Ethics of part outs

I'm with NickD for the most part. I hate seeing something that runs and drives with no cancer get torn down. But at the same time my vehicles have more than a few of the parts that came from a part out. I would like to believe my parts came from a Swiss cheese based chassis somewhere but it's highly unlikely many did. The bottom line for me is I don't think I could do it unless I thought the chassis was beyond reasonable repair.

@SVREX I read your post as a response to the question "Is it worth it?"  I agree with your answer FWIW

The OP asked "Is it ethical?"  And to that I say: absolutely.

In reply to SV reX :

I agree. I should keep it in mind too. Any time spent away from the family should be definitively worth it or the activity should be skipped!

In years past I have bought several running cars to part out. I've sold the valuable stuff and then given away the rements to an enthusiast.

Typically the cars had some performance parts I wanted as well as some valuable parts. I did this to fund my racing.

Not rendering an opinion here, just sharing a thought: isn't parting out at least one car almost SOP for the Challenge?

The interesting thing is, if you want to part out a car and make money off of it (as opposed to buying a parts car and selling what you don't want), your best bet is to buy a car good drivable condition that is only just old enough to be out of warranty.  You have more good parts for sale, and it means you have a far larger market than, say, a 40 year old Mazda where most of the people who want parts already HAVE basements full of stuff.

I believe our own Keith has pointed out that parts sales are best made from cars in good condition.

The funny thing about playing with old RX-7s is that a lot of people are literally giving things away.  I have bought three parts stashes in the past few years and both times I was limited not by how much money I had but how much stuff I could cram in my transportation device   One guy I went for $200 worth of stuff and he kept cramming so much stuff in my car and trailer that I felt bad and gave him $260... to which he said "Oh man, I can't take that... here take this amplifier too (hands me a 1000Wx2 Sony amp) but let's make sure it works first..."  That $260 got me a complete front suspension assembly, a bunch of front strut housings, two steering boxes, four transmissions including two complete automatic trans swaps including pedals and shifters/consoles, two complete engines, and a whole lot of engine housings, a lot of trim pieces, manifolds, etc etc etc.  My S40 was grinding the trailer hitch on the ground sometimes and my trailer's springs flexed for the first time in their lives

Oh and I was practically given an RX-3 for free because nobody would want it.

I also recall someone contacting Evan after finding out that he had a 323 GTX and offering to ship him a set of Dirtra struts because who else is gonna be able to use them?

Point of the blather is that there is a definite curve for parts value.  Once something gets rare/esoteric enough, the market dwindles to the point that things have little value.  I will never be able to sell my Quantum Syncro Wagon because I think I bought it from the only other person who cares about them...

These days I'd probably say I'm in the not-my-position to judge camp. I used to get pretty hot under the collar about it with rare/older models I loved, but then I went to sell my Toyota Corolla AE86 GT-S I'd spent 19 years living/breathing, driving, building, and upgrading, and my mind started to change.

This was just pre-pandemic. A few really nice ones had traded hands for high teens and the "community" was calling for vigilante justice, talking about getting together to string up the buyers for "ruining it for everyone else" and passing fairly harsh judgements on the sellers as well. Decent cars were $5K+, and anything running with a title at $2500 was gone instantly.

I was asking $10K for a west coast, rust-free, non-sunroof, full-interior, genuine GT-S with a E36 M3load of restomod work done. I started getting some low-grade online bullying for "driving prices up" and people criticizing me because they wanted to rewind the clock to when the AE86 was more affordable and I was the guy who ruined it somehow. At the same time, some of the same "community" members were practically frothing at the mouth to buy parts off the car. Throwing out $1200 for the long block, $500 for the ITBs, $500 for the header, I'll give you $500 for the transmission, $1200 for the rear axle, $1500 for the wheels, $500 for the front seats, $400 for the crack-free dash, $800 for the hatch, $1000 for the bumpers, $500 for fenders/hood, $500 for the taillights, and so on. Sure made me think about parting it out...
 

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Just typical d-bags.  A friend had a 240Z in excellently rust free condition, was just suffering from a case of the Hitachi carburetor blues with a side of family life.  He would get crazy lowball offers from people who would then insist that the car wasn't worth that much.  (If you can find 240Zs with the original floors for $1000 all day long, POINT ME TO THEM.  I would pay a $1000 finder's fee per car.)

My thing would be, a survivor should be priced more than the sum of its parts so that it doesn't get parted out like a thriving business getting sold to an capital investment firm.  Because it IS worth more as a complete vehicle, and should be priced that way.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Agreed. I had to chuckle at the math from these knuckledraggers offering lots for rare/great-condition parts, but insisting it the whole cars should be worth $5K tops. 
 

In the end I sold it complete to another die-hard enthusiast and age peer. Riding in his car at a trackday in the early 2000's inspired my build. I sold it at a price that we were both very happy with, and it is now at the perfect home. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

hybridmomentspass said:

Depends on the car. 

Im considering it now with a car that's been sitting for a long time, could be saved, but I dont want to go through it and, well, it's sat for 7 years on a major road with no takers so I dont think anyone else wants to, either. 

Also - parting ONE out could save DOZENS. 

What car? Anything cool you could flip to one of us for a quick buck and let it be saved whole?

 

As far as partout: just because its cool doesn't mean anyone actually wants it.  Im ok with partout of fairly common cars. I mean, i parted out four neons to save mine, an few gmt400 to save mine, a miata or two, a few dusters, etc. Im ok with it, as they were commercial at the time and the example wasn't especially awesome in any way.

80s MR2...automatic.

I thought about it for a GRM Challenge car, but I saw the auto tranny...and then was informed there was no title either.

If youre interested I'll just get you the information, no need in buying it and flipping to yall

In reply to hybridmomentspass :

Not it on that one. 

But may be someone else around here!

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I can tell you, having just emptied out my basement of VW Corrado VR6 parts (well, almost) that I gave away a ton of stuff and sold parts at very good prices.  Why?  Because I didn't want them in my basement!  So yeah, when someone was at my house to buy parts, I was tossing stuff at them too, as long as I liked them! 

There gets to be a point where you just don't want that stuff cluttering up your space anymore and you're happy it can be used by someone.  I gave away a lot of my spare E36 M3 parts for that same reason, car was gone, young enthusiast came over looking for stuff and I loaded him up.  He practically cried...

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Exactly.  When I was offered my parts corrado I told the seller he could get at least $1000 more than what he offered it to me for.  His reply?  He tried to sell it already and nobody wanted it!  So despite being a cool car with some good parts on it, no one wanted to try and save it...

SV reX said:

In reply to dculberson :

I have no problem with your business. 
 

I have a problem with MYSELF and the countless hours I have spent salvaging stupid E36 M3 of little value off a worthless car when I could have been spending more time with my kids. 
 

And I know I'm not alone. 

I hear that. 

As an update, I looked at the car on Saturday.  It is rough.  Just for parts, it would be worth the 800.  But, it isn't worth it to me for the trouble of dealing with it.  The seller said that she had several people coming to look at it.  

It seems like there are some types of cars that enthusiasts blow through dozens of good examples to hoard  a few parts from each one which eventually ends up making it hard to find anything but expensive perfect examples if someone wants one.  That part doesn't really seem fair, and I make a point of avoiding that.   

I part out a lot of Focus SVTs. The parts are in high demand and Ford has pretty much discontinued making them. The cars I part are train wrecks and rust buckets I get for cheap. They are far beyond making a nice roadworthy example. Those parts are used to make better examples stay on the road.  Either way, I don't feel bad about parting them out. 

I take a metric crap ton of E36 M3 for parting them out. Mostly from "enthusiasts" who can't do basic mechanic work, but expect me to do a full restoration. There is a forum member here (I won't name names) who went to great lengths to try to shame me on Facebook for my unforgivable parting sins. 

You buy it you do what you want to it. Not going to get riled over an RX7 (but if you decide you want to stich a Chev V8 into the last extant copy of a rare model of Ferrari, I still have that bullwhip in the closet....)