The financial crisis

I read in the newspaper that the automobile industry in the US was about to go bankrupt. I got worried and decided to support them and order spares for my Ford. But these spares are either made in Taiwan or in Canada ! Ok. The actual reason for ordering more parts was the NO ADMITTANCE sign used to give shape for my driver side wheel flare.

I have ordered spares from NPD earlier and have been very, very satisfied with their deliveries and service overall. I wish all the best for the guys at NPD Ocala, FL where they have their international service. The draw-back of ordering goods outside US is that there is no free freight available for us and air-freight is quite expensive.

I made the list for the initial sheet metal order in an early stage and I did not have to have them quick. Therefore I ordered them through a local dealer in the beginning of october reminding him that I only accept the goods from NPD catalog. I wanted to avoid high freight cost so the package would come in ship-container along with many other. And that’s what it did. It took two months. The price was agreed based on the NPD catalog price and a multiplying factor of 1.3 .

Now what does the 1.3 multiplying factor mean ? I’ll give you an example.
101A-1LH REAR WHEEL FLARE costs $48.50 in NPD webshop.
If you order it and something else so that your order exceeds $300, you’ll get it delivered to any US home in three days for about $52 ( I assume the VAT is 7 % ).

When I order goods with factor 1.3 it means that the price includes the freight costs, customs and VAT ( 22% btw.). And that the currency is euro (€).

So, the REAR WHEEL FLARE delivered within two months to my local dealer ( where I have to pick it up by myself ) costs me 1.3 x 48,50 x 1 € = 63,05 €. As the rate between $ and € is 0,72 it means that I’ll pay $ 87,57 for the flare. Think about that next time when you save money by using traffic signs !

I wanted the flares fast so I ordered them directly from NPD no matter what the air-freight costs might be. They arrived in a week (Ocala FL-Orlando FL-Louisville KY-Koeln Germany-Herne-Boerig Germany-Glostrup Denmark- Helsinki Finland ) by UPS. After I had paid them and all the freight costs and taxes, I calculated the final ‘multiplying factor’ for this delivery. I was really surprised as it was only 1.32 . Should my local dealer review his business idea ?

Though I felt the parts were cheap, I almost paid twice the US price.

Talk about financial crisis ?