At times I miss the old parts counter guys. When I was 16 (about 51 years ago) I was barely through the door carrying my “bad” part and the guy said, from across the room, “harmonic balancer - Ford - ‘67 or ‘68, 289 or 302, about 80,000 miles ?
I said “yes, I belive (guess) so. He pulled the new one and gave me a few installation tips. Those days are long gone. Now YouTube and Amazon customer reviews. Progress, but skips over the “human element.”
Also, I’ve been intimidated by some of the parts guys as well.

^^^
We had the same...the 'guy' knew everything about auto parts.
Parts were easier in those days...cars didn't have the electronics of today.

I still have my Craftsman advance timing light. It has to be 40 years old and last used on my 930, fourteen years ago. I'll hang onto it, because you never know...

I go to the Oreillys web site and print the page that shows the part and that they have it in stock. I give that to the counter guy. Makes it easy for them. Truth is, I buy most of my parts on line anyway,

You might end up waiting an entire month for a POS ladder returned the next day.

Timing light story...Evren bought a bunch of (still) made in USA tools while here, including a timing light. He took it to an Istanbul shop for some "how to" advice. Shop owner fliipped over the light.
So, I bought one & mailed it over. So, somewhere in Istanbul, there is a shop owner who loves his Craftsman timing light.

My local NAPA is my favorite FLAPS here.

A few years back, I went into the local O'Reilly's for a timing light. They too did not know what I was talking about. I told the person to turn around...because there was one hanging on the wall RIGHT BEHIND HIM. On display. Right there.


Covered in dust, of course. "We always wondered what that thing was for".

Well, now you don't have to wonder, because I'm taking it away from your carefully curated display. There was a bunch of random stuff there on display on a pegboard, I think one of them grabbed random dusty crap from the back one day and made a collage of "car tool things" for fun.

This sort of triggers a peeve of mine.

I really hate when I go to a store and the store person is significantly stupider than I.

And then argues their idiot opinion. Or continues to push their incorrect bias or whatever.

Rant over.

NAPA warning
 

A word of warning about NAPA, based on personal experience.

I, too, had been under the impression that NAPA was "a cut above" the other parts stores in terms of supposed parts quality, but my recent experience convinced me otherwise.

I needed an oil filter and went online to the official napa site, found the filter I wanted, and ordered it for store pickup at the nearby Napa store, payment due at pickup. When I checked out online I used a discount coupon.

When I went to pick up the filter I hit a couple of issues that in retrospect were red flags. First the guy at the counter wouldn't honor my coupon. He said that "it didn't show in his system". I told him I ordered on the official Napa website and showed him the screenshot from the checkout screen. Still he kept insisting that he wasn't going to honor it, telling me "look I'm an independent" - that was the first red flag. I let the coupon thing go and paid. He slid the filter across the counter and right away I noticed that it was a "Made in Venezuela" Napa "gold" filter, not the made in USA version. Second red flag. I told him I didn't want a "Made in Venezuela" part and asked him to take it back. He got pretty annoyed and refused until I threaten to file a credit card dispute. On the way out he told me "don't bother coming back here" - don't worry I won't.

This annoyed me enough to make me google Napa's ownership model. Lo and behold:

• Napa brand is owned by a company called Genuine Parts Corporation which is publicly traded as GPC
• GPC has a small number of company owned stores but the majority of stores are independently owned. The one I went to, which goes by the name "Bad Monster Dublin Napa" is one of those.
• It isn't really a franchise model as Napa takes pains to say on its own website, as the independents don't pay a traditional franchise fee to carry the Napa name.
• I guess they are supposed to use Napa's order and inventory management system but they seem free to get parts from wherever, which would explain the "Made in Venezuela" Napa oil filter.

If I am shopping in person, I've gone back to a small local chain in the area, Monument, who incidentally were (by their own telling one of) the first to carry Redline and have some sort of legacy preferred pricing arrangement.

I used to go to Monument Car Parts, mostly in the building that used to be on Contra Costa Blvd, near the actual monument. Lots of routine maintenance stuff, a couple of 389 rebuild items, a Chevy straight six long block, and lots of Gabriel Striders.

Platinum , and iridium plugs did not exist when you prelude was new. It will run fine for ever on regular old resistor plugs .
I seriously doubt any performance, or efficiency improvements in any way . They may last longer, but I doubt it .
America has figured out a way to make everything cost more

^^^ yeah, the AZ guy had an agenda he wanted to follow.
I should have jotted down the spark plug number and just asked for those instead of letting him look it up. Most likely will be the last new plugs in that car.

Wisdom from Fred!

Agreed..

Here's a video I found interesting on the various types of plugs.. also covers heat range, boosted or not, etc. With MSG ignition, copper was recommended...that surprised me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYJZ8Crek8Q&ab_channel=Holley

IME all parts stores are derpy, and it's the luck of the draw which is the least derpy. NAPA seems all right but I guess I got an official franchise one. Whenever possible I show up with the part number I know I need and just pick what I want off their screen. I decades ago got used to the little routines needed to get correct parts for my Sentra SE-R so when I picked up some loaded front calipers recently I just made sure the part number had 'AD18V' in it and picked the manufacturer I thought was best. Like Fred says you can just keep using the same plugs the car always had, which in the case of my SE-R I somehow know from memory are NGK BKR6E-11 copper plugs.

Mine is still in the original box! I used it on my SC before I upgraded to a Suzuki Samurai. Then I used it again.