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[Marks DTM Calib]

I will add there is one guy, must be late 50s early 60s now, he's been there since the days the garages said 'Vauxhall-Opel-Bedford' on them. He's spot on, and will look briefly, poker face, and then say the part name, pause and mutter what he thinks is the part number - and more often than not will get it right first or second time. Just confirming it on the comp. No EPC, just knowledge.

And more often than not, when I've been in on foot and got one of the other blokes, he's happened to be walking past - glanced at the oily broken thing on the countertop and just gone "V6?" (or similar) Then turned to his colleague, mutter a special jungle-vauxhall-incantation and the guy's then been able to find it on the EPC.

They will be the ones who used to do battle with the microfiche and hence many part numbers used to get written down or memorised.......a habit/skill that seems to have been carried forward with the EPC setups.

I personally find EPC quote logical to use and find things, you occasionally get a few odd ones but not often

[Andy B]

....

They will be the ones who used to do battle with the microfiche and ....

Microfiche ........ the best thing to go in the bin. 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Yeah, like I say, I had no problem finding the part via the online EPC thing, I find it very easy to use. I was baffled really why the (clears throat) expert was having such a time of it.. and then doing the 'durr.... doesn't look like it has one' thing. Well I can safely say it was a nut that came off!

[andyc]

Ah, but it would appear he was looking the number up under exhaust pipes not manifolds. Under manifolds EPC lists nuts and studs but under exhaust pipes it only lists bolts, my 2.5 has studs/nuts on one manifold and bolts on the other.

So he didn't get it entirely wrong but could use a bit more time or common sense  to look further on ECP and to be honest the first time i was asked for studs/nuts it took me a little longer than normal to find them.

Problem we have these days is we just don't have new blood coming into the parts trade, kids either want to be a Tech or Salesman, nobody ever thinks of the parts trade. The ones that do come for interviews are hopeless and have a job writing there own name in the correct box on the forms.

Also there is no training for parts, you can give someone an over view of EPC and how it works but you can't train someone to know where very part for every car is listed, i've been in VX parts for twenty five + years now and i sometimes still think where the hell have they listed this part, also doesn't help that different people including those in the trade have different names for different parts.

What we do now is if we take on someone who doesn't know much about cars then we kit them up and put them in the workshop to shadow a tech for a couple of weeks so at least they get an idea of what parts are and where they go, not sure if other dealers do this as well, also it can be a confidence thing about asking someone on the phone to give a better description of the part and its placing.

So at the end of the day he may have been daft or it may have been the idiot who wrote the EPC page and put the part in the wrong place as to why he's having a problem. Also with a car this old it could have been someone had mucked about with it and fitted studs in place of. The best one i had was a guy on the phone wanting a front skirt for his front bumper. The car was an LS model so it wasn't factory and how he described it i couldn't find anything like it. I asked him to pop in so i could have a look and when he did it wasn't even a GM part.

If anyone wants an internship (no pay) for a month to see what its like on the other side of the counter/phone then let me know

Andy

[Diamond Black Geezer]

haha. Good thoughts. For future reference it's in the 'fuel and exhaus > exhaust manifold' bit (though he found the correct section still claimed it was still a bolt. Still, they've 7 nuts in stock, so I'm not going to complain)

Luckily (well... I say luckily  ) I did my work experience at a Vauxhall Dealer, both sales and parts. I think the sales rep who took me on a tour of the parts dept shelves was a little surprised by this little 15 year old boy eagerly pointing and dusty things on shelves in dim light - "OOH! Mk 1 Senator/Monza series 2 Steering wheel!...Is that a wing off a Mk 1 Astra? It is!... Carlton GSi 24v tail lamp - because it's tinted..." etc...

Some years later, at Uni (I walked past a Dealer on the way into my building) I was inquiring about older parts. The guy then asked if I was able to identify a rear wing, which he thought was a Mk 2 Cavalier. I pointed out it was Mk 1 Carlton, and by the shape of the rear side window this was series 2 (sometimes gets called Mk 2 Carlton, then the '86-'94 model Mk 3 but that's splitting hairs). He wasn't sure. Anyway, next time I popped by they said yes, I was right, they found it and it was Carlton Mk 1 S2. I offered one afternoon to try and help identify any other bits, of which part numbers were lost/stickers faded/sticker peeled off etc... The answer came back "Oh, no. We have a system. We have it all on file, we have a computer which tells us." I politely explained that they didn't know what the rear wing was off. And I wasn't asking for a wage, just to help, rather than see late 70s/early 80s parts go in the bin. The guy just stared at me blankly.

Horse. Water. Drink. 

[cnj]

two excellent thoughts from andy and dbg. unfortunately prior thought is sadly lacking in nearly every trade/occupation I come across even as a groundsman working alongside/for teachers, we older chaps have had to think for ourselves over the intervening years and have learnt to resolve the problems, unfortunately the younger generations in general have not been taught to think about the (what if's) in life so when something goes awry an awful lot get lost with the problem !