Car Quest Merger Results

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jun 3, 2002
Messages
9,547
Location
MI
In my region, the acquisition of Car Quest by Advanced Auto has resulted in the closing of about 10 Car Quest stores in a 30 mile radius. About half of them have reopened as NAPA stores. To my knowledge, there is only one Car Quest store remaining in my immediate area.

Has anyone visited a Car Quest store recently? Do they still have a Car Quest "feel" or are they just another Advanced Auto store with a Car Quest sign out front?

I wonder what happened to all the employees? The Car Quests in my area seemed to be staffed better than Advanced and AZ.

If you live long enough, you grow accustomed to change. Sometimes good, sometimes not.

Take care.
 
End of a larger era.Car Quest basically purchased BIG A when it bankrupted,and now its bought out and (almost) gone.
 
I had no idea this was going on. I hate to see it happen because our little local CQ has been there forever and has some really great counter help that's been there seemingly since day one. I believe my local CQ caters more to supplying parts to repair shops.
 
The CARQUEST near me still has better specialty tools, needed a triple square and they had it.

But it does have loaner tools now and the signs on the windows for specials so they are a hybrid advance right now. I would not be surprised advance is trying to sell off all the carquest boxed parts before they absorb them.
 
I was looking for a battery for my car on the Advance Auto parts website. Some of the options were Car Quest batteries, which was a head scratcher to me. Now it all makes sense.

I consider this bad news. Advance is a large company and if they keep buying out the smaller guys, all you will have left is one giant corporation that doesn't care about the customer and only cares about profit.
 
I assumed everybody here was already aware of the buyout (merger was probably the incorrect term to use):

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/advance...-inc-2014-01-02

"ROANOKE, Va., Jan 02, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Advance Auto Parts, Inc. AAP, +0.90% a leading provider of automotive aftermarket parts, accessories, batteries, and maintenance items, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of General Parts International, Inc. (GPII). GPII is a leading privately held distributor and supplier of original equipment and aftermarket replacement products for commercial markets operating under the CARQUEST and WORLDPAC brands. "

It seems that the company owned CQ stores are closing first, while the independently owned ones are still hanging on.
 
The local independent near me said that they will still be open and all the corp CQ stores are either closing or turning over to AAP stores.
 
There's about a half dozen CQ around where I live/travel, mostly in tiny towns/villages where no AZ or AAP. The stuff I've looked at buying was too expensive, I don't know if corporate or independent. I would think probably change into AAP because no other stores nearby. I would think it would give them bigger market and provide shops & customers more selection at a slight discount
 
Same here.

Hopefully it'll help the independently owned stores have access to a wider variety of items at better prices for their customers.

But this isn't what I saw when Western Auto closed, at least at the consumer level.
 
Worldpac deals in all of the European stuff, so that means Advance will start to sell Mercedes and BMW OE coolant?

Around here the local Carquest is a real parts store staffed by people who know what they are doing. The big box stores are staffed by kids trained to punch keys into a computer.
 
A few AAP locations near me don't carry OE branded coolant, but they do carry pentosin products, and I think one or two other brands geared towards european cars but I'm not certain.
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
In my region, the acquisition of Car Quest by Advanced Auto has resulted in the closing of about 10 Car Quest stores in a 30 mile radius. About half of them have reopened as NAPA stores.


When Advance bought Carquest they only bought the corporate-owned stores. The many franchises are independently owned.

It sounds like your local stores are franchises that are closing and switching to a NAPA franchise. That's not necessarily related to Advance/Car Quest deal, but could be related.

Have you talked to any of the staff at these stores to find out why they switched?

But, they recently announced the closing of 100 stores. That's not a huge surprise, as there's surely some Carquest/Advance overlap out there.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/27/3969074_advance-auto-closing-100-stores.html?rh=1


Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Has anyone visited a Car Quest store recently? Do they still have a Car Quest "feel" or are they just another Advanced Auto store with a Car Quest sign out front?


The Carquest in my area is a corporate-owned store. It's right across the street from an Advance Auto parts. The Carquest is still open and is exactly like it was before. I was just in there a few weeks ago.

In my area, the Car Quests seem to be more aimed at shops and Advance at consumers, so perhaps they can both survive.
 
Locally, the Carquest location that had been in our town for years consolidated into the AAP that opened a few years ago. Carquest vacated the building and moved all the stock within about two months of the press release IIRC.

As of ~10 months ago, all the staff had moved from Carquest to AAP as well, and were servicing the commercial accounts instead of the parts counter.
 
Originally Posted By: stephen9666
When Advance bought Carquest they only bought the corporate-owned stores. The many franchises are independently owned.

It sounds like your local stores are franchises that are closing and switching to a NAPA franchise. That's not necessarily related to Advance/Car Quest deal, but could be related.

Have you talked to any of the staff at these stores to find out why they switched?

I haven't talked to anyone yet. I forgot to add that with the change of 4 stores from CQ to NAPA, there were closure of three old NAPA stores (net gain of one new NAPA). Some of this was probably to acquire better locations and/or lease rates.
 
But is CQ going to starve the franchisees of good product or pricing to favor AA?

This is kind of like Pepsi/ Yum! brands where a restaurant buying pepsi was supporting its own competition.
 
Just saw they have WIX made CQ air filters. $12.79 isn't too unreasonable. It beats the price of the DW filter along with Frams. It even beats the WM prices.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top