Excellent service from modern dealer!

[Perseverant]

I needed some new nuts and bolts for my ancient 190e following a suspension disaster. Arnold Clark in Grangemouth were very helpful and stocked some bits, ordered the rest from Stuttgart and sent the lot over to the branch up the road from where I live. Not too expensive either!

[Mercky]

Perseverant said:

I needed some new nuts and bolts for my ancient 190e following a suspension disaster. Arnold Clark in Grangemouth were very helpful and stocked some bits, ordered the rest from Stuttgart and sent the lot over to the branch up the road from where I live. Not too expensive either!

Bottom ball joint collapse?

[4rephill]

In a similar manner, BMW still stock a lot of parts for classic models, including some often hard to find trim pieces, and not at extortionate prices either.

All too often people rule out modern dealerships due to thinking that won't stock or have access to the parts for classic models any more, or that they will be too expensive, but it never hurts to ask, and you might just be surprised!

[imagineifyeswill]

BMW have allways had a policy of keeping parts available for 20 years after production and a t own time used to reduce the price by upto 50% after 10 years < Mercedes possibly do something similar. As a complete opposite there are virtually no vehicle specific parts availabe from Vauxhall for Calibra, Nova Cavalier 1,2 or 3, Frontera and I believe Vectra B is going the same way.

[Pericoloso]

Ford aren't good at this either,especially for unique parts for the more special cars.

[hot metal]

VW are usually pretty good

[gothatway]

This must be a German thing - I can often get parts for my 34 year old Porsche 944 from the main dealer, usually at a good price, too.

[E36Ross]

Pericoloso said:

Ford aren't good at this either,especially for unique parts for the more special cars.

Got a few suspension bits for my 1990 Saph Cosworth from Ford about 2 years ago.

Surprised they were able to source them, Even got a new pair of proper Sierra interior mats!

[Pericoloso]

E36Ross said:

Pericoloso said:

Ford aren't good at this either,especially for unique parts for the more special cars.

Got a few suspension bits for my 1990 Saph Cosworth from Ford about 2 years ago.

Surprised they were able to source them, Even got a new pair of proper Sierra interior mats!

Story I read in RSOC magazine way back was funnily enough about suspension bushes too.

Don't remember what year it was but a member needed rear bushes for an RS2000 4x4 ,apparently unique to this model,

NLA from Ford and it was not very old at all ,at the time.

[Perseverant]

Not bottom balljoint! Hit a pothole around the end of January but couldn't see any damage to spring or tyre, then it went bang at the start of this month. Luckily not at any speed so limped back and discovered the ps spring had three breaks! Post mortem suggested that break one was likely back in Jan. up at the top inside the mount followed by two new ones. Never seen anything like it!

[lowdrag]

Jaguar and Daimler parts are still available, and one of the best for the SS range is Wally Vorlaufer in South Africa. His catalogue is like a telelphone directory! I've been there and was very impressed at the quality of the workmanship. If you know anyone with a pre-war Jaguar tell them to have a look here:-

https://www.vorcomp.co.za/catalogue.htm