Ramblings on a Wednesday night - Spare Parts aren't cheap these days...except for....

I may not be as good as a BMW, but my spare parts are damn cheap!

It's been a slightly slow week for me in the automotive scene. I had other things to do and not much had gotten my attention. So today I'd just like to share a little bit of my thoughts on spare parts for car.

My sister in law recently got her Suzy Swift 1.5 serviced and was told that the steering rack of the car has a bit of freeplay. This happens when the car is about 7 years old with over 150,000km on the clock. Some cars do not suffer such problems until later in life but some do. Or sometimes, the authorised service centers check everything and tell you whether the car is within manufacturer's tolerance or not. 

So they told my sister in law that the Swift's steering rack had minor freeplay and if she wants it all tight and taut, without slack like when it was brand new, it would cost RM7,000. Of course this wasn't really necessary, and she didn't change the rack. RM7,000 is a lot of money. I can bet you that if you went and tried to find a second hand rack it would cost at least RM2,500 as people in the industry would know how much the authorised center is charging. The same actually goes for a brand new Toyota Camry air-condition compressor. A brand new one would cost you around RM3,000. A reconditioned one may just cost you RM650. 

It dawned on me that spare parts for cars these days cost a fair bit. Even in Japanese cars these days. I remember buying a brand new compressor for my Proton Wira at RM650. Actually, I think a brand new Wira compressor still costs about the same price. I also think that parts for a Proton is still damn cheap compared to all other brands out there with the exception of Mercedes Benz (for their earlier models like the W124, W140, W203). 

A good example would be the shock absorbers for a Wira - RM950 get you a height adjustable sports suspension kit. A Subaru set would set you back at least RM2,800 to RM3,500. a Proton or a Perodua radiator may cost as low as RM200. A OEM Japanese car radiator would cost RM700. 

Of course I hear people bitching about Proton and how crappy their cars are. Especially the power window failures. Actually these days how many Proton cars have power window failures? I still have relatives who buy Protons and I do not hear such complaints. In fact, when you go down to those who earn a meagre income, you actually don't hear all sorts of complaints. In fact, I have chatted to many of them and they think the spare parts are cheap. A very important fact to them actually. 

Maybe the people here do not have time to complain as much as most of us do. I don't know. I do know that the spare parts business does not discriminate like how the government does when it comes to tax and excise duties of locally produced cars against imported ones. Here the game is volume. Why I say volume? Look at Mercedes Benz. It may be a luxury brand, but spares for the older cars are dirt cheap. Cheaper than even a Perodua. It is affordable because major spares are brought or made in large quantities. Like the prices of some Honda and Toyota too. 

But right now, running a Proton is very affordable. Even my performance parts supplier seems to think so. He has actually been running a Proton Preve CFE(Turbo) for almost four years now as well as a Lexus Hybrid. There were some problems with the Preve (including that turbo hose recall thingy) , but nothing major. And the windows have worked fine since day one. In fact, so does the windows on a relative's Exora MPV, an aunt's Saga Baru and a friend's Satria Neo. All have their rides for over four years by now.

What are your thoughts about this? I do simplify things a little because there is no real use to say 'If there was no Proton, no Perodua and everyone ran a Toyota, then Toyota parts would be cheap'. Yes, I suppose so as you can see this going on in Thailand, where a lot of people run Toyota. But we have to look at what we have right now and make the best of it. So again, right now, at this point of time, there is actually no cheaper car to run than a Proton OR Perodua in Malaysia. Or a Mercedes Benz W124 actually.

I know for sure that the steering rack does not cost RM7,000.