We had time sheets with a gagillion codes, major code then a b c d, even one code for time spent filling out time sheet. Breaks and vacation went under non-productive.
Many dealers around donāt have bodyshops anymore. They outsource it. Some that do have bodyshops will still outsource some of their work if they get too busy.
@MikeInNH. Most of the dealers in my community do have body shops, although that may change as more of our local dealers are being bought by āautomotive groupsā who have dealerships in several communities. These automotive groups sell many different makes under the same dealer name. These automotive group dealers may phase out the body shops if the body shops donāt show a big profit.
The one thing that bothers me about these automotive group dealers is how much support they will give to the community. Our locally owned dealers furnished cars to the university football and basketball coaches. They would let the coaches have the car for about six months, then swap it for another car and sell the first car. It was good advertising and I an sure the depreciation loss was written off their taxes. I coached our computer science programming team. We placed 14th out of over 100 schools. I thought as a coach I should be furnished a car. The owner of the Ford dealer just laughed at my request.
In some cases the dealer charge for a part will be significantly higher than a local parts house such as AutoZone, NAPA, or whomever. This is generally not the dealerās fault as the dealer will have to pay more to the car manufacturer for that part than what a local parts house has to pay for a similar item.
I remember a long time ago when I had to replace the transmission on a 30k miles Subaru. The trans exploded catastrophically through no fault of the car owner. It was caused by an internal seal leak and the car was 2 months out of warranty. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with Subaru urging them to Good Will warranty it but they refused and would not budge.
The car owner was irate of course as his cost on the transmission alone (no labor, gaskets, fluid, taxes, etc) was right at 5 grand. The price the dealer had to pay for that transmission was 4 grand so a 25% markup which is not bad. The car owner was justifiably livid and I do not blame him one bit.
The biggest markup on that transmission was from corporate Subaru. They charged 4 grand for it and if the truth be known probably had it manufactured for way less than 500 bucks.
For some reason there are some dealers who sell parts on-line and their on-line price is significantly lower then if I walked into the parts department and bought it. Some Dealers also are doing the same thing with car sales (although the discount isnāt as much). Thereās their on-line price and lot price. Itās just another way to try to confuse the customer.
That was the case with GM dealers for sure. They HAD to buy ACDelco parts from GM Parts Division. The Delco Division I worked for sold shocks at double the price we sold to the car plants. We added boxes and install parts. GMPD doubled to price again to the dealer who doubled it to the consumer. A $5 shock absorber became a $40 part. Trade could buy it at 20% discount and sell it at the same price as the dealer for a 20% profit for the shop and a 60% profit for the dealer.
Our division sold to Western Auto, or Advance or Napa for that same price we sold to GMPD who then sold it to the customer for twice what they paid or to the trade for 20% discount. That $5 shock then sold for $20.
Oddly enough, this didnāt upset GMPD all that much. They were, of course, raking in the money anywayā¦
Body shops generate more revenue than the service department, there is great profit in collision parts/repair ( take a look at the sky high price of Toyota replacement parts).
Dealers located on āmain streetā generally lack the real estate needed to accommodate a body shop. In many cases local zoning laws wonāt allow body shop painting in close proximity to residential areas.
I research things fairly thoroughly before buying. Napa does not make parts, and they sell different quality grades. I am equating top of the line Raybestos with top of the line Napa. But one of the great things I have found about RockAuto is the choice they have on offer.
You are right about shipping costs being potentially high, but I found that by splitting my order into 3 orders more than halved the total shipping cost through FedEx. Obviously there is a sweet spot in terms of weight per box, and 100lb plus is expensive to ship. By splitting the order into 1) 2 rear rotors, and 2 caliper pin kits and a rubber boot kit 2) one front rotor and the front and rear brake pads and 3) the other front rotor-- Shipping costs went from 160 to 75. And yes that amount was included in the 300 total.
NAPA = Genuine Parts Company which seems intent on remaining obscure in their finances but the company seems to own a substantial amount of equity in many businesses including manufacturers in the automotive and industrial markets. Raybestos was once a substantial product line for NAPA but Iāve been out of touch for a decade so currently Iām clueless on that issue. But the Genuine Parts/NAPA/Motion Industries conglomerate and their many subsidiaries seem to have the inside track on a great deal of the automotive after market and OE market.
Like so many products these days itās impossible to link auto parts brands to their sources, geographic, financial or political. Huffy bicycles for instance, are on sale across the country but the Huffy Corporation has been defunct in the US for over a decade.
Rod you cannot tell from year to year. I have ordered Timken bearings in the past that were made in the US, then made in South Korea, and then for a third change the part was a repackaged OE Japanese wheel bearing identical to the OE Nissan part. ( owned the car for 11 years).
I am not sure about the US but in Canada in my experience Napa prices its parts, at least the top of the line ones, to be very close to dealer prices. Rock Auto even with exchange rate differences and shipping costs is usually substantially cheaper for me while giving me a larger choice of different quality parts.
Just bought 2 rear KYB struts for the Forester off Amazon.ca for $96 each-- total cost with tax and free delivery for Prime members = $220 CAD. Just looked up the exact same parts at NAPA Canada and the total to buy from them including taxes is $640.18 CAD for in store pick up
RockAuto-- same thing with shipping and taxes 310
Parts Avatar with shipping and taxes 290.
I have sent an email to Napa asking how this can be. I will update if and when they ever respond.
Just how did you determine that they are real KYB? Because the seller said so? Anyone selling fake parts certainly no draw the line at lying about it.
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You really expect an answer ?
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Hi Michael:
When buying items like this off of Amazon, where the price is seemingly too good to be true, how does one know they didnāt get fake merchandise?
Iām not saying you got fake merchandise. But how does one know?
Napa stores are brick and mortar, they have to pay for the land, pay for the building, and then pay taxes on it, heat and cool it and put a large inventory of parts in every store. They also have to employ fairly knowledgeable people from open to close no matter if business is brisk or slow. They are also there if your car is in pieces all over your driveway and you bought the wrong part.
You make coherent posts, why are you so myopic when it comes to business costs and markup. People charge what they need to to make a profit. If they get too greedy and try to make too much profit, people go elsewhere and the business goes under. Brick and mortar stores cannot compete with online sellers solely on price.
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In my opinion that is exactly what Napa is doing. I doubt they will answer me. I thought capitalism would require them to be competitive rather than expecting me to pay more for the pleasure of doing business with them.
As with anything buyer beware. And you and others are possibly right that if something appears too good to be trueā¦ However, in this case, we are talking KYB and they are sold directly through Amazon, and as a Prime member, I am getting āāfreeāā shipping. Both Parts Avatar and Rock Auto are also offering competitive pricing, with Parts Avatar shipping orders over $99 Free
I have simply chosen to post this current example as one more case where Napa is simply not competitive for a price-aware consumer.
I will pay them for caliper pins that they charge $15 for, that RockAuto will sell for $6 but I am paying for convenience and aware I am doing so. So as not to completely rag on them, I do find they sell some nicely priced tools on sale every now and then.
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I will know from the box and product. I have bought and installed KYB struts before. I am buying them through Amazon directly not a sub seller. They sell a lot of struts, and I have never seen a buyer comment that they received fake struts.
If you want another part example two months ago I bought 2 front control arms ( Mevotech supreme line) for the Forester from Parts Avatar, delivered to my door in 3 days. A single one of the exact same part was more than double at NAPA.
There is no mystery to me about NAPA pricing-- all of the good stuff is priced to be 5 or 10 less than Subaru sells the OE part at the dealership for.
The very point of capitalism is the freedom for NAPA to charge what they think is right and the consumers right to decide to pay it or go elsewhere. Freedom to succeed or fail as the market decides.
NAPA, I think, caters to repair shops more than the DIYer as would the dealer. So NAPA prices slightly lower than the dealer on parts that are not cheap junk. They leave that market to Ebay and Pep Boys.
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What Mustangman said.
I worked at a service station in the 60s, I could use our shop discount at NAPA for the best price, less expensive than other sources, without the discount, more expensive. Now, I use a big box store for the few things I still do myself.
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Auto Zone was originally Auto Shack and began in the south in Memphis Tennessee. The first store in my area was the 13th for the company to open and Pitt Hyde, the founder, actually had a multi acre grocery wholesale warehouse in my home town prior to getting into the auto parts business. All that to to mention that Pitt Hyde recognized the parts stores were catering to the shops and charging walk in customers the full manufacturerās recommended list price while the DIY market was both enlarging overall while a more upscale clientele was materializing. Under the Auto Shack name the stores were stocked with the cheapest products available which turned off the upscale business and after being forced to rename itself Auto Zone there was a very slow move toward improving the product line.
And now today the entire auto parts market is being centered on the A-Z marketing scheme with local mom and pop stores folding up and NAPA trying to grab hold of a piece of the DIY market as they see A-Z digging into their professional customer base.
As for the free market, it has worked well in that those who were previously gouging the DIYers have boarded up their shops and the corporations that took their business are now forced to find and market quality lines of merchandise at discount prices which seems to be a difficult problem. Oh well, time marches on.