Except it wasn’t all the dull because some yahoo decided to save 5 bucks by returning to AutoZone a cheaper part from Amazon.
Took me 2 hours for a 10 minute job because the parts didn’t fit, and that snowballed into using so many tools and spare parts to get it all good and solid.
And since I do work on my car, I needed this to be as solid as I could get it because I don’t want that pointed hood latch, with 100 lbs of hood to fall 4 feet into the back of my head when I’m in the engine bay and someone or the wind knocks into the car.
I’m still slightly uneasy about it, but maybe that’s just the anger. The only AutoZone with this part in stock is 30 miles away, which is where I got it when I had an errand on that side of town. And this part now clearly has some surface level battle scars since I’ve been working on it. So even if I made the drive, I would be at the mercy of the manager believing me over the guy they already got scammed by.
I really like RockAuto’s prices, and their logistics. If I’m ordering a lot, then I can accept the shipping cost for the slow ground speed.
I do also try to balance the cheaper online prices versus supporting physical stores. By that I mean supporting stores who have something in stock that day. Not addressing company ethics in this instance.
RockAuto would have been about $20, but the cheapest shipping was $17 because of the shape of this part, even though it is light, and take a week. AutoZone was $30. Amazon was $25.
In this instance, the $5 difference from Amazon was worth it to promote having this part available in stock “locally.”