Car Makers Used Software To Raise Spare Parts Prices (engadget.com) 276
An anonymous reader writes: Ever had the nagging suspicion that your car's manufacturer was charging outrageous prices for parts simply because it could? Software might be to blame. Reuters has obtained documents from a lawsuit indicating that Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot, Renault and other automakers have been using Accenture software (Partneo) that recommended price increases for spare parts based on "perceived value." If a brand badge or other component looked expensive, Partneo would suggest raising the price up to a level that drivers would still be willing to pay. It would even distinguish parts based on whether or not there was "pricing supervision" over certain parts (say, from insurance companies or focused publications) to avoid sparking an outcry.
this is why... (Score:2)
This is why you look at car repair cost estimates before you buy your car, and use aftermarket parts when you can.
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Then no one would ever buy a Honda.
Also, companies charge different prices for the same part depending on which model it is for. A friend was a moderator at corvetteforum.com, and there were several parts that cost less if you ordered it for a Cavalier versus a Corvette. My friend had trouble with water leaking into his door after someone broke into his car, and he went through several power window switches. IIRC, the part for the Cavalier was half the price but the same exact part.
Re:this is why... (Score:4, Insightful)
Are Honda's expensive to maintain? Mine has seemed fairly reliable. As I look at my spreadsheet there's only a handful of the costs that are replacement parts: 3% of the total cost of the car. (not including regular maintenance like a timing belt changes)
As I compare it to the cost of our 4Runner it is more expense; The Accord costing about $270/mo vs $191/mo but we've only had the Accord for 8 years vs 15 years for the 4Runner. Check it out yourself if you're curious: https://docs.google.com/spread... [google.com]
BTW: this is what it looks like if you try to "drive the car until the wheels fall off".
Honda (Score:4, Interesting)
Are Honda's expensive to maintain?
As a general proposition they're generally pretty affordable to maintain. They're generally pretty high on the reliability charts and speaking from first hand experience the maintenance on them is generally pretty reasonable in comparison to other makes. I've got a Honda with around 180K miles on it and I expect to get to 250K baring something odd happening.
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What? cite? Hondas are cheap to keep. Granting they were better 10+ years ago, true for all brands.
You appear to own a generic motors car...and you talk shit about Honda? Seriously?
On topic: They are talking about limey and frog cars. I have no sympathy for the owners of such vehicles. Stupidity should be painful. Morons with money are the fat of the land and should be exploited for all they're worth.
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I've seen this the parts for some cars are just a standard parts that fit multiple models but if it's marketed for a more expensive car then it's way more expensive although it's the same part... you have to look at the interchangeable parts list or you might get screwed.
Re:this is why... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is why you look at car repair cost estimates before you buy your car, and use aftermarket parts when you can.
Then no one would ever buy a Honda.
Uh, let's keep in mind that only 10% of the automobile-driving population still knows how to use a wrench under the hood, so the cost of maintenance is essentially a non-factor. They're all expensive to maintain or repair because the overwhelming majority of car owners are paying someone else to do the maintenance.
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Because they are so cheap? Honda is one of the least expensive brands to maintain. [yourmechanic.com] Expected maintenance costs are the product of failure rate and parts cost.
Many people don't care about maintenance costs anyway; obviously, those people don't need to look.
Re: this is why... (Score:3)
Re:this is why... (Score:5, Interesting)
A while back, Toyota claimed I needed a new exhaust pipe for my Echo - $2,900 for the part alone. Quote from a reputable 3rd party repair shop: $400 including labour. It was just a bent pipe after all.
Final cost? Free. I took it into a repair shop and he just welded over the holes, used old wire hangers. It took him so little time he didn't bother charging me.
Exhaust (Score:2)
A while back, Toyota claimed I needed a new exhaust pipe for my Echo - $2,900 for the part alone.
Surprisingly the dealers generally aren't competitive on exhaust components. Usually cheaper to go to an exhaust specialist like Midas or similar. I actually had a dealer tell me that one time when I needed a new muffler. He was honest that they could do it but I would (and did) save a lot of money going to a specialist for that.
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You are suffering from learned helplessness. Fix yourself. Change your oil, once in your life, anybody can do it. Watch a Youtube video. Yes, your time is worth more, the knowledge is worth still more.
You don't have to be a mechanic to know you've gone 5k (10k for synthetic oil) miles and need an oil change. That's a tell, you have mentally checked out and 'punted' to your mechanic. Do you also ask your barber if you need a haircut? Do you ask Microsoft if you should upgrade to the latest Windows? Intel
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Seriously? "Most people" can't be bothered to look at expected repair costs [yourmechanic.com] or to find a well-reviewed independent repair shop on Yelp?
So you value your own time more than the money you could save by being a more informed buyer.
That's how inventory theory works! (Score:5, Insightful)
See for example Hillier and Liebermann, Introduction to Operations Research, "Inventory Theory" (chapter 18 in 8th edition) This is basically managing the components of the inventory model to where the value of filling the order yields maximum profit. It might be really annoying (like when I got charged $1500 for a replacement wiring harness for my truck), but it should not be a big surprise to anyone who thinks about this.
Re:That's how inventory theory works! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:That's how inventory theory works! (Score:4, Interesting)
I understand supply and demand, and pricing for profitability. There is branding, and market positioning.
My long experience owning a lot of cars and restoring 90% of them as both a hobby and side-money, is that I walk away from the Accenture-like pricing brands completely. If the aftermarket or a boneyard can't supply a part that allows me a profit, I walk from that brand.
Brands that have a good aftermarket supply chain: GM, Ford, Ford Truck, Chrysler mini vans
Brands that I won't touch that I used to do: Jaguar, MG, Rover, Austin, Mini, Subaru, Fiat, Peugot diesels
Brands that I'll currently do: Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, pre-1998 VW, certain Audis.
My goal is not to lose money, and make sure a vehicle isn't coming back from a dissatisfied customer. I outsource body/interior work.
Some vehicles have a strong enough statistical presence to force down prices. I go to dealers only as a last resort, and dealer parts networks are wickedly un-coordinated. Looking at you, Honda. Over the years, I've done plenty. Plainly, some brands are insane (looking at you, Mini). Consumers suffer. But I believe that the market place should decide, and let the assholes that over-price themselves get a bad rep, then crater. So long as the governments don't bail out the losers, I'm fine with watching brands disappear like Saab did.
Re:That's how inventory theory works! (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, BMW part prices started insane and went up from there over last decade or so. This had zero effect on new car sales. It does depress residual value at the end of the lease, but people don't seem to factor it into their purchasing decisions.
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There is the warranty effect, insurance cost pressure, leasing skews, and other variables in the path, too.
With a large enough volume, a secondary market emerges with rebuilt-reman components, as well as suppliers offering "compatibles". Yes, badging and brand-proprietary parts are still a seller's market. Can't change that.
Mercedes took a huge hit in customer loyalty.... along with some other brands when they started selling parts as though they were made of pure gold, rather than the junk they were design
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Citation needed.
Which harness? (Score:2)
It might be really annoying (like when I got charged $1500 for a replacement wiring harness for my truck)
Out of professional curiosity (I make wire harnesses for a living) what harness were you having replaced? If it's one of the big body or engine harnesses that might not be a bad price once labor is included. Installing those is a huge PITA and they can cost several hundred dollars to make. We make an engine harness for a V8 bifuel vehicle that we sell for around $300 each. Our customer obviously marks that up somewhat. ;-)
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Nissan Frontier - mice or squirrels damaged the wiring. The labor cost was even more than the parts cost, $3700 all told. Fortunately my insurance covered this under Comprehensive coverage (less my deductible, of course.)
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Nissan Frontier - mice or squirrels damaged the wiring. The labor cost was even more than the parts cost, $3700 all told. Fortunately my insurance covered this under Comprehensive coverage (less my deductible, of course.)
Ahh so the engine harness? Then that actually wasn't that outrageous a markup compared to some I've seen. We make and sell harnesses like that and they typically cost between $250-700 to make depending on complexity. I'm not actually surprised the labor cost more than the part. Pulling some of those things out and replacing them is a HUGE pain especially if they go through the firewall and under the dash.
Of course I've had an entire engine replaced for about that amount of money so...
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You know that super annoying person who knows nothing of the industry suggests a simple solution? Hi, I'm super annoying.
Why are there huge wiring harasses in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to have many smaller harnesses that are easier to replace small sections of without having to disassemble half the car?
Re: Which harness? (Score:3)
I'm not in the industry and know nothing, but my guess is it's because it's simpler logistically during manufacturing to have an all-in-one that is provided by a single vendor.
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To get cruise control, the dealer can add the controls and enable it in the computer. The harness wires and software are already in the vehicle because it's cheaper that way.
Re:Which harness? (Score:4, Informative)
While it would reduce labor for many repairs, it would likely increase initial manufacturing labor costs and increase the number of SKUs to stock for spares (which increases costs for both the manufacturer and dealers). Large integrated harnesses can be built by (the cheapest?) suppliers and be installed "on the line" more quickly than a bunch of discrete wiring.
The manufacturer cares much more about initial manufacturing cost than later repair costs - by reducing the former they can either keep the difference (more profit per car) and/or sell more cars because their pricing is more competitive (therefore increasing volume).
While this decision likely increases the cost of insurance slightly, consumers don't look that closely at that aspect and it's quite possible that if the manufacturer passes on a portion of their manufacturing cost savings that will more than compensate for the increased labor costs of replacing a complicated wiring harness. Most cars (well, before soy based insulation at least) never have any wiring harnesses replaced and many cars that would need that done would have been totaled even if the parts and labor for replacing the harness were free (for example after a fire or flood).
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It's not exactly a frequent maintenance item. What % of cars do you think go the shredder with, more or less, their factory wiring? I'm guessing 99%+.
Anybody with a soldering iron, a pair of clippers and some confidence (competence optional, also nice insulating masking tape) can and does modify/repair wiring. That's usually the kind of thing that leads to a new harness when it goes _really_ wrong.
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This is changing with soy now getting used in wiring harnesses. It is insulation with rodent food. It gets eaten anytime rodents get access to your sitting car.
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>Anybody with a soldering iron
Check!
>a pair of clippers
Check!
>and some confidence
Check!
However when you look for the documentation, it's an incomprehensible table of three letter codes for wiring colors and no diagrams or connector pinouts. When you look at the wiring harness, every wire is black.
Wiring in cars (Score:2)
Why are there huge wiring harasses in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to have many smaller harnesses that are easier to replace small sections of without having to disassemble half the car?
Actually it would be more expensive because of the component costs. Plus it's actually pretty rare that you have to replace an entire harness if it is low voltage. You'd spend a lot of money modularizing the harness which would be hard for the manufacturer to recoup. That said, a lot of harnesses are reasonably modular where possible/practical. But wire is cheap and connectors are not.
There also is the problem of lack of standardization of connectors and terminals and other parts. There are literally t
Not a concern of theirs (Score:4, Interesting)
The harness is easier to install during production if it has as few connectors as possible.
Speaking as someone who makes harnesses for OEMs, minimizing the number and variety of connectors does not appear to be a substantial concern of the automakers. You would not believe how fragmented the wire harness industry is.
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wasn't there an issue where it turned out the wiring harnesses were getting eaten because the jackets were made of FOOD?? (some sort of econut soy based plastic IIRC)
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Are you in the US? Cars in the US seem to be a massive rip-off, and they aren't exactly cheap in the UK.
Not just parts, US cars seem to need an extraordinary amount of maintenance compared to the same models in the UK.
I have a feeling it's to do with consumer protection law. If my 8 year old car needed a $1500 wiring harness replacing I'd be asking the manufacturer to contribute to the cost, or just getting it done for free. If that somehow failed I'd get one for five bucks from a scrapyard or eBay or 3rd p
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Do you want to know how I know you haven't been to a scrapyard in decades? Five bucks?
Most wiring harness problems aren't manufacturing related, fire, idiot and rodents. Occasionally you get a brief period where a manufacturer gets their wire spec wrong (Honda at the door hinges), but that's so expensive, they get right on it.
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The constant vibration means the finest of dust slowly works into the connectors, eventually breaking the connection. This is a very difficult problem to solve.
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That's not a broken harness. That's a dirty connector. Contact cleaner and dielectric grease.
When training up recent college grads in tech rolls (has been a good way to fix PCs for decades):
First bit of advice. It's the power supply, it's always the power supply...(50% in my experience, YMMV)
Second: It's a loose connector. Unplug and replug all the connectors. Reseat all the expansion cards.
Third: Yank and spank. Remove all the noncritical parts, leave populated motherboard and power supply (Yank).
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>Do you want to know how I know you haven't been to a scrapyard in decades? Five bucks?
Nothing in the UK costs five bucks. They use pounds.
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The scrap yard is still going to charge a monkey.
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We have locally owned auto-repair shops and dealerships if you go to an authorized dealer for repairs don't expect to get 3rd party parts and it to be much more expensive the locally owned auto-repairs will give you an option if you want oem or 3rd party parts sometimes those part are available from multiple 3rd parties with varying warranty lengths.
Re: That's how inventory theory works! (Score:2)
One man's price gouge is another man's price discovery.
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And people will take advantage of companies all the time. It's how the world works.
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And people will take advantage of companies all the time. It's how the world works.
Companies can set return/exchange and warranty policies as they see fit to avoid abuse. Customers have little say in the matter. They could vote with their wallets, except most companies have settled rather closely around a status quo that isn't really great for consumers.
Maybe once in a while a jackass will return a box of rocks to Best Buy instead of a stereo receiver. But the company will quickly write a policy that forces all customers to wait while customer service reps inspect all returns. The compani
In other not surprising news... (Score:5, Informative)
Ever had the nagging suspicion that your car's manufacturer was charging outrageous prices for parts simply because it could?
Suspicion? No. It's a well known fact. There is a reason car dealers have terrible reputations for ripping of their customers. Of course the markups on service parts is huge. Anyone who didn't know this is an idiot.
My day job is running a small manufacturing company that makes (mostly) car parts. I know what the markup is on the stuff we sell. As a crude rule of thumb you can take whatever they charge you and divide by 8 and chances are good that's about how much the company that actually made the part sold it for. My company makes wire harnesses and I've seen products that have maybe $5 worth of material content and maybe double that in labor and overhead being sold for north of $300. One of the sales reps we work with from a big distributor told me a story about how he saw a guy buying a harness for his car ahead of him in line at the dealer. He started laughing and when they asked him why he said "I sell every component that goes into that harness and you are holding maybe $4 in material". The sale price on the harness was $540.
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Production costs alone do not dictate the retail price - especially with vehicle parts, some of them can be kinda heavy - distribution logistics increases the price more than manufacturing sometimes...
But in the case, ya, you are right. I've experienced this myself when replacing some parts on my bike...
Retail price detached from costs (Score:2)
Production costs alone do not dictate the retail price - especially with vehicle parts, some of them can be kinda heavy - distribution logistics increases the price more than manufacturing sometimes...
My point was that production costs have almost NOTHING to do with the retail price in many cases. I've seen parts my company makes being sold at a dealer for 8X what I know for a fact it cost to make them. There is some overhead in there to be sure but most of that price difference is just markups by every company that touched it along the way with the markups getting much bigger when it is a retail customer.
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I find it is a double edged sword ... yes, you pay whatever the dealership/car company is charging for parts ... but they also have standardised the labour costs.
So, a specific job is going to be however many units of time was determined by the manufacturer -- no more, no less.
Contrast that with smaller garages, where you're going to pay for them to figure out the problem, track down
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LOL, you think the book hours are something other than another way to rip you off.
Hint: They charge book hours, they pay (all but the most senior mechanics) actual hours (and fire them if those aren't _way_ under book) and pocket the difference in both time and rate. Dealerships have _one_ senior mechanic/shift, who's constantly on the verge of rage quitting. The rest are recent tech school grads, who are making well under $20/hour.
Which is for paid work, from super chumps, the stealership mechanics ge
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I find it is a double edged sword ... yes, you pay whatever the dealership/car company is charging for parts ... but they also have standardised the labour costs.
"Standardized"? I do labor costing for a living. Those "standard rates" dealers offer have precious little to do with the actual cost of providing service. Dealer service times are HEAVILY padded for obvious reasons.
You can end up paying so much more in labour costs when you don't go to the dealer it isn't funny.
I can say the exact opposite and it is equally true. I had a relay that needed replacing in one of my cars. Cost of the part was about $70 bucks. Dealer wanted (no joke) nearly $1000 to replace it and tried to tack on a bunch of unnecessary stuff as well. My local shade tree mechanic char
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Contrast that with smaller garages, where you're going to pay for them to figure out the problem, track down the part, and figure out how to install it.
What kind of fly-by-night garage are you going to that hasn't settled on a supply change, knows how to troubleshoot, or has problems reading a shop manual? Furthermore, a quick perusal of any model specific car forum will quickly show you that the dealer's idea of troubleshooting is to shotgun parts until something fixes the problem. The customer getting stuck with a bill for each attempt.
If you're not savvy enough to stay away from those guys, well...a fool and their money are soon parted.
to pay a "living wage" (Score:2)
Tomorrow, will you be complaining that the business next door that only marks up parts half as much doesn't pay a "living wage"? Where is the money for beyond-economic wages supposed to come from without beyond-economic pricing to customers?
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So the answer is "more regulation"? With you-know-who being a part of the regulation writing process?
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I don't see the problem here..
If the market sustains that price, why shouldn't the retailer be able to sell it at that price?
What stops the manufacturer from undercutting by selling direct? If you can sell that $500 wiring harness for $100 and make money, why don't you? I'm guessing that the issue is more than markups as it goes though hands... Time is money, Money costs money, inventory costs money, storage cost money, marketing cost money, shipping costs money, handling costs money, storage cost mon
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If the market sustains that price, why shouldn't the retailer be able to sell it at that price?
Nobody said they couldn't. Just pointing out that the fact that hefty markups occur on service parts is hardly a shocking revelation.
What stops the manufacturer from undercutting by selling direct?
A variety of things. 1) You don't make a part for someone and then sell it yourself unless that is agreed to in advance. That's a great way to get lawyers involved and piss off customers when you start selling someone's product out the back door. 2) Most of the manufacturers don't have the sales channel to sell it themselves and would not find it economical to develop one.
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Then why do you care what the retailer charges?
Even if the part only costs $4 in parts to make, you are just building somebody else's stuff. They did the design, they pay to get it built and run the supply chain pipeline. You make your profit, you are done with the part now because of your contract...
Let the market decide, because the alternative isn't pretty. Let the PR firestorm run it's course, let the market do it's thing and it will get fixed.
Do you like overpaying? (Score:2)
Then why do you care what the retailer charges?
Because sometimes I'M the one who has to pay the absurd markups. I also care that you don't get taken to the cleaners too albeit somewhat less for obvious reasons. I don't begrudge anyone making a decent profit. But let's not pretend that car repair shops have a sterling reputation for honest business practices. Just because someone could get away with taking advantage of someone doesn't make it right to actually do it.
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What makes car parts so profitable is that there are so many varieties of components, and makes, models, years, and trim levels are all different, and the differences are usually relatively minor, usually some change in shape of the plastics, mounting holes, wiring placement, as opposed to essential functionality.
One thing to consider is types of cars when buying them. For example, on one older vehicle I have, the headlights were blurry. It was cheaper to replace the ABS plastic headlight lamps in the fro
Cheapest TCO (Score:3)
Makes me wonder what automobile make is the best for TCO, over the long haul.
Generally speaking the one with the cars that break down the least. My guess would be Toyota would be pretty high on the list of best TCO. They tend to top most reliability surveys.
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Reliability is one metric, but all car brands across the board are very reliable. From there, it is parts and service.
A good example of this is a Ford Transit versus a Mercedes Sprinter. The Sprinter is very reliable, but if something happens, you spend Mercedes prices for parts and service. For example, if you want an additional key, expect to pay $200, and $200 for someone to program it in at the dealership. The Transit key is $40 and you can program it in yourself.
Compatible parts (Score:2)
Not enough volume (Score:2)
So because of this there's a huge potential market for compatible spare parts. Are there places where I can type a VW part number and get the equivalent alibaba part or somesuch ?
It's not that easy. There are about 30,000 parts in a typical car and a substantial number of these parts are not shared with other cars. The number of car parts that one could do enough service volume to justify the engineering time to replace them is a pretty small number. Plus most OEMs factor in buying a bunch of service parts. And you have to compete with the used parts market (stuff from wrecks). The car parts market is SO fragmented it's really hard to get any decent economies of scale on a give
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Went to get a Chrysler key fob replaced. The salesguy selling you the repair service (that's what they legally are, there even was a Supreme Court case about it) called the parts to ask if they had any in stock, on speakerphone.
"Yes, we have one of that model in stock, it's 67 do..." cut! The sales guy cut the speakerphone.
I was charged $200.
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Your fault then. Haggling is legal, even at the parts counter. You knew the jobber price, don't pay a penny more. You know they're selling them profitably at that price.
Lots of locksmiths have those. Not a reason to goto the stealership in the first place.
Upscale cars, upscale parts (Score:2)
Jaguar and Land Rover drivers have already decided to pay up for upscale branding and features. They like paying a little more. They could buy a Hyundai or a Jeep if they would rather save money. They could also source their own 3rd party spare parts in some cases if they wanted to save.
This is a nothing story. Upscale brands like Louis Vuitton and Prada charge huge markups on something as ordinary as luggage and handbags. There's no practical rationale for it. People who buy that stuff know what they
Re: Upscale cars, upscale parts (Score:2, Insightful)
A Jeep to save money? Pretty much everything breaks on a Jeep.
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Some fools buy vehicles other than actual jeeps (Wranglers these days) from jeep. The Cherokee is pretty awful, in a league with the leather covered, castrated Land Rovers sold in the USA.
Even actual Jeeps were terrible during the AMC days. Some had Renault (spit) parts. But those were just bodies to install V8s into. None of the driveline components were worth keeping.
This is old news (Score:2)
They've been doing this for DECADES.
A friend from Ireland had a Jag E-type and there was one switch that would always die. It cost some ungodly amount. However, the exact same switch was also used in a low-end design, with a different badge (Mini?). That version, absolutely identical, sold for something like 1/4 the price. That was in the 70s.
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Wrecker parts versus new (Score:2)
Got one from a wrecker for 140$, if I could have waited, could have ordered the part from amazon brand new for 180$.
Comparing prices from a part from a wreck to new parts isn't really apples to apples. The cost of the materials in the part alone almost certainly exceed the cost of labor to remove it from a vehicle and sell it. Basically if you can get the part new for comparable money to the same part out of a wreck then the person selling you the part from the wreck is ripping you off. If you could get the part "brand new" from Amazon for that much less then it is probably either surplus inventory being liquidated (o
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What's the rush? AC compressor can wait, 4-60 AC (4 windows at 60mph).
All I can say is.... (Score:3)
So?
Are we saying that companies cannot charge what the market is willing to pay for their products now? In most cases, I hope not.
Where I get the feeling of outrage, why should I pay that much for a part for my car? I'm not opposed to collecting $300/hour for labor or selling that rare baseball card I found in the attic for a tidy sum. How's that different except that I'm the one collecting and not paying?
Companies should be able to charge what ever they can for their products and let the market chips fall where they may. As long as they don't collude with their competition, have at it. Just figure that consumers will eventually figure out what you are doing and you will have to live with the PR backlash.
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And you give a solid example of why companies are driven to not do this. I remember the PR firestorm called down on the CEO of the company that produced the Epi-Pens and he relented. Plus, in this case, due to the fact that epi-pens where generic, over pricing them was a stupid move as it made it attractive for another company to spin up manufacturing and under cut the price. The free market corrected this.
A better example for you is a drug maker that's marketing a drug they hold a patent on. There can
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We are allowed to. That's part of the bad PR GP is talking about.
However, TFS mentions a lawsuit, which seems to imply that it is illegal for companies to set their prices based on market research, which sounds ridiculous.
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That works if you're Bugatti. Not enough volume to draw in new market participation.
If you're Ford, that ends with you selling none (SVO excepted).
Software isn't to blame. (Score:2)
The software doesn't control them, it merely provided suggestions. The people selling the parts are the ones that are setting the price. Greedy humans are to blame here.
Blame Whom? (Score:5, Interesting)
Damn those silly algorithms and expressions organizing themselves in a way to make extra money for a completely uninvolved party who happened to deploy them. The nerve of them!
The practice may be automated now, but it's been going on for literally decades. Even as far back as the 1980s and 1970s, you could swap parts between Corvettes and other cars. The part numbers would be different, but the equipment itself would be functionally identical. Funny how the part for the Corvette always cost several times as much; I'm sure it's purely because there were fewer Corvettes on the road (than, say, Citations or Skylarks), so the manufacturing costs were higher, right? Riiiiiiight
The price of a thing is always cost plus, where "plus" is defined by what the market will endure. If you can keep the cost hidden (see also: US healthcare) or obscure the availability of a thing (nearly-identical parts with different labels, with only one label approved for your application), the market will endure a hell of a shafting until the house of cards comes down.
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I suggested tying corporate income tax rates to corporate net operating profits so that huge-margin price gougers end up paying high taxes and low-margin corporations pay very little.
Cross-brand Part Overlap (Score:2)
The robots are taking over! (Score:3)
The story here is actually that some highly-skilled, white-collar jobs got automated out of existence.
Figuring out what the traffic will bear has been going on since forever. Used to be done by people, now software automates it and maybe takes more factors into account.
Parts Pricing (Score:2)
Odd Coincidence (Score:2)
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Time to buy a 3-D printer?
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Cool. They are years behind drug companies. (Score:2)
or maybe decades. Lots to learn.
thats why that broken tail light you replaced (Score:2)
Other anti-repair software games (Score:2)
There's lots of similar scams. Generic repair shops couldn't fix our dealer-installed car alarm because the car manufacturer charges an arm and leg for the diagnostic software, which is too expensive for most shops. It's probably cheaper to have one installed from scratch.
We had a similar situation with our refrigerator. A repair shop has to deal with many brands, and purchasing diagnostic software from the manufacturer is too expensive for many of them*. If you repair say 15 brands, you have to purchase/r
Lemonade Stands (Score:2)
Sounds Familiar (Score:2)
Until this story, I thought electric vehicles would be cheaper to maintain: fewer moving parts, less wear, easy to replace and repair. Now, I'm not so sure.
Tools (Score:2)
Put blame where it belongs; Insurance. (Score:2)
"...If a brand badge or other component looked expensive, Partneo would suggest raising the price up to a level that drivers would still be willing to pay."
Uh, the price that drivers are willing to pay? What utter bullshit.
Cars are so damn expensive these days that anything other than the smallest of fender benders will warrant a call to your auto insurance provider in order for them to pay for it. Pricing has jack shit to do with driver tolerance, and has everything to do with how insurance companies have come to accept these insane costs for parts and repairs. If insurance wasn't so damn willing, then auto manufacturers would likely be left with little c
huh (Score:2)
"Ever had the nagging suspicion that your prospective employee was charging outrageous prices for his salary, simply because he could?"
Everyone does this (unless there is some kind of charity element).
When you do it with your labor, it's savvy job hunting. When a retailer does it with stuff, it's a heinous evil ... somehow.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
How is this collusion? It's one company recognizing that it's customers are ego driven chumps and charging appropriately. If they call the aftermarket parts companies, then yes, slap the cuffs on them. Until then, it's SOP. Like using Newton's method to approximate a mathematical solution, they're just finding maximum profit.
Is Rolex also guilty of collusion? They charge what the market will bear...ego driven purchasing decisions are usually bad ones.
Am I also guilty of collusion? Are you? I don't thin
Re: (Score:2)
How is this collusion? It's one company recognizing that it's customers are ego driven chumps and charging appropriately.
Actually, no, it's a group of companies all using the same platform to set their prices.
Re: 2 entities to prosecute here. (Score:3)