New bluecycle .com website
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Today BlueCycle launched their updated and improved salvage uauction website. After taking a good hard look today, I’m honestly very impressed, the changes they have made make a big improvement to the sites usability, and definitely improve the experience.
New stuff I like…
Better search functions - Much improved, really like the option to search for cars nearest me. This was my biggest bug-bear with the old site, as it meant searching through all the cars in the North or South lists. You can now also search through listings based on closing soonest, newly listed, lowest price first, or highest price first.
Vehicle details pages - Huge improvement, pictures are much easier to navigate through, and bids on each vehicle are much easier to view.
Previous total loss – Gives details on when/if the car has previously been involved in an accident/written off.
Stuff that needs improvement
Site Map - Doesnt seem to be clickable, not a big issue, just a niggle.
Cookies cleared - Just a frustration, as I never remember passwords.
Overall, a great set of improvements. Well done BlueCycle team. Check the revised site out at www.bluecycle.com
New site live
Firstly, apologies for the few days where the site was down. Unfortunately it was necessary to allow the switch over to new servers..
The new site is now up and running, and is better than ever. Were still busy developing the site, so keep an eye out for new features coming soon!
Hope you like the new design, and please let us know if there is anything additional you would like to see..
Any comments much appreciated… Let us know what you think.
Top 10 most vandalised cars in the UK
Not directly salvage related, but interesting non the less. As published in the Telegraph. The top 5 most valdalised cars in the UK.
And the next 5 to give you the top 10
The Top 10 most valdalised cars
1. BMW Z3
Insurance group 14 – 19
2. Chrysler Crossfire
Insurance group 17 – 19
3. Porsche Cayenne
Insurance group 18 – 20
4. Porsche Boxster
Insurance group 18 – 20
5. BMW Z4
Insurance group 15 – 19
6. Ford StreetKa
Insurance group 7 – 9
7. Honda S2000
Insurance group 20
8. Smart Forfour
Insurance group 6
9. Audi TT
Insurance group 17 – 19
10.MG F/TF
Insurance group 12 – 14
Seemingly, looking at the top 10, its still convertibles which are the main targets for vandalism.
Car vandalism is also on the up – apparently due to “recession envy”. In 2007 4.3 million UK motorists were a victim of car vandalism (Source Direct Line) This is up from just over 3.5 million in 2006. This is due to rise further for 2009!
This equates to an estimated total repair bill of £659 million, up over £100 million on the previous year.
Most common acts of vandalism
The most common acts of car vandalism are scratched paintwork and/or being ‘keyed’, affecting 43% of victims. Closely followed by damage to wing mirrors (23%), often through being kicked off, or by accident damage and driving off. Then followed by smashed windows (21%).
63% of victims having discovered stated that the vandalism had taken place at night. Street lighting proved no deterrent, as a total of 49% of victims’ cars were targeted while parked on well lit roads or driveways.
Real life wrecks to riches
Calling all Salvage yards……..
Firstly, apologies if this sounds like a scam, it truly inst meant to sound that way.
As winter fast approaches, I’m finding I’d like a project to work on and keep me busy over the winter months.
I’m looking for a salvage project specifically, and one which will hopefully provide some profit from selling on as soon as the weather improves.
I’m also hoping that one of the many salvage yards out there, will be kind enough to help me out in return for some promotional activity.
I’m looking for a car which I can repair, and demonstrate that buying, repairing and selling a salvage vehicle is do-able by just about anybody, not just specialists. I’m going to do all the work myself, and will be hoping to sell the car on once I’ve finished, hopefully for a profit.
Each week, I will be documenting my progress, and will posting updates here on wrecks2riches.
Its a real-life example, of how salvage could potentially take a wreck and turn it into riches…
The opportunity…
For any salvage yard willing to either donate or subsidise a salvage vehicle, I will happily commit to providing substantial marketing support, and on sale of the vehicle, a split of the profits.
(I’m not asking for anything fancy, just something which is a relatively easy repair, and has the potential to sell on for a modest profit once repaired)
Why?
Its a great opportunity for a salvage yard to get their name out there, in a very niche market. Likewise, the write-ups and guides produced off the back of the project will help spur on many other potential buyers. Potential buyers of your salvage vehicles.
If you are a salvage yard, and are interested in the above opportunity, please feel free to contact me. Just leave a comment, and I will come back to you within 24 hours.
New Autotrader website is crap!
You may not have seen it yet, but the UK Autotrader website, has undergone somewhat of a redesign!
The site’s navigation and functionality has changed completely, and seems to have gone all web 2.0 overboard. With unnecessary sliders, & drop downs all over the place.
I’m all for the improvement & evolution of websites, but unfortunately I just don’t the new site works well. Its just not as clear and easy to find a car as it was on the old version.
Unfortunately, with online advertising for cars being a complete monopoly ruled by Autotrader, it looks like we have little choice but to put up with it for the time being.
If you do want to try elsewhere to sell your car. I can thoroughly recommend the below sites.
Ebay – www.ebay.co.uk
PistonHeads – www.pistonheads.com
The old autotrader site is still available in the background for a while, so if you want to go back to the perfectly good, old version. Use the below link.
http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/AdvertSearch/N-0/search_form.action
Scrappage scheme boom time for salvage breaker
Sum of the parts equals more than the car.
Auto Express recently ran an article looking into the value of a car as parts. With the Government scrappage scheme making more people scrap perfectly usable cars, breakers like 247 spares are being flooded with good quality parts which can be sold on for a premium.
I’d already covered a similar topic back in October 08 on breaking rather than repairing, which even then was looking to be far more profitable in many circumstances.
Article extract – Source: Auto Express issue 1,073.
Under the scrappage scheme, the buyer has to essentially sign the death warrant on their current car before they can get the keys to the discounted one. And we’ve head many tales of dealers accepting completely functional Porsches, fully serviced Civics and pristine Micras.
To qualify for the governments promised share of £2000 discount the motor has to be taken to one of 1,400 Automotive Treatment Facilities (ATFs) around the country and issues with a Certificate of destruction (COD). Up to the end of June 2009, 29,796 cars had either been destroyed or were on the chopping block thanks to the scheme.
But the COD is a bit of a red herring because although the car can no longer exist, the cars can and often will be harvested for resale. “The vehicle has got to be scrapped for the COD, yet the ATF is at liberty to take off any parts” admitted Duncan Wemyss, secretary of the Motor Vehicles Dismantlers Association.
It spells boom time for Britain’s biggest dismantler, Doncaster Motor Spares in S Yorks. Its boss Richard Martin told us: “On average we handle about 500 cars per week, but last week we collected about 100 more from the scrappage scheme.” He admitted the quality had been good too. “In general these models are cleaner, perhaps they have been in a family and passed down through the generations. They’re better quality than a scrap car.”
His company turns over several million pounds a year – hardly surprising when you take a closer look at how much money a single motor can generate in parts alone.
To find out we decided to ’strip’ a popular scrappage trade in – a 1999 Ford KA. First we identified 30 or so of the most sought after parts. We then put in a request for each one with an online clearing house used by dismantlers hunting customers.
As our inbox filled with prices for everything from tailgate struts to 1.3 litre engines, we selected the cheapest offer knocked off the VAT and postage, and began to establish a tidy sum for our little run around. By the end of the day we had generated a huge £1,451. Not bad for a car Doncaster Motor Spares will pay only £1000 for on average.
To see how owners would fare dismantling and flogging the parts themselves, we also compared our trade prices with those on auction site eBay. We discovered that an enterprising soul with a socket set and storage space could fetch nearly £800 for the same spares, although without Doncaster Spares 90 day guarantee. (See table)
So, what does this mean for us?
1) If you are in it purely for profit, before buying any Salvage vehicle, price up repairing vs breaking. You might be surprised how much you could make. Use eBay and parts sites to verify how much your parts are worth.
2) Remember the Scrappage scheme wont be around forever so this may be a temporary phenomenon.
3) If you are breaking, consider the time and storage implications, it may take a long time to sell parts individually, you will incur advertising costs e.g. eBay listings. And you will have the hassle of arranging postage or couriers for sending the parts.
Bluecycle.com start selling non-salvage vehicles
Bluecycle.com salvage auction site, have announced they will now start auctioning, non-salvage cars. According to their communication, they have stuck deal with one of the UK’s biggest dealer networks, and they will be selling their part-exchanged stock through bluecycle.com
In response to customer demand requesting more non-salvage vehicles on the site, we are delighted to announce that Bluecycle will now be auctioning Part Exchange vehicles from one of the biggest car dealerships in the UK.
From this week, we’ll be launching the Part Exchange forecourt, where a wide range of makes and models will be up for auction.
We will send an email confirming the forecourt launch date during the week. If you have any queries in the meantime, please feel free to contact the Customer Service Team in the usual way.
Kind regards,
I’m not quite sure what this means for us? But I suppose there may be some cheap cars available, that would be easy to re-sell.
The biggest impact will be to the traditional auction houses. Margins are tight on part exchange cars, and dealers will want to get as much as possible for their cars. If the auction method is more cost effective, we could see far fewer cars coming through the old auctions.
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