Business idea...

I've been throwing the idea of a used car parts business around for a while now...what do you guys think?

My store would offer a up-to-date online inventory that you could use to check stock, and order to have shipped to your home. There would also be a storefront that you could come to.

All parts would be off-vehicle, cleaned, and tested. They would have a warrenty of some sort, haven't decided on a dead-on-arrival, 30 day, or what.

My goal would be to have a lot of "regular" car parts, like GM or Ford, but also to have a lot of hard to find parts, like TDI's or even motorcycle. I would also offer body parts like windshields, fenders, anything sellable.

On the back side I would be scrapping any metal not sold, and turning in batteries, oil, anything I can make a buck on.

So, what do you all think? I'm looking for some honesty, and I know you guys won't sugar coat it!!!

Unless you can get your hands on a lot of free cars to get the ball rolling, you're going to have a lot of trouble getting the ball rolling.

Copart and insurance auctions on the web and scrap prices have made this very difficult.

I looked at doing this with VW, and Subaru's specifically a few years ago.

Feel free to PM me for a few thoughts.

rowingdude said:

Unless you can get your hands on a lot of free cars to get the ball rolling, you're going to have a lot of trouble getting the ball rolling.

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It's hard to get the ball rolling with any new business. I would just have to get my stock built up over time before I open the doors.

davebugs said:

Copart and insurance auctions on the web and scrap prices have made this very difficult.

I looked at doing this with VW, and Subaru's specifically a few years ago.

Feel free to PM me for a few thoughts.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I will.

Contrary to popular belief scrap cars are not free and they aren't even cheap. Conglomerate auction houses and insurance companies have gone to great strides to keep salvage prices nice and high.

I'd make a few suggestions:

View your local laws and regulations regarding recycled auto parts, often the environmental and licensing regulations are pretty substantial and they are forever changing.

Find a niche and stick with it, then use profits to branch out into other less lucrative en devours.

Also starting a salvage yard requires a substantial investment of time/capital. You need a facility compliant with local/state/federal regs you need tools, manpower etc.

Realize your competition. You will be competing with companies that have been in business for decades and have refined their processes down to a fine science. You will also be competing with the average joe blow who wrecked his car and didn't bother to insure it so he's trying to get what he can out of what's left.

I started as a scrap yard and quickly realized that it's a pretty difficult business to get into and even more difficult to stay afloat.

Not to say people have not been successful doing it as always do your homework.

How would your business be any different then any other scrap yd? As someone pointed out, starting with a niche, you could keep it under the radar and you would enjoy a decent cash flow assuming you could get the cars at a decent price but even at that, it'll be hard work with a lot of competition.

Sorry but this doesn't seem to be anything to do with diesel vehicles so I'm moving it to general automative.

I suspect the "cleaned and tested" is the killer bit. Most people scrounging around in the yards are doing so to save a buck. Tested may be nice, but cleaning is something they can do themselves, thank you very much--and a number of the items may not get cleaned anyhow (why bother? it's under the hood where I can't see it!).

Plus, after cleaning and testing, you gotta store it someplace nice.