Parts what parts
 

I just feel like ranting . . .

So like many other people I broke the slider tab on the center console cover. Knowing that
dealers never seem to have any parts I asked if they would check to see if they had one in
stock before I brought the car in. "We will have to look at the car first", duh customer is to
stupid to know that the tab is broken off when he is holding it in his hand. Anyhow it's been
almost a week, no part yet . . .

I always joked that there was one guy wearing lederhosen sitting the Black Forest carving
Audi parts out of a giant block of plastic. They almost never have the parts I am looking for
in stock. Subaru seems to be just slightly better but I have still had to order stuff in there
also. This is the only Mazda I have owned but I am noticing a similar trend . . .

So we live in an era of just in time delivery, except one could argue that nothing is really
delivered in time in these scenarios. One could argue that there are some efficiencies
offered by centralized warehousing but centralized in Canada usually means the parts come
from Toronto or failing that the US, that's not like shipping them across town in most cases.
It costs money to carry stock but there are lost opportunity costs with not carrying any stock.
A gas station without gas or a grocery store without food will not stay in business.

Some of these dealers service huge numbers of the same models of cars in a week. You
would think that they would stock at least one of almost every part on the cars it order to
maintain some degree of efficiency in their operation. I bet that working around their
logistics problems costs them more than they will ever save in terms of capital costs
associated with keeping a decent inventory. Nobody runs a computer repair business
without computer parts, nobody runs an office without extra paper for the photocopier and
few extra pens laying around . . .

While I am ranting why does this message board convert commas to periods and change
capitalization all over the place? I look at some the posts I have written and I feel like I
have regressed back to kindergarten. I hate it when applications think they are so much
smarter than me. Here comes another hacked up post . . .

I feel much better now . . .

Update: Hey something is fixed, the preview is all hacked up but not the post this time.

.....and then?

then.. the guy wearing lederhosen continues to sit in the Black Forest carving
parts out of a giant block of plastic for our 8.....

I think the point is that they have a relatively captive market, and therefore do not have to go above and beyond to get the parts to turnaround. If there was a robust aftermarket for this and the mark-up was still good on the part(s) they are carrying, then they would stock it all the time. But without competition YOU AND I suffer.

I thought that the console seemed a weee bit flimsy and unco-ordinated. I now await mine to break. :(

A couple of other things that bug me about mine is:

the door can swing open, but just as easily swings back at you before you get the chance to get fully out of the car,

the safety belt for a 5'10" driver is awkward to pull from the side door- it seems I always have to scrape the metal part against the seat side to get it pulled out.

Other than that it drives like a dream: I am at about 20K on the highway by the time my cutoff occurs on the highway and by then I have to temper my foot to keep it under 120KM/H, and it is quite disappointing to have to make the exit lane to go into work! :((

Anybody else have the same feeling?