Where are you buying your genuine Toyota parts from?

Hi all,
 
I am currently looking to buy a pair of genuine front control arms and ball joints for my AW11 and have been shopping around for the best price. i thought we could have a discussion on what options there are for buying overseas vs buying locally.
The following prices are for 2x AW11 control arms in AUD.
 
Toyota Castle Hill (NSW) $725.48 pickup
Amayama (UAE stock) $200 plus shipping (No stock available)
Amayama (JPN stock) $290 plus $61 for shipping
Lithia Toyota (USA) approx. $250 plus approx. $115 for shipping
ToyotaOnlineParts.com (USA) approx. $235 plus approx. $80 for shipping
North Shore Toyota (NZ) approx. $231 plus approx. $44 for shipping. 
 
So Amayama appear to be hopeless at returning quotes these days and Toyota Australia is kidding themselves with their pricing.
 
Where are you buying your genuine parts from???
 

Hmm...ghey about amayama. They're normally pretty good.

Tried dylan? Also try sqengineering.

And maybe if you ask Gatesy(iirc) nicely he works for toyota.

Gatesys SW20
ive noticed a lot of those cheaper parts, are usually parts that didn't pass quality testing by Toyota, ive ordered a part for my celica from one of those cheaper genuine sites, a waterpump, and it lasted 8 months. until it leaked and was ****ED
so just keep that in the back of your mind when buying,
some are cheaper for a reason, sometimers, you get a very good one, that only failed due to being out of spec by a pipteenth, other times, theres a good reason..

I wouldn't think Toyota would sell dodgy parts though? I mean these are correctly packaged up/sealed Toyota parts. I understand buying something remanufactured from Rockauto would be risky.

Yeah if you are talking genuine Toyota parts from a dealer who also provides an official Toyota receipt and parts carry the correct stamping, then you can't go wrong. Lithia and North shore are actually official Toyota dealers. Amayama hides nothing about where they get their parts from or the way the business operates to explain to you how they are able to offer parts for as cheap as they do.
 
I don't like the idea of always sending my money overseas, since you need to remember supporting Australian businesses is what keeps our country ticking over, but when you are talking an import that Toyota Australia admit they are ALWAYS going to order from Japan, there's little wonder most of the parts carry a 200% price increase, which is sad. For some of us that's simply not an option.

maj, with North Shore NZ do you just message them from their website? http://www.nst.co.nz/parts/parts-enquiry/

purple5ive

Gatesys SW20
ive noticed a lot of those cheaper parts, are usually parts that didn't pass quality testing by Toyota, ive ordered a part for my celica from one of those cheaper genuine sites, a waterpump, and it lasted 8 months. until it leaked and was ****ED
so just keep that in the back of your mind when buying,
some are cheaper for a reason, sometimers, you get a very good one, that only failed due to being out of spec by a pipteenth, other times, theres a good reason..

how exactly can you tell the difference between a part that passed QC at toyota and a Part that didnt?
im very curious to know.
you say that it was only out by a pipteenth, did you actually measure it before and after and with a part that passed QC??
im really suprised there can be two types of genuine parts, i wuld have thought that not passing QC means they go in the bin and get recycled..
 
Nick - lithia toyota has been usually quite good and Twosrus
cheers
 

Yep, Twosrus rock solid reliability and quick shipping (as long as they have your part and you happy to pay for express shipping)
Lithia has been good to me in the past as well. I feel their prices are moving up though which is what made me start investigating all the options.

well im sure there meant to go into the 'bin'
but im sure they sell there, failed parts they sell them to someone else for 'resale'

Authorised Toyota dealers only sell quality Toyota parts,

Where do you think most of those mobs get there parts from to offer them so so so cheap,
FAR cheaper than my cost price working at Toyota.
and offer them cheaper than most Toyota dealers cost price, and still make a profit.

No, what im saying it some parts could be as little as.05mm out of spec and that in Toyota eyes fails.
the part could work fine and last years, but Toyota don't take the risk. with there high QC regs.

So they probably off load those parts to a wholesale market, or to a secondary buyer in bulk.

and the ones a lot out of spec would be recycled and binned.
but im just saying from experience. 8 months, and the site I brought it from offered zero warranty on it.
On a Supposed GENUINE TOYOTA part brand new and sealed,

now this was before I was working at Toyota, and knew that all parts apart from electrical items carry 12 months parts and labour warranty.

Im only assuming, I could be well wrong.
but just trying to put two and two together..


But Mrskylighter, those parts would cost me to buy about 500$ so that 240$ for all parts IS VERY good!

:) Some parts I can get pretty cheap others I cant compete with the overseas vendors, or some Australian non authorised genuine Toyota parts dealers.

Received my quote for 2x AW11 front control arms from North Shore Toyota in New Zealand.
$292 NZD inc gst ($260AUD) for the parts and $55 NZD inc gst ($49AUD) for the shipping.
 
I think we have a winner. Approx $310 AUD shipped from a bricks & morter Toyota dealership in NZ.