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-   -   I travel to the USA frequently | Should I pick up spare parts for my luxury car from there? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/287196-i-travel-usa-frequently-should-i-pick-up-spare-parts-my-luxury-car-there.html)

Hi Motor Lovers,

I recently bought a pre loved 2014 - Volvo XC 60 - D5 AWD R Design.

To keep the cost of spare parts low I am thinking of buying parts from the US as I travel frequently.

What are the views about the community on this ?

Also, how can I get OEM catalog for my car ?

Plz advise and help

Whatever you decide, make sure that the parts you get aren't LHD specific.

What sort of parts are you planning to get ? Is there a big price delta for general service and wear and tear parts ?

I buy parts for my Jeep Cherokee and occasionally my Alfa Spider on Rockauto.

https://www.rockauto.com/

Even with the shipping and import it works out cheaper than buying parts here in the Netherlands. A couple of times I had the parts shipped to friends and family in the USA who brought it to the Netherlands during a visit to us.

As you will see Rockauto has quite a detailed catalogued of cars and parts to chose from. But it tends to cater for American cars or rather cars made for the USA market.

So be aware of anyndifference between your Indian and US variants.

Good luck

Jeroen

I have been doing the same for my super bike but my consideration is OEM products and quick delivery. In India, I am required to wait for some parts and those are the ones I buy from US. Regular consumables are available in India. Hope that helps for your car parts as well.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...ear-items.html
If you've not heard of them

I've been buying parts from the US and bringing them down for a long long time now. What you need to be careful while buying from the US is
1. LHD vs RHD
2. Not all sellers are reliable, hence stick to sellers like FCP Euro, Real street etc..
3. Please keep the bills with yourself and not in the packages when returning and most importantly
4. Never try to bring a "USED" automotive part by declaring it as a used automotive part. The boys at the entry will not take it happily and you'll have to shell some more "gandhi's"! So in case you have to bring one, please mention it as some agricultural farm equipment or parts for R&D purposes.

Cheers
Shrey

I do import parts for a car which has spares in abundance in India, yet choose to import for better peace of mind and to keep the car in tune with the current times despite me not stepping out of Indian soil. Since you'll be frequenting to the US often, then it becomes easier for you to carry parts. However, please do keep an invoice of whatever part you buy so that the men at customs won't question you too much. Do not worry about the orientation as parts can be reused in multiple ways, all you need is a a OEM specific tool to reprogram the part into your car.

Hi, Wouldn't the European,and specifically the UK market, be a better option to pick the spares from? RHD options would be more easily available and probably better priced too.
I normally import spares from AutoDoc and while our customs clearance is difficult ,time consuming and expensive, I have no complaints. Was lucky to pick a spare Hella headlight from US which was for a RHD vehicle at a good discount though.

In my experience, rule of thumb, US car parts are about 1/3 of the price of European car parts. I have seen better and sometimes less.

Amazingly, very few of the parts you buy in the USA are made in the USA. Even for my Jeep, parts I order on Rockauto come from all over the world, via the USA.

You can check all the countries of origin on the import documents of course.


It might be different for RHD of course, but then again there are few parts that are RHD specific.

Jeroen

I buy parts from ECS tuning and Mini Mania and Pelican Parts in the US for my 12 year old Mini Cooper. These parts usually reach me at home in a week’s time via Fedex or DHL or USPS or UPS Economy Shipping.
Yes the US has abundant availability and the costs of parts are much less than in the UK and Europe.
Importing the parts into India invites usurious duties at the rate of 28-38% IGST and this is calculated including freignt costs. Thats wickedly unfair.
Hence if you go to the US often it makes great sense to buy and carry parts back in.
But for safetys sake ensure you carry the invoice too.
I think in each trip one is allowed to bring in dutiable stuff worth Rs 25000 or so, so your should be good.

Thanks, I was not aware of this at all. Have been buying all my parts ( clutch, DMF, turbo etc) only from European dealers. The only exception being the Headlight I chanced upon.
I need suspension parts for my VW Passat and will definitely scan through US sources. Thanks again!

Thank you! I definitely was not aware of this difference in prices and since my car is originally from UK and RHD, I assumed buying from UK would be the done thing.
I see no problems in lugging the stuff from the US. And yes, I didn't pay any customs on my last purchase as it was under the 25K limit.

Walk over to any Volvo dealer and give him the VIN of your car. They will be able to see what exactly is fitted on your car and except for certain (mostly) body-related parts, there should not be any difference due to LHD/ RHD. Still, it will be a good idea to google before final ordering. Depending on the manufacturer your dealer may or may not be able to order parts directly. If blocked, he can use any other VIN or simply book the part & show it as counter sales. No idea about the independent dealers.