It breaks my heart....

[miketree]

Sooner or later there comes a point where they need a fair amount of welding to get through MOT.

To those folk that can weld, it's not a problem, but if you have to pay someone to do the welding, it just isn't cost effective.

Like you say, it's a shame. I'm looking for something cheap, but a lot of the vits on ebay are non-runners.

[mike harris]

I don't see the issue with them being broken as long as there broken properly.

It's the ones which people take a fee bits of then scrap are the ones that bother me.

I often sell parts to people who would scrap them if they couldn't get the parts cheap, and to be honest what we charge is generally less than 10% of the new cost of parts.

For instance. New drive shaft and cv off suzuki is £350 we charge £25.

Suzuki pitman drop arm new £100 we charge £20 for one on a steering box !!

With out people breaking them you couldn't afford to use them offroad. Well I know I couldn't.

The other thing is in India the suzuki sj is still made, and they made them in France until 2004. In America there are thousands.

Europe there are thousands, Spain, Greece, Malta, Cyprus. I have loads of customers from that area. They also can't afford suzuki prices so they come to me.

I am not going to lie I have had a proper amount of stick for breaking suzukis. But all of these people are arm chair warriors who just like to stir the brown stuff.

And like someone just rightfully said these vehicles are still through away cars, it's shame to say but it's how it is.

Mike

[dan_2k_uk]

I don't see the issue with them being broken as long as there broken properly.

It's the ones which people take a fee bits of then scrap are the ones that bother me.

I often sell parts to people who would scrap them if they couldn't get the parts cheap, and to be honest what we charge is generally less than 10% of the new cost of parts.

For instance. New drive shaft and cv off suzuki is £350 we charge £25.

Suzuki pitman drop arm new £100 we charge £20 for one on a steering box !!

With out people breaking them you couldn't afford to use them offroad. Well I know I couldn't.

The other thing is in India the suzuki sj is still made, and they made them in France until 2004. In America there are thousands.

Europe there are thousands, Spain, Greece, Malta, Cyprus. I have loads of customers from that area. They also can't afford suzuki prices so they come to me.

I am not going to lie I have had a proper amount of stick for breaking suzukis. But all of these people are arm chair warriors who just like to stir the brown stuff.

And like someone just rightfully said these vehicles are still through away cars, it's shame to say but it's how it is.

Mike

Well said

Better they are broken by someone that knows what they are looking at than a generic breakers/scrap yard who just have it for a fortnight sell whatever they can and chuck the rest in the crusher. 410 t-boxes and all!

[ScottieJ]

As I've said before I don't have any problem with SJs being broken if they aren't worth saving.

I just think its just a bit of a shame when they either wouldnt need much work to tidy up and sell on for a profit with only a few days welding/work (I know most of the ones you get mike don't fall onto that catagory ) or when they are the rarer models like Long wheel bases, Kja's and LJs. Yeah I know they still make the LWB in India under the maruti badge but the cost to actually import one and register it ( i have a feeling some imports need to be tested as well which isnt cheap!) would be rediculous so it's a bit of a shame to see the few we have left in the UK end up scrapped, Also the newer Sjs with coils that they made up to 2004 are esentially just jimnys with an sj body and have the weaker jimny transmission and axles as far as I'm aware. They do look good though I saw one last time I was in France.

We all need to buy bits now and again to keep ours on the road after all, even I do and some of you have seen just how many spares I have in my workshop, its like a suzuki parts store

[ScottieJ]

there is someone near suffold who has lots, he breaks ljs !!!

Do you have any details about the guy with the LJs Mike? I could do with some body parts if any of the ones he has aren't the usual LJ shaped bits of rust well my dads could probably do with a whole body

[andyrew]

ive used mike for parts quite a few times now (id recommend him to anyone) and its
sad to see any SJ being broken up, but it helps keep others on the road. hes certainly helped me keep my projects going. And most of the sjs ive had bits from have been pretty rotten and would be beyond financially economical repair to the average joe.

my soft top sami was going to be broken up for parts, i felt it was to good and decided to save it.
i unlike many others who wouldnt, stumped up the cash. i should have let head rule heart and checked it properly. "its just cosmetically challenged" i told myself as i was excited to get yet another toy to tinker with . but it was just a massive bodge up that has had a very very hard life and had bodge job after bodge job done to it.if i knew what the sami was like then like i do now, id say breaking it would have been a good idea. its been a bigger job then i ever planned, if someone had bought it for some weekend tinkering, and didnt have "spares" cluttering up the workshop like i do. it would have cost them a fortune in replacement parts, and would probably ended up scrapped.

All the parts to fix that one samurai have come from many other rotten Sjs being broken.

i also agree with mike on how they are broken. i bought some parts from a breaker the other
day. he was a great guy but didnt know suzukis that well, i took the parts i wanted off, but i also removed anything else that was left of any use so the guy could sell them on, it helps him but more importantly it saved the parts from going straight into the crusher. now those parts will go onto help keep another sj going.

in a few years time, decent vitaras will be hard to find. as so many are being broken up now to have the engines nicked out of them for SJs!