I'm not keen on this at all

[WeeMan]

Raistlin, please don't take the huff. I understand what your saying, but that particular site is a great idea for us parts-wise, enabling us to identify the precise (sp?) part were looking for.
Anyone wanting to CLONE a car, as has been said above, just needs to go to a car park/car sales lot, look for one THE SAME COLOUR as they have, copy your plates and write down your VIN number that's on display. Hope I'm still on your Christmas list mate.

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by WeeMan

Raistlin, please don't take the huff.Hope I'm still on your Christmas list mate.

Moi?? Huff?? Don't know the meaning of the word

I too would like to see X-Part loosen their grip on the parts catalogue and imagine it would be an excellent resource assuming the potentially damaging data was removed and it was officially released to the public domain.

Not sure it'll ever happen though - have you any idea how much they charge dealerships to receive those disks?

If I've sounded huffy it's probably because I didn't get my point across. Always a problem with the written word.

Let me see if I can put the thrust of my argument a different way:-

If a thief wants to take the risk of gathering the information he would need to say, clone my car (although other fraud could be possible) by potentially exposing himself to questions as to why he was peering intently at the VIN plate in my windscreen, that's a risk, a calculated risk that we all must take and we assess the risk as minimal, quite rightly although I stand by my statement that cloning is on the increase.

However, if some spotty faced nerd who was bored one evening then blithely hands him a means of finding all the information he needs, from the comfort of his own home, in a few mouse clicks, without him ever having had to see the car or even be within 300 miles of it, that's altogether different, in my view.

I choose to assess and manage my own risks, thank you very much to the individual who is giving my car's information away.

In summary: Yes to the parts catalogue being available to all, no to handing the thief his tools.

Actually, as an aside, with the general mass of the population seeing Rovers as nondescript, almost invisible cars, I wonder whether they might actually be MORE of a target for that very reason?

[GreyGhost]

Originally Posted by pondweed

Can't be too careful with Anthracite.

Can't see why you would fuss over a bag of coal.

[tourerfogey]

Raistlin - I hear what you say but I think your fears are verging on paranoia.

[Jules]

Why don't Xpart just make individual parts enquiries Online possible?
So for example you would register as a potential customer for them, (username & password etc) put in your vehicle details, and then Xpart's EPC program could then give you the parts info you require.

The secure factor would be that if you don't enter your correct VIN, no info could be accessed or supplied. KISS (keep it simple)

[Pete]

Now that is a good bit of thorough-thinking Jules, gets my vote.

[Jules]

Also Xpart would gain business selling more OEM parts.
A deal could be struck with them to give Paid up members here a discount too!!