Quote Originally Posted by Hotrod46 View Post
Several years ago the best independent parts house in town sold out to Carquest. Owner wanted to retire. He stayed on with them for a while.

I went in one day to get a GM alternator and to visit with him. He had just got in the Carquest alternator test machine and wanted to use my stuff as a test. I said sure. He checked the old alternator and sure enough, it was bad. He went in the back and got the rebuilt one off the shelf and ran it. It was bad out of the box! He got another and it was bad too! The third one had to be reclocked as it was for another application, but at least it did charge.

I had always depended on his parts being good and had never had any trouble, but after that, I started driving to the next town and visiting the best alternator rebuilder in this area!
That's one thing that we've learned rather quickly is to never buy anything electrical there. We've had a few that didn't make it off the lot, that was enough for us. He knows the stuff we won't buy, anything that says World American can literally go from the box to the garbage can. We don't deal much with auto stuff at our shop so it's mostly consumables and truck brakes and such. The truck brakes are not from the Carquest line. Come to think of it nearly all the stuff we get from there is from other manufactures that he keeps in the store. I guess that speaks volumes. The racks are re-manufactured by Cardone, and I'm a little worried that the Delco one could be too with another $100 tacked on it. My other concern is the Speedway one is made in Pakistan or somewhere like that. I miss the days when I was surprised when a replacement part failed. Arnold Motor and Sturdevants seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of the Wall Mart part stores.