Cameron
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- April 18, 1999
- Messages
- 1,094
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Streamwood, IL
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 97 Sport
Henry Ford is reputed to have said he'd give his cars away if he could have a monopoly selling replacement parts--and no wonder. Periodically, the Alliance of American Insurers announces just how pricey OEM replacement parts are by calculating the cost of building a vehicle from such parts. For a 1998 Ford Explorer, AAI says, the sum of the parts is more than 2 1/2 times its $27,145 list price (a few examples are called out below). That's high--but that's not the whole story. It costs more to package, inventory, ship, and sell individual parts. Automakers also must stock every replacement part, while aftermarket makers cherry-pick the most profitable ones. Keystone Automotive Industries, the largest U.S. aftermarket parts distributor, says its warehouses stock 15,000 to 19,000 different crash-part numbers; Ford inventories more than 35,000 crash-part numbers, plus 245,000 other Ford parts. Still, if imitation parts can someday deliver high quality along with their already-lower prices, the consumer can only benefit.
Dead Link Removed
Anybody want to by my 97 Sport? I'll let it go for only $65,000!
Dead Link Removed
Anybody want to by my 97 Sport? I'll let it go for only $65,000!