iichel
Ready to race!
- Location
- Netherlands
- Car(s)
- Passat B8
Cool, so they hold up just fine!
7
How to retro-fit skid trays, aerodynamic under trays, & stone guards to a MK7 Golf
- Thread starter golfdave
- Start date
Kart17
Go Kart Newbie
- Location
- SE Michigan
- Car(s)
- '17 VW GTI Sport
golfdave
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Scotland (U.K.)
- Car(s)
- Mk7 Golf GT Estate
I buy my parts from my dealers parts dept....there are other places (websites in the EU), but you might get hit with import taxes etc as the UK is outside the EU....
I usually do too, but VW dealers are pretty lame, the parts departments are a bit shite too.
Cuzoe
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Los Angeles
Even a terrible parts department should be able to place an order for something when you're giving them the part number, no?
You aren't really asking them to provide anything beyond the technical service of placing an order and accepting payment.
You aren't really asking them to provide anything beyond the technical service of placing an order and accepting payment.
golfdave
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Scotland (U.K.)
- Car(s)
- Mk7 Golf GT Estate
Most over here request the reg number of the car so they can match it against the VIN to then verify 100% that the part number you are giving them is correct for the car...
As most of the stuff is NOT for my car they (my local dealers) do know what I'm like & run & hide (here comes trouble)!!!...I would suggest you state that the part is a known modification & its "on my head & my money"...but "the part should come up as a this part for this car type"..
Cuzoe
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Los Angeles
Gotcha... I've only had that dealer here ask for my VIN one time. They don't except returns for anything that's opened so I guess to them it doesn't matter 
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Cuzoe
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Los Angeles
One of the weirder (and frankly dumber) things I've found is that I can order online and get a discount where if I order at the parts department there is a markup... and I order pickup from the same counter where I would have placed the order. I've even been at the dealer picking up something that I ordered online, realized I needed something else, asked the guy if it was in stock, then ordered on-line and waited for it to come through their system so they could give it to me.
I've always found it's worth going to parts.vw.com, enter your part number, then put in your zip code and try the different parts departments that come up. This is less useful if you don't have any (or many) dealers near you. Where I am in Los Angeles that's not the case and it's saved me a lot of money. I ordered a front bumper support from a dealer that's 60+ miles away. Their online price, even with shipping, was over $100 less than my closest dealer (keep in my mind my closest dealer had a 5% discount online but would have marked it up 25% at the counter). The even dumber part is that when I ordered from the more distant dealer they told me it would take a couple days to ship to me because it was coming to them from... you guessed it, the warehouse of the dealer closest to me
.I've asked over and over for them to price-match, but they'd rather get no business than lose that extra markup (and I know what their rough wholesale pricing is, or at least what techs can buy things for). Nowadays I wait til I need enough stuff to order from oempartsonline or piazza VW if possible.
Cuzoe
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Los Angeles
I've got them to price-match exactly zero times ever.
Kushdaiin
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Connecticut
- Car(s)
- MK7 R, MK7 GSW SEL
The parts manager that I go to is freakin awesome. I get stuff for cost (because I spend way too much) and he will generally let me return things but I generally try to avoid it.
southpawboston
Drag Racing Champion
- Location
- Somerville, MA
I've had exactly the same experience. I even asked once at the counter why this is the case, and the guy just shrugged. So I always order online and pick it up at the parts counter.
where2
Passed Driver's Ed
- Location
- North Palm Beach, FL
- Car(s)
- '19 e-Golf
I had to teach my wife years ago how to order parts for my VW Corrado G60, (back in the days of microfiche). You walk in to the local parts department, explain you want to order parts for a Corrado, they'll ask: "You mean a Scirocco", politely respond, "No, a VW factory supercharged 1990 Corrado". Once you get done schooling them on the difference between a Scirocco and a Corrado, give them the exact part number of what you want to buy. They'll still insist on looking it up to verify it, partly because you're a woman, and partly because they didn't know what a Corrado was in the first place... When you get done, you get to go pay the cashier, and come back several days later to actually pickup the part.
Once I found online dealers (Timmons) in SoCal and (Auburn) in Washington willing to discount parts, I rarely visited my local dealer, because the parts I ordered would end up on my doorstep, rather than having to make a second trip to the dealer during "office hours" to pickup the parts I'd ordered. I never understood why if they didn't stock it, and I had to pay for the part, why it couldn't drop ship to my house rather than the dealer??
Exactly 1 time in 30+ years driving VW's and shopping at the same local VW parts department, I had the counter guys at the local dealer knock off 10% for a bottle of coolant or case of 501.00 oil. I remember being astonished they were willing to budge off MSRP at all, because they never had before, and never did again.
Meanwhile, I used to be on a first name basis with Nate at 1stvwparts though his dealership was 3000 miles from my house!
To keep life interesting, the wife and I bought a 2019 VW e-Golf SE back in 2019 so we can re-live the challenge buying parts for an obscure VW model the parts guys have never seen or ordered parts for. (Fortunately, it's mostly a Mk7.5)