Where do you buy your car parts?

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Mostly online anymore as most brick auto stores are poorly stocked or substitute low quality parts or out of spec parts. Rockauto is decent, GM Parts Direct and other GM part websites are good. NAPA online is decent and better than their brick stores. Advance Auto is ok, Autozone sucks on toast, they will ignore a line of customers to wait on their buddies first. Qjet parts specialty websites are the only way to get correct parts for your carb. Jegs, and Summit are decent for some performance parts. Specialty body supply stores and websites are the best for paint and other body work supplies, auto chain stores just sell crap in that regard.

 

[Hickrocket1258]

Craigslist. If new, mostly Rockauto since I just need little things that are odd ball.

 

[JBsCamino]

If I have to have something local, I go to Autozone over Advanced Auto. From a quality perspective they are probably the same, but for whatever reason the Autozone doesn't have huge lines and seems less ghetto in my town.

Otherwise I try to shop around and buy online instead of the store. I have Amazon prime and you get a surprising amount there. Sometimes the quality is cheap, but it depends on what you need. I already looked around for when I get Moog springs and KYB shocks for the El Camino, Amazon has the cheapest price.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Sadly the mom-and-pop stores are fading fast and that is where I prefer to shop but there are none close to me anymore. Otherwise if I am not in a hurry RockAuto is hard to beat price wise and they can get really obscure stuff that the chain stores can't. If it's an emergency then Advance is close and I can get 20% off online and pick it up right away.

 

[Dayzedandkonfuzed]

Lordco auto parts. Of course I'm the manager of one so I don't have much choice lol

 

[joesregalproject]

Sadly the mom-and-pop stores are fading fast and that is where I prefer to shop but there are none close to me anymore. Otherwise if I am not in a hurry RockAuto is hard to beat price wise and they can get really obscure stuff that the chain stores can't. If it's an emergency then Advance is close and I can get 20% off online and pick it up right away.

There is still one mom and pop shop near me, and as much as I like supporting local businesses, I don't like purchasing from them. The never have anything in stock and the parts are always off brands that I have never heard of and don't trust, and they are difficult to return items to. My NAPA is a locally owned franchise so I don't feel bad about shopping there. I wish there were more independent stores though.

 

[MrSony]

Mostly summit. Summit pretty much exclusively from my Buick 350 Build. Also TA Performance. For my Thunderbird, normal parts stores, Advance, AutoZone, etc do welll enough.

 

[83grocerygetter]

I'm lucky to have a local parts store nearby, been using them for many years, if they don't have it in stock they get it within hours from satellite stores. And they always beat the big guys prices by a few bucks. Performance parts from a local speed shop (Murray's) And Amazon.

 

[1evilregal]

all depends on what I'm needing... for the most part, Advance for the general and emergency stuff (besides, I used to work for them dealing with the local shop- you take your car in for repair, I'm was guy they call for parts... plus I still have stock in the company). I usually do a google search for some of the specialty parts and check different vendors....

 

[Judge Mills]

I'm a good 30 minutes from my nearest autoparts store, so I end up doing a lot of mail order. BUT, I price everything out before hand. I usually compare Amazon to Carquest and AutoZone. Sometimes NAPA and O'Reilly's. Like everyone says, the best parts come from NAPA and Carquest, and everything is questionable from the other two. It really depends on the part.

For speed parts, I flip flop between Summit and Jegs. Mostly Summit, as they seem to have more parts to choose from.

Amazon can at times be a good deal, but sometimes their prices are a lot higher than other places. I had a set of Bilstein shocks on my wish list, and they would fluctuate between $45-$95, thanks to it being a third party seller that offered them. I ended up getting them from Summit. Amazon also doesn't have that great of variety, BUT, it's a great asset if you are buying stock replacement parts. I hate driving a half hour just to find out the store doesn't have the part.