I am not sure whether Socata parts are consistently more expensive than Cessna or Piper parts.
If you need a new elevator, it will cost you of the order of 10 grand no matter what it is for.
What Socata have done is a cunning scheme where every part, right down to the smallest washer, has a special Socata part number. People who don't do their homework and buy by those numbers pay through the nose, like £20 for an exhaust nut which is a standard Lyco part costing $15 in the USA. Of course the $15 is a ripoff too because the nut costs only $0.20 but you do need the aviation traceability.
On some items like hoses the Socata version is £400 whereas a normal one is £35 - because Socata use ISO threads for which almost nobody stocks the fittings which are made by Aeroquip in France... but this is fairly rare. And teflon hoses are not life limited anyway.
The great secret of 'lower cost' maintenance is to know the original part numbers and buy them in reasonable numbers direct from the USA. With the right paperwork this is 100% legit and if you run 10 C172s or 10 TB10s you can play the same game.
With Cessna etc the numbers (of certified parts) are published but with Socata most are not. This has often been blamed for the extra cost. But a bit of detective work gets you the real P/N.
Last edited by IO540; 20th Mar 2008 at 08:16.