It is already happening. Critical, common replacement parts used in a wide series of machines have very recently gone NLA. I was navigating the Cub Cadet Corp. parts web site just yesterday. I was dropping some super common items in the shopping cart one item at a time just to read the price and could not believe the number of rejection hits that was getting. What I could drop in the cart was showing a huge cost increase. This used to be fairly straight forward site but more recently it is a totally different format that is put in place to daze, confuse, and make one give up. I totally suspect that it was designed to make things difficult for the end user. I'd go so far as to bet that authorized dealers are running a back door style software package that the average Joe can't get at. Now by typing in a three digit model code this will bring up anything with that sequence of digits now rather than that particular machine. I bookmarked a series of pages just bypass some of this nonsense. There is a lot more emphasis on new product sales over service too, the whole thing looks like looking at a new car dealership internet ad now.
The good folks that advertise parts on this and other forums are well aware of this. They are responding by raising their prices as well, this is basic to the law of supply and demand. And I don't fault them in the least for it.
This entire matter very much reminds me of the Homelite phase out from back around 15 years ago. That company has be passed around multiple times since then and today is a faint shadow of what it once was.They were the best made American saws out there and yet I can't get the manual oiling push button or auto oil pump. That saw will run circles around your Mother's Uncle but when you can't get the part so what do you do? You shove it in the corner hoping for someday, that's what you do.
The recent burst in my Cub activity led me to this discovery. Many good used parts that used to show up on eBay have largely dried up as well. Ugh.
I am in the process of making a list of items that I think or know I will need in the future and will be placing orders very soon. That's called stock piling. And I fully expect to pay top dollar doing it and have already gotten over that part.
I know things are going bad when you can't get the factory issue tube style muffler any more.
The rest I'm not talking about because I want it first, the big turn about era is already upon us.
Pretty grim prognosis huh?
