$28 for a Thermostat!!!

Just replaced a thermostat on my wife's V70. The dealer wanted $28 (plus
tax) or more than $30 after tax. My neighborhood discount auto parts place
had a thermostat for $6 after tax.

I complained to the dealer and said he only wanted 400% more than his
competitor for the part.

Their parts guy replied that he has no competitors, because everyone else in
town sells aftermarket parts. (Aren't substitutable parts competitors with
his parts?)

I didn't want to get into a discussion about him behaving like a monopolist,
but I made it clear that I won't be buying another Volvo.

This is nutty.

 

Volvo doesn't make thermostats. Chances are that its made by Wahler or
maybe Robinson. The one you bought could well have been made by the same
company that made the OEM unit. Duh.

John

 

A thermostat is not a commodity item. There are cheap ones and well
engineered and well-built ones. As far as I know their are no standards for
thermostats so anyone could manufacture one in China whether it worked well
or not.

Aren't you glad Volvo didn't build your whole car out of cheap substitute
parts?

Spanky

 

I suspect you are going to be disappointed. I have yet to find any
make or model of car where OEM parts purchased through a dealer are not
significantly more expensive than aftermarket.

Granted, 400% is pretty high, but you're talking about a pretty
inexpensive part to begin with. I certainly wouldn't write off an
entire manufacturer's line of vehicles over it.


Cheers,
-+JLS

 

AFAIK, Volvo gets its parts done by third parties, then rebadge them
and jacks up the price by 300-400%. It's that simple.

I wonder if all other car manufacturers are doing the same.

 

Actually you would be surprised. For many electronic components
*cough* Bosch *cough* dealer prices are quite competitive to what you'd
pay from a distributor, some parts (shocks, rotors) I've priced cheaper
from the dealer than the local AutoZone/Pepboys/etc. and there are some
jobs (e.g. 240 trailing arm bushings) that independant shops will tell
you to go to the dealer because they can't beat the (Volvo mandated)
book price.
As far as paying for the box... that's universal. I don't think you'll
find Honda, Toyota, VW or anyone else undercutting the aftermarket.

Bill

 

I don't expect them to undercut the aftermarket, but I don't expect them to
charge 500% of what the aftermarket part costs! I find that kind of gap
utterly embarrassing.

Which Internet Volvo parts house would you recommend?

 

If Volvo thermostats are so good, why did his fail already?

Wahler used to be the OEM for Volvo and probably still is ... but who knows
with Ford's cost accounting people "helping" these days.

John

 

It could be a manufacturing defect. Or maybe it just wore out from use.
Or maybe a cheaper quality part would have failed sooner. Or maybe it
just had a bad day. Or maybe it was just dumb luck.

The point being, just because a part fails early that doesn't mean the
entire product line is junk. Manufacturing does not produce 100%
identical parts 100% of the time. Not all use conditions are equal.
This is why products come with warranties.


Cheers,
-+JLS

 

How about $21 for a radiator cap?

Whilst touring Sweden last summer, we fired up the '95 850T one morning
and found that the idiot light for the cooling system came on. Checking
under the hood, I saw that the plastic cap on the coolant reservoir-tank
was badly cracked.

(Still don't know how or why; the previous day's driving had not been
particularly hard and the engine never came close to overheating.)

There was only one aftermarket parts type of place in that small town
and while they had all kinds of belts and hoses, etc., they didn't have
that cap--so we had to go to the Volvo dealer.

The price was 162 Swedish crowns, which on that day was equivalent to
almost US$21 or almost 18 Euro. For a little piece of plastic.

But...what are you going to do?

cheers,

Henry

 

Who said it failed? The person asking the question just said he REPLACED the
thermostat, not that the original had failed.

It's all too common to replace a part just because there is a problem and
nobody is quite sure what it is. If the shop replaces part at least they can
bill the customer for it. Assuming it had failed, that doesn't they will all
fail that soon, just that one did. It's unheard of to have 0% failure.

I'll take an OEM Volvo thermostat any day over a $6 auto parts store
"replacement".

Spanky

 

The OE thermostat on my 850 failed at 45,000 miles. Aftermarket thermostats
come in several grades and qualities.

Anyone who thinks all Volvo OE parts are better than all aftermarket parts
is a fool. Fools and their money are easily separated. With Volvo OE parts
price is NOT any assurance of top quality. Often the high Volvo parts price
is just a high price.


John

 

$28 for a Volvo-branded thermostat? Please, tell me where your
bargain parts shop is..
From the prices my local dealers charge for other parts, I'd expect a
thermostat to cost at least $80.00


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Yes, all car manufacturers do the same.
No matter what kind of car you have, stay away from the dealer once the
warranty expires. You will nearly always pay more. The only exception I
make is for oil filters because there are so many crap filters on the
market.

 

First Volvo assembled the car but they likely did not make the parts they
make up the car. That's what parts manufacturers are do.

It is almost certain that someone else makes the thermostat for them since
it is a specialty item.

You need to find out who made thermostat and what retail brands are
equivalent. Volvo does not necessarily buy top of the line. They buy what
meets minimum specifications. Failing that buy an after market thermostat.
It has got to be as good as the one that failed. IT FAILED.

G

 

I can attest to that. I've owned budget-priced Toyotas and Mazdas - the
"genuine parts" for these are also a frightening price. AU$3500 for a
set of Toyota shock absorbers, but better third-party shocks were only
$1500. $450 for a genuine Mazda (made by Bosch) alternator, but only
$240 for the Bosch branded equivalent.

My wife has a BMW. Servicing guys rang to say the fuel filter needed
changing and I said OK. I expected maybe as much as $40 for the genuine
part (non-genuine equivalents are about $18). But no ... $90 for the
"German part made in Korea" ! My V70 was recently serviced and the guys
rang to say the wiper blades were worn - I said OK replace them. The
blades cost $28, compared to the $5 I'd pay if I'd bought them myself.
(You'd think I'd learn !)

Stay alert and get them to tell you the price of even minor parts before
they fit them. You can save quite a lot of money by avoiding the dealer
if possible.

Chris

 

Even with oil filters, there are quality "after market" suppliers, or
just-as-good OEM suppliers.

Sometimes you can get much better for less. I just replaced my rear
control arm "cone" bushings with urethane which I expect to last
longer than the stock rubber ones. After market lenses (like headlight
lenses) couldn't be worse than Volvo- count how many fogged headlight
lenses you see on older Volvos in a day.

When I did the struts and shocke, I got all the parts for front and
rear through after market suppliers for less than the cost of the rear
shocks alone at Volvo, and actually was able to put better struts on
the front than stock (no real surprise there, really).

You win some, and lose some- just try to keep the win column ahead!
from Randy & Valerie
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1993 960