1 Topic by ICAustinMiniMan (edited by ICAustinMiniMan 2013-10-31 04:09 AM)

  • Registered: 2013-07-22
  • Posts: 208

Topic: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/ … CG20131016

This leaves somewhat of a dilemma. I frequent both my Advance and my Carquest. Advance is my go-to for fluids, mainstream parts, and other various "easy to find" components. Carquest is my savior for "I need something to work... now." My Carquest has been open since 1896 (not a typo). I once took my '72 Mini Truck for a quick spin around the block before taking it to Eurofest the next day. And the clutch went out. The seal for the slave cylinder went kaput. This was at 5:28. I went to Carquest and, after spending two hours searching (they close at 6:00), he found that the seal from an Isuzu Trooper rear brake is the same OD and ID. It worked. Amazing. So here's the problem... are they going to incorporate? Combine? I need both of my stores!

I'm just glad Autozone didn't buy them. Then I'd be in a real conundrum. If I was stranded and had to walk 50 miles to the nearest town, and Autozone was the only option, I might go there. That of course assumes that whatever left me stranded could be solved with an air freshener, some LED underglow, and a stick on "chrome" porthole.

So... how does this effect your life? Are you trembling with fear? Jumping for joy? Writhing in indifference?

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  • From: CT
  • Registered: 2013-09-23
  • Posts: 38

Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

I own an auto repair shop and Car Quest is one of my main suppliers. From what I have been told by the CQ Manager is that Advance Auto wanted to get more of the wholesale market that they just could not seem to attract, so they bought CQ whose main strategy was selling to repair shops.
We already had an Advance Auto in town along with a CQ store(and all the others) but I am being told that the CQ store is staying open and will continue to be basically the same without the CQ packaging and will be called Advance Auto Professional or something like that.
Also my CQ store was company owned not independently owned not sure how this will effect the 100's of independent stores.

  • From: St Louis
  • Registered: 2011-10-20
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

My local Advance is staffed by young kids with no clue at all. That's why I go to o'reileys, old guys with plenty of time in the industry.

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  • From: Columbus, OH
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

ICAustinMiniMan wrote:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/ … CG20131016

I'm just glad Autozone didn't buy them. Then I'd be in a real conundrum. If I was stranded and had to walk 50 miles to the nearest town, and Autozone was the only option, I might go there. That of course assumes that whatever left me stranded could be solved with an air freshener, some LED underglow, and a stick on "chrome" porthole.

I've never shopped at a Carquest, but this has been my experience with Autozone 100%.

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

dculberson wrote:
ICAustinMiniMan wrote:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/ … CG20131016

I'm just glad Autozone didn't buy them. Then I'd be in a real conundrum. If I was stranded and had to walk 50 miles to the nearest town, and Autozone was the only option, I might go there. That of course assumes that whatever left me stranded could be solved with an air freshener, some LED underglow, and a stick on "chrome" porthole.

I've never shopped at a Carquest, but this has been my experience with Autozone 100%.

The plus side of the inexperience at AZ is that when I walk in with two handfuls of mismatched exhaust parts and head straight to the exhaust parts aisle, they don't even ask anymore. smile

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  • From: Life's great in 21158
  • Registered: 2009-05-01
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

At my AZ, they let me wander in back and start opening boxes on the shelves.  Pretty sure they have some strange nickname for me...

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

Option 3, we've got NAPA locally.

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  • From: Aumsville, Oregon (Near Salem)
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

Sir Thomas Crapper wrote:

Option 3, we've got NAPA locally.

It all depends on the staff.   My local NAPA has two young guys, a toothless old redneck, and a grey-haired old black guy who knows every lemony trick in the book -- and many that aren't.   The latter two are the ones I always turn to when I need some oddball part.   I can only hope that they are passing on their knowledge to the two young guys.

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

And then there were none. 

My nearby Carquest is the last of the real parts stores.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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  • Registered: 2012-09-07
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

CowDriver wrote:
Sir Thomas Crapper wrote:

Option 3, we've got NAPA locally.

It all depends on the staff.   My local NAPA has two young guys, a toothless old redneck, and a grey-haired old black guy who knows every lemony trick in the book -- and many that aren't.   The latter two are the ones I always turn to when I need some oddball part.   I can only hope that they are passing on their knowledge to the two young guys.

I thought you were talking about my NAPA, until I saw where you're from.

  • From: Austin
  • Registered: 2010-09-13
  • Posts: 1,478

Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

Man, these are SO dependent on staff. O'Reilly's nearby gets a lot of my business for realizing I'm a normal person with a broke-ass car.

Advance across the freeway wasn't bad, either--they were cool enough to keep Lulzcer rotors in stock when I needed to find 'em at the last minute. Heh, they asked if I was drifting since I needed four at once. Nope, it's FWD--just taking Mom's car to the F1 track. Lulz.

Staff that treats me like I must not know what I'm talking about? I'm gonna go somewhere else.

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  • From: Life's great in 21158
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

I had a trans support bushing go out on me one time about 20 miles from home, gingerly drove to the nearest AZ and the manager helped me fab up a temporary solution (since the part I needed wasn't in stock- 45 year old Volvo, you know), lent me tools and a jack, and let me work in the parking lot.

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  • From: Long Beach, CA
  • Registered: 2011-09-18
  • Posts: 262

Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

mechimike wrote:

I had a trans support bushing go out on me one time about 20 miles from home, gingerly drove to the nearest AZ and the manager helped me fab up a temporary solution (since the part I needed wasn't in stock- 45 year old Volvo, you know), lent me tools and a jack, and let me work in the parking lot.

Wasn't in stock as in needed to be ordered, or never available again?

  • From: Alvin, TX
  • Registered: 2010-02-22
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

I have to say that the local Carquest was the last of the Good Ole Boys Auto Parts.  As previous posters have noted, they were never shy to bust out the greasy and frayed catalogs to actually SEARCH for the part you need.  One complaint I have with Carquest is their prices.   I bought 6 quarts of oil the other day without paying attention to the price:  $38 bucks out the door for Castrol GTX 20W50.

As far as Autozone and Oreileys are concerned, if it ain't in the computer - it don't exist.   My local Autozone is pretty good about giving me the freedom to search their shelves behind the counter when I am looking for a part that the girl running the computer can't find.   Oh yeah - no girls should be allowed to work at any auto parts store.  Ever.  They should be at Hooters - or maybe Burger King if they are ugly.

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  • From: Westfield Ma
  • Registered: 2012-10-29
  • Posts: 1,148

Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

We have all 4 in town so I can see the Carquest staying an independent local parts house.   My local one makes any type hose you want as well.  Advanced and NAPA and Autozone can't offer that.

  • Registered: 2013-07-22
  • Posts: 208

Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

mechimike wrote:

I had a trans support bushing go out on me one time about 20 miles from home, gingerly drove to the nearest AZ and the manager helped me fab up a temporary solution (since the part I needed wasn't in stock- 45 year old Volvo, you know), lent me tools and a jack, and let me work in the parking lot.

Makes a fun clunking noise when it goes, doesn't it?

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  • From: Van Nuys, CA
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

The secret to getting good service is to look up the parts before you go in on their web sites and write down the number. It also helps avoid going to a place that doesn't have it. Lucky for me the nearest O'Rielly is about 2 miles, but there is a depot store of theirs about 4 miles from there. So I can just make the drive if its a part they'd have to order.

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

Parkwod60 wrote:

The secret to getting good service is to look up the parts before you go in on their web sites and write down the number. It also helps avoid going to a place that doesn't have it.

There are people that DON'T do this???  Saves all that confusion about what year and model the car is, when that has no bearing on the part you need...

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

The town I grew up in has a CarQuest and a Napa - both were all right. I found the guys at the nearby (~30 minute drive) Advance to be competent enough to look up parts numbers, at least (if I walked in with a snapped Gates belt and gave 'em the number, or had 'em look up which NGK plugs fit a Volvo 740, they could at least find what I wanted). The CarQuest and Advance had more than two parking spaces, and I've done minor wrenching outside each without any complaints.

The closest store to me now is a CAP, and I've only been in there once, but they seem competent enough; same goes for FAP, though I haven't been to one in years.

I've had to go to AutoZone in the past, of course, and the only thing they've been good for is oil change specials. Sooner or later I'll try to trick 'em with some weird Saab part.

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  • From: Austin
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

Please tell me I'm not the only person who giggled at the abbreviation "FAP." Heh.

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

ninjacoco wrote:

Please tell me I'm not the only person who giggled at the abbreviation "FAP." Heh.

FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP... Hope this isn't rozap, for that matter.

Our local import parts chain is BAP. Started out as British Auto Parts. Couldn't they have kept the R in BRitish... Since they sold air cooled VW stuff for decades, including the much-hated EMPI stinger exhausts, they were always called BRAP in some circles...

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  • From: Colorado Springs Co.
  • Registered: 2013-09-24
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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

I am lucky to have in Elizabeth Co. a owner operated NAPA store that has those old school parts guys that are car guys and know cars and the parts for them. They are already used to my antics involving god-knows-what engine swaps and similar silliness. The NAPA warehouse and main store in Denver is HORRIBLE! My brother was trying to get a Holley carb power valve. The guy behind the counter assured him they don't exist. It took much fuss to get the guy to get out a Holley book, show him they do indeed exist, have him type in the number, discover they actually have one and get it for him. I regularly go by the CQ warehouse in Denver as well. They are on the east end of Denver Just off I70 so easy to stop by on the way back from Denver. NEVER had probs there. Bought a LOT of stuff from them too. But then there's always Rockauto......and while I really like them.....the accuracy of their listings gets real fuzzy if you get older than the mid 70's. Or if you want stuff for an AMC. Trans mount for a Pacer? They list it. Does it look in anyway like a Pacer mount? It does not. SIGH. (Yes THAT Pacer...the ex Speedycop one).
Thusly, parts are, and will continue to be a constant nuisance....

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

As an independent NAPA manager, former Orielly manager, former Autozone manager, I can tell you that Advanced bought out CARQUEST because CARQUEST owns World Pac. World pac is a huge supplier of foreign parts in the industry. Expect to see ALOT of CARQUEST locations close down if an Advance is in the area and lots of old parts people replaced with 18-21 year old burger flippers.

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

Ive been doing Auto parts for 16 years and I have seen a lot of changes, some good, some bad. It use to be a good career but its no different then working at Wal-Mart now.

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Re: Advance Auto Buys Carquest. Discuss.

frankdtank00 wrote:

As an independent NAPA manager, former Orielly manager, former Autozone manager, I can tell you that Advanced bought out CARQUEST because CARQUEST owns World Pac. World pac is a huge supplier of foreign parts in the industry. Expect to see ALOT of CARQUEST locations close down if an Advance is in the area and lots of old parts people replaced with 18-21 year old burger flippers.

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