Is "totalling" a car more difficult now that we have eBay?

[windshieldbug]

I'm not sure it makes that much difference...

back when dinosaurs were traffic hazards some of us had favorite junkyards to do a manual footwork "eBay" search and did exactly what you're suggesting to keep our junk running.

I don't recall junkyards making it any harder or easier to total a car!

[iiipopes]

But be ready for this if you encounter a situation that is declared a "total" loss: my inlaws had to pay "salvage," in other words, a deduction to the gross amount, in order to keep it.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

I'm not sure it makes that much difference...

back when dinosaurs were traffic hazards some of us had favorite junkyards to do a manual footwork "eBay" search and did exactly what you're suggesting to keep our junk running.

I don't recall junkyards making it any harder or easier to total a car!

I think you're missing Bloke's point.

The difference is that you can, with eBay, obtain parts from nearly anywhere that are already pulled and cleaned up...ready for sale. You are extremely limited in your local area junkyards, and most of them don't do a very good job keeping records of their inventories (i.e., they don't know specficially what parts they really have at any given time).

The unfortunate fact is that most people aren't savvy enough or motivated enough to look for their own parts on eBay and befriend a local mechanic who will allow them to purchase their own parts and bring them to be installed for a moderate labor charge. Most folks simply hand over the ball to their insurance who then trust the _ _ _-_ _ _ _ body shop to get the parts (at a price inflated even over list!) and install them at an inflated labor rate. After all, the insurance is paying for it, right?

And people wonder why insurance rates are so high. See the health-care debate for a similar problem.

[tubatooter1940]

I am trying to turn driving junk into an art form.
Either one of my junkers gets more than a grand or so worth of trouble will be traded or junked out.
One car I traded in never moved again under it's own power. They had to tow it to the junkyard.
toots

[windshieldbug]

I think you're missing Bloke's point.

Probably. I seem to miss a lot of things, except for that #%@$#% mountain...

anyway, what I was trying to say was that it was just a whole lot faster and a whole lot more convenient now.