Buick Parts Over Priced, Or Not???

[ngc414]

If you compare comparable quality parts, Buicks are actually cheaper. The $200 turbos will work on a TR too, but they are garbage. If you build a nice quality Supra, civic, STI, Evo, cummins TD, DuraMax, or Powerstroke truck, LS1 or LS2 car, or most anything else you will see it's always expensive to do it right. I have seen many times GM and Ford are the cheapest because of product competition. A fox-stang is about the cheapest car on the planet to make fast, but a TR is very close. Depending on what you call fast. I say 11 sec 1/4 is fast, now to make a TR handle, you may as well bring out your life's savings...it's new tech on old tech car......that's always $$$$$

Well said, I agree 100%. I have seen it with many different types of cars I have owned. The low end stuff is much cheaper, but if you want quality parts you are always going to pay more. In the long run the quality parts save you the most money and headache.

 

[Boost231]

Well said, I agree 100%. I have seen it with many different types of cars I have owned. The low end stuff is much cheaper, but if you want quality parts you are always going to pay more. In the long run the quality parts save you the most money and headache.

+1

 

[A2000RICH]

Ive been looking for other alternatives, to get parts for this car, and other projects i have, but these buick parts are 7time, or more what these supra guys, and other import guys pay. They can get a New trubo for $200, intercoller kit $200, wastes gates $50. I think we are getting screwd. Anyway anyone one have a the same, or diffrent thought. Im getting a new boost controller from there dealer for pennys what you pay for one at a Buick dealer!

in the 19 years i have owned GN's i have always felt the buick vendors were top notch and the parts and service were also------well worth the money-------and there are very few that i haven't dealt with at least once over the years------quality and value always costs more but its always a bargain in the long run--------those guys with the imports??????look what they are driving when they get done and what they have to show for their money, a SUPRA or even worse!!!!!!!------to each his own-------before i got into GN's i was a ferrari fanatic------still got a couple sitting around that i haven't driven in over a decade------until you've been that route you don't even know what money is------quit complaining-----the TR's are probably the best bang for the performance buck and if you take care of them they actually do a darn good job of retaining their value------show me a rice burner that does that after 20 years .............RC
............RC

 

[stack1]

I needed a set of copper gaskets and called up Nick at Arizona GN. He sent them that day and just told me to drop a check in the mail. It was one of my first purchases when I got into TR's and the first from him. I was floored that he trusted me to send him the money. I had never heard anything like that before. I'm on a tight budget and normally I buy used stuff, but I have no problem paying what the vendors ask. I've never really thought about if the prices are inflated or not. I'm happy to help support the vendors either way. Of course I do check to see which one has the lowest price.

 

[chopped39]

Ive been looking for other alternatives, to get parts for this car, and other projects i have, but these buick parts are 7time, or more what these supra guys, and other import guys pay. They can get a New trubo for $200, intercoller kit $200, wastes gates $50. I think we are getting screwd. Anyway anyone one have a the same, or diffrent thought. Im getting a new boost controller from there dealer for pennys what you pay for one at a Buick dealer!

You get what you pay for. You can forget about being cheap with a supra. Price out a turbo 400 conversion for that car.I have seen t-types and gns go for less than that conversion Are cars are not cheap.If you get hard into imports you will pay more than you would building a buick. A friend of mine has a supra that runs in the 9s. I could have built a stage 2 car and had money left over with what it cost him to build that car. The vendors on this site must be tired of hearing people cry about prices.These cars are over 20 years old.were are lucky there are still vendors to support us.Buick customers would probably crap themselves if they walked into cottons or other vendors and seen a honda on the lift getting worked on.But If they are not working on them I dont know i they keep their doors open.Look at how many vendors closed connoly perf/ ans / atr/ street performance. These were all great vendors.They all sold qualiy parts and had fair prices.I cant imagine working on these junks for 20 years and not getting burned out. So just pay the outrageous prices that all the vendors want(just kidding) and get you car going

 

[GNBRETT]

i've seen what you mean, i saw a kit- turbo-intercooler-pipes, exhaust, headers pretty much everything for $599 not bad at all. but it's no buick.

It sure aint!

 

[lnkncontiverto]

Try finding engine parts for a '64 lincoln! Aftermarket doesn't cater to unpopular cars like these. $150 each for a used lincoln brake drum?!! and I need 4?!! $2600 parts/labor for a trans rebuild?!!! I spent 3 years working on this (my first project car) before I got the GN. I was amazed at the abundance and low cost of parts as soon as I started focusing on putting the buick together. Just my .02, but don't complain, it could be way worse. Now I can buy parts from Autozone, instead of ordering from a specialty shop 800 miles away.

 

[Whut]

I dont see the import guys having it any easier. Ive never seen $200 turbos, intercoolers, or any type of stand alone fuel management for any import that would give a performance advantage. Maybe some chinese headers or some other chinese crap but thats it. A low 10 second Supra sure isnt cheap to build or race either If were getting screwed you should R&D so we can get those low prices. LOL!

I agree, Any import guy thats actually worth a damn at the track will most likely have 20K or more under the hood. I just met a guy out of Colorado a couple of weeks ago who races a Prelude. He has a lot of sponsors and says he still dumps a ton of cash into the car. Its a 900 HP FWD Honda running F.A.S.T. XFi that he had to wire in himself because there are no harnesses for Hondas out there.

 

[at7we2]

I agree, Any import guy thats actually worth a damn at the track will most likely have 20K or more under the hood. I just met a guy out of Colorado a couple of weeks ago who races a Prelude. He has a lot of sponsors and says he still dumps a ton of cash into the car. Its a 900 HP FWD Honda running F.A.S.T. XFi that he had to wire in himself because there are no harnesses for Hondas out there.

well there you go! that's a good example. Anyone who is serious about building or modifying a car knows it takes $$$ to do it right. And in my mind "right" = safe, reliable and consistant (is there such a thing as a "consistant" turbo Buick??? ).

I supposed you could say that's the difference between a "RICE" car and a "RACE" car - The "RICE" car may have $1,000 of no-name knock-off speed parts and run 12.0's a few times until something fails. The "RACE" car might have $1,000 in quality race parts and only run 13.0's, but it will do it over and over and over with fewer problems. So, don't build a "RICE CAR", buy quality Buick parts from quality Buick vendors! :biggrin: As for the imports, I have plenty of respect for a guy with a modified import *if* he did it right.

don't get me wrong, I personally don't have deep pockets. I don't have many aftermarket parts on my GN, but the parts I *do* have are quality parts, some new, some used.

 

[XLR8]

I now remember seeing a $200 "kit" that included a turbo and an intercooler for a Honda. The "intercooler" was a small silver radiator looking thing that went in the bottom of the front air dam and the "turbo" was a small electrical fan thing that looked like a tornado and was in between the "intercooler" and the intake.

If a Buick vendor tried to sell that to us he'd get ripped apart. I think the stickers it came with added the same amount of power.

I have purchased items from at least 6 sponsoring vendors and have paid what I thought was a fair price. I have no problems with people making a fair profit - that is what they are in business for.

By the way I just saw an ad from a Subaru vendor having a sale on journal bearing turbos for $1395 and BB turbos for $1800 - and I'll bet it's not as easy a swap as it is on our cars.

 

["Turbo-T"]

If a Buick vendor tried to sell that to us he'd get ripped apart. I think the stickers it came with added the same amount of power.
.

Hee hee. You know them ricers need their stickers to get their HP gains. :tongue:

 

[PaCemkr86]

I have to strongly disagree, they have made me a poor man for years!

LOL.. i love it.. Its true though

 

[PaCemkr86]

PS.. nice post Jack... Its people like you that keep the Turbo Buicks going and getting faster.. dont ever retire, you are a great asset to the TR community

 

[Evans Ward]

Just glad we have vendors and support companies willing to stay in this game for us to keep these cars going! Comes down to supply and demand and I'll stress the word SUPPLY.

 

[tscruggs]

Jack, THANK YOU!!! We support and appreciate all of the hard working business owners out there and do such an excellent job of supporting our "Dark Side" habits! Keep up the good work and God Bless!

 

[Whut]

I just spent 1/2 hour responding to your post Herb and just accidently deleted it, maybe that is someone telling me to let it go..... I can't. I will again try to respond to your post.. I don't believe you came here by boat, but it sure looks like you want to purchase parts that came off the boat... I will tell you now that we sell the best available, designed and built parts money can buy because like you, I want the best. Our markup is lucky to be 10-15% on most parts that I sell over $20 dollars, including your turbo, ICer and wastegate. Out of that profit margin I pay for shipping to me, I have to also pay for the overhead it costs to run a full blown shop with payroll, taxes, benefits like I am sure you receive from your place of employment, holiday,sick and vacation pay. Shop insurance and workmans comp to the tune of $15,000 a year. I am not complaining just stating the FACTS FOR WHAT IT TAKES to run a business in America today. That does not include working out of your house or backyard.... I am only speaking for my company. As for all the money I make, I also had to purchase a trailer, not just for my racecar I have used over the years for R$D, but for transporting parts to the Buick shows so I can sell them to guys like you at an even further discounted rate with an even higher overhead, due to the fact fuel and traveling expenses have to be included in the cost of doing business. Lets not forget the cost and or loss of business as I close my still having to pay for overhead shop while attending Buick shows. I can go on further in that area but I hope you get my point..... Lets talk about the quality of parts we sell vs the $200 ICers, turbos and wastegates.... Do you know how well those parts are designed or where they come from or who designed and built them..... let me tell you what I have experienced with some of these parts. As an example, we service and sell parts to many of the local import guys or poor kids that purchase much of those parts.... from ebay, from a guy they do not know with a business they do on the side without a phone number to reach them or a tech line you can call and actually get tech support from when needed. I had several of those boys come in this spring with $200 turbos that have now purchased new $1000 turbos from me because they failed. We did several installs of ICer kits and wastegate because nothing fit and or pipes were blowing off or cheap hoses were blowing up because wastegates did not work properly, probably because the spring used in the wastegates were so stiff we could not compress them in a 5" vise. Good thing I had some quality springs from our $400 wastegates around to replace them with.. not to mention had the welders and other related equipment in the shop to mod the poorly fitting other $200 kits and parts.. Herb, are you the same guy I am getting the turbo repaired for, that you or your mechanic destroyed the compressor wheel on due to a loose object bouncing around in the MAF inlet pipe. You know, the one I am trying to get warrranteed ....? It's a tight economy for all of us, I understand trying to find our best deals is what many of us, including myself are looking for. But for Gods sake, making me or others look like the villian...... just is not right. I could continue on here, but I have been writing this response since about 6am and it is now 7:30am and I must go to work, open the shop up so that I can begin another day of 10 hours of free tech support for my custmers and some that are not....

Jack, as a customer of yours I think you pretty much summed everything up here. I dont have much from you but what I do have is top quality, looks and performs great. GN's are money pits if you want them to go fast. It may seem more expensive to spend $1,300 on a good turbo but wont you feel dumb when you buy that $200 turbo and it fails, taking a rod or bearing with it. Now you are stuck calling Jack, buying that $1,300 turbo plus spending even more money to repair the motor. Look at it that way, $1,300 is a lot cheaper in the long run.

 

[cooled85T]

My philosophy: Im only gonna live once, so im gonna spend every last dime I can on my Buick, and beat the living F*%# out of it if I feel like, and if it breaks ill have to fix it. If I cant afford it ill have to wait until I get some money to fix it, and im surely not going to spend my money on overseas junk. If I want to save money ill buy used quality parts.

Remember you cant make chicken salad out of chicken $hit:biggrin:

 

[kenny]

You get what you pay for.

 

[at7we2]

My philosophy: Im only gonna live once, so im gonna spend every last dime I can on my Buick, and beat the living F*%# out of it if I feel like, and if it breaks ill have to fix it. If I cant afford it ill have to wait until I get some money to fix it, and im surely not going to spend my money on overseas junk. If I want to save money ill buy used quality parts.

Remember you cant make chicken salad out of chicken $hit:biggrin:

Well said brother!! :biggrin:

 

[57 chevy]

buick parts

I've bought from vendors & the turbo buick community on this board & I have also bought some aftermarket parts that were not supplied from the turbo buick community. all my aftermarket, none turbo community parts are in the garbage. everything that I have bought from the vendors & community on this board has been exceptional. arizona gn sent me a radiator on my word that i would pay him. shipped it the day I called & I had never done any bussiness with him before. I just got a Razor kit, have parts on order from Fullthrottle. Eric @ tt. This is just a sample of the fine buick parts suppliers we have to go to. I am very thankful for their r&d & tech support along with the very dependable parts. Sorry for being so long on this issue, but it makes my blood boil when I see some of bull posted from people that dont understand what is involved in bringing a quality product as well as tech support to our community. No I am not a vendor, just a gn owner that is thankful for our vendors.