Next to labor costs are car parts and they can really add to a repair bill especially at a new car dealer (new car dealers sell the exact same quality parts as one can get elsewhere but for much more money – sometimes 2 or 3 times more)!  Car parts can be quite expensive depending on the part.  Some small electronic parts can be very expensive and even fragile to handle (as in turn signal relays for Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth minivans like the Grand Caravan).  So how does one go about saving on car parts?

Well, as I mentioned above, never get auto parts (unless they are covered through your car warranty) through a new car dealer.  They charge a huge markup and sell the same exact quality parts you will find elsewhere.  See those ads the new car dealer service department has posted about OEM equipment and how its better than aftermarket parts?  Well, it’s a complete lie for two reasons – 1) the aftermarket companies are held to the same stringent standards as the manufacturers and 2) the funny thing is that 98% of the parts on any car are not made by the original manufacturer – they come from these same “aftermarket” companies. 

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So, now that we have that straight, you can get just about any part you will need through your local auto parts store and probably at about a 30% to 50% lower cost than from a new car dealer . Autozone is very good at this and has a knowledgable tech on staff usually whom is quite helpful in most situations.  They also loan out tools for you to use at some Autozones if you are going to do the repair work yourself.  I would personally avoid PepBoys as they tend to charge higher prices on average and they also tend to stock too many scam items – items like the Tornado and Turbonator which promise greater fuel economy and horsepower and were found to be completely 100% ineffective by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and FTC (Federal Trade Commission).

Another avenue you might want to try for even bigger savings is salvage yards.  Salvage yards are not what people think.  They aren’t places where dirty old parts sit for years, get rusty and then you go out with your own tools in the mud and weeds and get your parts.  That was back in the seventies.  Nowadays they quickly recycle their inventories and most carry late model cars only as they are more profitable.  It is very easy to find a part that is perfectly fine from a car that was totaled on another area of the car and buy that part for a tiny fraction of the cost at a new car dealer or even a local auto parts store like Autozone.

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You can even search a salvage yards inventory from the comfort of your home.  Go to Car-parts.com.  They have hundreds of auto salvage yard inventories set up and listed and you can select the year, make and model along with the condition and the ranges in price.  You can have the part shipped to your door from a window to a bumper or light assembly – it’s all on there.  Even hard to find parts like indoor vanity lights for a 1999 Oldsmobile Aurora.  What ever you need the online salvage community is a great resource and alternative to high prices at your local new car dealer parts department.

While were at it here’s another great money saving car tip - restore rather than replace your worn, dirty, scratched, hazy, cloudy, ugly, dim and ineffective headlight lenses to new again with the New Lite headlight restoration, cleaner and repair kit from MDWholesale.com.  This is by far, the number one selling and most effective product of its kind from Maine to Florida and Texas to California and everywhere else in the U.S.A., Canada and world, for that matter.  New Lite has been featured in numerous news articles worldwide and has received thousands of rave reviews and awards from numerous major sources and news outlets including About.com.  For more information on New Lite headlight restoration kits and how they can restore your cloudy headlights and greatly improve your night time driving safety please be sure to visit www.mdwholesale.com.