GM discontinued parts

[Jim T.]

This may have been addressed in precious posts. What does GM do with parts they have on hand when they discontinue listing a part for our Corvettes?

Do dealerships keep parts on hand to sell or is there a procedure link up that dealers can get discontinued parts from a dealer that has the discontinued part?

[Kenneth B.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

They keep them on hand or junk them to make room on the shelves.

[Jim T.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

They keep them on hand or junk them to make room on the shelves.

Many years ago my local Chevrolet dealership (sponsored our Corvette club) had a garage sale on new parts from their parts shelves. They had lots of parts displayed. One person bought some nice chrome spinners before I saw them. I bought a GM Nova cruise control package that has everything to install cruise control in a Nova. I bought it to see if I could use it on my 1970 Corvette. Did not use it. Still have it in the factory box, need to get it listed on E-Bay for sale.

[Duke W.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

I've been successful a few times getting discontinued parts when the dealer asked for a physical check of inventory and there were still some at the warehouse, but at some point, like X number of months after a part is listed as discontinued the warehouses probably scrap any remaining inventory.

Dealer's used to have a service that published a book of discontinued parts that dealers still had in inventory. I expect that it's Web based now.

Back when I was buying a lot of parts, it was very beneficial to have a good relationship with dealership parts guy.

Duke

[Joe L.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

This may have been addressed in precious posts. What does GM do with parts they have on hand when they discontinue listing a part for our Corvettes?

Do dealerships keep parts on hand to sell or is there a procedure link up that dealers can get discontinued parts from a dealer that has the discontinued part?

Jim------


GMSPO apparently has differing protocols for dealing with discontinued parts and there are different reasons for them to cause a part to be discontinued. Sometimes, a part is discontinued when the last one leaves the last GMSPO warehouse and no new stock from the manufacturer can be or will be obtained. Sometimes, when an item is a slow seller and limited stock remains, GMSPO will transfer that stock to VPI (Vintage Parts International) and they will sell off the remaining stock (usually at far higher price than the last GM list price).

As far as dealers go, most dealers will continue to stock discontinued parts until their stock is exhausted. The dealer's parts inventory, including discontinued parts, is maintained on a computerized GMSPO database so that all other GM dealers can find a part, discontinued or not, they need in another dealer's stock. Keep in mind, though, that many dealers of today maintain a minimal parts inventory. Instead, they rely on overnight delivery of parts from GMSPO parts warehouses. GM has facilitated this by greatly reducing the time involved in dealers' obtaining parts. In general, dealers can return parts to GMSPO but, usually, discontinued parts are an exception.

[Dick W.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

Jim------


GMSPO apparently has differing protocols for dealing with discontinued parts and there are different reasons for them to cause a part to be discontinued. Sometimes, a part is discontinued when the last one leaves the last GMSPO warehouse and no new stock from the manufacturer can be or will be obtained. Sometimes, when an item is a slow seller and limited stock remains, GMSPO will transfer that stock to VPI (Vintage Parts International) and they will sell off the remaining stock (usually at far higher price than the last GM list price).

As far as dealers go, most dealers will continue to stock discontinued parts until their stock is exhausted. The dealer's parts inventory, including discontinued parts, is maintained on a computerized GMSPO database so that all other GM dealers can find a part, discontinued or not, they need in another dealer's stock. Keep in mind, though, that many dealers of today maintain a minimal parts inventory. Instead, they rely on overnight delivery of parts from GMSPO parts warehouses. GM has facilitated this by greatly reducing the time involved in dealers' obtaining parts. In general, dealers can return parts to GMSPO but, usually, discontinued parts are an exception.

It has been some time since I heard a dealer talk about GM's return policy, but it used to be that they could return a percentage, in dollar volume, of what they had purchased in the last twelve months. A good parts manager doors not let parts go stale in their inventory.

[John D.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

My local Chevy dealer used to sell me a pickup load of NOS discontinued parts for peanuts. Lot of it was almost impossible to give away at the fleas.

[Bob J.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

DW, I think that policy is still in effect. With computers, the program lets the parts mgr know when to return something that is going to be or did already get disc.

[Michael H.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

DW, I think that policy is still in effect. With computers, the program lets the parts mgr know when to return something that is going to be or did already get disc.

I think that was 4%, wasn't it?

[Edward J.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

Jim------


GMSPO apparently has differing protocols for dealing with discontinued parts and there are different reasons for them to cause a part to be discontinued. Sometimes, a part is discontinued when the last one leaves the last GMSPO warehouse and no new stock from the manufacturer can be or will be obtained. Sometimes, when an item is a slow seller and limited stock remains, GMSPO will transfer that stock to VPI (Vintage Parts International) and they will sell off the remaining stock (usually at far higher price than the last GM list price).

As far as dealers go, most dealers will continue to stock discontinued parts until their stock is exhausted. The dealer's parts inventory, including discontinued parts, is maintained on a computerized GMSPO database so that all other GM dealers can find a part, discontinued or not, they need in another dealer's stock. Keep in mind, though, that many dealers of today maintain a minimal parts inventory. Instead, they rely on overnight delivery of parts from GMSPO parts warehouses. GM has facilitated this by greatly reducing the time involved in dealers' obtaining parts. In general, dealers can return parts to GMSPO but, usually, discontinued parts are an exception.

Joe, I Remember in the 80"s when our Chevrolet dealership did parts returns to the local parts warehouse they were credited for the parts and obsolete parts were scraped at the warehouse and other parts were restocked , the obsolete parts were from what I understand were destroyed.

[Kenneth B.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

Jim------


GMSPO apparently has differing protocols for dealing with discontinued parts and there are different reasons for them to cause a part to be discontinued. Sometimes, a part is discontinued when the last one leaves the last GMSPO warehouse and no new stock from the manufacturer can be or will be obtained. Sometimes, when an item is a slow seller and limited stock remains, GMSPO will transfer that stock to VPI (Vintage Parts International) and they will sell off the remaining stock (usually at far higher price than the last GM list price).

As far as dealers go, most dealers will continue to stock discontinued parts until their stock is exhausted. The dealer's parts inventory, including discontinued parts, is maintained on a computerized GMSPO database so that all other GM dealers can find a part, discontinued or not, they need in another dealer's stock. Keep in mind, though, that many dealers of today maintain a minimal parts inventory. Instead, they rely on overnight delivery of parts from GMSPO parts warehouses. GM has facilitated this by greatly reducing the time involved in dealers' obtaining parts. In general, dealers can return parts to GMSPO but, usually, discontinued parts are an exception.

That's how I heard Dick Fortier ended up with a lot of discontinued Corvette parts. I heard his brother worked at the distribution center & would tell Dick when he ordered more parts for the warehouse & GM would tell him they were to be discontinued to order all that were in the warehouse. IE C-3 bumpers because the tooling wore out & GM would not pay for new tooling. Back in the day when I bought a lot of parts the dealership wanted to get rid of to make shelf space. There is only so much room in the parts dep. & they needed to stock newer parts for service.

[Mark S.]

Re: GM discontinued parts

parts 005.jpgparts 006.jpgparts 007.jpgSampling of NOS at an auction last week. Seems the
guy worked for GM parts warehouse, many items are marked "surplus".