Overall Andy’s Auto Sport Review Score: 4.1/5
Andy’s Auto Sport, or Andy’s as they’re affectionately known by many, is an online business that sells car modification parts. These guys don’t sell factory replacement stuff. They specialize in parts that customize the look or performance of your car.
They’re probably best known for their expansive array of body kits (which are replacement bumper sets that can dramatically change the look of your vehicle) and carbon fiber hoods. But Andy’s sells a huge array of other products including performance exhaust systems, lowering springs, custom steering wheels, and a whole lot more.
Andy’s first started out as a body kit manufacturer way back in the 1990s. They were the first to market with a number of unique products, and it wasn’t until the early 2000s that they started bulking up their product offering and selling other products through their ecommerce platform.
These guys have been around a long time. They have a well established track record in the industry and are known by many as one of the original car modification companies when the sport compact car scene became popular in the 1990s.
Review of Andy’s Auto Sport’s Product Selection
These guys sell a lot of different parts for a lot of different cars. We were impressed by some of the hard-to-find parts they carried.
For example, they carry a brand called Ortiz Pods, which is a manufacturer of custom gauge pods. This company is a really small outfit on the East Coast, and you can’t find this product in most online retailers’ stores.
Aside from carrying niche brands of products, Andy’s also caters to a wide variety of vehicles. Yes, they have a deep selection for popular cars like the Honda Civic, but they also have a solid selection of parts for cars like the Oldsmobile Alero. This makes Andy’s a must-see for people who want to customize “sleeper” cars.
Review of Andy’s Auto Sport’s Educational Content
One area where Andy’s excels is there educational content. They have an entire video series that was create in their own in-house studio. They have a car lift and everything for doing installations.
Their videos teach how various types of car parts work. They cover topics like the difference between lowering springs and coilovers.
They also show how to install products, and one of their most popular videos is one where they show how to install a lowering kit on a truck. It’s a 30-minute video that goes step by step through the process.
They also did a number of interviews with manufacturers at the famous SEMA show in Las Vegas (a mecca for car enthusiasts). They set up their own studio at SEMA to film these videos.
The videos are really professional and awfully helpful. Their Youtube channel, where the videos are hosted, has more than 100k subscribers and their videos have gotten more than 20 million views. Clearly they’ve made content that people like!
Also, with many of the product descriptions, they have in-depth descriptions of the manufacturers that are accompanied by images of their manufacturing plants. It gives you a lot more information to use to help you make a buying decision.
Review of Andy’s Auto Sport’s Order Fulfillment
From our own experience and from looking around at reviews online, there seems to be varying types of wait times.
It’s clear that Andy’s is a drop shipper, meaning they don’t have some enormous warehouse with all this items in stock. But with that said, they appear to work with big warehouses, because many items ship out the same day.
But there have been some reports of people waiting a really long time for their orders, too. We asked Andy’s about this, and they said that with some of the brand they carry being niche specialty brands, not only can the wait times be long, but also the information flow from the manufacturer can be weak. They said they do the best they can, but they only have so much control over the wait times since they’re a middleman, and ultimately sometimes the cost of getting a hard-to-find specialty item is that you have to wait a long time.
One thing we noticed about the Andy’s website is that they sometimes have products on their site that no longer exist. Like we found a Sparco seat on their website that we know is discontinued, but it’s still listed for sale there.
We talked to them about it and they said they can’t always immediately update their website when products get discontinued, but that they don’t charge peoples’ cards until they confirm the product is available to ship. So that’s nice to know, although it’s still a hassle to deal with when it happens.
Review of Andy’s Auto Sport’s Prices
We did a comparison of Andy’s prices, and we found that their prices are all over the place, which is something we see from a lot of retailers including even the big ones like Amazon.
For some products, like Spyder headlights and tail lights, they had the lowest price we could find. We almost wondered if they were losing money on those!
For some products, like Extreme Dimensions body kits, they had the same price as all the other retailers we checked (probably due to minimum advertised pricing requirements levied by the manufacturer).
And then for some other products, their prices weren’t competitive.
Conclusion
Overall, Andy’s is a solid online store that has earned its stripes in this industry and that we wouldn’t hesitate to buy from.
Every once in a while there may be hassle involved with your order since they are a drop shipper. But to us, that hassle is worth it in exchange for the unique product selection and excellent educational content.
Almost everyone who’s been in this industry long enough has bought from Andy’s before, and we’re happy this car parts legend is here for us.
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