Glenn Coombs

Wow ! Discs for £83 and pads for £16 (2 discs and 4 pads). Their prices for pads are almost too cheap to believe. Has anyone used these on their impreza and would care to comment on how good/bad they are compared to the original Subaru branded parts ?

At that price I'm going to buy some and try them out. If they're crap then I don't mind losing £16 to find out. Not sure which pads are the right ones for my car though as they have several listed for a 1999 model. I'm guessing that I should be ordering the ones marked as part number BP1016, engine code EJ205. Is that the right part for a 1999 Turbo ?

greasemonkey

They should be the right pads Glenn. EJ205 is certainly the right engine code for the '99MY Impreza Turbo 2000.

The one thing I will say is that I've never tried these pads. The discs supplied are usually made by Quinton Hazell and are excellent, every bit as good as what your dealer supplies, maybe even better. I know more than one well-known Group N rally team that uses them because they're so consistent and warp-resistant, which gives you an idea how good they are.

The pads though, well, wait and see. As you say, it doesn't cost you much to find out. Let us know what brand they are (assuming they don't come in a plain white box!).

mart360

GM

will do,,

please dont take it as a dig, it was just a comment based on what i required


Mart

Rewolf

I think that this might be down to the new placing of the Impreza in the Driver Power survey.... Very high in everything apart from the new (seperated out from other categories) category of running costs, where the Impreza came bottom... 100th out of 100.

The impact of this, is that the Impreza dropped to 21st position, and as a result even got a special page all to itself with the title "Worst for running costs"

speedking

Holdcroft (Widnes) cannot change their prices until they receive a new price list in "3-4 weeks"

PS if the pads don't work well and you hit something then it will cost a lot more than £16

Rewolf

Dealer parts are always very expensive. From some time spent doing some IT work for a component maker the way it goes is this:

New car market is very competitive, so prices are squeezed as low as they can go. Margin for dealer - not a lot. Margin for manufacturer - not a lot either. Margin for part maker - not a lot because they are squeezed by high volume manufacturers.

Spare parts however.... Part maker charges additional 30-40% over production line price because it has to go in a box. Sold to manufacturer, who has to cover repair under warranty, transport of spares, maintaining stock and needs a good margin to stay in profit; markup up to 100%.

Dealer then has a decent margin added on too because of low profit on car sales - if they didn't then they go out of business.

The "you must have you car maintained by a main dealer to keep your warranty" clause was basically done by everybody just to stay in business. However it is now illegal because of the high prices charged.

Best bet if you can find out who makes the official parts, is to get their own brand version which will have come off exactly the same production line as the manufacturer branded parts except that the box has different printing on it. Or if you can find out about good quality alternatives then use them, but be very cautious of cheap alternatives, because there is also a large market for fakes, where the disk for example is made of pig iron, and will shatter if used hard - sometimes going cheap is a very dangerous false economy. I was told about this by the guy who examines warranty returns for a UK brake component maker, even though he only gets stuff removed under warranty by main dealers, he still gets a small percentage of fake bits.

It sounds as if Subaru Japan are cutting their margin in the chain which will reduce the prices dramatically, but it will take time to work through, as dealers and distributers have stock at old prices....

Tim Caddick

To further add to this thread, I took my MY00 Turbo in for an MOT at my local dealer on Monday just gone, & they had a supply of Recaro P1 Electric Front seats reduced from £1200, to £599 the pair! Tempting . . .

*Sonic*

Yep, thats what I had to do for my MY00 rear discs, as they arent listed, but the guy I spoke to was great, friendly & helpful too

my discs are still sat in the individual boxes downstairs waiting for me to find time to fit them

oakleaf

You sure as the prices on the camskill site are cheaper as they include the vat.

Mike

Melina

The new legislation block exemption allows parts maker to sell parts directly to consumers (not packed in Subaru boxes). I am sure if you find out the suppliers of these parts you can check out the aftermarket outlets and ask directly for the suppliers' parts concerned.

Melina

Rewolf - Actually the parts makers' margins are very lucrative. This is why there is so much debate around the block exemption.

Melina

Rewolf - sorry I posted my last message too quickly. The margins for parts makers are not so high when sold directly to a car maker on a volume car. It is the aftermarket/replacement market that is lucrative and the margins you quote are indeed correct. Apologies. We probably work for the same company.

Flat 4x4

I note the comments re the B.E.R but I.M / Subaru UK have been over-charging for a number of routine parts for several years, IMHO.

Simon C

Even with their price cut, I can still buy a full set of EBC pads cheaper from my local motor factors, than I can Scooby parts. Nice step in the right direction but not far enough IMHO.