New vehicle parts prices

[maipenrai]

One of my oldest friends runs an autobody shop (panel beater's shop for some of you other homeys and colonials) and has been at it for over 50 years; he works alone and his bread and butter is repairs to new or late model dealer-owned vehicles caused by parking lot mishaps and transport damage - you know what they say about good help being hard to find, lol...it's a good niche to have because the bigger autobody shops are only interested in insurance work nowadays, more just changing parts than any real panel repair. Anyway, if you've wondered why new vehicles cost so much, and cost so much to repair, here is a glaring example. This new Toyota Tundra has had damage to its driver's side tail light and needs it replaced - but wait, this is no ordinary tail light - push buttons on this tail light and the tailgate opens electrically and a step comes down - great gimmicks for some, I suppose but wretched excess for simple types such as myself:

He asked me to guess what the parts cost is for this particular tail light and I fell way short of the mark - this unit retails for $2500 CDN (1433 GBP, $1819 USD).

Also, some of the paint that my friend uses cost hundreds of dollars for a single pint - hard to believe.

I guess I'll be driving old junk for a while yet...

 

[boydeste]

1 hour ago, maipenrai said:

One of my oldest friends runs an autobody shop (panel beater's shop for some of you other homeys and colonials) and has been at it for over 50 years; he works alone and his bread and butter is repairs to new or late model dealer-owned vehicles caused by parking lot mishaps and transport damage - you know what they say about good help being hard to find, lol...it's a good niche to have because the bigger autobody shops are only interested in insurance work nowadays, more just changing parts than any real panel repair. Anyway, if you've wondered why new vehicles cost so much, and cost so much to repair, here is a glaring example. This new Toyota Tundra has had damage to its driver's side tail light and needs it replaced - but wait, this is no ordinary tail light - push buttons on this tail light and the tailgate opens electrically and a step comes down - great gimmicks for some, I suppose but wretched excess for simple types such as myself:

He asked me to guess what the parts cost is for this particular tail light and I fell way short of the mark - this unit retails for $2500 CDN (1433 GBP, $1819 USD).

Also, some of the paint that my friend uses cost hundreds of dollars for a single pint - hard to believe.

I guess I'll be driving old junk for a while yet...

 

Holy f**k, that's mental.

[Trip]

2 hours ago, maipenrai said:

One of my oldest friends runs an autobody shop (panel beater's shop for some of you other homeys and colonials) and has been at it for over 50 years; he works alone and his bread and butter is repairs to new or late model dealer-owned vehicles caused by parking lot mishaps and transport damage - you know what they say about good help being hard to find, lol...it's a good niche to have because the bigger autobody shops are only interested in insurance work nowadays, more just changing parts than any real panel repair. Anyway, if you've wondered why new vehicles cost so much, and cost so much to repair, here is a glaring example. This new Toyota Tundra has had damage to its driver's side tail light and needs it replaced - but wait, this is no ordinary tail light - push buttons on this tail light and the tailgate opens electrically and a step comes down - great gimmicks for some, I suppose but wretched excess for simple types such as myself:

He asked me to guess what the parts cost is for this particular tail light and I fell way short of the mark - this unit retails for $2500 CDN (1433 GBP, $1819 USD).

Also, some of the paint that my friend uses cost hundreds of dollars for a single pint - hard to believe.

I guess I'll be driving old junk for a while yet...

 

Several years ago, before C19, Chevrolet debuted a segmented truck tailgate with a few gizmos on its high end Silvarado, a $70,000 or so truck (now about $80,000). The tailgate option alone is over $7500.

[Butch]

On 8/7/2024 at 7:03 PM, maipenrai said:

One of my oldest friends runs an autobody shop (panel beater's shop for some of you other homeys and colonials) and has been at it for over 50 years; he works alone and his bread and butter is repairs to new or late model dealer-owned vehicles caused by parking lot mishaps and transport damage - you know what they say about good help being hard to find, lol...it's a good niche to have because the bigger autobody shops are only interested in insurance work nowadays, more just changing parts than any real panel repair. Anyway, if you've wondered why new vehicles cost so much, and cost so much to repair, here is a glaring example. This new Toyota Tundra has had damage to its driver's side tail light and needs it replaced - but wait, this is no ordinary tail light - push buttons on this tail light and the tailgate opens electrically and a step comes down - great gimmicks for some, I suppose but wretched excess for simple types such as myself:

He asked me to guess what the parts cost is for this particular tail light and I fell way short of the mark - this unit retails for $2500 CDN (1433 GBP, $1819 USD).

Also, some of the paint that my friend uses cost hundreds of dollars for a single pint - hard to believe.

I guess I'll be driving old junk for a while yet...

 

It's not that the light is particularly well protected either, it looks to be very exposed on the side corner, and at $2500 a pop, that's going to be an expensive mistake when it gets damaged by loading stuff into the buck as well.

Poor design , and if it needed electric tailgate operation or a step, they could have placed the controls elsewhere. Maybe the cynical person in me might say that it's deliberate on the part of the manufacturer as they know the area is going to be exposed to damage and heavy wear.

Edited August 8 by Butch