the 'Brake Dust' thread to French moves on asbestos in car components which was Brussels inspired. I recently found it difficult to get Visa pads from the usual places so went to an old established Citroen specialist of 30 years plus standing. They admitted they were running down parts for Visas but rummaged around and found me an OE set (with the asbestos warning). However, they said they would not be ordering any more when the present stock runs out because "Citroen will only accept orders of at least 10 sets at a time". If this approach is used by other car makers and if the pressure for asbestos-free parts increases, I see little chance of either OE continuing for older cars or it even being worth the while of non-OE suppliers tooling up for the alternatives--one of those I tried for the Visa pads (listed but all sold) was a frequently-recommended national specialist for Cits and certain German motors.
My point, at long last, for the bangernomics enthusiasts is to stock up now at autojumbles, or wherever, because I think many standard replacement parts for even early 90s cars could soon be disappearing from your local motorist shop and trade in OE bits might even be made illegal.
Now, if anyone has asbestos-ridden brake shoes for a Triumph Super Seven or a clutch to fit the Triumph-built Coventry Climax engines, I promise not to tell the authorities about your anti-social behaviour and will dispose of them humanely.
David
PS The OE asbestos pads were a doddle to fit, work extremely well and don't throw out much brake dust (well. they wouldn't from a Visa 10e). On my wife's Prelude with pattern pads from Halfords (make forgotten), the alloys are covered in brake dust at the front. Likewise, the 900 when I was running it.
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David
Minimum order quantities have been around for years for dealers placing factory stock orders. The only occasion a dealer will insist on actually supplying a minimum order quantity of say 10 units and you only want 1 unit is when he has not got any normal demand for the balance of stock.
Hope this explains this seemingly unfair situation.
Charles
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Charles
I am sure it isn't an unfair practice for current models or for dealers. The people I got my brake pads from were non-franchised Citroen specialists, who I first used when running a 2CV 25 years ago when they were an official service agent. My point was that the practice, which probably enables a bulk discount, discourages such people from holding stocks for older models, making availability a problem, and discouraging owners of older cars from hanging on to their cars too long if there's a delay every time it needs some service parts.
Subsequent lack of demand, when coupled with the pressure to remove asbestos from clutch and brake parts, makes it less likely that OE replacement parts continue to be manufactured. To be fair, I'm not knocking Citroen especially because it was able to supply me with an off-the-shelf exhaust for a model of which only 300 examples were imported.
Finally, I would urge the bangernomics enthusiasts to watch out for garages/dealers advertising clearances of what they term older parts. At recent autojumbles that has included Citroen BX, CX, XM parts, and SAAB 900 and 9000 bits, all in original packing.
David
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David
To sum up as far as a manufacturer is concerned its all down to demand from the remaining vehicle parc. Ford have a policy of only keeping parts available for their models for only 10 years after model run out. Sierra stocks will be run down next (last built 02/93).
However do not despair there are loads of specialists out there and availability for any cars built in volume with a few thousand left running around should not be too bad; its just a case of searching and asking around.
Charles
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