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The US suppliers provide great advice, service, availability and pricing. Personally, I have had good experience with:

HP Autowerks
Pelican Parts
Turner Motorsports
Tire Rack
ECS Tuning

The problem, of course, is that shipping charges, exchange rate and brokerage charges are brutal.

I bought my car at Endras and have nothing bad to say about their service department. They gave me a "VIP" card that is good for 20% off on service (including the parts used).

The problem is that the Endras parts department is a separate entity and PROFIT centre. They don't give me 20% off and they want to charge full retail, which simply doesn't fly. If I buy brake rotors as part of a brake service they will cost me half of what the parts department wants to charge me. If you are a shop, they do offer trade pricing but it is still higher than what I would pay for the parts through the service department (who only sell them as part of service, of course). I have tried to reason with the parts department, but they are inflexible. Do we look like idiots to them?

My experience with the parts departments at other local BMW dealers is similar, although some can have their arms twisted sometimes. I am not interested in having to negotiate pricing every time I want to buy parts. We can see what they are actually worth by going to the ECS website, which shows just how much markup there is on list prices. Frankly, to pay list price you need to be desperate or a sucker.

So I have searched out dealers who are interested in selling OE parts on line at decent prices. What I found was Park Shore BMW in Surrey, BC. They have a rudimentary website for ordering on line but the range of parts listed is very limited. It is better to call or email them directly to get a quote. If you spend over $75 they will ship the parts to you by Purolator at no charge.

Their pricing is 5% off comp pricing, which works out to be about half of list price on most items and puts their pricing very close to ECS and the decent US suppliers (if not below, when exchange rate is accounted for). Best of all no shipping charges on any reasonable order. You will, of course, pay HST also.

A couple of examples for the 135i:

Front Brake Rotors $133.00 each ($252.66 list)

Rear Brake Rotors $90.25 each ($185.00 list)

So, if you are looking for decent pricing on OE parts give them a try.

Call Doug Smith at 604 985 9395

or email him at parts (at) parkshorebmw.com

I live on the other side of the country and have no affiliation with Park Shore. I am just interested in sharing a good source. Anyone else found a decent Canadian source for BMW OE parts?

Actually, a few other places I have had good experience with:

For Schwaben Tools in Canada, try Calgary Autoworks.

For Moton, JRZ, Ohlins, Hawk and Motive, try Paragon Competition (Vaughan, ON).

For Swift Springs, try Touge Tuning (Mississauga, ON).