Fifth Gear - car parts

[bayliss]

I work for Fifth Gear. We're after the most outrageous car part prices charged by UK main dealers; £100 for a short piece of rubber pipe, that sort of thing. Or, an electronic plug in component that's so expensive it might make a five/ten year old car uneconomic to repair.
Also, we're after the most expensive garage in the UK.

If you've got any stories please email or call me on 0121 697 1904/[e-mail] (we must be able to identify the part).

Ian Bayliss

[domster]

I hope you posted this on the Ferrari/Lambo forum as well

Most a main dealer ever wanted to charge me was 27,000GBP+vat for a new engine on a Lotus Carlton. Not relevant to you as part number now NLS. Plus I didn't buy the part but fixed the old one

[meldrewlives]

Ian speak to any independent Porsche outfit (plenty of them mentioned in this forum) and ask them about cost increases in parts which can only be obtained via Porsche - I seem to recall clutches being an example I heard. Also the ability to acquire necessary specialist diagnostic equipment and tools again only available from Porsche.

[ninemeister]

How about anything that fits a 928? I heard that door seals are now £250 ish.

[leosayer]

A couple spring to mind, IIRC...

A new targa roof for a 964 is c.£7000

A tyre pressure sensor for a 959 is c.£12,000 for each wheel.

[AC79xxx]

964 / 993 front wishbone bushes that can't be supplied by Porsche without the wishbone itself for about £250 per corner (+VAT)

[GreigM]

Boxster clutch - only lasted 17,000 miles, £330 for parts - £1800 fitted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[911nutter]

i forked out £40 for a rear brake light (just a bulb) for my clk when i had it.... courtesy of mercedes benz on the a4 in chiswick

[domster]

leosayer said:

A couple spring to mind, IIRC... A new targa roof for a 964 is c.£7000 A tyre pressure sensor for a 959 is c.£12,000 for each wheel.

Leo is right. Anything with a 959 part number will probably be murderous.

[tony.t]

Check out the price for tyre preesure senders for a 959 IIRC £4000 each wheel.

[rubystone]

Do you still have to buy a new distributor for a 964 if the belt fails?

[leosayer]

Special mention must go to Porsche for massively increasing the prices of targa roof parts recently.

For example a simple piece of cast metal/alloy 50cm long with a hole at either end went from £250 to £750 a year or two ago.

Words fail me.

[glpinxit]

How much are cermaic brake discs and pads? I seem to recall they started at something like £25K+ before dropping to under £10K. What is the service life on these?
Guy.

[964cup]

Docklands Audi wanted to charge me £71 for a new roof aerial for my RS6. It's a screw-in part common to a number of cars in the VAG group. I believe the same part fitted to a Seat is £18.

[jacko lah]

Having worked in the automotive industry for all my working life I can tell you the mark up between factory COST and Dealer retail price is between 10 and 100 times. For instance Lucas made a Solenoid which went on the DPC deisel Pump. The internal cost from Lucas Electrical including profit to Lucas Deisel was in the region of £4. The same solenoid went on 1 million European Cars every year, and dealer retail price ranged from £65 to £110.

At a turbo company, a simple high volume deseil turbo sold at say £80 each. The actuators cost us about £3. Now how much would a new turbo cost from a main dealer? The actuator alone would be 80 to 150 quid !!!