When folks contact dealerships looking for parts with which to make repairs to their car. They are often taken aback at how many dollars they are asked to fork over in order to complete the purchase. For instance, take a trim piece, whose manufacture price will be a mere five to six dollars. The premium on the thing will be a percentage number in the thousands. This is the world we live in, folks. Parts are sold at exorbitant prices, and we let them get away with it through our ignorance. This is where shopping around comes in handy.
What follows are some steps that will help you in the eternal struggle for better deals in the world of second hand auto parts.
Do a decent amount of research
There are plenty of Australian based websites that you can look up to find the second hand car part you want. You could try Gumtree.com.au. Look around and find out what different people are selling the same part for.
Do some verification
Get in touch with the shop selling the part so you can tell them the part number. This should be done before any exchange of goods for money takes place. This is all about the old adage: consumer beware. Failure to do this could have ramifications further down the road.
Another important aspect of this process is the knowledge that certain parts can be like special snowflakes in relation to the car that they belong to. Get a slightly different part and problems may occur.
Be ready to negotiate
Otherwise known as haggling, don’t be afraid to try whatever is in your bag of tricks in this area in order to get a lower price for the part that you are after. One way to do this would be to tell the person selling it about someone in the same town who has the part you want at a cheaper price.
If you are going to negotiate do plenty of information gathering. Before you enter into this activity as knowledge is power, and you don’t want to be caught lacking.
Visit your local junkyard
The junkyard might have the auto spare parts you need. Many modern junk yards act as car recycling businesses that extract any and all re-usable parts from the vehicle before crushing the remaining shell. The resulting inventory of used parts for sale may be huge and varied. So it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time to go to one of these places and having a look. You may be surprised.
Use online forums
If you are searching for a part that is only sold overseas. You can get on a car enthusiast forum and crowd source the knowledge on where to find used car parts online. This is advantageous because of the international quality of some of these online spaces. Don’t be afraid of asking, as if you don’t ask you don’t receive.
