Sourcing car parts can be a frustrating experience.
Image: AI / ChatGPT
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and in the case of entrepreneur Sashen Subramoney, that need was born from a range of frustrating experiences.
Before founding Car-Parts.co.za, Subramoney had spent countless hours trawling online listings and WhatsApp groups, often dealing with unreliable sellers, scams and endless “is it still available” messages that led to nowhere.
“One incident that really pushed things over the edge was when I was personally scammed on a popular social media marketplace while trying to replace injectors,” Subramoney said.
“The deal involved swapping my old injectors for ‘refurbished’ ones and cash. They looked clean and new, but once installed, they didn’t work at all. It later became clear that these weren’t properly refurbished, and they were simply injectors from a previous victim that had been cleaned and passed on again.”
Given how expensive injectors are, he found this experience both financially painful and deeply upsetting, and reporting it to the social media giant led to no action, and the listings remained active.
“That made it clear to me that I probably wasn’t the only person affected, and that more people were likely being scammed in the same way. That experience really highlighted how exposed buyers are on large, general-purpose platforms,” Subramoney explained.
This led him to start Car-Parts.co.za from scratch, as a platform specifically catering for car parts. The aim was to serve everyday motorists, as well as mechanics, small scrapyards and informal traders with a more focused and purpose-built marketplace.
The product allows buyers to search more efficiently, using parts numbers and location filters, while sellers receive enquiries from people who are genuinely looking for parts. Subramoney said the platform aims to reduce fraud by encouraging transparency and providing a more structured and accountable environment.
But what challenges has he faced while trying to implement the project?
“Trust has been one of the biggest challenges, particularly in a market where many buyers have been burned before, and many sellers are used to free but unregulated platforms. Building awareness and credibility without a large marketing budget has meant growing slowly and organically,” Subramoney explained.
To date, almost 600 parts have been listed on the platform, while the app has received almost 1,000 downloads on the Google Play Store, with over 200 registered users already on board.
Overall, he aims to restore trust in a space where it has been badly damaged.
“It’s especially important for small, honest traders who often get overshadowed by bad actors.
“The goal is to create a safer, more focused environment that protects both buyers and sellers.
“A blessing will be to create more jobs in South Africa and help secure the existing jobs in the automotive industry. And just putting smiles back on people’s faces,” Subramoney concluded.
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