Rock Auto

[InternationalMarineBrian]

I must say that I am impressed. I ordered yesterday morning at about 2AM and over 75% of my order showed up before noon today. I have never ordered from them before and between the prices and fast shipping I will be back.

What are your experiences with them?

[Gulrok]

They're great except they do have flaws. I've ordered a few thousand dollars worth of parts over the last year. ( I do a lot of brake jobs for people on the side... )

Sometimes they send the wrong part.. if you send the part back, they still charge you shipping.

If the part is cheap enough they'll split the different when you try to return it..

Some orders they can't cancel. - I ordered a front driveshaft from once thinking it was the rear driveshaft... the truck was 2wd, and they listed something as a driveshaft... ordered it, and then decided to google search the part number. Turns out it was a front driveshaft. They were closed for the day, and the order wouldn't ship for the next day or two anyway. Called them first thing the next day, and they informed me they had a contract in place with cardone that they could not cancel ANY orders with them, and the part would be drop shipped from cardone to my home... and that is the only reason why. I returned it and lost almost $20 in shipping costs alone. It sucked.

Besides that rockauto is pretty awesome. I always go there if I can wait for the part. Sometimes you can steal their part numbers and type it into amazon and get a cheaper part / free shipping.

[jeepman1]

If you support the Chinese, they're great!

[Gulrok]

If you support the Chinese, they're great!

Oh hush. Many of the parts I receive say "Made in America"



Here is a fuel pump I still had the box to. Says Made in America, and it was purchased on rockauto.

It is all about the brand / manufacturer you select your parts from.

You can go to your local hardware store and buy a hammer made in China, or a hammer made in the USA.

[babywag]

They're great except they do have flaws. I've ordered a few thousand dollars worth of parts over the last year. ( I do a lot of brake jobs for people on the side... )

Sometimes they send the wrong part.. if you send the part back, they still charge you shipping.

If the part is cheap enough they'll split the different when you try to return it..

Some orders they can't cancel. - I ordered a front driveshaft from once thinking it was the rear driveshaft... the truck was 2wd, and they listed something as a driveshaft... ordered it, and then decided to google search the part number. Turns out it was a front driveshaft. They were closed for the day, and the order wouldn't ship for the next day or two anyway. Called them first thing the next day, and they informed me they had a contract in place with cardone that they could not cancel ANY orders with them, and the part would be drop shipped from cardone to my home... and that is the only reason why. I returned it and lost almost $20 in shipping costs alone. It sucked.

Besides that rockauto is pretty awesome. I always go there if I can wait for the part. Sometimes you can steal their part numbers and type it into amazon and get a cheaper part / free shipping.

You can cancel your orders immediately if needed, no need to call them.
Just need to login and go to "my account" gives you the option there.
Same place to request a warranty replacement, or return an unneeded or wrong part etc.

Done it a few times.

Even with shipping just can't even come close to similar prices locally which kinda sucks, but such is life.

Had a couple minor issues w/ them, but nothing horrible, had far worse experiences with local stores.

[Gulrok]

You can cancel your orders immediately if needed, no need to call them.
Just need to login and go to "my account" gives you the option there.
Same place to request a warranty replacement, or return an unneeded or wrong part etc.

Done it a few times.

Even with shipping just can't even come close to similar prices locally which kinda sucks, but such is life.

Had a couple minor issues w/ them, but nothing horrible, had far worse experiences with local stores.

Nope nope.. not this product. There are a few products that cannot be canceled when ordered. I've canceled products after ordering as well.. but this one was an exception. The phone call was because the cancellation was not available for this product.

The explanation was "We have a contract with Cardone that we cannot cancel products that they ship from their warehouses." Rockauto doesn't have every product they sell at their warehouse.. sometimes they drop ship it from the manufacturer.

[ShagWagon]

The ink on the sticker was made in the USA at least....

I went to the local hardware store to buy a replacement wooden shovel handle.

It was $14. I said Expletive Deleted!Expletive Deleted!Expletive Deleted!? I told the clerk I live in Oregon, how can you charge me $14 for a 2.5' long piece of wood?

Appearantly, they cut the tree down across the street up the hill, truck it to the bay where they load it on a ship, send it to China because we sold them all our pencil sharpeners, run it through the pencil sharpener till it's a shovel handle, add a little lead to the varnish to make us dumber, then send it back to us for $14.

After I pointed this out to the jaw dropped, head nodding in agreement, sales clerk. I picked up the brand new synthetic handled shovel right next to it for $10.50 that was made in China.

Kinda made me sick that some American I probably drink with, is gonna lose his job someday because nobody will buy wood shovel handles that cost more than a new shovel....

[serehill]

UH

Almost everything Rockauto sells is dropped shipped. Almost everything they sell is the same junk the auto supplies sell. Returns are not a breeze. I've done it both ways & when something goes wrong mail order is the worst way to correct an issue.
I've often laughed at the commercial where the guy goes in & wants to buy shocks. They portray the counter guy as a complete idiot. The customer gets mad. I think Napa should put out a commercial of the same guy getting mad when he opens the box & the parts are wrong from Rockauto. Wrong items, returns, cancelling orders, RMA's are not a good part of any process. Waiting for an RMA to be processed is even worse. Unless your time has no value & you don't need the part then I suppose it would be ok. But that never happens in my world. I'll stick to buying local. I suppose it has a old dog new tricks ring to it. \ I would rather have a local supply than a virtual one. if everyone buys that way then that's all we'll have. Consumerism drives the survival of these types of places.
It really doesn't matter how cheap the wrong part was to me. Try telling the guy you want an 83 part for a 78 vehicle & he'll vapor lock on tech support.

Just my narrow minded 2 cents.

Sine I'm on a tangent this reminds me of last summer right after I got finished with some work on the Honcho. On my way into work I had a left front tire disintegrate. I pulled into a discount tire shop & went inside to just buy one that would become a spare later. I ask the guy for a 12.50 x 33 x 15. He had several in stock. Of course the parameter of his capabilities revolved around the computer. He told me he could not sell me that tire because the computer said it will no fit my truck. I told him I would take responsibility please put one on the wheel. He refused so I drove on down the street to a local tire shop & bought one from them.

It doesn't matter where, you can run into the doofus sales guy anywhere. If I misordered the part then I'm the doofus. With all that factored in I would rather go down the street to a parts house than wait days on a correction no matter how it happened. I get tickled listening to folks trying to blame someone else on them getting the wrong part. There's always a great risk on the internet drop ship places. Yes the key word now days is assembled in America. Or made in the USA making people think the parts came from the USA also. Chinese parts assembled in the US LOL What a huge trap that has become.

[TexasJ10]

I generally like rock auto, but the drop shipping drives me crazy. Frequently you get really high shipping costs because every part is being shipped from a different place. I usually check them when I need something, but a lot of times after shipping I can do as well locally.

[cma]

Rockauto rocks for us European guys, never had any problems, neither with return shipmemnts.

[serehill]

Yeah I can see where that works for you Marcus

Rockauto rocks for us European guys, never had any problems, neither with return shipmemnts.

I can see how these parts work for you Marcus. We can get these parts on every corner though.

[Gulrok]

Yeah - That is pretty fair. I really wish my local town had mom & pop local autoparts stores.

When I lived in Washington I'd go to a hole in the wall for parts.

Now it is between Autozone and Advanced Auto... Napa is down the road but they offer no discounts whatsoever.

That being said - one of the NW Napa Regional managers did tell me about opening a Napa Wholesale Cash account. Then you get access to all the software including pro-link and more.

But unless you do crazy work on the neighbors vehicles it probably is overkill, but if you want better discounts you may be able to open one and save money. Probably would even beat Rockauto.

[del]

rock auto

I use Rock Auto for most of my mail order parts. They usually have the cheapest prices. Some on-line stores may have cheaper prices, but charge more for shipping. I do like using the local Oreilly's, but they carry less and less in their stores. Shame I can't get brake parts, in the store, but they have a whole isle of floor mats, steering wheel covers, and license plate covers.

[shaky]

I have bought quite a bit from Rock Auto, but it's not always the best choice. Sometimes they have a better price listed, but it turns out to cost more than a competitor because of shipping. The great thing about Rock Auto is that you usually have a selection of brands and quality/price levels from which to choose, rather than just being stuck with one or two brands at the local parts stores.

Unless I need a part immediately, I usually shop around and track prices for a while, waiting for a good deal to come up. If I'm doing a big project, I'll keep a spreadsheet of best prices for my parts list and grab the best deals as different dealers put them on sale or run better coupon codes. I often run the part number through Frugal Mechanic to see who has the best price. Often the best price is on Amazon. Sometimes I can find a better deal by searching for coupon codes on the other sites. I have Honey installed in my browser, so every once in a while I get a good coupon code out of that.

All that works better with later model vehicles. With my Gladiator, I pretty much have to hope what I need is available and take what I can get.

[tgreese]

I too have bought quite a lot from them. It always takes me a while to put together an order, because I try different combinations of brands to get the best combined shipping.

The main problem I run into is their listings re Jeeps contain a lot of errors. Pretty sure this is because they are letting their suppliers dictate what vehicles the parts work with, and the suppliers are probably picking the applications from Hollanders guide - there's little active human intelligence behind the listings. They also aren't interested in policing the accuracy of their listings.

In the long run, they are convenient and inexpensive. Shipping speed seems to have slowed quite a bit in the past few years. Used to be I'd get stuff in a couple of days ... now it routinely takes a week or more.

Returns and complaints are now highly automated. This works well as long as your issue fits their "template." The template is not bad, but I can see how special situations could be an issue.

Amazon is another good online source for parts, but it's often hard to find what you need there, and their search by vehicle is very limited. Cross-reference by Jeep PN often works. Amazon is excellent with returns.