Ok, until a year ago I never had a Ford...I always had Pontiacs and Nissans...but when my firebird's tranny went I instead of fixing it I bought a cheap '94 ford probe gt to use till the '05 mustang convertilbe comes out.
But every time I need probe parts I get the feeling that the dealer is totally raping me...like a rebuilt distributer that ford wanted $900 for that I later found an identical counterpart at a mazda dealer for $300.
And now after the $30 autozone hatch supports wouldn't fit I went to the ford dealer and he charged me $200!

I wanna keep my mustang for a long time and I'm sure I'll need parts in the future. But if this is how ford treats it's customers that need assistance I'm not sure I want to do buisiness with them!

 

http://www.fordpartsonline.com/

Never buy parts from a stealership.

 

hahaha soooooo TRUE!

when i busted a taillight on my Tbird... the Dealer wanted $150 for the corner piece (NOT EVEN THE WHOLE THING).

I called a juckyard and got the corner of $35

 

B) Define overcharge. Do you mean mark-ups of over 600% instead of the 300-400% at a discounter? ...... Of course they overcharge; but they also have a lot higher overhead.
Go to a discounter and get a kid at minimum wages that may be able to spell Ford or go somewhere that normally has a trained professional and is probably somewhat knowledgeable. If I’m buying oil I go to Wal-Mart; if I need help I go where I can get it. It's business

 

It's the nature of the business. Woody 1 is right. I couldn't agree more. If I want reputable advice, I go to a licensed plumbing supplier for a part. Someone who knows what he's talking about. If I already know what I need, I go to a home supply center. Good luck with advice there!! You get my drift.... It's business alright. It's not Ford only.

 

all dealerships seem to be "overpriced". If you know what part you need, i would buy it elsewhere.

 

Typically you can get around 25% off of Ford list price online, but many sites charge 10% for shipping. I talked to the dealer where I bought my '04 and told them I'd like to buy parts from them, but they would have to match the 25% off I can get online. They agreed, and I ended up saving 5% (our sales tax is 5% vs. the 10% shipping charge) on around $500 worth of parts & accessories I wanted. Some business is beter than no business !!

 

Probe parts are typically insane, so don't use that as a benchmark.

 

My sister-in -law took their vehicle to a non-dealer for repairs. They put in the WRONG parts,caused damage & MORE repairs & they couldn't get credit for the previous mistake because the person was not a FORD dealer & had gone out of business. Sometimes "saving" money isn't always the best! If you just need a part & can do it yourself, that is a little different!

 

I'm just saying that since ford and mazda shared parts for the probe in my example I was able to compare a ford dealer and a mazda dealer for the identical part (the distrubuter). Neither was a discounter and neither was online...these are both dealerships.
Ford was $900 and mazda was $300($350-50 core)...the dealerships were only a few miles away from each other.
This lead me to believe that mazda is less likely to overcharge it's customers.