UK distributors

**david brown** · 01-21-2004, 02:59 PM

Are there many UK based distributors of Din sized and other Car PC equipment. Or does everyone tend to buy from the States and Far East.
Any pointers as what are best options, as looking to start importing and sellling to the UK market from our base in Southampton.

David@PCmediastore.com

**Ricky327** · 01-21-2004, 08:21 PM

I see poeple in here seems brave enough to buy directly from far east, I guess the far east are very good at doing business these days...probably better than from UK or US.

I ordered 100 pieces of electronic parts worth a few thousand on a tuesdays and turn up on a friday

**NJay** · 01-22-2004, 04:54 AM

I tend to buy my CarPC bits froms various UK sources

www.ultim8pc.co.uk (very good email response from owner who posts on here from time to time)
www.linitx.com (seem to have some of the more obscure items like flex pci riser cards and miniUSB mb to std usb MB connector adaptors)
www.ebuyer.co.uk (if they stock it then they are normally the cheapest)

I bought the lilliput vga screen from Electronicar (US based) via ebay as they were by far the cheapest at the time @ £228 and that's with getting clobbered for VAT AND Customs duty. They ship it straight from HongKong and it took less than 1week to get here.

Others I have not tried yet

www.action-replay.co.uk (UK Based)
www.cartft.com (Mainland Europe but ships to UK)

HTH

**Falken** · 01-22-2004, 09:59 AM

I'm an authorised dealer and have access to most components necessary to build an in-car computer. Notably the Via boards, Cubid and Travla cases. Why don't I bother promoting it? Because the margins are wafer thin, the market is price sensitive and there's always someone willing to cut their margin even further! I honestly don't know how some companies sell at the prices they do.
Just recently a customer wanted a component I don't stock. I checked with my Distie, got the price. Price-matched a competitor and placed the order with the distie. It arrived in a bubble pack with no external markings. Sent it to the customer who, on opening it, found it was the wrong part. Customer sends it back to me, I return it to the distie who replaces it with the right part. Send it back to the customer and end up £7 out of pocket on the whole deal!
I do import, amongst other things, laptop power adapters, 12v/12v DC 60 watt regulators and GPS from Taiwan, China and USA.