worf928

Jeez, this $h1+ again.

Ok. So, a number of folks have gotten an ISV with a Bosch part number from Autozone for about 1/2 the price of an ISV with a Bosch part number that comes in a Bosch box from the Big N 928 parts suppliers. That's good information that folks can use as they see fit. Some folks are ecstatic. Some folks are not.

And the point of the rest of the thread?

RyanParrella, what exactly is your beef here. You're pissed because... why? Blown87's pretty much stated exactly why he won't use any Autozone parts. And you seem to be pissed-off about it. Your questions about what he charges, as a professional, don't answer that question.

To me it seems that you are implying that Blown87, Greg Brown, Kevin M. and other folks that charge for their time to work on 928s - and that would be me from time-to-time too - are doing something under-handed, unfair, or dishonest by not buying an ISV from autozone rather than from 928SP, International, or Roger. In fact it seems that you're pissed-off that they/we don't buy the cheapest parts we can possibly find to stick in someone else's 928.

Lay it out.


(And what the Hell is the deal with the Forum Slowness? Rhetorical question. The packets are getting lost before they get to the Class A address space on which Rennlist is located. Somebody else in the packet supply chain is messing it up.)

RyanPerrella

Dave these is no beef

i just laugh when i hear someone who i know knows about cars post on this forum about how an ISV that if you showed them the part, without any back story, they would see, hey bosch part number, bosch part. No issue.

But there are what i consider fantasy stories to try and justify why this part is available at the price its been mentioned at. So we hear things like its a chinese knock off, or its some replica part of some sort and the same bosch part number and stick is placed on it. Or it has to be a second quality unit because it doesnt come in the correct bosch paper box.

I think the stories are silly, and they are in no way factual. They are just silly assumptions made to try and explain some type of price discrepancy. I dont think anyone has really gotten off their *** and called the parties involved and gotten the true story. So instead we just get gossip. And i dont think there is really any place for it here honestly.

I disagree with the theories for why the part is priced the way it is from autozone. But i guess this subject just continues to pop up time and again and i guess i fell the need to present the counterpoint (again and again) to the theories mentioned.

There is no beef here at all, i could care less who buys what for their car, i am not selling this stuff.

I do find Gregs comments interesting though as to his opinion of the work that i have done on my cars. Im going to not read much into it but if i may clarify my work procedures i guess i will.

The first 928 i bought i towed home with a broken timing belt. In the 2 years i owned it, i fixed lots of things that were non op, i restored a bunch of things that i think didnt look so great and in the end i had a really well sorted car. I did sell that car and made a nice profit on it. But i never bought that car with that goal in mind, it just turned out that way.

I bought a 90 S4 that i didnt really do much to. I made repairs to the AC system, i cleaned up the paint, i put stock wheels on the car and i sold it. I broke even on that one.

I bought a mess of an 88 car, i was overwhelmed by it, i replaced the timing belt and all associated parts and sold the car. I broke even on it also. Why did i buy this car? I have no idea, it was clearly a mistake, but i am happy to have learned the lesson and not lost my *** on it.

I now have an 85 car, it came to me with no engine. I bought it originally to pull the 5 speed parts out of to hold onto for an auto to manual conversion. But i looked at the numbers, and it made more sense to restore the car because it has a nice straight body and a pretty good complete interior. So i am collecting all the parts that are missing from the engine bay to get it all back together and in one running piece. I plan on doing something to the engine that i sourced. That may include a valve job for the hell of it, it may just be some valve cover gaskets and some paint and a new timing belt. I dont know yet, i havent come up with a budget yet and i still need to play with the numbers to see what makes sense. This car i do plan to fix, it will have all servicing up to date, new mounts, resealed engine, new timing belt, vacuum tested and refilled AC system and so on and so forth as i see fit. Once its done, i will resell it and hopefully make a small profit on it. Although if i calculate my time (which i said i count as $0 as this is a hobby) then i would likely be lucky to break even on it. So what i do, i look at what needs to be done, i rank things in order or importance, i create a budget and i work that list till i get the best solution to the problem. And yes i am very conscious of the cost of everything, I dont loose money on these cars. I dont have $15,000 into OB's that are worth $5,000. Worst case i hopefully break even which is whats happened on 928's number 2 and 3. this is by no means some sort of business for me, its a hobby and i know what i know about these cars because ive played with a number of them.

So there you go Greg, my modus operandi when it comes to my purchasing, fixing, cleaning and restoring of 928's. If i make a few bucks on a project, cool, it just rolls over into the next one and hopefully i am upgrading car after car after car.

There is nothing sneaky, or shady about the work i do on these cars. I do take offense if your statement was made as to suggest that i just replace **** and turn it over not having really added any value into a car. Or perhaps suggesting that i do inferior work somehow. But i dont know how a reasonable person could make such a statement having never met me and never seen any of the car or dealt with the problems ive had with cars ive owned. So I will just pass over that statement as if it was never really there.

lets have a great sharktoberfest weekend !

RyanPerrella

specifically to this, as it just kinda came to my attention

I AM IN NO WAY SUGGESTING THAT WHAT GREG DOES AND WHAT HE CHARGES IS UNREASONABLE!

what i was pointing out, was that i think Greg sees his parts as price not being an option. For the reasons stated that yes if there is a failure it costs many more dollars to go back in and rectify. So the reasoning he has which makes perfect sense is to buy the parts with the greatest track record. I GET THIS TOTALLY

And i will also admit, autozone has a horrible track record. If the ISV was a duralast part, i would never have bought it. It turns out, and i strongly believe this although this is still being debated, that the part is actually the same exact bosch part that often costs 2x as much. So i make the suggestion that other DIYers check it out.

The other point i made to price, is that Blown (Greg) operates under a very different budget then do i. He has customers i assume that dont work on their own cars and they employ him. He charges the standard rate and does all the work. But in the end, that job ends up costing substantially more then that i come out with after i total up my parts cost of the same job. There is no RIGHT way here, they are just different. But my point gets clean on price when i mention that I (and i assume many other DIYers) do things to a budget. I took the time to learn how to do all this stuff because i realized when i was young that auto repair can cost a fortune, so i started picking it up when i had my first car. So the point is, TO ME, and maybe only to me, an intake job costs lets say $1000. But if i do not do the work myself, if i am not a diyer, then the job goes up to $2500. So when i find what i believe is the same exact part for half the price. You bet i use it. And yes, I use it because i do not want to pay a higher price. I also do not want to pay shop rates to do repairs like this. So i am a DIY'er. and my servicing totals are much less than if i had the work done by Greg or whoever.

I do think we can all agree that the majority of owners of these cars are also in this DIYer category in differing degrees. The message board is here to help and inform other people like myself. When i found a nice little way for others to save $150 and put that to some other to do service i tell them about it. And when these theories keep coming up, i post to counter point and try and debunk the theory. I guess my debunking needs more work though.

BUT back to the original reason for this post.

I never posted to try and take shots at other business's or vendors. I actually am not sure how or why you came to that conclusion, i think i spoke specifically in terms of a single part. But if you did think that i was trying to badmouth in some way any of the vendors here, or any of the tech;s here and their businesses i must say you are mistaken. I apologize if anything i posted lead you to that, but that was not the intent and I can truly say that those mentioned, Greg B, Roger, Mark A and so on are all people that i have the highest respect for. They are my teachers and i am not one to try and make sly remarks towards them. I think it was just a misunderstanding of something i posted previously, nothing more.

And another note, as to me posting about the fact that this part is $150 not $300. I dont say that to imply that the people selling it for $300 are tying to rip us of. I am well aware that the higher price is the common acceptable price. But it just so happens for some reason the same part can be bought for half that. So thats more so an error somehow in the pricing of the part from autozone and NOT any type of price gouging by all the other suppliers that all basically have the same $250 or $300 price whatever it maybe.

I think that should clear up some of the things you mention Dave.

You said "lay it out" well "lay it out" is my excuse for the insanely long replies that probably cover the same points multiple times, sorry for that, i hate editing.


Now im tired, have fun reading all that crap i just typed my fingers are going to fall off now

blown 87

Ryan, I do not have time to even read all of this, I will when I get back.

RyanPerrella

ha ha dont bother, i dont think your missing anything