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Parts Price Madness


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Haven't really needed to purchase anything for my IB other than routine service items which with a bit of searching are still relatively sensibly priced.  Pretty much anything else though seems to have experienced hyperinflation on an epic scale over last 3-4 years.  First shock was when trying to find a new indidcator/dipped beam column stalk switch at the end of last year - eventually found a new item from EU based ebay seller at £100 but not before seeing second hand items at similar money.  The usual outlets seemed to be selling at North of £150 for new. 

 However I think I have found contender for 1st prize in IB craziest new spare part price .........

In process of tidying and spring pampering my car and decided to remove black aluminium sill end caps.  After a quick attempt to titivate thought that I would just be lazy and treat the car to 4 new items, was thinking cost would be something suitably daft like £35 for a set of 4.  Was horrified to discover that going rate is c£120 for a set of 4!!!!!!😲

Any more contenders for top of the list of crazy part prices???

   

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12 minutes ago, topcarrera said:

  Was horrified to discover that going rate is c£120 for a set of 4!!!!!!😲

 

Yep - those end caps haven't changed price for a few years - rear quarter is now c£970 + VAT, so double 10 years ago.

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This is the ebay Ad. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crankshaft-Sensor-0261210002-Bosch-115440501300-605186940-1708618-12121274644/232415221524?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I used the first ******00002 number to order one from a local parts supplier. Mine cost more than this but I was able to get it within an hour and therefore (fail to) diagnose a problem. It wasn't the sensor! 

Chris.

 

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Ooops! My fault, getting my CHTs and my TDCs mixed up. Boydyrs, no CHT sensor was used on BMWs that I'm aware of, it's an air-cooled thing. The item I referred to was of course a crank sensor. 

I did try to find an equivalent CHT sensor, many are a loop to bolt down but I could not coax the temp Vs resistance values out of the sellers, so I bit the bullet and bought a real one.

I'm off to get my coat now...... Sorry for the confusion :whistling:

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It really gets my goat. I don't understand the markups. Price increases seem to have gone up way more than inflation and wages. New technology is even worse. I know there are research and start up costs, but still.

I am now at the point where if I received a sensible offer for my car it would be gone simply because of the potential costs of replacing/repairing parts. It's part of the reason I changed to EFI and ITBs.

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12 minutes ago, Phill said:

I don't understand the markups.

Free market forces in a low volume specialist niche market.

Not saying it pleases me, but at least we can get nearly all parts for 30+ year old cars. :door:

Mark

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I'm kinda with Mark on this one. If we really needed to, we could rebuild our cars from the ground up using mostly new/off the shelf parts. There are not many vehicles where you could do this. 

What does annoy me is the artificially inflated part prices on eBay from certain sellers/breakers...

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Agree with Mark although there are instances where the new items seem to have been value engineered and no longer last as long as they used to.  CV and UJ boots being two examples.  It also hurt a bit when I noticed this year that the original Porsche plug leads I paid ca £200 for in 2001 were now double that.

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From memory, the plug leads were c£300 in 2006 when I needed a set; I just bought Beru who (I think but might be mistaken) make the OE ones.

The parts prices are an annoyance but availability is very good.  For context, the E36 Evo I ran for 30 months between 2012 and 2014 had slightly worse availability but the prices were quite sobering for some of the very boring service items; genuinely made the 911 bits seem cheap.  Where there was a choice it was okay (plugs were ~£20 ex-VAT in 2012 from BMW...but NGK PKR7As were ~£7 ex VAT then) but where there wasn't it was tedious.

It was the same dealer in Jersey for Porsche, BMW and Audi and I remember chatting with the chaps there about what a nightmare the Audi parts were...and I believe it has got no better.  A friend has a 1998 S8 with a duff injector...and the injectors are NLA.

In summary, we pay enough for bits...but pretty much everything can be bought and there are a wide variety of non-Porsche bits available too (some the same as Porsche, some good, some less so)...so we have choice, as well.  If only I could find a non-Porsche supplier of an airflow meter; I suspect this is one I'll just have to suck up...

 

Edited by EJH911
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There's a whole science to pricing, as it's key to driving profitability of a business. One of the variables being how unique the part is, and whether or not generic alternatives are available.

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