Well a wet Sunday afternoon deserves a rant whilst the Mrs gets a cup of tea.
Some months ago I stupidly crunched the rear bumper on an 98 'R' Escort 1800 Si. For FFS, Escort is obviously one of the most popular mass produced cars that has been on the road in recent years and I thought it would be easy to get a new one.
I have been watching Ebay, but none have come up locally and further enquiries to some ads have shown that some being sold are relying on nicking other peoples pics etc. so you may not get the one shown. It is evident that some people don't know which Escort their bumper will fit. At the same time, on and off I have been ringing or visiting the local scrappies. There have been very few Escort bumpers, and two promising trips have been wasted as the bumpers have been wrong when I got there. Duff info from the guys that work there.
So I have tried ordering through the local dealers or ordering online. Tried finding car parts online? All you get are links to 'part finder' sites that make you register with a fee, or, you may get a website that hasn't been updated since they broke an Escort two years ago! Emails seem to go into a black hole or a quick 'no mate'. So, I have tried ordering through two proper local motor factors. On both occasions they have delivered the wrong bloody bumper! That is letting the guys in the store look at what is required and then ordering from catalogues. On both occasions they don't seem to be able to get anything after a Mk6 and only for the 1400 Escorts!
Now, I can go out on the road and see bloody loads of the bumpers I am after. The exhaust/toe hook cut-outs are in the right place (which seems to be the problem with the wrong ones) and every bloody Escort 1600/1800 from around a P reg seems to have what I need. The only people that are left claiming to be able to get the right bumper are my local main dealer and they bloody well want around £80 quid more than a motor factor, and probably around £140 more than I should be able to get one secondhand!
If anyone knows an online Ford parts supplier for standard stuff, not customised parts let me know!