Whats your favorite auto parts store?

kinda what i was thinking. it was still FREE right?

 

Our monthly parts bill runs in the tens of thousands each month. I buy from a lot of vendors. As far as local parts stores - I buy from 3 , NAPA / Autozone / OReillys. Each has their strong points. Sometimes it comes down to delivery time. Our Autozone seems to consistantly get our parts to us the quickest, which can be quite important at times. NAPA seems to be the best at getting parts for these old cars when others can`t.

 

omaha auto parts downthe street. i can ride my bike there. guy knows me by name, and is not a bs-er. if he doesnt know, he wont guess. he goes to the allmighty book of car knowledge, and finds out what i need.

 

Our local Napa has 1 guy working the counter on weekends. Sometimes it takes a bit to get service but the guy is fantastic and will take the time to make sure you have exactly what you need. So most of the time I don't mind waiting a few minutes. If it is something expensive I drive to the next town over to O'Reilly's, but only because I have a good friend who works weekends there and he gives me his discount.

 

Any store with books to look up parts.

 

We have four in town, all within a stones throw of one another, all of them big chain types. The only local shop went out of business when the owner retired 20 or so years ago. I really miss that place.

 

I like older NAPA stores or in Central Texas, A-Line has always served me well. Nicks on Auto Zone. Many of the prices are too high for the cheap Chinese quality of the parts. O'Reillys is almost the same as Auto Zone.

 

Let me tell you a price comparising story from my home in Sweden and Rock Auto online. I need front shocks for my car and R A sells them for just over 10 bucks. My "local" speed shop want's more than 120 fror the same shit.... I understand freightprices, taxes and earnings necessities but what the ,,,,, I will buy a ticket to New York, order the parts I need to the hotel and have the trip paid for by buying more parts. Tickets now are 650 and I going on may 18th. There will be shocks, coils and some other small parts in my bag. Better not get caught by the Homeland security....

 

I manage to commercial department at advanced auto in my town and there is nothing I can't get. You have to know where to look and who to call. For my galaxie I buy all of my parts through work.

 

For my needs with inline Chevy sixes I depend on a firm in Lebanon, Or. called the Filling Station. I call on Monday and make my order before 2 pm and I have the part on Thursday at mail delivery time.
Normbc9

 

It depends on what I am looking for, for my O/T daily driver I usually hit up Advance because theyre just up the street and cheaper. For anything for my older stuff, I hit up NAPA, sure I pay a bit more in general, but they have the more common stuff (carb kits, spark plugs etc.) for the old cars on the shelf where other stores need to order it, and seem alot more willing to help or know about the older stuff. One of my headlights burned out in my 52 once which is still 6volt, Advance looked at me funny and then said "I think we can order one" went to NAPA, the guy said "yeah theyre right over here". Also have hit up some of the others once in while because they have/can get stuff quicker, but usually stick with those 2 places.

 

I use the local NAPA main warehouse where an old buddy works behind the counter. The best was when my son worked the NAPA store, but he works for me now. I also have gotten to like Rock Auto for online orders.

 

Since the local machine shop/parts store was bought out by Western Auto,I go to Napa for most of my needs.Like an earlier poster said,AutoZone and Oreilly's don't keep old cars in their computer and the kids they hire don't know alot about cars.

 

"THE " JOT'EM DOWN STORE", Run for years, by Lum & Abner !,

"this is Lum, ABNER Ain't Here ! "

 

Targeys So. Omaha,Ne But shuttin the Doors after 3 generations.Built my 53 chubby PU 20yrs ago Finnishing my 51 with parts from Targys.Hope they change their mind about closeing.

 

My "go to" parts place closed a couple years ago after the Town they had been living/working and paying taxes to for 40 years bent over backwards and gave the Advance Auto all sort of tax breaks and incentives to move into town.

If I plan ahead I use Rock Auto for 90% of the replacement parts I need or I will order them through my current suppliers at work. If I get stuck I look up the parts myself and go to the store with the numbers and tell them what I want.

I've been a Parts Guy for 20+ years in the Truck industry and I cannot stand a pimple faced kid try and tell me something doesn't exist or doesn't know enough beyond how to change the hanging pine tree air freshener in his clapped out honda. It doesn't seem to matter around here Napa, Advance etc are all the same idiots.

 

NAPA is # 1 for me.

I go online to the NAPA catolog and find just what I want and then call the local store and give them the part #. They never say "we don't have it" They say instead, I'll deliver it tomorrow, which is fine for me.


Never any shipping charges!


Where else can you find a part for an old car every time?

 

Dabrusions - Newburgh NY if doesn't have it, he gets it. Backs up his stuff w/o question. No pimple faces there, old fashion service with a laugh.

 

the napa guys here do not give a damn about my time or money. I've found one store in town that provides any value in locating parts and it's the advanced auto. the last trip in there was for a fuel sock, and after showing me 6 different pump gaskets and in line filters the manager just took me to the fuel shelves in the back and let me open boxes until I found something close.

 

Once a desk jockey from Oreily's told me I was "blind" for not being able to find something in the store..

Needless to say he couldn't find it either, because it wasn't in the store!!

Our Napa guys are alright..

And or I go to the Local parts Warehouse in town here.

 

I'm on a first name basis with most of the guys at Kath Auto Parts in Little Canada, Minnesota. Good people...

 

Neils auto parts on Kenilworth ave in Riverdale, Md.

Hard wood floor with a coke machine in the very small area for the customers. A "take a number machine" right in the middle so it could not be missed if there were more than a few people waiting to be served. Three or less did not require taking a number. Everyone honored their place in line when they came in even though there was no line. A glass display case formed the wall on the left for fancy stuff. Three cutouts for the three counter men straight ahead in the 5 foot tall wall as you walked in the door with a cork board covered with business cards. Each cutout had a counter covered with galvanized sheet metal that the galvanizing had worn off years ago from exchanging cores for rebuilds. Behind the wall between the cut outs was a six foot catalog rack with an overhead florescent light fixture built right in.

The wall behind the counter was covered with tools hanging from hooks, with a white outline of the tool in case they were sold out, between the aisles that extend away into the mysterious caverns of shelves filled with boxes and parts.

A "golf ball glue display" on the right wall where you could reach up get it down and test the glue by standing on a wood shelf glued to a soda bottle filled with colored water. The golf ball was glued on top as a stopper to keep the fluid inside.

They had a delivery truck with a sign painted on the door..."Need a part for an old car? Call us first All the other parts stores do!

Years later I bought a muffler shop that had a six foot long catalog rack with the light. I was tickled. I was now on the smart side of the counter.



When I found this at Carlisle several years ago I didn't dicker on the price. I had been looking for too long of a time. The sunlight has bleached all the color from the water but the step still supports my considerable weight.

I'm guessing that this does not answer your question but I think of the HAMB as trying to remember the past. After all I was in there looking for parts for my hotrod. I enjoyed straining my mental image of the place while writing this. My favorite parts store is now a part of the web. I bet that there are a lot of the young guys that have never seen the inside of a real parts store. Real parts store don't have computers.

 

birdhaven vintage auto supply,colfax IA.

 

NAPA!!! John and Fernando are the best when it comes to going the distance getting parts for ya, a LITTLE more but their service and effort more than covers it.

 

Bulls eye! I was trying to get some of old farts to travel back to a time, when you pulled in and bought a quart of oil and the damn thing looked like a quart. When you saw cal custom or crager or hurst or mr. gasket and dreamed of buying one of those shifters for you ride. Or they had the latest cam kit with springs hanging on a rack...

 

california auto supply in pomona ,if they don't have the part you need they get it for you in 2 hours god service good prices

 

Baums Auto Supply in Mission Viejo............

 

Four letters: NAPA

 

Frank's Auto Parts, Melvindale Michigan, 313-382-4648. If you live in the Detroit area and don't know of this place, you should. Tom, the owner is the best. He's a hot rodder. They still press bearings, turn rotors and drums, even old Ford drums. There's a blower manifold for a Cadillac (for the land speed Stude he and his son are building) and a Hilborn setup for a small Chevy on a shelf over the front counter. 'Nuf said.

 

Advanced Auto locally and Rock Auto for Online.