Any tips on profitable cars to break?

[Partyvan]

Hello all,

I'm getting back into the breaking business to run alongside retailing cars.

Just wondering if anyone has any good tips on profitable cars to break. Sports / prestige / hot hatch. £1k-£3k purchase price.

Thankyou!

[snuffy]

Me and a mate gave this some serious thought a few years ago. By accident we got hold of car (by accident I don't mean car accident) and broke it and it very well (it was 1 one off - more of a hobby over a few weeks) and we quite enjoyed it. So we started looking into doing it but they problem we found was sourcing the cars. Breakers yards wanted so much for the cars that there was no profit in it at all. So that came to nothing.

[bristolbaron]

I’d be looking at stuff like 3.2 Audi tt’s, Mk1 S3’s etc. Engine/interior/wheels cover car cost, the rest is profit.

[designforlife]

JDM stuff with a heavy scene tax.... mk4 Supras, Evos, skylines.

[bristolbaron]

designforlife said:

JDM stuff with a heavy scene tax.... mk4 Supras, Evos, skylines.

For 1-3k?!

[designforlife]

Sorry, totally missed that bit... it's early!

[kiethton]

My bet wold be on things that are used for track/drivetrains with alternative uses or cars with higher normal parts costs:

Clio 1*2, Honda EP3 's etc....

[rdjohn]

I have a 1990 BMW Cabrio. 5-years ago, I could still buy bits from franchises, now it’s 30-years old, they have nothing available. There is still a good number registered, or SORNed in the UK.

I presume that this must be a common problem for similar aged cars. A quick check on EBay suggest that 20-year old cars are within your budget.

[gl20]

Possibly a useless anecdote but here goes. The boss of a taxi firm I used to use in Munich always had an S class for himself. Once he’d done about 250k kms in it (or something crazy like that) it would go to Polish breakers as the killer depreciation on a high mileage S class makes it cheap to buy and relatively valuable to break. So look for exec chauffeurs to supply you their old cars?

[Partyvan]

Thankyou gents, some good ideas coming through

[leemanning]

I have a W220 LWB S Class I'm looking to sell, so might be a good option if you're interested?

For instance, one of the air struts failed and I had to buy a new one. £650 for a non-OEM one. I imagine that all the bits on the car are way in excess than the car would sell for as a whole.

[Mikedknight]

leemanning said:

I have a W220 LWB S Class I'm looking to sell, so might be a good option if you're interested?

For instance, one of the air struts failed and I had to buy a new one. £650 for a non-OEM one. I imagine that all the bits on the car are way in excess than the car would sell for as a whole.

I’d be interested in this if the op isn’t. Send me a pm with details if you like.

[Jakg]

Cars with variation would be my suggestion - e.g. a leather interior would be worth £400 on some cars, but is worth nothing on others as they basically are all leather.

I made >£1k breaking a £300 Rover 75 - and all I really sold were the "goodies", not any of the typical oily stuff you'd expect.

I'd imagine something like an M-Sport BMW might be a good shout - sports wheel, interior, bumper etc are always in demand.

[Vanden Saab]

bristolbaron said:

designforlife said:

JDM stuff with a heavy scene tax.... mk4 Supras, Evos, skylines.

For 1-3k?!

A few years ago I used to break the odd car. Lower end JDM stuff was good, even better if there is a UK version, two of the best cars I broke were a JDM prelude and a JDM Forester. Best by far was an early Rangerover. Despite being a bit of a mess we sold absolutely everything. We literally had nothing left.

[sgrimshaw]

Earlish Cayenne , possibly other non 911 Porsche too.

[MRichards99]

Cheap rusty mk1 MX5s for a few hundred quid - interior, engine, wheels, any panels that aren't rusty, softtop/hardtops (hardtops go for ~£300), sell 1.8 brakes marketed as a 'brake upgrade for a 1.6'. Strip it to a shell and scrap the shell basically. The sub £1000 'too rusty for an mot' mk1 is becoming rarer but they're still out there

[Matt_N]

Couple of mates do well out of Mk5 Golf GTi.