Autozone, Advanced Auto Parts, O'Reilly Auto Parts, NAPA, or "Other"?
 

So, which would you recommend to family or friends and why?

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Without knowing anything more than the name on the door, NAPA, as they typically inventory higher quality in-stock offerings.

Beyond that, it comes down to staffing. Stores of the same company, often separated by only a few miles, can be wildly different in their level of knowledge and approach to customer service.

_

Napa, the same couple of guys are sitting behind the counter as we’re there twenty years ago. I don’t know, but it must be a good place to work I guess.

Ditto, and it is also the closest one to me.

None of those… Online.

Pep boys seems to have the best selection, but Napa has better service, in terms of helpful people at the counter, at least in the ny metro area.

Napa of those listed or an independent first followed by anyone of the others.

Autozone, Advanced Auto Parts, O'Reilly= McDonald's, Burger King

NAPA= Five Guys

Other/local= Mom and Pop joint made to order

Pittsenbarger Supply on Canal street.

My NAPA is the kind of place where the counter person is willing to take an obscure part, and go to the back and see if anything looks like it might work. That's invaluable to me.

O reilleys opened up 2 years ago near me . I have received more defective parts from them in a short time, than in my entire career in the auto biz otherwise .
I have had pretty good luck with Advance , and they recently merged with , or bought out carquest. The quality on a good portion of their parts has seemed to improve.
If you are not purchasing oe , it is all cheap Chineese **** in different colored boxes
I like Napa, just there is not one close enough for me to use daily ,

The NAPA warehouse and store is 3.5 miles straight down a good road from me. They have a wide variation of the same part, from the cheapest Chinese crap parts to the more expensive OEM style crap Chinese parts. All of the other NAPA stores in the area get most of their parts for the warehouse store.

Good parts are almost impossible to get anymore. Just yesterday I had to replace the fan switch on my El Camino. It was either full blast, or low and off. The most used high speed under the tornado speed, was non functional. A new one (4 seasons brand) was 8 bucks and took 30 minutes for the worlds slowest mechanic (me) to replace. The old switch said right on it, Made in USA. I suspect the replacement will only last a few years at most. At least it is easy to replace.

NAPA is the most traditional parts house, and would probably be the best from a certain point of view. I'm not sure if it's still the same since the more main-stream retail places have flooded the market. I haven't been in a NAPA in years because other retail places were closer or more convenient.

If you need a flux capacitor, your choice is limited to O'Reilly.

NAPA and CarQuest. Autozone is junk.

rjp

What he said. ^^^

The problem with NAPA, really the only problem, is that they are not as ubiquitous as the others, i.e. there are not enough locations and many people do not have one nearby.

When I was up at the cabin in WI. in 2020, my choices were O'Reilly's or an independently owned Carquest in the nearest small town. They were both actually quite good, the independent was a salty old dude who had been working there for 50 years and the O'R guys were very nice and tried their best to be helpful. One positive thing about O'R that not everyone knows; they can order absolutely any part or brand for you and price-match stuff on the internet if the manager feels like it. This one did...a dollar was a dollar to him if he could make something on the part.

I rebuilt the front axles on my F-250 4x4 while there, (plenty of time on my hands for projects), once I got it apart I discovered a damaged stub shaft from a bearing that self-destructed. Normal crap when working on vehicles. I went to the local junkyard first and he had one but I had to buy the whole axle half for $150, they would not sell just the stub. For once in my life, I made a smart decision and decided to look into a new part first. I went to the independent guy first and he took all kinds of measurements of the old one and said that he had to call some place down in St. Paul, he'd get back to me the next day.

The next day, he calls me and a new stub shaft would be ~$300. Ouch. I decide to look online and holy fk, several places are selling a brand new Spicer part under $100! :eek: The axle is a Dana, Spicer is original part. So I go to the O'Reilleys to see if they could order it for me and the manager goes in the back and comes out with the part in his hands!! "Is this it?" Well slap my ass and call me Sally, it is. :)

Then he price-matched the cheapest online ad, I think it wound up being $80. I had to order and buy some seals at the Ford dealer in town but I had already made a deal with the parts manager and was getting everything at wholesale, sometimes close to 40% off. So the moral of the story is, you need to do your homework and no one parts source is "best" in all circumstances. Sometimes the dealer is the ONLY place to get a part, or at least the only intelligent place to get it.

Sometimes O'Reilly's is the absolute best place on earth to get a part, even though they generally sell crap. NAPA sells good stuff including several proprietary products but not always nearby or available. In Minneapolis, I have the main NAPA warehouse 15 minutes away with a retail counter in front. If they don't have the part in stock, it doesn't exist in their inventory. It's freaking awesome.

The end.

NAPA warehouse is 10 minutes from me :).

I absolutely, positively loathe going into AutoZone- it always seems to be loaded with slow, timewasting shadetree mechanics with 1,000,000 "how do I" questions.

It's like going to the DMV.

The part in the last story:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628437885.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628437885.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628437885.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628437885.jpg

I needed just the short part of that shaft, this side of the U-joint. You can see the ditch that is machined into it by a bad bearing, that is not supposed to be there. Here is a normal one, from the other side:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628438690.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628438690.jpg

Only a true genius tears into a job like that while out in the middle of nowhere with no other mode of transport, other than the neighbor's borrowed truck. OCD and time on my hands, what can I say. :)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628439041.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1628439041.jpg

No NAPA convenient for me so for stuff i need right away Autozone and O’Reilly are my only options.

They are fine for everyday generic stuff.

Wife’s Tahoe blew a rear turn signal bulb and needed a battery this weekend.

Off to Autozone because it’s the closest.

For most things when i have the luxury of time, and it’s for a vehicle our host does not carry items for, my go to is Rock.

Locally there's a napa but it's a franchise store so they have 5 cats in the store and no parts in stock.

I order everything from rock auto. Can pick out oem parts, high quality Chinese crap parts, and the list of questionables.

With shipping and tax it's less than napa's lowest quality part option.