Date:         Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:50:05 -0800
Reply-To:     Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: New Car Dealers And Parts Prices
In-Reply-To:  <f685d1ce4679.47a09129@gci.net>
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 RE: Parts Pricing
To add to the story I'll pass on a little lesson taught to me graphically by
a good friend that owned and ran an auto parts store, an independent
operation, not a chain store.  Somehow we ended up talking about wheel
bearings.  He walked over to the shelf and picked up three or four boxes
containing wheel bearings, front bearings if I recall right.  All from the
same vendor, different part numbers on the boxes.  He then opened the
typical at the time catalog on the stand on the counter, one of many parts
catalogs all stacked together.  And he showed me what vehicles those
bearings were specified for and the price.  I think it was Chevy, Pontiac
and Olds, maybe Buick too. But I know they were all GM cars, each considered
to be low, medium and high end cars, good better, best if you like.  And the
cars sold in different price ranges.  The prices for the bearings ran (and
this is for illustration only, don't remember the real numbers) for like $5
for the Chev, $7 for Olds, $9 for Pontiac and $12 for the Buick.  I do
remember that the high price was more than double the lowest price.  Then he
told me to open the boxes and look at the manufacturers part number, small,
on the bearing itself.  I don't recall if Timkin or SKF or what, but the
numbers on all the bearings were identical.  But, GM specified a different
part number for each car and the dealer pricing apparently ran about the
same range.  So the after market vendors, whose product I was looking at,
followed suit.
BTW, I have a vague memory of GM getting their butts kicked pretty good over
that kind of business practice some time after that but don't have any
details.

Another BTW.  I was raised in a machine shop.  I learned early on that there
are specialty shops for just about everything you might want to buy and that
the specialty shops will usually have what you want and their prices will be
better than going to a 'general store' vendor that carries a little bit of a
whole bunch of stuff and no one knows the entire inventory.  Here in Seattle
I learned to call Bearing Sales and Services, order by manufacturers part
number and pick up at the Will Call counter.  I saved an employer a big, and
I mean big, bundle of cash doing just that one time, not vehicle related..
He thought I was a genius