For those of you that missed the news a couple of months ago we partnered up with CarsForums.com and we have our own forum area titled Used Auto Parts and Car Recycling – Just today we cracked 2,500 views and are looking forward to having many more visit.

We have some really great topics over there and I would like to encourage our members and visitors to swing-on-over and contribute!

Thanks again to everyone that has helped this partnership become such a great success!!!

Here is my chat with Joe Bessler of Bessler Auto Parts, a great interview with lots of clever insight from Joe who is a really nice guy that is willing to share his success with others, including the lord.

Q. Hi Joe, can you please give us a brief history of your business?

A. Do you want the long version or the short?

Q. Well for this interview let’s go with the medium version?

A. I was an employee at another salvage yard. Basically decided I liked the business and I began to look for and pray for opportunities and the Lord sent several our way. One day I was approached by Charlie Patrick, a long time friend of my dads and the owner of Patrick Auto Parts. He wanted to retire but could not find anyone with the money to buy him out. So he divided his business into smaller specialty yards, found hard working, ambitious young adults who might be interested and offered them an opportunity. Charlie literally put me in business for myself.

Q. I notice your business has a very progressive website, utilizing video, images and some good internal content. Why do you spend so much effort on your site and has it produced positive results?

A. We believe that 50% or more of our business originates on the web.  For this reason we feel we have no choice but to invest in our website.

Q. What do you think the future holds for auto recycling in your local area and across the USA?

A. The number of auto recyclers decreases every year so the ones remaining have more and more opportunity as we move into the future.

Q. What is a typical workday like for you?

A. I get up at 6am, get ready for work, I try to get to 6:45 mass as often as possible, I arrive at work at U-Pull & Save around 7:30am, I try to get through my email first thing.  Then usually I have meetings with my managers.  I try to go to lunch with one of our managers and then I head to our full service yard which is 20 minutes away.  I repeat the morning routine there and before I know it 6pm is here and my wife is calling wondering when I will be home for dinner.  Nothing boring about my work day!

Q. If you were not running this business in this industry what do you think you would be doing right now?

A. Beats me, I cannot think of a business I would rather be in.

Q. If someone was thinking of opening their first auto salvage yard what advice would you have for them?

A. Keep your overhead low, work like a dog and with a little luck you might make it.

Q. Since the auto industry (new cars) has made so much front page news over the past 18 months what is your take on its future and why do think they got into so much trouble in the first place?

A. I think the unions ran the auto industry into the ground and jobs by the millions out of our country.  Also over regulation and government mandates have destroyed auto makers.  Government take over of these industries will only make the problem worse!

Q. When you’re not working or talking cars what do you like to do in your spare time?

A. My family is first so I spend as much time with them as I can.  I like to do volunteer work at church or our local food pantry, I like to water and snow ski, I love going to our lake house.

Q. What is in the short and long-term future of Bessler Auto Parts?

A. Short term our business is booming which makes the long term view look good.  But if we don’t get control of our governments run away spending, we will all be run out of business by taxation.

Thanks for your time Joe and I really enjoyed your honest answers, best of luck in the future.

We are starting a new feature where we will take a look at each of our affiliates and give you some background and info on them.  The article was written back in 2005 at www.PartsLocator.com

Matthew and Justin Skidmore and Bill Janssen own a neat, efficient and profitable auto recycling operation (www.BestAutoSalvage.com). They’ve been doing it for nearly 20 years. You can’t eat off the floor, but the veteran staff can take a phone order, locate the part and have it ready to ship in a matter of minutes. It’s what the business is all about.

Read the rest of the article here.

Over at Standard Auto Wreckers we are so busy we have vehicles flying in!!!

As many of the affiliates will soon learn we have really turned the juice up over here insofar as online marketing, promotion and optimization.  One of the initiatives I have brought in early is finding innovative ways to reach out to our grassroots demographic.  One way to get our message across is by sponsoring online forums where like-minded car enthusiasts already hang-out.  Please take a few moments to visit our sponsored forum area at http://www.carsforums.com/used-auto-parts-car-recycling/

These forum threads are a great way to boost awareness of our program and will also give us an opportunity to communicate directly with our potential customers.  If you have any questions or comments either use the built in commenting feature below, email me: (jgsaw123@gmail.com) or call me at 1-800-668-5014 x417

Has this plan been so succesful it has to be put on hold already, well the Wall Street Journal is reporting just that!!

The U.S. government plans to temporarily suspend its “cash for clunkers” incentive program because Obama administration officials believe its $1 billion budget has been exhausted after just one week, said several congressional officials.

Department of Transportation officials contacted lawmakers offices Thursday evening to inform them the program would be put on hold as early as Friday, these people said.

The program, which offers rebates of up to $4,500 to consumers who trade in old vehicles and buy new, more fuel-efficient models, was launched July 24 and sparked a surge in car sales.

There is probably a hundred thousand cars still in limbo looking for disposal and I guess we can expect another 4 or 5 billion to be set aside for a more substantial run at this program because of its runaway success.  It should leave us all in a great position to  profit from the next wave!

After the webinar yesterday we sure had a lot to talk about and after hours of doing just that we are in the proccess of putting together a very ‘awesome’ looking ‘kit’ for our affiliates to take around to local dealers so they can get hold of some of the vehicles brought in through the ‘cash for clunkers program’.

One of the burning questions we had was what would happen to the salvage price over the $50 the dealers are able to take as an administration fee?  It seems anything quoted (one of the rules of the program is that all dealers have to give the customer an estimate of the salvage value of their vehicle) above and beyond the $50 is taken off the price of the vehicle to the customers advantage.

I am getting ready to start a pool on how long the initial funds of $875,000,000 will last, want in?