• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!

    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

YOWZER 10 -20% price increase

roofman

Jedi Knight
Offline
Got an email today from TRF that prices on TR parts are going up 10 -20% in about 2 weeks. Better buy now, you know the other guys will be raiing prices some also.
 
I thought the last postcard I got from TRF said that the winter sale started on January 16th? I know it did last year, with pretty good discounts (15-18% off everything, as memory serves). I can't imagine TRF not having specials and sales - that seems to be the way they operate (not that I am complaining!) I think I got something over 40 e-mails with various "offers" from them last year. Good news for a deal lover like me (not so good for my credit card...)

I can understand the need for price rises - the dollar is ridiculously weak, and somehow a lot of parts made in England sell for the same in dollars as they do in pounds - if I still lived in England I would probably buy parts from over here!
 
kodanja said:
There are other distributors with the same quality parts for less than the TRF...

I agree...MOSS usually comes in a little cheaper....Except right now I am kinda irritated becasue I placed an order(huge order) the first week of december and still haven't gotten my stuff....I placed a smaller order last week and got the stuff yesterday /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
 
Having lived in England now for a whopping 4 months, let me just say I don't think TRF's price increases are out of line, especially for UK sourced parts. I've been comparing TRF prices to the local suppliers here and TRF still beats the majority hands down using my weak dollar.
 
I've done biz with all of the big three and, I must say, I like doing business with TRF the best....BUT their website really sucks...talk about user un-friendly!
 
I usually do a big stock up sale in the winter too. Usually though, I just email Ken Lamers, a Moss reseller bscr@bscr.com NFI! He gives around 16% off the Moss prices every day and during thier winter sale, he can save 6% off sale prices. It really save money, especially if your're doing a full interior.
 
For once I actually feel sorry for TRF. The $ is basically worthless outside this country. It has dropped from $1.80 to the pound to 1.95 since June (I forget what it was last Jan). That's a pretty hefty difference on imports, and part of the reason I'm not flying back to the UK any time soon...
 
YankeeTR said:
I've done biz with all of the big three and, I must say, I like doing business with TRF the best....BUT their website really sucks...talk about user un-friendly!

For those of us with Spitfires, I would add that Nigel at Spitbits also generally has pretty good prices, and I have found the parts quality to be as good as any.

I expect they are all going to push prices up somewhat.

In Canada, we get a double-whammy, since one of the few currencies the US dollar remains strong against these days is our Canadian loonie. Maybe if oil prices go up again (and our dollar plumps with it) I can afford to buy some parts. But then I'll be back to paying $4.50 a gallon for gas...grrrr
 
If you're buying from Moss,why not go thru
Tony,& at least help one of our own?
Just a thought.

- Doug
 
alana said:
The $ is basically worthless outside this country. It has dropped from $1.80 to the pound to 1.95 since June (I forget what it was last Jan).

Do ya'll remember, way back, when the dollar bought 4 pounds. My, how times have changed. We really are the colonies.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Do ya'll remember, way back, when the dollar bought 4 pounds. My, how times have changed. We really are the colonies [/QUOTE]

Er, no, the exchange rate was never that bad. I think you've actually got it backwards. In the dim, distant days of the 1950 when monetary values were tied to gold and fixed exchange rates ruled (and countries more tightly controlled how much money could be taken out or brought in) the dollar/sterling rate was something like 4 dollars to the pound....

See Chart 4 on page 4 of:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2000/speech83.pdf
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]if I still lived in England I would probably buy parts from over here! [/QUOTE]

I do! Not all the time, and certainly not everything. But there's a lot of stuff that's much cheaper to source in the US- typically small, high value items. I bought a set of poly-bushes for my Jensen-Healey (also labeled as Triumph) for less than 1/2 the UK price. Even after paying shipping, and VAT at 17.5% AND import duty (5% I think) it was enough cheaper to make the wait worthwhile....

There are a fair nuber of items too that are more readily available in the US- I suspect its because there's more of a market in the US because 80-90% of the cars were exported there. So UK vendors probably have higher overheads to spread over a smaller volume of sales.

A little international comparison shopping is very sensible....
 
One other consideration is that some things are just NOT available here in the colonies. I tried sourcing the rear window seal for a factory hardtop here and spent too many dollars on TRF's opinion of what it was, same with Moss. Found MacGregor in Canada and he's now the ONLY one who'll get my money for seals of ANY type. MG, Lotus, Alfa. Doesn't matter what the exchange rate is if the bit don't fit...
 
One thing good about having a Brit wife
who is a financial analyst is she converted
a bunch of American $$ retirement account
to Pounds Sterling three years ago.

Getting a nice % return on that change over.

But that doesn't help us with the price of parts
for old Brit cars.

d
 
Back
Top