A Toyota Dealership Parts Department That Understands The Internet

Here’s an interesting statistic: There are nearly 1300 Toyota dealers in the United States, each with their own parts department. Toyota and TRD supply every one of these dealership parts departments the same parts and accessories for the same price. Yet, out of nearly 1300 Toyota dealers, only a small handful bother to sell parts online.

You may be wondering why so few Toyota dealers sell parts online, but the answer is really pretty simple. It’s not easy. Online customers expect quick service, lots of information, and a great price. While many Toyota dealers offer solid customer service and excellent information, pricing keeps most dealership parts departments from being competitive online. Except, of course, for the Sparks Toyota parts department.

The parts guys at Sparks Toyota. From left to right: Barrett, Jamie, and Mark. Ken (the camera-shy Internet parts manager) is not shown.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a chance to speak with Mark for a few minutes, and here’s what we learned:

1. The Sparks parts website offers lots of good information.

If you’re thinking about buying a part online, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to do the installation yourself. Sparks has done a fantastic job of making sure that they offer complete instructions for the parts they sell whenever possible. Whether you’re buying a simple electrochromic rear view mirror or a TRD supercharger, you can see the install instructions before you buy.

2. The Sparks team prides themselves on good, quick customer service.

Mark tells us that the average online order is packaged and ready to go within 20 minutes of that order being received. Mark also said that customers appreciate the fact that they can speak with a Sparks employee about any one of the parts they sell. We tested the guys at Sparks (without them knowing) and found their average email response time was less than 20 minutes (during business hours), and we had no trouble getting through to someone on the phone the five separate times we called. That’s pretty damn good compared to a lot of online parts retailers.

3. Sparks prices their parts aggressively compared to most Toyota dealers.

As part of our evaluation of Sparks, we compared their prices on a couple of TRD parts (an exhaust for a double cab Tundra and a TRD supercharger) against prices from 6 local Denver-metro area dealers. Without exception, the Sparks Toyota price was lower in every case. In fact, 2 of the 6 local Toyota dealers we called priced the new supercharger 10% over MSRP! Compared to the price from Sparks, the difference was substantial.

When we asked Sparks how they’re able to price their parts so much lower, the short answer is that they do a lot of volume. It turns out that the Sparks parts department does most of their business online, and because their overhead is low (Sparks is a smaller Toyota dealer), they’re able to discount their parts quite a bit and still remain profitable.

Finally, just for fun, we asked Sparks what their best selling Tundra accessories were. Mark told us that the top three Tundra accessories are the TRD sway bars, TRD shift handles, and the TRD Cold Air Kit. Sparks also told us that they’ve sold quite a few TRD Superchargers for the new Tundra. Surprisingly, many of the superchargers they’ve sold have been shipped overseas. It sounds like the US isn’t the only place you’ll find a 500 hp Tundra…

Check out the Sparks Toyota parts department website to learn more.