Nation oil/filter change

hmmm, i recently paid 29.99 for 4 litres of castrol edge at makro, fully synthetic oil for a diesel engine with a particulate filter, magnatec not recomended for my car at least due to the dpf. oil filter for my car is about 4 quid,

so i guess a little saving, but i still would prefer the little extra to know i've done the job properly

I wouldn't even go near a branch of National Tyres with your car.

Buying oil in bulk containers brings about a considerable saving over the normal retail 4 litre packs. Which makes it even more disgusting that main dealers charge the per litre retail price.

Yes they get it for around £1.00 a litre from what i have ben told

Maybe for mineral oil, but not for synthetics

Goodness me!

A retailer buys something in bulk at a wholsale price, and sells it on in smaller quantities to consumers at a marked-up retail price?

Disgraceful behaviour. They should do something about that.

A garage is not selling it on in the same way as a retailer does. That would apply to oil they sold to a customer in the retail packs over the counter - not that used as part of a service.

If it weren't for most new car servicing being paid for by companies and therefore tax deductible, perhaps something would.

[...]

OTOH, if main dealers were not able to make good profits from servicing and repairs, the price of new cars would rise substantially.

Chris

Sorry, that's bollocks.

Mark-up is not restricted to 'shops' selling 'retail packs', and nor should it.

Items supplied by someone you have contracted to do work for you are of course going to be marked up. Why on earth should they not?

They need to pay up-front for the bulk quantity, which they then have sitting for a period of time as stock. That's tying up cash in stock, and affects cash flow. It's essentially a form of credit since they sit on the costs for a period of time till they sell it on. That costs.

Also, it's not unreasonable to make a profit on selling on.

I don't see why you make a distinction between a shop's markup, and the markup when a tradesman sells you something.

Will a plumber or gas fitter sell you parts at cost? No. And nor should they. Their stock of parts costs them to have sitting around at your convenience. Even ordered-in items will be marked up.

That's the way business is, because it needs to be. They need to make a living from what they do.

The mark up on retail sales is different to markup on bulk purchased items , the base cost is different

They should be but there is a difference between being charged on off the shelf retail costs as apposed to the cost of bulk supplies

They dont pay up front they usally pay on account which is usally paid thirty days after the end of the month for smaller outlets large dealership operations will ften have 60 or 90 day terms

Ok lets look at it like this , you can buy anchor bolts from bq they cost around £3.00 each would you think selling those on at a £5.00 a time is fair markup for a tradesman if he actually buys in bulk and can get the same bolt for £0.40p , same with screws and nails , a small pack (10off) of 2 inch screws at the local ironmongers will cost you £2.50 i can buy a thousand of far higher quality fixings for £15.00

Useing your logic that the tradesman should be able to charge shop cost retail prices your average 3 bed semmi would be costing over a million pounds to build when the true cost is somewhere near £120000.00

Correct but the baseline will be far lower

I might get them to do the Lexus, it is well overdue, and I'm selling it soon.

Never said it was. Nor does anyone sell retail packs of oil without a markup either.

The markup they apply is excessive. Because they have an effective monopoly.

Nicely put. Wish I'd done so well.

But the cost of building that 3 bed semi is still a great deal less than it is actually sold for [1] - and if you continue that analogy a little further, the Bank of England's borrowing interest rate is 0.5% but the mortgage interest rates for buying those semis are between 3.4% and 5.3% - some profit for the banks eh over the life of the loan?

But at the end of the day, businesses are there to make money and they can charge what the hell they like for it - but you don't have to buy their products.

I don't know what your employment or business is Dave, but are you charging too much for your time and labour for doing the work or running the business? I bet your boss/customers think you are - and I would lay odds that you think that you are worth a lot more than you're paid.

[1] So in reality, the £120,000.00 quoted above is rather inflated so that the builders (along with the estate agents) in reality are making a vast profit off their customers!

Its not a good idea to live off unearned money.

Can someone let all Governments know!

I'm a sound engineer working in broadcast. If I tried to apply that sort of markup for the consumables I supply as part of my services (like say batteries for radio mics) I'd be laughed out of work. But then I'm not in a effectively monopoly position like a main dealer for a make of car.

& yet people still buy gaffer tape from Canford.

LOL! price of new cars are already inflated. Compare e.g. with personal importing from Denmark.

Quirk of the taxation systems - list prices before tax vary across Europe due to differing local taxation regimes.

I'm pretty sure the exchange rate would make it impossible to save money on importing from Denmark anyway.