That's right, it only cost me $108.06 for the parts, plus I have a choice of paying sales tax. If the car is on the inventory of my company, I can add the cost of the caps to the book value. Therefore, the sales tax will be paid by the guy who buys my car. The other option is to pay the sales tax because you are not reselling the item, then write the entire expense off in your books as car maintenance. If you are confused, the next few paragraphs about another business venture should clear things up.

Many people who hire my consulting services say, "It's great that I save 20% on parts, but how can I do that when I am at a large auto chain store getting my car fixed"?

There are three plans of action you can take. The first is to mark on your repair order that you want a quote for parts, but none installed without your authorization. When the service technician tells you what parts you will need, either pick these up at the auto parts store you have a "deal" with, or tell the technician to order the parts from that store because you get special pricing.

The second approach is to speak to the service manager. Politely state that you can get a special price from ABC auto parts store and you can buy these parts there if they wish. State that you like his service center and would prefer to do business with them (as not to create bad feelings) if they can match the discount the ABC parts store is giving you. If they refuse, just buy your parts at ABC and have them delivered to where your car is being repaired. However, most of the time the service manager will take the business, even though he is not making as much money as he would like. Some profit is better than no profit.