Auto Service News

From time to time we do a bit of salvage work when the garage is quiet (less time now though), but this can get a bit boring and locating car parts and the right salvage project can take more time than the actual repairs. recently though there has been and increase in American Vehicle driving around the neighbourhood, from ford Mustangs, Hummers down to some nice looking SUV’s (sport Utility vehicles to you and me). This got me thinking into buying and selling American Imports, I quiet fancied the idea of a trip over to states, buying some American car and then importing it into the UK. After a bit of research on the internet I came across a site call SalvageSpareFinder, that not only will let me buy USA vehicles, but Salvage American Imports.

This is something I did not know you could from here in the UK. I don’t know that much about dealing in cars (autos) in the States, but I did know that you needed specific licenses to deal with car salvage over there, so surprised to see that anyone can buy USA salvage as an American Import.

There are some truly great looking cars from all standards of repair and you can even buy cars that cannot be registered in the USA as they are deemed as un-repairable (cat B over here), but can be exported out of the States to countries like the UK. What a great source of car parts and the projects you can buy look right up my street. Suddenly that classic car I was talking about last week, doesn’t have as much appeal.

Ok a friend of mine bouigh a pretty new BMW 3 series a few months ago as a salvage project. It was a water damaged car that did not start, but the price was good and he had acces to a BMW garage should things not go his way. The car came to us first and we worked on it in our spare time. Luckily we did not buy any paarts as it became clear very quickly it needed the proper BMW diagnostics.

So the car went to BMw dealer and there it has stood for the last 6 months. Yes the diagnostic machine has been attached but becuase of the water damage affecting the electraics, they cant get the machine to work and establish why the engine will not start. they have tried many things and you would think a BMW dealership would find the issue, but alas no.

There is a message here. Only buy salvage projects you know how to repair and have the knowledge and experince and access to parts you need to complete. this car has probably lost a grand in value just waiting to be fixed and who knows what issue the car will have if it evr gets on the road.

I feel for him. but it is not something I would have done.

The garage is open during this time, but we restrict what we book in. To be honest there is very little work, as most want any work to be done before Christmas. We use this opportunity to catch up with our own priorities.

We clean the garage, organise the tools and also catch up with some of the salvage repairs we have within the yard. The problem with buying salvage projects is that you cannot predict when the bargains are. I have seen us wait moths for the right car and then have 3 cars, all going through at good prices. The good news is, we normally have plenty of space in the yard to store these salvage projects, the only issue is finding the time and sometimes the car parts to sort these out.

The period in-between Christmas and New Year tends to be a good time, to get these repairable salvage jobs up on the ramps and get things moving. With many of the breaker yards either shut, working on skeleton staff of just deciding when they want to open, I find using a car part location service such as CarSpareFinder is a good way to locate parts from yards that are open at this time. Normally the postage service has slowed down by this point, so often we get the car parts the next day.

I wish I could say that car salvage go cheaper this time of year, the demand seems just as big as ever, probably getting ready for anew start in the new year.

One of the unpleasant parts of my job is acting as a recovery service and picking up crashed cars, which can only be described as salvage, sometimes with little resemblance to the shape that the car once was.
We then keep the car salvage in our compound until someone from the insurance company comes and inspects the vehicle to decide what to do with the vehicle, either to send it to a salvage auction, or to be sold for car parts only or just crushed.

It is unpleasant because sometimes, we know that the driver and passengers have been hurt badly, or even in one case had died. So looking at what was left of the vehicle is not a pretty sight. I think they always crush salvage that a fatality was involved in.

I have in the past bought some car salvage and used the garage to rebuild the cars professionally, as we have the tools and experience to make a bad car good again, although it does depend on the level of damage, to whether we take on the project, we are very selective of the vehicle we buy, one for to make sure it can be repaired safely, and two to ensure we make a profit, as sometimes buying car salvage can be a risky business.
Access to the right car parts, is also a real factor. You should not assume that just because we are in the trade, we have access to car parts, which no one else does. It is true we may get a trade discount, but as far as availability is concerned, we are not different to anyone else.

It is the labour and access to professional ramps and tools, which allows making a profit, not the saving on car parts.