On saying this, we are talking about selected makes and models, as ceratin cars made in the USA are in fairness not that good and will have no appeal, so any search for an American Import should be done on a “what is in demand” process to ensure that you can resell the vehicle, at a later time.

Amercian import salvage givs you even more flexibility on price, remember in the UK, you pay VAT on the total cost of the vehicle, so you save on the purchase of the vehicle and then again on Vat paymenst when the car hits the ports. The selection is amazing from VW camper vans, in demand anywhere in the world to custom options with huge wheels and bouncing suspension, and then there are the classic cars both built in the USA and some originally imported from Europe.

The total cot of delivery and import taxes should be considered in all cases, you may save on VAT if you buy a car made in the UK, where VAT was paid to the UK at the time of purchase. Anyway check out the options, which constantly change.

But in this case it seems thse classic car parts were very much in demand and putting them into an auction saw them get the highest price. Of course we see classic car parts on Ebay and other onlline auctions all the time, but bring people into the same rooom, you could sense the competition and just about everyone agreed, higher prices we raised this way, certainly no one wanted to go home with nothing.
It is unlikely these auction will happen reguarly, so this was an experience and may have put some off with the high prices, but oin the other hand if you need those car parts then you may have no other option.

There can be a downside, when the vehicle on sale are gigh in demand and the auction is well advertised and you end up with 5 potenial buyers for one car and hence the prices go high.

This could be especially important when buying a car that even though damaged is not registered as a salvage car. Sometimes this is because the company underwrote any insurance claims up to a certain point and it is the vehicle owner who is selling the car, not the insurance company.

This ex driving instructor training school vehicle had only done 20,000 miles but cost the new owner 15% more thyan he bargained, as he was not prepared and did not do his homework.

There is a good and bad sode to this type of business , exporting salvage. The good side is that some makes and models are much more expensive outside of the USA, which means they do become cost effective to repair, where in the USA they could be deemed as non repairable. Certain German models for instance can be cost effective to export from teh USA repair to a good standard pass the local roadworthiness test and everything be good business. This is also applicable to the breaker market also, as the parts on these cars can also be worth a lot more in other countries.

The bad side of this business is where non roadworthy cars are exported ot countries who do not have the safetry standards in place they do in the USA or say the UK. Certain countries could export a a salvage car from the States which is just unsafe and non roadworthy and bodge up the based stuff and then take a dangerous car on the road.

A new company that is deciding to help foriegners buy salvage cars from the states is Salvagesparefinder that also does UK salvage. They now have become a broker for Coparts and let people buy usa salvage without any dealers licence

Well we have some footage that will help explain this. Talk about a lack of health and safety, this excavator is sitting on an edge of a building site trying to know down a building, watch what happens next and you will get a clear idea of how these vehicles end up in auction with some damage to them. In many cases these building companies claim on their insurance to get a new excavator or relevant steel or rubber tracked vehicle.

This obviously affects the salvage market, as clearly more profit can be made from each car repaired. Many who have been used to really cheap salvage prices at auction now have to recalculate their actual costs against profit, with some just not wanting to pay more for cars. You tend to get used to prices dropping but not increasing. In fact this is the first time since records began that second hand cars have increased in value, except for some classic cars, or supercars.

Of course a pending question is how long will these high prices stay with us. For example it takes time to repair a salvage car, in this time is it possible that prices could drop back to normal levels again.

But don’t be fooled these rubber tracks are not always cheap and as a salvage yard we know bought a tracked machine from auction only to find the rubber tracks he needed was so expensive he had paid too much for the excavator. Should have jut bought one second hand with the rubber tracks already in place.

So they live and learn, but then come the different options of rubber tracks, and the difference in price they all charge. Of course every supplier states that their product is the best and will last the longest time etc, etc. Easy for a professional to say, but difficult for salvage yards who business is auto auctions not heavy machinery. One place to get good advice is from Mini Max Parts for smaller rubber tracks, they gave good advice and a good price. I known it is an advert, but they did help.

There are many customers leaving pre bid amounts at the salvage auctions only to find vehicles seem to be realising higher prices. It also could be many have delayed any big purchase for so long now, that when even a glimpse of an improvement in the economy send prices higher.

We have noticed in the UK a shortage of salvage cars for sale, probably due to the holiday period where cars have been delayed from auction until sufficient staff are back into the salvage yards to service the sales and quantity of cars.

The new car market has only seen a very small increase in new sales, as it is difficult to measure if the scrappage scheme is working, as the growth experienced in Germany has just not happened over here. Anyway, if you are after a bargain, get out your glasses guide and recheck you prices, just to make sure you can buy as much as you could 6 months ago.

These machines to buy are often very expensive too with a long working lifespan, so even second hand ones will raise a good premium and as we have seen in recent salvage auctions, some of the wear parts associated with excavators are well in demand. Anyway here is the junk yard video.