QOTD: What Automotive Accoutrement Did You Buy Today?

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Did you make it out to the stores today? If so, we hope you’ve made it back home free of injuries. If you’re still in the thick of it, perhaps bartering with a stranger you’re a little bit scared of, well, best of luck.

No doubt some of you belong to that ambitious crop of Americans who valiantly fight off a food coma and struggle across floors flick with cranberry sauce, gravy and some sort of mashed root vegetable concoction to find your jacket and car keys on Black Friday morning. The sun hasn’t peeked above the horizon, but there’s deals to be had. You can smell them — that heated seat cushion that plugs into the cigarette lighter, cupholder vape dispensers, you name it — and no threat of long lineups, physical violence or crushing disappointment will deter you from achieving a Black Friday personal best.

So, we want to know: what automotive accessory lured you out of a warm home this morning?

Was it boring (but necessary) deep dish floor mats? A remote starter? “Deluxe” wheel covers? Bulk washer fluid? Maybe it was something far sexier, like an in-trunk organizer (which Amazon can’t seen to ship enough of)? Tires or tools? Radar detector? GPS? More vape accessories?

Hell, maybe some of you returned home behind the wheel of your new purchase. If so, what’s the make and model and what kind of a deal did you find? Did they throw in a Fiat 500 just to get inventory moving?

We want to know! Wax poetic about your purchases in the comment section below.

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • JuniperBug JuniperBug on Nov 27, 2016

    It didn't even occur to me to shop for car parts, but other than replacing the out-of-round tires on the Miata in the spring, there isn't much I need. Other than oil changes and maybe replacing the old summer tires come spring, I mostly plan on driving the Concorde into the ground. I did find a nice deal to replace my faithful 9 year-old laptop, though. I did that from home, though, using a spreadsheet with the various options to make my final decision.

    • See 1 previous
    • Scoutdude Scoutdude on Nov 27, 2016

      @Lorenzo It is pretty common but most people don't know the difference, even those that work at tire stores. More than once I had a customer who thought they needed things ranging from a simple re-balance of the tires to major front suspension work. The low cost tires are certainly suspect but I've seen way too many Bridgestone and Yokohama tires that were square out of the box. One guy in particular I remember that thought it was his tires so he took it to the tire store where he had purchased their top of the line tire made by Yokohama. I think they did the re-balance and pronounced the tires perfect and told him he needed new shocks and probably some suspension work too. He brought it to me and his description didn't sound like a shock problem. We drove around the parking lot and I quickly said it is your tires. He recounted the story on how the tire store said they were fine. I grabbed him a pair of gloves and we went and felt the tires. Sure enough 2 out of the 4 tires were obviously not round. I sent him to Costco for some Michelins and the next time he came in he shared that the vehicle drove so much better and the shaking in the steering wheel and bounce was gone.

  • E30gator E30gator on Nov 27, 2016

    I don't think there's anything wrong with planning a purchase on a day when you know you'll find a deal and save money. It's called being a smart consumer. Big Al's Pick 'N Pull had 50% off all parts....scored a replacement fog lamp for my Z3, an instrument cluster for my Nissan Quest (pixels missing on fuel readout), and a few vintage hubcaps and trim pieces for my man cave. Good stuff. Also scored a nice deal on a dash cam online. My insurance company should thank me for that one. If that makes me a shopping whore, so be it. Me gusta.

    • E30gator E30gator on Nov 27, 2016

      I'm not for waiting in long lines and fighting over cheap, Chinese TVs, but I don't think there's anything wrong with planning a purchase on a day when you know you'll find a deal and save money. It's called being a smart consumer. Big Al's Pick 'N Pull had 50% off all parts....scored a replacement fog lamp for my Z3, an instrument cluster for my Nissan Quest (pixels missing on fuel readout), and a few vintage hubcaps and trim pieces for my man cave. Good stuff. Also scored a nice deal on a dash cam online. My insurance company should thank me for that one. If that makes me a shopping whore, so be it. Me gusta.

  • Gtem Gtem on Nov 28, 2016

    Didn't actually buy anything over the Thanksgiving break, but I did have my brother install the Aisin timing belt/water pump kit on my now-207k mile ES300, as well as a part called an "A/C amplifier" that I grabbed off a junkyard ES for $6 that gave me all of my HVAC fan speeds back (was only low or high previously). The water pump we took off was the original factory unit and had not been replaced at the 100k mark. The bearing was still like new, I felt unsure about replacing it, as the casting on the new Aisin replacement was actually a bit sloppy looking with some die casting flash around the edges (does not affect how it seals or fits). But aside from that I was very happy with the kit. All idler bearings were Japanese Koyos, the tensioner was a Japanese NTN unit, the belt was a made in USA Mitsuboshi (worth mentioning that the Toyota-brand t belt we took off still looked very good). Also put on new accessory belts, Japanese "Bando" units. Did some other nice odds and ends: leveled out headlights and foglights, replaced license plate lightbulbs, tightened up throttle cable slack and e-brake, leveled hood latch, retorqued sparkplugs (front three were barely tight), retorqued driver side axle nut (someone stuck a crappy aftermarket axle with poorly machined splines in there instead of re-booting the OEM axles).

  • JMII JMII on Nov 28, 2016

    I went fishing on BF (#OptOutside) ...as its still shorts weather in Florida. However a plenum spacer and oil cooler might get ordered today only because I've been planning on buying them and they are on sale (Cyber Monday).

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