$28 for a Thermostat!!!

Just replaced a thermostat on my wife's V70. The dealer wanted $28 (plus tax) or more than $30 after tax. My neighborhood discount auto parts place had a thermostat for $6 after tax.

I complained to the dealer and said he only wanted 400% more than his competitor for the part.

Their parts guy replied that he has no competitors, because everyone else in town sells aftermarket parts. (Aren't substitutable parts competitors with his parts?)

I didn't want to get into a discussion about him behaving like a monopolist, but I made it clear that I won't be buying another Volvo.

This is nutty.

Reply to
Solid Citrizen
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Volvo doesn't make thermostats. Chances are that its made by Wahler or maybe Robinson. The one you bought could well have been made by the same company that made the OEM unit. Duh.

John

Reply to
Fred Flintstone

A thermostat is not a commodity item. There are cheap ones and well engineered and well-built ones. As far as I know their are no standards for thermostats so anyone could manufacture one in China whether it worked well or not.

Aren't you glad Volvo didn't build your whole car out of cheap substitute parts?

Spanky

Reply to
Spanky

I suspect you are going to be disappointed. I have yet to find any make or model of car where OEM parts purchased through a dealer are not significantly more expensive than aftermarket.

Granted, 400% is pretty high, but you're talking about a pretty inexpensive part to begin with. I certainly wouldn't write off an entire manufacturer's line of vehicles over it.

Cheers,

-+JLS

Reply to
Seagull

AFAIK, Volvo gets its parts done by third parties, then rebadge them and jacks up the price by 300-400%. It's that simple.

I w>Just replaced a thermostat on my wife's V70. The dealer wanted $28 (plus

Reply to
Sammy

Actually you would be surprised. For many electronic components

*cough* Bosch *cough* dealer prices are quite competitive to what you'd pay from a distributor, some parts (shocks, rotors) I've priced cheaper from the dealer than the local AutoZone/Pepboys/etc. and there are some jobs (e.g. 240 trailing arm bushings) that independant shops will tell you to go to the dealer because they can't beat the (Volvo mandated) book price. As far as paying for the box... that's universal. I don't think you'll find Honda, Toyota, VW or anyone else undercutting the aftermarket.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Bradley

Reply to
Solid Citizen

If Volvo thermostats are so good, why did his fail already?

Wahler used to be the OEM for Volvo and probably still is ... but who knows with Ford's cost accounting people "helping" these days.

John

Reply to
John Horner

It could be a manufacturing defect. Or maybe it just wore out from use. Or maybe a cheaper quality part would have failed sooner. Or maybe it just had a bad day. Or maybe it was just dumb luck.

The point being, just because a part fails early that doesn't mean the entire product line is junk. Manufacturing does not produce 100% identical parts 100% of the time. Not all use conditions are equal. This is why products come with warranties.

Cheers,

-+JLS

Reply to
Seagull

How about $21 for a radiator cap?

Whilst touring Sweden last summer, we fired up the '95 850T one morning and found that the idiot light for the cooling system came on. Checking under the hood, I saw that the plastic cap on the coolant reservoir-tank was badly cracked.

(Still don't know how or why; the previous day's driving had not been particularly hard and the engine never came close to overheating.)

There was only one aftermarket parts type of place in that small town and while they had all kinds of belts and hoses, etc., they didn't have that cap--so we had to go to the Volvo dealer.

The price was 162 Swedish crowns, which on that day was equivalent to almost US$21 or almost 18 Euro. For a little piece of plastic.

But...what are you going to do?

cheers,

Henry

Reply to
Henry

Who said it failed? The person asking the question just said he REPLACED the thermostat, not that the original had failed.

It's all too common to replace a part just because there is a problem and nobody is quite sure what it is. If the shop replaces part at least they can bill the customer for it. Assuming it had failed, that doesn't they will all fail that soon, just that one did. It's unheard of to have 0% failure.

I'll take an OEM Volvo thermostat any day over a $6 auto parts store "replacement".

Spanky

Reply to
Spanky

The OE thermostat on my 850 failed at 45,000 miles. Aftermarket thermostats come in several grades and qualities.

Anyone who thinks all Volvo OE parts are better than all aftermarket parts is a fool. Fools and their money are easily separated. With Volvo OE parts price is NOT any assurance of top quality. Often the high Volvo parts price is just a high price.

John

Reply to
John Horner

$28 for a Volvo-branded thermostat? Please, tell me where your bargain parts shop is.. From the prices my local dealers charge for other parts, I'd expect a thermostat to cost at least $80.00

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@" Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

Reply to
Doug Warner

Yes, all car manufacturers do the same. No matter what kind of car you have, stay away from the dealer once the warranty expires. You will nearly always pay more. The only exception I make is for oil filters because there are so many crap filters on the market.

Reply to
Jeffrey M Copeland

First Volvo assembled the car but they likely did not make the parts they make up the car. That's what parts manufacturers are do.

It is almost certain that someone else makes the thermostat for them since it is a specialty item.

You need to find out who made thermostat and what retail brands are equivalent. Volvo does not necessarily buy top of the line. They buy what meets minimum specifications. Failing that buy an after market thermostat. It has got to be as good as the one that failed. IT FAILED.

G

Reply to
Gunner

I can attest to that. I've owned budget-priced Toyotas and Mazdas - the "genuine parts" for these are also a frightening price. AU$3500 for a set of Toyota shock absorbers, but better third-party shocks were only $1500. $450 for a genuine Mazda (made by Bosch) alternator, but only $240 for the Bosch branded equivalent.

My wife has a BMW. Servicing guys rang to say the fuel filter needed changing and I said OK. I expected maybe as much as $40 for the genuine part (non-genuine equivalents are about $18). But no ... $90 for the "German part made in Korea" ! My V70 was recently serviced and the guys rang to say the wiper blades were worn - I said OK replace them. The blades cost $28, compared to the $5 I'd pay if I'd bought them myself. (You'd think I'd learn !)

Stay alert and get them to tell you the price of even minor parts before they fit them. You can save quite a lot of money by avoiding the dealer if possible.

Chris

Reply to
Half a Bee

Even with oil filters, there are quality "after market" suppliers, or just-as-good OEM suppliers.

Sometimes you can get much better for less. I just replaced my rear control arm "cone" bushings with urethane which I expect to last longer than the stock rubber ones. After market lenses (like headlight lenses) couldn't be worse than Volvo- count how many fogged headlight lenses you see on older Volvos in a day.

When I did the struts and shocke, I got all the parts for front and rear through after market suppliers for less than the cost of the rear shocks alone at Volvo, and actually was able to put better struts on the front than stock (no real surprise there, really).

You win some, and lose some- just try to keep the win column ahead! from Randy & Valerie __ __ \ \ / / \ \/ / \__/olvo 1993 960

"Jeffrey M C>Yes, all car manufacturers do the same.

Reply to
Randy G.

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