At what point does one say "screw it!" with cars?

ALL of these places have an online catalog to look at. Sometimes, some sort of initialization of an account is needed, plus the vehicle info. You can also choose the store, too.

From there, you can do the catalog searches for what you need, put them in the cart, pay and check-out and proceed to "store pickup". Bypasses the "menu navigators" that way.

Or, "Your online catalog indicates y'all have one of these (supplied part number)". Then they just have to retrieve your part, do the sales invoice, and let them smile for doing a good job.

CBODY67
 
Only drawback for ordering parts from napa is they charge you for s&h in store
 
I use Rockauto to find the part number then call my guy at Napa to run an interchange search and give me price and availability. The trick is knowing which vendor they can cross reference. Gates for hoses Wagner for brakes Spectra for rads etc. Then if I get the wrong part I can only blame myself but thankfully they have a decent return policy. BTW I still order from RA if I’m not in a rush usually on wholsaler close outs....they get me every time.
 
Make it easy on them, just give them the part number, that you researched for 5 minutes
They have not been taught to search by part number. All they know is how to work with the drop down menus. If it doesn't show up there, they are screwed.
I'll call the parts house with the part number in front of me --- "I need a exgronificator, it's a Grubelfucker part number 12345-AB, you have one? And if you can cross-reference that to see if an ElastoFart or BigJugs equivalent is available, cool!" --- too easy.
I had considered that... There was a size option (I could have used a tape) and the common replacement, probably all built by the same folks or made universal in the same way has an unused nipple below the cap... most seem to have a rubber cap to clamp it off... I Fken hate that kind of crap on my stuff. Had the Parts Genius been able to produce an actual radiator before convincing me I was wasting my time, the box would have opened for inspection.
Just as a little plug for Napa, if you have your own business you can get in independent truckers discount, it depends on the parts line but it does take maybe 10 or 20% off of hard parts, like Parts behind the counter, doesn't do much with oil or anything out front though. I always go to Napa if I'm going by there but O'Reilly's is point nine miles from my house and Napa is 5 so I end up going there more often than not. Then there's RockAuto which is most always the cheapest, but with its own set of problems.
I get a small discount from most brands, but only in select stores. AZ was 10% in the store, or 20-25% using the internet coupon and letting them mail it to me. I wanted a look first.

Advance has one store, with one smart guy, who does pretty good... but is inconvenient to get to... and the discount is still nothing to write home about. Refuse to use their online ship to home again, ever since they sent me used ball joints and then the local store (who sucks) refused to correct the online Fluckup.

The Oreally store that I drive past everyday and is closest to home has the SuperMicroManagerFromHell... I sure she has a college degree, but doesn't know the difference between "down boy" and "sick em". I feel bad for the occasional helpful employ she gets for a week or two (I figure she lets go anyone smarter than she is), and she won't allow any discounting PLUS that store prices higher than other Oreallys in the area. I'm in the parking lot for gas, coffee, cigarettes all the time since WAWA is next door. At least they carry some brands you can't buy from advance.

I'm especially sick of NAPA's overpriced junk... some of which is worse than AZ brand sh-tuff. I'm spoiled form the days I had a NAPA terminal to look up and order parts on without having to fool with the counter jockeys... National account and volume discounting made them better priced than the competition, now the competition is pretty close to all the same and so is NAPA (advance owns a chunk of them too now) except NAPA always has the highest prices and the discounting doesn't make up for much.

Years ago, I put a NAPA alternator on my Roadbastard DD while working at the dealer, I left my core at the parts counter and never saw the box. A couple years later that POS quit working and NAPA refused warranty service. Turns out their scumbag francise sold me a non-napa part, on a napa invoice. The franchise had cycled ownership or changed locations or whatever (I swear the name still exists), but nobody would warranty out my "non-napa" alternator... I fought for a couple of weeks until I turned it in as a core in another parts house. I made as far as the state manager, who also didn't give a crap about servicing a shop customer. I was still in the shop for another year, and then I purchase lots of parts for where I work now... Not too many came from NAPA. Ill use them, but only because they offer something I can't get elsewhere as conveniently.

The Spectra POS radiator will come from Rockheadauto, I'm pretty sure I have answered my questions and will be forced to live with a useless nipple... But a pair of gates hoses, shipping and the radiator is still beating the mail in radiator from AZ. Stay tuned for the rant on the mailman's handling of a radiator...
 
Anyone that can use a chain auto parts store website is a computer genius, my hats off to you.
The best way I know, is to figure out the manufacturer of the part, and then find their e-catalog. Advanced has rendered their site nearly unusable with bs advertisements. Good for pricing only.
 
The best way I know, is to figure out the manufacturer of the part, and then find their e-catalog. Advanced has rendered their site nearly unusable with bs advertisements. Good for pricing only.

And discounts. They are usually hard up to sell batteries and you can go to www.retailmenot.com and get a discount code that sometimes is $50 off a battery and you pick it up 30 minutes from the store. They install the battery for free on most cars if you trust them to do it. Discount codes vary. For a battery it's usually $25 - $50 off or 25% - 30% off usually the fine print says not to exceed $50.
 
Work has a battery program, I keep trying to get them to release it for employee use... $50-60 for most new decent batteries. No incentive for most folks... it's unbelievable how few folks in my company actually work on their own cars.
 
I buy a lot of parts through Amazon now. You have to have the part number (Thanks Rock Auto!) and you can't trust the application listing at all, but most are "Prime", so you get it in a couple days and usually, they have the best price.

Last RA piece I bought came from a local warehouse in about 3 days.
 
Pretty lucky around the Detroit area, we’ve got them all and then some. I’ve only ordered from RA 2 or 3 times. Below are 2 of my first phone calls. Summit ranks at the top if I have to order from a place that doesn’t have brick and mortar in my area.
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5B4FF7F7-6596-4E91-BDE1-71041AF2C0E5.jpeg
 
When I had my garage I had several old friends that owned or managed part stores that wanted my business, wanted to have their salesman stop by as they knew I fetched my own parts.
No thanks was always the reply.

Of course all my heavy equipment work parts were sourced through the dealers, Case, John Deere Aeroquip etc. They didn't do any 'retail' sales so pretty much no problems there.

I had my main Napa store an even though their machinist screwed up my 440 heads (lessen learned think GM) they had the same 2/3 guys that ran the counter for many many years, tells you something about a long time family run business. The closest non-chain part store I stopped going too 'cuz the quality went down and the prices went up. I would stop in just enough to keep my face known to the counter turn over and to put it in their face for removing my account for some lame excuse like non-use. Kind of like the Internet today, I'd just grab a box or two of bolts or some spray liquids. Later on I was going more and more to the local car dealers for parts like water pumps & starter motors and even hoses as most re-built stuff was total junk and would kick back in days to months. I had a sweet account at a Chevy dealer, a friends brother in-law managed the parts department at a Ford dealership so in the right price door there but it was a little bit of a drive so the cab company owner got me in the door via the top shop mechanic at the local Lincoln Mercury dealership. I also found back then that truck parts were better to get from the dealers as then the car shops would give me a look when I'd inform them 'dump truck'.

Now Mopar is a funny story... when I read in HotRod magazine that the stock HiPo trick was to get Hemi mufflers for your Mopar, even had the part number in the article, so when I did the exhaust on the first PK21 off to the closest Plymouth dealer, no go, seems they didn't want to order anything for a long haired snotty teenager.
Next stop bigazz Dodge dealer in the city 2 towns away. Success! Even though the short haired bubba took my money and put the order in and it would be 2 to 4 weeks before they came in. Sweet!
Well Well Well to my surprise when I went in to pick up my order he brings out 2 Walker mufflers! Grrrrrr. What part of the Chrysler part number don't you understand? This'll work.... Oh yea, money back or re-order that'll work for me, he did re-order and I didn't ***** about the time just glad I got them.
I never ever went back there ever again, but wait! Many many years later I walk into my local Plymouth dealer parts department in my work uniform (trade) and lo and behold whose behind the parts counter, F'in Barry from the Hemi muffler fun. I just turned around and walked out. Came back many years later and he was gone...

Another local small family owned parts store, long standing business, (think pre-war) had I swear Barry's brother or cousin always running the counter and even though meeting their really nice guy salesman at another friends garage this counterman was a dick. I met someones girlfriend that knew him and she informed me that he was 'related' and wouldn't be going anywhere soon. LOL
Eventually they got busy and hired another counter guy and when he was waiting on me I always got dirty looks from the dick, 'don understand why, I use to work in that town for one of the best employers I ever had, got to know the 'right' people in town as they say. Must'a been a long hair thing leftover from the 50/60's or as the gas station next to where I worked in that town, the owners daughter & boyfriend were murdered by some wanna-be Hells Angels from my town and in fact I was friends with the 2 of the sons of the family, use to go water skiing behind (IIRC) the older brother that was convicted boat.
So maybe some connection/resentment there but all that happened many years after I had moved on, strange. I think I was in California or Florida when the murders happened.
Even though I never faulted them for quality or price I wouldn't even think of opening a account to get jobber price with them as their salesman was recommending.
I did get him back though,,, but I'd half'ta plead the 5th on that visit....

:lol:
 
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I'm friends with the local auto parts store and a few of their commercial accounts. So I can use a couple of commercial account discounts as long as I pay the sales tax
 
Only drawback for ordering parts from napa is they charge you for s&h in store

Sorry, it's the cost of doing business. So does RA, and it can get pretty outlandish if you want it quickly. Even Jegs and Summit charge handling charges.

I'm especially sick of NAPA's overpriced junk... some of which is worse than AZ brand sh-tuff. I'm spoiled form the days I had a NAPA terminal to look up and order parts on without having to fool with the counter jockeys... National account and volume discounting made them better priced than the competition, now the competition is pretty close to all the same and so is NAPA (advance owns a chunk of them too now) except NAPA always has the highest prices and the discounting doesn't make up for much.

.

Yes it's true, mostly because NAPA was forced to stay competitive with the AZ type stores. No one wanted to pay big bucks for NAPA factory built products. Dorman makes everything for everybody. NAPA closed their reman factories and now buys everything from the same reman facility in Mexico that EVERYONE else does. Otherwise they'd be out of business.
I don't know about the NAPA stores in your area but I'll hazard they are independent jobbers which are the back bone of the business. NAPA is basically warehouses. They've been forced to buy stores from jobbers who left in order to keep a presence in certain areas. Those company stores are always for sale, so if you got a million or so and think you can do a great job...
NAPA's 2nd bread and butter is servicing wholesale accounts. Retail profits put gas in delivery trucks. A savvy counter person will always/can/could match competitors pricing. If I say anymore, I'd be fired. 4 years, 5 months, 21 days...
People come to our stores because the folks elsewhere don't have or can't/don't want to look for that "ball socket 1/4 inch female thread throttle dohickey".
 
Big smiles today! It got to nearly 70 today! An absolutely perfect day to get out in the shop. Bought a new battery and ballast resistor for the Coronet today and fired it up...sounded great! I need to go to the parts store and get another resistor for the Hudson (part of the 12V conversion) and get that to start and run tomorrow. I'll need to start the Imperial later today. It hasn't been driven since early November because of the brake booster.

We hadn't seen that big orange ball in nearly three weeks; been very cold, overcast, foggy, and depressing. Today was great!
 
Sorry, it's the cost of doing business. So does RA, and it can get pretty outlandish if you want it quickly. Even Jegs and Summit charge handling charges.



Yes it's true, mostly because NAPA was forced to stay competitive with the AZ type stores. No one wanted to pay big bucks for NAPA factory built products. Dorman makes everything for everybody. NAPA closed their reman factories and now buys everything from the same reman facility in Mexico that EVERYONE else does. Otherwise they'd be out of business.
I don't know about the NAPA stores in your area but I'll hazard they are independent jobbers which are the back bone of the business. NAPA is basically warehouses. They've been forced to buy stores from jobbers who left in order to keep a presence in certain areas. Those company stores are always for sale, so if you got a million or so and think you can do a great job...
NAPA's 2nd bread and butter is servicing wholesale accounts. Retail profits put gas in delivery trucks. A savvy counter person will always/can/could match competitors pricing. If I say anymore, I'd be fired. 4 years, 5 months, 21 days...
People come to our stores because the folks elsewhere don't have or can't/don't want to look for that "ball socket 1/4 inch female thread throttle dohickey".
The NAPA franchises I dealt with in PGH had convenient fires when they needed to move a store. Other than being a little dickish, they did a good job and I wasn't hurt by their insurance claims. Being the youngster in the company did little to help me deal with them, but holding the reins on where the parts came from did. AutoCare center or not, they could only fool around so much before I called in the competition... It was great when their truck arrived in time to see the other driving away with the sale I just cancelled.

Once we established I could play the azzole game too, everybody got along just fine. :lol:

Around here, they are particularly awful... but so is the industry. Too many idiots on CL advertising their "expert services"(mobile) couldn't fix a sandwich. The higher class ones operate out of a rental storage unit. No hills, no winter, no safety enforcement of any kind... the place is a free for all.

A solid 1/3, minimum, of the cars in any parking lot... need tires... and we get plenty of rain. You can hear metal on metal brakes if you stand at any busy intersection for 5 minutes.

On the other hand, oxygen sensor sales are particularly strong, as the cheap fools who won't go to a real shop try to buy "what the scanner told them it needed."

May your last years be without the common BS... :thankyou:
 
Pretty lucky around the Detroit area, we’ve got them all and then some. I’ve only ordered from RA 2 or 3 times. Below are 2 of my first phone calls. Summit ranks at the top if I have to order from a place that doesn’t have brick and mortar in my area.
View attachment 267506 View attachment 267507
Summit had the absolute worst order fulfillment times of anyone I've ever dealt with... 30 days+ before shipping rare and exotic timing parts for my stock 99 SBC... I had ten days off, and ordered a week in advance thinking it would work out.:realcrazy:
 
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