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Date:         Mon, 27 Mar 2006 11:41:50 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: overland
In-Reply-To:  <Pine.LNX.4.64.0603270922560.12250@arkanoid.gpcc.itd.umich.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> Have you considered bringing over > hard parts such as bellhousings, > transmissions, and 5 cylinder conversion > parts?

No, and I'll tell you why. Availability and cost notwithstanding (it can get very expensive by the time importation and a weak dollar are factored in), buying these sorts of South African products can be a risky business. Sourcing from South Africa is nothing like sourcing from Germany. Many South African parts are pretty much sold by their exporters as-is/where-is. No warranty at all, and often no way to be completely sure of the history of the part. (Was it dealer overstock? Defective? Factory-second? Reconditioned? Customer return?) Even if the source is reliable (relatively speaking), parts support is far from a sure thing on SA items. If a product turns out to have a defective component, or if a critical part is needed later (i.e. servicable parts in a brake kit that does not use U.S. spec parts), it is entirely possible that the crucial part will be on backorder for months, or even not available separately at all, even in South Africa. What then? The customer is now in proud posession of a very expensive boat anchor, maybe for a few months, maybe forever.

A few outfits (not speaking just of Overland here; there have been others) have periodically opted to import such items anyway. Some have done so with no additional parts support at all, essentially gambling that nothing they ship will be defective or fail within a reasonable period of time (far from a safe bet on South African items). Others have imported a small quantity of spare parts, but it's hard to know what parts may be needed or in what quantity. There are any number of seemingly innocuous components that could render an expensive purchase worthless if they failed (or were defective or missing, or just wore out). So in the end, the customer is also assuming some of this risk. Even if the supplier's intentions are good (and with some suppliers, that's a big "if"), if something goes bad and the supplier simply can't get the needed replacement part, what now? Without naming any specific vendors, I have heard of cases of the customer being left holding the bag - even sometimes on purchases that weren't right from day one.

I don't feel that customers are always well informed (or even informed at all) of these risks. True, some Vanagon owners, even if fully informed, would opt to take the chance anyway, in order to get that elusive upgrade. I understand that, but at the same time I don't feel comfortable putting my name behind it. Therefore, I've opted to forego that profit, and pass on selling those items, rather than distribute a product that (in my opinion) may involve an unacceptable level of risk to my customers. That's why I generally limit my SA offerings to items like grills, mud flaps, etc.. On those sorts of items, any defects will generally be evident when we receive them, at which time the product can simply be scrapped without any harm done to the end user.

- Ron Salmon The Bus Depot, Inc. www.busdepot.com (215) 234-VWVW

_____________________________________________ Toll-Free for Orders by PART # : 1-866-BUS-DEPOT


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