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Parts Stores AutoZone vs NAPA vs Advance vs O'reilly who is your favorite

  • AutoZone

    Votes: 5 21.7%
  • NAPA

    Votes: 8 34.8%
  • Advance Auto

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • O'reilly

    Votes: 8 34.8%
  • Amazon

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • Other

    Votes: 4 17.4%

Parts Stores AutoZone vs NAPA vs Advance vs O'reilly who is your favorite

83K views 47 replies 15 participants last post by  TigerHeli 
#1 ·
AutoZone vs NAPA vs Advance vs O'reilly who is your favorite and why?
 
#2 ·
Brick and mortar - NAPA or Carquest. Their clerks usually are knowledgable.

Online - Rockauto. Good selection of brands at hard to beat prices. Only problem is shipping gets expensive on bulky or heavy items. Not their fault, of course. Just the way it is.
 
#6 ·
There's a lot to be said about this.....

Generally Carquest (Advanced) and Napa are or can be a little different because they are locally owned and are a 'franchise'. They may be part of the Napa network, but an individual store isn't owned by Napa corporate. This means each store could pay more, have better benefits, and the owner is involved in hiring individuals. This type of situation tends to attract better and more long term committed employees.

Stores like Oreilly and Autozone are all corporate stores, where instead of an owner the store will have managers that are required to hire within certain criteria and are held accountable for the store profit and selling certain promotional items each month - this tends to attract more employees with less experience.

Now - you can typically get similar parts at the same stores (for instance if you go into any of them and say "I want an Aisin oil pump for ______") and the prices will probably be within 10-20% of one another. However that isn't the allure of Oreilly and autozone type stores as well. The allure is the bottom tier part they have available.

This is where the difference comes in. A bottom tier rebuilt starter from autozone may be 1/2 the price of a rebuilt starter from carquest/napa. The warranty may be similar so a buyer might go "why would I pay 2x the amount?". The difference is how they are rebuilt. Now, granted I haven't been in the parts industry in about 10 years, take what I say with a slight grain of salt as things *might* have changed (doubtful). There have been a lot of stories of bottom tier rebuilt starters/alternators going out almost immediately (or DOA).... and being pulled apart and seeing things like cobwebs painted over. A junkyard part will be pulled, tested, and anything that's "bad" gets replaced and otherwise it's repainted, boxed, and put on the shelf for sale. A top tier rebuilt will replace any wear type items regardless of condition, clean, lube/grease (etc), bench test, and paint.

The notion that Autozone is Walmart of parts is accurate..... you can go to Walmart and buy the $1500 TV that's similarly priced at other stores (Best Buy/Costco).... but most people are there for the $400 similarly sized TV. Walmart makes money on promotional items, lower wages, and selling in bulk. If you have a 1993-1994 Land Cruiser expect the guy behind the counter at Autozone to argue which engine/trans is in your vehicle.
 
#8 ·
I don't go to parts stores often to really judge. Obviously had a handful of times. There is an Autozone near me. They've been hit or miss as far as helping with a part etc. Its okay. Went to O'Riley once, they had the part I was looking for. Used Advanced, they're pretty nice and knowledgable.


I guess I can't form a solid opinion as its sporadic as far as going to the auto parts store.
 
#9 ·
NAPA or O'Reilly or RockAuto.

Let me give you an example.

I thought I was having starter issues on my Focus with 155K miles - turned out I wasn't, but I went price-shopping anyway.

Typically for this, I would go AutoZone or O'Reilly for the lifetime warranty and convenience - They are around $140-150 reman for my car. (plus $10 or so core charge)

NAPA is around $160-180 for reman, but they have new for $180-$200.

RockAuto is http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php?carcode=1385557&parttype=4152 $65 shipped for a NEW starter. It has a lifetime warranty. The drawback is if the car won't start, I often don't have the luxury of waiting 3-4 days for the part to get to me, and if the part fails, I have to ship it back to get it replaced under warranty.

But if I do have that luxury, even without the warranty - the original one lasted 150K miles (and counting), if the RA ones last the same time, I would put 450K miles on the car before I spent more at RA than I would locally.
 
#10 ·
I only go to Autozone if I need something for which there is no cheap, crappy option. Like light bulbs. If I need something like brake pads, rotors, an alternator or whatnot, I can be certain the only option they'll have in stock is the cheapest, no-name, POS possible. But it'll be guaranteed-for-life, as long as you don't mind replacing it every 6 months.
 
#14 ·
I use O'Reilly or NAPA: IMO their sales ppl are always very knowledgeable and their stuff is better quality. I'm buying oil at WM, filters - online and I go to VatoZone only if I need a light bulb, air freshener or a few washers.
+1 for Wagner ThermoQuiet pads. Me and my B-in-L and buddies had/have them on bunch of different cars and no one ever complained about anything.
 
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#15 ·
I tended to prefer Napa or O'Reilly. NAPA because they seemed more knowledgeable than the high school kids who seemed to always work at Auto Zone and O'Reilly because the price was right, service was good and because our local O'Reilly had this really, really hot girl who I went to high school with who was the manager.
 
#16 ·
The closest store to me is an Advanced Auto. I mostly go there because they take my used fluids and brake cleaner/brake fluid are cheap.

If I really need anything but spark plugs, I'm going to NAPA if I have to go to a local store.

For everything else, Amazon, RockAuto, eBay, and Roman at Toyota of Cool Springs.
 
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#20 ·
Must be a store-to-store thing. NAPA and Advanced near me both turn rotors and drums. Heck, the Advanced has a full blown machine shop. They can rebore blocks, rebuild heads, just about anything.
 
#22 ·
Generally, if I can walk in and grab it off the shelf myself with no help, Autozone. If I need it that day and have to ask for it to be looked up and gotten from behind the counter, Napa. If I don't need it that day and can find it myself online, rockauto or amazon.
 
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#23 ·
The Autozone experience- Over 10 years of asking for a part at the counter and they tell you the second to cheapest when I already looked it up online (wouldnt bother me if i thought they was making commision). Going in and feeling like they are competing to say the silliest thing when giving advice. The Duralast brand mistry parts, some are good and some have caused a very dangerous situation. Recently I got a ball joint and they asked if I wanted the lifetime or the 1 year, I wanted the better part so I didnt call him out on them both being lifetime parts until i went to my car and opened it and if felt like it was grinding when i moved it so I went and exchanged it for the other one and had to call him out on the warranty. They hardly ever have the good part in stock, I call most of their parts practice parts for when I get the OEM part, a few times i would buy a part then end up putting the old part back, bought a cv axle new, slung its grease in a month, got another one and it did the same thing so I used a tireplug and gorrela glue to patch the boot on the factory one, TPS's would last a month to a year, upper strut mounts, one let the spring off and made it where i was lucky not to wreck, the other started to buckle all the way around to I took the bearings out and put them in the factory strut mount and returned the autozone ones, Got a FPR and it didnt work right off the bat so after looking online and seeing that they either dont work at all or fail the first year i went and got a delphi one from NAPA I got to where I could work on my car like a nascar pitstop, but one good thing about them is no matter how shitty the part they will warranty it out as often as you want or give u a refund. Just recently a coworker couldnt start his 04 Corolla and I went and looked and seen that 100% tested sticker and knew it was autozone, the starter and cv axles from autozone both failed before 1 year, so we went in and he was expecting to buy one but I got him to give the mechanics number that put it in. Good website and good app, and free repair guides rock, and being able to exchange wore out brake pads on warranty is cool

The Oreilly experience- They seem to be a little more knowledgeable, website kinda sucks, have to enter car and location every visit. Like the others they have the Mistry parts known as master pro, they are pretty good about taking returns, I used to return a belt ten. once a month, I returned a waterpump that failed within a year causing me to have to get a 20 mile tow and they they warranty it out and the belt that it shredded, that water pump didnt last a month and water was leaking out of the top, they warrartyed it out again and the next one was ok, and after trying 5 power steering pumps (first one was AZ, took it back because i seen rust in the plug) that the misrty brand was 1A CarDONE reman. pumps (same with autozone, stay away from any that have that 3F sticker on them, they put sand and trash in them to destroy the seals on ur rack) they gave me a cash refund, and I went to the junkyard and got one that was full of water, had burnt fluid in it on purpose just to prove a point that if u dont mix and match parts its easy to rebuilt, rebuilt it myself and had cadillac steering, but finally they gave me a refund but it dont cover the time i spend flushing (a couple times I did it right on the parking lot), trying different fluilds and such.

The Advanced auto exp- They are new to my area but they are the same mistry brand parts, little higher in price but I like the website, and they are more likely to have the better part in stock

NAPA - Not much to say, they are more expensive but they usually have the quality parts so its worth it, but they are slowly going down hill to compete with the other ones, and the hours arnt so great but them having good parts makes up for it.

RockAuto- my fav but takes forever and gotta pay shipping but they have some really good deals and good selection if u can wait on the parts

Amazon- I spent so much time ragging on fake reviews that they have got better about but I still didnt renew my Prime account so I dont use them as much without having the 2 day shipping for free but I have got a lot of parts from them and it has all been good

Ebay- Hasnt been to bad for me, gotta know what to look for and know what to expect

Pick and pull- I love just going around looking for extras that i can get off other cars, My last trip last week I got a luxus ES300 Cluster for $27, but didnt have time to look around much.

Walmart- Oil, Oil filters, air filters, cleaning products, some bodywork stuff, wiper blades, batteries sometimes, car audio harnesses, good price

Pepboys- bought a bosch battery and it failed within a month (partly due to bad ground) then it lasted a couple years and they warrantied due to a bad cell and every time I would get a new 3 year warranty so that was pretty cool, plus they have a lot of cool stuff to look at compared to some of the others. I've been happy with all the parts I got from there, good radiators and a good price, the last chance deals online are awesome at times, tools for really cheap, got a PowerStroke 18V LiON Impact driver, buffer and flashlight for $45 shipped, and modded it to work with my Ryobi tools (same company makes them, One World Ind. i think)

The rental car- Just got to be really careful to make it look like it hasn't been took apart. =P
 
#29 ·
As for the comments regarding Denso - Denso sold as "Toyota" is not the same as Denso sold in a Denso box. Sorry, it's just not the same. There is increased quality (through production standards) where Denso parts meet Denso requirements but not Toyota requirements.

One of the best examples of this type of situation is buying an Aisin water pump. Buy it from Rock Auto and it will be labelled as "Aisin" in an Aisin box. Yes, it's still a "high quality" part, but most of them will actually have an odd looking engraving through part of the housing - which is scratching off the "Toyota" embossment. It is a reject to be a Toyota part. Most likely it will live just as long of a life (or have just as much likelihood of failing due to the crap in your engine/radiator) as anything that comes with the Toyota embossment in a Toyota box.

Denso will essentially do the same. So to say that you'll buy a Denso spark plug over an NGK/NTK because Denso was stock - that stock plug isn't necessarily the same as the Denso boxed unit.

As for the anti-trust case.... not shocking. Sometimes you gotta wonder why one brand of fuel pump is $50 and another is $200 for the same specifications. It really isn't about manufacturing costs or components because I hate to break it to you - they're made of the same stuff and are all reverse engineered from an original unit/design with mild changes as to not infringe on copyrights (whether it's some off brand, or even "Denso").

This is not my way of saying to go and buy cheap brake pads (yes those are actually made of different materials) or as an advertisement to buy Toyota only.
 
#31 ·
As for the comments regarding Denso - Denso sold as "Toyota" is not the same as Denso sold in a Denso box. Sorry, it's just not the same. There is increased quality (through production standards) where Denso parts meet Denso requirements but not Toyota requirements.
Could you clarify your comments above.

For example, I know in car audio - radios made for the OEM by Pioneer or Alpine or JBL are generally NOT as high-quality as aftermarket retail Pioneer/Alpine/JBL radios/speakers.

Are you saying that Denso/Aisin parts are not as good as Toyota OEM parts, or Toyota OEM parts are not as good as Denso/Aisin or just that they are different and in some cases one will be better and in other cases the other one will be better?
 
#30 ·
AutoZone for me, mostly because I used to work there and know what to buy/avoid there. Plus they'll still toss me a 10% discount at my old store. Sometimes I'll hit up ABC Auto, a local chain, because it's close. If I have to lay out more than about $50 for anything other than a battery, though, I shop Rock Auto first.
 
#32 ·
Toyota OEM will require companies to meet or exceed certain criteria within their own specifications, and Toyota retains the copyright designs for those parts. They use suppliers like Aisin/Denso to supply the parts to them per their specifications. They are higher standards than what Aisin/Denso parts would have.

When you're looking at OEM parts, that's the case. When you start looking at aftermarket, or performance, parts, then that's when things can start to be significantly higher quality.

For example - the 350 in my FJ40 has a water pump that's made by Flowkooler.... it has a specially designed impeller to dramatically increase flow at low RPM to move coolant though the system. The housing is a stock "remanned" housing (which is really just a heavy cast unit) with the updated performance seals/impeller. It far exceeds the quality of OEM. Stereo's, certain suspension components and other parts can fall into that category. For the most part those aren't the types of parts that parts stores have on the shelves, unless you're specifically after performance parts.
 
#34 ·
Don't know about Denso vs. Toyota, but I can speak to NGK vs. NTK. I'd have to dig it up and I will if you want, but I recall YouTube's ScannerDanner remarking about his experience that mid-2000s Chryslers would only run properly on NTK O2 sensors. NTK being the OE division of NGK, you would think that there wouldn't really be a difference - but apparently there was. You basically had to buy from the dealer if you wanted those cars to run properly. OE stuff can be funky and even the parts store versions from the correct manufacturer can vary. Strange but true. The tricky part I haven't figured out yet: how you know what's what.
 
#37 ·
We aren't quite saying the same thing ...

Motorcraft IS the Ford part. You can buy it from the dealer or from RockAuto. Ford quite likely subcontracts the fuel pump to Airtec/Wells and if you buy the MC pump, what is likely in the box is the Airtec/Wells part. Also, if you order the Airtec/Wells part, it quite likely has a Ford logo and part number on the part itself.

But it hardly matters for Ford, b/c the MC and Airtec parts are maybe $5 difference on a $100 part.
 
#42 ·
Motorcraft MAY be the Ford part. Ford parts are manufactured by plenty of suppliers (which Motorcraft may be one of). Visteon, TRW, Takata, Bosch, etc. all manufacture parts for Ford.

Motorcraft is a parts brand AND manufacturer/supplier. Airtex/Wells is currently a parts brand that reboxes parts similar to Beck Arnley and Standard Motor Products. Motorcraft either makes the part or subcontracts the part and puts their name on it. Which way it is done is part specific. Aisin is the same way, though I have never seen an example of them subcontracting parts. They seem to only sell stuff they make. Interestingly enough to your example, Motorcraft actually makes the fuel pump themselves. I installed a Motorcraft pump assembly (complete with module) that I got from Rockauto in a 2005 Mustang. The module had Motorcraft and Ford all over it. I think you are backwards. If I buy a reboxed Airtex/Wells or SMP fuel pump, I may get an OEM Motorcraft pump in the box, not an Airtex/Wells pump in a Motorcraft box. This is because somewhere along the line, Airtex/Wells or SMP got the pump for cheap and reboxed it not the other way around.

Regardless of that, I am not arguing that point. All I was arguing was toyotaspeed90's assertion that the Aisin pump from Toyota was DEFINITELY different than the Aisin pump on Rockauto. This is not true. I then expanded on that by pointing out that it wouldn't be the same with Motorcraft parts for Fords, Delphi parts for GM, or Mopar parts for a Chrysler.

You are saying Motorcraft is Ford. I say Aisin is Toyota. Unlike Ford or GM, Toyota does not own one or two major parts brand/manufacturers. So for Toyota water pumps, Aisin is Toyota. For Toyota fuel pumps, Denso is Toyota. For Toyota struts, KYB is Toyota. For Ford, nearly all of that is Motorcraft. For GM, nearly all of that is Delphi or AC Delco.

Here is a list of the different manufacturers that Toyota uses for parts:

https://web.archive.org/web/2014061...=mloPNv7E0vSpbVXspCzREiMSkukb0pOZlgZROxrMRwE=
 
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