Hi folks – I need to purchase a cheap alternator for our 1999 Subaru Legacy Outback. Basically, we want to and had planned on selling the car (to CarMax, to make it as painless as possible. I had a fine experience selling my Toy. Corolla there a couple years back) – but the alternator died a…

You’ll get the core charge back when you return your old alternator (the “core”), which will then be sent out to be rebuilt. If you don’t return the old alternator you lose the core charge. What’s so difficult about that?

I see – thanks for the info! I read about the refund on the parts store websites, but didn’t understand it (it sound like I would have to bring the part I was buying for them back — like a return or something). I’ll go forward with the purchase. Thanks again for clarifying.

So the goal is to get the cheapest alternator at the cheapest price If I was going to immediately turn around and sell the car to some entity like CarMax, I’d look around for a recycling yard part first. Typically half of the cost of a rebuilt unit and perhaps less if your negotiating skills are …

“Cash On Return”, COR or core. You buy a rebuilt unit, they need to make sure they get the used one back so they can rebuild that one in turn. If you buy a new alternator you won’t have a core charge.

If you purchase your alternator from a Massachusetts parts store, then you’ll need to pay sales tax on the core charge amount. And you won’t get that sales tax back when you get your core charge back.

I bought a caliper for my 98 Pathfinder…Caliper cost $90. The core charge was $300. They really really really wanted the old one back.

Agreed – but time is a big motivating factor for us at this point, and the option of just walking down the block to the local parts store might be worth the $50 in savings we’d bring in from the recycling yard.

The yards where you live may be different but around here, they aren’t much different than the parts store. The parts are already stripped off the cars, inventoried on computer and stored on shelving. You call, they tell if they have one and how much it costs. If they don’t have it, they are often c…

I would dispute that as the origin. I would think core in this context means exactly what it means everywhere else. It is the central part that the rest is assembled around, such as an apple core, or the core of your body. The reason for the core charge is as a deposit so the remanufacturers can r…

"Core" charges for an alternator?

Maintenance/Repairs

Caddyman March 30, 2011, 4:23pm 9

Salvage yards sell alternators for around half new price. No core charge usually…Look in your Yellow Pages under “Used Auto Parts”. Japanese cars…Also, from a parts store, sometimes the rebuilt alternator DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PULLY. So bring your old one with you and they will usually swap the pully for you…

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"Core" charges for an alternator?

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