Got charged a young fortune by a repair shop for the above. They said that Beck Arnley are all they could get without a long wait and as a "top quality part" that's just what they cost. FCP and IPD have them priced at about $11 each, and Rock Auto have several brands, mostly in that same range.

I've tried searching the Beck-Arnley site but apparently it's geared to pro shops and not us members of the proletariat.

Just in case any of you guys have better luck than me, can you find the price for Beck-Arnley part number 1014753? I'd like to have better evidence than I do now, to call BS on the shop's pricing.

Bob (volvodad...but having trouble logging in)

A quick check of O'Rielly Auto Parts showed 4 choices, $13.99, $27.99, $42.99. and $94.99. All consisted of parts for one side only but not the same number of parts. Example, the cheapest consisted of 1 bushing, one nut, and two washers( literally, only one donut shaped bushing!). The other 3 consisted of all the parts for 1 side but the highest had 2 different shaped bushings for the top. See their pics.

IPD do them at $10.95 a side for aftermarket ones but they also stock Volvo ones at $120! There are plenty in between. Your money, your choice.

Thanks for the info, Derek. It wasn't really my choice, as the shop decided to go with the high priced units and that may have been a matter of availability. I didn't have that info until I reviewed the invoice in detail.

The end links are really just a piece of steel rod, threaded at each end, and two nuts, two rubber bushings and the little steel bushing cups. $12 or so sounds about right, and it's hard to see how there can be a significant quality difference. Volvo are charging what they do mainly for the intangibles; their QC, their name, and keeping a low-demand part in their supply chain for many years.

Well, once bitten.... In future I'll check out internet and FLAPS prices before authorising work. The shop charge a higher per-hour labour rate for customer-supplied parts (fair enough), but in this case it still would have saved me a decent amount of money to source my own.
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Son's XC70, daughter's XC60, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), and XC60. Also '77 MGB with Chev V6, and four old motorcycles. Long gone: 1981 244, 1994 940,1998 S90 and 2010XC60 (totalled by hitting 500lb elk)

Repair shops here in Los Angeles will always select the expensive OEM parts for the job. This is brought about by the unpredictable reputation of aftermarket parts and customers demanding a warranty on the repair job. When a customer brings in cheap aftermarket parts they want installed in the repair, they do not warranty the job and put it in writing or sometimes flat refuse the job.

You don't say how much you were charged, but I'll assume it was closer to $50 than $11. Ebay pricing for the Beck-Arnley kit appears to be in the $26-$36 range.

You may not want to hear this, but the Genuine Volvo equivalent to the Beck-Arnley End Link Kit 101-4753 has an MSRP of $120 (USD). Anything less than that for like kind and quality can be argued as "value pricing", even though as you note there are numerous other kits out there in the $10-$20 price bracket from respected manufacturers that should also be of decent OE quality.

The equivalent Volvo parts are:
p/n 120667 (link kit) MSRP $109.43
p/n 1229303 (link washer) MSRP $1.79 ea x2 =$3.58
p/n 1205991 (link bushing) MSRP $3.29 ea x 2 =$6.58

Beck-Arnley parts are nothing magical, but generally considered decent quality that should certainly be expected to meet Volvo OE specifications. Their kit is just rubber bushings, not poly, so shouldn't be considered a premium aftermarket performance product demanding a slightly higher price than other aftermarket products.

Your repair shop may well have been honest and staightforward with you. The only thing they could get out of local distributor stock on a same-day or overnight basis may well have been the Beck-Arnley kit. On your invoice, most repair shops will typically show a List Price that is normally provided to them by their distributor on the parts order or in their catalog. Occasionaly it is the Volvo MSRP and I wouldn't appreciate being charged that price for anything other than Genuine Volvo. Most shops charge you a price somewhere between their actual cost and that List Price depending either on a normal profit margin set over their cost or else a normal discount set below that list price. The profit margin can end up being as high as 50% or more depending on their account discount. Anthing much over that I would consider price gouging for a repair shop that should be expected to make most of it's money off labour, not parts, however that's not always the case.

Now if your repair shop had a good customer service policy and wanted to keep you happy as a valued future customer they should have perhaps phoned you to explain the supply issue, especially when they noticed such a significant price difference in aftermarket parts. Unfortunately, the standard practice of many shops is not that. They want the car out by the end of the day or as soon thereafter as possible, so are not going to keep it in the shop for ten days waiting for parts if they can help it and anything less than using Genuine Volvo parts at Volvo prices is considered fair pricing.

Having said all that, maybe shop around for a more customer service oriented shop that will give you an initial estimate when you take the car in. Once they get the car up on the rack to confirm the issues and check their supply chain for parts availability, if it's significantly different from their estimate they should call you for approval before they even begin the job so you can ask questions and change your mind, possibly postponing the repair or taking it elsewhere.

Next time, perhaps discuss these expectations with the shop when you initially take it in. If they fail to meet your expectations then you always have the option to go elsewhere next time. Unless someone is being out and out crooked, I prefer not to call out a shop online and bad mouth them, but I always reserve the right to not refer them and to relate my experience if someone seeks advice.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

Dave, thanks for the comprehensive response. I'm not naming the shop as they've done good work for me in the past and there is the possibility that they had to pay a premium price for the parts that offered quick access. Their price to me was close to the gen. Volvo number, but in CDN $$, so multiply by 70%. They did call in advance with a total cost for a bunch of work involving brakes, rear shocks, etc. (and I OK'd that) but I found the big $$ sway bar link number when I got the invoice.

For all I use the car, the sway bar links from the NAPA store down the street at $13CDN each would have been fine. But ten day wait for delivery.

The shop's head guy sympathised a little and did say he'd "do something for me" on an upcoming job on another car which might involve engine removal, so....

Just wanted to see if the made-of-gold Beck-Arnley items were really that expensive. Thanks again:

Bob
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Son's XC70, daughter's XC60, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), and XC60. Also '77 MGB with Chev V6, and four old motorcycles. Long gone: 1981 244, 1994 940,1998 S90 and 2010XC60 (totalled by hitting 500lb elk)