Best place to buy car parts?

fred246

AdrianC wrote: »

Lots of idiots sell abysmal quality chocolate parts on eBay. But they're cheap!

I would never buy from a seller with a less than 99% rating. So it looks like over 99% of people are happy with ebay 'chocolate'. The last timing belt I bought was a Continental Contitech from Amazon. Are parts bought from Amazon 'chocolate' too? Eurocarparts have shops, carparts4less website, Ebay and Amazon. I normally buy the more expensive stuff like Pagid rather than Eicher. A lot of the parts are obviously the original ones. A Volkswagen may have a Bosch alternator. You buy a Bosch one from eurocarparts. I assume VW would put the Bosch alternator in a VW box and charge double!

Mercdriver

fred246 wrote: »

On my last car the alternator went. I took it off one evening and gave it to the wife with the yellow pages. "Get that fixed tomorrow. Repair, replacement, whatever". She found a man who fixed alternators. He put in new brushes for £10. I put it back on the next evening and it lasted another 9 years. I did take my current car's alternator to pieces and replacing the brushes was so easy-a youtube video shows you how to do it. Ebay is a fantastic place to buy parts. Where else can every buyer rate their purchase for all to see? Eurocarparts sell on ebay. Main dealers sell parts on ebay. I feel sorry for people who post on MSE forum wanting help from fellow moneysavers and all they get is a load of rubbish from garage owners with a vested interest.

Is Hucker your spare handle?

macman

Seems to me that any advice is futile without the OP stating the make and model. The buying advice you might give for a Porsche Macan alternator would presumably be different to one for a 10 year old Nissan Micra. The context is everything.

System

twistershoot wrote: »

On ebay it's much more complicated as to knowing which one to buy.

In that case let the garage doing the work supply the part because you're most likely going to supply the wrong one and the garage will want paying for the attempt to fit the wrongly supplied part in addition to being paid to fit the proper one.

fred246

I remember buying parts from the main dealer in the 1980s. The man in front of me said 'trade' and they said 50% off. So I said "trade" too but couldn't stop grinning. "no you're not. Full price". It seemed silly they could sell for totally different prices. The internet and ebay has got rid of that distinction so it has never been cheaper to DIY. It's sad that people seem to have lost confidence in their ability to work on cars. DIY servicing has never been easier.

AdrianC

fred246 wrote: »

I remember buying parts from the main dealer in the 1980s. The man in front of me said 'trade' and they said 50% off. So I said "trade" too but couldn't stop grinning. "no you're not. Full price". It seemed silly they could sell for totally different prices.

Now go into your local builder's merchant...

The internet and ebay has got rid of that distinction so it has never been cheaper to DIY.

Not completely. I was looking at a plumber's merchant's website the other day, and it gave no pricing until you logged in. Even where sites do give public pricing, many customers have accounts with discount codes attached.

twistershoot

Nice debate fellas. Apart from eurocar parts and eBay? Are there anymore ?

custardy

twistershoot wrote: »

Nice debate fellas. Apart from eurocar parts and eBay? Are there anymore ?

loads.




....................

chrisuk44

Car parts 4 less. Co. Uk

Or euro car parts. Co. Uk
But make sure you use a voucher code and sign up to the email for regular codes

fred246

I've used mister auto (French) and micksgarage (Irish). Both good. The great thing with ebay though is the feedback.You have to be good to keep good feedback. In the old days of mail order it was always either fantastic (the part is in stock and they post it immediately) or it was rubbish (they were selling something they didn't have and couldn't get it etc etc). Unless you use ebay it's the same. Ebay feedback keeps ebay good. Both sell on ebay so I always go through ebay if possible.