Hi,

**I'm asking mainly if it's the norm to haggle**

I know it sounds dumb, but here's the quick story. Radiator was cracked and I've been topping it off little by little until now. I have time today, so I figured I'd finally replace it.

Usually I like to buy OEM stuff. However, when I called Toyota (two dealers locally) I got a quote of $875 and $860 just for the radiator The second guy however said "Hey, if you want...I can get you a discount if you pay cash." and said he'd get it for $600 for me. Not sure why cash made a difference, but anyway, I asked if he could do $500 (all I had in my wallet, lazy to go to the ATM) and he said "Sorry." I thanked him for the offer but well, $250 vs. $600. I'll take a chance.

Now, I almost bought it (the Toyota version) honestly, and this got me wondering though, do dealers parts pricing structures work the same as selling a new car? I mean, can you haggle them down normally to "close the deal" so to speak? I'd gladly paid $500 for a radiator straight from Toyota, but $800 was way over the top.

I've been a parts guy at Autozone before, but never at a dealer, so I wonder if that's the case to "making the store profitable" or what.

Sorry, just curious.

Thanks!
Ask10

in my experience, they usually sell parts either at their cost, and if they don't, they'll give a little leeway to loyal customers. as far as the radiator replacement goes, i replaced mine with a TYC unit about 2 months ago for $77. it works perfectly and has no issues, i could never justify spending $700 more just cause it says toyota on it

Yeah, that's nuts! Check RockAuto.com. Their prices aren't even close to that.

Yeah, even O'Reilly had them for $170 but I went with the NAPA version because...well, it looked better built. No other reason. I'll admit, I am very biased towards using expensive OEM parts because I've had such a bad experience from working at Autozone regarding returns and DOA units.

I've seen lots of enticing deals online (especially Denso radiators at $200 something), but I've grown wary of online ordering, and shipping to Hawaii has always killed me in the long run anyway. If it's not in my hand in a week, I'm usually not a happy camper.

My father runs a Ford dealership in Michigan, so I have had this discussion with him when trying to purchase parts through the dealership.

In a nut-shell, the dealerships are under contract to purchase their parts from the factory. The factory dictates what prices are available to the dealership. The factory purchases a part from the supplier, then in order for the factory to make a profit, they jack up the prices to their dealerships. The dealership then, can dictate what that price is to you, the customer. Some may sell it at cost, others may sell it at some percentage point above their cost.

BTW, most big auto companies will go out of their way to seemingly F'k over their own dealerships in order to "weed out" the ones poorly managed and/or have a low profit margin. So, huge mark-ups in parts pricing from the factory is just one of many ways to stick it to them. It is a strange corporate strategy and they definitely do not make it easy on them.

So, as a consumer, if you can purchase a part from a factory supplier, often you can get the same OEM part for significantly less than what the dealership can purchase it for. I've done that several times with my Fords. I can usually get a better price through parts warehouses, than using my father's 30% parts discount code.

So, your question as to whether or not you can negotiate a better price...the answer is sometimes, and how much of discount is up to the dealership. Bottom line is that they are not going to sell you the part for less than they are under contract to purchase it for.

^^Thanks for that, that makes a lot of sense how you said it.

Sounds like the cash offer was for the "out the back door" discount...haha

I worked parts for 4 years. I'd judge you by how you acted when you walked in. If you're a dick you'd get mark up price. If you're cool I'll give you list. If your loyal and buy big $ items is give you cost +20%. It all depends. I wouldn't haggle, if it's too expensive go elsewhere I never cared and would quickly tell you to go elsewhere. I constantly had over 100k a month plus in profits for my dept, so obviously we had enough business.

I always hated people saying "cash". I don't care what you pay with, it all deposits.

That crossed my mind too actually, I kind of think that's what it may have been, lol.


Haha, I did the same thing at Autozone too (I worked commercial). Usually the dicks were pre"dick"table (sorry), but I only made it a point to upcharge after they "proved" themselves as such.

I never did get the "cash thing" too, the same thing happened on my Si I just got rid of. Someone offered me a lot less than I wanted and said "I've got cash." And that justifies the low price...how?

Didn't see that coming

I agree. Employee was gonna buy it at cost with your cash and pocket the rest. I had an o store employee do it for me. I wanted a pair but couldn't justify paying msrp so he offered a cash price. He told me he'd use his discount and keep whatever was left. I didn't mind him making a few bucks and saving me a bunch.