Today's annoyance: The prices of used auto parts in Europe
I'm so jealous when I read how Americans go to a junk yard and pull whatever they want for a small fee. Here, you can't poke around old cars and pull what you want. Instead, the used parts market is in the hands of people who want to make lots of $$$ (or more like ). I'm seriously considering buying a second car just for the spare parts, and I'd still come out ahead.
A car like mine can easily be bought for 6000, if it's crashed than 3000-4000. If I sell the seats (2x250 + 3x125), the wheels (5x20 plus tires), and a few small doodads I'll get 1000. Anything out of the engine bay is worth its weight in gold. No, really: any tube, wire, nut/bolt, piece of plastic, etc., goes for 10-150. But it gets better: The same part can be priced differently depending on what car it came from. For example, an EGR cooler for my engine costs 50 if it is from a Pug 307, but from the newer 207 it goes for 55, and one from a 308 is worth 65. I've seen the same air filter box go for 5 (13yo Pug 406) and for 20 (5yo). So I sell off stuff saying it's from a newer model and I can break even right there. Then I sell the chassis for scrap, and I'm ahead, plus any spare parts I've saved are free.
Now, if only I had a few thousand spare and somewhere to store the donor car....