As much as I enjoy watching cars get fixed, I’m really enjoying the behind the scenes videos you’re doing while the shop is sorted out.

Great history lesson on how core charges have evolved 😎

In the 90s I worked for a large boat motor brand. They would offer a “trade in” (ie core charge) for the old power head (the actual motor in the outboard) that was 3x what it was worth as a second-hand running motor. I couldn’t understand how this was profitable. Completely blown up motors (eg holes in the side) would come back, and get the full core refund. Eventually it was explained to me that they were stopping sub-standard parts from entering the supply chain, and by offering such a high price, the dealers would be compliant with the policy. Mind you, we still got “empty” motors back, where a dealer got cheeky and had kept the con rods and pistons. They only got one core rejected for doing that, and learnt their lesson. Some motors came back as a box of rubble, and still got the full core charge back - as long as we could find each of the parts (say 4 pistons for a V4, 4 rods, a crank with enough journals (no matter how may pieces) etc. In dollar terms, if the replacement motor was say $3k before the core policy came in, the dealer would sell the broken one second hand for $500, and only be out $2500 in parts (but likely charge the customer $5k). When the core charge was introduced it became about $4250 for the same power head, with a $1500 core charge. So the dealer has a choice - sell the broken motor for $500 again, and be out $3750 for the parts cost, or return it for the $1500 core charge, and be out only $2750. Sure, the company “lost” $250 on each power head with the core charge, but they gained maybe 4x that in real terms by keeping those parts out of the second hand market. We used to destroy any usable parts (hammer a hole in the block, drill a hole in each piston etc) and then put it all in scrap metal bins. It was a very quick education for me in capitalism and sales strategy.

I know its takes a while to get things sorted out after the fire, but we're always interested in what ever progress is being made in the recovery process.

I’ve spent 25 years working in a salvage yard my family owns and Auto Parts retailers. You did an excellent job explaining it

I'll be damned. That was way more interesting than I had expected! Thanks, Scott.

Nice job Scott, great to see new content again!

Great rundown. I always figured that the core charges on non rebuildable parts was all about recycling, going after every dollar. But there's more to it than that.

I've noticed junkyards have started charging cores. I did wonder why. It would be great to learn more from you. I do like the way you work and your sarcasm is funny. Keep doing it

i started watching this video and Vehcor had 200 thumbs up, at the end there were 550 including mine. Thanks man you always have great content.

It's pretty much the same here in Onterrible Canada. If that new rim came from a rebuilder, they would have a core charge just to get the broken one back. Most of them will use badly damaged rims as pieces to rebuild one in better shape. Very good explanation Scott.

That was a great video on cores. It actually brought back a lot of memories, some not so good. Being a core checker was my first job. I worked in the diesel industry for 44+ years. A lot of work and sometimes it came back to bite me. I do remember after moving in to the resale side of parts, the company came out with a program to accept Rotomaster turbos as a core just to get the competitions product out of circulation. That’s didn’t last forever as they ran out of their own cores to rebuild. I used to open boxes to record the s/n for warranty purposes and it would be a brand new component in a rebuilt box. Bonus day for someone.

I've always wondered about core charges on "crash parts" , thanks for explaining it.

There are a lot of companies who destroy product to keep the supply down. I once worked in a guitar factory, and they smashed any that didn’t pass QC; dozens a day!

What an absolutely fantastic explanation Scott, been messing with cars for a long time but never really dove into the core charge concept, kinda just accepted it as a fact of life, somebody getting their bite off the pie. That was great, thanks man.

Thanks for the education Scott!!

I absolutely love your videos! Id love to see a video where you talk about the largest changes youve seen in your 35 years of experience rebuilding cars and with the automotive industry in general, just to pick your brain!

I'm in the rebuildable wheel business. You're spot on.

Makes so much sense, thanks for putting this out there.

Love your work Scott

Thanks for another very interesting talk on how the auto parts market works. Much more to it than I would've imagined.

Great informative video, thanks for sharing!

Good seeing you again Scottie !

There is another reason for core charges. Depending on the local laws there are sometimes requirements that something that isn’t going to be repaired needs to be recycled or disposed of properly. The core charge is to ensure that the item doesn’t get tossed in a creek or something.

We have core charges in Australia, but it's usually only on aftermarket/rebuilt parts so they can keep the ball rolling. (Steering racks, gearboxes, engines, differentials) It's surprising how protective the big brands are of their designs, even down to a bucket of shrapnel that used to resemble a taillamp or similar. Keep up the good work 👍

Great class on core charges!

Thanks for the video Scott.

Good info....Thanks Scott

Great video Scott ,very informative,appreciate the update.continue doing what you do best and carry on 😎😎😎👍👍👍

I like these instructional videos Scott. Keep em coming.

Most excellent Scott. Thanks👍

Thank you for the video. I learned a lot. Keep up the good work.

Hey, that was very informative. Thank you for explaining it to us.

Hope things are going better for you, got my hooded sweat shirt THANKS!

Your knowledge of the business is impressive. Keep up the good work.

Awesome video! The insight is credible and of course, satisfies curiosity….hope your situation is progressing and we see you back in action soon!

I thought I knew but it turns out I didn't. Thanks Scott! Love these knowledge drops.

Thanks for the lesson Scott! Don't deal with it much, but it's good to know what happens to my parts when being changed out, that is if there is a core charge.

Love this insight!

This may be a good direction to take for your channel. You've always been a good educator but this expands sharing your knowledge base. 👍👍👍

Hi Scott, Very rare we have core charges here in UK, some independent rebuilders (E.G alternators, starters etc) may charge but no manufacturers that i am aware of. Great videos keep em coming.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge

Thanks for the history lesson. Been away from that scene for lang enough to be lacking in know why.

Timely video, Scott. I haven't had any issues with core charges until recently. I bought a reman (in Mexico) brake booster for my 26 year old truck. The core value was less than the cost of shipping it back. I'll probably make a battle bot out of it. Last week I bought a NEW OEM starter (Made in USA!) from the dealer and was surprised to be charged a core...on a brand new part. I questioned the parts guy, but the manufacturer's website does show there is a core on this new part. First time I've seen that.

Great explanation. I had no idea of the idea of price controls by the manufacturers. The sound was much better too!

Thank you for all this info! This video is a keeper. You're a wealth of knowledge and obviously took time to find out how all this works to fit into your business.

Thank you for making this

Thanks for the education

Excellent explanation. I'm a 30 plus years as a heavy truck mechanic and learned a couple things I didn't have a clue about. Especially about the emblems inside of head and taillights. I just thought it was for the cool factor. Anyway I'm still fairly new to the channel and definitely enjoy the content 👍🇨🇦🔧

Excellent video

Great job. Great explanation. 100 years ago, I worked at a place that rebuilt starters & alternators.... I was recently told at a big auto parts store that the cores aren't that relevant anymore.... So if the starter, let's say, is $200 bucks, and it has a $30 core on it, let's say, just hypothetically..... They get $230 bucks when you pick it up. The guy told me that maybe half, maybe less, of the cores come back.... I think it was 45 days.... So he was basically saying half the time we make better money on the part, and half the time we don't... And half is better than none....

Good job

Love the content, love the humor

You definitely have interesting content. Keep it up

Keep up the good work , great info and content! Like to see content on CoPart and IAA video walk throughs and other auction related insider info.

My UKposts education, Thanks for taking the time

Great video sir

I like these instructional videos, keep them coming!

Very insightful and learned a few things!!

Great video... MANY Lessons Learned !

Great video. 👍🏻

I like this style of video from you, keep it up.

Well explained

Thank you Scott, great explaining of and about 'Core Charges' didn't realize it is a that complexe but considering this american market, it's not surprising. Thank you again for the investigative report !

I used to work for Canadian Tire (Canada) and they were a leader it parts supply. They charged and rebuilt EVERYTHING and did millions and millions of brake shoes and pads. I always found it funny, brake shoes for my Dodge dart were $5 with a $1 core charge. All that is diff from "new" is the backing plate was new. Doesn't matter to them if they glued the shoe material to a new or cleaned up and painted old plate. Even easier with riveted brake shoes. drill out the rivets, the left over contact material fell off, clean it up and rivet the new material on. A lot of yards up here don't like selling aluminum wheels because often the price of the aluminum is worth more than the wheel. At one point it was $5/lbs and if the wheel weighed 30 lbs, that's $150 for the aluminum alone. There's a "auto recycler" here that will come and dispose of your vehicle for free, you get a receipt for a taxable donation. They immediately remove the wheels because that alone will cover the cost to send the truck out to get it. Some will give you $100 for your scrap car, it's worth 3x that in scrap metal alone even if it doesn't have any aluminum.

Another Great Video…Thanks

Great! video as always.

Tbh I don’t really have any specific questions about the rebuilding industry but I am intrigued and want to learn more

Here in the U.K. we have started seeing core charges on breaker yard parts - Over the last couple of years - as you mentioned if you miss that window they keep the money

Thanks Scott! Intresting how things have changed since I bought parts at a "JUNK" yard in the '60's. Glad your doing ok 'bout time you had your complete own shop anyway..you have a supervisor and a pizza lady/your all set to go.

Liked the parts lesson. I recently bought a car from copart. I was very surprised by the amount of the fees and needing an appointment to pick up my car. Maybe a good topic for you to discuss the auction in depth.

great info!

Really interesting topic. I'm in Canada and it sounds to be very similar process here.

You're definitely an American Classic. Awesome video Scott. 🚗🚗🚗

When I worked at Honda in the parts department, we had a car return of a quarter of a front bumper cover from the body shop because that’s all that was left after an accident

That was interesting, i thought it was much more simple and straightforward, thanks for the info

Great video, no core charges in Honduras, but i have bought parts in the u.s. from salvage yards and autoparts stores, and that core charge i have to live with, because shipping back to the u.s. would be more then the part itself.

Damn! Now i know ..nice job Scott

You're such an amazing contributor to the UKposts community you fill me with such deep inspiration! 😂 Bots are out of control still.... But seriously....I've always wondered about core charges and how they work thank you

That's cool; I didn't know that about core charges, I knew how they worked 20 or 30 years ago, but I didn't know how much they changed.

Very similar situation here in Australia

Here in south Texas in the border with Mexico salvage yards use cores on engines and transmissions mostly for parts they usually sell the covers or any undamaged parts inside of them.

Dang, Scott ... Thanks for the education :o)

Happy Thursday, Scott!🍻 I had a feeling you was going to drop a new video.

Good content from "behind the curtain"....Thank you!

I always follow the money, and Scott does a great job of doing the same. Companies are always doing things to make money, you just need to know how they make the money to be in the best position to deal with them.

Great info please do video on what junk yard network you use and who has nationwide.

Algo brought me here… but I’ve worked with stealerships and body shops for 20 years. My experience with why cores are charged on body parts from stealerships Is… it’s a interest free loan for the stealership. You touched on this but i think it’s the main reason. Stealership charges core. Body shop returns core. Stealership then takes 1 to 3 months to credit core back. That’s a short term loan of hundreds of thousands of dollars that is interest free. Also if the body shop doesn’t do everything perfectly they lose the core refund. Again this is for body parts. You touched on it but i feel it’s the main reason its still being practiced in auto collision repair industry.

In South Carolina, dealers (and yards) began charging for "cores" years ago. Unfortunately for them, it is not legal to charge a core when selling a NEW part. The dealers' arguments were typically "Corporate started requiring it of us." I believe the wording of the Magnuson-Moss act is what was used to circumvent their assertions when a local shop refused to pay it and was successful at doing so.

If you're watching this video and don't know what a core charge is, the UKposts algorithm is trying to broaden your horizons.

Really valuable information! Canada doesn’t have the same availability of parts, used, new, or reman…even the stuff made in Canada. The US market is so much more competitive. I expect jobbers here are taking a hit because of online shopping. It easier to find parts online and shipping to Canada is often closer than shipping within the US. I ordered some Lexus parts, small plastic hard to find gizmo, direct from Toyota Japan, dealer cost here was $200 Canukistani, and I paid $27 US,,with shipping less than $40. Core charges are same in Canada .

Great explanation! The branded parts thing makes me wonder how much of the "we've made this part to fix OE design flaws" some aftermarket parts companies do is merely avoiding the branding (copyright?) issue. The ones I've dealt with certainly LOOK like they're better, but it would take a lot of testing to know for sure.

in Australia same same

An evolution of Vehcor channel also, started as the best crash rebuild channel and now is a history one. Core here in Canada is the same as in the States and is very profitable, so a $5 loss from time to time isn't a huge deal, especially when it involves a good returning customer.

We've got junkyards (mostly self service) around here that charge a core charge on almost everything. The metal stuff I get because they make money by weight. But the rest besides whatever they can sell to a core buyer is just to make money. If you turn it in they just throw it out but the other 5 people before you they just keep that extra few bucks.

I had a idea this was the reason for them. I used to part out rigs that did not sell well from my shop that no one came back for, some were just a rip off for me to have to work on something so I was too busy for other jobs and other local shops who were not busy, "Wonder why", and you guessed it, they got those easy brake jobs and such. I figured out that parting out a good running rig taken apart for those cores were just as easy money as the fixing them and made more than those guys messing with me. I live in alaska, not easy to get parts or even replacement part from any wrecking yards. Oddly someone always wants what you figure is worthless. I am curious tho why a car in the fifties they claim out sold other big three cars sold is almost impossible to find.... that is the fifty seven to fifty nine ford two door hardtops. I grew up owning a lot of them, they were the easiest to buy as by then they were around six to ten years old. Bought them for little cash and even swapped for a few that were great cars. There was one nice one that grandma died and the kids wanted it gone so for ten dollars I drove home a rig that had a hundred miles on it but parked for ten years and to the kids selling it, was a eye sore, wasn't a volkswagon. So for the highest selling, where are they... almost every fifty five to fifty seven chevy is found and fixed up

Thank you for making another great video Scott. I first learned about this in 2015 when my mom's 2013 Ford Explorer bumper cover had a core charge on it and the thing was completely destroyed/obliterated. I asked the body man why is the h** they would want a mangled up piece of plastic and he pretty much told me it was to keep it out of the hands of someone that "might" try to fix it and sell it online.(Facebook M.P. and eBay) Which is basically the OPPOSITE of recycling.

I'm not aware of this being done here in Australia, as I've only ever heard it mentioned on US UKposts channels.

Great overview. I suspect on some stuff they bank on the end user just not sending it back for hassle or other reasons. The take rate on mail in rebates is abysmal, this is similar I'm sure

Thanks!