anyone recommend an online car breaker?

a few years back when I had a peugeot 306 - I reversed into a tree (don't ask!) - and I did a google for an online scrap yard, it came back with a few and basically I filled in an online form with what car I owned (model etc) and the parts I was after (in my case a read light fitting) and that was sent to a load of scrap merchants who get back to you if if and when they get the part in - I got an e-mail within 24 hours, it cost a tenner with a tenner postage...

that said - I looked on ebay and I saw one slightly cheaper!
check both places... :)
 
Thanks for that so far.

Problem I had with local scrap yards when I was asking around in Exeter was that it's not a particularly common or recent car so they couldn't even remember having had one in.
When I did an online search a little while back I kept getting sites like the one mr cat suggests, which to my eyes all appeared to be the same company under different guises - fine if it works, hence the question.
 
I would be quite careful about using an online scrap yard as you might have little recourse if they send you duff stuff as the stuff is sold " as seen" but you would not have had a chance to examine it before hand.

I found it hard to find an online reatiler for new car parts let alone second hand ones. Mr Cats suggestion re ebay sounds like your best bet for online purchase. You may just have to trek down to a scarp yard though if you want to be sure of what you are getting.
 
Breakeryard.com will get you loads of quotes for the bits you need within an hour. You then deal directly with the scrapyards that give you the quotes. I've used them a number of times for spare parts for a Cavalier, a Rover 214 and a Rover 416. The only issue I ever had was with a breakers yard in Coventry that sent me a gearbox for the 214. When I had it fitted by a local garage, I couldn't engage reverse gear. I telephoned the breakers yard and they offered to repair and fit it at no charge. Nice people and I spent an interesting morning at the Coventry Motor Museum (a bitter-sweet experience), while the gearbox was being done. There have been no problems with it since.
 
Good to hear that there are some people with scruples.... I guess I'm just a cynic
 
Well, mixed experience really. Have now got a part on order at roughly half what it would be new - so not cheap cheap, but certainly a saving. In my case breakeryard seems a bit better at turning up leads than positive results. I got just the one result initially, got in touch with the yard which it turned out had nearly the right part but not quite as a result of which I spoke to two main dealers then did another search on a related model which turned up some more leads which, now having the exact part number, gave a positive.
Cynic would say that as the numbers given are charged at 50p/min it's in their interest for you to spend a bit of time on the phone. However the place I've ordered from actually called me first and had the full part number to hand, part should be here Monday so will wait and see.

{ Have also realised that in the past two days I have spent near identical amounts of money on cable to run speakers to the kitchen and a seat belt to potentially save my life, obviously shopped around for both but can't reconcile which one I think should have been cheaper }
 
just to add: arrived Monday, fitted it, works fine

thanks all

The flaw, as ever, is that the web, or rather websites, don't actually deliver what they appear to offer - it's still down to the humans to do the critical bits. My guess is that in the case of spares it's not profitable for anyone to actually have accurate databases of car parts. In this instance it was a Suzuki part fitted in a Subaru. Most breakers don't cross reference between the two, although it's more accurately sites like breakeryard that should be cross referencing: you searched for this part for car A but no one has any, however an identical part was fitted to car B and they are all over the place.
 
yeah, I had a mishap on saturday when some nork smashed my wing mirror - seen one on ebay (same colour etc) which went for 30 - thought I could get one cheaper using the online breaker, but turns out it's twice as much...!
anyway, bodged it for now and i'm just gonna check fleabay every so often...
 
Strangely enough some dickhead decided to snap one of my wing mirrors off last night - on the pavement side and it's a sturdy van mirror so it couldn't possibly have been an accident. Makes me mad :mad:

My experience of online breakers was not very cheap either, so I'll either buy a new part or keep an eye on ebay. Rather annoyingly ebay seem to have just re-organised the motors section and now there is no longer a separate section for commercial vehicle parts and it's all lumped together in car parts. Hmph.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top