At the time, the mechanic and I couldn’t find anything available except from the dealer. I used these guys for my engine tune and they also had OEM parts, but marked up. But at least they had them : EUROCOMPULSION - Performance Parts & ECU Tuning (shopeurocompulsion.net)
Not even because of labor being silly, but dealerships just straight up trying to scam you and any other place I can find just not actually knowing what the hell they are doing
If some bozo there can do it, why can’t I?
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Yeah, Saturn alternators were notorious because they failed so quickly and so often. Daughter’s Saturn had 5 fail in 2 years. Dealer definitely lost money replacing them under warrenty. They were not remanufactured, definately new.
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Always. The exception is the first actual new car that we bought. My wife has an Acura TLX PMC edition so that goes to the Honda or Acura dealerships for all work done. Since it is a collectors/special edition vehicle, the resale value with increase by having all records officially maintained. There is even an embossing stamp that they use to show that the work was officially done in the log book.
Otherwise, I work on all my vehicles with the exception of a few things that I take to the dealership every once in a while because… time.
The Euro brands are always going to have the “Euro” tax added to parts. The labor always comes with a “Euro” tax because of the rigorous certification programs that the official techs go through.
Are you running a carbon ceramic setup? That would be where the money is going if you have to get rotors too, but I would expect about 1200 in parts alone if that were the case though.
That is a lot of work that needs to get done. With these supply chain prices, if you can stay under 600 for parts, then that is a steal.
Hondas (Acuras) and Toyotas (Toyotas) are what I stick to. Lego cars man that parts are always abundant and will be manufactured for a while.
I would say stick with OEM/OE but RIP Saturn. My wife was pushing an L200 in college and that thing was always needing something. Unfortunately when Saturn went bust, parts became hard to find even though GM took responsibility for keeping parts around for another 5 years. GM would not touch it in 2008.
I like doing this kind of work. I especially like https://www.rockauto.com/ for parts. Just replaced all the brake pads on my 2003 Forester for about $100. Got some new headlights for under 10 dollars as well.
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if OP talks about a Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio,
then we ain’t talking about an ordinary car.
But about a high performance sports sedan.
So parts aren’t really cheap at the dealerships especially not in the US i imagine.
To me it always seemed like the “Euro” tax wasn’t so much an arbitrary tax as much as the poor logistics chain most european car brands keep, and the extra labor costs associated with most european cars are because they were designed with little forethought to actual maintenance.
korean car brands have pretty poor logistics channels too and thus have surprisingly high parts costs; but for them they have the excuse of being fairly recently established/scaled up.
In contrast the japanese nailed efficient supply chains and thus part cost and availability is good.
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That os a fair point I never thought about the supply chain stuff but the design does show that they did not intend on mortals working on these vehicles. The 2004 Era Golf with direct injection required taking off the intake manifold just to change the spark plugs. That was a fun exercise working on my friends car.
tell me about it, if I ever have to replace a camshaft because of a lifter chewing up one of the lobes on my vw, it’s an engine out procedure just to pull the camshaft.
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I started working on my own car because mechanics here are garbage. I will need one to do my AC. If you are capable, do your own work.