OffroadFrance: "In all fairness, it may be prohibitively expensive to import foreign made spares into the US with import duties etc."
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BINGO; I think you are on to something, there; along with good old U.S,.A. greed! When I brought in, from UK, a Hawkeye diagnostic scanner, saving around $200. compared to what I would have had to pay for same thing here, in good old U.S.A., I was told to have the supplier mark item as electronic tool (which, really, is precisely what it is); not as automotive tool, as if marked automotive, or anything having to do with automotive, an import duty would be way higher than if marked electronic. So, I paid NO import duty; no other tax at all (we don't have state sales tax either, so that had no bearing; never does).

 

And I thought the Brits and French were the only thieving 'bar stewards' in the world for car related spares, it would seem good 'ole plain greed is fairly universal, unfortunately.

When I buy from China, Singapore or Hong Kong they usually mark it as a 'personal present' or such. They can probably be 'executed' out there for that sort of thing. Good job it's not from North Korea, they definitely would be.

 

hmmm... sounds like you are you purchasing those catalog companions.

 

Memories of Bangkok (the place not the habit) they were a selection 'box', #23 and #42 or a whole bunch of them together. Not that I would have indulged, you understand, I was a happily married man. But mind you, you could certainly catch something pretty nasty that an Aspro wouldn't deal with.

 

Sounds like Rosies Tea Shop in Belieze. Went for the entertainment of seeing guys realising they were dancing with "guys"...

 

well, I just threw up i my mouth, a little bit.
thanks

 

Errrrr, no, these were DEFINITELY of the girly variety, I can vouch for that. But these days one can never be 100% sure, 'worse things happen at sea'...............'what, who said that'?

If you are in Paris and you take a trip through the Bois de Boulogne in the evening and see some very nice 'fanciable' ladies, in fact beautiful girls, be very careful, 'you cannot judge the book by it's cover'....................many are tv's from Colombia, south America, you could get a very nasty shock................................bit like buying dodgy LR spares you're never sure until you've tested them.

On that subject, I'm not particularly homophobic but strictly hetero but I can tolerate others provided it doesn't involve or interfere with me or mine. Everyone has their choices..........

 

I think this thread has moved a little off topic.

I have looked into purchasing parts from European suppliers but for what I have purchased the final price from domestic suppliers has been better. If you find a lower price overseas, you can always see if any domestic supplier can match it.

I really don't see the greed side of things with the US suppliers I have dealt with. Although ZG does seem to always have extra cash for upgrades (just kidding!)

 

Nah, tranny parts overseas, sounds right on point

 

haha...I'll have you know I just finished paying off my parts account!


Anyways, there are several reasons why the price is higher here.

Supply and Demand: While Land Rovers seem to be a dime a dozen in the UK, they are less than 1% of the market here. When they are serviced, it's generally by a dealer, with their parts(have you seen THOSE prices!??!). To sum it up, there's not a large demand. It's not like an American vehicle where there's 1000 NAPA/O'reilly/Advanced auto etc stores across the country shoveling parts out left and right. We have to stock the correct amount of parts, and hope that we don't sit on them for a long time. But if we don't have something and it can't be aired in? That's more than a month wait usually and people will just buy it used/somewhere else. Every week we get an air shipment, that gets expensive, and then we make $0 off the parts after you factor in the freight.

Pricing: If you haven't noticed already, Land Rover parts companies in the UK are like Napa here, they run on ZERO margin. They make almost no money at all, but because of the volume they stay afloat. A lot of the companies you envision are some mega complex with parts warehouses etc are just a big garage with everything on shelfs and the ground. Their overhead is almost nil, and they have VERY few employees.

Cost: Because of their pricing structure they have no room for wholesale pricing discounts. I.E. if we buy from Craddock or someone of the like, we're paying pretty close to what you're paying, except we have 20 employees to pay for, as well as the infrastructure that is RN.

Support: This is a big one for me. We(RN) have a 1 year, unlimited mileage warranty. This is customer support that you won't always get with a company over the pond(and forget about shipping it back to them, it's not cheap). We also have a sales team, sponsorship team, and magazine team. People that are on the phone to try to figure out what's wrong with your vehicle, never pressuring you to buy anything. I am the sponsorship team essentially, and I send out a few dozen packages a year with products, gift cards, and promo swag. We mail 30,000 magazines out every year for free, and only 50% of that or less are parts, most are articles etc. I don't recall seeing anything like that from Craddock, but I could be wrong. Our return policy is also pretty amazing, up to 30 days it's 100% money back, and if you bought it for a restoration 2 years ago and never used it, you'll get up to 75% back.

Speed: When we get an order before 4pm any day of the week, it goes out that day via a shipping company of the customer's choice. 1 day to New England, 2 day all the way to western Illinois and as far south as Georgia, you get the point. When you have a return, we send you a shipping label, or send you the new part you need with a return label in the box. We want you back on the road too.



So in conclusion my point is we're not greedy, some people just don't understand how businesses work and that's fine. I am not stopping you from buying parts in the UK but it certainly does not help the progression of the industry in the States.

Cheers.