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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vincent Hor" data-source="post: 725845" data-attributes="member: 1221">I am not a customer of Optimum and I don't get paid for putting up this post. I do know Foo since his apprenticeship with Ultimate Motors in Batu Caves. That is easily some 13 years ago. He is a competent mechanic and knows his stuffs. From my many years of BMW ownership experience, I do know that there are many grades of spare parts available. There are originals BMW and OEM. Even OEM's may have different grades. It all depends on what the importer are willing to pay. As most of you would know by now, a lot of these BMW parts are actually manufactured in China. So I am not going to say more on what you get is what you pay especially from manufacturers in China.I see in many forum posts, members makes comparison on parts prices. The question I am going to pose is are we comparing apple to apple? For example some original BMW parts cost 2-3 times more that the best grade OEM parts. Well, is there a difference in the quality here? For me, it's a definite yes and they do last longer and yield better performance. Although all OEM parts do look alike, are we sure it's the same ones that Optimum are using? So unless we are very sure that the parts used by workshops (whichever) in question about their high prices, I would want to make sure that we are comparing the same thing before shooting the workshop in any open forum. I would approach the workshop concern & tell him directly that he has overcharged me. Let him explain to me. If needs be, ask him to show his parts purchase invoice. Let him know that we are aware that a general rule that workshops do mark up some 10-20% and we are prepared to pay for that mark up.In these day of technology whereby informations are available a click away, I seriously doubt that they will dare mark up as much as 100-300% on their parts cost. If I am not wrong, I believe parts suppliers do send better quality OEM parts to workshops as these workshops are experts and knows the difference in quality. Besides parts supplier needs the support from workshops more than from you and me being a walk in customer.I am not saying that what you guys have posted about pricing is wrong, but I would be careful in making sure that the part quality is the same before making a strong statement.I also know, that sometimes Auto Bavaria, do throw some good deals on parts but, can we expect a busy workshop to check out the AB web to find if there is an offer? The hassle is probably too much. Location, delivery & credit extension is probably not in their favour too.My advise, if you find a good deal for parts from AB, go buy it yourself and bring it to a workshop which will allow you to bring your own parts. Peace</blockquote>

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