Oreileys for the win

1badfish67 said
Just my 2 cents.

My experience with Auto Zone, Oreillys, Bumper to Bumper and NAPA here in my area is that as usual it comes down to the experience of the staff and their mechanic background prior to being hired. Usually the experience comes with age. It's pretty hard around here to find a good "Parts Guy". I have known a few good "Parts Lady's" as well and again, generational specific. My sister is a pretty good mechanic herself as we all grew up on a farm. She ain't scared of getting oily/greasy and getting a few knuckle busters pulling trannys or engines.

Seems like if the younger folks below 30 yrs old (maybe 40 now days) can't punch it into their computer by answering several questions they say "Oh we don't stock that item". I give the majority of my business here to our local NAPA. A couple of the folks their have been in the business long enough that you can tell them what you need and they can go right to the back and get it. No computer! Now these parts are for the older cars/trucks like we are referencing here. Heck the NAPA guys here may have driven these cars in their high school days or early 20's.

If they do need a reference and can't find it in the computer, they go old school on it and pull out the catalogs and look the part up that way. Cause we all know the computer is correct every time, right! The NAPA and Bumper to Bumper here I think are the only ones that still receive hard copy catalogs and they probably have to request them. I switched to the NAPA when one of my good friends retired from the Bumper to Bumper store about a year ago. He was the go to for everyone else behind the counter if they got stuck.

NAPA here is usually a little more expensive than the others but less hassle and more confidence in the part being correct go a ways with me, especially since I live 30-45 minutes from any parts store. If I can I take the old part with me wherever I go. Again actual staff experience may vary, batteries not included.

I fall in the early to mid 30s category but I know what you mean. Everything automotive went downhill after 2010. I was in auto school at a community College in the mid 2000s and in those days you rebuilt an engine over the whole semester and at the end when finals were due, your engine had to fire and run (mine was a ford taurus) or you fail. Because they were preparing you for the real world.

Then after 2010 a younger friend of mine did the same program at the same place and he told how the whole class just took one engine apart and the instructor went over each part and they bolted it back together without any gaskets to use as a paperweight until the next semester. He hardly got any real world, hands on time.

Then after covid the same program was removed from the college due to lack of enrollment.

Those 2010 and after students are your parts store employees now.

That is one advantage of online ordering, you already know what you need and don't need a deer in headlights look when you ask for parts for an original dart, not a 2013 and newer plastic car with dart emblems but a real dart.

I pretty much forgot about Napa. I have only one Napa locally and it's clear on the other side of town and if they don't have it, the next Napa is like an hour and half drive.