Autozone Vs. Advance Auto Parts Vs. Independents (axle, strut, paint)

[rbohm]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

When i need a part after 6 or on a Sunday, the only choice is the chain shops. I've found Advance to have 100% better service than Autozone. The Autozone's in my area seem to be incapable of staffing their checkout counter properly, and the attitudes of their employees is generally indifferent. I prefer to shop at an independent, but Advance seems pretty good for a chain and i don't dread shopping there.

Where do you normally get your parts?

i generally stay away from autozoo anymore. i like advance, oreillys, napa, and a few local parts stores here in tucson.

[MustangEater82]

You guys are a little hard on autoparts stores. They usually sell made in China crap, but a lot carry stuff like AC delco...

Either way I buy shop at advanced auto its the closest, I order online usually always find a 40% off coupon code order and drive to pick it up, its usually bagged and ready to go. Even better I have the same name as their GM and they joke with me all the time.

I am sure they are like me, I know a lot of stuff about cars, alot, I also know a lot about GM and more about specific models. To the point I have rpo codes memorized.

But a VW? Other then general knowledge I have no clue. It's impossible to know all that info. If someone claims they do, is say they are full of **** and wouldn't trust their knowledge.

The guys do know a lot, but not everything.

I do miss in Orlando, where they had a 24 hour autozone. That was great service sucked, but was convenient as Hell.

Sent from my autocorrect butchering device.

[allseeing eye]

Originally Posted by northbound74

Someone earlier wondered why some parts stores don't stay open late and are closed on Sundays. It's because they probably sell quality parts and don't mess with do-it-yourselfer's.
Professional auto techs can't stand bad parts guys, and good parts guys have lives and families to live outside of work. To them, it's a career, not just some gig to get them by for a while.

At my shop, we do some business with places like Autozone and Advance, but they're not our biggest supplier. If you ever put things like axle seals on Japanese cars, you'll know why. OEM is the only way to go there.
The quality of the part is the top consideration. Sorry, but the aftermarket simply can't compete with OEM on a lot of things.
Next, you need that good parts guy. Unfortunately, dealerships don't always hire the best parts personnel. That's where the choices become tough. The best parts people usually work for independents or maybe places like Carquest or NAPA. The best parts people also know a thing or two about cars.

If you specialize in certain areas, such as cooling systems, you know where the best place is to get a quality radiator. You're not going to get that type of thing from a typical parts store.
If you work on transmissions, you know that national chains have next to nothing to offer. Nothing's more irritating than buying a filter/gasket kit from some goofball place like Autozone. Rubber gaskets? Really? All nice and wadded up in a little box? That'll never leak... naaahhhh. I had one guy at a place like that tell me that they don't make cork gaskets for transmissions anymore. Oh freakin' my. "I've heard McDonald's is hiring", I wanted to tell him. Poor guy.

To find the best parts, you have to shop around. You have to know who sells the best stuff for whatever part of the car you're working on. Dealerships sell good stuff, obviously. Fit and finish will not be a problem. You can find parts as good as, if not better, than what the dealerships offer. When I say "better", I mean somebody's come up with a genuine improvement to a specific part.
Anybody can sell you a good spark plug. For that, O'Rielly's is fine.
Not just anybody can sell you a good starter, even with their cutesy "leveled" offerings.


For general stuff like fluids and filters, O'Reilly's is my personal choice. I think it's the go-against-the-grain green color scheme that pulls me in.

Northbound 74 hit on some very key issues. Having worked at Trac Auto, Napa, Auto Zone and now Advance... one thing about part stores now is that it is about do it yourselfers. People with no knowledge of cars themselves expectiing people behind the counter to tell them how to fix their cars. Demographics play a large part in whether you get knowledgeable salespeople, the correct part or a substantial inventory in a particular location. Parts stores have changed because way back when it was an integral part of the community just like the butcher, baker, or liquor store. Nowadays the industry is convoluted by sendiing off false signals to consumers. You sell auto parts period. And luck of the draw may mean that some employees may know about cars. But you may get some people who are actually knowledgeable about cars to work at auto parts stores for various reasons. How do you retain these people though? Sallaries are the big factor because there is no motivation for anyone with knowledge to stay if their sallary does not increase. The other thing is that in selling auto parts, nothing qualifies the people working in auto parts stores to diagnose your vehicle. Hence OBD testing and starter and alternator testing. Every free service in these stores is designed to sell parts. All of the flap about ongoing training of the personelle is pure and simply teaching employees how to suggestive sale or have bigger sales. And these stores are very sellective about who they hire. And we had people who came in who are currently ASE certified and they were not hired. And the next day someone who came in from flipping burgers at Mc Donalds was hired. ( not that I am thumbing my nose at people who work at McDonalds) It is about money. They could not afford to pay the salary that an ASE certified person would require.

One thing that customers need to know is where their responibility begins. That would eliminate a lot of the negative reviews of auto parts stores. No one wants to spend money, everyone wants to hold someone else accountable for the things they don't know. The other thing is management. Ive talked to people in four states, and it is amazing how people have come from other auto parts places who were in leadership are just working on the counter while ( i will say it aqgain ) peoople from Mcdonalds, Family Dollar, etc are the store leadership. And this is seen all up the corporate ladder. To drive this point home about a lot of these things, I know of a person who worked at Advance who had a bachelors degree who was relegated to being a truck driver before being terminated for doing something everyone else did. Her degree was in Business Management while her store manager was a waitress from the restaurant industry. In my opinion what needs to happen is a total revamp of the auto parts industry so that you just sell parts... none of the fluff. The consumer should express dissatisfaction for the fluff or being mislead by outrageous commercial. For example some commercials show some nimrod who is hell bent on installing a battery while being chased by a lion, going over to install a Dura**** battery at someone's home. or jumping out of an airplane at 30000 feet to install a battery. These Advance Auto commercials are demeaning and missleading. It is a shame because you do have a lot of employees who do want to do a good job but they have no outlet. It is a shame that they only have the internet to vent. What would be helpful would be a union to help to address employee concerns

[PDD]

While the computer has certainly made it easier for the folks behind the counter to pick out the part for your car it has also dumbed down the knowledge to be a good counter man.

I know I am dating myself but I remember before computers the counter guy had a row of catalogs to look through to find your part, they also had a better knowledge of car parts and could usually pick out the correct substitute part that the computers simply don't list.
I can remember looking for special bolts and the counter guy would point to a large wall of drawers and tell you to look in there you should find what you need.
If your not in a hurry for parts I find that Rockauto.com to be one of the best places to buy auto parts.

[us66]

1. Autozone is more often than not cheaper than the other chains.
2. Other chains sometimes beat AZ...my last pair of headlights were $5-10 less at Pep Boys, surprisingly.
3. Autozone is A LOT cheaper for oil and coolant than Advance or O'Reilly's. AZ also has store brand Dex-Cool 50/50. Wal*Mart and Meijer are cheaper still; Target and K Mart have minimal selection of oil and coolant.
4. I have never known anyone to have received a good battery from Advance, not even a friend of mine who worked there. I get my batteries from Costco. My Aura's AC Delco battery lasted two winters, the Costco battery only lasted three, but Costco's full replacement period is long and they don't bother doing anything to the battery like recharging it or even seeing if it's even partly good; they just take it back. Much easier and I got a brand new battery with almost no trouble.
5. Pep Boys employees' lack of knowledge about anything going on in the store can be good. I got a fuel pump put on there a couple of years ago, along with some other assorted repairs, for under $700. How, you ask? Go in to pick up the car right before closing time, after the manager has left. The estimates were between $700-1200 depending on whether or not they'd have to do a fuel pump. (The tech was a moonlighting Chrysler dealer tech who didn't know GMs operate under much higher fuel pressure so he had difficulty diagnosing the problem, and they had my truck close to two weeks.) Go in to pick it up, the boy behind the counter asked me how much the estimate was, because the paperwork said nothing about it, so I said "about $700," because that's how much the last fuel pump was for the truck. Counter boy fell for it and adjusted my bill accordingly.
6. Pep Boys, however, is good for tires. I've done well on the "buy three, get the fourth free" sales. Also, my truck has the cheapest light truck tires they sold about three years ago, and they were still made in America.

[motormaker]

My daughter has been in the auto parts industry for over 20 years. She cut her teeth doing this working in small mom and pop shops delivering parts and using the old catalogs that sat on the counter that needed continual updating.

She has been woking for Pep Boys for many years working commercial accounts. I go into her store occasionally whiteout her knowing it and it's amazing how many old timers ask for her when they need parts. Damn, that girl knows her stuff. Even amazing to her hubby who is a mechanic.

[css9450]

Originally Posted by PDD

If your not in a hurry for parts I find that Rockauto.com to be one of the best places to buy auto parts.

I like Rockauto.com a lot too. Its nice being able to choose from among often four or five brand names for a particular part vs. just one or maybe two at many chain parts stores. Hmmm, suspension parts.... Here's AC Delco, Moog, Raybestos, Mevotech, Dorman and a couple others. Or at Autozone, they have Duralast. And probably no others.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by PDD

If your not in a hurry for parts I find that Rockauto.com to be one of the best places to buy auto parts.

I use RockAuto 90% of the time, and if you order your parts in the morning they will often ship out the same day. And I like the choice of brands they have too, I just received the AC Delco struts and shocks for my Camaro this morning. They even have NEW Remy alternators.


As for the chain stores, bleh.... I'll use them if I have to, but they're all about equal.

[00molavi]

I had shifted exclusively to rockauto for parts that are not urgent. Oil and coolant is usually from Walmart, but I will check the online circulars for the others. But my last experience with rockauto was not good. Ordered 4 kyb struts, they came in, 3 were black and one was sliver. I am not planning to sell my car, but even if the struts are the same, I am not going to have non-matching color struts on the same axles, esp when I am spending good money and putting sweat in installing them. Its not like I bought parts from the junkyard. I thought I have a reasonable case, but it took many calls for them to accept the return and pay for the shipping too. I think I lost one full day trying to chase them. I think next time I will go to amazon.

[whiteboyslo]

RockAuto is an EXCELLENT place to start if shopping online, at least once you get used to the site. The have links to illustrations for just about any part, and it's usually the manufacturer's tech sheet for it which will have all sorts of good info you can't find anywhere else.

But, they're not always the cheapest even compared to the brick and mortar stores. On a lot of cheaper items I priced out through them (wiper blades, fuel cap, etc), the price was just the same if not more once you factored in shipping, especially given their method for charging shipping should the items come from multiple warehouses.

Amazon, though, is getting better at auto parts, and as they are with most other things, they're cheaper still. I just bought a window motor and regulator assy for my wife's Honda Accord from them for $20 less than what RA wanted for it, which was $40 less than the local stores.

Mike