Source for Honda Parts Needed

"Chris F." wrote in news:499058cd$0$5474$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

You haven't tried your local Honda dealer in Canada? All that stuff is still readily available.

Besides checking with Canadian service parts suppliers, check delivery rates and terms with a few more US houses such as my neighbors:

Shipping by FedEx or UPS to Canada includes a formal commercial customs entry document fee which does adds significantly to small shipments.

If you can get your supplier to ship via USPS to Canada Post the entry is 'informal', i.s., you pay your duty to the postman on delivery.

"Chris F." wrote in news:4990c2ec$0$5460$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

You must be very new to this game.

ALL auto repair places, whether independent or franchised by an automaker, put a markup on the parts they sell. They buy wholesale, you buy retail, like in any other industry. That's the way the world works.

All Honda dealers in Canada order their OEM Honda parts from Honda Canada Inc. Honda Canada Inc, is their supplier. Dealers do not make their own parts. And dealers are NOT part of Honda Canada Inc.

Honda dealers in the US do things exactly the same way, except they buy their OEM parts from American Honda.

Those same Honda dealers can also sell aftermarket parts. If you don't like paying the cost of OEM parts, you can ask them to use aftermarket. Those aftermarket parts come from the very same suppliers as independent garages buy from. I've even found that their sell price for aftermarket to the consumer is often pretty much in line with what you'd pay at an independent garage.

To give you advice on fixing your car? No. But they'll be /very/ happy to sell you whatever parts you want. That's why they pay a guy to stand behind a counter with a big sign above it that says "PARTS".

The problem with ordering across the border is threefold:

1) the currency exchange rate, 2) shipping costs (which include border customs brokerage fees), and 3) the 6% duty for parts not made in North America.

I think you'll find that when you include the three points above, it will be more expensive for you to ship parts up here than it will be for you to just buy them at your local Honda dealer or auto parts place.

I thought of contacting the nearest Honda dealer, but I figured they'd charge far too much for the parts. After all, they'd have to order them from a supplier and then charge me markup. And since they're also a service center, I doubt they'd be very helpful to a do-it-yourselfer like me in the first place. There might be another option though.... has anyone hear ever heard of, or used, a service called Bongo International? I just discovered this a few minutes ago - it's a service that allows people outside the US to create a virtual US address, where items can be shipped and redirected to your actual address, for a fee of course. It sounds a bit too good to be true, but if not, it may provide a solution to this problem.

neighbors:

God forbid you using rockauto!!!

Their Honda data base is inaccurate to say the least.

They sent me a wrong distributor for my Accord and then accused me of ordering a wrong part.

They keep all parts on one shelf as long as it says Honda.

Sam

neighbors:

somick wrote:

So you can't think of any explanation for their continued growth other than that they send each customer the wrong part out of sheer perversity. I guess you must be right. Sure convinced me!

rockauto.com/

When you buy parts like NGK spark plugs, washers and other junk, their prices are very good. With Honda specific part - beware. This is just my advice and every person will make his or her own decision.

I kept buying parts from them regardless of them sending me wrong ones. The distributor was the the third one! Since I live in California I go by the rule: three strikes and you are out. Distributor was the third one...

Regards, Sam

Yes I know that's how it's supposed to work, but for me that doesn't seem to be the case. For example, consider one part I need - the right rear brake backing plate. It lists for $40 US (about $49 Cdn) on hondapartsdeals.com. Just for fun, I phoned the nearest Honda dealership and, unsurprisingly, they wanted $79 Cdn plus tax (about $90 altogether) for the exact same part. I had the same problem when I first started servicing consumer electronics, which BTW is my primary means of income. I used to order parts through local TV shops, but found they were charging me up to several times the actual retail (not wholesale) price. Only when I started ordering from mail-order companies could I get parts at more reasonable prices. I think what I'll do is wait until I need a lot of parts, then place one big order from the US supplier. The $85 they want is a fixed rate for up to a certain packaged weight (probably 20 or 30 lbs), so if I order enough parts at once I think I can justify the shipping cost. It's either that or buy the stuff locally and pay twice as much.....

God forbid you using rockauto!!! When you buy parts like NGK spark plugs, washers and other junk, their prices are very good. With Honda specific part - beware. I kept buying parts from them regardless of them sending me wrong ones. They sent me a wrong distributor for my Accord and then accused me of ordering a wrong part. The distributor was the third one! Three strikes and you are out. Distributor was the third ... ______________________________________________________________________________

I bought a brass radiator for my Buick from Rockauto but they sent a plastic one. I complained, and they accused me of ordering the wrong part. I sent them a picture of the brass radiator and its part number from their own catalog page. Then they said the catalog description was wrong but the plastic radiator would also fit the Buick, so they wouldn't take it back.

It took two weeks of phone calls and complaints, but they finally took the wrongly shipped radiator back and refunded my payment. To their credit, they paid for the ship-back. I bought my brass radiator from another supplier.

Since then, I have ordered other parts from Rockauto with no problem. All I can say is to check everything from any parts supplier to discover substitutions, wrong parts, and defective parts.

Rockauto is likely to make more errors that other suppliers because (I believe) Rockauto is not really a parts house - it is actually a computer program, taking orders and relaying them to drop-shippers. Therefore it can not be expected to be as knowledgeable as a human being at a parts house. On the other hand, Rockauto's computer model often results in the lowest cost for the parts. They have proved to ultimately make their wrong orders right, so (I believe) the biggest risk in dealing with them is not losing money; it is losing time.

Good luck.

Rodan.

"Chris F." wrote in news:4993211e$0$5485$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

I see that too. When I replaced the shocks on my car last summer, parts from a NY dealer were about $200 cheaper than from an Ontario dealer. That included all costs of any kind. I would have spent about $650 instead of the $850 I did spend.

But that was back when the dollar was briefly at par. With the currencies having diverged again, I would achieve no such savings today. Plus, I was to buy the parts during an already-scheduled vacation trip to New York, so there were essentially no shipping costs.

I ended up getting the parts at a local dealer in Ontario for the sake of convenience, and of avoidance of border hassles.

Just remember that you'll be on the hook for PST, GST (or HST) and the 6% duty. The government WILL collect on those! Remember to add those costs to your ~$49 parts price along with shipping.

I think you'll find that the actual savings will be far less than your estimated 50%, and may be low enough that it may not be worth the risk of having to deal with having been accidentally sent incorrect parts, or having parts damaged in shipment...

This is how I figure it.... suppose I need a bunch of parts worth $200 from this US supplier. Assuming the local Honda dealer is charging me double the prices of this US supplier, that would mean a total of $400 plus tax (about $450 altogether). Which means that if I buy them from the US, even if the shipping costs me $100 I would be saving about $150. I had a similar problem when I was buying some specialty refinishing supplies a couple of years ago. I had the choice of buying from a supplier across the country (and paying high shipping costs) or buying from a local reseller. I figured out that with the markup the local reseller was charging (something like 50%), it was cheaper to place large orders from the supplier out west; the savings on the merchandise was greater than the cost of shipping.

"Chris F." wrote in news:499607f3$0$5486$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

So quit figuring and get real numbers. I did, and cross-border didn't pay enough to be worth the bother even with the dollar at par. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.