In the Houston Area, AZ & O'Reilly are about IT Now. NAPA is Few & FAR between. They ran off just about ALL the old timers who KNEW anything, or would Help when you needed. AZ at least has National availability, which helps for Tow Vehicle, WHEN you need the replacement on the road, and that is about it. (have had to do that numerous times) O'Reilly isn't in most places I go, although Better quality in some instances (Towing between TX & OH.) Forest City is remembered WELL. They sold the SAME Corvair Turbo Muffler on a weekly basis in a Youngstown store for about 3 years, getting it back, and reselling it to the next customer, until they closed. Good for customer reurning & getting snagged for another item, Bad for having to make return trip to get correct muffler. (Store on Indianola Ave.) It's a SHAME that Unless BOZO doesn't have it in a computer, he also can't TRY to find it. Had a Store run out of Business by "Corporate Parts Stores", went to work for AZ, The Management WOULDN'T let him direct customer to where part COULD be obtained, "Just tell them it's NOT available". I tried to have them bring in 4 Engine mounts to the local store, when they were clearing them from stock. 3 different stores had the mounts for a BBB, I was told I had to go buy them from each of the stores, as they wouldn't send them to the warehouse, then have them shipped to local store. They would rather send them back for credit. BEAN COUNTERS OF AMERICA!!!!!!
Re: Parts Stores Carquest sucks..........they only stock parts for newer crap. I have to give them credit for one thing, they had a tranny filter for my SP 400 tranny, although it was made in china. NAPA doesn't have them anymore, and the last one I got there was not properly welded at the pipe and the air leak caused a buzzing noise that was hard to figure out. ou:
In the last three states I lived in, I had bad experiences with Autozone and their "special ordering". The parts were always, always wrong and they not once tried to let me know stuff was in. I've been told it depends on the store's management, but in three stores in three states, the experience was progressively worse LOL The last time, I was trying to get rotors for my '55 Chevy.... they're later model Chevy rotors common as dirt. Nope... "special order, next day". Didn't happen. A week later, after getting no calls, I checked in, they had ONE rotor. Went to look at it... wrong one. TWO WEEKS later, (can you tell I went off and worked on something else for a while? LOL).... the rotors finally show up and those were wrong too. I finally got my money back, told them what I thought of their service, then told them I found a pair for half the price anyway at Advance Auto.... and they had them in stock. Oddly enough, even though Advance doesn't stock much more than AZ, they've not let me down yet when it comes to the special order. I usually start there, then go to Napa. They also have a Speedway chain here in town that stocks some of the oddball stuff, too. The key to these jokers really is bean counting. When you're a public company, carrying excess inventory of anything makes your book value look lower than it should. The problem I have with that is that if it's a frikkin company that sells parts, it SHOULD have a high inventory. Either way, it drives them to minimize inventory on parts that don't move as quickly. Oh and get this... I can't even get Grade 8 bolts from these jokers any more except for the very few they have in the "Help" line of parts. I need a 3/8 x 4.5" bolt... right in between the sizes the hardware stores carry... and not one auto supply has them
It's The Walmart Deal All Over Again! Auto Zone and Advanced Auto are just like Walmart. They move in and run off all the mom and pop stores and then they don't have half of what you need or the stuff is junk. Same here in TN, I have moved to a new area and trying find people to deal with on parts and car stuff after living in a area for 34 years and having sevral contacts. Finally found a couple of local owned stores that can get you what you need and have most of it on the shef, but their prices are always higher on the fast moving stuff. I find my self going there anyway because I get mad everytime I go the the chain stores, they either don't have it, don't know what you are talking about, or tell you it never exsited anyway. If you want to get hard to find parts, support the local stores. Jim N.
I use to work at AZ for two yrs. Before I moved back to Chicago.AZ does not remanufacture thier own parts they buy them in bulk.Like all auto parts stores do (Pep Girls ,Advanced Auto etc.)and charge you 40-60% more for that part then they paid.I know for a fact that they can get any part for a 69 302 the parts guy just didnt want to do the work.
Re: It's The Walmart Deal All Over Again! Call them just once and ask them for an air conditioning muffler and see what response you get. :laugh: HUH? uzzled:
I was with my friend one day at Advance. We were going for a simple filter. So, as we're walikng to the back, one of the workers yells from the counter "can I help you?". My buddy, Roger, says, "yeah, I need a muffler bearing for a 1985 Chevy". As we look through the books for our filter application, the worker is frantically looking on the computer for this part. By the time we are at the check out counter, this idiot had asked about 4 more questions to my friend and was surrounded by 2 other workers at the books digging through them looking for a muffler bearing!!! That is the main reason I hate those chains! They should pay a tiny bit more cash to get a little knowledge behind the counters. He finally told them it was a joke. Needless to say, they were not laughing.
You know that's what is sad... and this may be why I have good luck with Advanced Auto, but you practically have to be your own parts guy and walk in there with the numbers in hand. Advanced has a decent web site for parts searching, so I usually have *their* numbers in hand before I ever get there. And when I don't know what year/model to be searching for, I come to places like this and ask. :laugh:
Auto Zone is great for air fresheners, oil filters, and lots of Albany BRAKE PARTS CLEANER. But it took three master cylinders before I got one that had the hole for the apply pin drilled deep enough to not burn down my brakes. I'd rather replace it once than have a warantee that causes me the have to replace a part over and over. In SW Ohio it's KOI(Federated), Genuine Auto Parts(Auto Value) or NAPA if you want quality.
We use "NAPA" for our parts. They keep in stock the parts we usually use. Our NAPA store has a number of "retired knowledgable individuals" that know what you want and need. They even gave us an account and MAKE DELIVERIES!!! I'll stick with them!!
