Buying OEM Toyota Parts Online

There are a lot of websites that sell Toyota-made repair and replacement auto parts, but few of these companies are as qualified to sell you Toyota parts as your local Toyota dealer. While an internet website can sell you a part for a low price, there’s often no way to know if you’re buying the right part. The people at the parts department of your local Toyota dealership know their product in and out, and they can help you find exactly what you need.

The trouble is, most auto dealerships charge more than most websites. If you want the best deal, you need to go online and hope for the best…or at least that’s how it used to be.

Last July, we talked a little bit about the Sparks Toyota parts department and TRDSparks.com. They’ve got a great site, excellent customer service, and excellent pricing. Last month, we were contacted by the Olathe Toyota parts manager about reviewing his web site, Parts.OlatheToyota.com (discount coupon below).

Here’s what we like about Parts.OlatheToyota.com:

• The blog. Toyota dealers are an excellent source of information, and the Toyota Parts blog (while new), shows lots of potential. There aren’t a lot of great posts just yet, but the fact that they’re blogging is cool (at least to us).
• The pricing. We’ve compared Parts.OlatheToyota.com to TRDSparks.com and their prices are both excellent.
• The “cheapest priced parts” claim. We’re not able to verify every part, but we looked at a few items for the Tundra and Parts.OlatheToyota.com was the lowest priced (not by much, but definitely less).

Here’s what we don’t like about Parts.OlatheToyota.com:

• The site is difficult to navigate (a minor complaint really).
• Where are the part installation instructions?
• Why can’t we see that Parts.OlatheToyota.com is affiliated with a Toyota dealership?

Both the Sparks and Olathe websites are using the same web marketing company to power their “search for replacement parts” feature, so many of the problems with this system are shared. As we said above, selling factory Toyota replacement parts that are year, model, and option specific is complicated. Using the phone to speak with experienced professionals is often the easiest way to find out what you need.

While we’re not ready to declare Parts.OlatheToyota.com the winner in any sort of comparison (this is not a comparison, for the record), we’re certainly happy to mention Olathe Toyota’s site as another reputable place that you can buy a genuine Toyota part online. Parts.OlatheToyota.com passed all of our customer service tests, and you should feel comfortable working with them.