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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Prolific User
Username: soviet

Post Number: 237
Registered: 2-2013
Posted on Friday, 24 April, 2015 - 01:03:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Speaking to a friend of over 30 years the other day I questioned him as to why so many people downunder abuse the jeepers out of parts interpreters over the counter and phone. He is a Spare Parts Manager for a major dealership.

He pronounced that he thought that people just could not believe the price of parts for their Asian build cars. Perhaps he's right but being one of Australia's most deadly martial artists, a referee of full contact public tournaments and still training in Philippino knife and stick fighting techniques he's probably not too threatened either. I would not go near him with anything short of a pump action 12 guage with buckshot either.

Going back 9 years in Sydney the manager of a thumping big panel beating shop showed me the cost price of a clear plastic decal that goes over the paint just in front of the rear wheel arch about 2 inches square with shape of an oblong pancake and with a thickness of maybe 3 thousands of an inch. This was for a bargain basement Asian car with a truly horrid shape. $70 a pop - nasty but true. My guess of the construction cost would be ten cents being generous.

FS has some lovely stuff and I may or may not be buying some gaskets and other things necessary to get the Camargue going soon.

We have at $5,213 AUD a Camargue grill shell ie just the shell bare without vanes. I maybe able to import one and afford half a beer if I spend six grand given the government wants its cut to import anything, humans included. The concept of making my own for the horrible day when a kangaroo destroys mine is looking up.

But wait, theres more, at $13,321 there's an entire Camargue body shell including the doors, bonnet(hood) and boot(trunk) - what a snap as that would cost just under three grand beneath the entire price it cost to buy and import the car from New York to outback Australia. My car has a rust hole that will take not more than a square inch of mild steel to repair and I am very handy with a mig welder. Still, I thought at that price it was an acceptable price to pay for such a rare complete body and no doubt its the last one in existence on the planet.

Just where you would source a the rubber seals and window glass for a Camargue is a question I can't answer and hope I never find out. Then theres the question of where to get all the plastic bits and pieces that will snap like a biscuit if one ever had to rebuild the car using a new shell.

Which bring me to an aside. There is no difference between the flash office of a major law firm with sweeping harbour views and Chesterfield waiting lounges and the flash new car sales room. Only one person is paying the rent on both and that is the client.

I hate working stainless steel because its horrid to drill and mean to bend. A trip to Hanoi may turn up some victims ready to produce Camargue grills as I have some lovely wooden furniture made in Vietnam by craftsmen there from recycled wood. Marvellous stuff all dovetailed and not perfect but in six years getting cooked in my 44 foot bus it has not fallen apart.

The Aussie dollar like the Russian Ruble has taken a mean flogging lately and I could end my love/hate relationship with the bank, call up a classic car dealer and release the Cadillac into the wild, and pay the mortgage out in full. The only problem with that is now it would cost me $30,000 to find another 1976 Fleetwood Cadillac in the same condition as mine and import it and that's a big increase from the $16,000 I paid to secure mine 8 year ago.

I could view this by taking the optimistic angle that I have almost doubled my investment but selling a car (which I never do) and buying and importing a car are two completely different animals.

Right now shirts are being removed from many as bargain priced classic cars hit the Aussie market like bugs on a fast moving Jaguar. Some private sellers are still asking for prices way above seasoned dealers but the occasional man seller is there putting his hands up with a true bargain as his better half flogs him like the family mule with one hand and speed dials her family court lawyer with other.

Those Americans once did not see much value in the cars from the 1970s but sadly for me they are right onto the matter now. I preferred it when they were sleeping. Who woke them up? Possibly Jay Leno and the Swedes and Finns because it could not have been the Kiwis.
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Randy Roberson
Grand Master
Username: wascator

Post Number: 369
Registered: 5-2009
Posted on Friday, 24 April, 2015 - 01:48:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Attended a small-time collector car auction in Middle America last weekend: not televised, no billionaires as far as I could tell. Lots of 1970s Americana: a 1973 Buick Electra 225 Limited with 4200 miles on it and perfect, not sunburned, considerably less than $10K US. and several other similar cars like Lincoln Marks, all of which I admire. Muscle cars are all the rage, antiques seem cheap. Model T Ford touring car? Drive it away (with almost no brakes, mind you, but almost no power either!) for $7000. Model A Fords for similar prices. You certainly can buy one for a LOT less than you can restore one. Unrestored seems they would hardly be worth anything. I have a '29 Chevrolet sedan; spent $500 on the head. Why? I ask myself, and I am looking to sell it on.
Parts are no doubt a big profit center for auto makers and dealers: I read that Ford paid less than $5 US to put the interior in a Model A sedan. I went to the local Jeep dealer for a power window mechanism for the erstwhile Mrs. Roberson's '99 Cherokee, that'll be $245 please; no, thanks. Bought the same part from a dealer on-line for $60 and the list price was only $100 charge what you want, what are you going to do at the drive-through window with no hand crank?
Given that: a parts operation is expensive to operate: inventory and capital tied up; inventory tax, etc. We have one crankshaft stored in a Company warehouse, worth $500,000 and the annual tax is considerable, not to mention all the other parts. The manufacturers mostly won't keep a parts inventory anymore; if you want one, order one, and we'll make it and ship it.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 1581
Registered: 4-2003
Posted on Friday, 24 April, 2015 - 09:06:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

This is a never-ending story.....

Remember the famous quote from Henry Ford when the Model T was in production and the price was reduced as economies of scale were achieved:

"I would give the cars away [for free] if I could have the monopoly on supplying spare parts."
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Prolific User
Username: soviet

Post Number: 239
Registered: 2-2013
Posted on Friday, 24 April, 2015 - 09:36:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David you most certainly are the source of marvellous quotes as well as top grade info on many articles of informatzia and suppliers of things I know nothing about.

I hereby appoint you by the power of the Supreme Soviet as moderator and advisor for life. Sorry, but we can't give you a pay increase.

Randy, you have a strife and she is driving a 99 Cherokee? And she still talks to you ? If she has a sister send her by UPS and I will pay the bill.

I used to love the early US made Cherokees but when the Mexicans got into the act and these Indian named things landed here we thought we were getting invaded by invisible Sioux.

The company responsible ran a huge propaganda program and it worked. People bought them like vegetables and they invaded the outback in droves unfortunately to die like flies as the pistons disintegrated and its not hard to work out why when you eyeball the amount of metal or lack thereof in the pistons.

Many a tear was shed by a lot of cashed up pensioners who had set out beady eyed and looking to experience the great Australian Outback Travelling Adventure as one of my bosses announced the price to rebuild a blown engine together with directions to the nearest salvage yard.

It was hideous to watch.
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Randy Roberson
Grand Master
Username: wascator

Post Number: 370
Registered: 5-2009
Posted on Friday, 24 April, 2015 - 13:11:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Vladimir, please note the word "erstwhile" in conjunction with my mention of Mrs. Roberson. This is perhaps a somewhat archaic word, but I have special appreciation for it because, as used here, it means that this evil hateful witch no longer parks her broom at my cottage.
She got this vehicle new at the time, as also a 2000 Buick Century, which she was driving when she left my domicile.
The Jeeps with the inline six had a decent reputation here, far as I know. The later v-6 engine is nothing but a grenade waiting to go off.
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Richard Treacy
Grand Master
Username: richard_treacy

Post Number: 3189
Registered: 4-2003
Posted on Saturday, 25 April, 2015 - 00:32:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP


quote:

We have at $5,213 AUD a Camargue grill shell



Snap it up. You will never see it at such a low price ever again.
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Richard Treacy
Grand Master
Username: richard_treacy

Post Number: 3190
Registered: 4-2003
Posted on Saturday, 25 April, 2015 - 00:38:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

To explain, a secondhand lowly Silver Spirit grille, bare of vanes and mascot, sells for $3,500. Contact any smash repairer for a quotation. For a Camargue, the sky is the limit.