Spares Costs

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Mon 28 May 2001 17:42
Spares Costs - Brian
Has anyone ever calculated what it would cost to build a car from parts as per the manufacturer's parts/price list and compared that to a ready-built car.
It might be a good way to see if a particular model was a good buy for long-term ownership.
My guess is that an £8,000 car may cost up to five or six times that price from spares, but it would be interesting to find out.
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Mon 28 May 2001 19:22
Re: Spares Costs - Tom Shaw
You are probably right; just shows how hard the manufacturers tug at the short and curleys once they've lumbered you with their wares.
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Mon 28 May 2001 22:08
Re: Spares Costs - steve paterson
Back in the 70's I worked with a chap who used to be workshop manager at the local Ford dealer. While he was there he built his own Ford Anglia. The Mk1 Escort was the latest arrival, and when his Anglia hit the road it was obsolete. He started with a new bodyshell and bought the various bits and bobs as finance permitted. I can remember the total cost being about £1400. He got his bits at cost price. Full retail prices would probably bump the bill up to nearer £3000, plus hundreds of hours of labour. I can't remember the price of a new Anglia, £500 - £700 maybe. I can remember that in spite of all his time and effort, the car didn't look 'right', not a Johnny Cash car, but just not 'right'
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Mon 28 May 2001 22:50
Re: Spares Costs - dafydd tomos
I know that some motorbike salvage companies import brand new bikes to be broken up and sold as parts.
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Wed 6 Jun 2001 12:55
Re: Spares Costs - Patrick Townsend
When I was studying engineering at university (1985 - 1988) a fellow student (called Piers Bennet but I guess that is not important) told me about his year off working at British Leyland as an engineering apprentice to gain work experience for his chatertered engineer qualification.

Apparently one of the employees had been sacked (and then prosecuted) for stealing (or attempting to steal) a mini in spare parts - i.e. he had been taking the spare parts out of the factory at the end of his shift and assembling the car at his home.

In the court case it came out that while the cost of the car new was around £4-5 k the total cost of the individual parts (if bought as spare parts) amounted to somehwere between £15-20 k.
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