In years gone by, we used to fix our cars ourselves. The vehicles were simple and needed little maintenance, much of which could be done at home. There were very few franchised dealers, especially those with service and parts departments which could be afforded by the average family or small business. Things changed a couple of generations ago, with franchised dealer networks expanding all over the country and cars becoming more sophisticated and complicated. To keep up with market trends and advances in technology, the manufacturers expanded their ranges and updated models too frequently for most people to be able to keep up. Microchips and microprocessors became more and more common, saving time and cost in the manufacture and, according to the Research and Development teams, offering better reliability. ECUs (electronic control units) control most parts of the average car, and in some more expensive models link to a main computer under the hood.

There are even cars which are plugged in to the dealers' diagnostic computer systems. Things have gone crazy, and many cars have become impossible to service at home or in the local garage. To make things worse, the manufacturers' warranties used to stipulate that routine servicing had to be done to the same standard as a main dealer, using genuine parts. Otherwise, malfunctions would not be honored by the warranty. Now it's almost impossible to even do that, with the need for a special and expensive diagnostic computer. Each manufacturer had its own monopoly on parts and service prices, especially for vehicles in the first few years of their lives. It cannot be argued that the technological advances have improved reliability, efficiency, comfort, luxury, and safety, but there are still lots of people out there who do not want, or can't afford, to keep handing over large sums of cash to main dealers. Labor costs have become extremely expensive, and usually for legal reasons, they insist on changing parts which actually don't need replacing. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, at least for sourcing genuine and OEM car parts at prices which are considerably cheaper than over the parts counter at a main dealer.

Japanese parts have had a reputation of being more expensive than those from countries in Europe and America. The reasons for this were their high quality as well as the cost of manufacturing them in Japan and transporting them around the world. In recent years, Japanese car parts prices have become far more competitive, although their reputation may not have changed just yet. The reasons for manufacturers being able to supply inexpensive genuine Japanese car parts include that many of the items are no longer produced in Japan. They have been contracting out the manufacture to more convenient locations, specifically Thailand, in South East Asia. This doesn't mean a drop in quality, as the factories are owned and run by the likes of Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Honda and Nissan. However, the official chain of supply has continued to be controlled by the manufacturers and some still claim them to be too high, especially at the retail point of sale.

Fortunately, main dealers and franchised parts suppliers no longer have everything their own way. For many reasons, including free trade agreements, limited-quantity tax-free import quotas, and the ever-growing trust in and use of internet shopping, both wholesale and retail customers are now able to buy genuine and OEM car parts at the cheapest prices, bypassing their main dealer. Some just visit their nearest car parts outlet and buy over the counter, while others contact a supplier online (overseas) and order the parts at prices a fraction of what the main dealers in their home country would charge. Ironically, with manufacturers merging and taking each other over, then sharing parts not only between models, but also between and across brands, the options to access the cheapest car parts online are even greater for the customer. There are now fewer and fewer different and independent car manufacturers in the world, after VAG (Volkswagen Audi Group) have taken over the likes of Skoda and Lamborghini, and Fiat owning most of the Italian motor industry. This, and the open market that we all know as the internet, allows the customers absolute freedom and choice to buy what they want at the fairest prices.