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After just posting about headlight bulbs it suddenly occured to me..
I've always sort of 'dissed' ECP but recently they've been great for service bits, cheaper than most factors if you ask for trade prices (they always oblige) and they're open Sunday.
Maybe I was wrong avoiding them with Halfrauds?
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Ritchie
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 765
Club RR Member Number: 12
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Euro Car PartsRitchie
@ritchie
Club Retro Rides Member 12
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I’ve used them for years, sometimes the can be slightly more expensive but the parts are quality.
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Ive never had a bad experience with them in terms of parts quality or customer service, and ive always got what i needed. Comparing them to halfords is like comparing apples to pears.
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brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,320
Club RR Member Number: 72
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Euro Car Partsbrachunky
@brachunky
Club Retro Rides Member 72
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They are convenient for me so use them often.I think they have lost there edge just a bit on standard price stuff.
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Euro Car PartsMercdan68
@forddan68
Club Retro Rides Member 68
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Superb service in crayford Kent branch Nick there is car enthusiast and never gets parts wrong Halfrauds??...no thanks no comparison
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Fraud owners club member 1999 Jaguar s type 1993 ford escort
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I tried them a few times and in general they could be cheap or massively over priced with I found strange the quality of the bits was appalling. Had nothing but hassle with a EGR valve that was that badly manufactured that it wouldn't fit on the car. I personally will never use them again. Considering we run 12 vehicles they are the losers
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Last Edit: Oct 8, 2018 8:59:45 GMT by winchman
It will come in handy even if you never use it
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If you're buying mail-order from ECP, it's always worth looking at their sister site, carparts4less. Same part numbers, mail-order only so no good for emergency jobs, "special offer" percentages usually not as high but usually still works out a little cheaper in my (limited) experience.
I had an argument with them many years ago about a part they supplied wrongly ("your car must have been modified") but then I've had the same argument in Halfords. Both sorted the issue out, though.
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Issue I normally have is with any component which has rubber in it. Most I have bought have split or fell to bits within a year. I only use genuine OE parts now which contain rubber.
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steveg
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,565
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Our Camberley Auto Factors that became Andrew Page has now become ECP. I'm not convinced this is a good thing as lack of competition wil have an effect. Halfords were known to be a bit naff back in the 80's when we rode BMX's but they seem to have convinced the general public they are better than the old school bike shops, put them out of business and are becoming one of the few places to get anything now. They are gradually stopping selling the useful stuff they used to now as well. Hopefully the factors that supply trade will continue to sell to the general public. I've noticed a trend with engineering supply places either only selling to trade or having a minimum order for counter sales.
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steveg
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,565
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Issue I normally have is with any component which has rubber in it. Most I have bought have split or fell to bits within a year. I only use genuine OE parts now which contain rubber. You need to find out what make stuff is. For Volvo Scan tec does a lot of stuff, some of which is not fit for purpose but having said that I bought some genuine Volvo ARB bushes that cracked when you tightened them up.
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Jez
Part of things
Posts: 517
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I've had mixed experiences regarding both products and service over the years.
Some products I've bought have turned out to be hopeless. A set of track rod ends for my wife's New Beetle lasted around 6-8 weeks! I've since gained a greater knowledge of aftermarket parts manufacturers. Febi and Lemforder stuff seems very good quality.
And service, I've been stood in the branch waiting at the counter and I can see them all cocking around in the back office ignoring the growing queue of customers. But other times I've ordered something online, next minute they ring me and say it'll be with me in under an hour. And it was!
Generally though, you can't knock them for convenience when you need some weird part on a weekend.
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1990 VW Golf GTI G60 2014 Skoda Octavia RS
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They've been really handy for me on lots of occasions, local, usually competitive on price, helpful and good on returns. They beat Halfords hands down, unless you want a tent, stick on M3 badge and a childs bike in the same store.
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Euro Car PartsDeleted
@Deleted
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Our Camberley Auto Factors that became Andrew Page has now become ECP. I'm not convinced this is a good thing as lack of competition wil have an effect. Halfords were known to be a bit naff back in the 80's when we rode BMX's but they seem to have convinced the general public they are better than the old school bike shops, put them out of business and are becoming one of the few places to get anything now. They are gradually stopping selling the useful stuff they used to now as well. Where I live I'm a bit short on places where I can get to get parts or materials that I might need that day. There's Speedy Spares who provide a special kind of service that inspires potential customers to not only avoid them but to will them into a slow and painful bankruptcy - and that's only if you're lucky enough to get there when they haven't locked the door and put the CLOSED sign up because, I presume, they just hate people and need some time to themselves. Aside from that there's an EBC that is on the far side of a semi-permanent town centre gridlock, or 2x Halfords stores less than a mile away. For generic materials, consumables and the odd component, Halfords seem okay to me and I tend to buy all the basics from there since our big car place closed down. Sometimes they're cheap (car batteries) sometimes stupidly expensive (10x zipties in a little presentation pouch for about £12 vs 100 zipties in a polythene bag everywhere else for tuppence). I use them carefully and wisely and I find the quality of their stuff is very good for the prices asked. Great for tools, particularly if you just need a one-off thing. They have stopped a lot of stuff though. They used to sell coils and HT leads and stuff like that and they don't any more. I fit's generic, they'll stock it. If it's specialised in anyway... forget it. But that's fine by me. I wouldn't ever use a Halfords oil filter for example, or buy any technology from there, but for the bits and bobs one might need quickly, they do okay. Always the slightly annoying "What's your reg number?" at the computer when you ask about something though, and they simply will not accept when you tell them "You wont have my car on your system", "Oh I think you'll find we do sir, we have everything on this little beauty here. Now, what's the registration number sir?"... "it's ....." "Oh. Right. We don't have that one in our system. What car is it sir...." "Reliant Scimitar" "Hmmm, lets have a look... Renault Simi...simi... AH! here we are sir, the Renault Scenic"
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autojumbled
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 221
Club RR Member Number: 106
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Euro Car Partsautojumbled
@autojumbled
Club Retro Rides Member 106
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If you're buying mail-order from ECP, it's always worth looking at their sister site, carparts4less. Same part numbers, mail-order only so no good for emergency jobs, "special offer" percentages usually not as high but usually still works out a little cheaper in my (limited) experience. I had an argument with them many years ago about a part they supplied wrongly ("your car must have been modified") but then I've had the same argument in Halfords. Both sorted the issue out, though. I use carparts4less a lot for service parts and bits for my crappy diesel Almera. Always loads cheaper than elsewhere. However, I've been caught out by a few bits. I need to re-do drop links and I believe trackrod ends as these have lasted just under a year! That's not great but then again they were less than a tenner!
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Quatermass Rose Autos motor factors in Crawley beat most hands down plus chaps on counter are enthusiasts with good all round knowledge but a few miles away from you though
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Started out with nothing and have most of it left.
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Euro Car PartsDeleted
@Deleted
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Thats a good shout. Crawley is a fair way but certainly not out of reach.
Cheers for the tip! I'll check them out.
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last experience was seriously not good. wanted an oil filter for my 1.1 106...you would think i was after a left handed throbulator valve for a 1902 sir galahad mk6...by the time i explained THREE times that no its not an element filter its a cannister type i was getting pretty gnarked off at being generally mucked about and told they didn't stock any (which they did)!!
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating '80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip '97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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Online service , I'll never buy again after they sent oil not the filter , despite me chasing for two weeks and proofing my card had been debitted for both parts and the counter service in Poole well get the wrong time and the queues out the door and they only ever seem to have two people at most and usually one of those is being trained .
So GSF or the local SMC for me, infact SMC tends to get more business as being a smaller business I feel the need to keep these guys around , been shopping there for 35 years.
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retired with too many projects!
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,714
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Euro Car PartsDez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Ecp are dogshit.
The parts they sell are awful quality, with no option of better ones at an increased price. Be warned that previous ‘premium’ brands like pagid are now an Ecp in-house brand, and the quality has plummeted to something lower than blueprint. Ever brake product I’ve had from them failed before it wore out- pads glazed or fell apart, discs warped etc.
The final straw for me is they charge trade customers (considerably) more for parts then they are if you just walk into a store or order online. That’s not how I expect to be treated when I’m spending a considerable amount more than the average joe. I called them out on this and they tried to Bullplop their way out of it. Suffice to say I don’t hold an account with them anymore.
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