we had an advanced auto open up in town a couple of years ago. they are great. the NAPA store in town had only one of everything in stock. if you wanted two tubes of sealant or two cans of spray paint you were out of luck. they were at least 60% higher priced than pep-boys as well. I like the pep-boys store , but they are 7 miles away.
the advanced auto store has one or two guys who are experts, but its mostly kids or older folks who aren t, or weren t experts. they are all nice and helpful and bright. the store has had every part ive needed for both my jeep and my 75 ford, in stock. the prices are competitive with pep boys too. they have good tools, and even a big bin of cheap tools if you are broke and just need to get the job done.
as the above poster stated its management that really matters. the manager hired good people and trained them well. they made sure that the store was stocked with the right stuff.
@wesw, I can’t agree more! The quality of the sales experience at the store depends completely on the people who run and work it. My local Pep Boys is not so good, Advance Auto, better, Auto-Zone, almost a no-go unless I have the part number and the part in my hand and the internet says they have one. Still a 50/50 proposition. Napa, not as good as most Napa stores but serviceable. Car Quest, too far to drive unless they are the only ones that stock it.
Thank goodness for RockAuto, now Amazon (terrible search engine for car parts!) and specialty websites for the Saab.
I like Rockauto, and I’ve ordered several parts over the years
Here’s what I don’t like . . . you have to mix and match brands, so that all the parts come from the same warehouse. Otherwise you’ll get hammered, as far as s/h goes
Partsgeek also has a good selection, but they also play that game, where they ship things from different warehouses. For example, the waterpump you want comes from warehouse a, but the timing belt you want comes from warehouse b. So, to make everything come from the same warehouse, you have to make compromises.
What I like about partsgeek, is that the little notations next to the part # and description, let you know if it’s the oem part
Amazon often has the lowest prices, but if you don’t know the part #, it may be difficult to find what you need
I had to order a driver’s door window switch bezel for a '95 Mustang convertible a couple of weeks ago. The convertible is different from the coupe because 'verts have four windows and four switches. It’s not an item that salvage yards seem to have, anywhere, and the Ford dealer seemed to be the only option. Late Model Restorations had one available, but it was more than the dealer’s. They probably buy theirs from a dealer and mark it up. So I called the parts counter at Ford. The guy who answered was not one that I know. Must be a new guy. He took the VIN. Then he wanted the “engineering number” cast into the plastic of the original part.
The part they they delivered two days later was for the wrong side. I didn’t discover it until the driver had been paid, and was long gone. Soooo, I called again. I got the guy I’m used to talking to who apologized for the mix up. They’d put a rush on it. I’d have my part the next day. So the delivery man shows up the next morning. The price was the same, $72.12. He wouldn’t leave the part without a new check. No, the parts man said it was the same price, an even swap. I’m supposed to wait for the dealer to mail me a refund. No, not doing that. He calls the dealership, and waits on hold for several minutes. Finally he is cleared to leave the part.
Service, that’s what it’s all about.
My local hardware store is another matter. It’s a family operation in its third generation. The “kids” are in their 30’s. They grew up running around the store like their kids and the store’s cat do now. Ask any of them, except the youngin’s and cat, a question, and you’ll get the right answer.
The national chain auto parts chain counter help is WORTHLESS. We have a couple of local chains that are very good. Some of the counter help have been working there for 20+ years. Very knowledgeable. The only problem are their hours. 7-5.
I’ve had real good luck with one of our local chains “Bumper to Bumper”. The local one “Tims auto parts” is independently owned, but uses the bumper to bumper network for acquiring parts. The bumper to bumper web site is very poorly designed, so I use another chains website to research parts and prices though.
The Owner…Tim… is almost always behind the counter and he and the rest of the counter people are very knowledgeable. If they don’t know they will call the dealer as you wait and get an answer.
If I need torque spec’s, diagrams, exploded views etc. etc., they are always willing to help. Other than one young man and a young lady that have only been there a year or so…everyone else has been there at least 10 years. Yet even these two young ones knew their way around parts pretty good already.
If you ask for recommendations for a Tranny shop, carb expert, differential pro…they have the best names around.
There are too many times to count…that I’ve walked out with small items that the owner or a counter person, just motioned me to go, because it was not worth writing up the sale. An O-Ring here, a hose clamp there, a foot of hose etc. etc… Tim also hands out items free that were the latest great item to clutter up the counter and he’s getting sick of seeing them on the counter. Last I got a two pack of little magnetic lights that are teardrop shaped and will stick to your wrench. I never would have bought them, but found them handy a few times.
Every summer when a local farmer’s sweet corn is ripe, Tims hands it out by the dozen as a thank you for coming in, and he has a cookout in the parking lot every summer.
O’Reilly’s …next door to Tim’s has a store for the guy who thinks chrome tape, tire valve extensions, and Dr. Zippy’s Tranny Cure makes your car a race car.
Advanced auto parts…another half mile farther, no one knows what way to turn the wrench.
The McParts chains are putting local parts stores out of business and there’s no turning back it seems. O’Reilly’s has hired some of the counter help from mom and pop stores that have closed but Auto Zone and Advance don’t seem inclined to do so. Thirty years ago when Auto Zone was getting started there were 7 locally owned parts stores and today there is one. Auto Zone took advantage of the wide spread in pricing between jobber and retail to take the DIYers business away from the old mom and pop stores. Being the male chauvanist pig that I am it amazes me that so many of the McParts chains hire young women to work on the counter. The girls are totally clueless as to what the customer wants and it was always a lot of fun watching a new kid on the counter when the customer asked for a ‘center head gasket.’
Lucky for me, Tims has not been hurt by their close proximity. The doors are less then 50 yards apart and Tims will have three cars to every one at O’reilly’s. Except on some weekdays when all the DIYer’s are out and about.
I was only in this O’Reillys once for a service manual that I needed then and couldn’t wait.
When traveling I often take the old US highways if doing so significantly reduces the mileage and when driving through small towns I see the McParts stores and within a block or two there is a deserted mom and pop parts store. Accross Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia it is a common sight.
The small city where I used to live and now live on the outskirts of has about 50k people in it.
Thirty years ago there were about 10 locally owned auto parts houses. Half of them were in the second generation of family ownership. Every one of them is gone now. The last one held on for a few years until they were essentially forced into taking on a Car Quest franchise or go bust.
Five years later they were bust anyway and CQ is long gone although management fraud against corporate had a hand in that.
Most of the time the old stores had guys who were older and could often just walk back into the unknown and pull a part without even looking it up in the paper manuals.
The only thing there now is 1 AutoZone, 2 O’Reilly stores, and as of now, 2 NAPA stores. NAPA is closed on weekends and I essentially boycott them anyway. The thought of running a very successful NAPA store and getting a quarter million dollars of taxpayer money if they will open up a second store reeks to me.
But just like our chat about the chain repair shops being as good …or as bad…as the people there…
So , too , are the parts chains.
Mom and pops don’t exist around here either anymore ( there’s one left )
BUT , as mentioned here already, the chains sucked up the experienced and knowledgable parts people.
But even still, for many ‘‘chain’’ signs…it’s a mom and pop owner inside.
The beginning of the end was back in the eighties.
The NAPA was the only chain here at the time and had gotten Derrald. Manuel, and Kathy from a big mom and pop ( whose owner was aging ) to add to their generic counter clerks.
Manuel got the gumption to open his own and chose the Car Quest franchise for his mom and pop owned business. ( I painted his very first store signs on 4x8 plywood )
Manuel took with him Derrald and Kathy. THEIR customers followed them, no matter the brand label…
—There is no more NAPA here ! ! !
( Derrald passed away years back, Kathy still answers the phone but Manual , as the owner, is never on the counter any more. He has gotten three more very good parts gurus )
Our Auto Zone got a girl who is in this business as long as me. Sarena and husband even owned their own Western Auto down in Zuni back in those eighties I spoke of.
Now that she’s the backbone of Auto Zone’s commercial desk…guess who is my first or second call now ?
Even the O’Reilley’s has some of our local experienced parts guys like Felix and Virgil.
In this small town the pool of experienced parts people is so saturated that you’ll find the same people…at different places…over the years.
NAPA and Autozone have been fine for me. was at wal mart, going to buy a gas can, I had trouble figuring out how to get the new fangled fitting to work, finally found the helper for the department, he could not figure it out either, off to the garage sales for a replacement!
The largest maker of gas “cans” has gone the way of the mom & pop parts store. Too many lawsuits, not enough money. The newest can I have of theirs has gotten wes’s cork (actually rubber stopper) treatment. I promise not to pour gas onto anything that’s already burning.
My favorite mom & pop & brother parts store does an excellent job, but even they have become a Bumper to Bumper franchise. Their place is within 1/2 a mile from an AutoZone and an O’reilly’s in opposite directions. Business is not nearly as good as it was 10 years ago. I think some of the items on the shelves have been there at least that long.
It’s impossible to figure out the new government-sanctioned gas can spouts. Even if you do, you’ll spill gas everywhere trying to pour from one. I keep my eyes open for an old style can, but they seem to have all been hoarded already.
Probably nobody thinks cheap old gas cans are worth saving. I found an unused one for 5 bucks, thought it was a little high as new ones were only 8, but it was a charity garage sale, so no problem.
Reminds me when I lost the gas cap on my 20 gal tank for the boat, first option, stick a sock in it, then spent the .75 cents to stick a cork in it. Transom failed and now have 2 6 gal portable tanks in the replacement boat.
I work Hazardous waste for overtime, and we are actually collecting plastic cans now that people want to trash, after collecting the gas for recycling of course. Peoples parents move to a condo or whatever and we get everything except motor oil and antifreeze.
Cans of white lead, bottles of mercury, more latex paint than menards sells in a week, unopened 5gal cans of water seal, driveway seal, new cans of spray paint, scrubbing bubbles, drain cleaner, pesticides, herbacides, pool chemichals, saved 4 5gal grades of plane buffer for a bud, he had been payng $13 for a quart. A lady whose son had an airplane polishing business had left home and was getting it out of her garage.
Thank goodness this stuff does not go into a landfill, but keep thinking the best recycling would be to keep the good stuff and let people take it if they are going to use it.
I absolutely and emphatically agree with that thinking, barky.
In a small town I used to live, they built a large building with tables inside around the periphery for people to leave things they didn’t want any more. There was a section for electronics, one for exercise equipment, one for appliances like vacuums, one for reading material, etc. Every wekk when we’d drop off our rubbish we’d drop off things we no longer wanted that someone else might want. I got vacuum cleaners there, exercise equipment, bicycles (which I repaired and gave away to poor kids), and even TVs that I repaired. In the center of the building were three large holes with 55gal drums that dumped into tractor-trailers below the floor, for categories of recyclables.
I’ve always believed that repairing, repurposing, and/or passing on things no longer needed is the only true form of recycling. Everything else is overrated.
The first thing I do with a new gas container is disable the Three Stooges mechanism on the spout.
I’m limited to 2 hands and 2 opposable thumbs so unless I alter the container I end up cursing and sloshing gasoline all over.
There was a large well-stocked and warehouse based independent parts store here with their own paint shop and machine shop. Anything you needed they had.
O’Reillys bought them out about 15 or so years ago and is their main location of the 2 they have here. The secondary store is a joke and I only go there if I’m at rock bottom.
The main store was excellent but over the last 3 or so years the older people have been moved out and replaced with a different caliber of counter person.
Whereas the local AutoZone appears to be mostly manned by kids fresh out of high school the main O’Reillys looks like an inmate work release center now. There may be a meth lab in the back as far as I know.
I think the difference in our local stores is they are small chains. Robins merged with Fisher auto almost 10 years ago. But they maintain their local ownership. Sanel Auto is still local and operates about 40 stores in NH, ME and MA. There were a few independents that had 1-2 stores, but they’re gone now.