Rant: Car part pricing is a scam

[isabura]

I dont know if it is a scam but it brought you guys here. Im not talking about mods, but regular part replacements.
First time I thought it was a scam, when I came to this forum and they said go to realoem. If any.of you guys have been there then you know the price difference.is ridiculous.
Oh Well whatever, it is a suggested price, but when you look at past post, say 3 years old, you see these parts are outrageously different in range like $20-60 difference.
Well what about the market demand has lower since three years ago because of new generation introductions. Then how about a f'n month.
Im doing a rear suspension overhaul and I made a.data log comparing getbmwparts, fcpeuro, ecstuning, pelicanparts and autohauzaz prices. I took the latter two off because of their prices were too much or they didnt offer a lot of the parts.
A month ago, I went with getbmw because they got the cheapest genuine part, their shipping f's it up though. I go to buy the bushings from fcpeuro this week, the cheapest for bushings, and all the parts are like $3-7 more. Wtf. Heres the kicker, ecs came down $3-7 for their parts.

So since making the data.log on mar 20th, fcpeuro parts have gone up $3-7 and ecstuning has gone down $3-7. Wth is that?

When buying 1 item thats not problem, but when buying 20-30 thats a $100-200 difference

Anyone else notice this? Is it a season thing?

[StRaNgEdAyS]

Well... For starters, FCP euro and ECS tuning are competitors... Their pricing will always vary between each other. Some things will be cheaper at one than the other, and then another week it'll be different again.
It also depends on costs at the time they order, with volume and freight to be taken into consideration.
If you really want a reality check try pricing the part through BMW Australia...
The price for a single rear toe adjustment arm for an E39 (BMW part#33326768791, guiding suspension link) from BMW Australia $747 retail.
ECS tuning have the same part for $275.44 each at the moment.
FCP euro have it for $286.39
I'm willing to bet I could buy that part from them and have it shipped here and still pay less than half the local retail price from the dealer.

[isabura]

I know, I kind of started answering myself as I was writing it. It still makes me frustrated though. It took me a 2 hours to make that data log on a crappy computer then the prices changed.

"The price for a single rear toe adjustment arm for an E39 (BMW part#33326768791, guiding suspension link) from BMW Australia $747 retail.
ECS tuning have the same part for $275.44 each at the moment.
FCP euro have it for $286.39"

And goddamn thats ridiculous.

[BimmerBreaker]

FCP Euro price matches, so most of that should not be a real issue.

Parts prices do fluctuate, there was never a point in time - never - when RealOEM reflected real prices. Just ignore the prices on RealOEM except as a general guide (aka, this part is cheap, that part is expensive, not this part is 17.23 and anywhere that charges more is ripping me off).

And at 3 years is when I expect parts to be most expensive, not cheapest. The new generation coming out means that the old generation is starting to come out of leases and off warranty. So now people will be buying parts for profit instead of dealerships buying parts for warranty repair work. At that age the cars are expensive and new enough to justify bigger repair bills but old enough that a lot of repairs are starting to be out of pocket.

Its not a scam. Its economics

[ECSTuning]

I noticed you were price shopping isabura so I dropped those prices for you

-James

[ross1]

http://www.furiousmethod.com/

[jclausen]

First off a lot if not all of realoem parts pictures prices are not accurate at all, I only use them for diagrams and part numbers. Second you are going to shop around and compare prices. Third the manufacturer and BMW in particular are always having price increases a couple of times a year. So I really dont know what you expect. Some parts will only come thru the dealer and others thru the aftermarket, like shitty after market brake pads and rotors, that warp and don't stop very well. Really how long does it take to compare and find prices on the internet. A lot of noise about nothing

[MIII2011]

I dont know if it is a scam but it brought you guys here. Im not talking about mods, but regular part replacements.
First time I thought it was a scam, when I came to this forum and they said go to realoem. If any.of you guys have been there then you know the price difference.is ridiculous.
Oh Well whatever, it is a suggested price, but when you look at past post, say 3 years old, you see these parts are outrageously different in range like $20-60 difference.
Well what about the market demand has lower since three years ago because of new generation introductions. Then how about a f'n month.
Im doing a rear suspension overhaul and I made a.data log comparing getbmwparts, fcpeuro, ecstuning, pelicanparts and autohauzaz prices. I took the latter two off because of their prices were too much or they didnt offer a lot of the parts.
A month ago, I went with getbmw because they got the cheapest genuine part, their shipping f's it up though. I go to buy the bushings from fcpeuro this week, the cheapest for bushings, and all the parts are like $3-7 more. Wtf. Heres the kicker, ecs came down $3-7 for their parts.

So since making the data.log on mar 20th, fcpeuro parts have gone up $3-7 and ecstuning has gone down $3-7. Wth is that?

When buying 1 item thats not problem, but when buying 20-30 thats a $100-200 difference

Anyone else notice this? Is it a season thing?

All you can really do is shop around, I get a lot of my parts from "thebmwminipartstore" they are in Ohio I get my parts pretty fast (Texas DFW area). I think the local dealer prices are a joke.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[MIKYZZ4]

Shopping for the best possible prices on a multitude of items takes some work.
Take for example coupon collection for groceries. Everything worthwhile requires effort.

[BimmerBreaker]

www.bmwpnpc.com

[Adrianl]

awesome link thanks for sharing

[montaillou]

First off a lot if not all of realoem parts pictures prices are not accurate at all, I only use them for diagrams and part numbers. Second you are going to shop around and compare prices. Third the manufacturer and BMW in particular are always having price increases a couple of times a year. So I really dont know what you expect. Some parts will only come thru the dealer and others thru the aftermarket, like shitty after market brake pads and rotors, that warp and don't stop very well. Really how long does it take to compare and find prices on the internet. A lot of noise about nothing

+1

Welcome to the internet, OP. I recently priced out nuts and bolts I needed for a project involving another one of my vehicles. On Fastenal I found the bolts I needed for $8.60 each, but at Tri State I found the exact same bolts for $1.31. Welcome to the world.