I think we should do something!!

silver

silver

Forum Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
Messages
1,018
Location
Tathra, Far South Coast, NSW
Car Year
2005
Car Model
Forester
Transmission
Manual
This is an extension of my other thread re codes and solutions. After following Kevins advice and contacting Subarupartsgirl on Subaru Owners Forum re a part for my Forester and then doing some checking this is the result.
It appears I need a new Idle Control Motor which goes under a few names such as Idle control sensor or something to do with a 'stepping' motor or similar.
I was quoted $865 by ARB Bega and that was the reason I contacted SPG and gave her my car info. She got back to me with a price of $US289.01 and a postage of $US25 so $US314.01...lets say $A350 posted.
She also supplied me with a part number 22650AA192. Yesterday I checked this part number with Subaru Bega and all seems good. He quoted me over $900 !!! What a bloody joke!!!! I also put the part number into google and lots of stuff came up from ebay and China people saying $15 and stuff.
If you take out postage from the US Subaru are charging Australians $600 more for an identical part sold in the US. I reckon we should do something about this starting with a group letter,email to Subaru Australia or something!!
Outrageous and it makes me very cranky!!!
 
I have been purchasing MY03 Subaru genuine spare parts, up to postable sizes, about 10kg, from Subaru Parts Girl for about 2 years now.
She is excellent and very helpful and her prices make Subaru Australia look ridiculous.
The thing you must be very aware of is having the correct part number, not always easy to find out as local dealers don`t like parting with this information for very obvious reasons.
The parts prices from the US are usually about 50% of OZ part prices.
I would be happy to support any group letter you may consider. Whether it would make any difference I doubt as the local bunch have us over a barrel and can, and do, charge what they like.
 
Yeah I bought my complete EZ30D gasket kit for a little over $400 posted from US. $900 odd from Subaru in Australia. Less than 50% less for purchasing over seas is common with genuine parts. I'm all for supporting local business but not for a 100% premium. Sensors particularly are a big one for this.

I imagine this all has something to do with dealership servicing, genuine parts and new car warranties all factoring into the business profitability to make the new car prices lower. Apparently some manufacturers sell cars at a loss and make it up in the service centers?

Hard to believe the price difference comes down to GST and physical/retail operating costs. I think companies get away with a lot of things in Australia because we are a fairly risk averse and compliant bunch on the whole.
 
^ I completely agree. We get right royally ripped off for most things here.

A full set of print cartridges for my big photo printer is around $1,000 here, plus postage on top of that ...

From Adorama in the USA, they cost around $560 delivered to my door. To get to Adorama, they first have to be shipped from Japan to the USA ... :puke:.

It's not just the 100% premium that gets me, it's the 100% premium over RRP!!
 
We are a smaller market and will pay more but over $900 for a $300 part. I'm not tech savy enough to do a group email from this forum and it is not my place to do that but I think we could send one to Subaru Australia first and quote the part number and costs and ask why this is so eg .. is this a mistake from Subaru...which of course it is not. They will answer with their usual rubbish and we could reply that we are going to contact A Current Affair, the Checkout (ABC) Fair Trading and anyone else we can to give them some bad publicity...even Alan Jones maybe???
It's just bad news!!!
 
I recently heard of a guy that purchased a Holden Monaro that was one of the factory Pontiac GTOs back in the VT era. The same vehicle was $90K here, he purchased it new, shipped it to Oz, paid import tax, had it "converted" to RH Drive with off the shelf parts from Holden, had it certified and still came out $20K better off than buying locally.

The car was BUILT here, shipped to the US, purchased over there then shipped back!

It's all in the research and effort.

Cheers

Bennie
 
I can understand that spare parts cost more than they would as a complete car but the example I have given is way over the top.
 
Us Aussies certainly get bent over for prices, not just Subaru. But I would love some waves to be started here. Its time Subaru Australia pulled their heads in & charged more reasonable prices for parts. I will fully support any action you start :biggrin:
 
Anyone got any suggestions....an email to Subaru from the Forum asking about their pricing policy, quoting the part number and US and AUS prices and asking why they are screwing us???
A Forum email/letter to a Federal Government Department or a Senator such as Nick Xenophon who does seem to give a stuff about people....or to all of the states Fair Trading Departments....A Current Affair????
 
We recently decided to upgrade our CAD software to something more professional. Aus price was around $20k including floating license server. Checking with our US sub-branch showed we could buy the same package for around $13k there. We advised the Aussie distributor (there's only one) and we were able to negotiate a far more reasonable price. Perhaps this tactic may be worth trying when dealing with local parts supply?
 
That certainly works with some suppliers/shops but I reckon the local Subaru dealers would be getting a trade price on the $900 retail price off Subaru Aus and maybe they could move $100 or so but they would not be able to get anywhere near the US price. Bad publicity is usually the best way to deal with stuff like this and big players.
 
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