Generally in store brands are made by a common manufacturer. For example NAPA branded bearings are made by Timkin, filters made by Wix, oil bottled by Vavoline, electrical by either Echlin or Belden, and gaskets by Fel-Pro. May just be a regional thing, but we stock in house Fel-pro gaskets.

With most NAPA stores being independently owned instead of a franchise store like OReilly, the brand of products vary store to store. The owner of the business gets to chose what he stocks for what vehicles, organizes it how they want, etc. There are only a handful of corporate stores, and they have different policies than we do. So more often than not the managers at franchise stores don't get much of a say in how the store operates. They have to listen to "the man"

-Jameson

 

In many locales, the days of walking into an auto parts store to see a group of middle aged guys working behind the counter is gone.........Let me add that there are some super savvy young guys at some stores, even dealt with a few gals who knew what was what, but especially with older vehicles, im more confident when the parts person has a few wrinkles. I can remember going into a Kragen's for an IH Scout part, and the probably 20 year old kid asked me if that was GM! this was probably late 90's, maybe 2000, and i realized that IH had stopped producing light duty vehicles around the time this kid had been born!

 

Went to Napa, got a PS in a Napa box, check the part number and its an A1 Cardone, same as what i got from O'reilly, same number stamped on it.

He says A1 Cardone finds it reasonable to have 1 in 10 parts to fail.

Incidently, how loud should the pump be normally anyway? I went out to see if any change. I was not turning so i stood in the cab and forced it. At first it was crap, then it loosened and is working. But the noise is loudish, probably as loud as the other pump. Maybe i am expecting it to be silent like a new car?

 

It can take a while to bleed all the air out of a PS system ...

 

I think we've all had issues at some point. Seemed back in the day someone could look up the parts in an old parts book quicker than they can now on a computer. Having bad experiences in the past have led me to spend hours on the computer looking at p/n's and their alternates and searching for the cheapest prices and the most convenient way of acquiring it....all the while reading the good and bad about merchants and products and including how or how not to install. You can't fool me now on what part is best or right unless it's a newer vehicle I haven't worked on yet or an expensive one I have no business working on....hehe. It PAYS HUGE to research anything on FTE or the net....and saying you don't have to time to is a cheap excuse just like the cheap part you use that fails only to have you wasting more time to get another and do it right. Everyone on here will agree I'm sure....

 

I think the hardest part of going to a parts store is a custom build most parts people anymore don't know how to use a book to look up parts numbers they rely on the make and model too much. Hard to do when say truck was custom built with parts that weren't a twinkle in the engineers eyes when the truck was built.

Story that comes to mind is I was shortening an axle housing for a local guy but he wanted big chevy flange ends on it I went to get bearings and felt like I was pulling teeth to get the right bearing finally had to get the manager to let me look at the books

 

1: P/S pump w/out resevior - reman
W/Ford pump, w/plastic resevior
Napa part numbers 38-5001
Remanufactured by BBB Industries.
List price: $43.90 with $5.60 core charge

2: P/S pump w/out resevior - reman
Saginaw pump w/metal resevior
Napa part number 38-5144
Remanufactured by BBB Industries
List price: $42.97 with $5.60 core

3. P/S pump w/resevior - reman
W/Ford pump, w/plastic resevior
Napa part number 38-1003
Remanufactured by BBB Industries
List Price $55.89 with $7.78 core

NAPA distribution centers around the county have all the second 2, while the first one is a little more elusive.

Pumps 1 and 2 are sold without a resevior, while pump 3 is sold with a resevior

 

It's our own darn fault, well maybe not us specifically but all the auto parts consumers. They have adjusted to us, we demand cheap, that's what they give us. Cheap crap sold to us by cheap morons. If you ever bought any auto part or supply(or really anything) at Wall-Mart YOU are part of the problem. If you ever went to one store to find out what you needed to know then went elsewhere to buy it, YOU are the problem. WE haven't stepped up and taken responsibility that better parts, better organization, and better counter people all cost and we must both demand it and pay for it.

I've put my time in auto parts business and know it inside and out, a machinist for NAPA and quality engine builder, sales at an off-road accessories store and a speed shop, managed a Shucks(now O'Reilly), and inside sales in the performance aftermarket world.

The simple truth is that in this instance the stupid floats to the top. The consumer is stupid, cheap, and demanding of the wrong things. So the retail store adjusts by getting cheaper dumber counter people, cheaper parts, and selling the price and warranty instead. So the company adjusts no longer buying the better more expensive US made parts and goes to the cheapest off shore junk. So the industry adjusts the better companies either make there stuff cheaper or go out of business. The better retail stores either fire there better employees or go under. Now what was low quality parts and service 10 years ago is the norm or even high quality, and it's getting worse.

The good machine shops are being put under by cheap remans. They can't compete with the price when people don't take into account quality.

Good customer service is being replaced by the computer, both in store catalogs and the internet(rockauto). Employees that are worth a damn cost a lot.

Good parts, are being replaced with a cost analysis of cheap parts and warranties. Why bother making a better part when 95% of the people opt for the crap with the warranty that they rarely take advantage of. And when they do they can afford to give another away cause they are so cheap to make.

Good parts selection is being replaced with cost analysis of demand vs costumer retention. It's just not worth it to carry a part that only 2 people a year buy when that customer isn't made loyal by the service.

Me, I've left the auto industry, there is no room in it anymore for someone with a solid mind and ethics. I'm not going to take the crap for the low wages, or cheat customers at the dealerships, I can't get a TV show, and I have no patience for government.

NAPA, guys like Jgavac, and a few small stores are our last hope, or we will end up ordering everything online. Even NAPA is tough though, so spotty from store to store, and so specific to there brands.

FWIW though O'Reilly bought out CSK(checker, shucks, kragen) and I do like the direction it's gone in. That one example has gotten a little better.

 

I agree whole hardheartedly there if we the consumers demanded quality thats what we would get get but we demanded cheap so thats what we got.

There is a trinity in sales Quality - Cheap - Service usually you can only pick two its getting to the point where we can only pick one

 

Local Auto Stoned has some real noodles, I am not sure if they could tell Me where the blinker fluid, or 710 caps are

 

ever wanna have fun ask em for a can of A I R

 

Or ask them for a radiator cap for a 73 VW beetle .

 

Exhaust caps for a 61 Edsel

 

"I need a flush kit and coolant for my 65 bus"

 

If you demand quality then rebuild it yourself with quality parts and take personal responsibility for it.