Spare parts discussion

Today I..................'m amazed at how many people are now wanting to break A2's for profit.
and....this isn't a pointed message for anyone in particular - it's pointed at EVERYONE.

There was once a time when a classified write-off A2 (CAT B or C) would be bought for some desirable parts that an owner WANTED, and the rest would be "donated" to anyone who was interested in going along to remove some bits, maybe for a nominal amount, but most often just to do someone a good turn....

It seems times have changed........

Come on you lot - there's only so many people interested in buying an 100 k mile 15 year old drive shaft for 1/3rd of the cost of a new one!
 
Today I..................'m amazed at how many people are now wanting to break A2's for profit.
and....this isn't a pointed message for anyone in particular - it's pointed at EVERYONE.

There was once a time when a classified write-off A2 (CAT B or C) would be bought for some desirable parts that an owner WANTED, and the rest would be "donated" to anyone who was interested in going along to remove some bits, maybe for a nominal amount, but most often just to do someone a good turn....

It seems times have changed........

Come on you lot - there's only so many people interested in buying an 100 k mile 15 year old drive shaft for 1/3rd of the cost of a new one!

Hi Jeff, nice to see you posting.

It may well have been the case some time ago that not many parts were needed. Let’s face it the A2 (especially in TDI) format is an extremely reliable car but now being 12+ years old, there is a definite need for parts to fix issues at a reasonable cost.

I think perhaps people have forgotten the days when they were reliant on people like Bluechip spares to supply their A2 related part needs, a company that charged extortionate prices for their second-hand parts and did so with a terrible attitude.

You may feel that breakers are wiping A2’s off in mass numbers, but that’s far from the case. How many sub £1000 A2’s do you think would still be on the road if the owners didn’t have access to a ready supply of low priced parts to repair their cars with.

I know categorically that members do need my services. If they didn’t then I wouldn’t continue with it. Also in terms of offering it for free to members, unfortunately i'm not in a financial position to give parts away (although I do regularly) and do expect some finnacial compensation for working 20+ hours a week away from my family on top of a full-time job. I don't think it that crazy a concept.
 
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I wonder what you would suggest is an alternative supply of parts if we never allowed people within the club to break a car?? Would you suggest that they go to Blue-chip?

By having ethical breakers in the club we are preventing good A2s from being broken if they could be saved and providing members with access to parts at reasonable prices and knowing that they were not stripped from saveable A2s. There is no other resources that I am aware of that can say that. Our “breakers” know that if they break saveable A2 their operation is likely to be curtailed on here.

So I am sorry Jeff, please don’t take it personally but I disagree. A club for a car owner can help tremendously by helping members find obsolete parts from ethically broken A2s. I am not sure why this is seen as wrong?

I really do want to understand so please can you tell me what harm this is causing because my point of view is that it helps.
I have rescued many an A2 as you know and if i couldn’t get the parts from an ethical breaker then they would quite simply not have been rescued. They too would have been too expensive to rescue.

As I say I am genuinely sorry to disagree but that is my view

Steve B
 
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Everyone's entitled to their view and I've no issue in either of you two Steve's, or anyone else airing their viewpoint.

After all - I've aired mine.

Cheers
Jeff
 
Everyone's entitled to their view and I've no issue in either of you two Steve's, or anyone else airing their viewpoint.

After all - I've aired mine.

Cheers
Jeff

Yes Jeff, but done in a accusational way to stoke the flames of an already sensitive subject within the club, and from an 'impartial' moderator too.
 
Hi Jeff, I'm not exactly certain who your post above was aimed at, obviously you have an issue with the spares situation. As Steve and Steve have explained above things have changed a lot over the last few years. I certainly wouldn't have been able to keep my two A2s on the road without their (and several others) assistance, and my part in breaking A2s is pretty much based on the basis you describe above, I usually buy a car that somebody has given up on, use my own parts garnered from previous breakers and utilise the great community we have here to source the other bits to get the cars back on the road. Yes, I make a little bit of money on the way to doing this, but I work on the basis I have a little car kitty which the monies go back into to either improve my daily drivers, or as a basis for purchasing other rescue cars. For the record, my tally this last 12 months year has been: Bought 12
Kept 2
Rescued and may be keeping 1
Rescued and sold on 6
Rescuing at the moment and awaiting sale 1
Too far gone to rescue (too damaged, smashed or blatantly un-roadworthy 2

I'm just negotiating number 13, which at the moment could go either way, just need to assess issues.
 
I don't think this club is like eBay, where people are buying cars and then selling at an extortionate profit. I think that if anyone joined and immediately just hit the marketplace then they would not be welcome for long. To be able to save and often improve our cars then we need a RELIABLE source of parts. It is not only the parts that are valuable but also the advice and expertise that the club gives.

Remember that if you buy an old car, you have the initial cost, transport cost and then disposal cost of whatever is left. I do not find it hard to accept that people have to cover costs and maybe make some profit on the side. The prices here are lower than other sites and I am sure that the club members are not just out to make a profit, I have already bought many parts for "Albus" to improve him and will continue to do so. If I thought a club member was extracting the urine with the prices then I would not buy from them.

I am aware that members have purchased a damaged car with the hope of putting it on the road, only to find that it then becomes impractical to do so. When this happens I fully understand that people have to try and recover some of the costs, but they will probably be out of pocket at the end of the day. People no longer have disposable income where they can afford to give everything away or for the price of a cup of tea. It is the time, experience and guidance that is given away maybe for a biccy as well as the cup of tea :)
 
Who is this club for ultimately? The members! Put it to a vote, do members want a parts supply on the club or not. Simple
I would imagine that sone people who have a well sorted, well running A2 would possibly vote to remove the breakers. But with our cars at such an age now many of us will need parts at one stage or another.

I would ask Jeff or anyone else that seems to be against breakers to honestly answer if they have ever bought parts from a breaker on here or enquired about availability?

Let’s be fair on all members. (And our ethical vendors on here are members too (and in most cases, if not all, they are members FIRST and breakers second.

Sad to see this hitting the general forum but i will voice my opinion now I have been invited to by this post being added.
 
Today I..................'m amazed at how many people are now wanting to break A2's for profit.
and....this isn't a pointed message for anyone in particular - it's pointed at EVERYONE.

There was once a time when a classified write-off A2 (CAT B or C) would be bought for some desirable parts that an owner WANTED, and the rest would be "donated" to anyone who was interested in going along to remove some bits, maybe for a nominal amount, but most often just to do someone a good turn....

It seems times have changed........

Come on you lot - there's only so many people interested in buying an 100 k mile 15 year old drive shaft for 1/3rd of the cost of a new one!


Well I brought a write off as a donor for my car.. why because it was a Write off all the "breakers" and i use that term loosely as i would not consider myself a breaker as I'm sure the others wouldn't, We buy end of life cars as a parts supply to the club whilst with holding parts to keep our pride and joy on the road. for instance if i took to eBay for the parts i needed/ wanted from my latest Write Off I would of spent over £1000.00 And myself and the other guys selling parts have to buy the vehicle,transport it to our homes.. then spend considerable amount of hours testing, taking parts off cleaning then wrapping then paying a courier to deliver these parts then having to pay to get them removed also.. as Steve said I have give many parts away and price my items fairly and considerably cheaper than eBay.. there is a need for these parts at a fair price within the club..

And i lost a approximately £400 off my last one.. huge profit I'm sure you'll agree

I also feel maybe unwittingly you poked a stick at a sensitive subject.. however I'm sure the "Today I" thread isn't the best place to air our grievances.
 
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Oh dear. I would like to defend the guys, particularly A2Steve as the £400 MOT failure we bought wouldn't be on the road now without these guys. By the way Steve has just donated a bumper to me as part of a deal with other bits that are super cheap already, that particular bumper would have been £90 on ebay, and I'm only spending a couple of hundred with Steve, so not huge profit, just a nice guy helping others IMO. So what's wrong with that?
 
Oh dear. I would like to defend the guys, particularly A2Steve as the £400 MOT failure we bought wouldn't be on the road now without these guys. By the way Steve has just donated a bumper to me as part of a deal with other bits that are super cheap already, that particular bumper would have been £90 on ebay, and I'm only spending a couple of hundred with Steve, so not huge profit, just a nice guy helping others IMO. So what's wrong with that?

I couldn't agree more
Paul
 
I have a feeling by all of the comments that the parts are a welcome PART of the club and without them, many cars would not be on the road or at the standard they currently are. As I said in an earlier post, I am sure if someone was to join then just advertise 100's of parts with no other commitment/involvement with the club, they would not last long. Now about that V8 engine I was looking for :) :) :)
 
I'm all for a continued parts supply from ethically broken vehicles. A2s are increasingly uneconomical to repair yet many of us continue to repair them. Some have so many issues they can't (sensibly) be saved, I see no issues with these being broken for all our benefit.
 
Oh dear. I would like to defend the guys, particularly A2Steve as the £400 MOT failure we bought wouldn't be on the road now without these guys. By the way Steve has just donated a bumper to me as part of a deal with other bits that are super cheap already, that particular bumper would have been £90 on ebay, and I'm only spending a couple of hundred with Steve, so not huge profit, just a nice guy helping others IMO. So what's wrong with that?

I too couldn't agree more.

There's no point in cutting the hand off that feeds us with good parts at very low prices.I'm of the opinion that many more cars would simply disappear being far too expensive to put right if it wasn't for these guys on here doing us all a favour plus the parts supply helps many folks improve an already nice car making it better. I can understand both sides of the argument and it would be nice to see a few people on here spend on their car because they love them and not just think about cost, thankfully there's quite a few members who do.

I'm just being cheecky to lighten the mood lol, but serious at the same time, anyone got a excellent condition Pine Green front bumper or a cheap one of different colour. ;)
 
unfortunately I'm not really able to respond at present, however I didn't point my personal view at anyone specifically. Audi has new stock of most items, so it's factually incorrect to suggest cars would be scrapped if there was no such service on the owners club. My point is would those who offer this service now still offer it if the ONLY benefit was to help other members, and no financial reward. I've offered my services free and the same for parts, simply because it helps another member, and I've also been shown the same kindness I the past.
 
unfortunately I'm not really able to respond at present, however I didn't point my personal view at anyone specifically. Audi has new stock of most items, so it's factually incorrect to suggest cars would be scrapped if there was no such service on the owners club. My point is would those who offer this service now still offer it if the ONLY benefit was to help other members, and no financial reward. I've offered my services free and the same for parts, simply because it helps another member, and I've also been shown the same kindness I the past.
Jeff have you not seen the responses recently from dealers such as CreweAudi. The response to availability is more and more “ sorry no longer available” also if we use examples such as an instrument cluster that has a failed DIs or similar.
Dealer price? In excess of £500 !!! Prices on here less than £100 and that is just one example. Imagine trying to buy a gearbox or engine or seats or interior trim etc etc. Totally out of everyone’s budget.

Even if these parts are still available from a dealer (and they rarely are these days) it would be way too expensive to buy those parts.

Sorry Jeff but even you have bought parts from the very guys you are now criticising.
Yes you haven’t named any of them specifically but that is being seen therefore as possibly pointed at all of the breakers on here. In fact I would go as far to defend all of the ones we have on here. We made sure that those that were only on it for profit and were breaking viable cars were banned.

We have a group of members that are hooked on A2s and so can’t resist a bargain, so theyvhave spare parts for sale. I repeat my point that these guys are members too and they are providing a very welcome service to other members. So please explain what harm and I mean harm, they are doing. To me they are a benefit to those members looking fir economical, ethical parts.
 
I fully support a vote by members as to if they want a parts section or not.
I had thought that the time and effort put in to seaparating it from the general forum would suit those that are not in the least interested in parts and also those that need help to keep their A2s on the road. So I am not sure why this subject had to be aired like this and indicate that parts adverts (especially from ethical breakers) are not welcome even on a section designed to ring fence them from the main forum.

Can I ask the team if they would put this to a vote and let the members have a say in their club please?

Steve B
 
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