Great and Terrible Parts Vendors

[Dravec]

At the dealer where I work we get the bulk of our aftermarket parts from Autozone. Our store is awesome, but I think they vary tremendously from one to the other. All the chain stores do, it's all in who works there and how competent they are.

MASSIVE x2 on the fact that the people behind the counter make or break the perception of the entire chain. My store that I worked for had a phenomenal team, with people that had a ridiculously wide range of expertise. From modern tuner cars, to truck and off road stuff, to classic Volkswagens, to vintage 60's-80's cars, to oddball cobbled together outta 10 different vehicles stuff. We had a habit of going out of our way to help folks get what they needed. The first O'Reilly's I dealt with basically ruined the whole chain for me, over refusing to honor a warranty. Only to go back to warranty a starter out with them later to find that they had deleted my entire warranty file. So I try to avoid them at all costs now.

And just in case anyone is curious, if you're trying to adapt a GM HEI distributor (Summit conversion distributor) to a Ford 460, the correct wire set is off of a '76 Olds 98 with the 455.

 

[RCSB_jonny]

I've had a pretty good experience with RockAuto and CarQuest. Being from Canada, I don't have nearly as wide a selection for parts that have prime shipping as people on the US

Yeah I'd be really interested to hear from other fellow canucks what stores they've had good experiences with.

 

[Leonidman63]

That's a b*tch! I've not done business with them but, will keep that in mind. I've had the best service from Summit Racing, a lot of times, if you order enough $$$ ($90+ IIRC) they will beat Rock Auto! I save stuff like T-shirts etc in my "wish list" to get over the threshold.

Summit will also price match, at least they did for me and I'm not big customer.

 

[Leonidman63]

That sounds irritating. Thankfully, I have not had that kind of thing happen.

A lot of shops are parts changers instead of diagnosticians, parts stores accept their returns as "new" when they have been installed in order to keep their business.

 

[Leonidman63]

I get my part numbers from the manufacturer's catalogs and use that on Amazon. Amazon's part fitment program can be off at times. When purchasing over the counter open the box in front of them and check the part to see if it had been pre-installed by parts-changers. Have them test the part in front of you if possible to make sure it's good. Keep your receipts and/or copy them for your records. When I quit O'Reillys due to health issues they deleted my entire file so I had to use my back-ups.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

My personal opinion is that buying parts online is great if you can plan the repairs, but if it's a quick fix or a gotta have it done now, I'll go to the parts house.

I recommend xl parts, napa, oreilly and dealer for quick parts. Special order amazon, rockauto, and maybe 1aauto.. there good but some prices are up there. Jegs was good to me as well but never tried summit. I'm sure there the same like everybody said. However jegs was a dollar cheaper for the alt then summit lol.

 

[Bondovw]

I like rock auto for small simple stuff. For stuff that's a bit more complicated like carpet kits I would not buy from them. Some of their information is incorrect on the website. They sent me the wrong flooring and I lost $500. The person I talked to didn't seem to have any automobile knowledge and didn't seem to care. They never corrected the problem or fixed the website.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

I like rock auto for small simple stuff. For stuff that's a bit more complicated like carpet kits I would not buy from them. Some of their information is incorrect on the website. They sent me the wrong flooring and I lost $500. The person I talked to didn't seem to have any automobile knowledge and didn't seem to care. They never corrected the problem or fixed the website.

Agree. For interior I looked at lmc and there carpet was pretty close to the original. Only complaint from me was the rear cargo carpet was cut too perfect. Wish they would of givin me 2 more inches of play

 

[pokey]

It sounds like there is a great deal of trouble with buying from E-bay and Amazon.I buy from Summit ,Rockauto,and GMPartsCenter.netThe last is not cheap,but I have found they will work with you to get the absolute correct part.Example,the rear seal for my 95 Chevys NV3500.Another was the throwout bearing for the same application.The aftermarket is kind of hit or miss with some stuff.Summit, as you may or may not know,has a full line of OEM type replacement parts.I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[TacosnBeer]

Pro Performance in Arizona is awesome... check them out. Travis and Eddie will take care of you!

https://azproperformance.com/