RockAuto vs. VW online retailers

[69RVABUG]

[mark tucker]

try your local auto parts and see what they have/ can get and thier price. some times they can some times that wont.

[raygreenwood]

[TDCTDI]

[Cusser]

I used to buy Wagner Thermo Quiet brake pads for my other vehicles at local O'Reilly store, reasonable and lifetime warranty. Last year when I needed new brakes for 2005 Yukon, noticed O'Reilly prices for these were high, and RockAuto was very reasonable, went with Rock.

This year, for new brakes for my 1970, also wanted Wagner Thermo Quiet shoes, again Rock Auto was way less expensive.

This stuff is very weird though, and could be some computer issues. For example, a month ago when I needed a steering damper, O'Reilly was $103.99 http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/RAP0/5014...ppt=C0203; I think this has to be a mistale, Autozone lists a Gabriel one for $33.99 http://www.autozone.com/suspension-steering-tire-a...cle=false.

I bought a steering damper online for under $25 shipped (made in Brazil); Gabriel is $19.97 + shipping https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gab-14004?seid=...fgod9cQNZg
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[wcfvw69]

I'm all about supporting local businesses. I use a small locally owned hair cut joint to cut my hair. The owners been cutting it for 10 years. My gal and I prefer to eat at locally owned restaurants as well vs. the chains.

I'd absolutely LLOVVEE to have a local parts house that I could support and get to know the staff there and build relationships with them. They are just not out there anymore. The local ones that are left are not price competitive. They have rude, indifferent employees. I tried to buy a cut-off solenoid for a carb at my local place. It was double the cost of what I could buy it anywhere. I told the guy that and he could care less. I went home and ordered it online.

Back in the 80's in S. California, I had a local VW shop that built my engines and sold me parts. I knew both owners well and would stop in to BS with them. Super friendly and their prices matched the magazine ads.

Those days are simply gone IMOP. People would have to be financially retarded with their money to "support" a local business or online VW vendors while paying double the price for the same part. We all know that restoring or refurbishing an old VW is not cheap. It all adds up quickly.

There's some VW specific parts vendors that have terrible ownership or leaders. This parts world is far too competitive to have clueless, socially inept employees answering the phone with their poor, indifferent attitudes. Customer service is still important, at least to me. If your pricing model isn't competitive with others on the internet, that's your problem that I'm not using your business for that reason either.

At the end of the day, it's not personal, it business. The good VW vendors who provide good service, competitive pricing and care about their customers will survive. The rest will vanish like so many have before them.
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Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[djdh68dlux]

[Erik G]

I'm lucky in that I live about 7 miles from the big Autozone warehouse. Now I'll be honest, I used to hate autozone. Maybe it was the lack of good stuff, or when they took over Chief auto parts, I was not happy (We had a 24/7 Chief auto parts next to a 7-11, it was awesome for late night pizza delivery parts)

anyways, I find that their duralast brand stuff is getting better and better. for instance, I needed a diverter valve for my turbo car (pop off valve, blow off valve, whatever) and it's a sunday. And I need the genuine VW/Audi Pierburg made part. Sure I could order it online at rock auto, I think it was $60 plus 35 to overnite. so that would have been tuesday. Or any of the VW tuner shops like ECS or AZAutoHaus same story,

Orielley had a "techsmart" brand Advanced had a Dorman brand. both had to be ordered. Napa had the Pierburg logo, $122 and 3 days for delivery.

AutoZone had it $86 in stock, open up the duralast box and it's a Pierburg in a Pierburg bag with the VW and Audi logos on it. Similarly, I've seen Bosch spark plug wires in the duralast box, OEM head gaskets, etc, you name it. I have been pleasantly surprised with autozone lately.

your mileage may vary



Link

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[raygreenwood]

[Erik G]

8 miles of easy traffic to the autozone warehouse, 14 of nasty traffic to the NAPA warehouse. We have BAP Geon too, but on the expensive side and honestly sometimes harder to deal with than autozone folks

We do have a mon-sat place here, XL parts that is more of a wholesale place and they deliver to all the repair shops. They do sell at the counter to cash customers too. Timken bearings half the price of NAPA. I do use NAPA when I can but when the same part same brand is 50% less...
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[Zundfolge1432]

www.bughaus.com

It's within 5 miles of work, I can hit it during lunch hour. I like this place.

[airschooled]

[raygreenwood]

[helowrench]

[mark tucker]

I got a awesome throttle cable from my local oriley for $7.00 ,pioneer brand. I orederd a cable form......53 whatchehoozit(vw parts house) it was a gremen throttell cable for$8... it got hear 8 days after the oriley cable was instaled, the oriley p;ioneer cable had a graphite impregnated sheeth over the ss cable, and is so smooth you cant feal squat. the germany cable has no sheeth and...is made in poland so...when did poland annex germany??crap i was there 2 months ago, I musta missed it.

[cdennisg]

I buy a lot of parts from Rock Auto, but not much for my old VW's. That stuff usually comes from VW specific suppliers. I did get a 1970 only ATE master cylinder in a Raybestos box for $27 awhile back, though.

Up until a couple of years ago I had an excellent local air-cooled ONLY VW shop to buy from. He quit the business after several decades of success, for many reasons. Not the least of which was the lack of availability of quality replacement parts. Bus CV boots were a big one, as we all know. When he services a couple of dozen local buses (yes, we had that many around here), and each of them comes back for warranty on torn CV boots a few times a year, he has to eat that labor cost. That's just one example.

Luckily for me, he still has a few parts on the shelves of his now closed shop. I have been able to find what I need on his dusty shelves more than once, even if he wasn't in town.

Also, Amazon, though convenient, is often far from the cheapest online source. Many times I have found it to be much more expensive than buying elsewhere.
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nothing

[ach60]

Back in High School and College I used Napa exclusively, I drove a '73 Squareback,
any other auto parts store would hand me Beetle Parts, at least Napa knew the difference between a Bug and a Squarevack.
I moved to California and was blown away by the number of different European Parts Houses.
All of those guys where gone long gone except for BugFormance 15 years ago.
I used to go to my local Bugformance to buy everything, but with the advent of the web most of my big orders were on line.
Small stuff, or oversized stuff I used Bugformance.
I used Rocky Mountain Motor Works until they crashed, people on the samba bitched they were expensive.
They were good, and if I didn't like the part they did returns with no BS.
I dealt directly West Coast Metric for every piece of rubber when I restored my '78 Convertible.
Bus Depot sent me 4 injectors by wrapping the 4 Bosch boxes with wrapping tape,
and sticking an address label on them and sending them to me.
Mid-America's parts looked like JC Witney shit when you got them, not the high quality parts shown in the catalog.
And there were a few other vendors I used before I found AirCooled.net and CB Performance.
3 years ago I went back to my local guy, and his display wall was now all EMPI.
I bought my Bosch Plugs, but was shocked to see all that EMPI stuff in one place.
To me CB Performance and AirCooled.net are just too good of a resource to price shop on them.
That doesn't mean I'll blindly follow them, but for right now they're who I choose to buy from.
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Good Luck
Al

[Cusser]

[wcfvw69]

I've used aircooled.net a couple times in the past couple of months. I ordered via online. No issues and good parts. I also appreciate they try not to peddle garbage parts like so many other vendors.

I have only used CB Performance a few times. I was underwhelmed by the woman who answers the phone. She wasn't friendly and acted like they were doing me a favor selling me parts. They also screwed up the order. My takeaway was it's a small, Mom and pop business who've never invested in anything resembling customer service training. I have zero patience for lousy customer service.
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[raygreenwood]