Moss Santa Barbara Division

From Moss Motoring 1983

Observant readers of the Moss Motors semi-annual Price Updates will have seen the page devoted to our non-catalog parts division, Moss Santa Barbara. A word or two of additional explanation of the services they offer may help clarify where they fit into our overall picture.

Physically, Moss Santa Barbara is located in the same building as Moss Jaguar, at 132 E. Montecito Street in Santa Barbara. A large inventory of late model parts is kept on hand to supply the Service Department and local garages with their daily needs, and a sales counter serves walk-in customers. Additionally Moss Santa Barbara has a wide selection of obsolete parts for the cars which were made variously by B.M.C., British Leyland, and the other corporate entities which made up these companies. Parts not carried in stock are specially ordered. Any part which is currently available from the factory can be bought through Moss Santa Barbara, and our staff has a wide knowledge of sources for obsolete items.

Manager David Green and his staff of three experienced parts salesmen believe that customers all over the country can benefit by dealing with them for the following reasons:

They carry a large inventory of factory items and can quickly obtain everything else currently available.

Their prices on all current items are factory list prices or less.

Their stock of obsolete items and knowledge of other sources is a great help to owners of older and rarer cars.

Dave and his staff will take the trouble to look up parts for less common BL cars, such as the Austin Marina, Rover, Triumph Stag, etc. (Many parts men just laugh when you mention those cars!)

Mail inquiries and phone orders are handled efficiently and promptly.

Daily UPS shipments are made to anywhere in the USA.

If the answer to your question is not readily available, they will take your phone number, find out the answer and then call you back.

We hope you agree this is a pretty good service, in keeping with the Moss tradition. However, there are a couple of important differences between Moss Santa Barbara and Moss Motors which you should note:

Moss Santa Barbara does not have any catalogs or printed price lists to send out.

Moss Santa Barbara does not have a Toil-Free phone number and cannot be reached via the Moss Motors ‘800’ numbers.

Customers of Moss Motors sometimes wonder why they are referred to Moss Santa Barbara for an item which, it turns out, is available under a Moss 6-digit part number.. If you are one of those customers, this is why: Our Switchboard Operators are told we carry parts only for those cars for which we have catalogs. Calls for cars which are not covered by our catalogs are routinely referred to Moss Santa Barbara. The operators are great at what they do, but it is unreasonable to expect them to be parts-people as well. So if, for example, you want a set of lifters for a 1971 MGB, they cannot know that those lifters are the same as the ones in a 1967 MGB (for which we do have a catalog). Mention a 1971 MGB and you will be referred to Moss Santa Barbara – it is that simple!

In future years, as Moss Motors develops catalogs for more cars, those parts will cease to be supplied through Moss Santa Barbara and will become available from Goleta or our East Coast branches. For the time being, however, if you own an Austin, Austin Healey. Morris, MG, Jaguar, Triumph or Rover for which Moss Motors does not have a catalog, you should remember to give Moss Santa Barbara a try for your parts. Reach them by phone at (805)963-0741 or write to: Moss Santa Barbara 132 E. Montecito Street Santa Barbara. CA 93101