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Buying Porsche parts local or overseas


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Well it was time once again to order parts for my 81SC restoration project. I have been a Pelican, Sierra Madre, FCP & Aase purchaser in the past.

With the way the Aussie dollar(pacific peso) is lately, plus the talk here on PFA about buying from local suppliers or Porsche dealers I decided to give Porsche Cars South Sydney & Autohaus Hamilton a try.

I had built a parts shopping cart with Sierra Madre. So I transferred this cart to an Excel spreadsheet & sent it off to Autohaus(justjames) & PCSS for a quote. My list comprised 38 line items, which equates to 101 individual parts. Well to my surprise, these are the results:o:

  • Sierra Madre: $2587.30 including postage.
  • PCSS: $3931.85 plus $10 postage.
  • Autohaus -justjames: $2570.21 including postage & I have been lead to believe, a caramelo bear:P.

So, this was an educating process. I will continue to follow this way of buying parts from now on. Yeah, order placed with justjames.

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Thats bloody amazing! 

 As my 912 engine is totally buggered, a full rebuild was required, including head and crank work, new valves etc etc. I had James quote me on all the parts required, yet if I had bought them myself,  engine build warranty would be questionable (fair enough too). I had no choice but to have Buik Motorworks order them, as Craig and Mark have been fantastic to deal with from the first meeting, and I get a full warranty on parts and labour which I need for peace of mind if anything unforseen goes wrong. Being local to me also helps. 

 Although I havent spent much with James, he has been fantastic to me in the past, and that is more to me than saving a few dollars

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My experience with Just James and Porsche Centre Brisbane has been great -- not just since the dollar's tanked, but that sure makes big difference. 

The cost of genuine parts makes a big difference too, which I normally buy anyway, but if something's NLA there's no option but reproduction. 

I still make shopping carts with the regular suspects, then compare both cost and timing. Sometimes it's worth a few bucks to be able to get something next day. 

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  • 5 months later...

Just received some more parts from James at Autohause for my 924. Cant recomend James enough as he is very helpful and follows up on every detail, only problem is having to justify to my boys why I get to eat the Caramello Koala everytime.

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James wins again.   I've just shopped around for a fuel filter.  Pelican , Sierra Madre, eBay, Porsche Melb. (who had difficulty knowing which part to quote despite giving them the Bosch number) etc.  Autohaus Hamilton beat them all on price, service and delivery.

 

btw. I've got a spare filter free to good home. Pick up in SE Melb. It was in a service pack I got a few years ago but doesn't fit my car.  

Bosch p/n 0 450 905 021  Supposedly fits a 911 SC (just not my oddball car)  

PM me and it's yours.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sometimes it works out, others not so much! I just ordered a few bits and bobs through Brisbane. Most including a new rear view mirror were cheaper when exchange and shipping were taken into account, but a new ignition coil was $600 and I can land one here for ~$300. It pays to shop around.

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Sometimes it works out, others not so much! I just ordered a few bits and bobs through Brisbane. Most including a new rear view mirror were cheaper when exchange and shipping were taken into account, but a new ignition coil was $600 and I can land one here for ~$300. It pays to shop around.

+100.  If you have the time and patience and the car is not a daily, pays to webshop / emailshop with local and O/S suppliers on genuine parts 

I was/ am and continue to be a skeptic of the Euro mark tax being less than locally than when you buy O/S even with with fx credit card / paypal rates circa 0.70 usd / 0.60 euro if you are sourcing parts that are not commonly stored on the shelf by someone here in OZ (dealer, wholesaler or workshop)   such as routine service parts / fluids / parts considered to be essentially consumable parts for Genuine boxed parts.

Also I have found that you need to understand the impact that shipping and duties have  on your landed price and found that case for buying O/S is favoured when you have a scenario where you need a unique or large part  (not generally stocked) and at the same time you load up on other parts that you will utilize (perhaps not straight away) which incrementally have a zero margin shipping cost  / duties impact on your order.  Cost savings are also enhanced if you have access to user  friendly suppliers who understand duties, and work with you to pack goods  label them and ship them to minimise custom related delays / imposts. Eg I came across one recently that was willing to provide some quality assurance by opening up the box on a new exhaust system (after I paid for it)  and test the system by putting the exhaust tips  on a car in their workshop and putting it back in the box after about a 10 minute test.  At that point they deemed the system as used  and duly noted a decrease in the value of the goods shipped that I was aligned with.

PS I also took some advise from threads here and had a sizable order (over 25 part codes for parts / fluids)  and had my order quoted from local suppliers as recommended  and that which just fuelled my local euro brand parts tax sceptism  and that was before I stumbled across the best advise on a car forum I received in five years.  

That was use easy-square.com as a baseline when doing any cost comparison's on genuine parts  and don't concern yourself too much for being taken the cleaners on shipping (eg up their with FCP Groton/euro for best shipping rates for anything not being put on a pallet, sea container or your luggage (with / without copping excess baggage fees) 

That all said, I have a shopping list that is heading north of 120 part codes, so lets further test out the autohaus theory vs mine

PS I am expecting them to stumble on my first two parts in the list and can't see them shipping me a set of rear 996 gt3 adjustable control arms and end busing kist for under 1k AUD.  If they can, I will be sending them some cash pretty quickly

 

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  I've been dicked around no end with some small parts from Sierra Madre recently. Says in stock, order and pay, then have to wait another 4 to 6 weeks.

 Prices are comparable to any other US supplier, yet their postage is usually cheaper than Pelican Parts

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