The longest Thread ever!!!

[MMamdouh]

thanks my man

MMamdouh

[Rodd1s]

Vaux parts from the UK, cheap? where?

I'd have to say ask the same really... older Astra/Lanos era car parts are becoming hard to find, because people "recycling" these cars for newer ones because the running costs outweigh the low buying prices of older cars in some cases.

eBay has dried up for useful and rare finds and most scrap yards are starting to crush and box these older cars as they're worth more in weight in some cases.

I had to replace the centre pipe on my Lanos a couple weeks ago, and unlike 5 years ago where I could find an abundance of second-hand exhaust parts on ebay all I could find this time round was a cheaply made patent part that I had to pursuade to fit.

Even the likes of lowering springs for the Lanos are not easy to come by any more... and if you find a supplier that does provide them you have to wait 6 weeks from factory as no where stocks it any more.


Well, that short reply quickly turned into a rant lol

[PrecisionBoost]

I'd have to think about it... what kinda parts are you after? Smaller items would obviously be less of a problem (especially considering the extortionate cost of postage over here).

Doesn't sound like your particularly interested, I don't want to bother you if your not interested in making a few bucks on the side.

I'm always confused why people and companies from the UK are so concerned about shipping things to North America, it's not really any different than sending it somewhere else in the UK or EU.

I export and import from all over the world, these days it's a pretty simple process and postage is not as bad as you think.

I think it's the size of your island, over here in Canada it is 5996km to drive from the West coast ( Victoria, British Columbia ) to the East Coast ( Halifax, Nova Scotia )


As perspective the distance across the ocean flying from Halifax Canada to London UK is 4621km

It's actually less distance for you to drive by London to Cairo Egypt than it is for us Canadians to drive from one side of the country to the other.

[PrecisionBoost]

Vaux parts from the UK, cheap? where?

Even the likes of lowering springs for the Lanos are not easy to come by any more... and if you find a supplier that does provide them you have to wait 6 weeks from factory as no where stocks it any more.

Why wouldn't you just buy the APEX springs for the Astra MK2 ? I was under the impression they were cheap ( 100GBP ) and easy to find stock

[Efratech]

Chris have you tried with someone from the Astra mk2 forum?

[PrecisionBoost]

I have a couple of guys on migweb, but they have grown greedy, last time the guy I was dealing with added about 500 GBP on a 750 GBP order of new and used parts.

I'm fine with making money, but 500 was too much, as I arranged nearly everything and he spent less than 3 hours total over a period of about a month.

I could see 200 as being fair, which was roughly where we were before they started being successful selling lots of stuff on migweb

[Puddle31]

that just sounds greedy to me.

[PrecisionBoost]

Basically they just take delivery of parts from companies and other people for me, so I buy the stuff and arrange to have it shipped to their place.

In some cases people don't want to take payment from Canada and ship to UK address, so I send him money on PAYPAL and he uses that to buy the parts.

I could have companies direct ship individual items, but it's still more cost effective at 200GBP to have it all gathered in one spot and shipped at one time.

That is to say it might cost me between 25 to 80 GBP for each item to ship here ( things like an alternator for my Calibra ) where as I pay about 150 GBP for everything.

If I get 10 items shipped for 150GBP it make it worth it to pay someone 200GBP ( 10items averaging 50 each = 500GBP, saving me 350GBP total )

But if it costs me 150GBP + 500GBP for the guy to agree to collect and ship then I'm better off having the individuals and companies ship directly.


Unfortunately it seems people in the UK are very hesitant to go down to the post office and send items to Canada, not sure why as it takes all of about 3 minutes to complete the paperwork ( which I can prepare for them )

Basically you simply need to send the items with a commercial value and call it "automotive parts", it's just that simple.

I have even created a commercial invoice for situations where the value is very high, and I have even arranged transport pickup.


The guys I have been dealing with lately have their own companies, so it's a little easier for me to arrange pickup via Fed Ex or DHL.


Needless to say, it's not rocket science, but sometimes people think they should get paid their weight in Gold for a simple process such as collecting items and putting them in a box.

[Rodd1s]

I cant post replies... except this one

What the heck is going on here? I'm trying to post my actual reply, but it keeps giving me error 500, then I post a senseless reply and it works?

[Rodd1s]

I'd feel bad about asking for an extra GBP10 - GBP20, let alone 200, for my "troubles".

[Rodd1s]

Figured it out, the British Pound sign seems to be crashing the post feature... weird.

Instead of asking for money, I'd even settle for you buying parts for me, i.e.: rather than saying, here's GBP100 for collecting parts and sending the order over, chuck in a turbo manifold or something instead that I can keep

[Rodd1s]

Ignore my previous comments about trading in car parts - it's been a bit of a rough couple of weeks recently, some family issues etc.

Looks like I'll be getting rid of the Lanos by April (not by choice) and will essentially be homeless. Unless you can call living in a caravan not being homeless, which appears to be our only reasonable option at the moment.

[PrecisionBoost]

Sound bad, hopefully your luck will turn for the better.

Being a citizen of the EU, I would think there would be some cheap options for you if your willing to move.

What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking ??

[Rodd1s]

Sound bad, hopefully your luck will turn for the better.

Being a citizen of the EU, I would think there would be some cheap options for you if your willing to move.

What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking ??

Being an EU citizen means dick these days, seeing as all other countries' populations are trying to get into the UK due it being shit "back home".

I'm a software developer - at a very junior level, I must add - only started 6 months ago with a few years' background in tech support.

4 years at university down the drain...

[Rodd1s]

Ignore my previous comments about trading in car parts - it's been a bit of a rough couple of weeks recently, some family issues etc.

Looks like I'll be getting rid of the Lanos by April (not by choice) and will essentially be homeless. Unless you can call living in a caravan not being homeless, which appears to be our only reasonable option at the moment.

There has also been some development on this. We'll be moving in with my wife's parents for a few years so we can save up the dough for a deposit on a house (and hope to hell we get OK'd for a mortgage).

As for getting rid of the Lanos, well... there may yet be some changes to that in the pipeline. I'm going to keep hold of it for as long as is financially viable (the way I see it, no one wants to buy a modified Daewoo, right? Makes it harder to sell. I'm still surprised my last one sold, albeit after a very long time of trying.)