I work back counter parts for a Mercedes-Benz dealership in which 90% of Benz owners dont know a rocker arm from an arm rest.. and whats funny in the Mercedes market is that 88% of complaints and poor surveys come from C-class owners.. I hate when these people who can barely afford to drive the car come in to get parts but then complain about the prices, saying it’s 10 times cheaper at napa.. well guess what buddy.. go to napa! Next!

I was annoyed recently that neither Accel or MSD had a colored spark plug wire set for my Firebird V6 3.4. The Accel set was special order and had black wires, and MSD had no set at all available.
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I’d say that the worst thing about parts counters is when they simply can’t get what you’re looking for.
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…and it’s not like there aren’t any GM 3.4 V6’s around. There are a lot of them out there.

If a girl is working the counter, don’t ask if you can speak to a male employee… I had that happen when I worked at Pep Boys… rather insulting.

Good advice

Good tips. Many of those rules apply for any retail setting. when you go to the mall to buy a pair of pants you need to know inseam and waist, if you go to Sears to get a new filter for your wet dry vac you need to know the model to get the right filter. Cars are not any different. The one rule that I would add is “if you are new to car repair do not go into the store and pretend that you are an expert.” With a couple of questions the parts person will know that it is an act anyways. It is much better to approach the counter with the attitude of “I am drowning and I need your help.” I have a working knowledge of what is under the hood of but I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination and I have found that this works well most of the time. BTW – my best parts counter story has to be when I changed out the power steering in a 1986 Dodge 250 Pickup. I did the majority of the work on a day off, in the morning I had fillings put in and then spent the rest of the day running between the garage and Advance Auto getting parts. Imagine a griminy looking guy coming in who is drooling on himself and lisping.

This is all the info they should need:
1. Make
2. Model
3. Year
4. Engine size

I fully agree with this article. I worked at CSK Auto for two years and had multiple dos and don’ts occur from customers. The only thing I would add is, customers: please remember that your parts man (or woman) is human too. We cannot read your mind, so don’t get mad when we cannot understand what you are talking about or that we don’t magically have what you need the second you walk in. Also, we do, on occasion, make mistakes…but that is what warranties and customer service are for!

“I’ll tell you what I tell people: do you go into a restaurant and ask for the recipe to your favorite meal because you want to make it at home? “

That totally does not apply… That’s apples and oranges…

Though, I do respect many points you made, that is just not one of them.

Sometimes major retailers mark up prices so much you almost want to vomit, like in the featured picture, NAPA.

Very informative article about How to buy car part’s for car?.

I’m going to print this out, the amount of tuner people I get lately is driving me nuts