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These days, you can order just about anything on your phone or computer and have it delivered same-day (or close to it), but if you’re the DIY type and/or you own older cars, you may often find yourself relying on dealers for hard-to-find wear items. If you’ve ever been hung up on a project because you need an obscure bolt or washer that you can only source that way, you likely know the pain of being assured on the phone that the parts department has something in stock, only to show up and find out that they haven’t even kept space on the shelf for it in over a decade.
Now, DoorDash and AutoParts.com are offering to spare you those unproductive trips. Rather than having to inquire dealer-by-dealer, you can just search DoorDash for the part you need and order it, often for same-day pickup or delivery. Not actually in stock? You’ll simply be refunded. No wasted trips, no circular conversations with a stoned counter jockey, no endless arguments over VIN numbers or parts interchange. And perhaps even better, nobody trying to point you toward buying a new car instead of a $7 seal. Just tap or click, then sit back and wait.
That’s the idea, anyhow. As one of those DIYers with an older car, I’m all too familiar with having to hunt-and-peck my way through brutal online dealer interfaces trying to find poorly labeled (or completely unlabeled) replacement bits for this or that. Unfortunately, DoorDash doesn’t help much in this regard. Item descriptions were clearly just scraped from existing inventory systems, which means they’re only as good as the effort that went into the dealer’s part listing.
It may be imperfect, but anything that makes it easier to get ahold of oddball factory parts (or OEM parts in general, should you need them to maintain warranty cover, etc.). And while some maintenance parts (and fluids) have been available via DoorDash for quite some time (mostly by virtue of the fact that they’re sold through just about every general-purpose retailer—convenience stores, home improvement stores and grocery stores come to mind), but this is the first time we’ve seen OEM-specific replacement parts for sale on the platform, by itself, that’s a win, especially with consolidation coming for the aftermarket business.
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
