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[Mark Grillo]

Are there any parts for these cars available at dealerships ?  Or would the parts guy die laughing ?

[Dippy.org]

[fifthcrunch]

You don't want the parts guy to die.  He/she might be the one who knows the parts.  Any new guy might be out to lunch on these parts.  You'd be surprised at how much is still available, but rockauto.com is often your best bet and it is often much cheaper, and the independent parts stores often have what you need.  The members here can usually steer you to stuff you need.  Welcome and best of luck.

[270SE]

They don't even have much for the 2004 trucks. Not a lot at the dealers these days.

[MoparDan]

I went to one once and the parts guy had never even heard of a Plymouth Gran Fury (or knew what a 318 was )

[Mike]

It depends on what you need. Some stuff is still available but usually way over priced.

[DobaMark]

You won't find much, if any, trim pieces.
IceCold usually finds a nice supply of parts every year around this time, give or take a week.

[Ice Cold]

If you have a older parts guy, no problem.
I'm lucky to have a couple of great guys.

If dealers don't have what you want, then there's lots of secondary parts guys like Marty at http://arizonaparts.com/index.html and many more.
Also a big key to finding parts is the parts number.

[fifthcrunch]

Like was said in a commercial a long time ago,
Parts is Parts

[Mark Grillo]

You don't want the parts guy to die.  He/she might be the one who knows the parts.  Any new guy might be out to lunch on these parts.  You'd be surprised at how much is still available, but rockauto.com is often your best bet and it is often much cheaper, and the independent parts stores often have what you need.  The members here can usually steer you to stuff you need.  Welcome and best of luck.

Well your right about that, I dont want anyone to die... I did call the dealership today where I have my daily driver serviced, (I used to do all that stuff myself) and he laughed and said that he couldnt check anything w/o VIN Number and after that its hit and miss...Thanks for your help. We'll get there...

[Ice Cold]

Why would the moron need the VIN?
I've never needed the VIN for parts.

[DobaMark]

Most of the newer parts are identified by VIN rather than description.  It is possible the VIN is asked for to get into the dealer part system they are using even if it makes no difference for a car that old because the old parts are not indexed by VIN.

[Patrick]

While there may be a lot of older parts still in the system, Most dealers won't have anything for cars older that 5-8 years. I know GM and Chrysler were requires to have parts available for 10 years on the car lines they killed (Pontiac, Plymouth, Saturn). Parts that interchange with multiple bodies and years would have more parts available.

The vin is required as the dealer systems are set up to recognize the vehicle and it's particular service parts. A part may be different between a SE or RT package on a vehicle.

That's why the aftermarket parts suppliers need engine size when even looking up body parts. It's they way the system is designed. (I used to work on the parts department system years ago).   

[Darth-Car]

The old guys just knew their stuff.  They did not lean on the computer to get them through a day.

It is not just our car hobby with this problem.  I took a burned out clothes dryer bulb to the big appliance parts house, here in town.  For years they had guys there who just knew what you wanted by looking at a part.  Now this is a bulb, not a lot of rocket science.  It had no number on it, but I am willing to bet 75% of the dryers out there use this bulb to light their drum.  The guy looked at my bulb and said, "you got a serial number for the machine?"  I walked out, bulbless.

[cbodymoparfan]

What do you need?
WE ARE YOUR PARTS GUYS!!

[Ice Cold]

I've never needed a VIN at my dealer because the person on the other end at the dealer knows Mopars.

Now with parts houses, I'll ask 86 Diplomat instead of 86 F/A.
I've had FWD parts presented to me before when asking 80's F/A.

Big thing lately is not getting parts over the counter anymore, but now have to wait for them.