Supplying own parts for service

blackiebest · 19-01-2009 10:35PM

The simple fact of the matter here is that punters who want to get value, while wanting to allow worthy mechanics/tradespeople make a decent living are getting raped by a substantial proportion of the people involved in the respective industries, be they automotive , construction or whatever. People involved, who post here, seem to defend the indefenesable and twist the honest views expressed. Well shame on those who do. It is WRONG to pay 100-200% more for parts than our neighbours in the UK, be those parts for cars or anything else. No wonder our money is flowing from this country and we are in the position we are. A good mechanic/tradesperson should be happy to work with any quality part sourced at the best price, otherwise they are supporting a corrupt system of which they become a part.

On a different note there is a nasty element of bullying pervading this thread. We as a society need to pull together to eliminate the rip-off mentality of which we are all subject to in one form or another.

The facts stand, if the same oil filter, clutch, exhaust system or whatever can be bought up to 200% cheaper then it is wrong to expect people to pay the rip off price. It makes us all suckers. Mechanics should accept this and those on here seem to want to fight it all the way. It is horsesh1t and only undermines your trade.

Darragh29 · 19-01-2009 10:51PM

solo1484 wrote: »

The mechanic gets their parts at trade price from the main dealer or motorfactor, which is cheaper than the RRP to the public; this allows the mechanic to put their own mark-up on parts...so the mechanic really just charges what you prob will get charged if you buy the parts yourself:)

The mechanic also gets a discount because his parts turnover for a month is usually between 10K-20K.

Mr.Diagnostic · 19-01-2009 10:57PM

Parts 100 to 200 percent cheaper?? I imagine you mean parts 25 to 50 percent cheaper. That would be a very rare occurance anyway. There are plenty of business aside from garages who make obsene profits.

There are othe perfectly valid reasons why garages want to only fit parts they supply. Some of these have also been outlined in this thread but have been ignored. Its not all about money.

You should be aware that not all garages charge the same level of prices either. Some put a lot more effort into sourcing parts than others in the same way as some put more effort into doing the job.

Not all garages view this subject the same way and as such should not be viewed the same.

Anyone who expects any business to sell a product for zero profit is way off track. How long does it take to source the right part, of the right quality for the right price? Who pays the time for that? That could very easily turn a 20 min oil change/pretend service into an expensive job.

samsemtex · 19-01-2009 10:58PM

mentioined this earlier but i would imagine there are huge savings to be made by buying your own parts. Today i went into Johnson and Perrotts to get my ABS sorted and they wanted €290 for a part supplied and fitted. I told them they could go jump since they had just charged me €102 to plug in the diagnostic machine and 1 hours "labour" ie. looking under the car.

I rang the dealers in the North and they were able to supply and fit the part for £135, which today is €150. Now they had a labour charge of £38 to fit it which i think is less than 1 hours work as their hourly rate is £45. That means they were charging £97(€107) for the part. Assuming that J&P should take the same amount of time to fit the part and accordingly charge under 1 hour labour €90 that leaves them with a price difference of €93. Now even with the weak sterling that is a ludicrious price difference. That is 86% higher than the price to the customer in the North.

Not to mind the fact that the hourly rate of a mechanic in the south is somehow worth twice that of his Northern counterpart.

If you can get the parts cheaper yourself i say do it because i certainly wont be paying double the price to have some rip off merchants in the republic fit it (and badly too in my experience of J&P).

Bottom line: Irish garages are a disgrace and they deserve all the hardship they have brought on themselves.

Mr.Diagnostic · 19-01-2009 11:01PM

It is probably worth mentioning that in my opinion, the view presented by Darragh do tally with the views of the majority of the indies that I know. I think he is spot on with some points and way off with others.

Darragh29 · 19-01-2009 11:03PM

blackiebest wrote: »

The simple fact of the matter here is that punters who want to get value, while wanting to allow worthy mechanics/tradespeople make a decent living are getting raped by a substantial proportion of the people involved in the respective industries, be they automotive , construction or whatever. People involved, who post here, seem to defend the indefenesable and twist the honest views expressed. Well shame on those who do. It is WRONG to pay 100-200% more for parts than our neighbours in the UK, be those parts for cars or anything else. No wonder our money is flowing from this country and we are in the position we are. A good mechanic/tradesperson should be happy to work with any quality part sourced at the best price, otherwise they are supporting a corrupt system of which they become a part.

On a different note there is a nasty element of bullying pervading this thread. We as a society need to pull together to eliminate the rip-off mentality of which we are all subject to in one form or another.

The facts stand, if the same oil filter, clutch, exhaust system or whatever can be bought up to 200% cheaper then it is wrong to expect people to pay the rip off price. It makes us all suckers. Mechanics should accept this and those on here seem to want to fight it all the way. It is horsesh1t and only undermines your trade.

The only person engaged in bullying behaviour on this thead here and being over the top and spiteful is you, threatening to publically "manage" a start up business on this forum that has only one aim, to reduce the cost of OEM quality parts in this country.

You don't understand the fundamantals of what is happening here. In Ireland, you are buying in a market of 5,000,000 consumers. That is the same population roughly as Manchester. If you are buying in the UK, you are buying in a market that is closer to 50,000,000 consumers. Of course prices will be lower in a market ten times the size of our market.

Innovative and creative business solutions will resolve this, because someone will see the potential to improve a situation that is in some way inefficient or clumsy and act on it, which is what I am doing in respect of the matter. This is how the market operates, change brings opportunity and eventually new ideas emerge to fill gaps in products & services and the costs associated with these eventually find a reasonable level.

What's the first thing you do when a positive alternative is mentioned, start acting the sap with pre pubsecent talk like, "I'm going to spend my whole day monitoring your website and posting up links of every little price difference I find"....

What we need is people like you to get up off your arse and spend less time looking for faults with other people and their businesses, and whinging and moaning about "the state of the economy" and get out of your fu*king armchair and start making a positive contribution towards resolving the problems we have.

solo1484 · 19-01-2009 11:05PM

It is true that there can be huge savings made on many car parts; especially on the more expensive or unusual items such as clutches, oxygen sesnors, alternators, starters, mass air flow meters and the like and its not at the cost of quality...a massive proportion of parts supplier by motorfactors are indeed the same parts supplied by the main dealer but re-branded.

Mr.Diagnostic · 19-01-2009 11:10PM

samsemtex wrote: »

Bottom line: Irish garages are a disgrace and they deserve all the hardship they have brought on themselves.

Thats a very good point. It is true of any business, not just garages. I would agree 100% if you put some or even most infront of it.

The quality, well run garages that I know are still busy and in my view will remain so.

samsemtex · 19-01-2009 11:10PM

Darragh 29 - you lot are scamming us on Labour costs (double those of the UK) so why should we believe that you arent doing the same on parts?

And it is nonsense using this economies of scale **** as an excuse. Not having the same economy of scale does not result in having to pay double of what those in the UK pay.

Darragh29 · 19-01-2009 11:12PM

Mr.Diagnostic wrote: »

It is probably worth mentioning that in my opinion, the view presented by Darragh do tally with the views of the majority of the indies that I know. I think he is spot on with some points and way off with others.

What do you agree with me on and disagree with me on??? Not looking for a row now, just trying to benchmark my own outlook as the majority of indy operators I know are broken men, dealing with stupid requests from one end of the day to the other. The same can be said for sevice advisors I know working in authorised aftersales operations as well I might ad...

samsemtex · 19-01-2009 11:16PM

Mr.Diagnostic wrote: »

Thats a very good point. It is true of any business, not just garages. I would agree 100% if you put some or even most infront of it.

The quality, well run garages that I know are still busy and in my view will remain so.

Well thats true. It seems to be the larger garages that are the main culprits. And Irish business people have been scamming the consumer for years in all areas but garages do appear to be among the worst offenders that i have seen. We bought our family car off Mercedes Manchester and they had a bouquet of flowers waiting for my mother when she arrived to pick it up. When we didnt go back to the place for our service(for obvious reasons) we got an email off them enquiring why not and offering us 50% of the price of our next service. Can you imagine an Irish garage doing that? Fat chance.

Mr.Diagnostic · 19-01-2009 11:18PM

samsemtex wrote: »

Darragh 29 - you lot are scamming us on Labour costs (double those of the UK) so why should we believe that you arent doing the same on parts?

Labour prices in the UK are not half what they are here.

It is very difficult to compare labour prices. In Ireland I know of small garages who charge lowest €40ph and highest €90ph. I know of similar in the UK. The cost of living in the UK is also lower.

It would take someone who is very well versed in a particular garages running costs to judge if they are expensive or not.

p.s. I do business with a lot of uk based garages and have regular contact with many more so I suspect I may be in a better position to judge this but would be interested to hear exactly what you base your statement on.

Darragh29 · 19-01-2009 11:20PM

samsemtex wrote: »

Darragh 29 - you lot are scamming us on Labour costs (double those of the UK) so why should we believe that you arent doing the same on parts?

And it is nonsense using this economies of scale **** as an excuse. An economy of scale does not result in having to pay double of what those in the UK pay.

You go up to NI and ask for Business & Road Risk Insurance and see what quote you get. You will be lucky to even get a quote down here and when you do, it will start with a 4 or a 5 and it will be 4 digits long. Business rates, typically 5-10K a year for absolutely nothing. If you want to get stationary done, again, 1-2K for a box of letterheads and some business cards. There is not much you can order for your business these days that doesn't come with an 1K invoice. I had a Freefone number for customers previously, to provide excellent customer service, so if you wanted to get something priced or enquire, it wouldn't cost you a tenner in phone credit.

The phone bill that I got every month, 500-600 Euro. With 40% of this being "recurring charges", whatever the fu*k they are.

Before you even do an oil change, to open a garage, you need 30-40K in capital for equipment & tools alone. Insurance, 5K if you can actually get someone to sell it to you! Rent, don't even get me started!

You see that house you were sitting on, relishing how the value of it went up by more than your monthly salary, every month for the last 5 years!?!?! Well the other side of that equation was that the price of every other property was going up at the same rate, so that means where you have gained on the swings, you unfortunately are losing on the roundabouts!

The point I'm making is that we've all been fu*king conned in this country in recent years.

samsemtex · 19-01-2009 11:23PM

Mr.Diagnostic wrote: »

Labour prices in the UK are not half what they are here.

p.s. I do business with a lot of uk based garages and have regular contact with many more so I suspect I may be in a better position to judge this but would be interested to hear exactly what you base your statement on.

The only two car dealerships in the UK i have had contact with in the UK are Volvo in Antrim and Mercedes in Manchester. J&P in Cork told me their labour charge for 1 hour was €102. Volvo Belfast told me today that they were £45 per hour. Mercedes UK in Manchester were also roughly half the price(dont live at home anymore so i cant check the exact prices) as we have all the service receipts from the car and we can see exactly what they charged as opposed to what Turners Cross Motors asked of us.

Darragh29 · 19-01-2009 11:24PM

samsemtex wrote: »

Well thats true. It seems to be the larger garages that are the main culprits. And Irish business people have been scamming the consumer for years in all areas but garages do appear to be among the worst offenders that i have seen. We bought our family car off Mercedes Manchester and they had a bouquet of flowers waiting for my mother when she arrived to pick it up. When we didnt go back to the place for our service(for obvious reasons) we got an email off them enquiring why not and offering us 50% of the price of our next service. Can you imagine an Irish garage doing that? Fat chance.

I ran a promotion where I gave every service customer a snipe of red & white wine, the small ones you get in a pub for your other half if she's having a glass of wine, and it was the most successful promotion I ever ran. The weird thing was, I didn't dream this up to increase sales, I just did it to say thank you to customers as I genuinely appreciated their business and the word went around town like wildfire, I even had competitors slagging me for doing it and some of them let me know that they didn't appreciate me doing it as then "they would lose regular business over a bottle of wine"...

blackiebest · 19-01-2009 11:25PM

Mr.Diagnostic wrote: »

Parts 100 to 200 percent cheaper?? I imagine you mean parts 25 to 50 percent cheaper. That would be a very rare occurance anyway. There are plenty of business aside from garages who make obsene profits.

There are othe perfectly valid reasons why garages want to only fit parts they supply. Some of these have also been outlined in this thread but have been ignored. Its not all about money.

You should be aware that not all garages charge the same level of prices either. Some put a lot more effort into sourcing parts than others in the same way as some put more effort into doing the job.

Not all garages view this subject the same way and as such should not be viewed the same.

Anyone who expects any business to sell a product for zero profit is way off track. How long does it take to source the right part, of the right quality for the right price? Who pays the time for that? That could very easily turn a 20 min oil change/pretend service into an expensive job.

No I mean 100-200% more expensive for the SAME part. I can document this if you wish. You in your own words describe this trade as a "funny business", well not so funny if you are paying for it. Darragh, as I said before is most probably a fine mechanic but as another said 'one of the few indy's" he would leave his car with. Why? Because the rest are rip off merchants at worst and sh1te mechanics at best and collectively seem to be completely useless at sourcing parts at fair prices, because we the punters are paying. Then when challenged pull out the knives and cut us up as being "stupid" and not understanding business.

It is a crazy argument when observed by joe public, you and Darragh and alot more on here totally change your arguement to try and continually defend the selfish, greedy and frankly ignorant attitude which prevails in the automotive maintainence business in this country

Mr.Diagnostic · 19-01-2009 11:30PM

samsemtex wrote: »

The only two car dealerships in the UK i have had contact with in the UK are Volvo in Antrim and Mercedes in Manchester. J&P in Cork told me their labour charge for 1 hour was €102. Volvo Belfast told me today that they were £45 per hour. Mercedes UK in Manchester were also roughly half the price(dont live at home anymore so i cant check the exact prices) as we have all the service receipts from the car and we can see exactly what they charged as opposed to what Turners Cross Motors asked of us.

So are you convinced that the price difference is down to greed or could there be cost factors involved?
Do you know the costs involved in each market?

Main dealer labour charges vary a lot in different geographical areas in the uk and to a lesser extent here. Costs here are much higher.

The comment you made about labour costs was addressed to Darragh, who is an indie. The examples who give are main dealers. There is a huge difference.

Darragh29 · 19-01-2009 11:31PM

blackiebest wrote: »

No I mean 100-200% more expensive for the SAME part. I can document this if you wish. You in your own words describe this trade as a "funny business", well not so funny if you are paying for it. Darragh, as I said before is most probably a fine mechanic but as another said 'one of the few indy's" he would leave his car with. Why? Because the rest are rip off merchants at worst and sh1te mechanics at best and collectively seem to be completely useless at sourcing parts at fair prices, because we the punters are paying.

NO, because when Bridey comes in with her 3 kids screaming around her and her clutch gone or her exhaust after coming off or engine overheating, she doesn't want to know about parts coming in from the UK and her having her car next week after you save her money through the internet. She just wants the car sorted tomorrow, or else she'll have to get a hire car @ 30 Euro/Day * 10 days, 300 Euro, so she is worse off overall!!!

Mr.Diagnostic · 19-01-2009 11:41PM

blackiebest wrote: »

No I mean 100-200% more expensive for the SAME part. I can document this if you wish. You in your own words describe this trade as a "funny business", well not so funny if you are paying for it. Darragh, as I said before is most probably a fine mechanic but as another said 'one of the few indy's" he would leave his car with. Why? Because the rest are rip off merchants at worst and sh1te mechanics at best and collectively seem to be completely useless at sourcing parts at fair prices, because we the punters are paying. Then when challenged pull out the knives and cut us up as being "stupid" and not understanding business.

It is a crazy argument when observed by joe public, you and Darragh and alot more on here totally change your arguement to try and continually defend the selfish, greedy and frankly ignorant attitude which prevails in the automotive maintainence business in this country

This is obviously a subject you are passionate about, as am I.

I come on here with my real name in my sig, prepared to debate the points. Your post above is frankly insulting and not worthy of the keystrokes to answer it.

If you are prepared to make and support points with reasoned debate then work away. Quoting me out of context and suggesting that I said things I didn’t is a poor substitute for a reasoned argument and does your case no good.

peasant · 19-01-2009 11:58PM

blackiebest wrote: »

No I mean 100-200% more expensive for the SAME part. I can document this if you wish. You in your own words describe this trade as a "funny business", well not so funny if you are paying for it. Darragh, as I said before is most probably a fine mechanic but as another said 'one of the few indy's" he would leave his car with. Why? Because the rest are rip off merchants at worst and sh1te mechanics at best and collectively seem to be completely useless at sourcing parts at fair prices, because we the punters are paying. Then when challenged pull out the knives and cut us up as being "stupid" and not understanding business.

It is a crazy argument when observed by joe public, you and Darragh and alot more on here totally change your arguement to try and continually defend the selfish, greedy and frankly ignorant attitude which prevails in the automotive maintainence business in this country

smaller brush, less tar please

blackiebest · 20-01-2009 12:03AM

Darragh29 wrote: »

or else she'll have to get a hire car @ 30 Euro/Day * 10 days, 300 Euro, so she is worse off overall!!!

If it was a clutch, by your figures, it would pay her to rent a car for 5 days. I got my £130 clutch today, I ordered it Thursday. I did say earlier that I was over the top in "monitoring' your online business, whenever you get it together but you would choose to ignore that, given your nature/level of maturity. You are defending the most stupid logics I have witnessed. Your customers, people like me, to greater and lesser degrees are copping on to the rip off's perpetrated by your industry, we are using this forum to hilight this and its driving you nuts. The hypocrisy in you trying to play both sides of the coin with your "new' business which does not yet exist is hilarious.

The 'armchair' and get off your "arse' bit is a little immature, I suspect the thirteen salaries I must pay of a Friday is a little more than you would give me credit for.

You are a fine example of the perception we, the punters, have of your industry and the people who control it. You cry about how little the mechanics earn and the lack of regulation in your business yet slag off those who observe it.

Again, its a joke and it will end up on you!

blackiebest · 20-01-2009 12:09AM

peasant wrote: »

smaller brush, less tar please

Point taken.

blackiebest · 20-01-2009 12:22AM

Mr.Diagnostic wrote: »

This is obviously a subject you are passionate about, as am I.

I come on here with my real name in my sig, prepared to debate the points. Your post above is frankly insulting and not worthy of the keystrokes to answer it.

If you are prepared to make and support points with reasoned debate then work away. Quoting me out of context and suggesting that I said things I didn’t is a poor substitute for a reasoned argument and does your case no good.

Fair enough, apologies, did not mean to be insulting to you. I am prepared to participate in reasoned debate and do not wish to quote you or anyone else out of context, I dont believe I suggested you said things which you didnt but sorry if I did.

However from my very first post I was misquoted, accused of being stupid etc after posting a 100% honest experience.

The points I have been making however are honest and the blatant hypocricy
relating to hourly rates/parts markup/ mechanics wages and customer experiences is staggering.

If you doubt my 200% difference's I will happily show you.

the_syco · 20-01-2009 12:29AM

I would think that this is what some people would have an issue with. You are adding a margin to the parts to make a profit. The customer can get the parts for less than you are charging but doesn't have the expertise to fit them.

I have done a few nixers fixing computers. But I don't fix parts that they buy themselves onto the machines. Why? Because if they knew the proper part to get, they'd be able to fix it in themselves.

For example: someone gets a cheap Power Supply Unit, and wants me to fit it into the PC for them. I could have gotten a better PSU from a better brand, which may cost a slight bit more, but they insist I use their cheaper part. One week later their sh|te PSU dies, and takes their hard-drive with it. I'm not going to take resposibility for them buying cheap parts.

Likewise with a garage. Except, unlike a PC, a car can go at 120KPH, so if that cheap part breaks, you could accidently run over a few people who were waiting on the kerb to cross the road. Of course, since the garage put the part in, they may be held liable.

Darragh29 · 20-01-2009 12:49AM

blackiebest wrote: »

If it was a clutch, by your figures, it would pay her to rent a car for 5 days. I got my £130 clutch today, I ordered it Thursday. I did say earlier that I was over the top in "monitoring' your online business, whenever you get it together but you would choose to ignore that, given your nature/level of maturity. You are defending the most stupid logics I have witnessed. Your customers, people like me, to greater and lesser degrees are copping on to the rip off's perpetrated by your industry, we are using this forum to hilight this and its driving you nuts. The hypocrisy in you trying to play both sides of the coin with your "new' business which does not yet exist is hilarious.

The 'armchair' and get off your "arse' bit is a little immature, I suspect the thirteen salaries I must pay of a Friday is a little more than you would give me credit for.

You are a fine example of the perception we, the punters, have of your industry and the people who control it. You cry about how little the mechanics earn and the lack of regulation in your business yet slag off those who observe it.

Again, its a joke and it will end up on you!

I didn't read any words by you to the effect that you had retracted what you had previously said regarding monitoring my business actitives.

What stupid logic am I defending on here??? That I as a business owner must operate within a successful financial model in order to remain in business???

How am I playing "both sides of the same coin" as you put it??? My online parts business is not in fact a new business but is a new business activity of a business that I already own. When this business is launched at the start of February, I will also be offering a mobile mechanic call out service through this website, a mobile car servcing facility, a used vehicle warranty product and a pre-purchase vehicle inspection service.

We have made a policy decision that we will give very firm written assurances with regard to work that we undertake, and parts that we provide. There is is clearly a direct association, in respect of what we do, between parts that are used and the confidence that is necessary in the quality of those parts, to be able to offer a no quibble warranty in respect of what work we are associated with and have been paid to undertake.

It is simply not possible or feasable, to offer a meaningful warranty or fall back posiiton to a customer, when you have let them provide their own parts. As an operational decision, the smartest thing to do is have a policy where we supply the parts, exceptions being absolutely none.

To do it any other way, is to allow the business become occupied, and on the same basis, to become inefficient, by entertaining possibly several daily debates with customers about what parts are OEM quality, what parts their mates have "assured" them are good quality, and so on and so forth.

My experience has been and remains, that customers who start messing with "I'll supply the parts", are customers that are simply not worth having. They are the same customers who inherently don't trust you, who want to bring their mates up to check what advice you might be giving them is true, who basically imply to your face that you are out to "screw" them, despite the fact that you are throwing addded value at them but they are too stupid to see it.

What you don't understand is that there are a sizable minority of people out there who just won't want to pay for anything. I call this the 80-20 Garage rule. 80% of your customers are valued, polite and easy to deal with people. This 80% will take up 20% of your time.

On the otherhand, you have 20% of people who there is just no pleasing and them walking into a garage for some reason is just like them getting a green light to act the complete c*nt with you. These 20% of people will take up 80% of your time. If you are running a garage,(these 20% of people like garages because they can throw their weight around and do what they do best, which is mess people around), you need to very quickly identify these people who fit into this 20% category and prevent them from f*cking up your business.

Darragh29 · 20-01-2009 12:58AM

blackiebest wrote: »

However from my very first post I was misquoted, accused of being stupid etc after posting a 100% honest experience.

blackiebest wrote: »

Now I am not sure why this country is as f**ked as it is but all the above is true, 100%, and at this point I think we as a nation are collectively stupid and accept paying completely stupid prices for parts and what is often shi*e work.

The dealer has agreed to allow me work with the mechanic as I like to learn, want to get a good look under my car and make sure job is executed correctly...

Here is a quote from your first post here. You are not being misquoted, you are simply being pulled up on what is an untirely unreasonable request for any business to be expected to entertain. You still don't understand that this provider is running a business, not a hobby shop and I can't get over the fact that you don't trust him or his staff to do the job to the required standard without you being there to "make sure the job is executed correctly", yet you have the neck to ask the same person to effectively train you how to do the job at the same time!

metricspaces · 20-01-2009 01:24AM

Darragh29 wrote: »

You don't understand the fundamantals of what is happening here. In Ireland, you are buying in a market of 5,000,000 consumers. That is the same population roughly as Manchester. If you are buying in the UK, you are buying in a market that is closer to 50,000,000 consumers. Of course prices will be lower in a market ten times the size of our market.

Why are you trying to defend the indefensible? You are wasting your time.

Several people have outlined to you how they have sourced parts from the UK at prices that are in some cases 50% cheaper than Irish prices.

There is simply no economic argument for this price difference. It boils down to one simple thing. Main dealers inflate their prices for parts in Ireland because they can\could get away with it.

Car parts are no different to any other goods a consumer may want to purchase. They are goods, simple as that. Why don't we see this massive price difference in other goods between the UK and Ireland?

Darragh29 · 20-01-2009 01:34AM

metricspaces wrote: »

Why are you trying to defend the indefensible? You are wasting your time.

Several people have outlined to you how they have sourced parts from the UK at prices that are in some cases 50% cheaper than Irish prices.

There is simply no economic argument for this price difference. It boils down to one simple thing. Main dealers inflate their prices for parts in Ireland because they can\could get away with it.

Car parts are no different to any other goods a consumer may want to purchase. They are goods, simple as that. Why don't we see this massive price difference in other goods between the UK and Ireland?

That's just a populist agrument to a large degree. Don't forget, I've the biggest problem here with main dealers, a f*cking competitor that I have to buy off because of 1950's restrictive market practices!

As I said, when we were all sitting back nice and smug watching our houses increase by the same amount as our monthly salary each month, this is where the problem started. Because when those houses were increasing at stupid rates, so too was the cost of occupancy for industrial property!

So I can't run with this "you'z are all robbing c*nts", battle cry I hear on this thread! Do you have any idea what it is like with a 50K a year rent bill hanging over your head??? With a County Council that want 10K a year just to pay some f*cking idiot of a pen pusher a salary??? Utility bills that cost hundreds of Euro a month before you've even picked up a phone or turned on a light switch!?!?!

reverandkenjami · 20-01-2009 01:37AM

metricspaces wrote: »

Why are you trying to defend the indefensible? You are wasting your time.

Several people have outlined to you how they have sourced parts from the UK at prices that are in some cases 50% cheaper than Irish prices.

There is simply no economic argument for this price difference. It boils down to one simple thing. Main dealers inflate their prices for parts in Ireland because they can\could get away with it.

Car parts are no different to any other goods a consumer may want to purchase. They are goods, simple as that. Why don't we see this massive price difference in other goods between the UK and Ireland?

Have you ever heard of higher rent/rates/wages/tax etc etc etc

All goods are dearer in Ireland. It costs more to do business here then in the UK. If you can't see the difference you are blind my friend! Walk into debanhams or any UK retail outlet and look at the price tage. Why does the same piece of clothing cots £12.99 in the UK but €22 in Ireland? I think you are the one who does not understand economics!!

And i'm just gonna throw this out there:

I work for a main dealer.. We buy our parts off the distributor @ x amount and mark up 30%. Nothing worng with that, our trade customers(majority of our sales) get 10-15% discount. We make 15-20% profit on these parts. The problem lies on the fact our UK counterpart can buy the same part off their distrubutor for up to 25% cheaper than we can! How can we compete with that?

metricspaces · 20-01-2009 01:41AM

Darragh29 wrote: »

That's just a populist agrument to a large degree.

As I said - Car parts are no different to any other goods a consumer may want to purchase. They are goods, simple as that. Why don't we see this massive price difference in other goods between the UK and Ireland?

You seem to be mixing up two things

1) Car parts prices.
2) The rates a mechanic has to charge in order to cover his costs.

Simple solution. Have your rates at a level that allows you cover your costs. There's no reason why you should be making money on car parts.

Supplying own parts for service

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