Buying Honda Used Parts is Easy
Before we discuss used auto parts, a brief history of Honda Motor Company is in order. Honda has been making cars since 1963 and its most famous product, the Honda Civic, has been in production since 1972. The Honda lineup has included the Civic, the Accord, the CR-V, the Odyssey, the Insight, and most recently the Civic Hybrid. During the years 1984-2010 Honda has produced five of the top ten fuel-efficient cars in America and they are the largest engine manufacturer in the world with over 14 million engines produced each year.
It is safe to say that Honda knows how to make a pretty decent car. It is also safe to say that logically it shouldn’t be too hard to find a used Honda part if you are in need of one. Now for the bad news: there are over 2,000 parts in an automobile and each part at some point may need replacing. And in today’s economy those parts are not cheap. The average windshield wiper costs $10, a distributor can run you $200, and good luck if you need to replace a driver’s side door. Buying from a dealer, that door can cost you anywhere from $100-$1000 just for the part. Let us not talk about the labor cost to replace it.
The point of this article is not to depress you although at first glance it would appear to be exactly the point. No, the point is that Honda has been making cars for a very long time, the replacement parts are plentiful and easy to find, and if you are patient and willing to learn there are ways to cut this replacement cost considerably. So let’s get started.
First rule of thumb when buying an auto part: avoid buying from the dealer if at all possible. Generally speaking the cost is higher buying from a Honda dealer. Really there is no reason to do so since every major auto parts store in America carries a full line of Honda replacement parts and most of those auto part stores sell at a lower price than the dealer. Stores like AutoZone, Schucks, and Napa Auto Parts can handle your every replacement need at a lower cost. Of course, if you really want to save money you will then save on labor cost and replace the part yourself, a sometimes daunting task if you know very little about cars. The truth of the matter is that with the internet today it is fairly easy to find replacement instructions; just screw up your nerve and give it a try.
Do you want to save even more money? Then go to a salvage yard and find savings of up to 60% on your used car parts. There are over 22,000 junkyards in America today, some with inventories numbering in the millions. Many of these salvage centers are of the “you pull it” variety, otherwise known as “pick and pull” yards. Give them a call, have them check their computer inventory for the part you need, go to the yard and find your part, pull it, and go home having saved quite a bit in replacement cost.
The bottom line is that this is not rocket science. It is easy to find a used Honda replacement part and with a little courage it is even easy to replace that part yourself and save a ton of money.
