Improving Your Car

When buying replacement parts for your vehicle, finding a shop or store that offers a large auto parts inventory is vital. If the auto parts store does not have the parts you need, you may find yourself making several trips to different stores to try and find them, and that can delay the repairs. 

Quality Parts

Shopping for replacement auto parts can be challenging if you are looking for something that is a dealer part or one for an older car. Finding a store with a more extensive auto parts inventory is essential, but you also need to check the quality of the parts they sell. 

Look for a parts store that offers a mix of name-brand, reconditioned, and off-brand parts to find what you need in your price range. If the parts have a good warranty and the store will stand behind them, the quality is usually good. Auto parts stores that offer a lot of lower-quality components may not provide anything other than the manufacturer's warranty, which is often limited to a short window of time. 

Parts made by the more prominent manufacturers and those that supply the vehicle manufacturer parts are the best option in most cases, but they can be more expensive. The quality and warranty on the parts more than make up for the additional cost, and if you are willing to spend the extra money, you may find that the parts last for much longer than lower-priced alternatives.

Parts Selection 

Some of the most challenging situations occur when you have a classic car or something that is not very common in the US. Finding replacement parts for both can turn into a full-blown search of the area's auto parts stores. 

Your best chance at locating a part that is no longer in production is to find a store with a large auto parts inventory that goes back over many years. Some of these stores will still have old parts on the shelf that were not needed when the vehicle was still made and have been waiting for a buyer every since. 

Often these parts, called "new original stock" or NOS parts for short, are still in like-new condition and have been in the original packaging since the day they arrived in the store. Often newer auto parts stores will not have these parts because they were not in business when the parts were still in demand, but an older store that has been operating for years in the area may have what you need.

Contact a local auto parts store, such as Padco Auto Parts, to learn more.