Brian894x4 said:
The key is to figure who the supplier is for Toyota for a given part, then find the non-dealer sold version that is sold to regular autoparts stores.
To me, the manufacture of the part is more important that the parts store chain.
Brian makes a good point, the parts from the dealer aren't necessarily made by Toyota. Some are made by Toyota or it's sole supplier, like Toyoda-Gosei. But ASCO, OSK, Nippondenso, NGK or other companies make parts for Toyota in the same way as Delco makes parts for GM. Anyway, sometimes you get literally the same part in different boxes. A big one is bearings. Same Koyo in the red Toyota box as in the NAPA box, just a cost difference. Other times I've found that the same part number is not the same. Like the timing chain tensioner. OSK is the OE manufacturer for that and depending on time and place the same OSK tensioner seems to be made differently. My original part from 1990 was a good part, the ones that are out there now vary. The NAPA OSK had a worse finish than the one Toyota was selling, but a couple of years ago that was reversed where the Toyota tensioner has a worse finish than the NAPA OSK (you can tell the tensioner piston rod on a good part has a very smooth, very hard chrome finish, the bad tensioners have a slightly less smooth finish that is not a very hard chrome).
Anyway, if given a choice, I would use top of the line NAPA as the only alternative to the dealer. I have a good relationship with my dealer parts guy, so generally the cost is NAPA competitive for me. But no matter what, use Nippondenso, ASCO (Aisin-Seiki Company), OSK. If you go to the dealer, they will sell OE level parts, but in the aftermarket you have to check is all. With electrical stuff, it's 90% of the time going to be ND or NGK (NGK is OK, Nippondenso is preferred), just reboxed. This is particularly true of engine controls, a throttle position sensor from Auto Zone, NAPA and Toyota all seem to be the exact same Nippondenso part. Mechanical parts you have to be more careful, a lot of aftermarket stuff is sourced from Taiwan and China now and while it may work, it's not built there because the quality is better than Japanese or US sourced parts. I would only buy stuff like this if you know the source. Incidentally, Toyota contracts or moves a lot of manufacturing locally. So in the case of a Hilux like mine, the original parts were just about all made in Japan, but the stuff I get from my local dealer through the Toyota part network might be made here in the USA (actually getting to be quite likely) rather than Japan. It could even be made by the same company (like ASCO), just a US plant instead of Japan. It's very rare, but I've found that occasionally, sometimes the real Toyota part is actually inferior to an aftermarket part that might be sourced from the Japanese plant. It takes a lot of leg work if it really matters to you. I personally think it's
safest to just go dealer, at least the part is presumably made to the Toyota OE spec, if nothing else.
