Hmm,
This is a tough topic,I don't want to bad mouth anybody or start a flaming contest. Basically I group Advance and Autozone together(Large auto part chains).I've used both with success for years.
That said what I love about them is the free loan a tool, very handy when in a pinch. I also love the fact that they have a searchable website, for my old crap. when I used to go into auto parts stores back in the 80's and 90's what I always hated was I would say I need a blah blah blah for a 66 Mustang and I'd basically hear the guy mutter under his breath or I'd get hit with the "Our Books don't go back that far"............ Sorry if this offends any of the counter guys at the stores I used to frequent,but hey it's the truth.
As far as the parts themselves I search the stuff at home and I usually try to get the higher quality parts through these places Moog,Trw, Eis, Wagner,etc. My thought is I'm going to have to wait for the parts to come no matter what.
So when I walk into these places I already know exactly what I need. No offense but if I walk in not knowing what I need,I'm screwed.
Here's a funny Autozone story, a few years ago I'm looking into some exhaust parts for a dual exhaust for a 65 Mustang G.T. Of mine. The guy behind the counter says to me very obnoxiously, it's not possible. No Mustang left the factory before 1972 with dual exhaust. I snicker,roll my eyes and ask him if he knows anything about Mustangs? He puffs up a bit and says I sure do I own a 199* 5.0 Mustang . I then proceed to ask him ( in front of 3 other customers and 2 co workers) If he's ever heard of a Boss 302, A Boss 429, A 68 1/2 428 CJ G.T. A GT500 Shelby. He obviously says yes to all of this. I then say so you're going to look me in the eye and tell me these cars left with the factory with a single exhaust? He says maybe you're right? I say yea word to the wise don't believe everything the computer screen tells you,You might learn something. So you're response to me should be we're not able to get it.
Aside from that I can't bad mouth them. I have a bunch of their parts on a bunch of my cars without incident (I have had some problems ,knocking on wood) for the most part. I figure you have to take the good with the bad mechanical stuff breaks, I've seen brand new factory oem parts made by the oem suppliers fail right out of the box. So some failure has to be expected.
Brett, for what it's worth one good thing about Autozone is if you walk in there with your starter you can give it to them for a full refund of the original price that you paid for it,then you can use that to go buy a replacement somewhere else like Napa. I recently returned a 1 1/2 year old belt to Advance from one of my Jeeps for a full refund, which I used to buy a Mopar Replacement.
Awesome
