Great question...
1) Amazon - Pretty much the quickest online and a 30-day money back guarantee
2) Ebay - Great for parts on older vehicles.
3) Rockauto - Similar to Ebay in practice. Good company.
4) Advance Auto Parts - They will match Rockauto if you include the delivery charge. Harder to do this these days.
5) O'Reilly - If I need it that day and they're cheaper than Advance, I'll go here. Also offers an excellent free tool program.
6) Car-part.com - For hard to find parts I can't find elsewhere, Car-part is solid.
7) Local junkyard - Sometimes I'll call the one less than a mile from the dealership. Good source for late model parts that I prefer an OEM product.
8 ) Walmart - This is where we get our oil and coolant. Sometimes if we have a car that just needs an oil change I'll just have the hauler go there. Also a good source for Value batteries.
9) Battery re-seller - We have a couple that sell refurbs at a price that's cheaper than Walmart. For example, a series 34 which would cost $150 at Walmart will only cost $35 to $50 at a refurb store.
10) Local Facebook / Craigslist - Good for factory wheels on certain vehicles like late-model Tacomas.
11) Pull-A-Part - If a part is really rare and I can't find it elsewhere this is usually the last resort.
Finally, if you need a certain older vehicle that you sell a lot of (and have a space) going online to 'Your State' Public Notice allows me to find that vehicle which will get parted out as time goes on. I haven't done this for a while. The absolute bottom of the barrel source is thrift stores. I have bought oil filters and even tires from there. But I can count those transactions with one hand. The same is true for local yard sales and auctions. Heck, I sometimes get lucky and find quality unused parts in some of the cars we buy.
I have bought over $250,000 worth of auto parts over the last 20 years and even write about it. Google 'Steven Lang' and auto parts. You'll find a few of those articles.
1) Amazon - Pretty much the quickest online and a 30-day money back guarantee
2) Ebay - Great for parts on older vehicles.
3) Rockauto - Similar to Ebay in practice. Good company.
4) Advance Auto Parts - They will match Rockauto if you include the delivery charge. Harder to do this these days.
5) O'Reilly - If I need it that day and they're cheaper than Advance, I'll go here. Also offers an excellent free tool program.
6) Car-part.com - For hard to find parts I can't find elsewhere, Car-part is solid.
7) Local junkyard - Sometimes I'll call the one less than a mile from the dealership. Good source for late model parts that I prefer an OEM product.
8 ) Walmart - This is where we get our oil and coolant. Sometimes if we have a car that just needs an oil change I'll just have the hauler go there. Also a good source for Value batteries.
9) Battery re-seller - We have a couple that sell refurbs at a price that's cheaper than Walmart. For example, a series 34 which would cost $150 at Walmart will only cost $35 to $50 at a refurb store.
10) Local Facebook / Craigslist - Good for factory wheels on certain vehicles like late-model Tacomas.
11) Pull-A-Part - If a part is really rare and I can't find it elsewhere this is usually the last resort.
Finally, if you need a certain older vehicle that you sell a lot of (and have a space) going online to 'Your State' Public Notice allows me to find that vehicle which will get parted out as time goes on. I haven't done this for a while. The absolute bottom of the barrel source is thrift stores. I have bought oil filters and even tires from there. But I can count those transactions with one hand. The same is true for local yard sales and auctions. Heck, I sometimes get lucky and find quality unused parts in some of the cars we buy.
I have bought over $250,000 worth of auto parts over the last 20 years and even write about it. Google 'Steven Lang' and auto parts. You'll find a few of those articles.
That or their owners either only go to the dealer or they go to the cheapest white box that they can find.
