Buying Car Parts Online Is Easy And Safe

As a car owner you have probably been in this awkward situation more than once: You need some parts or accessories for your vehicle. You know you can easily change the necessary parts and get your car up and running again, you just have to go down to the nearest auto part store and get them. Piece of cake. You enter the store and ask for the parts and the salesperson goes to the storage to pick them up. After waiting a long period of time he comes back and tells you that they unfortunately don't have the parts in stock, but they will order them so you can get them next month or so. You go to the next store and they have only the two bolts that you need but the other, most crucial parts have to be ordered. Disappointed you wander to the next store, the cycle repeats itself again and again..... But there is a solution, a great solution for your problem: Forget your local auto part stores and order your car parts online.

Thank goodness for the internet, right? With the internet you simply open up your web browser and type in the part you are trying to find. Almost instantly (depending on your internet connection) dozens of results pop up, offering to sell you the very part you need. Not only will these stores sell you the parts over the internet, but for minimal fees, they will deliver the part directly to your front door. No wasted gas or time there!

Here are some tips for buying car parts online:

Well Known Auto Stores: Almost every single one of the major players in the auto parts industry has a website from which shoppers can order parts. A lot of these stores also have the regular "brick and mortar" stores and will let you return internet-ordered parts to those stores (in the event that the part that got delivered to you was not what you ordered or turned out to be the wrong part). Some of the major "brick and mortar" auto parts stores that will also let you order your car parts online are Napa, Carquest, Auto Zone, Pep Boys, Advance Auto Parts and Schucks Auto (known in some areas as CSK Auto).

Auctions: Auctions are fantastic places to find parts that are gently used. People strip their cars down for parts all the time (for various reasons) and many people sell those car parts online to the highest bidder. The best way to find auctions for the parts you are looking for is to search for the car part itself. If you do a car part auction search, the number of results you will get will be incredibly overwhelming. So first locate the part you want and then check out the auction sites listed for it. It will save you mountains of time.

Auto Forums: People love to talk about their cars. More than that, the people who can and will fix their own cars love talking about how they do it. They band together and form forums much like people who are fans of the same celebrity. Auto Forums are a great place to find car parts online as most forums will have a sort of "classifieds" section for the buying and selling of car parts online. In the event that the forum doesn't list the exact part you are looking for, chances are you will connect with people who know where to find it and where to find it for the best price.

Your local online classifieds: Try searching through a site like Craigslist if there is a board for where you live (or don't mind driving to). Craigslist is full of people who are looking to buy and sell car parts online. There is even a specific board just for car parts listings. With a few simple emails, you might be able to find exactly the part you are looking for, or with someone who knows how to find it.

Searching for online car part stores is very simple. You just go to one of the main search engines and type in what you want. After a second or two you will be given a list of a thousand webpages. Don't panic. Check out the 5 to 10 first links on the list and I guarantee you will have more than enough online auto part stores to check out.

More and more people have started to understand that they can shop for their car parts and accessories online. They have experienced the convenience of going to their favorite online auto part store, type in their make and model and what kind of car part they want and within a second they have all the parts they need displayed and often with a photo of it. All you have to do is click on it, pay for it for a price that is most often lower than what you find in an auto part store and after a day or two you have your parts delivered at your door. It's safe to shop on the internet too. Isn't it much more fun to fix your car when you know you will have the parts you need almost instantly when all you have to do is a few click with your mouse or keyboard?

by Terry Bolton