Scrap Happy

£39.99 (plus Vat) bought me a very nicely put together (made in China) piece of kit, a Goodman's GCE 7103 CD in-car radio compact disc player from Makro, complete with free theft replacement scheme and a 12 month warranty, so why bugger around with second hand junk when you can get the real thing for a few quid more?

You pay your money and make your choice. I would guess that you didn't get a headlamp bulb and other parts thrown in with yours. If it worked, I personally would prefer a second hand Blaupunkt stereo to a new Goodmans one. You obviously made another choice. For me, getting a Makro card counts as "buggering around", especially when I had to visit the scrap yard anyway.

I hope you enjoy listening to your stereo and I will not reply in kind by rubbishing your choice of equipment.

Are there any other scrap yard customers who don't realise that it simply isn't worth the hassle of letting someone through the gate if they only intend spending £3.00 or so?

Why ? I'd sit there all day letting people put 3 quid a time into my sticky palm without having to do anything for it :)

I think you'll find that we now live in a very different world with globalisation. Having been in the domestic electronics trade for many years I'm amazed at the build quality of some of the 'more recent' stuff and wonder how the price can even cover the cost of raw materials, let alone all people along the line who have to make a profit.

It's not unusual for instance to find stuff made by Vestel in Turkey (Beko) turning up under the guise of Hitachi and Mitsubishi et al, and a range of Goodman's TV's and videos being manufactured by Philips.

Who knows what the future may hold, if all of the current restrictive import quotas on vehicles are eventually eliminated, we may eventually have our Chinese friends selling good-quality family saloons off of Tesco's forecourt for around three grand ;o)

The message from "Tony Bond" contains these words:

Whaddyer mean "nothing". Being surly and watching the dog slaver at you isn't easy, you know.

I went to a breaker last week for some headlights for my MKII Golf. He wanted £30 a pair. I pointed out I could get new ones for £11 each, with the mounting bracket and adjusters from GSF and left it at that. They used to be handy and cheaper IME, but now it seems almost as cheap to buy new for most parts.

Mike

The message from "Mike P" contains these words:

I wanted an ignition amplifier for an Astra. First breakers wouldn't let me take one off the distributor, saying "It's £40 and you'll never find a breaker who'll let you split one off".

Next breaker did just that for a tenner. And it was fairly clear that the part had been working right up to the moment the car became scrap. Either that or a brick wall had reversed very smartly into it. Took ages to saw through the wreckage to get at it.

I was ripped off later last year by A & K Auto Spares in Doncaster who sold me a guaranteed engine for my Alfa Romeo 33 and then debited my credit card twice for the price. (£250.00) They did refund the extra debit but never refunded my purchase price within guarantee time when I found the engine to be incorrect to the description, defective (Once installed in my car!) when it wouldn't run and was dripping coolant out of one of the cylinder head gaskets!

I'd never deal with this company again and would need to have a written description faxed to me prior to me paying over the phone by credit card again!

I agree with the price of the aerial but feel that the Goodmans name isn't as bad as many make out - the Goodmans loudspeaker co has recently gone out of business (at a cost of 250 British Jobs) and it is a real shame.

Adam H

The political prisoners who make a lot of Chinese goods while in prison don't make profit.

I sometimes buy cheap Chinese stuff, but I don't get myself excited about something being new or not so long as I know I can return something that doesn't work.

Pubs are quite happy letting people through the doors who only intend buying a pint and pubs spend a lot of money making their environment attractive. Pubs also have to serve the customers and clean up after them.

If scrap yard owners want to receive money for collecting cars and then charge admissions for people to look at them, then they will not stay in business for long. I might even get myself a suitable plot of land...

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Guy King saying something like:

Friday I went to a breaker for a towbar for a Carina II, having already asked on the phone if he had one in. 30 quid he quoted on the blower, a figure I was quite happy with, a new one being well over a hundred including the electrics.

After I struggled and removed it from the wreck, it being awkwardly situated on a dead transporter and some of the bolts being fairly rusted on, he gave me a tenner back of the proffered thirty.

Result.

The message from " dojj" contains these words:

S'life, innit. What's more, it even works with Traffic Wardens. I used to be a service technician in the middle of the London's West End. In five years I only got six tickets despite almost never paying for parking. Just ask a warden if it's OK to leave the car on that double yellow with loading restrictions for a few minutes 'cos you don't know if it's going to be a long job or a short one till you've had a quick look and nine times out of ten they'd even wait and keep an eye on the car for you.

Did you not make a claim from your credit card company ???

Stuart

I like the approach of one of the local breakers - Anything "classic" stays until it's pretty stripped and another one comes along. Means I can go and see parts I want, and a year later go and get them :)

Plus the older stuff isn't in that high demand around here, but is still very much in demand by the few who need it once in a while, so it's nice to know there's a yard where I can find 4 Dolomites, half a dozen SD1s, a Scimitar, etc without worrying they won't be there :)

Hi peop's

The owner of the last scrappy i used to frequent drove a Ferrari, i think that speaks volumes!!