Special Tools from the dealership?

[cgbier]

When I checked the pathetic excuse for a local dealership for the ABS bleeding tool today, it came to me:

I did an apprenticeship with a VW dealer in the late 80's to be a parts man afterwards. During that time, my task was to downsize our stock (and budget myself out of a job). There was a lot of stuff for Type1/2/3/4 from the sixties and seventies taking up space. Our local beetle club was buying that stuff basically for a buck per pound. They also got a lot of tools for these cars with the deal.

Maybe it'd make sense to pass by your dealership and ask them if they's want to sell off their old, written-tools that only waste space in their shop and aren't used anymore...

Just an idea.... has anybody here ever done that?

 

[arco777]

It's a good idea, but I'd be suprised if they didn't immediately see a chance to make as much money as they could off you. Chances are the sale of something like that is going to have to be approved at higher levels of the chain than just the parts counter clerk, and someone's going to be greedy. I can't even get old wall posters from my local dealership; if you're not giving them your money, they don't want to talk to you.

 

[BrooklynBay]

One time I had a code, and didn't have my manual with me. I passed by a Ford dealer, and asked the parts department to look up a code definition. They told me to ask one of the mechanics. The mechanic said that the code definitions are in their scanner, and they can't look it up unless they scan my vehicle. I asked them to take out one of their books, and they said that they don't have this information handy. They had a huge printed library plus a computer with software & parts break out diagrams. I asked another guy to look it up, and the second guy was very blunt. He said that they won't give out free information unless I make an appointment, and come in for service. They will charge me for the scan to retrieve the code. I told him that I already have the code numbers. The frustrated guy wouldn't give me anymore time, and said that customers are not allowed to be in the service section due to insurance regulations.

 

[cgbier]

Holy smokes! Really? I never found any grumpy guys like that in shops back home.

The cars I drove were about as old as I was then. Whenever I went to any shop, the (older) mechanics shared their memories and were always willing to help. Sometimes not even accepting a tip (the 10 deutschmark bill handshake)..

 

[Anime]

The outdated 'special tools' from the dealership are bought in bulk by certain companies, and resold for profit.

There are several sellers on ebay that specialize in the sale of the used dealer-only OTC / Rotunda tools from Ford and others. However, even at bargain prices, most of these are no longer needed or necessary as you can buy tool sets for less money that will do the job on a wide variety of vehicles rather than just the single set of tools for the Explorer.

Chances are very slim in this day and age that you'd find a dealer willing to sell you anything but an inventoried part, due to insurance/liability reasons and of course, money. Dealerships aren't very helpful to DIY's. A very large portion of their profit is from service, and charging incredible amount of money for parts and labor. Part of how they get away with that is by making certain jobs near-impossible to do, and they aren't going to make it any easier for you to do them and save all that money they'd get.

I'd also think that any dealers that still have special tools for a 91-94 Explorer are either keeping them for service reasons or will never get rid of them until they go out of business.