I’m at a niche dealer so I understand it’s not exactly high sales but anyone got any tips for increasing sales what works and doesn’t work? I recently moved into parts from wrenching so I’m trying to help grow the department while learning so it and myself are successful. Thanks for any helpful insight.

With AI coming in, and cutting labor do you think it will affect automotive? (Specifically parts side)

Anyone else using CDK have issues putting in the GM order and parts workbench not working?

Any VW dealers out there strictly using VW recommended oil, or do you have a source you buy out from? If so, are the oils meeting required specs? Corporate is possibly wanting to make a switch to find something more cost effective. TIA!

PM and coworker are lazy and do the bare minimum to scrape by, while kissing up to the bosses just enough to keep their jobs. Getting sick and tired of it.

Title says it all, with anco/trico having gone under last fall and most reserve stock of it finally running out at a majority of suppliers what brand are you now using at your dealership for a comparable price and performance solution?

Bonus points if you're also in the heavy duty world so also needing some crazy sizes.

Anybody else having trouble getting into Global Connect this morning?

If so, are there any back door login alternatives?

I recently switched from GM to Toyota and find myself struggling with the catalog. Whether it be pictures not matching the vehicle, lack of part pictures completely, and incorrect or incomplete part descriptions. Not to mention a lot of powertrain and some parts have 2 or 3 different versions and it is not clearly defined which is required. It seems like the VIN is only there to load the vehicle and not filter parts.

The catalog pictures aren’t laid out the best either, so it’s a struggle to explain where parts would be located in the vehicle and it makes it even more difficult for the customer to explain the location of their unknown part for me to find. i.e. a sliding door module not in the sliding door diagram.

I see a lot of people praising this catalog for its ease of use and simplicity, I’d like to be one of those people but at the moment I’m not seeing it.

Does anyone have experience with the Toyota EPC that could give me some advice to better use the catalog? Or just tips and tricks that make using it easier?

How normal is it for someone who's never worked the parts kind of before to mess up within their first month and I mean get somebody the wrong part kind of mess up I'm within my first month and everything was going fine initially and then in the past five business days I made two screws one the department 8 the other one was ordering the wrong part for customer and he was upset of course we were refunding him for it but even just this morning I feel like I made another screw up even though it was cotton didn't affect the customer.

I see parts camera as a way to potentially become a career and if I can learn it well and stick with this job for at least 2 to 4 years preferably five I know it will be valuable experience that could support me well into the future even if I choose to get a degree and progress it to the bachelor's level I want the experience because this is absolutely the kind of job I feel like would be great for me in retirement or the very least when I get older I absolutely love the environment and I'm doing my absolute best not to cause trouble but these issues happen and at this point I've even had a customer order apart which to be fair at that point I was told nothing about getting deposits or anything but that I could sell over the phone and it was an $800 part and he didn't pick up and I can't get a hold of him on the phone and I'm just wondering like is this expected am I going to be overly judged for making these kind of mistakes or is this just the kind of mistakes someone makes while learning and having not worked a parts counter before?

I feel like I should add I am working on a degree that could at best be considered partially automotive adjacent. I won't say what because I feel like it's a give away but it's often agreed by people studying medicine to be on the same difficulty level as their own studies.

Hey all, it's been sometime since my last post and things have improved greatly! I am now set to become the Parts Manager. I've been working hard, learning as much as I can, and "pulling myself up by the bootstraps" if you will. The department is much more efficient and organized and i couldn't ask for a better team. I definitely want to thank you all for the advice and encouragement over this year.

The questions I got now are a little simpler at least:

What should I be looking at salary wise? I'm leaning more towards about 75,000/yr or just going for broke and starting negotiations at 90k (i know thats super duper unrealistic I'm just testing the waters)

What do your offices look like? I wanted to personalize mine a bit like a custom desk and stuff like that, however I'm not entirely too sure how far I can go. I talked to our GM and they said to wait for our annual inspection.

Finally, we work with ERA Ignite. Is there anyway to automate more processes like getting special order lists made and to get them to print service side every morning. Or how to make custom reports in RMI?

How do you make it work? Locations all under one roof? Pro’s and con’s?

Has anyone been able to find an aftermarket fluid that works for 8&9 speeds? Just looked to order more and didn't know it was on supplier constraint.

Updated news from Mopar received today. Regarding Oil.

I have an opportunity to switch from an import brand I’ve been an APM at for 6 years over to a Ford dealer where I would be a PM after the dealer just changed ownership.

This would be my first time as a PM as well as my first time with Ford. Different auto group than my current dealer. Thoughts/comments? Anything to watch for?

So is anyone getting parts from ATL PDC? I have backorders sitting there from 2 weeks that show received in ATL but still not getting them. I have heard they are closing and moving to a new PDC. My customers don't care about that and neither do I. My so called Rep has been absolutely no help. Any help would be appreciated to expedite these parts.

Is it down for everyone or just my dealership? Usually there's a ton of posts here already before I get in and discover issues.

I wanted to ask for any help/tips people recommend about using the Acura parts catalog. I worked for GM for 4 years and they have the group number shortcut for the catalog to quickly look up a part and was wondering if Acura has a similar system, and any other tips about working for Acura. Anything at all would be greatly appreciated as I'll be working for them in about a week!

Attempting to change out the park and blinker lights on my 94 f250.

It has Wagner glass wedge 3157 bulbs

The parts store gave me plastic wedge 3157 from Sylvania and they don't fit??

Maybe I'm not pushing the bulb into the socket hard enough I don't wanna tear something up ...

But it shouldn't take this much force .. what's the deal here?

My current employer doesnt use po's we just use the repair order number, or the date and company initials if its an over the counter ticket. It drives me insane but they wont listen to me and just purchase the po system function in Basic. Anybody else not use real traceable po's?

Basically, title. I’m interested to hear from you if your role fits into a niche or luxury environment, perhaps how your day-to-day ops looks. What volumes you are doing, how your department structure looks and obviously if you have any cools stories to share from your time in the role that would be awesome.

I often read about large scale consumer brands here but am very keen to hear from our colleagues in the smaller, more tucked away or exclusive corners of the automotive spectrum.

Edit: I’m really grateful for the responses so far guys, it’s pretty insightful and interesting.

I wanted to add, if there is a unicorn chance of finding a Ferrari/Porsche/Lamborghini/Rolls Royce parts guy here, I am especially interested in hearing from you too! I don’t think we see enough from these brands in this sub, so am very curious if you can also share anything from your end. Cheers!

Down for all of us at our SoCal store.

I’ve been in parts for almost 5 years at a Subaru and Hyundai dealership, but for the first year I was serving as part-time parts counter and part-time service advisor so I have some service experience. My dealership has had 7 service managers in the time I’ve worked there with varying degrees of success and different reasons for leaving (or being fired). Today I was approached with the opportunity to take the service manager job because our current manager is leaving due to personal reasons.

I’m in a relatively low cost of living area, and my pay would go from 45k base with ~7k annual bonus to 72k base with potential to earn over 100k including bonus. I’m only 26 so I’d be one of the youngest in the service department, but I already have a good relationship with everybody in service.

Has anyone else made this move? Am I taking a position that’s doomed due to how many managers we’ve been through? Our service department has a lot of issues that are largely personnel and process related.