TwoFaced

^

Hondas aren't all made out of country. They have manufacturing and production facilities everywhere.

They have facilities in America, ran by americans, with american workers on the line. They have dealerships owned by americans, with american salesman.

Good analogy on the mall though.

fungus mungus

As others have said, eBay is more like a MALL, not a SELLER. There are reputable sellers that sell reputable products. There are shady sellers that sell...you guessed it, shady products. There are sellers that list only knockoff items.

eBay has this neat search feature...it's called "Advanced Search". You can put together an extremely precise search using boolean logic that will weed out 95% of the chaff from the wheat. You can eliminate certain sellers, which is handy for eliminating 80% of the knockoff stuff you don't want to see. You can also limit to a certain region. Or you can include ONLY certain sellers that you trust.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater just because you hate seeing pages of knock-off amber corner lamps. Adding the world "STANLEY" to your search will get you the REAL thing 99% of the time. Figure out how to use SEARCH...it's very powerful and can be a real time-saver.

Like it or not, eBay has given us a way to get hard-to-find parts (as well as other non-auto related stuff) that you would NEVER be able to find locally if you lived in...Junction City, KS.

The one thing I am cautious about is buying something that is time-sensitive...I needed a set of shocks and bought them from a seller with something like 1,000,000 feedback. Only this guy was a drop-shipper, so it took like 3 weeks to get here. I needed them for an install and almost had to cancel the appt because of the delay. They arrived in time...barely.

fm

NOFX

eBay can be a great place to buy parts as long as you know what you're looking for and what you're getting yourself into.

If you want real, OE CTR lights, for example, you might want to know how to identify them before you trust a guy trying to make a couple hundred bucks on a set of lights he says are from a CTR.

That aside, I have worked in parts stores for several years. I noticed someone mentioned CV axles. CV axles are slightly hit and miss (but super easy to install). See, a nice enough chunk of the axles we sell end up not matching to the axles on the car already or appear to (please make sure your knuckles haven't separated! <-- this is VERY common!). Every once in awhile we'll just get the wrong product in the box, but at least it's an easy return.

Okay, back to radiators though... It's pretty uncommon for a radiator to come back as failed, especially if it's new. I've seen maybe one or two returned after being used and getting a pinhole. Most radiators that are returned are returned because the buyer purchased the wrong radiator. This usually happens with domestic trucks btw, since they have so many options available and since RVs are built on those chassis (and we can't look up many parts besides car parts).

So, yeah, if I were looking for an OE type radiator, I would totally buy one from a local parts store as long as the price was right and it had a nice long warranty.

NotAJDMFanBoy

There are some products that yes, are hit or miss. Even say CV axles at brick and mortar stores. Autozone was notorious for having garbage axles for a long time. A lifetime warranty is useless if you just get another garbage part in return. Supposedly they've changed their supplier, so...I don't know.

There are products that are pretty safe. Like eBay charge piping or exhaust piping (not including the mufflers) or intercoolers. Just plain piping is kinda hard to screw up. And despite the lower fin density, which some argue is irrelavent, eBay intercoolers are generally regarded as a good value. Shift ***** are fine, it's a glorified nut. The powered antennas for like $12 are good, they pick up more than my OEM antenna did. Cables and cases for electronics such as phones and MP3 players are generally fine.

TwoFaced

That's exactly who I was referring to.

NOFX

I too was talking about Autozone. I've worked there for some time.

Axles don't come back as often anymore, but when they do it's often because it's the wrong axle, not because it's broken. Some of the time when they come back for being wrong we figure out the knuckles just separated. It's common enough for mention.

Like I said, the radiators rarely seem to fail. At least the Autozone ones. I can't speak for them all, but it would be nice if people who have purchased radiators on eBay only to have them fail, could you perhaps post up the seller if you still have access to that information. I'm sure some sellers sell fairly reliable products while others might not.

TwoFaced

Does autozone lifetime warranty axles and radiators...or what's the length of the warranty?

NotAJDMFanBoy

From my experience, the Autozone brand stuff usually seems to have lifetime warranties, such as rotors, pads, etc. But, the prices are kinda high there.

Usually it seems like Advance has lower prices and if you pay online, there are coupons. And you can pick the item up in store so you can save shipping. They usually carry Federal Mogul parts, such as Moog, Wagner, National, Anco, Fel-Pro, Champion, etc.
http://www.federalmogul.com/en/BrandSelector
Plus, it seems like I usually get a more helpful person at the desk there who is willing to help with weird problems. For example, I have an aftermarket crank pulley that needs a smaller alternator belt. The stock one and a D series belt didn't fit, the CTR isn't in the computer, so they decoded my part number and let me compare a few to a belt I cut and brought in as sort of a template.

If anyone prefers AZ, more power to ya. This has just been my experience, and it could vary depending on the location.

NotAJDMFanBoy

It's very possible different sellers are getting their parts from the same place...or not. Maybe that name brand radiator is made by the same people who make a lesser known one. I know with computer parts this happens a lot. There were Ben Q (expensive) CD-RW drives that were often rebadged as other cheap brands and were like $20. This was back when a CD-RW drive was a bigger deal, before the DVD+-RW and the Dual Layer and Blue Ray drives with Light Scribe came out.

NOFX

Prices and the sort of help you'll get from the employees will vary from location to location. Even in my district we have people with different specialties. We have guys who do body work, guys into Chevy trucks, guys into Mustangs, guys into Nissan trucks, guys who work at a shop and this is their second job, a guy who is into electrical work, etc.

Say someone comes in and starts asking me about mid '60s Ford cars, I'm calling Rob, the guy who knows old Mustangs.

Part warranties at Autozone depend on which grade of part you purchase. Valucraft will give you the worst warranty (or none at all), then there's Duralast, Duralast Gold and occasionally other higher name manufacturers which we might be able to special order.

You can sometimes cross reference part numbers that you already have either at the store or on their site as well.

BryanM.

iTrader: (1)

Nice try, but fail.

All three I've owned were built in North America, and I bought
them used. I will never buy a 'new' car.

daxeven

Research, research, research. Take time to do your homework BEFORE you buy save yourself some time, energy and money!

TwoFaced

^ lol random...I believe this thread is their homework...otherwise it would be a don't buy from eBay thread or a check out the deal I got on ebay thread.