To stock or to buy and use

[romain51]

Hello I was wondering do you prefere to stock at least the little material or buy as you use them.
Also do you change only the required material or do you change more.If you change more which is you minmal % that you keep.
And do you put old pieces (what minimum %) or not ?

[DutchGamer78]

I only buy rubber bushings as stock, everything else when needed.

[romain51]

Originally posted by Saturas:

I always try to repair if it could be possible. Usually stock next to no material, except when I restore two junkyard cars of the same model next to each other. Or if two cars require similar parts for the same kind of repair (like two cars needing new brakes) Then, those parts which can't be repaired or which aren't there are bought twice as I know I need them anyway. In missions I repair / replace only what I have to. Any cars I repair for the sake of it, so junkyard / barn / auction are completely torn down and rebuilt to 100%

you mean repair it on the bench ?

[romain51]

Originally posted by Saturas:

Originally posted by romain51:

you mean repair it on the bench ?

Yes

and for the % of pieces you put on a car when fixing it ?

[katzenjogi]

I like my inventory clean and lean - so I only buy the parts I need and sell the ones that I don't need afterwards

[m3c0]

If you have some spare unrepairable parts (for example after restoring a barn car), keep only those of them in good condition (above 55%, below 100%). You can use them later in cars you dont care much about and which will be sold anyway. If you sell a part from your warehouse, you are wasting money. Because a part has its full value potential only when mounted on a car. This will help you a lot, especially in early game, when you need every $ you could get.

Again - selling a part means wasting the half of its value. Keep the good unrepairable parts and use them later on cars you dont want to keep.

[engrsd]

I haven't found money to be a big enough issue in this game to really bother with hunting for or stocking parts. As you are leveling, i.e., before starting restorations, it's better money per time spent to just slam through orders, buying the parts you need. I prefer to concentrate on gearbox and brake orders and those parts are very easy to find in the shop and since they are basically the same parts for all cars (sans the gearbox) you could also stock a bunch right before grinding some out.

I tried hunting parts at barns / junkyards to repair and sell, but you don't make any money that way because of the repair costs. So unless you enjoy looking for parts as part of a role play or some other goal, just buy what you need.

[katzenjogi]

Originally posted by m3c0:

Again - selling a part means wasting the half of its value. Keep the good unrepairable parts and use them later on cars you dont want to keep.

Restoring cars only make sense if you do the full 100%. Without that it is a waste of time and money, as you will not get the bargain that would be possible. Storing good conditioned parts makes only sense if you like to have some spare parts for customer's repairs.

But I have made the experience that the money you get for the repair depends on how much you spend for the spare parts. The inventory calculates a value for each used part - so for a 2$ ignition coil you get only 2$. Have you spend 8$ for that ignition coil you get 8$ in reverse. So you cannot save any money at the actual game's mechanics of handling used parts.


All I can say is restoring cars with non 100% parts is a bad idea. You maybe save one or two thousand bucks for buying new parts, but at cars like the bandit, magnum etc you will loose about 20 000 - 30 000 bargain just because of you stinginess.

Even a missing licence plate could cost you about 10 000 bucks. Not to mention a rubber bushing or something like that.....

Make a self test, Change the rubber bushing of a 100% car with a 99% bushing and look how much less the car value might be.

[hackintoshchap]

I have a huge inventory of common suspension, engine, exhaust and drivetrain parts, but I do buy specific parts required for an individual engine before I embark on the rebuild.

Body parts, wheels, tires and interior/glass components tend to be bought as required.

I do not keep any cars that I build, all cars are sold straight away once refurbished and prior tostarting on the next following build.

[m3c0]

What you have written is fully correct, katzenjogi.

My point was - if you buy a car in relatively good condition (from barns or auction), you pay for it, right? You pay for its parts too. If you want to fully restore this car, and you just sell the old but good parts, you basically throw away the half of the car's value (because selling a part which would be worth 50€ mounted on a car, will bring you only 25€ => 25€ are wasted). Why waste the half of the value of the car you bought, when you could use it for more profit?

Of course you should use only 100% parts (even tuning parts only if possible) if you want to maximize your profit. If you get a nice low mileage supercharged car from junkyard, you will be a fool if you use worn parts when restoring it. But in junkyard there are quite often cars with weak engines and high mileage. Using best parts on them wouldn't bring you much profit anyway. Why not use such cars in order to "clean" your warehouse and make a full use of your parts? Or as you said - you could use such parts in customer jobs too. That was my point.

In late game this "startegy" wont bring you much, because in late game there are no money issues at all. But early on, when you need every cent, throwing away the half of the value of a barn car is not the smartest thing to do, in my opinion. It's better to use the parts you already payed for, instead of selling them with 50% loss.

[Finrod TurAnion]

I keep a stock of certain common parts; Rubber Bushings, brake components, tie rods, sway bars, clips etc. It makes things way faster and easier in my view

[CoyoteJohn]

I stock common components that aren't repairable, such as brake pads, tie rods, bushings, spark plugs, etc., etc. I also put the stuff I get from the parts cases in storage for use on restorations (unless it's tires or rims...I just sell that crap).

It's funny what comes from the surprise case. I almost have enough parts to build a Mazda from scratch.

[Oparator Stalker]

I always buy new to replace parts, however to make things easy for me, I do stock myself crate engines. At lest 5 of the most common used and maybe 1 or 2 of the none common used since you can do builds on the stand via selection type of engine. But I just build the engine block with its pistons, heads, and covers plus water pump and crank pully, and do not put on anythig else till that car comes in, customer or project car, you know, something like you do with a real crate engine.. This dose help save time, and still not loosing moeny..