On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 2:37:22 PM UTC-4, Tim Wescott wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jun 2014 10:55:20 -0700, rangerssuck wrote:



On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 1:48:25 PM UTC-4, Tim Wescott wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jun 2014 10:46:01 -0700, rangerssuck wrote:







On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 12:37:05 PM UTC-4, Tim Wescott wrote:



On Wed, 18 Jun 2014 09:15:38 -0700, rangerssuck wrote:















The wife's car was making some rubbing noise from a rear wheel. I



pulled







of the wheel and found significant (structural) rust on the brake



drum.







I didn't have time to do this myself, so I took it to a local

garage







where they've done good work for me in the past.















I checked the price of drums & shoes on Autozone's web site

(there's







actually an Autozone store directly across the street from this



garage),







and figured an hour & a half for labor. It turns out that I was

spot



on







with the labor, but he charged me almost exactly DOUBLE Autozone's



price







for the parts.















I gotta figure that he get's maybe a 15 or 20 percent discount on

the







parts, and I would have been OK with a 20 or 25% markup over list,



but







this seems kind of excessive. He's entitled to earn a living and

all,







but a hundred bucks to walk across the street?















It's been a long time since I was in the mechanic business, and

I'm







wondering whether this is the new normal?















Did he buy from Autozone? There's a huge variation in price and



quality







depending on who you buy parts from, and I'm under the impression

that







Autozone isn't the best place to go for high quality.















(Back in the 1980's I maintained my own car. If I wanted a part to



last







forever, I got it from the Toyota dealer. If I didn't mind a part







breaking after a year or two, I paid half as much at NAPA. If I

wanted







to waste my time installing a piece of s**t, I bought it for 2/3 the



NAPA







price at a discount auto parts store.)















--















Tim Wescott







Wescott Design Services







http://www.wescottdesign.com







Just checked the NAPA prices: The drums are $42.49 each vs $35 at



Autozone, and the better of two choices of shoes are $29.99 vs $26

(for



both wheels). So there's $19 accounted for out of about $95. Still

seems



excessive.







That does seem excessive. Unless they got genny-u-wine OEM parts.







--







Tim Wescott



Wescott Design Services



http://www.wescottdesign.com



I doubt they're OEM parts. Nearest dealer is over 10 miles away.

Autozone is across the street, Napa is about a mile down the road

(actually, there are two of them, each about a mile (in opposite

directions).



What would yo expect the typical markup to be?



Less than 100%!!!



Didn't the various parts stores deliver when you were in the mechanics

business? I know that around here the repair guys call in their orders,

and if they don't get it that day they get it the next -- the local NAPA

store has a kid who does nothing but drive around all day in a delivery

truck taking orders to shops.



--



Tim Wescott

Wescott Design Services

http://www.wescottdesign.com

Not sure about the OEM guys, but for sure the other parts places have drivers. One of them has a fleet of the oldest beatest cars you ever wanted to see. It's comical when they have them all jammed into their parking lot - they put them so close together that the drivers literally have to crawl through the windows to get out. Then they just throw a tarp over the whole mess to keep the rain out.