Why do places offer junk parts?

[doitmyself]

For things I cannot do myself, I have been blessed to befriend a competent professional mechanic that moonlights at home. He buys OEM parts for important things like timing belt/accessories jobs and lets me buy high quality OEM/aftermarket parts for other jobs. This thread reminded me to text him now to show my appreciation. I pay him cash and tip him very well.

 

[John105]

p.s. I can add....my uncle ran an oil change place at a very busy intersection (even has red light cams every direction). So it had a sign (2010 or so), brakes, $39.99. So people would get their oil changed, brakes done, car washed, tank filled, in one shot.

Well one time I rolled in saying my brakes are squealing, he told a guy change the pads. lol

Not exactly sure why I wouldn't had DIY.

The pads were made by "Mighty" and they wore out in about 10k miles. These are parts intended to help shops profit, like the quik strut and time saver parts of the world...

 

[Cruisin'n5thgear]

I have a better question.... Where does one go to be assured that the purchase of high quality automotive parts will be guaranteed by simply walking through the doors of said establishment?

I have started shopping at Napa as much as possible. At least in my area, the staff is much more professional and knowledgeable.

 

[John105]

For things I cannot do myself, I have been blessed to befriend a competent professional mechanic that moonlights at home. He buys OEM parts for important things like timing belt/accessories jobs and lets me buy high quality OEM/aftermarket parts for other jobs. This thread reminded me to text him now to show my appreciation. I pay him cash and tip him very well.

this just happened to me on my upstream pass 02 sensor, I could not get it out, so I did not even attempt to disconnect it (the harness is not reachable by hand, people say they use picks to undo it). Call up the Japanese specialist, they quote me $201 labor for both sides. Add my OEM Denso parts and the job will be $295. Dealer wants over $800. I did waste 3 hours of my time and got all greasy--but I love getting under my car and looking around. I took off 2 underbelly pans so to my delight, no oil leaks. The car is 17 so I'm aware the valve covers will leak at some point...

 

[SC Maintenance]

My part is genuine OE in a sealed Lexus box, with the OE stickers, same part, and it took only 8 days from my mouse click to my front door.....

Care to share the source - I need to order some Toyota stuff.

 

[dnewton3]

Several reasons why cheap parts are used ...
- they can't afford more
- they can afford more, but don't want to spend more
- they intend to get rid of the car soon and don't need the "longevity" of the more expensive parts
- they trusted someone else to fix it and got less than they agreed to

 

[PF52]

Lots of people shop just based on price alone.

There are people like my dad who grew up thinking any car repair over $20 is a complete rip-off. His car might be clunking horribly or the wheel is pointed at a weird angle and he expects the repair to involve nothing more than tightening up something that has come loose. Replace a ball joint or tie-rod end? No, way, they're just ripping him off! He was furious once when he had to have his brake rotors replaced; so furious he wrote an angry letter to GM to complain. I don't think he realized brake rotors are wear items.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I posted this with photos last year. My local Napa ( here in Canada), sold me their “ best” upper control arm for a 2010 Silverado. It was a Mevotech Supreme. So now it has survived a year and counting. I replaced the other one with a Mevotech Supreme as well, but from Rock Auto, and it was much cheaper. I’ll report back in the future.

 

[pcoxe]

Cheap parts are for someone just wanting it to run good enough to sell it off the lot.

 

[atikovi]

People who only look for the lowest price.

They are definitely NOT the lowest price, not by along shot. Just the opposite. They wan't $180 for this distributor pickup https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/bosch-bosch-impulse-sender-f2062158997bos/10852355-P that I bought online for $70. People buy from them because they want it today or are not computer savy enough to buy online. I've never been in a hurry to get a part today if I could save a few bucks or more by waiting a few days.

 

[billt460]

I have started shopping at Napa as much as possible. At least in my area, the staff is much more professional and knowledgeable.

Here I would have to agree. NAPA is the lesser of all the evils considered.

 

[John105]

30% is cheap. Most shops use "list" whatever number that is. Not to mention shops get pretty good trade discounts.

A lot of shops wouldn't survive if not for doubling up parts prices.

Agreed...my OE cupholder from Japan is a clear example, $114 plus tax shipped to my door. $295 at the dealer, $190+ on eBay, all OE, all the same part. When my uncle ran that shop he routinely got 50-60% off list from dealers on OE parts, delivered to the shop on credit. At the time anyone could go online and get 30%. Today 30% is excellent, discounts tend to be much smaller, so much of the online parts has gone out of business (at some point someone actually has to have the parts and the distribution, not everyone can be a broker). One that I liked back in 2016 was parts.com. I could get literally a moonlight pearl door handle cap 30% off, and the dealer who fulfills the order is on the forum offering only 15%. Normally one would have a hard time ordering online, where say a part has 10 more suffixes because they are color-coded to the vehicle. Note BMW doesn't do that, parts come primed and need to be painted (this doesn't work out that well for DIY). But the Lexus they were ordered in the body color.

 

[Chris142]

Here I would have to agree. NAPA is the lesser of all the evils considered.

Not any more. Same stuff just higher prices.

 

[billt460]

Another thing to consider are what kind of "parts" are you talking about? I've found Duralast batteries, (Autozone), have as good, or a better guarantee than most others. Even the bigger names like Optima and Odyssey... At a much better price. Much the same can be said about the Everstart brand from Wal-Mart.

When you get into brakes, suspension, and ignition parts, then it's another story. But even then, places like Autozone and O'Reilly usually have several different quality levels of parts you can choose from. Naturally they all get "better" as the price increases. But it's not all, "bottom of the barrel".

 

[zzyzzx]

I'm also thinking that at least some people think that they don't need OE quality parts since they only keep a vehicle for a particular time frame anyway so the part only needs to last so long. That and most people are incredibly short sided.

 

[John105]

Care to share the source - I need to order some Toyota stuff.

Of course, no secret, rockauto.com

My specific parts were more at amazon....

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=991763&cc=1432014&pt=5132&jsn=21

https://a.co/d/0AbzNl0

Shipping is $10, so it's a wash. But, then I add some more parts to be included with the shipping of $10. For example, the driver side 02 sensor, Valeo wiper blades (literally 50% of amazon), a spare radiator cap for my wife's GM at almost half of amazon (somehow they go bad, and then the overflow is high when hot, high when cold, and the upper rad hose collapses because the coolant can't get back to the overflow), etc. And plus there's always a 5% discount at rock via googling, to almost offset the 6% tax, and I used paypal for 5% through Chase Freedom lol

This habit though is how I've wound up with 12 oil filters which would take at least 7 years to consume lol (again pre pandemic prices were sometimes 1/2 of amazon, doesn't seem to be the case now)

 

[Pew]

A combination of convenience, price, and poor planning is what I'm accustomed to. Have some buddies who will, for example, want to do their brakes for weeks or months but instead of buying new pads and rotors from say, RA, they'll just go to AAP/AZ/Oreilly the day of and buy 2 rotors that's $80 for a Fiesta.

 

[eljefino]

You guys have it all wrong.

Every brick & mortar parts store is sitting on the biggest pile of part numbers they ever had to carry. Cars last ~20 years and there are so many different submodels. And each model has so many discrete sensors and geegaws.

Mechanic shops want same-day parts availability so stores have to carry this inventory. This is a huge cost sink since these parts sit for months or years on the shelf. Since something's got to give, it's part quality.

BITOG labelled Advance Auto as the convenience store of auto parts and it couldn't be more true.

One might get lucky with a 1/2 ton truck in having several options in order of increasing quality, and/or "Problem Solver" type parts.

Look at tires in common sizes, you have dozens to choose from and most are better than OE in some way. Same with batteries and oil filters. These are semi-universal parts that sell quickly. And as wear parts they're worth the R&D to improve the quality.

Finally with those of us "in the know" mail ordering quality stuff from rock auto, that's less of a customer base for the B&M stores, making their situation even less tenable.

 

[Kira]

"My local Napa.....sold me.....a Mevotech Supreme control arm. I replaced the other one with a Mevotech Supreme but from Rock Auto, and it was much cheaper. Now my car drives in circles!!!" (Ha-Ha)

 

[John105]

"My local Napa.....sold me.....a Mevotech Supreme control arm. I replaced the other one with a Mevotech Supreme but from Rock Auto, and it was much cheaper. Now my car drives in circles!!!" (Ha-Ha)

Confession--I let a local garage replace inner and outer tie rods with Mevotech on my Lexus. Why? Much cheaper, but also, they gave me a 2/24k warranty, so I figured in case they were bad, they'd have to redo the labor and parts. They did quote me on Lexus and they would warrant that 1/12k. Mevotech is actually lifetime, but often one can't claim very practically. Even with Bilstein. On the actual lower control arm, rather than replace that since it's stamped steel anyway, I went the press out old, press in new, bushings route. About $500 with an indie and me providing OE bushings, vs. $1800 at dealer. Some on the forum got even better where their labor was $180 to my $350 so they were like $330 out the door....