joe_padavano

I usually get my parts from RockAuto, based on price and convenience. A good friend of mine swears by Amazon now, especially since he's a Prime member. I just ordered a bunch of parts for the 67 Delta (front and rear springs, lower bushings and ball joints, and KYB shocks). Since I had Moog part numbers, I just Googled each part to find the lowest price.

Amazon and RA were the two lowest price vendors when shipping costs were factored in. I spent about 20 min searching multiple vendors and even tried splitting the order in a few cases to get the lowest possible price. Amazon was actually a little less expensive, so I was just about to pull the trigger when they pile on sales tax on the very last screen before you press the Submit Order button. When this sales tax was added in, RA was about $0.20 less expensive on the total order of about $380. Obviously 20 cents is meaningless, but since I was pi$$ed at Amazon for the last minute upper on total price, I went with RA. It's not like they couldn't have told me about the sales tax earlier.

On the other hand, the fact that both vendors were essentially identically priced for total cost of the order delivered on my doorstep makes you think that they've both optimized their pricing and got the same answer.

oldcutlass

Amazons customer service is hands down the best out there. I by a lot of stuff through them. Great for appliance replacement parts also. The sales tax you can thank your elected officials for that. If they have a physical warehouse in your state, so its based on shipping destination which may not come into play until checkout. I'm pissed that Summit is coming to Texas for that reason.

jaunty75

There are apparently no Amazon facilities in New Mexico as I don't pay sales tax on anything I buy from them, and I do buy a fair amount, also. I've noticed that about 9 out 10 items I buy from them come from Phoenix, where they apparently have a warehouse/shipping/distribution center.

joe_padavano

I have no complaints about RA's customer service. Shipping has been pretty quick also, though that may be a lucky coincidence of their warehouse locations.

I did have an issue just last week. I ordered a complete exhaust system with cats for my truck. One of the welded pipe/catalyst assemblies was incorrect (they shipped P/N 40308 instead of the correct P/N 50308). Parts arrived early afternoon, I saw the problem, and notified them via their website. A FedEx label was emailed to me and I dropped the incorrect part off that same day. The correct part was delivered two days later.

I'll also point out that yes, I could have gotten these parts locally. I checked (Advance, AutoZone, and NAPA) and no one had them in stock, so I was still looking at waiting. On one welded catalyst assembly alone, Advance was $150 more than RA, even after shipping (and before accounting for local sales tax on the part at Advance). Both were the same Walker P/N. NAPA was TWICE the price of RA.

oldcutlass

I purchased 90% of my front suspension parts from RA and they were $100+ cheaper than all my local suppliers even with the shipping. So no arguments there. I generally buy local when I can but can't argue with the trend towards internet shopping.

m371961

It has been a habit of mine to go to Rock for years now. Most times price is cheaper even with shipping. I get a choice of manufacturers. And, I do not have to deal with a counter idiot. Last year I bought calipers from Rock and the return of the core was ez, and my CC was repaid quick. They also handle items I cannot find in the name brand store catalogs on-line. (body parts, weatherstrip, etc.)
I use NAPA on occasion, get a discount off of there excessive price, and their NAPA brand name stuff is generally good and counter guy is better.
I actually found my left side dual exhaust manifold on Amazon bucks cheaper then Thortons. Just googled Olds 425 exhaust manifold and it popped up.

MDchanic

If it's something that is not a "big deal" part, and it's available locally, I'll generally get it at the local store. Most of the time, the regular parts at the O'Reilly's are the same exact parts as the ones at NAPA, the price is a bit better, they're very close to home, and they've got it in stock.

On the other hand, almost any part that I expect will need to be ordered, I will check on Amazon, as well as at RockAuto. Usually Amazon is the cheapest by a decent margin (they don't collect sales tax up here, but the state "expects" that you will keep track and send them what you owe ever year ), occasionally RockAuto is.

The thing I don't do enough of is to search RockAuto for parts I kind of need, or will need, or may need (which is obviously a huge number of parts for a wide variety of cars) - when I've thought to do this, I've often encountered parts on clearance, such as a recent purchase of rubber BMW brake hoses for $3-4 each. I may not install them for a year, but I've got them, and they came in NAPA boxes.
If RockAuto were a bit quicker to search, or if they allowed you to create low price notifications, I'd probably buy everything there.

- Eric

z11375ss

It just blows me away how fast Amazon is. I've had stuff the next damned day. Drones are a comin!.

Fun71

Yes there is now a distribution center in Phoenix. While that makes for quicker deliveries (sometimes same day) it also means I now pay sales tax.

67Olds442X2

Both have a bunch of my money.
With Amazon i get items ship and sold through Amazon for the most part. Sales tax was added which makes a difference now. Standard shipping at least to Maryland is not so fast. They have most anything.
RockAuto is good, you just have to try to get things shipped from the same warehouse if ordering more than one item to save on shipping. They have a lot of items also.
Most vehicle specific I'll get from RockAuto but usually Google part numbers to see other options. We'd be lost without Google.