Snap-On vans

Have you seen the price of Snap On tools? They only need to sell three spanners a day to make a tidy living! Btw if you break a snap on socket it is replaced for free.

So do Halfords. At a tenth of the original cost and with just as much chance of it breaking.

John

In message , Doki writes

Its a difficult line of business when you are selling tools that are guaranteed for life. New Snap On dealers have to put many thousands of pounds up front to buy the van and an initial supply of tools.

I think my place has had about 5 different dealers in as many years. We get long periods without seeing a dealer and then a new one turns up. He is smiling because he sees a big queue outside his van. Unfortunately they are not there to buy new tools but to replace broken ones. It must be about 4 years since I bought anything from them.

The vans mainly sell replacement kit on credit, where the original has been nicked. I have wondered whether the thieves follow vans round, looking for easy to bust garages etc.

If it is kit you use every day then snap-on stuff is perfect, but for most home users then only get snap-on for the really awkward or really needed stuff. A good example is to have a 13mm single hex snap-on spanner for Ford sump nuts.

MrCheerful

Yep they sell tools. despite some posters opinions snap on stuff is very good quality, far better than *anything* halfrauds sell ( I know, I've got one of their "professional" kits ) , if you're on the tools every day most cheaper tools wont last. They sell on credit and the mechanics pay a bit each week, a mate of mine has a permanent tab running and has some very good stuff and a bloody huge cabinet. for larger items they do p/ex deals. Everything has a lifetime warranty, no quibbles.. if it broke it gets replaced, even if its been abused rather than used.

Heh - you're doing the same as me - I usually buy mid-price socket-sets [Teng/FACOM] and combination spanner sets, but then replace the frequently-used sizes in the set with top-quality ones that fit the nut/bolt really nicely, keeping the replaced ones around for those instances where you need to hammer a socket onto a rounded-off/wrong-sized head in an emergency.

This way I get the best of both worlds - my frequently- used sizes are top quality, but I'm not buying a whole tray of vastly-expensive sockets/spanners etc most of which I will never use [does anyone know of any vehicle which actually *uses* any 21mm nuts/bolts?]

I used one the other day cant remember what it was on but it was sierra based :)

Snap-on - never break and fit the nuts or bolts perfectly. If you ever find a broken SNAP-ON tool then pick it up, chase one of these vans and give it the man. He will give you a brand new replacement.

They do a line of engine test and diagnostic stuff that starts around £3,500 and then needs a £250 add-on module for each make. It gives faults in plain english or german or french or..whatever lanuage the add-on pack is in. Then it displays the step by step instructions interactively (it gives instructions for a simple check or test you push a button to tell it the outcome} to precisely track down that fault. Considering the car makers test kits cost the same or more and can't do other makes, it's cheap.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

Must be using something other than steel from the far east then?

Nothing wrong with far-eastern steel, most of the worlds ships are made from it.

OMG - Socket Set!!

sh sh sh shi shine my shoes not that's a lot of spanners . . . . .never mine the dosh WOW ! They were expensive 25 years ago when I was working(?) at a bike breakers in Wrexham.

but just think, you'll never need another tool in your life :) worth it for the garage that's made it and wants to make sure everything is to a standard :) I'm still pissed off that I've lost my snap off wobbly head 3/8 ratchet :( paid £61 and a bit for it years ago and thought it was a bargain and now some bastids probably had it away on their toes with it because the old mans left the garage door open :( git!!!!

"GD" mumbled:

I think you'll find they're actually 7/8"...but 21mm is close enough right up until it isn't!

Bugger me sideways! 22 grand.

It _does_ appear to be everything they do though :-)

The place just behind the priory?

ISTR it was built under a railway arch. Bottom of York street?

Pete.

No that was before Alan(?) ran that one. I forget the name of the street but it was right by the market, the building might have been demolished to make way for the new market maybe???? . North Wales Breakers - that was it. Run by a bloke called Dave.