This'll make some of you weep.....

[embee]

Where I'm working at the moment, a brand spanking new, unused, never fired, Aston Martin V12 engine was brought into the workshop on a pallet .......................promptly taken apart and scrapped.

It's an HMRC thing, VAT/Duty and all that stuff, but a shame none the less.

[Specialone]

Thats just a waste, if there's a tax issue why didn't they auction it off then keep the proceeds for tax.

[embee]

There's all sorts of liability issues as well if you sell stuff, policy is simply scrap it.

[squirrel_hunter]

Where I'm working at the moment, a brand spanking new, unused, never fired, Aston Martin V12 engine was brought into the workshop on a pallet .......................promptly taken apart and put in the back of my car.

Fixed for you.

[beabert]

In the skip outside :D where in warkshire do you work? lol

[Specialone]

There's all sorts of liability issues as well if you sell stuff, policy is simply scrap it.

The police do it with ill gotten gains from drug dealers etc, can't see how it's different tbh:confused:

Still a shame though :(

[BigBaddad]

I reckon it'd fit into an SV frame.

[-Ralph-]

I'm speechless!

[maviczap]

The police do it with ill gotten gains from drug dealers etc, can't see how it's different tbh:confused:

They do normally, there's probably a reason why they haven't

[Stuuk1]

I'm desperate to make a coffee table like the one on top gear... This would have been perfect!


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.692626,-1.744935

[Lozzo]

In the skip outside :D where in warkshire do you work? lol

I'd take a guess at Gaydon, where AM have an interest in the ex-Rover facility there.

Say hello to Gareth Jupp at AM from me, if you know him

[Lozzo]

The police do it with ill gotten gains from drug dealers etc, can't see how it's different tbh:confused:

Still a shame though :(

In a previous life I owned a car trimming company and used to strip cars of their cloth interiors and retrim them in leather. I was pulling apart a fairly new but used Fiat Coupe in High Wycombe when I found two 9mm Beretta pistols in plastic bags under the rear seat, complete with about 200 rounds of ammunition. Naturally I didn't touch anything more, shoved the rear seat back into place and called the police after informing the dealership. A police ARV attended with all the advertising going off, then another, then another... and the original two coppers removed the guns and someone else took a statement from me down at the station.

Turned out the Fiat dealership had bought two cars from a closed auction of seized property belonging to drug dealers that had been convicted, and unknown to the police and whoever seized the cars there were guns hidden in at least one of them.

[metalangel]

But Lozzo, you could have started a hardboiled life of diving sideways in slow motion, long coat flapping, doves taking wing behind you, firing one of the guns in each hand.

[sandman]

I was once doing a contract for LG electronics in slough and they were replacing all there tv's in there showroom with new ones.
It pained me to watch as they took down the 60" tv and proceeded to put a sledgehammer through the screen and chuck it in a skip!
All to do with electrical testing and liability

[-Ralph-]

In a previous life I owned a car trimming company and used to strip cars of their cloth interiors and retrim them in leather.

Does that end up looking professional (as good as OEM) and what kind of cost? What about side-airbags, etc, can they do the break open stitching?

I wanted leather in the car as with my wife and kids wipe clean would have been a big time saver for me, one less job to do on a Saturday, and if my son drops sticky sweets or something it's nigh on impossible to get off cloth trim.

I bought a 9 month old Avensis recently (registered after 01/07/10 has a 5 year warranty), and the T4 model with leather and auto-wipers, auto-headlights was about 4 grand more expensive on the second-hand market, so I bought the TR as I have switched on wipers and lights myself for 20 years, and I wasn't paying £4k extra just to get leather.

If it cost a grand or so I'd go and get it done.

Sorry for derail, if it turns into a big discussion rather than a quick one post answer, I'll start a new thread.

[hongman]

Am I being dumb, I dont get why they would scrap it.

[embee]

I'd take a guess at Gaydon, where AM have an interest in the ex-Rover facility there.



Nope, guess again, it's over the county border.

[embee]

Am I being dumb, I dont get why they would scrap it.

When stuff is used within industry for R&D etc, there's no VAT+duty and so on paid, and I believe other accounting "stuff" means writing off value and the like, but it's on the basis (with HMRC) that it ends up scrapped not sold on.

[Lozzo]

When stuff is used within industry for R&D etc, there's no VAT+duty and so on paid, and I believe other accounting "stuff" means writing off value and the like, but it's on the basis (with HMRC) that it ends up scrapped not sold on.

I've seen the complete cars used for durability testing at Millbrook Proving Ground crushed at Ampthill Scrap. Rover 75s and MGFs with only 2000 miles on them, Vectras, Corsas, Fronteras, Lotus Esprit Turbo etc and all perfectly good fairly low mileage cars, but each with a tax liability value if registered and sold on. It was cheaper for the manufacturers to scrap them.

[Lozzo]

Does that end up looking professional (as good as OEM) and what kind of cost? What about side-airbags, etc, can they do the break open stitching?
<snip>

If it cost a grand or so I'd go and get it done.

Sorry for derail, if it turns into a big discussion rather than a quick one post answer, I'll start a new thread.

Short answer is:

If a good trim kit is used then it looks as god or better than factory. Manufacturers build cars to a price, so the leather in most new cars isn't all leather, the sides and skirts of the seats are normally in a matching vinyl. Before I set up on my own I worked for an OE supplier of leather trim sets (Rover, Saab and Vauxhall/Opel) so knew the price constraints all suppliers have to work to.

When I set up on my own I used to buy full leather kits from an Italian company - their quality was far better than that found in the car from new. For a start it would take me a good day to fit a kit to a standard 5 door hatch, whereas I've seen two factory workers chuck a set of covers onto a Vauxhall Tigras seat frames in less than 5 minutes... but they looked like crap.

A bespoke set of trim would cost the customer upwards of £1800 ten years ago, an Italian trim kit job would cost the dealer somewhere around the £1000 mark and always looked far better than factory... and usually better than a hand made set by a local trim-shop. The Italian firm had certification for airbag stitching with all the documentation required and I'd attended courses at a couple of motor industry training centres to get me qualified to make airbag suitable seat covers and door panel inserts. If needed I would hand make a trim set, but the call for that wasn't great as most people would opt for the trim kit option and specify colours/styles etc from a list on the order form.

I packed it all in ten years ago because the market was dying - most manufacturers were supplying leather so cheap as an option across the range and there was a huge influx of really cheap and nasty kits for the models I specialised in (BMW and Mercedes) from South Africa which virtually killed all profit making in the trade. I went back to the bike trade and haven't ever regretted it.