In addition to my above thoughts. I couldn't get over the idea that not stocking parts was good for a dealership. As I've already stated, I'm not in parts, so I'm just guessing.

I think the most profitable parts for a dealer are the ones on hand. They take less time with the customer, don't have extra freight costs, etc. If a customer asks for the part, just about 100% of the time, the customer hands over money. If the part has to be ordered, I'd venture that the sale ratio drops considerably, but takes as much of the parts man's time.

One other thing. I'm not in service so I don't know this either! Forcing customers to maintain their own inventory of parts also means that we don't get the service work. I would think that a lot of times if the dealer has the part in stock during busy season, a farmer would be likely to hire the dealer to install it. The tech could often have the part at your farm by the time you've made a round trip. In the meantime, there are few farms where the only thing you have to do is to operate the machine that is broke down. If the dealer doesn't have the part, or you've been trained to stock the parts yourself, the dealer won't get the opportunity to sell some extra service.