I was calling one of the Jag dealers in Central Dallas this morning about some suspension nuts. When I asked for the part numbers so that I could match up with what I was seeing on the JEPC and to double check when I picked them up, they told me that is was now a store policy not to give out part numbers.

I simply said that if you would price competitively you would not have to try and force people to pay extra dividends to your stockholders and perhaps service your users and buyers of Jag products in a more customer oriented fashion.

How funny businesses like this are to try and force you into their "cave" to be drained by this new form of vampire!

Tom in Dallas/Plano

 

When I was in the Ford world... customers at dealerships paid 8x when the dealer paid. And we (mfg) had 100% markup. End customer would pay $80+ for a part that cost $5 to make.

Greed.. just pure greed.

 

Actually it's not simply greed. Having worked in the automotive industry many years ago I am aware of the actual costs of stocking inventory, and the number of parts that go obsolete and have to be written off, both in factory and dealer inventories. Then there are the wages to be paid, running costs of warehouse machinery, real estate cost, I could go on. The cost of these has to be borne out of profit and the organisation has to make a reasonable return on investment and achieve a decent number of stock turns per year. Those are some of the reasons why Dealer parts are so expensive. Factors dealing with fast moving parts have much lower stocking costs and can cream the money off the top as they don't have to stock all the slow moving and bulky parts the dealers need to keep sometimes for months or years before they actually sell.if at all. Dealers also have to price their products so that they can sell to the trade and offer discounts. Similarly Dealers' workshop departments have a huge investment in special tools and training that the independent doesn't need to invest in, nor can they say, as the independent can, sorry I don't have the tools for that you'll have to take it to the dealer. No it's certainly not pure greed.

And it's not only the automotive industry. I once worked for a company who imported watches as a sideline. The manufacturer obviously put a large markup to supply to us, then there was the customs duty on import, high on luxury goods, we put a large mark up on cost (I think it was 150%) and sold to jewellers, the jewellers then put on a large markup to sell to the customer, so a Rolex costing $5000 probably was manufactured for $500 or less.

 

To be honest, what nonsense. Having been a Brand Manager at Proctor and Gamble, I am well aware of pricing structures and all the economics that are in place to indicate or dictate end price. Markups to the tune of 250% to 500% are not warranted or your underlying organizational structure has more economic mismanagement than should be tolerated and they need to be looking at a restructuring. We all know there are tiers of pricing in the auto industry parts and attempts to justify price gouging are not the correct answer.
Regardless, my point is that the dealership is trying to force you to come to them instead of having some market competition and quality service, which they clearly do not have, instead of trying to be market competitive. Car dealers are not some special catagory of business model that is drastically different than other distributors of parts. The mixing of the service dept and the parts dept into one entity of a business structure is not compelling to me.
Add to that , the one part I bought from them and I can go online to other Jag dealers and find it for a third of the price, was not even correct. So I not only pay a huge % of profit for nothing, but spending extra time I do not have to return the part.

With respect

Tom in Dallas/Plano

 

Oh well, who am I to argue with a Brand Manager from Proctor and Gamble who seems to understand the Automotive Industry and business better than the 'nonsense' I talk despite my hands on experience. Perhaps your best solution would be to learn how to read the JEPC properly so you didn't have to confirm part numbers with a dealer, you'd then be able to ask them for the part numbers you actually required.and phone round to get the best price... Now there's a novel suggestion.

 

Jaguar parts prices have always been high, I ran an independent Mercedes parts house back in the 1980s. We imported OE and original dealer parts from Germany for the trade. I remember there was a small one-way vacuum check value made by Ate; the retail price on the part was $4~6 from a Mercedes dealer, however, the wholesale price for the same identical part from Jaguar was $14.40 and retail was over $18.00.

I recently read a bio of Sir William Lyons, which indicated the the sale of "spares" threw significantly more cash to the bottom line than vehicle manufacturing operations did... this was in the mid 1960s. Not much has changed, apparently.

I can't say that I like the parts department refusing to give out part numbers to be public,but I get it... The dealer is not a public resource, like the library...

 

Your novel suggestion was done before talking with the Jag dealer and they wanted to start from scratch and not use the part numbers I gave them or see if they had even been superseded. Your attempt to condescend to me or patronize me falls short of dealing with price gouging and perhaps you feel that corporations are more important than people- your right to believe that and we will just disagree.

Since P&G created all of modern day advertising and the system that every major company in the world use, brand or product management and their retail/wholesale/partner divisions are second to none- they are not a bad source of knowledge to fall back on.

Again rescpectively

TBB

 

Bear in mind, too, Jaguar make few cars and are in a crowded market so they have to get money any way they can or go under.

On top of that, these are 10+ year-old cars so it would be fair to argue they've a problem still having parts available at all.

I am fairly sure Proctor & Gamble don't need to keep most of their products for 10+ years in warehouses. I really don't see them as a meaningful comparison!

 

How long a product may or may no be kept in a warehouse is not the issue. I am talking about business models. But you really confirm my point. You have a company in financial trouble, so instead of getting their house in order, they overprice products to a, in many case, non-knowledgeable public.

Again we have to agree to disagree as I land on the side of the consumer.

TBB

 

With the various resources we have available to us today (such as SNG Barratt Group and the trusted local indie shops that some of us go to when necessary), why bother with the dealership at all? Their techs and their parts personnel are geared 95% towards the Tata-era vehicles, not our aging dinosaurs. Their prices are outrageous, partially because they no longer possess the skills or the interest required to work on our older vehicles. We owners now know far more about our vehicles than they do....

In all fairness, there is one dealership that I still trust but they are 80 miles away from me. If they still have their two long-time techs (one with nearly 40 years of Jaguar experience and one with nearly 30 years of Jaguar experience), I would go to them if necessary but I prefer to deal with my trusted local indie shop the very few times I now find it necessary....

 

I agree with you 100%. However I needed a part for the weekend, could not get it shipped in time without paying 5 times more for shipping and they were on my way to a client. Otherwise I would have ordered from one of the many places online.

TBB

 

So you saved time and/or money, but complain. No pleasing some people!

 

It's like when the hangman makes the extra effort to get the best rope for a noose, but does that stop the griping?

 

My original complaint was simply that they refused to give out a part number online and actually thought it more funny than anything else.That does not even allow me as a will call to make sure it is the correct part number without waiting to have it verified again. The rest is all ancillary to that. I thought it was phony and showed a sense of desperation on their behalf. But having dealt with jags service dept under extended warranty should not have been surprised as I have never seen a group that expects you to pay top dollar and then has the worst quality control of any company I have ever associated with in any way.

T

 

Wow Tom...,..you have a barn burner going here......all that aside, good luck with your repair

 

Such is life in the heat and traffic of Dallas!!!!

Thanks

Tom

 

This thread is only going in one direction ...........

........... I'll simply accelerate the process to a conclusion.

THREAD CLOSED.

Graham