blown 87

As long as they understand that I am going to make money on the parts regardless of who get them, then yes, and I have.

No warranty on customer supplied parts though, so it is a bit foolish for them to do so.

Neil Forn

The real issue is not the provenance of the parts. It is money. Shops make a lot of money marking up parts they install on their customers cars. When you provide the parts they miss out on that income.

blown 87

Because 90+% of the time they want me to install some POS autozone part that is going to fail, if I source it then I know what the quality of the part is.

Case in point, had a friend that insisted on using a autozone alternator on a Lumina, a DOHC V6 Lumina that all sorts of things have to come off to install a alternator on, takes about 4 hours.
They were told that this was a bad plan from the get go and that I was going to charge them every time I had to put one on, we got 4 bad ones on a row, the fifth one that I supplied is still on the car after many years.

Human nature is such that people very seldom tend to blame their own actions for a bad result, such as getting bad parts, so if it is not a problem with the part they supplied then it has to be my fault.
Just the way it is with a lot of folks that do not understand why a 40 dollar part from a discount parts house may not be of the same quality as the same type of part from a dealer that cost three hundred and something.

Ethre

Good point. Though obviously not true for all shops.

Would some of the mechanics on here care to clarify this for me?
I understand the need/desire to make money, but why not simply increase the labor rate? It makes some sense when you stock the parts (to cover overhead, etc), but when they are ordered in why is there a need to profit off them?

Ethre

Very well put. Thanks for the insight from your end.

blown 87

If you say so, it is easy to make up for the lost money on parts by adding a little labor.
for me the only question is the quality of the parts.
As far as how much money we make on parts, it is very little, usually between 10-15%.

SeanR

McDonalds could sell a cheese burger for $0.19, but they don't. It's called a business. I doubt you would take your car to a shop that had labor rates of $200.00 per hour and no mark up on parts, or you bring your own parts in.

There isn't that much mark up on parts for most of us anyway. I doubt most of us have 15%.

Ethre

Obviously depends where you go. When I get charged $7/qt for oil (bulk oil, nothing fancy about it) I think something is fishy.

McDonalds is a store. They don't charge you directly for any labor. To compare a shop to McDonalds, the shop would need to charge you a price for the parts, and not specify their labor in that rate.
A mechanic's shop, on the other hand, provides a service. Their main source of income is the work they do, not the products they sell. Making their money from selling parts would make them an autoparts store.

I prefer to do it myself so it is mostly a moot point for me. However, I would rather pay a higher rate for labor with no/little parts mark up.
That's the way I see it anyway.

Cosmo Kramer

I have a local mechanic here by my office that works on my daily drivers on occasion that I have known for 10+ years. He will do whatever I ask, he will install parts I supply or get them for me whatever makes economic sense. He has sold parts to me to install myself at his cost. If the part I wanted to supply for a job was questionable he would tell me and steer me in the right direction. He has always treated me well and I have sent him tons of referral business. His shop is always busy because he treats everyone the same way.

I understand Greg's point of view, some customers think the cheapest part they can get is the way to go but in the long run it never is and he doesn't want his shop to get a bad rep for installing bad quality parts.

dprantl

I think this has everything to do with you the customer. Some customers have no understanding of how a car works or what a quality part is vs. a crap part.

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

blown 87

Very true, most of the folks here understand that there is a difference in quality of parts, for them I would install parts they supplied most times.

SeanR

Replies in red.

blown 87

As bad as I hate to say it, it sometimes gives me a good feeling when I have to fire a customer that is simply more trouble than they are worth to do work for.

SeanR

Some nights I have slept better knowing I wouldn't have to deal with that person anymore. It does sound bad, when I hear about them paying 3x as much elsewhere, for crappy work too.

Neil Forn

This doesn't really apply in the case of our cars. There's a very limited range of parts available for a 928 from auto zone.

As to ordinary cars, some POS auto zone part is just as likely to have come from the same rebuilder or one just like him. There are only so many sources available. Admittedly some are better than others.