Wago wire connectors

No, a Tier-1 is a direct supplier to an OEM (Ford, GM, Honda,...). A Tier-2 is a supplier to a Tier-1, etc. We (Panasonic Automotive) designed/made mostly the center-stack and other in-cabin electronics.

No Kidding, I thought Philco/Delco/what ever Dodge uses were still being used.

Delco radios were heavy pieces of,,,,, well a light weight boat anchor back in the 70's and 80's.

The new cars department bought every Olds with an AM radio. This got them the antenna and the wiring harness/pigtail and mounting hardware.

Then we, in the service department, internally sold them replacement radios. IIRC those were Panasonic and looked identical, identical enough, to place in the vehicle.

I in turn sold the AM Delco radios to the local Delco radio repair shop for $22, the same credit we gave the new car department. The dealer would have been happy with tossing them in the trash can. There was a lot of profit by buying the better radios from some other than the factory.

I even found a local after market distributor that sold the exact same brand and style floor mats as factory for about 1/4 the price that the new car department was paying. I told the general manager to quit buying the factory mats with each new car and I would supply the same mat, life time warranty, for double my cost. He was still getting the mats for 1/2 hi factory cost. Win Win!

Don't get me started on Vinyl tops. LOL

Did the customer pay the OEM price for the mats? Win Win Lose? ;-)

Of course now there is a touch screen display (12" in my F150) and a half dozen antennas. There isn't much of a chance that an after-market unit will fit. The harness won't be there if the unit isn't installed. IFAIK, the harnesses are different for each option (package).

They must have been Japanese. The US company didn't exist then. They were making cell phones up until '05 (I think).

There was a big after-market business in radios and "high end" audio amplifiers/speakers, then. It's too complicated now. I guess it's like computers.

Or leather seats. Rust "proofing". "Scotch guard".

And now, financing. I just took a 36mo, 0%, loan to get $1000 back on my truck. At 0%, why not? I'm sure the dealer got a piece too.

No one would stack the deck against the consumer, right? Certainly not car dealers!

Absolutely Why would he not? He did not help pay for the inventory. I got volume pricing. I probably would have given him a discount if he bought like I did, 100 sets at a time.

There still is a big aftermarket, at least 5 years ago. I added a touch screen GPS/Radio/back up camera to my 07 Tundra. That required a new harness and mounting hardware and face plate.

Back then the leather seats were made to order and never quite looked original. Olds did not offer any protectants back then. That was always only offered as an add on. I take that back, Chevrolet came with fabric guard when I bought my 98 Silverado.

We normally pay cash for new vehicles. Toyota offered 0% financing for

I am betting that there are NO deals to be had these days.

Because even small discounts make for stickier clients and garner referrals.

I've often split my discount with clients even when I knew they would have paid full price. I still made money while they saved money. Sooner or later I'd get that call "Hey, Jim gave me your name. Let's talk."

I was referring to "infotainment" aftermarket stuff. Installed a AiFi backup camera on my '13 F150. The only cable harness was to the tail light (only operated when backup lights on).

They were "dealer installed options" (but often not optional)

We financed $20K but will pay it off soon. Mine as wrecked and I needed to order one quick (10-12 week delivery). $1000 off plus the

Not true. I ordered a '21 F150 in late July and it was delivered mid-November. In total, I paid $10K under the Monroney sticker. $3K was the X-Plan and the rest was factory rebates (including the $1K for financing). I was shocked when dealer sprung the other $6K in rebates at delivery. I ended up paying $6K less than I expected when I walked in. Rebates exist but they have to be rare, particularly on something as popular as an F150.

Most dealers are, or at least were, charging well above sticker. This dealership wasn't but had very limited inventory. It was going as soon as it hit the lot.

A friend of my wife's bought an Explorer from the dealership a couple of weeks ago. Three days later a "little old lady" (none of us could be accused of being young) turned left right in front of them. Totaled it.

Yeah, we had no shortage of customers.

Be careful with paying of too quickly, our's required a minimum of at least 120 days IIRC.

That was 7 months ago. In Houston vehicles are going for sticker +.

In the Early 80's the factory floor mats had no name except IIRC Rubber Queen. The mats I purchased from the local supplier were exactly the same right down to the Rubber Queen molded name on the bottom in the exact location as the factory mats.

We very seldom sold mats directly to customers in the parts department. We doubled our cost to the NC department and the mats were sold as part of the new car deal. Whether they charged for the mats or gave a discount I could not say. We were internally selling 300~400 sets of mats to the NC department monthly.

The prices that we were selling cars for was a good enough deal. We had no sales staff in the NC department. We only had greeters and a few sales managers. The final price was clearly marked on the windshield of the inventory of 800+ cars. On weekends the service management managers came in on weekends to assist with the crowds lining up to buy a car. Yes the NC department was that busy.

I recall the dealer/owner informing us in a management that he was invited to a meeting of all of the other local Olds dealers. There were

Our dealer responded, maybe you shroud get rid of you salesmen and sell cars like we do.

IN my opinion passing on a volume buying discount to the customer that is not buying volume is bad business. Passing on that discount would not have increased sales. And for what that is worth, GM always gave discounts when ordering parts on stock orders. I don't know of any business that passes that discount on to the customer as that discount is only offered to the dealer on stock orders.

Noted. ...or one minute late.

Most here are, too, even now. Things are loosening up though. The "chip shortage" is working its way through the system. It was much worse then. The local dealerships seem to have a lot more inventory. They're still parking the cars at an angle to look like more than they have but they're not 10' apart and only parked by the road anymore.

This dealership seems to be happy with full sticker and all the other things that go along with new car sales. They seem to be doing quite well with the limited stock they can get. They're not pissing off their customers while they're doing it.