Alternative sources for buying car parts

So I have a part I need to buy. It actually looks like it is a pretty generic part made by Hella (An H4, type E 7" round headlight). When I go to ATU they want to sell me the entire headlamp unit including the backing mechanism & mount. When I go to the main dealer, they will sell me the generic Hella part but at main dealer prices.

Breakers yards don't seem to be very abundant here. The one I did chance upon years ago only had newer cars (I have a MK1 Golf Cabrio so nothing like that there).

There are online retailers in the UK that sell this part for like 10 quid. The cheapest I can get it for here is at a VW dealer for almost 80Eur! (Atu want to sell me the whole assy for nearly 100).

There must be somewhere I could find generic round Hella headlamp units on the cheap, missing out expensive main dealer middlemen. Please, does anyone have any clues or tips on how to save meself 50Eur on this?

Ta,

Tom...

you could try this place:

http://www.schindelar.de/

if you send an email to this address stating what part you want, they'll tell you whether they have a used one for you:

h.stadtmueller@schindelar.de

they will also source the part nationwide if they don't stock it.

Do you have an excess (selbstbeteilegung) on your teilkasko insurance, because if you don't you can claim for a new headlamp through that. It's counted as glass, so comes under the same thing as a new windscreen. You probably have got an excess, because you usually have to specify that you don't want one when you take out the insurance, but it's worth checking.

Interesting. I thinks I will have to call my insurance about that. If it counts as a claim though, it's simply not worth pushign the premiums for the sake of 80Eur.

ebay?

http://search.ebay.com/Hella-H4-headlight_...PageNameZRC0023

I did ebay last night and lost a full set of headlights. Don't have time to wait for any of the other auctions I found as I need to be back legal asap.

These are the guys you should contact. They probably have just about any part ever made for German cars. If you don't believe me, then tune your TV to the DMAX channel Wednesdays at 20:15 or Sunday at 19:15.

Ludolf Autoverwertung
Mittelstr. 2
56307 Dernbach
tel: 02689 1259
http://www.dieludolfs.de/

Try Ralf's VW-Parts (http://www.ralfs-vw-teile.de/english/index.htm) 30 clicks west

He does not do water cooled VWs but if you ask nicely he can probably guide your search...

Claiming against your teilkasko doesn't affect your no claims bonus, only claims against the haftlich (Third Party) or vollkasko (Fully comp) affect that.

I got fed up and we needed the car legal again so I just went ahead and bought a new one. The lazy way. Thanks for the tips though everyone!

edit: I did chase some of the leads though, so no advice was ignored