Prices of car parts soar

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34022, 11 December 1975, Page 1

Prices of car parts soar

Prices of car parts have increased so much in the last year that, in certain instances, the importers have been approached and asked if! they had made a mis-’ take in pricing. Many of the parts have) j doubled in price because of i ■ soaring production costs: 'overseas. New Zealand-made’ , parts have not been so ; I dramatically affected, and! i price increases are reported: ’to be moderate. Petro-chemical products.! such as plastics, have under-: ■gone severe price rises. ! Higher labour, steel, and! 'electricity costs in manufac-i >ture have also contributed to! 'the higher cost of parts, as!

has the devaluation of the New Zealand dollar. A Christchurch garage owner said this week that every time a new batch of parts was delivered, the price had increased. He has parts delivered every two weeks. Six months ago, a set of points cost $1.20, but now they are $1.68. Similar increases are being experienced with spark plugs, oil and air filters, and most other parts. Along with the price rises for parts, the cost of labour has increased by more than 25 per cent in the last year, from about $6.50 to $8 an hour. Garage owners say that they have difficulties run-! ning a business on the per-

mitted profit margins of 20 per cent on labour and 6.4 per cent on petrol. The profit on snares varies from about 10 per cent on large, slow-moving items to about 40 per cent on small items. However, there is a waiting list at most service stations for repairs, and recent history does not show an unusually large number of garages having to close because of financial problems. The Press Association reports that the parts manager for Nissan Datsun (Mr Murray Guthrie) said that the smallest increases in the price of parts over the year was about 20 per cent. “Radiator fans have about doubled, and lamp lenses have also gone up 100 per cent,” he said.

Nissan Datsun told it: New Zealand dealers tha: nothing could be done abou! their complaints. A Datsun parts wholesaler said: “In Japan last year there was a 29 per cent wage increase, a 34 per cent increase in steel, an 84 per cent increase in electricity and an increase in freight rates.” An Auckland executive oi the New Zealand Motor Corporation, Mr K. W. Rhodes, said that several Britishmade parts had doubled in price for similar reasons. Gear-boxes for a popular British car had risen from $3BO to $735, drive-shaft couplings from $6.58 to $l3, and rear-brake calipers from $B5 to $lBB. Mr Rhodes said that the

, average price increases for t parts imported from Britain I t appeared to exceed the! inflation rate there. “In some cases we are| , pressing the United King-1 t dom strongly to decrease! prices.” • British Leyland had reIsponded by shaving the : I price increases on a few I products, including ball ■ lbearings, said Mr Rhodes. ■’ A spokesman for the Automobile Association in ’Auckland said that his organMisation was horrified by ! some of the price increases. ’The public seemed to have swallowed them without- : protest. The association had! ■found no evidence of i I profiteering, except among! some dealers in second-hand’ 'parts.