had interesting example of dealer gouging? down here.
had to get a climate control blower motor resistor pack for renault RS 172.
its 20 years old. understandably it finally gave up the ghost. no heating or ac.

scanned ebay - a zillion of these (dubious source/quality) from 39.95AUD up to 79.99 AUD - all look the same and have the same box from a far eastern factory. fair chance they would last 2 days on the job.

rang renault. $475AUD. (made of gold? - admittedly it is miniaturised circuitry coated in gell and subject to high internal temps).

.......and my original lasted 20 years..........slept on it for a few days and thought no, got searching hard.

found a french parts supplier in sydney who had one for 175 AUD + 10% tax.
brand = VALEO. same as the dealer. ?

does this happen in the USA?

YES

A new 914 owner bought it recently at auction, day it delivered it stopped running, after fooling with it a bit had it towed to dealer in San Diego. Dealer quoted her over $10k in new parts just to get it running….

I gave her other options, thanks to input here. She took to one of these, they put gas in it and it fired right up.

All the time, but most people don't work so hard to find the real part or deal they want. I do, but I have a breaking point and sometimes give in. Money v time spent trying to save money. Some of my searches take me to England, same deal there.

I do love it when a deal works out like that though.

My experience was the opposite. I was going to an independent local shop for services that I was not able to do myself due to my living situation at the time. He was good, but quite expensive. I happened to stop by my local Porsche Dealer in Walnut Creek California. The dealer was a whole lot less expensive! At the time they had a guy who only worked on air cooled cars. 356s, early 911s and so on. They said the air cooled cars were a lot easier to service. mainly because of their simplicity. sadly that guy retired three years ago. I wish him all the best!

Yes. My 2009 toyota tacoma needed a new serpentine belt. The dealer gave me an estimate of $270 to replace it. $120 for the part + $150 for the labor. Went home to think about it and then found a video on youtube showing how to do it in under 10 minutes.

Went online and found the OEM brand belt for $70+tax+shipping. I didn't want to wait, so I called another toyota dealership and they said they would sell me the belt for $75.

Went back to the first dealership because it was closer, and asked if they'd match the dealer #2's price, which they did. I went back and did the job in my driveway in ~5 minutes and saved ~$200.

Always pays to do your homework. At the very least if you can't get a better deal you know you tried.

They are not called "Stealerships" for nothing LOL

“ mmMMmmm…. ain’t got no gas init… Mmmm”

Even if that mechanic was too dumb to check fuel, it seems almost criminal that they could be in business.

My 2013 Silverado door pull cable broke. Dealership wanted $85 for the cable and $240 in labor. Got cable for $13 Shipped to me and one hour labor using YouTube video.

@wonkipop
Valeo is an OE supplier for a lot of HVAC components. The heater core on 996/997/991/987/986 etc is valeo.

The problem with dealer parts, is that there are several more hands that part passes through and each one is adding a markup.

There are good dealerships and bad dealerships. But in the end the dealer is likely to be more expensive for repair for a few reasons:
1) They can! (Supply and demand/Market forces) Folks trust the dealer because the dealer has the backing of the manufacturer. This allows them to charge more for both parts and labor. There is a lot that goes into it, but it boils down to this: people tend to trust the dealer, and that trust has a cost folks are willing to spend.

2) Habit... There was a time when parts were a good bit harder to find. Dealerships were, in some cases, the only game in town. So a dealer could charge a 100%+ markup on part, because you simply did not have other choices - especially if you wanted OEM. These days its not the case, but its now ingrained in the industry.

Usually (USUALLY!) dealers that get a reputation for gouging tend to wither and die, or change their practices and survive.

Zach

I have had that happen as well, seeing high prices for used parts, only to find the dealer sells it new for a fraction of the price. It is always good to check all part sources. Sometimes I fix it myself, sometimes I have a local independent shop that is really good fix it, and sometimes I still take them to the dealer, mostly for complex things that my independent shop might not have ever done. The dealer tends to be within 10% of the the independent shop.

I was at the Porsche dealer urge other day and heard the service manager complaining that a customer had his air cooled car serviced at jiffy lube. They overfilled the oil, made a mess and then paid a lot at the dealer to have it fixed. They were lamenting why anyone with a Porsche would bypass the factory trained techs and go rogue.

Yes. Price gouging everywhere. All man made, cut the oil supplies and everything made from it goes up. From medication to computer chips and onto heating fuel and gas.
We peasants will just take it, like our lock downs....
Not I, Matt

YES it does, i have had several similar experiences, and the culture in some dealerships is so bad good people wont work there. My son-in-law worked for Lexus here in service as a service tech rep he saw a lot of things going on there that bothered him and left over it- had to refer a client to Lexus due the fraud that they were trying to execute on this customer . my personal experience has been with both a jaguar service department and Ford. Both issues involved them trying to tell me something needed replaced that didnt(fraud) and one was trying to charge $400 for "programing" a part that was plug in play, no programing or reprograming the ECU(air suspension controller) similar issue with Jaguar, i had a fault code on the dash for the air suspension, it was just a sensor fault but tried to tell me i needed all the front shocks and the compressor replaced to the tune of like $3800. the sensor was under warranty. good thing i was not born yesterday..... I wouldnt trust any dealer further than i could throw them. I do use my Porsche dealer for parts , and i have bought parts for the jag from their parts department too.

...and it's not just gouging. It's a combination of preying on ignorance and laziness. This will sound like the ultimate first world problem, but...

My 85 308 had a pinhole radiator leak. A local guy quoted me 150 bucks to repair and pressure test but I'd have to take it out. I didn't have the time or space, so i brought the car to a Ferrari dealer. He quoted 7,500. Now I fully expected to pay a premium...but that's excessive. After I picked myself up off the floor and asked him to justify that...he said "a new radiator is 6,500...I'm giving you a deal." I reminded him that this is a classic and I'd rather not have a new radiator if this one could be repaired. He said..."oh if you want to do it that way, figure 1,500." I'm all for people making money. I own a business and fully support capitalism. But he assumed I knew nothing and would blindly trust his quote...even though it wasn't in the best interest of his customer...or the car.

My local Porsche /Audi dealer is awesome, take your car or suv in for any service and they lend you a new Porsche or Audi for the day full of gas and ready to go. My last service on the Audi was priced rite and the car came back clean with all the under pinings on tight and proper. 119 for oil air filter & a loaner car seems reasonable. Maybe I got lucky

We have a 95 BMW 540I. In 1995 the 540 and the M5 were the first ones to get keys with chips in them. You can buy keys that can be cut for the locks, but if you try to use them, the car won't start.

So I had to buy new keys for our BMW. Two keys with remotes, and one valet key was over $800.00, and had to be ordered through the dealer and come from Germany. If I had not had the chip keys, the cost would have been under $20.00, including cutting the keys.

BOHICA!


Clay

Two interesting car dealer experiences lately. I ordered a '22 Ford Transit about a month ago and asked the dealer to confirm that when I placed my order, the price was locked in (at full MSRP...sigh). Yes - and that was a "deal" as they were charging $5k over sticker if you bought off the lot but gave you a "break" if you had to wait for an order....btw - he said I may get delivery in March.

Stopped into the Mercedes dealer in Cincinnati last week - they had ONE new vehicle for sale. ONE - a GLE - and it was marked up (literally a sticker on the window) 10% as a "market adjustment"

Adjusted Market Value has been one of my pet peeves for a long time.

This topic is one of my big buttons (yea, I have a few, don't we all). Started many years ago when I was 16 and not long after my Dad had bought the 914. It had a leak on the master cylinder so we took it to the only German car dealer in town. Can't remember all the details since it's been many years ago, but I do remember they stripped a new aftermarket shift knob, tore a section of carpet, and left the inside floorboard around the master cylinder trashy, and charged about triple what a new MC cost at the time. I swore I'd never let anyone work on anything I owned ever again. It all comes down to knowledge, tools, determination, time and primarily confidence.

Knowledge is the easy part, especially today with internet search capability. Even before, there were decent enough books and manuals, so there's really no excuse to say you don't know how to do a job. Info is out there if someone wants it. Tools can be expensive, but I tend to look at them as an investment. If you buy a tool, at the end of the day you have something that will retain at least part of it's investment value. It may even appreciate. Also, you never know where a tool can come in handy. Rental is also an easy enough option. Determination for me was easy since I was mad as hell with my dealer experience. Just the feeling of accomplishment after a repair is worth at least a good feeling inside. Time can be challenging, but it's never been insurmountable. If a car needed repair, we always had backups so never really needed a job done crazy fast. As for the value of my time, I always enjoyed working on cars, so it wasn't like I felt time was wasted or could be better spent elsewhere. Usually it really all boils down to one thing. Confidence. Better to say lack of confidence. Pride usually keeps people from admitting they're scared of %#^&ing up, but this is really the biggest hurdle. I remember how scared I was when first starting to work on an engine. Start small, research, think, learn, test, and ask questions. If you break it, learn from what you did wrong, and do it right the next time. Preying on customers ignorance, pride and lack of confidence is a huge weapon used by many unscrupulous businesses.

So, yes I hear stories from friends about price gouging not just from car dealers but just about any service whether for their car, water heater, washing machine, or just name it. I usually just reply with well why in the %^#& didn't you try to fix it yourself and leave it at that.

Dan

I take all my cars to a local indie shop that I’ve known for 20 years. No BS, just good service. His lot is always full and his guys are always busy.

I once needed my car for an appointment but it wasn’t completely done. Owner handed me his car keys and said to come back the next day. Now the owners son runs the shop with the same excellent customer service (stayed late to fix my daughter’s car so she could drive back to college the next day) I’ll keep going there until I can’t drive anymore.

100% this. I look at screw ups as tuition to classic car university. No better thrill than doing it yourself and gaining confidence in new things. The very definition of growth. And the reason why I make those videos

yeah, the dead one coming out of the car is Valeo. most french cars run Valeo. its good gear up there with bosch.
there is also a brand called VEMO (a chinese partner/division of Valeo). they did OEM for Audi. the VEMO stuff is good quality chinese manufacture. i could have got hold of a VEMO unit here in melbourne for $200.

i can't believe the renault spares division can give people a hiding to the extent they are trying on here. think the reason is they are gradually pulling out of aus again.

EDIT - just to be clear, this was the price for the part from renault, not for putting it in.
i expect them to have a reasonable markup and happy to pay it for convenience of being in stock and easy to get. but 2.5 times the cost! thats a bit rich?