Scrapyard / Car Breaker Etiquette?

beercan

Hi all,

I need some parts for my car and my local breaker has 3 or 4 of my model.
An odd question I know, but what is the "etiquette" for buying from a scrapyard please?

I.e. is there an accepted cost for parts (say 50% new value) or is it haggle as low as you can?

I have to strip the parts myself which is fine, but should the prices be agreed before I begin, or do they give me a price when I present what I have taken off?

Cheers

darich

Many years ago when I did this type of thing, the prices were so cheap, it was pointless to haggle.
I don't mean they were a few pence but they were always priced very reasonably I was happy to pay what was asked.

Example - asked one breaker over the phone if he had rear drums for a Vauxhall Cavalier Sri. He did and quoted £10 each I think (maybe £10 the pair). I went down and he asked for more but I told him his phone price and he simply replied "ok then". Deal done.
Also removed front speakers from a toyota carina for my 1989 celica, boot seal from possibly the same carina for the same celica.
Never bought anything "big" from a scrappy though - always items that can be checked on site (except the speakers) mainly for safety reasons.

I think it would be a guideline price before you start, when you get the item off, you can then inspect and pay if you're happy with it. But if it's scraped/damaged/not right then you can present it to scrappy and haggle.

There's no "accepted cost" and most scrappies probably expect haggling.

System

H&S have killed off the fun days of scrappies. Gone are the days when you just scrabbled over a stack of cars with a pocketful of spanners and found what you needed. You ended up paying low prices because you did all the work.

Nowadays H&S normally means that you can only buy the stuff that is sitting on the scrappies shelves.

sp00nz73

Go in and speak with the guys there tell them what you want and ask them for a price. If your happy then agree and go and remove the bits you need. No point doing the work and removing them only to find you think its too dear and leaving the parts on the floor. Also remember any tools youll need some scrappies wont lend tools to you as they dont come back or come back damaged.

Hintza

!!!!!! wrote: »

Nowadays H&S normally means that you can only buy the stuff that is sitting on the scrappies shelves.

Is it really as bad as that now?

Mind you when we collected the last car from the salvage yard I needed my reflective jacket which they then sold me (or else I wasn't allowed out the car....:mad: )

Hammyman

Hintza wrote: »

Is it really as bad as that now?

Pretty much. Some of our local ones remove parts to order but apart from going round the yard and seeing if the part you want is on a vehicle (vehicles are on racking, not stacked), the days of wandering around with a toolbox are sadly long gone.

steveo3002

always ask for the price first ..some charge silly prices

and reseach if the part fits others cars ...as such a door mirror for a golf L may be cheaper than one from a golf gti turbo wizz bang , so play it down and ask for the base model car if theyre the same part

mcjordi

most of the local scrappies near me allow you in and strip the parts yourself and are never stacked.. if it fits in your pocket its free

i know most of the breakers personally now so i get parts cheap as chips..

Stephen_Leak

Hintza wrote: »

Is it really as bad as that now?

Afraid so.

However, there is still one, out in the countryside at Dunkerton, near Bath, with so much land that they don't have to stack the cars on top of each other. Now that's my idea of the perfect day out in the country. Hmm, I wonder if they've got any Mk.6a Fiestas?

Don't get me started on the H&SE: the only people who could class a Claymore wire-operated anti-personnel mine as a trip hazard.

PS. And, of course, we couldn't sanction pocketing anything, even bulbs and fuses. I usually stash them in my socks.

flang

Hammyman wrote: »

Pretty much. Some of our local ones remove parts to order but apart from going round the yard and seeing if the part you want is on a vehicle (vehicles are on racking, not stacked), the days of wandering around with a toolbox are sadly long gone.

Here in Wiltshire ALL our local scrap yards are stacked and you just walk in take the part off, pay for it.
The good old days are still around in Wiltshire!

angeltreats

!!!!!! wrote: »

H&S have killed off the fun days of scrappies. Gone are the days when you just scrabbled over a stack of cars with a pocketful of spanners and found what you needed. You ended up paying low prices because you did all the work.

Nowadays H&S normally means that you can only buy the stuff that is sitting on the scrappies shelves.

Our local scrappy is still like that! They stack the cars two high and you just climb up and take what you want.

I've never bothered haggling because the prices have always been low, but also because the blokes who work there are lovely and very helpful and have done things like carrying heavy stuff to my boot for me, swapping tyres onto new wheels, trying out wiper motors till they find one that works etc.