New Website

ta2kev

Hey all,
I currently in the process of setting up a new website, and I'm looking for some opinions on it. It's based on a carzone or cbg format, the difference is that you are searching for a car in a breakers yard, rather than on a forecourt. The idea is, if you have, for example, a 2003 Almera, and you need a back light, you can just go on to the website and do a search for the car and it will list every breakers yard breaking that model. The breakers will also give a description of the damage and / or a photo of the car. I'm in the motor trade myself and I know that I personally would find this service very useful.
Anyway, that's the jist of it, any comments or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

prospect

Sounds like a great idea, as with all information databases, it would only be as good as the info being fed into it.

I assume when a breaker breaks a car they hold the useful parts on a shelf to be sold. So photos of the vehicles may not be necessary, just a list of parts.

But overall, i think alot of people would use it, why pay a stealer for a part when you can source it for pence elsewhere.

ta2kev

You're 100% right, it's success will be down to the breakers keeping their stock up to date. Most breakers yards in this country don't strip the cars when they come in, they normally just take the part off it when someone wants it.

E@gle.

That sounds like a very good idea. But would the car breakers be interested in this. as it would compare prices

crosstownk

Sounds like a great idea alright. The only problem I see is getting the breakers yards to keep you updated with stock - especially as stock changes so rapidly on certain items (wing mirrors, lamps, etc.....). Some breakers yards may be reluctant to give you prices given their fascination with dealing in cash..............

But if you can get it to work then I reckon you'll get a fair bit of traffic.

prospect

Well, i say best of luck with it. I would certainly be a customer.

Also, I am assuming from your signature you are about to have a baby, so best of luck with that also.

ta2kev

The general theory of the site is to narrow your search for a particular car, the parts will not be listed, there will be the option to add a note on main parts such as "air bags ok", "engine and gearbox working" or "frontal / rear damage only". No prices will have to be given. The aim of the site is to work as a search engine.

digitally-yours

Yes should be nice

Provided that its uptodate

And yes Congrats with the Baby !:D

Atomic Pineapple

was just going to say that prices wont be needed is right, if it lets someone source a part they need easily and gives them contact info to get it then thats all you really need, how are you going to cover the cost of running it though? are you gonna rely on ads, which wont pay much to be honest or are you going to charge the breakers to diplay there info?

if your going to charge them then if there paying for something then there probably gonna keep it updated, as long as its dfairly priced to get them on board in the first place.

you should ring around breakers and see would they be interested in it, if you get good feedback then test it with a small number of brwakers and if its successfull then you'll have data showing this and will be able to sell it nationwide to breakers.

smash

you'd have a big database of parts to keep track of... and what about Micks Garage? that's as cheap if not cheaper than a breakers yard...

racso1975

You could also have a section for damaged repairables that are obviously being sold cheap and if possible makesure people list if vrt is due (i know this is prob imposs) I drove from carlow to galway to look at an Audi the other day just to find out it was an english car....had rand the guy 3 times bout it and he'd never mentioned it the twat

egan007

You biggest problem is going to be inventory,
I can't think of one breakers yard with a computer or anyone who can operate one....
Even if they can are they going to upload their stock regularly for a 20Euro Headrest?

Owen

I thought I was going mad there for a minute, I'd posted to this thread, and my post disappeared, until I realised there's a duplicate thread running in Classic Cars.

smash

I'd say the biggest hassle will be the fact that a breaker will just say they have a car, and not list what parts they have for it that are still usable.

Darragh29

ta2kev wrote:

The general theory of the site is to narrow your search for a particular car, the parts will not be listed, there will be the option to add a note on main parts such as "air bags ok", "engine and gearbox working" or "frontal / rear damage only". No prices will have to be given. The aim of the site is to work as a search engine.

This sounds like a brilliant idea OP. First of all, don't put too much emphasis on the problems that people here are throwing at you. When I went out on my own, I threw the idea out amongst my trusted council and immediately people came back at me with a list of problems and show stoppers. It's easy to let these collective problems get into your head and stop you ever actually getting your idea off the ground.

One word of advice I will give you is to be extremely extremely wary of anyone, (especially if it's a company), who approaches you and offers to assist or partner with you in getting your idea up and running. I fell for this a few years ago and was completely fu*ked around by a well known company who only wanted to use me for 2 months to set up a department within their business, based exclusively on my business idea. Once I had the business operational structures and procedures in place, I was fired. I was extremely lucky that I had not signed anything that prevented me from going at the business idea from outside of the company.

Best of luck with it, and remember, be very careful.

JHMEG

You might need to check the new rules governing breakers that came in on 1st Jan and how they'll affect your DB. For example, even if a Honda or Toyota has airbags, they can't be sold on...

junkyard

It sounds like a great idea OP, not only do breakers yards have loads of parts but so do panel beaters like myself, I have a loft full of slightly damaged and some perfectly good stuff too and even new stuff.

ta2kev

Thanks for all the replies, I've taken all your concerns on board and I'm going to try to avoid any disasters before they happen. My main purpose is to make it easier to locate a car, rather than a specific part. It's not going to lead you directly to the part you're looking for, but it will narrow down your search.
Thanks again
Kevin