Re:Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
by linuxftw on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @06:22PM
(#17963921)
Don't buy car parts from Amazon, they are almost always overpriced compared to competitors, let alone the risk of fakes (That you claim, I personally don't know of any counterfeit products I have purchased).
Rockauto or Advance is the way to go in the US.
Re:Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
by phaedrus on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @06:36PM
(#17964022)
Funny you should mention, as Rockauto came to the rescue for the transmission kit, and Advance for the spark plugs. Now I only go to Amazon if the car part isn't on Rockauto, but it begs the question - if this part is so obscure it's not on the specialty site, can I really trust this Amazon listing is actually the part I need, and that I will not instead receive, say, a used birdhouse?
Re:Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
by linuxftw on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @07:01PM
(#17964173)
I got my tranmission rebuild kit from RockAuto as well ;)
The auto parts world is a tricky beast. If it's not sold by a major retailer, there's often the manufacturer or specialty sites for various classes of autos, especially classic cars and 4x4s. Ebay is another great place for used parts as well.
In one case I ordered a name-brand transmission rebuild kit but received a knock-off with a similar name. Unfortunately I didn't notice the difference before I dropped off the kit with the friend who was rebuilding the trans for me. He kept complaining about parts not in the kit, and I kept being mystified because I (thought I) bought the top of the line kit, there was no more-comprehensive one to buy? It wasn't until the next time I could get out to his house that I realized we'd been scammed; by then he'd already used part of the kit so I just bought another kit to get the missing parts.
The second occurrence was I ordered a normally $30 set of 4 spark plugs for $20, and what I received was 1 spark plug - obviously the scam is break up the $30 pack and sell for 4x$20. I got a refund on this one and got to keep the plug, but it delayed an important engine repair and also left me with a dilemma as to how important it was that they match - I ended up using the one expensive plug and three mid-range plugs (because I would have just chosen 4 cheaper plugs in the first place if I'd known).