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Old August 18th 05, 10:52 PM
Bill Putney
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Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

>
> It's not the cost of manufacture that is the problem. Raw crude is selling
> at about $1.20 a gallon. I would guess after refining and blending with
> the additives, the trans fluid is probably selling at under $8 a gallon.
>
> Now, how do you get from $2 a quart to the $8 quart that it seems to
> be selling through the dealer network?
>
> That is the real problem. Standard retail markup is 400% and ATF+4
> isn't available outside of a dealership, so a trans shop that uses a lot of
> it in customer transmissions has to buy it by the case from the chrysler
> dealer. They can't go to whoever they buy bulk motor oil from and
> get it from them. Nor can you or I go to a discount auto parts place
> that has a lower markup, and buy it from them. Nor can you or I
> wait until a regional or national auto parts place puts it on sale.


A couple of points:

(1) It is not selling for $8 a quart. I just called my local dealer,
who is not known for discounting and in fact typically charges full
list, and they told me they are presently charging $4.40/qt. That's
cheaper than the around $5.20/qt. they were charging 2 years ago (I had
read on the forums that the price had dropped a little over the last
year or two, so that is consistent with my local dealer). As a point of
reference, whenever we have discussed (on R.A.M.C.) the wide variation
of dealer pricing of ATF+4 a year or two ago, the worst price I ever
remember seeing posted was $7 - maybe $8 - but that doesn't reflect the
current non-competitive (i.e., non-aftermarket available) pricing. If
everything is linearly scalable, I would say worst-case
gouge-me-'til-it-hurts dealer pricing should be around $6.35/qt now.

(2) ATF+4 is supposedly a semi-synthetic. I'm not sure I know much
about what that means, but since synthetic motor oil costs a bit more
than non-synth, I assume there are some real additional processing costs
to "create" a synthetic or semi-synthetic (again - whatever that means).
Point being that synth motor oil being 4 to 6 times the price of
non-synth, I would think you have to scale your pricing of semi-synth
ATF+4 a bit higher relative to the price of raw crude (to refelct the
retail price of semi-synth relative to non-synth).

With it going aftermarket, the price should drop - which maybe was your
main point (which wasn't clear to me after I had finished reading your
post).


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Bill Putney
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