Lou Apples Makes Car Part Sourcing Its Spring Priority
With spring underway, Lou Appel's Auto Spares has a message for Johannesburg drivers chasing an elusive second hand component: the quickest way to find it is to name it and ask. Operating from Selby under the Lou Appel banner in one guise or another for upwards of ninety years, the firm is steering motorists, independent workshops and backyard mechanics to its online part request service as the warmer season brings its familiar surge in repairs, restorations and pre holiday servicing.
In the South African calendar, September is when plenty of deferred jobs finally make it onto the books. The cars that scraped through winter on a worn engine, a whining gearbox or a split bumper roll back onto the ramps, and the quote for brand new genuine parts pushes many owners to hunt for a used substitute. Filling that gap is precisely what a long established second hand spares yard does, and it explains why Lou Appel's has designed its site around a straightforward request form instead of a sprawling parts catalogue.
How the part request service works
Six pieces of information are required on the request page: a first name and surname, a cell number, an email address, the make and model of the vehicle, the year it was built, and the exact part or parts being sought. After submission, the business rings the customer back. No commitment comes with the enquiry, and there is no requirement to know a part number beforehand, which helps owners who can describe the fault but not the component. Anyone preferring to talk to someone immediately can phone the yard on 011 493 8260 or use the site's WhatsApp option, where an agent waits to help.
What makes the callback approach a good fit here is that stock keeps moving. Vehicles come in, are stripped, and their serviceable parts land on the shelves, so what sits in the yard during the second week of September differs from what was there in the first. Logging a request with the make, model and year allows the team to check it against what is in stock now rather than a list that held true a month earlier. It also ensures a customer who is away, or who cannot reach Selby inside trading hours, still receives a reply.
Stripped vehicles, tested components
The yard itself stands behind that request form. The Scrap Yard is where whole vehicles are dismantled carefully so the parts worth saving remain fit for use, and it bills itself as one of the most established operations of its type in Johannesburg. Engines, gearboxes, body panels, electrical parts and a long list of smaller items all come off vehicles passing through the yard, and the inventory shifts as fresh stock arrives.
Every component is checked and tested before it goes on sale. Customers may either visit Booysens Road in Selby to look over what is on the floor, or submit the vehicle details via the site and have availability and pricing confirmed ahead of the trip. For anyone reviving an older car, or running a work vehicle on a tight budget, being able to inspect and handle a part before buying is part of what draws people to a physical yard over a faceless listing.
The engine room
Engines are handled as a distinct part of the business. The Engines for sale section stocks local and imported second hand petrol and diesel units together with gearboxes, arranged by manufacturer so a buyer can head straight to the marque they want. The list spans more than thirty makes alphabetically, from Alfa Romeo down to Volvo, and the stock figures beside each brand paint an honest picture of depth. Volkswagen, Audi, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Opel, Kia, BMW and Mercedes each carry solid counts, mirroring what genuinely passes through a Johannesburg yard rather than what a catalogue would like to claim.
Naturally aspirated and turbocharged units alike are covered, for newer vehicles as well as older ones, and reconditioned and low mileage choices sit beside standard second hand stock. Buyers weighing used Engines against a rebuild or a new unit typically consider three things: whether the unit fits, whether it has been checked, and the price. Lou Appel's says its engines are thoroughly inspected and tested for quality, performance and reliability, and that pricing stays competitive without lowering the standard of what leaves the yard.
Who the yard serves
Roughly three groups make up the customer base. Independent workshops and mechanics want a dependable supply of second hand components so a repair quote stays within what the owner is prepared to pay. Private owners arrive after a single specific item, frequently a body panel following a knock or an electrical part that has given out on a car too old for the dealer network to still stock. Then come the restorers and enthusiasts, who need parts for vehicles that lost support years back and who gain the most from a yard that has been stockpiling for decades.
The makes dealt with span most of what travels South African roads. Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Opel, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi and Renault all appear, meaning most of the passenger and light commercial vehicles in Gauteng are covered. That range is what makes a single enquiry worth submitting instead of ringing around, since one request reaches a business already dealing with the majority of common makes.
A third generation business
For a spares yard, the company's history is remarkably well recorded. Lou Appel, whose father Max was a blacksmith, founded it around ninety years ago, trading at the outset as Lou Appel's Motor Graveyard. Lou kept it going until he died in February 1982, and his son Raymond stepped in during January 1983, establishing Lou Appel's Auto Spares TVL (PTY) Ltd. In 2014 Raymond handed the business to his own son, carrying it into a third generation. Hardly any firms in the trade can claim that kind of continuity, and it is partly why the yard is happy to invite people to come and inspect stock for themselves.
As well as selling parts, the business buys damaged cars, and that is where much of its incoming stock begins. A vehicle written off as uneconomical to repair after a crash still holds considerable value in its components, and sending it through a yard that strips it properly keeps those components in circulation rather than scrapping the lot.
Trading hours and getting hold of the yard
Trading runs Monday to Thursday from 08:00 to 17:00, Friday from 08:00 to 16:30, and Saturday from 08:30 to 12:30. The yard is shut on Sundays, and the business asks customers to call about public holidays. The website form and the WhatsApp option stay open beyond those hours for anyone wanting to lodge a request in the evening and receive the callback the following working day. Full details of the stock, the engine listings and the part request form are on the Lou Appel's Auto Spares website at https://louappels.co.za/.
About Lou Appel's Auto Spares
Lou Appel's Auto Spares is a used auto spares business in Selby, Johannesburg, supplying second hand car parts, engines, gearboxes, body panels and electrical components for most makes and models. Now in its third generation, the business has traded under the Lou Appel name in one form or another for more than ninety years. It strips vehicles at its own yard on Booysens Road, inspects and tests components before sale, buys damaged cars, and accepts part enquiries by phone, by WhatsApp and through an online request form.
Media Contact
Lou Appel's Auto Spares
Email: info@louappels.co.za
Phone: +27 11 493 8260
Website: https://louappels.co.za/