The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Sad news recently

My local favourite old school parts shop is no more.
As far as I know it is the last of its kind in my area.

Always helpful, and on occasion could come up with some surprising goodies...

Am now at a loss for all the little odds and sods he used to sell...

4U2FIT Maidstone. You will be greatly missed...

Getting evermore few and far between, there isn't one in Huntingdon (though there are the industrial estate located trade suppliers like Bennetts). I don't know if it's because of cars growing greater complexity or of our throwaway society but people just do not maintain their own cars any more. Of the 60 people in my office at work I'm the only one who repairs their own cars, and an example of throw away when it's broken is a colleague who was going to scrap his Fiat when it started to lose water, and was quite amazed when I stripped it down, fitted a new water pump and it was back on the road for £30 and an hours work.

Galileo wrote:an example of throw away when it's broken is a colleague who was going to scrap his Fiat when it started to lose water, and was quite amazed when I stripped it down, fitted a new water pump and it was back on the road for £30 and an hours work.

Now he understands a leaky waterpump is no issue.

Jeroen

soe8m wrote:

Galileo wrote:an example of throw away when it's broken is a colleague who was going to scrap his Fiat when it started to lose water, and was quite amazed when I stripped it down, fitted a new water pump and it was back on the road for £30 and an hours work.

Now he understands a leaky waterpump is no issue.

Jeroen

I reckon all he knows now is who to have a word with when the car next goes wrong .

A few factors at play. One is that indeed people mainly don't fix their own. However, most towns have a ECP who can be handy for moderns, and we have the internet and postal suppliers. Lastly. Ha;fords keeps evolving and amazingly stays afloat. There is a local car accessory shop, but they now do key cutting (mainly domestic stuff) and other DIY bits and bobs, and are evolving into an old fashioned hardware store. Not surprising really.

The elephant in the room is that modern cars simply don't need the servicing or indeed repairs in the same way "our" cars did. I am prepared to be shot down, but our old zafira (2003) got oil and filters annually, and apart fr0m that a battery, couple of sets of brakes, a set of plugs, cambelt and a coilpack (the only non-service issue) in 9 years and over 100k. Old cars need regular points/plugs etc and proper servicing.

It's not just car parts, the internet has killed off many high street shops. Since I live in a village in the back end of nowhere, there wasn't a car parts shop here anyway ( the last nearest, 7 miles away, closed 3 years ago) and the one and only local garage (that sells petrol) only keeps expensive oil in 1 litre bottles. Because of this, I keep quite a bit of stuff in stock, especially stuff for Triumphs but also bulbs, fuses, filters and brake pads for the more common moderns and my own rather extensive fleet.
The motor factors I do most business with are 20 miles away, but I get 4 vans a day delivery on weekdays and 2 on Saturdays so I don't need to keep too much. Unless it's a dire emergency, or something very heavy or bulky, I even get Triumph parts sent from Fitchetts, even though they are only 18 miles away, cos their mail order rates are cheaper than the fuel to collect (not to mention my time wasted)

I can only advise fellow Triumph (and modern) owners who do their own maintainence to get a few vital bits into stock, rather than wait till something goes wrong! It's no more than common sense to do this anyway, with the general poor quality of classic bits sold by motor factors (and the few remaining accessory shops) these days.

Steve

Carledo wrote:It's not just car parts, the internet has killed off many high street shops

There may be some truth in that but the biggest impact on the High Street has been supermarkets setting up
in Out of Town developments/Retail parks/call them what you will.

The Scottish Government has addressed this by altering the business rates system, small business who have a rateable
value of £11,000 or less pay nothing. The idea is to help small businesses stay in the town centres….tourism is a major industry
in Scotland, tourists don't stop long in places where all the shops are boarded up!
The UK Government are/have been talking about doing something similar to the Business Rates.


Here there is one stand alone Motor Factors left, although there are several repairers who also sell parts.
The other closed some time ago. The owner told me that it was no longer viable because the sales of cleaning
products had practically ended with the arrival of Tesco (who also sell oil, wiper blades, etc).
Mind you he was 86 at the time!




Ian.

I even get my groceries online, the Tescos, Asdas, etc on their big retail parks are all 20+ miles away, I have a town centre Sainsburys at 8 miles (and my son works there so I get a discount) but it is cheaper to shop online at Asda and get the stuff delivered.

Steve

Even your social life is online????

Jeroen

soe8m wrote:Even your social life is online????

Jeroen

Looks like it, doesn't it?

Steve