Salem Boys Auto

The Best Auto Parts According to Mark

Except for our home page, this the only place on our web site that you will see advertising. Back up now if you don’t want to know what kind of auto parts and supplies we use and why.

As you probably know, I do commercials or live endorsements on the radio for Champion Spark Plugs, Goodyear Belts and Hoses and Valvoline. They never said to me, "If you tell everyone you use our products, we will pay you". What really happened is I CALLED THEM.

Every month I get at least one company or advertising agency that calls and asks me to endorse their hand cleaner, emissions control device, their ignition products or their idea. I simply tell them I don’t do endorsements of products I don’t use and know nothing about.

However, I preach that we consumers should ask other professionals to guide us. I want to know what brand of toothpaste my dentist makes his kids use. When I had to replace my A/C unit at home, I wanted to know what brand of A/C equipment the owner of the company has at his house. When I needed to have a specialist work on my knee, I wanted the name of the guy who worked on my Doctor’s wife’s knee.

And when it comes to buying tires, engine oil, belts, hoses, wiper blades, why not at least ask me for my opinion. After all, we repair 10,000 cars a year, we sell and install a million dollars of parts a year. Believe me, I KNOW WHICH PARTS ARE JUNK. The name of the repair game is to properly fix the car and have it make it all the way through the warranty period and far beyond. It is not a good idea to replace every belt you install twice, just to get your customer through the warranty phase. It’s tough to sell a substandard spark plug and have the customer say, my car is doing things it never did before you worked on my car.

The following recommendations are mine. These are the parts I sell, these are the parts I install, these are the parts I tell my Mom to look for when she has repair work done when she traveling. Some, but not all pay me to endorse their products. However, I assure you, I am not for sale and I would never tell you to use or try a particular product if I wasn’t convinced it was a quality part and already using it myself.

Because we have been in business for 18 years and generate 2.5 million a year in sales, I would like to respond to those who contend that dealer parts are superior to other "aftermarket parts" so everyone will have the benefit of looking at both sides of this issue. Dealers often say they use manufacturers parts because they are of the "highest quality". Dealers often use this to create the perception that their parts are superior to all the others and that helps them control come backs and returns. We used to think the same way years ago. We know better today.

We’ve had new dealer engines explode in 200 miles and we’ve had aftermarket engines do the same. We’ve had new dealer alternators with a one year warranty go bad in hours, just like the aftermarket ones that are half the price and carry twice the warranty. We are able to buy parts with lifetime warranties that are far superior in quality and half the price of a dealer part . . . and we buy certain dealer parts because the aftermarket part is either not available or of poor quality. Many of the parts in aftermarket boxes are actually GM, Chrysler or Ford original parts, yet carry a longer and better warranty. And many aftermarket companies make the same hoses, belts or parts for both the aftermarket and the dealers and/or manufacturers.

After all, the quality of the part is rarely the issue when the car comes back broken. The fight begins when the vendor or the shop refuses to honor the warranty or your customer is 5 � days out of warranty and no one is willing to help them. The part is only as good as the vendor who sold it and the shop who installed it.

We aren’t married to one parts store. Of the million dollars we spend annually on parts, half is spent on aftermarket parts and the other half is spent on dealer or original equipment parts. Because of our philosophy, our customers will always pay less for their parts and generally have a better and longer warranty than many of the dealers in our area.

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