I will now not be able to sleep tonight.

See post #3 this thread for more info.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I knew about that previously. It seriously made me think about selling my fleet of Benzes.

I am on record on my own forum that I will commit suicide the day that I open an MB OE parts box and find a part definitively made by URO. At that point in time, there will be no reason for me left to live, as my jihad will have failed.

I share 'cause I care, bro

It isn't just as you say.
If I am selling good quality parts that cost more and My competitor is selling crap there are people who only shop by price.
That means I am going to lose the sale.
I have to at least give a choice of the crappy part along with the better parts.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

When the Unhinged Troll does the seppuku thing.... I call dibs on his .092! Casey, you can have his .036... you'll like the 119. You may need to fight Mrs. Troll for it though, I hear she's a bit of a power junkie like my wife.

No, you do not have to offer the junk. I had a similar discussion with a local import part store and they felt the same way you do. They got very irate when I implied they were selling garbage, and responded with the same "logic", that they would lose a sale.

If I were in the biz... those are customers I wouldn't want. I'd tell them the Uro part from my competitor is 1/5 the price because it's trash, and I won't sell them trash. They can buy their trash elsewhere. And when it fails, they can't badmouth my establishment for selling them the garbage part in the first place. But hey, that's just me.

Have you tried your local Real-estate Listings?

Every substantial Town had a "Skid Row".

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Selling URO parts is more like selling a property in a nice neighborhood on the merits of curb appeal but not disclosing liens, neighbors from hell and moldy drywall.

Sixto
87 300D

And we all know that never happens

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Uhhh .... that's TOTALLY Unhinged Troll to you. (See linked post here for more information).


No, you don't have to give a choice of knowingly selling junk vs. knowingly selling good quality merchandise. That's exactly my point -- people who knowingly sell crap to unsuspecting customers, are ethically and morally bankrupt, because all they care about is moving parts.

A good businessman would never knowingly sell junk, and would do everything they could to have customers buy good quality parts.

If a customer specifically requests junk parts because they are price shopping, a good businessman would turn them away and specifically NOT want to take their money.

Folks, the ONLY way these purveyors of junk parts are going to get the message, is if no parts dealers order and sell them, and nobody buys them. Many if not most buyers don't know the difference between good, mediocre and bad parts. If you are selling parts, at least DON'T carry the junk, so that customers can have parts that have a decent chance at having a repair that lasts (and is not a safety hazard).

And I don't want to hear the excuse that I've heard from several vendors who carry them ("Yes I carry the junk parts, but I ALWAYS steer my customers away from buying them. They're forced upon me by my parts catalog company"). I say, get a new catalog company, and get some ethics. How do you sleep at night knowingly selling parts that could wreck your customers' cars (flex discs hitting transmission tunnel, deploying airbags and totaling car), and perhaps worse?



20,000+ miles of riding freight trains all over the US west of the Mississippi River has definitely shown me many towns' "Skid Rows" up close and personal. And I have indeed slept under many bridges (that was in my pre-Totally Unhinged Troll days, though).

I was thinking about changing out my water pump this weekend, but rebuilt spare has sat on shelf for 20 years, existing is not leaking and in any case, I don't have new gasket, so maybe I wont!

I did check out the shop manual. This may explain why one pump could have a different diameter from another. However, I measured the bearing housing OD on both my spare and original and both at about 58mm OD. Manual must be for older models? My spare has ball race bearings. Perhaps the earlier ones had solid bushings?

Another thing I noticed on AA site, was that there are different housing lengths. They mention "long Hub" (135mm overall length) for my 85 300D. My spare pump is only about 105mm long. Maybe it is wrong pump for my car? No part number on it. Should be 110-200-17-20 for 85. When I look this up in Meyle catalogue, they have two options. For 30mm or 36mm shaft. But protruding shaft is only about 16mm. Actual shaft inside bearings may be larger, I guess. Confusing!



Not sure if I mentioned it, but when sourcing a pump for my 107, I corresponded with a Meyle rep in USA. The Meyle pump from FCP was dead cheap. He advised me that the Meyle pump was not made by Meyle. It was sourced from a "Product Partner" (perhaps in China??). Some Meyle parts have an HD designation, indicating higher quality. He said the pump did not have that. He did say that if the pump failed, to contact him and they would extend the warranty to 2 years.

He also said: "It is up to you which brand you chose... but I would not buy an OE pump (because of high price) which is probably made by Laso or Graf anyway and you can then get an OE quality pump with an aftermarket price."

Pic of my spare (looks similar to one on car):

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

A more appropriate analogy for a store selling Uro parts might be akin to a restaurant knowing selling certain food for less, that costs less because nobody was paid to check and see if the kitchen where it was processed was clean or if it was properly refrigerated during storage, i.e. no quality control. It will save the customers some money, but the chances are it will likely give them explosive projectile diarrhea. I would not want my customers saying that happened because of me - if they survive. I would likely never see them - or their friends - again either way.

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