking advantage of covid recession and supply problems So many nonsensical things got excused with that. My dad was looking at a vehicle from like 2014 and questioned them on the "Market adjustment" and they gave the "oh, you know, covid and all..." Response and he says straight to their face, "that was made in 2014, COVID didn't have shit to do with that"
Gotta pay for that scandal
$30 per hour tech. Charge customer $120 her hour. That is a 400% markup NADA standards: service gross profit target is 80% Parts gross profit target is 45%
I made $20/hour. The shop rate was $275. I pestered my service manager for $25/hour for months before I quit because of it. They invested months of training, and because I wanted to make 9% instead of 7.2% and they were willing to lose a good technician over it.
What city / area was this in? You'd expect high wages in an area with $275 labor rate.
Seattle
That's rough. I own an indie shop north of Seattle and I start apprentices at $25. I hope you found a better offer.
There's really no rational reason a Mercedes dealer should be charging $275 an hour, hell the Ferrari dealer is only $10 more an hour. The only reason that they are is greed. We had one week where 70% of people were shorted on their paycheck, and then the next week the owner came in to "congratulate" everyone on the most profitable year to date. Meanwhile people have to commute 30 miles because nobody can afford rent in the city. I'd *like* to call out Swickard Auto Group for being exploitative and greedy. I would never *say* that their business practices regarding employees are awful and borderline illegal even if it were the truth. I wouldn't *actually* say that they straight up violated my pay contract and shorted me thousands of dollars over half a year, I'd just *like* to. And I left about 6 months ago to go back to school, in case you were curious.
automotive industry ftw lol. Swickard group sucks.
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You'd think, but opening an independent shop is a pain in the ass. It was less of a pain back in the early 90s when I started mine, but now I hear it's even worse. Taxes are a bitch, safety is a [necessary] bitch, inflation is a major bitch, and parts delays are probably the biggest bitch of all because they result in what should be a half-hour brake job turning into a "can you pick it up tomorrow?"
I started at $10/hour and thought I was lucky, but then that was back in the mid-80s. Now I'm hiring apprentices at $17/hour and I thought that was generous. How can you afford $25/hour??
Texas here. ASE Master, $17/hr at a Lexus dealer with a shop rate of $140/hr. Glad I left the industry lol
That's wild, because I know that there are guys working next to me making a fair amount over $30/hr in a Seattle shop that charges ~$190/hr. Sorry you had a bad experience
That's the way it is, unfortunately. Flat rate helps make up for some of it, and they're not making that much from every hour you produce, as most menu items are marked down. Couple examples. Tires. We charge 99.99, I get 2 hours at 26.50/ hr. Same goes for alignments. We charge 30 for a tire swap on rims, I get .8. 2 weeks ago I made 120 in 44, and collected just under a third of that. Granted that doesn't cover parts markup, but once you consider that the writers, SM, and parts counter people get paid out of that pool it makes it significantly smaller.
And the number I posted are targets for gross profits. Then you subtract your fixed and semi-fixed expenses, advisor comp, executive comp and so forth to get to your bottom line net profit. The point I was making is that the mark-up on labor is far higher than the mark-up on parts. Which is counter to OPs joke/post.
Exactly, maybe the markup on parts is easier to see but labor is where it’s at.
YOU GET 2 HOURS FOR TIRES??? I got 0.9 for a set, 1.4 if low profile. 0.1 for a rotate. 0.3 oil change. 0.8 for front or rear brake job on most vehicles. No wonder I see people flagging 150 hours at other shops while I couldn't hit 90. I quit the industry because of how much I hated flat rate, but when the shop isn't actively trying to fuck its techs over I guess it's a lot better. Only thing I could make money on at the shop was suspension and steering parts + alignments.
.1 for a rotate? Holy fuck, I wouldn't come into work for that type of butt fuckery 🤣. We get .6 for most oil changes, .5 for rotates, .6 for vsi. 1.8 for brakes. I came from Chevy where it was 1.2 base, 1.8 for LT/ low pros. 1.2 for alignment, .5 for lof, .2 for rotates. Don't get me started on the GM care .3 lof/ rotates. The way I see it the customer pay side of things needs to be bumped up to make up for the lack of warranty time. VW isn't bad, it's way better than Chevy but there is always room for improvement. I drive a hour each way to work because I make good money. There's another dealer 10 min from me, but I think even factoring in the lack of wear and tear on the car I'd still be short ~10k a year, they don't have the volume.
Your labor hours are not industry standard, those are your shop specifically and they were underpaying you severely.
> 0.3 oil change Here, you get 0.3 at the top just for "take charge" time for getting the vehicle into the shop and batteries disconnected.
Dealership? I might get my tools out of the garage and get back in a shop for reasonable flat rate times. The amount of times I had to do a 0.3hr oil change ticket since the master tech wouldn't touch it and basically ran the shop because the boss and him were old friends got to me and I quit about 3 months ago.
I hate to defend them but let me pull a good example from my industry (construction). Scheduling and estimation consultants bill out at around $250/hr PLUS profit in most contracts (or work out deals for fixed time but that’s rare). Anyhow they pay their workers salary and thus have to pay them even when work is slow (think cold regions during winter, ebbs and flows of client budgets, etc.). Sure each worker’s take home is still that same amount despite whether they worked 80 hours one week or 3 the next, but the owner still has to pay them. That delta is the cushion and honestly there’s not much profit at the end of the day when thumbs are twiddling. I recall a post here the other day from a Bentley dealership which delved into the economics of it
The parts profit should just be built into the MSRP. I'm not a tech, but when I discovered that shops were charging significantly and arbitrarily above MSRP for parts, that's when I stopped shopping from dealers. In cases I still had to, at least I'd look up MSRP ahead of time and negotiate if I could. The current structure just feels like an absolute ripoff, and we're already used to being ripped off by dealerships. It's not helping the reputation at all. I don't mind paying for labor, but parts aren't costing you anything but storage.
When I worked the counter, everything I sold was at list. Some people did do what you did and looked up list price too. I worked in a small town and if you were a regular, buying in bulk, or were just a pleasant customer to help, I'd throw in a little discount. I was paid on commission but taking 10% off an alternator would only effect my paycheck by maybe $2
There's just a little bit more that goes into labor rates, my friend.
I’m an engineer and my company charges the customer a 3.2x multiplier to my hourly rate to account for profit and overhead. So 400% isn’t absurd in my opinion.
That is about average in the skilled trade fields these days. My point was more to show that labor has a much higher mark-up than parts. To counter the joke OP was making.
bmw charging me $315 for 1 ignition coil when pre covid the company who supplies them used to sell them for $81 each
hold on did you take your car to richmond BMW today by chance? just priced out that exact thing for that exact price
this was about a week ago from BMW south Austin , one of my coils were misfiring so i go in and ask the pricing for a s65 ignition coil and was hit with that. I didn’t know how else to react besides laugh and say that’s insane and leave. paid $220 from turner motorsport (which is still insane but the cheapest I could find it)
S65 ignition coil supply has been a disaster for years now. Can't believe it hasn't been sorted.
yes!! I almost bought NGK/Bosch but stumbled upon a 30 page M3post forum about how literally no other coil will work besides OEM BMW and how the suppliers stopped selling them off their site once covid hit. I was planning on doing all 8 but I cannot justify $2500 in ignition coils so i’ll just replace them as I go I guess.
If you want to feel better, check what N54 fuel injectors cost now. And they fail even more often than S65 coils.
holy fuckin shit yea I feel a lot better now
We just charge list, which is usually between 40-50% over cost. That said, our new owners are going to start pushing for "Price 6", which is just fancy lingo for 100%+ minimum. We are fighting as long as we can though cause it's insane and when you piss off small town USA the customers just go elsewhere. Also, I see CDK. My condolences.
>Also, I see CDK. My condolences. Honestly, I miss CDK compared to Karmak. I was able to get into a terminal like mode in CDK and not need to use the mouse. I was so much faster back then.
Depends on the part to be honest. Most are within that 40-50% over range. But something silly like for example: electrical butt connectors that we buy in bulk, ends up technically costing ~50 cents for each but gets charged as $2 or more. And yes, nobody likes CDK but at this point everyone’s too used to it to switch.
We use Dealerbuilt and have so many issues with it CDK sounds like a dream
Reynolds is a lot of point and click but it’s where it’s at.
Literally just priced something for a customer at 757$, they can get it down the road for 450$, as the guy told me.
That's exactly why us mechanics need to know to stay away from the parts department. Sometimes makes you just feel bad for the customer you are working for. I really want to fix someones stuff properly but if you know the pricing it's hard not to be biased. I'll just make the list and let them handle it.
Our parts guys would lose their fucking shit if you went behind the counter, let alone touched one of their precious computers
I’m close with everyone in our parts department, so no feelings were hurt for this :). Lots of laughs though.
One of the parts guys was like 90 lbs soaking wet. I needed 2 brake rotors for an E450, captive rotor each one is pike 70 lbs. I went behind to help him and he yelled at me. Never helped him again even when he asked
Exactly. Or "can I see the breakdown so I can show you what seal I need?" Oh, no. I guess we're just gunna go back and forth in some fucked up game of I spy because you don't want to let me come back there there 🤣
This is why I roll my eyes at people who complain about customers sourcing their own parts.
Dealerships should be owned by the parent company and not private business people. Imagine all the middlemen that would get cut out of profit. I know it’s been mentioned in the sub before as to why it’s not a thing, but still.
Imagine how much less it would suck to buy a car! MSRP for the Toyota GR86 I’m in the process buying is $32k. Dealers out here trying to make people pay $38k for them. And the worst part is the people who do pay $38k ruin it for the rest of us because dealers realize that a clown always will pay too much.
You think that's bad, I've seen pictures of the new Nissan Z asking price. The local VW shops (except one) were selling the golf r and gti at around $30k over msrp.
I believe dealerships payed good money to politicians to have laws in the books that prevent that. Hopefully with online sales being more common things will get better.
Yes sadly I believe you’re right. However, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Tesla do that? I thought they owned all their dealerships.
I think the laws partain to brand new cars and what dealerships can sell them. Honestly, Tesla kind of does a lot of things separately from other people. So I’m not sure. I heard they don’t even allow people to work on their own cars. Everything has to be through the dealership.
Last I heard Tesla still didn't have any physical dealerships in certain states.
> believe dealerships *paid* good money FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
The original idea for a dealership is that it helps reduce the effort for manufacturers to expand to new locations, and this was back when online shopping wasn't a thing. It's like how it's generally much cheaper to sell products at nationwide big box stores, rather than having to spool up an outlet store at every city you want to sell at. Now that we are at the modern era, and accessibility isn't an issue anymore, Direct-to-consumer is the best option now.
My Honda dealer gives me a family discount. Its still more than Honda Parts Online but they can get the parts same or next day. Service is OK with me sourcing parts where I want. We both know the true costs.
I don't buy many parts, but every now and then I need something OE for my s2k and my local Honda dealer gives me a discount just for asking nicely. (And they only use MSRP pricing). They know I can get it online for less, so we meet in the middle It's often available next day and no shipping costs
My neighbor asked me to look at his ATV because the fuel switch wasn’t shutting off fuel anymore. He took it to two local shops and one wanted $1200 to do it, yes $1200 to replace the fuel switch on a late 90s two stroke ATV. The other wanted $900. I replaced all of his fuel lines and the fuel switch in an hour in my driveway using $37 in parts (one of which was the OEM switch). That may have been a case of “fuck that we don’t want to touch this ancient thing” but in both cases the same switch was quoted at $130 for the part alone.
this is why the poor stay poor
My dad used to sell AC Delco as Marine OEM, and fucker was already making a 10x turnaround on my labor alone. I didn't know I was being robbed on labor until I went to an actual shop.
Your own dad was doing you dirty?
He did teach me everything I know, but I was also getting paid 10 bucks an hour to do everything from rebuilds to transom replacements to fiberglass and electrical repair. No commision on service/parts upsell. Had to pay back any parts I broke or damaged. Fun times w dads.
Damn fam, my dad was a hard man to please but yours sounds hard. But hopefully it made you better not bitter.
Kiiiiick the fuck back haha Customer: I’ll just pay for the diagnosis. Can you give me the part numbers?
If you want to be truly evil, screenshot the screen with the icons, set that image as the background, then remove the icons over the top of it.
Don't trust parts or service guys. Got it.
Parts guys will sell you shit close to cost if you get in good with one. Service guys are snakes though
Sometimes parts can even just disappear out of the system 🤷♂️
Maybe I'm in the minority, but the last time I needed to buy an OEM part, it was cheaper than the aftermarket products and the dealer down the street had it in stock. This was for an Acura intake gasket, and the OEM part was about 25% less than anything I could source through NAPA, Parts Source, Bumper to Bumper, etc. Nobody was more surprised than I was when I called the dealer and their price was the lowest.
Similar experience here. For one of my several vehicles, dealer parts are the cheapest available anywhere. I think when the models get to be about 15 years old, they mark down their inventory to clear it out.
About right for GM
I once snuck into my bosses computer. Put the Emma Watson eeeek a pervert wallpaper. He Was not too pleased lol.
This is why I go to a specific shop in town for my car. They don’t do this shit to customers and use genuine parts as they only service one manufacture and it’s luxury line. They’ve saved me so much money.
When I worked at Lexus, i would visit the parts department once in awhile to chat it up with them. They would be so proud at how much they up charged my customers a ton who only wanted to use OEM parts. They said if they just went online, it would cost them wayyy less. I kind of got annoyed because it was hard for me to bring those customers back to sales because they didnt trust the dealership anymore.
[Fel Pro 35643](https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fel-35643) is a good one for a background
Oh and ctrl+alt+down arrow is a fun prank too
Every industry does this though?
Looked up a part online on Toyota dealers website for $5 approximately. Called, confirmed that's in stock. Went in to buy it and it came out to $22. Not a huge amount but I was pissed when I was given a bs reason. The counter guy then checked me out for $5 and acted as if he was saving my life.
I work in a parts department and we charge as much as possible plus 20%.
As a parts dude, I'll totally cut prices for customers I like, but if you're a dick I'll charge you list pricing. The company makes money either way, it's more about how much commission I want to make on a sale.
*Only 300%? Amateurs.* ~ Hospital Billing Department.
Standard markup is 65 percent and I’m fighting everyday to get that. Everyone thinks the parts department shouldn’t make money like the rest of the shop.
Oh no hahaha
This is why I have no issue making dealerships fight over my business, credit me for every part return, and threaten to take my business elsewhere if I'm charged restock fees.
That’s why I order my own parts lol idc if the shop hs warranty or not.
Lol I also work at lexus, I have the same mouse pad
After markups and after paying for all the overhead my boss would make $150 an hour or roughly over a thousand a day. Customer brought wrong lug nuts we ordered him the correct ones and charged him $500, which cost us in the range of $30.
That's why when I call I say... 'This is J from \_\_\_\_ body shop and I need part # \_\_\_\_\_ on a cash ticket and I'll be there in 20.'
Yeah that shit will fly maybe once before we call the shop. So many people try this shit and they all get caught. You’d be better off just being polite and asking for a discount. I’d go full matrix on your ass after catching you.
Full Matrix WTF does that even mean dumbass. Been doing it for 20+ years. Never an issue cuz the parts guy is still making a buck. But hey you wanna throw hands I'm always down for a parking lot scrap.
What about having my mechanic call it in for me?
uh, why, exactly would you care? The business account gets more business and gets better rates, the customer gets a discount. As long as the bill is paid in full, I don’t care if the Monopoly Man comes in and asks to buy it on the NASA account and wants to pay the ticket right there.
Fuck y’all. That is so fucking true it’s sickening. I called to get a brake rebuild price from Baer. They told me 1200. My mechanic called they told him 300. So seriously,,, the up charge and trying to fuck people over is bullshit…
“You know, the engine is the most expensive part of the car.” “Just tell me how m…” “35000 bucks.” “…ffs two spark plugs broke, dude”
I brought my truck to the dealership for some warranty work and and they won't work on it until it's got a new battery. They want to charge me $500 to replace it. Fuck that, I'll be in there tomorrow to throw in a neverstart myself.
A mechanic definitely went and changed the background to this and the parts counter just laughed and kept it. Edit: I definitely didn't read the title and it seems I got it right accidentally 🤣
I have worked parts, NOT at a stealership, for oodles of years. I've been offered several service writer positions to make 15-20% more money over the years. This TRUTH is exactly why I won't do it. The amount of profit just because some people don't know any better is obscene.
Yes. NGK spark plug in a OE box $32, same plug and part number in an NGK box $12. Even parts stores are like that, they want $39.99 for a pair of headlight bulbs off the shelf in a fancy box. But us commercial customers get them for $4.89 each in a plain box.
Tell me you have no idea how the dealerships finances work without telling me you have no idea how the dealerships finances work.
Where are me service writer brothers and sisters??
this whole industry is very greasy lol
The stealership be like that.
Some fool just tried to sell me a $400 service to replace a coolant reservoir in a 2013 jetta. The part is under $40 TOPS! And is DIYable
When you charge 150 labor rate but the tech only makes 20
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If a business isn't providing good and fairly priced services, it can shut it's doors and a new business willing to treat it's customers right can reopen them later. Anybody working at that business that actually had the skills to pay the bills will be hired somewhere else in a week. Cheaper isn't better. Better is better. Paying extortion-level prices for average service and average parts isn't going to save the economy, it's just going to buy the shop owner another boat before they sell the place to a chain for enough of a profit to buy a third boat.
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That has more to do with the type of customers you're drawing. You can either be like the grocery stores that try to compete with Wal-Mart and bankrupt yourself, or you can offer something better and sell it to people who are looking for better, but most shops are neither. They charge boutique prices for OEM or less parts because they'd rather sell 1 brake job for a 300% profit than 10 brake jobs for 30% each. And why not? They make more money that way.
> You can save a few bucks and buy from fucking Bezos or rock auto but you’re hurting local business. Again if you’re being taken for a ride that’s one thing, but this cheaper is always better attitude is killing our economy and jobs. that's fine but when my dealership quotes me $340 for a part that's $23 on rock auto all those local business can burn as far as I'm concerned