New dealerships
- Thread starter dickygrace
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RoaryRati
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Not disagreeing with you at all - but I fear they are not the only ones. I needed new suspension shocks for my 20 year old (nearly) S2000 Honda - nla (although my Japanese contact could have built them from parts) and, owning a 7 year old rather swift Audi I'm on a seeming civilised Audi forum , and they have the same problem once they are about 12+ years old (I have been tempted to post on that forum - "are you sure it's not a Maserati"!)..........it seems they're not the golden oldies
Devonboy
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another tale of Maserati - messaged dealer re some accessories….then sent a reminder cos they never respond to their own chat bots. The prices they quoted were a very high, so I asked if they could get closer to Eurospares prices - and hey presto 25% discount….just reinforces that pricing is not their strong point.
DLax69
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Definitely not the only one...completely agreed.
Guy
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Good point. I have a friend who does extreme rallies (cross continent stuff) in his 250 Pagoda and he always brags about parts availability from Merc. Not anymore! I am now finding quite a lot of NLA on my 2004 CL so it does seem to be industry wide and perhps a part of a bigger picture to get us to give up on perfectly serviceable old cars because we cannot maintain them!
mjheathcote
Centenary Club
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It's nothing new.
When I bought my Stag back in 86, one of the carburetor plastic ball joints snapped. Went to the local BL Unipart dealer, he pulled out the microfiche, found the part number, pulled out a big book of part number/price lists, 'sorry no longer available'.
I was only 19, production had only stopped 9 years ago, what do I do now? No internet/forums back then.
I'd just joined the Stag Owner Club, and my first club magazine had just landed and there were loads of parts suppliers advertising on the back pages. Fortunately parts where plentiful, just no longer from BL!
zagatoes30
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Parts supply for older cars has always been a bit hit and miss even for relatively mass produced stuff. For classics built in big numbers proper Minis, Land Rovers, MGBs and Minors there has always been the option to remanufacture because the numbers were there but for rarer stuff this just wasn't cost effective.
However I am seeing many more newly manufactured parts even for my 2 rarest cars patly as creating the design drawings have come down with laser scanning and modern CAD systems and we now have the possibility of 3D printing some components.
Alfa Aid have just finished restoring 3 SZs which in total have less than 10k miles on them with bills that were £100k, £150k & £195k with prices like this Adrian has been able to remanufacture some NLA parts. The fact he has another 20 SZs awaiting work further supports this process. Now his parts aren't cheap but at least he has them available, e.g. an SZ water pump, unique to the SZ, is around £450 where as 5 years ago it was unavailable.
I am finding the same is true for the Lotus Elite, parts are available that weren't a few years ago.
However I am seeing many more newly manufactured parts even for my 2 rarest cars patly as creating the design drawings have come down with laser scanning and modern CAD systems and we now have the possibility of 3D printing some components.
Alfa Aid have just finished restoring 3 SZs which in total have less than 10k miles on them with bills that were £100k, £150k & £195k with prices like this Adrian has been able to remanufacture some NLA parts. The fact he has another 20 SZs awaiting work further supports this process. Now his parts aren't cheap but at least he has them available, e.g. an SZ water pump, unique to the SZ, is around £450 where as 5 years ago it was unavailable.
I am finding the same is true for the Lotus Elite, parts are available that weren't a few years ago.
CatmanV2
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I am absolutely unable to get my head around this. I nearly bought one 25+ years back. They were peanuts (comparatively speaking)
C
James3200GTA
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For the car makers it's an economic decision, stock / manufacturing cost vs revenue. And to some extend I get that. Another point I get: for a budget priced shopping trolley, one could expect less support than a more expensive car.
But if you are a marque proud of it's heritage, selling not so cheap cars it should come to a point where they should support that and keep the heritage intact. Even if it was only making the original designs public so somebody else could fabricate them. Will the competition be interested what Maserati made 25 years ago? don't think so Tim. Even a patent has a due date upon which everything is fair game.
But I predict this will get worse with modern cars. Most of us on here have cars which have a limited amount of electronics. Development and legacy these day goes so fast, that your car will be totalled just because it is unrepairable on some microchip which has gone extinct. Try finding new parts of a 6 year old phone (or get support for that matter). Not possible.
But anyway it's a nice temperature and the sun is out. Gonna enjoy the rest of may bank holiday day.
But if you are a marque proud of it's heritage, selling not so cheap cars it should come to a point where they should support that and keep the heritage intact. Even if it was only making the original designs public so somebody else could fabricate them. Will the competition be interested what Maserati made 25 years ago? don't think so Tim. Even a patent has a due date upon which everything is fair game.
But I predict this will get worse with modern cars. Most of us on here have cars which have a limited amount of electronics. Development and legacy these day goes so fast, that your car will be totalled just because it is unrepairable on some microchip which has gone extinct. Try finding new parts of a 6 year old phone (or get support for that matter). Not possible.
But anyway it's a nice temperature and the sun is out. Gonna enjoy the rest of may bank holiday day.
Phil H
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As a good citizen you go and buy an EV to help save the planet.
When it breaks down parts will of course be NLA
So you buy another EV.
Rinse and repeat.
Given the insatiable appetite the motor industry has for rare-earth materials, a cynic might think that we are sustaining car manufacture rather than the planet.
Oh for the days when you only needed a tin of P38 and a stainless steel exhaust to do your bit.
When it breaks down parts will of course be NLA
So you buy another EV.
Rinse and repeat.
Given the insatiable appetite the motor industry has for rare-earth materials, a cynic might think that we are sustaining car manufacture rather than the planet.
Oh for the days when you only needed a tin of P38 and a stainless steel exhaust to do your bit.
zagatoes30
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These are all collectors cars from around the world, the £195k one belongs to a barrister in Hong Kong who wants it perfect and doesn't care what it costs.
SZ prices are relatively static somewhere between £50-70k with the odd one being advertised around the £90-100k but not sure these actually sell at that price.