Where to purchase OE BMW Parts online in Ontario?

[aureliusmax]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

Never heard of it, looks interesting...
I remember ordering a part from germanparts.ca
They have so many OEM parts, it's the closest thing I know of in Canada compared to ecstunning, fceuro etc.
The good thing about germanparts.ca is that they also have a physical store in Ontario.
However I'm on a completely different side of the country in Alberta.
I tracked down the shipping information, and turned out when I ordered the part from germanparts.ca, it was actually shipped by a different company from Calgary itself. The company is https://autocamping.ca
I went on the website and it looks like you need to be a business, be some kind of a mechanic or something.
So unfortunately there was no way to open an account.

Looks like worlpac is the same idea

WORLDPAC is a wholesale distributor of original equipment automotive products. New account requests will be processed for established automotive businesses who provide a valid business license and resale tax number. WORLDPAC reserves the right to limit distribution in certain markets. Account requests submitted by individuals (Non-commercial or consumer requests) will not be processed.

I wish I could buy the parts directly, instead of going through a middleman (a website like rockauto or a physical store)...

Since I live very close to US border, I enjoy all the benefits of fast and free USA shipping as I have a rented mail-box just across the border town.
Don't need to worry about paying 3 times the items' cost in shipping or outrageous brokerage free charges.

The biggest problem with brick-and-mortar stores is the associates and warehouse constantly make mistakes, dont call back, get confused, forget to deliver, forget to pickup a return, etc and it's all due to a very low IQ problem.

At least when I'm in control of doing the ordering the only one I can blame if there's a mistake is usually myself.

Rockauto isn't an actual warehouse. They're just very well organized, vertically-integrated middlemen that drop ship from wholesalers. It's the next closest you can get to buying wholesale from the manufacturers.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

The biggest problem with brick-and-mortar stores is the associates and warehouse constantly make mistakes, dont call back, get confused, forget to deliver, forget to pickup a return, etc and it's all due to a very low IQ problem.
I couldn't agree more, total joke! They have no clue what they're doing nor do they seem to care. Paying extra at the store and getting extra hassle and aggravation for it...I envy you living so close to the border

Rockauto isn't an actual warehouse. They're just very well organized, vertically-integrated middlemen that drop ship from wholesalers. It's the next closest you can get to buying wholesale from the manufacturers.
They're really well organized and have actual pictures of the actual parts. Pretty impressive. I remember I was reading workers' reviews of the company on glassdoor.ca and everyone was saying that the pay was really good, like 100k, but the working conditions were atrocious.
Still cool that they can afford to pay high salaries and sell parts cheaper than anyone else.

Another cool thing about rockauto is that all my orders are coming from the states, and the shipping is very reasonable. $20-30 CAD for decent size orders.
I wonder why other places like ecstunning can't ship for the same price and want to charge $40 USD for the smallest item...

[CVX20]

There's a guy in North York that I've bought from but I can't lay my hands on his info.Found him on Kijiji a couple of years ago.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

I think I found another interesting place to buy original parts.
https://www.e-acca.com/
It's a company from Latvia. I'm not sure where they get the parts, but they have like every single parts! I don't know where they source them, but they have original parts.
I think their ebay store it oe245

[aureliusmax]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

I think I found another interesting place to buy original parts.
https://www.e-acca.com/
It's a company from Latvia. I'm not sure where they get the parts, but they have like every single parts! I don't know where they source them, but they have original parts.
I think their ebay store it oe245

I've had nothing but problems when ordering from ebay vendors from 'less desirable' Eastern European countries, a lot of them are just fake and scam accounts.

There's a great feature in the last few years ebay uses for international shipments. It's called the 'global shipping program'. Customs, fees and taxes are pre-attached in your order to expedite the shipping process leaving the customer with no surprise charges on delivery. When I'm ordering parts for my work place, this is usually the best option to go from USA to Canada.

I also read the glassdoor reviews on rockauto, seems like a lot of the people complaining are very low IQ and incompetent persons, they get fired for not making the grade and just complain. That's to me is completely expected. When someone from the auto parts industry who constantly makes mistakes and is incompetent in every way; no wonder they fail when they apply to rockauto to get a higher paying job.

Bmwe5320023.0 if I was in your situation, I would look into getting one of these mailbox services designed for cross-border shoppers close to the canadian border. If you heavily order parts, you should spend a trip a month to pickup from your mailbox, the savings will make up instantly for the round trip, time and costs to use the service.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

I think I found another interesting place to buy original parts.
https://www.e-acca.com/
It's a company from Latvia. I'm not sure where they get the parts, but they have like every single parts! I don't know where they source them, but they have original parts.
I think their ebay store it oe245

I have used these folk for parts. Very good service and pricing but slow shipping to this part of the world (nearly as far from Latvia as you can get and stay on the planet!). Packaging was good too - the three front mesh grill parts from the bumper arrived in perfect condition after a three month transit.

Would use them again for part I don't need in a hurry.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

Well I wouldn't call European countries less desirable! I guess depends in what sense...
They have tons of bmw fans and experts. In fact they will often have more ingenuity, not having the same access to tools and parts as we do in north America.
And as a matter of fact, they do manage to have OEM bmw parts at good prices! How they do it, I don't know.
The website I mentioned is totally legit, confirmed by multiple reviews. The only problem is the shipping time.
And the Ebay seller has 30000 reviews, that's no fake.

Another thing that I always wondered about but never figured is... If ecstunning and others carry tons of OEM BMW parts, why can't rockauto do the same?

Yes maybe US box will make sense, I was looking into it a few months ago but didn't find anything close to highway 2 from Alberta to Montana. I'll look into it some more. Now I only wish USD/CAD were at parity!

[aureliusmax]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

Yes maybe US box will make sense, I was looking into it a few months ago but didn't find anything close to highway 2 from Alberta to Montana. I'll look into it some more. Now I only wish USD/CAD were at parity!

If you were smart like me (self aggrandizing pat on the back here)
back in early January 2020 I converted my cash savings into solid gold, before the CAD-USD ratio slid ten percent.
That's a hedge against inflation and a loss of value to the USD. So when I need access to my savings to buy something, it's cashed out in USD since that's what gold is priced in. And I actually end up by coming out ahead.

[StephenVA]

Originally Posted by Bmwe5320023.0

Another thing that I always wondered about but never figured is... If ecstunning and others carry tons of OEM BMW parts, why can't rockauto do the same?

Just remember that alot of these vendors with OE parts posted, order from a dealer source and resell & box them to ship to you. No inventory just a computer terminal. Call on your local BMW dealer and make a commercial account call. Worth the effort. Tell them you do side work and you will pay the sales tax on each order. I give my local dealer some $1-2K annual sales just for my fleet.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

Originally Posted by StephenVA

Just remember that alot of these vendors with OE parts posted, order from a dealer source and resell & box them to ship to you. No inventory just a computer terminal. Call on your local BMW dealer and make a commercial account call. Worth the effort. Tell them you do side work and you will pay the sales tax on each order. I give my local dealer some $1-2K annual sales just for my fleet.

You mean they order from the same place the dealer orders from?
I'm in Canada so I'm not exactly sure...what do you mean "tell them I'll pay taxes on each order"?
We always pay taxes in Canada, which go to the government, not dealership. I feel like I'm not understanding you.