Well our slide motor busted again.

SidecarFlip wrote:
If consumer-end users only knew what components actually cost to make, they'd probably have a coronary.

I always use the tie rod end example. It costs to manufacture tie rod ends for Ford 350 pickup trucks about 25 cents each or 50 cents a pair and most of them are made in Portland Michigan at Dana corp. been there many times.

Anyway, when you buy them retail, they don't cost 50 cents a pair, more like 50 bucks a pair, even at a 'discount' auto parts store. The difference is called 'Markup'. Each time thos parts change hands, the next party mars up the cost. So, from Dana to their distributor they get marked up. From the distributor to a dealer warehouse...they get marked up again and then again when the dealer or auto parts store sells them to you.

I'm sure you get the idea and why it's to your advantage to back source parts.

On most everything there is no comparison between manufacturing cost and retail cost, at all.

859 bucks may sound outrageous but, if the market will bear that cost, it's to the dealer's advantage to sell them for that. All about making money. How business works.

I understand mark-up. I used to manage an purchase/price for a retail store. Normally a store likes to see a keystone mark-up so if they pay a dollar they sell for 2. My issue is that this camper was not sold with nor ever had the right motor. The first time it broke a plastic gear failed. When AF sent me a replacement motor under warranty I was told it would have all metal gears and should last the lifetime of the camper. They admitted that they were having problems with the plastic gears breaking. I didn't open the motor then to verify, just took them at their word.

When I called AF I was told that he had never seen plastic gears in the motors and maybe that's true now. For me though my replacement motor supposedly having all metal gears had a plastic one which broke the same as the first. Although our camper is 11 years old it only recently has been used much at all. We have maybe 250 nights in this camper 95% of which in the last 8 months.

Still, the warranty is over and in the end I never did get the right slide motor as part of my purchase price. I am willing to pay for the new motor but I don't think paying motor manufacturer mark-up/AF Mark-up/dealer mark-up seems necessary to fix something that has never been right. The least they could do is cut out AF markup and Dealer mark-up and have the motor manufacturer send me one direct. I never have issues paying for my own mistakes. Paying for others mistakes/defects doesn't float my boat so much..

In any case, no need to cry over spilled milk. Bottom line is that I can still open and close the slide and use our camper. Things could be a lot worse...