Buying from Rock Auto USA.....

Verbout · January 21, 2016

Very impressed with the prices on this site, very unimpressed at the silly inflated prices we have to pay in the UK.

When searching for parts you get the national flags next to some of the car makes, and some of the parts. It shows the American, Canadian or European flag, meaning the part is for a car in that part of the world.

My question is: Does it make any difference if I order some spark plugs, that they show they are for the American/Canadian market?

johnatg · January 21, 2016

As long as they are the correct type number they'll be OK.

You have to be careful with some parts - there can be differences - I bought some pins for the rear brakes and they had the wrong threads (too small). And be careful with years - US/Canada often use the year after us - eg 2010 model where we would say 2009. Quite soon now they'll be into '2017 model'!

Verbout · January 21, 2016

I'm thinking of ordering spark plugs so it's easy to check the part numbers.

Cheers John👍

jackcramerr · January 21, 2016

what's with the year UK 2009 is US 2010 ? Thanks.

Verbout · January 22, 2016

10 hours ago, jackcramerr said:

what's with the year UK 2009 is US 2010 ? Thanks.

Read this, right at the bottom of the article, love the bit where it says "The launch of the new model-year has long been coordinated to the launch of the traditional new television season"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_year

johnatg · January 22, 2016

And this: <quote> In the United States, for regulation purposes, government authorities allow cars of a given model year to be sold starting on January 1 of the previous calendar year. For example, this means that a 2017 model year vehicle can legally go on sale on January 1, 2016. <end quote>

That has LED to pretty much any vehicle bought during eg 2015 being referred to as a '2016 model' even if it technically isn't. If you bought a car this week, wouldn't you like to refer to it as a 2017, especially as your neighbour might be buying what is actually a '2017 model year' in a few months' time. So now it's common practice.

It has always been dodgy to rely on year to identify a vehicle when buying parts, which is why dealers insist on a VIN number. But US and European VIN numbers are completely different and indeed UK/European VIN numbers are not commonly or easily available to parts sellers in the US. You just have to be careful and aware of the convention!