Sky high parts prices

[DougX]

Having read the Mike Owen column in Octobers JEC magazine, I can sympathize with the dilemma over the Mercedes part required by his friend. I have raised this on a number of occasions with the club about the prices Jaguar charge for their replacement parts. I have been advised that due to the fact many parts needed for either my XK8 or XJ8 are no longer produced, specific orders have to be made with suppliers for certain parts. These are special orders that Jaguar have to pay a premium for. I can understand that, but quite often the prices quoted are extortionate. Take for example, my latest requirement for my XJ8. I needed Jaguar Part No: LJA2226AA, an ABS wheel speed sensor. Contacting Jaguar and SNG Barratt's show a price of £152.35. However, on the SNG Barratt's website, they have an aftermarket reproduction unit for £27.38. Both these items attract P& P at £4.50. I obviously purchased the after market item, as I could buy 5 of these against the astronomical price the Jaguar item is! What I then was miffed about was that after purchasing the item from SNG Barratt's direct, I was casually looking on Amazon only to find the same item, being sold by SNG Barratt's through Amazon for £19.95 post free!!! The part comes with a 12 month guarantee, no matter whether it is purchased direct or via Amazon! I really think Jaguar should do more for its loyal customer base, rather than keeping trying to rip us off and recommend any club member to check out Amazon for parts, before going direct to SNG Barratts!

[davidr]

I don't think this is an issue confined to Jaguar.
My daily driver is an Audi A6 and it has recently stopped connecting to my phone although all the other infotainment functions are working. I tried a factory reset etc but no luck so I booked it into my local Audi dealer. My thoughts were that it was probably a faulty connection or Bluetooth module and was expecting a bill of maybe £250?
They diagnosed that it needed a new MMI module and the cost would be just shy of £1,000. When I protested they said that included a 50% "goodwill contribution" from Audi as the car is only just out if it's 3 year warranty and has a full Audi service history. So £2,000 for an electronic module! Unbelievable!
When you think about it, you have to be amazed that car manufacturers can make a profit because if you add up the cost of all the individual spare parts to make a car it must come to hundreds of thousands and yet they could manage to sell me an A6 for "only" £40k!
It's high time that there was a proper enquiry into the cost of spare parts. There isn't genuine competition and they appear to charge what they like!
Coming to Jaguar parts, if you look at Jaguar Classic, SNG Barratt, DMG or any of the other suppliers of genuine Jaguar parts their prices will be identical. This looks suspiciously like some kind of price-fixing arrangement which of course would be illegal.