So, I was pricing starters for my Celica today.
Both Toyota of Dallas Internet Sales and Olathe Toyota Internet Sales has the starter I need listed for ~$220.
Called up the parts desk at Toyota of Grapevine … $335
All three are the same part #. What does that extra $150 buy me, I wonder?
Things that make you go “Hmmmmm”.
what is the part number Zach?
Good Lord! Why?
Toyota starters don’t need replaced…
New contacts, yes. Whole unit replacement…not so much.
Cool.
Yours if the first I’ve heard of (granted, my experience is limited) actually failing.
That warm fuzzy of in-person customer service as opposed to the cold indifference of the internet?
The gross margin on OEM parts is pretty astronomical.
Never seen one of those, either. New brushes, yes. New bearing, yes. New alternators, generally not needed… YMMV.
In that case, I already looked that up, so here, to save you a moment…
Anyway, I’m sure you already know those things, but it never hurts to get a vicarious visual, just to be sure…
$111.86 plus a $40 core (plus tax)for a factory Denso starter (toyota doesn’t make starter motors)
Available today or tomorrow…
Grapevine has some gorgeous dealerships and more being built and I am sure they are not being built on donated land or with donated materials or labor so I expect their overhead will be a bit higher than others.
plus:
Wait until you look up the price for the same part with the Lexus name on it.
I’ve got about 4 things I need repaired on my Nissan Murano, and I am NOT looking forward to it.
New car sales is a loss leader for dealerships, which they use to attract customers to their service departments, which are only marginally profitable, so they make up for that with huge parts markups, sometimes going as far as using off-brand parts and charging OEM prices to get that extra little bit of profit margin.
What a disgusting industry.