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I don’t know what car parts cartels control the car parts industry in Canada but they’re clearly doing a great job. Car parts are extremely expensive in my neck of the woods. How can anybody be saving money with these prices?!
Our car is a gazillion years old, and once in a while it requires a part or two. After paying a couple of hefty bills for repairs, I got curious to see what goes into it. A good portion of it were parts my mechanic would order from a local parts store. So I thought – what if I buy parts myself and bring them to my mechanic to install thus saving money? And it worked beautifully!
Now, before any work is done on my car, I ask my mechanic to provide a list of parts needed. Once I get an email with parts numbers, I head to http://www.rockauto.com and order the parts from them. After receiving them in the mail, I simply take all the parts needed for my appointment.
Savings? I’ve never saved less than 50% off my parts even if you calculate shipping fees into the equation. Sometimes it can be as high as 70-80%. In some cases, instead of simply saving money, I choose to buy higher quality parts than available at the local parts store, and still come out ahead of the game. Take that, Canadian car parts cartels!
Warning: Not all shops allow you to bring outside parts. Just like movie theaters prohibiting outside drinks so they can charge people $7 for a bottle of water, some mechanics will cringe when you ask them if you can supply your own parts. After all, they do make a bit of money off parts when working on your vehicle. Dealerships will flat out refuse this since this is where they make most of their money next to financing.
My mechanic on the other hand doesn’t mind this practice at all. Since he is my go-to guy for anything mechanical (simply because I can’t tell the difference between screwdriver and a wrench), he’s been working on my vehicle for years and years. He’s happy to charge me labor when working on my vehicle, and I’m happy to save serious coin on parts when it’s needed.
I hope you enjoy my column. Please leave a comment on this by visiting the full version of this story at http://moneyramblings.com/three-easy-ways-saving-money/
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This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
