|
RockAuto
blows away the competition in speed,
accuracy, and price... The catalog
itself is easy to navigate and
not filled with burdensome pop-ups,
annoying banners, or excessive
JavaScripts.
The interactive
catalog is lean and mean, responds
instantly,
and is a model of how all online
catalogs could be more efficient.
Customer
testimonial from an independent,
third-party
survey. |
|
Upcoming
Events
If
you would like
your event
featured here, email us
with details. |
|
|
Saleen
Club of America Car Show
7/30/2009
Pueblo, CO
e-mail
Lindsborg
Smoky Valley Classic Car Show
8/1/2009
Lindsborg, KS
e-mail
The Grant
County Kruzers 14th Annual
Classic Car Show
8/1/2009
Canyon City, OR
website
Mustang Mania
Car Show
8/1/2009
Edgewater,
MD
e-mail
5th Annual
DVCMG Car Show
8/1/2009
Schwenksville,
PA
website
11th Annual
Snead Town Picnic & Car Show
8/1/2009
Altoona,
AL
e-mail
Soggy Bottom
Classic Car Show & Swap Meet
8/7/2009
Centerville,
AR
e-mail
The Great
Vehicle Adventure
8/8/2009
Stewiacke,
NS Canada
e-mail
Apple Peel-In
Car Show
8/9/2009
Greenville,
MI
e-mail
4th Annual
Hot Dog-ust Day Cruise-In
8/15/2009
Canby,
OR
e-mail
Woodies at
the Beach
8/15/2009
Santa Barbara,
CA
e-mail
6th Annual
Cool Northern
Nights
On the
Coast
8/15/2009
Crescent
City, CA
website
Weaver
City
Street Rodders
Car Show
8/14-8/15/2009
Weaverville,
CA
e-mail
Jaguar
Festival
of
New England
8/15/2009
Hamilton,
MA
e-mail
Old
Fort
VW
Club's
Car
Show
&
Swap
Meet
8/15/2009
Fort
Wayne,
IN
e-mail
Mopars
in Motion
Show
8/16/2009
Colchester, CT
website
Lewiston's
Hot August
Nights
8/20-8/22/2009
Lewiston, ID
website
Cars
in the
Park
8/22/2009
Shawnee, KS
e-mail
First
Annual Columbia
City Classic
8/23/2009
Seattle,
WA
e-mail
Mopars
on the
Mississippi
8/23/2009
Scales Mound,
IL
e-mail
|
|
|
Python Fuel Injection |
|
RockAuto
has recently added Python Fuel Injection
parts to the Rockauto.com
catalog. Python Fuel
Distributors, Fuel Injectors, Fuel
Pumps, Idle Speed Regulators, Mass
Air Flow Sensors, and Warm Up Regulators
are now available.
You will find these parts and more
in the "Fuel/Air" and "Emissions"
categories.
Python Injection,
Inc. was created in 1991 and originally
offered fuel
management components exclusively
for import vehicles; however, in
1998 they added extensive domestic
coverage to their product line.
Interesting facts
from Python:
- The
first European car imported to
the United States with electronic
fuel injection was the Alfa Romeo
GTV.
- The first Japanese
car imported to
the United States
with fuel injection was the
Datsun (Nissan) 280Z.
- The first
mass produced automobile
in the United States
with electronic fuel injection
was a 1975 Cadillac.
- The first
electronic fuel injection system
was developed jointly between
Chrysler and Bendix in 1957. The
technology was later sold to Bosch.
|
French Catalog |
|
The
RockAuto catalog is now available
in French! Click the "Français" link
on the homepage to
open the French language catalog.
|
Forum of the Month |
|
GalantVR4.org is the first and only owner's group
in the United States dedicated to
the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. The group
was born out of DSM.org (founded
in 1995) the Diamond Star Motors
club. GalantVR4.org is non-profit,
ad-free, and fully member supported.
The Mitsubishi Galant
VR-4 was created in part to meet
homologation rules
for the World Rally Championship
with 2000 numbered examples arriving
in the United States for the 1991
model year and 1000 for 1992.
The VR-4's advanced features included
a 16-valve, double overhead-cam 2.0-liter
four-cylinder engine, turbocharged
and intercooled induction, electronic
multipoint fuel injection, distributorless
ignition, roller cam followers, hydraulic
valve lash adjusters, all-wheel-drive,
four-wheel steering, four wheel independent
suspension, and ABS.
If you are the
administrator or member of a forum
and you would like to see your
website featured in an upcoming
newsletter and receive a discount
code to share with your members,
contact jessa@rockauto.com.
|
Repair Mistakes & Blunders |
|
It was 1972
in Arizona (hot) and I had recently
received
a “promotion” that required
me to wear a shirt
and tie. My carpool partner and I
were
on
the way home one evening in my 1960
Dodge pickup when the fuel pump went
out. We were miles from any type
of repair capability, plus as you
can guess, not in proper car repair
attire. The old Dodge was
black and white
two-tone and affectionately named “Sanford” from
the TV series because most of the
time it looked just like Sanford’s
truck with all the junk in the back.
The truck had a cowl vent for fresh
air which
was operated via a lever inside the
cab. With no air conditioning in
Southern Arizona, this was a critical
creature comfort and turned out to
be the saving grace of the situation.
Careful not to
muss my new dress clothes (HaHa)
I was able to pull
off the rubber gas line from the
carburetor and using a piece of
garden hose from the junk in the back
I attached it to the carb and then
ran it out
the edge
of the hood and into the cab via
the cowl fresh air vent hole. My
buddy
and I used the same garden hose
to siphon gas from the tank into
some
soda pop bottles. We fashioned
a small funnel from a cardboard milk
carton
and while I drove, he poured the
gas from the bottles into the hose
letting gravity take it into the
carb. Any reasonable person watching
this would have thought it a Three
Stooges outtake with only two
of the Stooges.
Not elegant or even
safe (we spilled
a lot of gas in the process)
but it worked! Going slow, we were
able to make it the few miles to
my carpool partner's house
where we later installed a new
fuel pump. Talk about crazy! We
have
laughed
at this event for many years
and our wives still just shake their
heads wondering how we are still
alive or at least not burned
beyond
recognition.
Ron in Texas
Tell us about
your most infamous auto repair
blunder. Use your woe to help others
avoid similar mistakes. Please
email your story to flamur@rockauto.com.
Include your mailing address and
shirt size (large or extra large)
and we will mail you a RockAuto "Do
it yourself?" t-shirt if we
publish your story (see the t-shirts
under Extras in the catalog). The
story will be credited using only
your first
name and your vague geographic
location (state, province, country,
continent, etc.) so you can remain
semi-anonymous!
|
The Elusive World
Car? |
|
In
June I toured the Subaru of Indiana
Automotive (SIA) plant in Lafayette,
Indiana. SIA builds the Subaru Legacy,
Outback, Tribeca, and Toyota Camry.
SIA is the only Subaru assembly plant
outside Japan. It is the only place
the Tribeca is built. SIA exports
cars to 57 countries with most going
to Canada.
The process
starts with rolls of steel entering
the stamping plant
and ends with finished cars rolling
off the final assembly line. The
factory covers the equivalent of
71 football (US) fields. The paint
shop conveyor alone is seven miles
(11 km) long. Three thousand Subaru “associates” work
two shifts.
In the paint shop, Subaru uses sprayers
with 85% transfer efficiency and
high tech water born paint. Feathers
from female ostriches shoo away dust.
The welding line is a dramatic display
of sparks and waving robot arms.
Die changes in the stamping plant
take only 30 minutes. Automated carts
deliver parts to work stations.
The 2010 Outback and Camry have
75% North American content. That
means many Subaru original equipment
manufacturers (OEM) are also making
parts for the North American factories
of Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, etc.
as well as parts for RockAuto.com
The SIA plant
was impressive, but Subaru’s competitors also have
modern factories. Why are Subaru
car sales doing relatively well in
these tough automotive times? Subaru’s
2009 sales are down only 1% compared
to 2008 and their share of the world
car market has actually increased
modestly to 1.9%.
My guess is
that the success is the result
of flexibility, having
a “world car”, and knowing
their customers. The name SIA is
a proof of the flexibility. The “I” originally
stood for Isuzu. Lucky for SIA, Indiana
also starts with an I! After Isuzu,
Subaru had a relationship with Nissan
and then GM. Now Toyota owns 17.5%
of Subaru. The Toyota Camry line
at SIA builds 95,000 cars a year
(SIA built 102,000 Subarus last year).
Subaru might have
created the elusive world car long
sought by Ford, GM,
and other manufacturers. The same
Subaru models are sold all over the
world. The Tribeca is popular in
Russia where it sells for around
$100,000 US.
I used the
RockAuto.com
catalog to do a quick
comparison of parts
for the Impreza and Forester and
found the two models often use the
same differential bearings, fuel
pumps, boxer engines, etc. So Subaru
has a world car with
different variations available to
accommodate customers whether they
are looking for a sports car or a
wagon. Impreza and Legacy sales were
up in June while Outback and Tribeca
sales were down. Subaru was ready
as customers’ tastes changed.
Subaru knows their customer niche
and sends them a consistent message.
Is the Pontiac LeMans a muscle car
or a rebadged Daewoo economy car?
Subaru does not often confuse their
customers like that. In the US most
Subarus are sold in the Northeast
and Northwest. Subarus always have
four wheel drive. Customers expect
Subarus to be fairly priced even
if they are not inexpensive. The
typical Subaru owner keeps their
car at least 7.4 years. Subaru customers
want to be environmentally friendly.
The customers’ expectations
are kept in mind starting at the
assembly plant. Nothing from the
SIA plant goes into a landfill. They
reuse, recycle, compost, and incinerate
waste to produce power. 300 of SIA’s
837 acres are devoted to wildlife.
No female ostrich feather donors
are ever hurt. Subaru marketing passes
this environmental information on
to customers.
Subaru might be a model for the
successful car manufacturers of the
future. Flexible about what cars
they build in their factories, but
not flexible about what their brands
stand for or which cars carry their
name.
(The numbers above
are from notes I took during the
SIA tour. Thanks
to SIA for their hospitality!)
Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com
|
Brian's
1969 Dodge Charger |
|
Hello,
This is my pride
and joy, a 1969 Dodge Charger. I
have owned this car since July of
2000 and the only thing that I did
not have to do to the vehicle when
I got it was the body. It has
been slowly restored over
the years, adding more and more details
such as reproduction stampings and
inspection marks. I have achieved
a level
of restoration comparable to what
the
car would
have looked like when it rolled off
of the assembly line. Yes, I even
left runs and orange peel in the
paint.
The Charger
features a 383 high performance
4 bbl engine with a 4 speed manual
trans and Sure-Grip
(Chrysler term for a limited slip
differential) rear end. I drive
this vehicle whenever I can to
local cruise nights and car shows,
but it gets trailered to
events further away because it
has reproduction bias ply tires.
I have a bunch of
parts on this car from RockAuto.com
and I
can say, not only are their prices
really great but the shipping is
just as good. Since most of the
parts on my car are all pretty much
correct
date coded to the car, I try and
use rebuild kits from RockAuto whenever
possible so I do not have to part
with the original cores.
A big thank you to RockAuto.com for
keeping
my
Charger
on the road and as reliable as it
has been.
Thanks,
Brian from New Jersey
|
Share Your
Hard Work
Do you purchase
parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto
would like to feature you and your
car or truck in our monthly newsletter.
Please email flamur@rockauto.com with
details.
© 1999-2009 RockAuto,
LLC - Madison, Wisconsin USA. RockAuto
name and logo are registered trademarks
of RockAuto, LLC. Manufacturer names
and logos in the RockAuto catalog
are trademarks of their respective
companies and are used only to identify
their products. All rights reserved.
|
|
|