Questions and Answers

Comments: Dealer Versus Aftermarket Q. Hi, there, I'm a woman who services the family cars. I enjoyed your article about dealership versus independent repair shops. You left out one important option to the consumer who wants his car repaired: Buy your own warranted parts!!!! I have a 1985 Lincoln Town car and a 1992 Subaru SVX that my husband drives. I have been taking cars in for service for a number of years.

It helped that my dad had a used car lot, and I spent many a happy hour hanging over a car engine as he worked on it.

I am lucky to have at my disposal a Mobile mechanic who will come to me and do repair work and install my purchased warranted parts. I keep these part receipts in a large photo album, so that the receipts are protected by plastic, and if I have a warranted part that fails, I just get the receipt, repurchase the part, have the mechanic R/R the bad part, and take the old part back for replacement under warranty. I use Napa parts exclusively.

I also have a shop about 30 miles away that I can take either car to when it needs something else done-such as brake work, front end work, etc. I used this shop when I bought the SVX to have the PCV valve changed as it was buried in the manifold, and the manifold needed to be taken apart to replace it.

Yes, I do pay to have the part reinstalled, but even if a part fails while traveling I have it covered. I take the appropriate "Photo Album" with the receipts for the vehicle with me, and if something goes that is warranted, I call around until I find a shop that will let me bring my own parts, and go there. Yes, I may pay more, but I know that the shop is not putting in a Kragen or other aftermarket part, and I have the warranty papers should the part fail again.

I realize that many people out there have no experience in buying parts, Dad sent me to the part store on a regular basis, so I know how and what to buy, but there are classes that people can take to learn more about their cars and what goes into repairing them.

And, I am familiar with my cars, and have successfully "troubleshooted" a problem, and had the necessary part all ready for the Mobile mechanic or the shop to install.

I do realize that the newer cars have more "bells and Whistles" that make diagnosis of a problem more difficult, but I'm not planning on buying anything newer than a 1992. When, as far as I am concerned, they get way to crazy with multiple codes for the same problem, and parts you can't get at to replace unless you partially remove the engine.

Just thought I would put my 2 cents in.
Mary

A. Thank you for the comments on my article Mary. It always brightens my day when someone takes the time to write with comments or suggestions, good or bad.

Your suggestion about buying your own parts is a good one, however there are many shops who will not install customer bought parts. They liken it to a person bringing their own eggs to a diner and asking the cook to fry them up.

There are also economic reasons. Many shops lower their hourly labor rate and use the profit on parts to make up the difference. Shops that install customer owned parts, in general have slightly higher hourly labor rates. So while you may save when you buy the part, you could end up losing any savings in the form of a higher labor rate. Some shops even have two labor rates, one for normal work and one for installing customer owned parts.

Also, when you buy a part from NAPA, or any auto parts store, you pay full list price. If I buy the same part from the same place, I pay what is called "jobbers" price. This price is somewhat lower than list price, generally about 20% lower. Of course it varies from part to part based on price. It could be as little as 1% or as high as 40%.

The parts suppliers do this because I buy so much from them that they can still make a profit since I buy so many parts from them. This allows me to charge the customer list price and stay competitive with the parts stores.

But this is not to say that your suggestion is not a good one. If you have a shop that will install your parts for a reasonable labor rate, you can save quite a bit of money, especially on larger, more expensive parts.