Prices Question

I have little experience buying on line but have these experiences. I needed a fog light assembly for my pickup, Deader wanted $64 + state and county sales tax. Bought online less than $15, shipping included no sales tax. Needed starter for ATV, Dealer wanted $350 + tax. Online less than $60, no other charges. Exact fit and seemed to be exact replacement. Why?

Good question ..... well a good question if the products are exactly the same quality (and not just look and fit the same). Sometimes there is a reason and here's a simple example. Go down to your local Home Depot and pick up a small spring of some sort to replace one in say your pickup truck? Give the spring a few expansion tugs or compressions and you'll see why the OEM one costs many times more. Same would go for most bolts, nuts, and washers etc.

my thinking is you cut out a bunch of middle men who all take a cut. rockauto, whom i buy alot from, ships me the product, right from the manufacturer, thus cutting out all the middle men. some some parts come from china? yes they do. same as your dealer parts!

Dealers make $$$$ off people too dumb to either buy on line or believe their B-S about its a better product coming from a dealership.Even aftermarket sellers do the same thing
good example are the starters sold for some Oliver tractors range form around $100 up to almost $300 same starter.

Part is also from overhead costs. A brick-and-mortar business normally has higher insurance costs because of on-site customers, whereas an online-only store has only online customers (no slip-and-fall accidents, for example).

A brick-and-mortar business also depends on being in a good location. That means having high-priced real estate and an eye-appealing building. All of this relates to higher initial and long-term costs, including taxes.

Brick-and-mortar are normally also at the mercy of the local town/city -- meaning, they have to often charge multiple taxes that online warehouses don't. Online warehouses can choose where they set up shop, including the state.

Brick-and-mortar businesses MUST KEEP MONEY TIED UP in inventory, including shelving and the miscellaneous costs involved, such as having to set up customer-appealing displays.

Brick-and-mortar business normally has a client base that is limited to the local public. Online has the potential to sell world-wide.

These and [i:c00d5e6a46]many other[/i:c00d5e6a46] facets all figure in to the pricing.

(quoted from post at 13:45:55 11/05/18) I have little experience buying on line but have these experiences. I needed a fog light assembly for my pickup, Deader wanted $64 + state and county sales tax. Bought online less than $15, shipping included no sales tax. Needed starter for ATV, Dealer wanted $350 + tax. Online less than $60, no other charges. Exact fit and seemed to be exact replacement. Why?

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Assuming you are comparing apples to apples, there are a lot of things that go into price. Dealerships sit on a lot of expensive real estate, so...taxes. Dealerships employ a lot of people, so...wages. but then you also have to consider the profit margins that the owner is expecting to collect. An online retailer might expect 20% to keep him rolling in tall cotton, whereas the millionaire dealership owner might expect 100%.

The dealer gets OEM parts, pays in advance, pays interest on that money waiting for you to come buy it, pays labor to stock it, sell it, listen to you complain about the cost and your wife's cat story, then when you install it wrong and break it and bring it back they warranty it. They also have to pay for the building, grounds and inventory so when you come in they have what you want. All so you can buy aftermarket, frequently inferior products on-line and let them go broke so when you need it right away they are not there for you.

I owned a '92 Pontiac Grand Am. A very large racoon decided to cross the road and I hit it. Totally broke one of the driving lights that are located down low. No other damage. $90 for that light from the dealer, but my insurance covered it. Later, while shopping at Wal-Mart, I found a driving light kit with TWO lights in it priced at $35. SAME EXACT brand of light as what I had just paid $90 for just one.

Like the John Deere new starters for a 445 mower that are $400+ and guaranteed 90 days compared to aftermarket $60 starters that are guaranteed a year? Says a lot about which place thinks they have the better starter.JD also sells a 'rebuilt' starter for about $350 that is identical to the aftermarket one for $60.What dealership has what you need when you go there? Most I know probably don't have the part and will order it 1)Get it in a few days and customer pays the freight 2)Get it with the next parts order who knows when that'll be,all after driving
20 miles to their dealership, one time to order and one time to pick up the part.Order on line its here in a couple 3 days no hassle,no trips no time wasted and for far less money$ most of the time.BTW I also buy parts books on line from ebay and other places for all my tractors/equipment so I have a better of chance getting the right part on line than at the dealership on the first try.

My wife has a Expedition and the electric fuel pump went out. I called local NAPA, their price was $106.00. I asked them to look it up under someone else's name they like better than me. The new price was 72 bucks. I called the local O'Rileys their price was 78 bucks. I then looked on Ebay and prices were all over the place. I did get one delivered to my mail box for $13.60 including shipping. I did install it and it did match the one I pulled out. Lots of price difference from 106, or 72 to under 14 bucks and delivered! I have been ordering most of the parts I need anymore. Most parts stores ask you if you looked online for the part number to make their job easier. If I am expected to look online for the right part I might just as well have one sent to my door. I guess this is just change. I did like the old way of doing business where you walked in or picked up the phone and a live person helped you find the right part. Now its more than likely a kid that knows very little about parts. I would hate to count how many times I have had to explain what a John Deere 4020 is to a kid behind the counter. Al

There is an alternate answer for most of those reasons you give here.

First, a physical location is a physical location. Whether or not it is made from "brick and mortar." Parts suppliers are not simply pulling parts out of thin air. They have to be stored someplace. Whether it is at the manufacturer or a warehouse in the middle of no place, they still have to come from some place.
No manufacturer is going to drop ship their product one piece at a time, each piece to a different location. Not happening. They want to sell their product in volume and all to one place as much as possible.

Also, they cannot sell parts unless they have them readily available. That means that they have to be stored in a physical building. Note that I do not have to say "brick and mortar" 20 times. That building can be located in a low tax area, but still has to be reasonably convenient to shipping and receiving.

Much of the markup that dealers and local parts houses charge is because they are in a constant state of flux. Notice how many buildings are continually being remodeled, added on to, or simply just torn down and replaced. Who do you suppose pays for all of that?

Granted, an online seller has lower overhead. But, the local sellers do no0t have so much more overhead as to have to charge 10 times as much as the online sellers.

"brick and mortar" is simply a figure of speech.

And when that dealer is gone you will be stuck with only on-line. Hopefully that will be enough and you never need a mechanic or advice on how to do things.

Worked at small Ford dealership as mechanic for 4 years. Our parts inventory was fairly limited due to size of dealership. If someone was in a hurry wanting car back, and we not have the part, we would get the replacement from local carquest if they had it. Not all the time, but most of the time, the parts were the same thing but of a much lower quality coming from carquest. I not saying this just because of working for Ford. I no longer work there. I know because I put them on and dealt with the longivity of the life of the part. Exhaust parts were the worst. There are cheaper parts being made out there.
Online places don't have as much overhead. And probly get bigger bulk discounts from buying from different place or manufacturer.
But yes, I do believe dealerships skin us just a little on top of it all.

Your online might look like OEM but may not be made to manufacture specs as far as material used to make it.

Your online giving you a longer warranty may not be around to replace it in 6 months and then what do you do?

The starter is probably aftermarket, but probably as good as oem.

Well lets see if I buy the new starter from JD and it goes bad in 6 months I can go back and buy another $400+ starter since it carries a 90 day guarantee.If I buy the $350 rebuilt starter guaranteed for 1 year and it goes bad in 6 months they give me another starter,then when the replacement goes bad in 6 months again I can buy another $350 starter.Now if I buy the $60 starter (think it was exactly $52) on line and it goes bad in 6 months and can't get the replacement (BTW this was 2 years ago and the company is still in business)I buy another $60 starter.I've used these starters sold by DB Electric and several applications and have never had any problem with them or their 1 wire alternators.

Nope I don't need their advice and am probably more capable mechanic than many at the dealership,either way if they need to gouge me on parts to stay in business they need to go broke as
far as I'm concerned.Of course they won't because in my area they have plenty of 'true believers' to gouge.

Yea and it MIGHT be a better built product than the OEM.I have bought replacement parts for equipment that were clearly superior to the original part.

good question.

1st make sure you're talking apples to apples. is the online part a factory OEM part?

for the RIGHT Part... I buy about 1/2 and 1/2 for parts online versus local shops (dealer or autoparts stores). many bigger car dealers sell parts online too and at a fair discount compared to the local smaller dealers. a big Dodge dealer in Fort Wayne will sell parts way cheaper than the local Goshen dealer... and the even smaller Lagrange dealer would sell for even less sometimes... go figure. (unfortunately the Lagrange dealer was bought out by a bunch of shysters)

our local toro/wheelhorse dealer was sold to another local guy. called and stopped by for prices on new blades and mower deck belt for my Wheelhorse. about $85 plus tax and he did have them in stock. Ordered them online form a Toro dealer in Youngstown OH online and paid $44 for both with shipping. like to support the local guy but.. there comes to a point where you just cannot pay that kind of difference.

Also, seems like noone wants to stock stuff anymore... any why would i pay the napa guy shipping for ordering me parts (sometimes they try to shipping too but normally it comes on their delivery truck). if you have to pay for shipping you may as well order online.

some stuff like AC (house) parts i could only get them online as no-one anywhere around even sold them let alone carry them. if fact the local ac repairman orders from the same website too.

I quite often use rockautto to get part part numbers and then search amazoon or eebay or even local dealers for a better price as RockAuto shipping usually pushes them out of line for price.

And sometimes i do both order online and buy local at the same time.... like naapa used to have a deal it was 10% off if you ordered online and picked up at the store. i think they got rid of that and now you have to look for a discount code to enter like advance auto or autoozone.. do that with advance auto online with discount code and pick up at our local carquest store. kinda the best of both worlds... discount and support the locals.

So, what you are saying is that we should all continue to be price gouged on the remote chance that one day we will need something from that overpriced dealer? And hope that the dealer stays in business for that reason?

I have no problem supporting the local guy whenever possible. I DO have a problem with being charged as much as 10 times what a part should cost every time I need something.

Also note that I spent a lot of time peddling freight regionally here in the Northeast. I delivered to and picked up from many suppliers of auto parts. I saw a lot that most folks will never see. One thing I did see is that there are not as many manufacturers of electrical parts as one might think. I saw things like window motors, starters, wiper motors, and a host of other parts all coming out of one bulk box and going to dealers, high volume parts houses, and mom and pop stores alike. I even questioned what I saw, and was told that I saw right. Bottom line is that there is not as much difference as one might think in parts - especially electrical stuff. Of course, now somebody will try to tell me that I did not see what I saw.

And this site has as many posts complaining about the quality of aftermarket products as it does of these complaining about the cost of things at the local store.

Next week you, or someone else, will post on here complaining about the quality of aftermarket parts. There are about equally numbers of each type post. I buy from both places myself, I just keep in mind that without those dealers and stores my life will be much more difficult

You and my wife have something in common you both THINK you know what I'm going to do(LOL) I can't ever remember being one of the cry babies about any parts OEM or replacement type.
I'm going to look out for myself and my money on parts and the manager of one of the local dealerships that drives a Corvette and takes expensive trips all over the world is
going to have to do it on someone's else's money.

We agree on one thing lots of Whiners and Cry babies around(LOL)Good grief look how many have a panic attack over resetting their clocks 2X a year must be nice not to have real problems.

Take a look at were that after market part is made has a lot to do with how it holds up.

I've bought both places. Most of the time I have trouble finding parts that are cheaper on line than locally. Most of the time I can beat the online parts prices even if there is shipping on the local parts. I can not afford parts at Rock auto compared to my local guys or online.