Its all on the staff man. Different areas have different stores that are better. Some places NAPA rocks, some places Advanced rocks, some places its O'Reillys, etc etc.

x2 got a buddy who works there so i always get hooked up, plus i can trust that he knows what he's doing

WT is the only napa ive dealt with too... stuff is more expensive from there, but you get a show from the characters that work there, despite having to wait a half hour for them to get/look up what you want

Up in my area, pepboys is huge but never has my part, strauss is horrid, napa never has the parts, then order them, then cant find them, but contrary to most people (al's not a person) autozone hasn't let me down yet

The problem with NAPA is, unless your store is connected wiht a warehouse, we have a hard time stocking certain things, reason being, NAPA charges the stores for parts, and if they sit, we lose on the money, which sounds like ********, but Advance and AutoZones are a corporate type stores, we are corporate AND franchises ( i.e J.C Miller around my area) Were better then the other stores becaue we have a better cahnce at gettign the part you need compared to the other stores, the only prob is we may not have it in stock.

It also has to do with what type of car you got. Kasey, if it's your 80's Mercedez, were not going to stock parts for a 20+ car, how many more are on the road, or at least how much of a demand is there for the parts in my area, same with Fbody's, its a common sports car, but some of the parts ( like $150 Opti) were not going to stock if it doesnt move often in the stores. Advance an others could care less if it sits on the shelf.

What he said. I don't expect to get engine parts for my OHC V6 Olds off the shelf - Olds only motors. No one had an alternator for it the other day. NAPA got me one the next day. Which I ended up not needing and they did not charge me anything for ordering it, they just sent it back. But I can get brakes & suspension parts anywhere since they are common GM mid-size parts.


I used to hate seeing odd ball cars come into the bays when I was in service. Cars like mekurs and sterlings. No one had those damn parts. Not even pads. lol

I was in NAPA and Autozone yesterday getting brake parts for the 88 4Runner. NAPA doesn't stock as much as the bigger chain stores so you need to be prepared to order things. I think the quality is better on a lot of the parts but the prices are higher too. But all the stores come down to the people that work at them.

I don't care to go to the Napa by me. They have terrible hours and take forever to look up parts. Napa has also given me the wrong parts. I needed F350 dually shocks, and they gave me F150 shocks. Didn't realize they gave the wrong part until going over a bump and it pulled the shock eyelets straight. I usually go to AutoZone. Never had any problems with them.

for me its, Napa, Levines, Advance, CarQuest. i use to deal with napa everyday when i was a tech, never had a problem, most parts were cheaper then anywhere else, and they were better. altho i havent had a napa brake pad set last 60 thousand like a set of advance pads did

The problem when people buy stuff here is NAPA like to slap their sticker over everything, so people think that NAPA made it, but our shocks are Monroe, our NAPA oil is Valvoline (Ashland Co.) Brakes are Raybestos, etc, which is why our parts are more expensive. Our batteries are ranked #4 Consumer reports, and our oil/ail/fuel, etc filters are Wix.

Our hours are ****** because we cater to auto shop hours, which usually are 9-5 or 8-5, which I believe sucks in many ways because there are those afterhour times that people need something, but they were at work and couldn't come down. Advance auto, Autozone,etc cater to walk in customers which is why they stay up later, and prices are cheaper, but as I always say, you get what you pay for. I don't know what Autozones oil is, but Advance Auto's is Havoline. It has a ton of detergent in it because it's mixed with recycled oil. Back in the day I would get a little nausiated from the smell their oil would emit from the detergent.

I like NAPA, but even sometimes I say god that price is a little high, but like I said, we cater to shop pricing, not walk in customers, thus why tools sound stupidly expensive.

I wish my NAPA was open on Sunday. That's not just a "some of the time" deal, either. I'd be there a lot on Sundays.

Yup, we lose alot of profit from not being open Sunday. we used to be, but corporate came down and knifed that in the back to "save" money, but it's done everything BUT saved money. How many people are off Sunday's to be able to work on their car? Alot.

Flemington has never been open on Sundays from what I remember.

I really do like NAPA's parts, but I do not like the employees working at the local stores (Williamstown & Runnemede/Magnolia). They are ignorant & rude. Hammonton NAPA is good as well as Stratford (the one with the machine shop). They are a good distance away, though.

Everyone i know hounds them to be open on sundays, say something about them being open sunday, peer pressure them into it :rofl:

We try!!, but corporate keeps saying we'll look into it, or maybe in the summer time.

Then they hand you the parts and you hand them right back to them and say, now get me the right parts.:rofl:

My guess is most NAPAs get a very high %% of their business from shops, not retail customers. Shops are not open on Sunday. Whatever the reason, I am sure they did not decide to be closed for S&Gs.

The local NAPA was not even sure if they could test my alternator when I called and asked. I took it to Advance, and they tested it right then and there. They also sold me a new alternator for the same price as the rebuilt that NAPA had to get from the ware house.

The NAPA staff are pleasant enough, but really don't seem to know much about auto parts or the products they sell.

The Advance store seems to always have a choice of 2 or 3 different grade parts for you to choose from. Rarely get that choice from NAPA.

The guy working at Advance told me how to remove the tensioner on the Mountianeer, even know the exact size bolts. So I am pleasantly surprised at the knowledge, service and selection at Advance. I'll give the NAPA in Hackettstown a try, but I'm not holding my breath.

We do have several choices on just about everything from batteries, to calipers, master cylinders, steering/suspension, just ask to look at the computer if they say that's all they got cause they are BSing you. Brakes has the most variety, with about 3-7 choices.

whats the warranty on the alternator vs the napa one?

Napa alternators have a lifetime warranty. We carry the Napa alternators and Excel. Excels are remans and have a 1 year warranty.

yes i know, see with napa alot of the times you are paying for the warranty. wasn't sure how the other place handled warranties.

wipers for my dad's 08 malibu

The Advance alternator (Remy new, not rebuilt) has a lifetime warranty.