At the end of November 2009 in a sleepy village on the edge of the North Moors National Park, in the village of Ampleforth, my eight year old Yaris was parked opposite the White Swan (Restuarant) Pub (I am led to believe has an excellent reputation for good pub grub). However on this particular night I had left my car there. As I am not a frequenter of pubs I did not go into the White Swan. The following morning when I returned to collect my car, some thoughtful person had left their signature on the N/S (Passenger’s side) Rear Quarter panel (a sizeable dent and juicy scrape)!
Instantly, this mean’t that I became a prospective customer for used Toyota car wing. What is actually funny about this that you hadn’t noticed? I work for a recycled vehicle parts locator service CarEngineFinder which is part of the CarSpareFinder group which also includes scrap-car service. I hope my Yaris doesn’t become scrap just yet….
It turns out that this relatively minor (in absolute terms) dent and scraping is going to be a massive job, since the Yaris Quarterpanel is welded on to the main body of the car (unlike the same damage done to a 5-DR Yaris version, which would mean it would need a replacement car rear door panel). I am very proud to announce that the best price I obtained was from a CarSpareFinder part supplier, though I had to make some furthe rinvestigations before I got the supplier to respond). The price came in at a just under £100 for a new part. A new part would have been the same or less than a used part, due entirely to the high labour costs of dismantling (cutting away the quarter panel from) a salvage Yaris, before it was ready to be sent to me. This is an exception, rather than the rule. I did try other parts locators, and I could have used services like 1-call-does-it-all car parts. which would have saved me time, and to which CarSpareFinder subscribes to.
Further developments, and the latest news, is that despite obtaining cheaper car parts it looks as if the labour costs, of having to weld the quarter panel to the main body, might mean my little Yaris (purchased for £2,000 sterling in July 2009) might be written off. The total cost might approach nearly £1,000. I am awaiting contact by an engneer to confirm the position. The decision I have to make is whether to repair it myself, and not to claim on my Direct Line Car Insurance (according to the reviews) but to make a full claim.
According to a Newcastle Audi representative at the Business Road Show North East the second hand value of cars in general are still falling, and demand for Audi car leasing is actually rising against new Audi car sales. Despite increasing demand for Audi Car leasing approxiamtely 50% are declined due to the credit crunch and the lower credit scoring of many businesses. Businesses in the Motor Industry need business support to effectively manage their business performance, and one of the very best ways to do this is by using a motor industry business consultant for business improvement.
More importantly, what effect has the value of used Audi cars and the increased demand for Audi car leasing have in the demand of used Audi car parts? New sites like Audi at CarPartsBuyer are reporting steady demand for used Audi vehicle parts.
BBC News reports on incidence involving irrate Tesco customer in Hampshire, who decided rashly to drive his ‘Roller’ into the respective Tesco supermarket shopfront, injurying 6 peopel and causing £20,000 worth of damage. The fact that he had drunk 2 bottle sof whiskey prior to the event may explain how he came to make such a rash poor decision. The fact is that he became a customer for used Rolls Royce car parts for his 1983 Rolls Royce, and also that he shall have some time to relect on his previous decision during the 18 month prison sentence.
Teddy Kline, engineer, patented his invention to convert h20 to Hho. Originally designed to run an ‘water burning engine for cutting metal’. However he baegan to see the possibilities for his innovation, and so he converted a 1994 Ford as a protoype to run on water, based in Clearwater, US.
Tragically it seems that he was killed before his invention could be brought to market. Here is the video on You Tube.
Nevertheless Kline is not the only inventor / engineer innovator to have made advances in water powered vehicles. Also in the US, Steve Meyers claims to have invented technology to enable engines to run on water, and here is the You Tube video on this.
What impact will new technology have on the existing used vehicle recycled marketplace? Actually I envisage that the change may well be seamless. In other words, demand for fossil fuel pwered vehicles will steadily decline whilst demand for the newer alternative energy powered vehicles will increase.
CarSpareFinder’s new AUTOQUOTER system designed to help Uk Vehicle Dismantlers give instant quotes to vehicle parts consumers now has a video launched on You Tube for any vehcile parts suppliers, car, van and motorcyle bike breakers to view and consider.
In order to improve your experience with CarSpareFinder we have adopted an auto quote system for our car part suppliers. This means that for some car part suppliers they can add their prices and availability of a specific part and if that matches a request you the consumer will get a price immediately.
We know how frustrating it can be waiting for a reply for a price with these breakers. This development represents the commitment we have to improving visitor experience and giving our car part suppliers value for money. Sometimes it is possible that a breaker will have more than one part option in and have different prices to suit. We encourage them to present the most expensive option, but then write in the comments box any other cheaper versions available.
Up to now we have avoided offering a text service, because we know some of the scams that some of the other part locator services have done (some offer a genuine service also), but our policy is not to ensure our consumers do not get stung with unreasonable text message charges, just because they did not read the terms and conditions properly.
Anyway once we have educated those to use auto quote properly we are sure you will get a far better service from CarSpareFinder
We had posted this clever 3d animation clip on our CarEngineFinder blog but though it was so good it should also appear on our main CarSpareFinder blog. It is often said the pictures speak loader than works but when you out these pictures together to make animation you get a fantastic visual training opportunity, so you can learn so much about a petrol engine in only 5 minutes. This clever 3D video goes through the process of bolting on all the engine parts, then the ancillaries to first show how the car engine is assembled. It then shows you what happens within the engine when it is fired up.
If Haynes or any other car manual publisher is watching this, they should think about the power of creating 3D animation to show how to do all repair jobs on your car. Imagine being able to play the sequence on your mobile phone, Ipod or MP4 player stopping and playing as you went through the process. Much better than reading words from a car repair manual.
All car parts should be represented like this to show the part they play within the vehicle you own. Anyway, to the video.
Incredibly vehicle part consumers insist on genuine recycled vehicle manufacturer parts as opposed to replica parts from a third party. The message is clear. The market demands RECYCLED VEHICLE PARTS. The market determines that recycles used car, and van parts are the quality standard it seeks.
This is also in line with the global movement for green environmental pressures which incorporates better fuel efficient engines, higher performance car batteries, and the recycling of all major vehicle components.
So great is the demand, that supply is a key challenge. Ask any member of the motor vehicle dismantlers association as a UK vehicle dismantler and they will quickly confirm how much effort they have to put into maintaining a steady supply of quality vehicle parts. At present, about 75% of the scrap from old cars is recycled, while the remaining parts usually end up in landfill sites, according to Professor Allan Hutchinson, author of a project report carrried by Oxford Brookes University in 2007 which predicts that more cars will be built in the next 25 years than in the entire history of cars, as a result of demand in emerging economies such as Russia, India and China.
How the new Government initiative called the ‘UK Car Scrappage Scheme’ will impact on the environment is still unclear but any move to support recycling has to be supported.
The shortage of used car parts in the UK automotive recycling sector continues despite expectation of ’quantitative easing’ due to the recent UK Governments initiative ’scrappage scheme’. Comments on the excellent Car Magazine website regarding the UK vehicle scrappage scheme by the Director of the RAC Foundation, Professor Stephen Glaister: ‘Currently the vast majority of cars are still on the road at ten years old. The scrappage scheme announced today risks consigning a lot of perfectly good, and relatively clean, vehicles to the dustbin.
‘However if the scrappage scheme leads to a reduction in the average age of the national car fleet then this has to be good for road safety as more modern cars will have a wider range of safety features built-in.
‘And whilst the announcement is good for motorists and the motor industry, if it does not encourage people to buy green vehicles it is a missed opportunity as far as the environment is concerned.’
Approximately 60% of demand for quality used vehicle part is for vehicles 9 years old and less. The scrappage scheme appears to have had had little or no affect on this key supply issue, as well as negligible impact to date on the 10-year plus sector.
One big criticism is that it excludes leasing, which represents 50% of all new car registrations. This appears more ‘vote catching’ & ‘external looks’ rather than content and real substance. Does the UK Government think the motor industry and UK vehicle consumers are lack intelligence and understanding? The British public have got used to detecting ‘political spin’. This seems to be another political initiative designed to look good but doesn’t feel good.
CarSpareFinder is still today one of the best ways to source used car, van and bike parts.
