World Pac parts?

[4Runner2020]

So I'm doing upper/lower ball joint and inner/outer TRE's on my 99 runner and was talking to a co-worker who wrenches a bit on his Porsche and 80 Toyota pickup, he mentioned World Pac parts that you can order thru carquest and are significant cheaper than OEM. He says they are OEM parts, supplied to World Pac from japan and come in a Toyota box. He showed me some parts he had laying around still in the Toyota box that he got thru them...

My question is... Is this for real? Are they real OEM parts? Same durability? Anyone ever use them?

Thanks,

Bobby

[ike]

He is correct.

[4Runner2020]

Have you ever used them before Ike? The total is honestly going to be like $350 cheaper. It's just hard for me to believe they are OEM. Seems to good to be true.

[ike]

That's the route I always take for clutchs. Have always gotten the exact part as when I went to the dealership.

[4Runner2020]

Thanks for the conformation.

[dwishart505]

Originally Posted by ike

That's the route I always take for clutchs. Have always gotten the exact part as when I went to the dealership.

i currently have their clutch in my daily driver and am very happy with it.

[mayhem]

Don't use them for A-Arm bushings. I got a crap set and had to do the job over again... That's the first ad last time I ordered from them.

[vwfastg60]

I have ordered from them back when I wrenched on vws a lot. The parts are oem or "oem quality" some will come as factory some. An aftermarket part said to be as good as factory. I haven't ordered from them in a while tho

[thefatkid]

I would say some of the parts are from toyota OEM suppliers. I recently got a WorldPac clutch for my 83, it was not a Toyota OEM supplier, it was made in Japan and quality looked good so I still used it. It was not really any cheaper (my cost as a dealer employee) then toyota parts, it was not special order though.

[spindleshanks]

World Pac is owned by General Parts, Inc (GPI, aka CARQUEST). They offer really cheap prices to independent shops, and competitive pricing to those same commercial shops through CARQUEST. World Pac is VERY price-competitive in the commercial market. They were kicking my ass on pricing to shops 8 years ago when I was selling KYB direct. CARQUEST is their only retail outlet, and it's going to be retail pricing when buying over the counter (i.e. not super cheap). They might occasionally set up a DIYer on their online ordering system, but I've never known it to happen.
They're supposed to be entirely OEM, and I totally believe FatKid cause he works on this stuff every single day. What happens is that most of the suppliers they use are OEM on most stuff...example: Victor Reinz Gaskets are OEM on 90% of the cars on the road today. So if you get a set of 5VZ head gaskets from World Pac, you would probably be offered the OEM Toyota piece, which is probably made by Denso or Victor Reinz or somebody like that...or you would be offered their full line vendor offering, Victor Reinz. If you didn't get the OEM brand, then you would get something identical, probably from a supplier that has provided parts to the OEM manufacturer at some point or other.
Another good example is KYB: although WorldPac offers OEM brands for ride control products, KYB is OEM for 80% of the cars on the road, so even if it's not OEM specific to replace your Taco Bilsteins, it's still an "OEM Fit-Form-Function" product from a solid OEM supplier.
On service parts (filters, etc) they offer the OEM brand on everything. When CQ bought them a few years back, they were so impressed that they expressed interest in dropping WIX filters in favor of selling OEM filters all the time...if a customer had a Toyota, he would get a toyota filter. If he had a Ford, he'd get a motorcraft, etc. Fortunately, they were talked them off of that ledge (big relief to a filter rep).

So yes, you'll always get top quality OES (Original Equipment Style) parts from WorldPac, and usually exact OEM replacement parts. but no, you can't buy at bargain basement pricing as a DIYer buying retail. BTW, most shops don't know (or don't believe) that CARQUEST owns World Pac, because WP doesn't acknowledge it, but it's true. You got the inside source