Service parts

mikey72

How does anyone make money selling service parts.

I've just done one on an older car.
Ad hoc, so I picked up the bits when I needed them,

but
plugs, £1.65 each for N9Y equivalents from Vauxhall (Bosch) trade price.
filter, after taking off the carriage less than £2 including the jiffy bag it came in. (Delivered was cheaper than collecting)
oil filter, £3 trade from Halfords
oil £10 trade vauxhall.
the dearest thing was the antifreeze, £12 for 5 litres.

Not made in china, but decent, branded parts, costing next to nothing, but the manufacturer, the transporters, the distributor, has all made enough to make it worthwhile.


I know they sell retail in small volumes, at an inflated price, but how do they actually make any sort of margin at the prices above? (And that's all including VAT)

Maybe that's why things don't last as long as they seemed to.

pitkin2020

pure and simply by volume, 10p here and there over large quantities soon add up. Even though you bought at trade price (i guess you bought from a retailer rather than the manufacturer so even at trade prices there is still a mark up.

Prime example, I used to work for a filtration company where we made air/oil filters for the motor industry (and others). An oil filter we used to make for a well known 4x4 company would be old out for around 10p-12p the cheapest my friend could get it at trade price would be around 90p. The first buyer gets the bigger discount because they tend to buy in large 1k units, the motor factor than buys 100 if that many, even at trade price they still have to have a mark up or they would never make any money when you factor in the large percentage of their business is trade.

forgotmyname

The parts may not say made in china but all the ingredients probably were.

Assemble all the pre-produced parts and you can stamp it with made in your country.

I remember watching a show about fake car parts, They could supply the parts in a printed Mercedes box for an extra 20p
and even add the Mercedes genuine hologram logo for an extra 5p.

Pennies add up.