I am probably going to have to do brakes on my wife's car soon. I typically deal with carquest. They have two lines in ceramic, the "reds" and "blues". The blues are about twice the price of the reds. I have used blues on my truck and so far they seem decent (although they haven't been on that long). Is it worth the extra cost to upgrade to the blues?
Carquest Pads - Reds vs Blues
- Thread starter Oldswagon
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Yes! Carquest was our former supplier for parts and their red pads gave us nothing but issues. Blue is the way to go if you want carquest hardware. Here, at the store, we have found AAP Platinum pads and Wearever rotors to be the best long lasting and noise free solution for brake jobs. Our customers are always pleased with the life they get and how their brakes perform.
CQ was way overpriced here. Priced themselves out of business. I once ordered an ac part that was $15 at napa was $249@CQ. I see no reason to go to CQ.
My last experience CQ was a part they supplied Monroe Muffler which cost me $60,they paid CQ $30 and amazon had it for $14.50 with no sales tax and free shipping. Can someone in the car parts business please explain why this is so.
Just like anything else, sometimes Carquest is cheaper, sometimes they aren't.
The cheapest of all the local places is Advance Auto with purchases made online with discount codes. But, if you want something and the store doesn't have it in stock and has to order it, then you can't use the discount codes.
My experience has been that Carquest has mostly good quality parts and a lot of stock. They can also get tons of quality import parts, since Carquest owns World Pac.
The moral of the story is that you need to compare prices.
Originally Posted By: oilmutt
Can someone in the car parts business please explain why this is so.
You have to pay extra if you want a part that day. That's how the business model works. The retail stores have extra overhead because they operate retail stores. Amazon has low prices, but you have to be prepared to wait for delivery.
The cheapest of all the local places is Advance Auto with purchases made online with discount codes. But, if you want something and the store doesn't have it in stock and has to order it, then you can't use the discount codes.
My experience has been that Carquest has mostly good quality parts and a lot of stock. They can also get tons of quality import parts, since Carquest owns World Pac.
The moral of the story is that you need to compare prices.
Originally Posted By: oilmutt
Can someone in the car parts business please explain why this is so.
You have to pay extra if you want a part that day. That's how the business model works. The retail stores have extra overhead because they operate retail stores. Amazon has low prices, but you have to be prepared to wait for delivery.
We use Akeebono pads that we buy mostly through CarQuest and they are the best pads we have used overall. I have too many noise complaints with Raybestos or Wagner pads.
Amazon has most items less than any retail stores, be it auto parts or books or consumer electronic ... Because they buy in high volume with deep discount and low overhead. The exceptions are few heavy items with high cost of shipping such as oil.
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I deal with carquest locally because the owners are great people, treat me well and I get the best prices in town. I like to give them my business.
I believe the Carquest pads are just renamed Raybestos pads.
I believe the Carquest pads are just renamed Raybestos pads.
Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
I deal with carquest locally because the owners are great people, treat me well and I get the best prices in town. I like to give them my business.
I believe the Carquest pads are just renamed Raybestos pads.
Their Blue line pads are made by Raybestos. Same with Napa, their Premium and Ultra Premium line pads are Raybestos products ( although some of them are also made by Akebono, MSDS usually lists the manufacturer ).
I deal with carquest locally because the owners are great people, treat me well and I get the best prices in town. I like to give them my business.
I believe the Carquest pads are just renamed Raybestos pads.
Their Blue line pads are made by Raybestos. Same with Napa, their Premium and Ultra Premium line pads are Raybestos products ( although some of them are also made by Akebono, MSDS usually lists the manufacturer ).
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
I'm surprised Car Quest is still around.
With the expansion of Advance,O'Reillys,Federated with Fisher Auto,Auto Value thru the Bond northeast growth,Car Quest is a fading brand.
Carquest probably struggles due to not having the scale/logistics many competitors have.
There is one Carquest within a 25 mile radius of where I live, compared to the other chains who have several stores. When a company has several stores in an area, it's cheap and easy to move parts around from one to another and keep a wide selection in that general area. If you only have one store, you can only keep on hand what will fit in that one store. Getting parts that aren't in stock will take over a day, when competitors might have it in a couple hours. The couple of hours time frame can be really critical with commercial customers.
The town I grew up in did have a Carquest, and I kind of liked going in there to browse, but they didn't have a lot of immediate solutions and their prices weren't very competitive. If I needed something the same day, they weren't the place to go. If I needed something cheap, they weren't the place to go.
What Carquest does offer is extra "shop services" that many parts chains no longer cater to. Need some rotors turned or fittings put on hydraulic hose? Some Carquests and Napas can help you out, whereas the others have completely abandoned those services.
As for store brand pads...no auto parts retailer makes their own pads, so whatever you get will be made by a major brake material manufacturer and will probably be okay quality if not excellent. The big thing isn't the brand so much as the product line. Don't take the cheapest option, go middle of the road or higher...Gold, Platinum, Severe Duty, Blue, whatever. A lot of times you are getting a much higher quality pad by stepping up to at least the midgrade product lines.
I'm surprised Car Quest is still around.
With the expansion of Advance,O'Reillys,Federated with Fisher Auto,Auto Value thru the Bond northeast growth,Car Quest is a fading brand.
Carquest probably struggles due to not having the scale/logistics many competitors have.
There is one Carquest within a 25 mile radius of where I live, compared to the other chains who have several stores. When a company has several stores in an area, it's cheap and easy to move parts around from one to another and keep a wide selection in that general area. If you only have one store, you can only keep on hand what will fit in that one store. Getting parts that aren't in stock will take over a day, when competitors might have it in a couple hours. The couple of hours time frame can be really critical with commercial customers.
The town I grew up in did have a Carquest, and I kind of liked going in there to browse, but they didn't have a lot of immediate solutions and their prices weren't very competitive. If I needed something the same day, they weren't the place to go. If I needed something cheap, they weren't the place to go.
What Carquest does offer is extra "shop services" that many parts chains no longer cater to. Need some rotors turned or fittings put on hydraulic hose? Some Carquests and Napas can help you out, whereas the others have completely abandoned those services.
As for store brand pads...no auto parts retailer makes their own pads, so whatever you get will be made by a major brake material manufacturer and will probably be okay quality if not excellent. The big thing isn't the brand so much as the product line. Don't take the cheapest option, go middle of the road or higher...Gold, Platinum, Severe Duty, Blue, whatever. A lot of times you are getting a much higher quality pad by stepping up to at least the midgrade product lines.
CarQuest uses Blue as their higher end brand and Red as the value brand. If you want it to last (especially for safety items such as brakes), it makes sense to go with the better parts. Only time I would use the cheaper parts if for filters (in some cases) or if I'm planning on getting rid of the car.
Regarding CarQuest in general, yes they are sometimes more expensive than some other places. Sometimes they are cheaper too. Around here, they have a good strong presence with a lot of stores and a large warehouse (so parts that other stores can get overnight can be available in a few hours at their stores, or quicker if you drive to the warehouse which is actually in a pretty good location). In some places, they don't have as strong of a presence, but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them as a company.
Like NAPA, CarQuest's primary market seems to be independent mechanics and some chain repair shops. Their store hours aren't always quite as good as Advance, AutoZone, and O'Reilly. However, as previously stated, they offer shop services that a lot of stores don't offer anymore. So they have a little more overhead to deal with. This isn't a bad thing. One day, you might need these services and you'll be glad there's someone local that can do it.
Finally regarding Amazon, my advice is to watch out. Know who you are buying from. There are a lot of good deals available, but you aren't always buying from Amazon directly. Sometimes, an item will be shipped and sold by a third party, or sold by a third party and shipped by Amazon. These are marketplace sellers. Some marketplace sellers are great companies to do business with. Some are not. People have received counterfeit items from the third party sellers. I have seen this with computer software, and many people have reported other counterfeit items such as clothing and electronic accessories. Haven't seen any reports about problems with car parts, but it is well known that counterfeiting does exist in the industry, and most people will never know the difference until it is too late. This means that the reviews (which are generally written early on) aren't always accurate. Amazon definitely tries to stop this from happening, but they can't possibly catch every single case, so buyer beware. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...
Regarding CarQuest in general, yes they are sometimes more expensive than some other places. Sometimes they are cheaper too. Around here, they have a good strong presence with a lot of stores and a large warehouse (so parts that other stores can get overnight can be available in a few hours at their stores, or quicker if you drive to the warehouse which is actually in a pretty good location). In some places, they don't have as strong of a presence, but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them as a company.
Like NAPA, CarQuest's primary market seems to be independent mechanics and some chain repair shops. Their store hours aren't always quite as good as Advance, AutoZone, and O'Reilly. However, as previously stated, they offer shop services that a lot of stores don't offer anymore. So they have a little more overhead to deal with. This isn't a bad thing. One day, you might need these services and you'll be glad there's someone local that can do it.
Finally regarding Amazon, my advice is to watch out. Know who you are buying from. There are a lot of good deals available, but you aren't always buying from Amazon directly. Sometimes, an item will be shipped and sold by a third party, or sold by a third party and shipped by Amazon. These are marketplace sellers. Some marketplace sellers are great companies to do business with. Some are not. People have received counterfeit items from the third party sellers. I have seen this with computer software, and many people have reported other counterfeit items such as clothing and electronic accessories. Haven't seen any reports about problems with car parts, but it is well known that counterfeiting does exist in the industry, and most people will never know the difference until it is too late. This means that the reviews (which are generally written early on) aren't always accurate. Amazon definitely tries to stop this from happening, but they can't possibly catch every single case, so buyer beware. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...
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