Zomby woof wrote: Local online parts suppliers are few and far between, and shipping from the US makes places like Rockauto unpractical.
Hey Mike, I stumbled across a really interesting site:
www.autopartsway.ca
Rock Auto-esque prices, with free shipping via UPS in Canada if the order is large enough ($75 I believe). They even stock oddball parts, like I could get a set of EBC Yellow (track compound) brake pads for my Legacy!
Having spent another year working for said store since last posting in this thread, I maintain my position. It really is just retail that happens to sell car parts. Starting pay for non-management positions is within a quarter of minimim wage. As nice as it would be to be fully staffed with knowledgeable employees, it's hard to get them when we don't pay any more than the local fast food joints.
It also seems like some of the people who shop at parts stores feel like they're extra entitled. "What do you mean you won't replace my pads for free, I only got 80,000 miles out of them!" Then you've got the people who just try to throw parts at the problem, returning everything that didn't fix it and getting angrier all the time for no apparent reason. I could go on...
I guess what I'm trying to say is parts counter employees put up with a lot for very little money. Most of us try to do our best but it's hard, especially with the level of corporate involvement we deal with. Please play nice with us.
HiTempguy wrote:Zomby woof wrote: Local online parts suppliers are few and far between, and shipping from the US makes places like Rockauto unpractical.Hey Mike, I stumbled across a really interesting site: www.autopartsway.ca Rock Auto-esque prices, with free shipping via UPS in Canada if the order is large enough ($75 I believe). They even stock oddball parts, like I could get a set of EBC Yellow (track compound) brake pads for my Legacy!
No wonder I didn't remember posting that. It was a year ago 
I found another one for performance parts
http://performanceparts.com/
Warehouses in BC and Ontario, with free shipping
ddavidv wrote: This will date me, but when I was behind the parts counter the one item you could sell, and be guaranteed the guy would come back and say it's defective because it didn't solve his problem, was a rebuilt carb. No matter how much time I spent pumping them for symptoms and trying to get them to comprehend what the real likely problem was, it was always the carb. Which is why we had a rigid "no returns" policy on carbs.
Wow... you worked at a parts counter at a time when rebuilt carbs weren't defective out of the box half the time? 
These days a lot of the carb rebuilding places have a tendency to mix and match parts from a bunch of different years, sandblast carbs where they shouldn't be sandblasted, etc. I've heard a lot of stories about rebuilt carbs that had issues out of the box, even dealt with one myself on the Dart. Now I generally say that if you have a factory original carburetor, if you have enough wrenching skills to get the carb unbolted, you're better off rebuilding it yourself.
But I understand what you mean there - wasn't there a saying that 90% of carburetor problems are ignition related?
I'll tell ya', here is my favorite conversation:
(the customer is a amateur dirt tracker, very grassroots but not very professional)
Stroker Ace: "I need ball joints for an '80 Malibu"
Me: "I've got moog for $60 each, TRW for $40 or "Driveworks" for a nickel.
Stroker Ace: "Gimme them cheap ones. They're only for a racecar."
Me: ...chuckles..."Understood, that will be $120 please."
Stroker Ace: "You said they were a nickel each."
Me: "Sorry, I thought you were joking."
ONLY for a racecar? I hear this at least twice a day during mud slinger season.
maddabe wrote: I'll tell ya', here is my favorite conversation: (the customer is a amateur dirt tracker, very grassroots but not very professional) Stroker Ace: "I need ball joints for an '80 Malibu" Me: "I've got moog for $60 each, TRW for $40 or "Driveworks" for a nickel. Stroker Ace: "Gimme them cheap ones. They're only for a racecar." Me: ...chuckles..."Understood, that will be $120 please." Stroker Ace: "You said they were a nickel each." Me: "Sorry, I thought you were joking." ONLY for a racecar? I hear this at least twice a day during mud slinger season.
didn't you know? racing drivers subject their DD's to much more abuse than the race cars. They actually drive around the track at a very sedate pace most races, but when they get in the big ol' truck to drive home, they turn into speed demons
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