5% Discount Code: DEA2F8D7288D64
Expires: May 9, 2017

Please enter this code in the ‘How Did You Hear about Us’ box to receive the discount. Please enter ONLY the discount code, no other words or numbers. Please note that orders using discount codes must be placed online and the discount code must be entered before an order is submitted to receive the discount.

RockAuto.com is an online auto parts store founded in Madison, Wisconsin in 1999 by the Taylor family. RockAuto.com ships thousands of auto parts from over 300 manufacturers to customers worldwide.

The RockAuto Catalog includes a full line of mechanical parts, from small items like filters and wiper blades to complete remanufactured transmissions and engine long blocks. The RockAuto catalog also contains a growing number of body parts: door handles, mirrors, sheet metal, bumper covers, even carpets! The RockAuto Catalog includes vehicles from 1945 to today, making it easy to find parts no matter what you drive.

Prices on RockAuto.com are reliably low every day! Order online at http://www.RockAuto.com 24 hours a day. Parts are conveniently delivered to your door. Need help finding parts or placing an order? Visit our Help pages or, if you can't find the answer on our help pages, email service@rockauto.com.

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www.RockAuto.com

As big and successful as RockAuto is, they wouldn't help sponsor our member Burton Brown for his Land Speed Record attempt at Salt Lake in 2014. Burton holds the LSR for the S-30 bodied Datsun Z cars (171mph) and also runs a streamliner which he wants to push over 400mph (he's very near that). He makes all his efforts out of his own pocket and charitable donations.

Two years ago he was facing stiff competition and needed to defend his title. He was scrambling for any sponsor and I contacted Rock Auto to ask them to help him a little. Burt lives very near RockAuto so there was a state pride element involved as well. Altho Burt didn't have any dollar amount in mind and would have gratefully accepted any donation or sponsorship at all, Rock Auto turned the request down flat ~ not so much as a dollar. It would have made great business sense to have their logo/decal appear on the LSR holder Z Car, seen by Z lovers all over the world, but they just didn't care.

Rock Auto might be a great source for cheap parts, but just don't ever hope to get them to spend a nickel on your racing efforts. Having your world-class Datsun carry their decal into the winner's circle is of no value to them.

Frank T

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1970 240Z

I just updated the discount code at the top of this thread!

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www.RockAuto.com

...in exchange for free advertiZing space on our Club website.

Frank T

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1970 240Z

Givers and takers in this world. The 5% doesn't appear too much of a "give" for a car club that "gives" this free advertising platform. They'll gladly "take" our money though. I've been in lopsided relationships before and then got wiser. A 10% - 15% real discount might even bring in more customers/ business. Hearing aid batteries anyone?

Howard J.

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1985 300ZX- GLL Dark Pewter Metallic - Survivor

I'm not even sure why we allow Rock Auto to advertise here. This forum was established in 2008 to let INDIVIDUAL CLUB MEMBERS exchange their personal experiences involving vendors while pursuing maintenance on their Zs. It was never intended to allow vendors to come on here and advertise, especially not for free. This forum exists to hear the opinions and experiences of our individual members to recommend (or warn) others about the services of individual vendors. Rock Auto simply began advertising here EACH MONTH since 2011 without asking. I'm confident they don't get away with that on anybody else's website. Many of our members use Rock Auto, but allowing them to post 3 dozen free ads on our website might get misinterpreted as meaning the CTZCC endorses Rock Auto, which we don't.

My experience with Rock Auto is that they're One-Way; willing to take our business but unwilling to help our member Burton Brown set the world Z Land Speed Record. I have not sent them any of my money since 2014.

Our sponsoring Nissan dealerships offer us 10%-15% discounts on parts AND labor and everything they sell us is guaranteed to fit. Rock Auto only offers us 5% and uses our Club Website to reach the thousands of readers who visit us each month. When I asked Rock Auto to even slightly help one of us in a world-class endeavor, they turned away without even offering to sell Burt parts at a meaningful discount.

I feel we should either charge them for advertising here or bar them from the website. This forum certainly wasn't intended to give them a free advertising platform and they sure weren't there for us when we asked them for even the smallest degree of help.

Frank T

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1970 240Z

RockAuto does not offer discount codes higher than 5% due to our reliably low prices everyday. Thank you. [quote="HowardJ"]Givers and takers in this world. The 5% doesn't appear too much of a "give" for a car club that "gives" this free advertising platform. They'll gladly "take" our money though. I've been in lopsided relationships before and then got wiser. A 10% - 15% real discount might even bring in more customers/ business. Hearing aid batteries anyone?

Howard J.[/quote]

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www.RockAuto.com

If you (RockAuto) can't figure it out, it is HIGHLY inappropriate for you to be using this website which is for individual car owners to discuss Vendors and their sales practices. Oh wow! That's what a few members are doing here. We're discussing a vendor that we feel is taking advantage of us. Do you need a 10% discount for a sledge hammer? So do the CTZCC (and all of its followers) a favor and disappear.... STOP POSTING ON THIS Z-CAR FORUM. And don't call us, we'll call you if we need your services. Thank you for hopefully taking the hint.

Howard J.

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1985 300ZX- GLL Dark Pewter Metallic - Survivor

Hi Frank,

We apologize if there has been any misunderstanding, however, we are posting here with your direct permission. Please see the message you sent to us back in 2011, welcoming us to the forum and personally inviting us to post. We have also offered our support in the form of gift certificates and goody bag items to your members for their car related events. Thank you.

Message subject: Welcome!
From: Frank T
Sent: Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:00 pm
To: RockAuto

Hello, Rock Auto! It's a pleasure to find you watching our Website. I'm Frank, the Membership Director of the CT Z Car Club and I encourage your interest in our little Club.

We're more than 500 Z enthusiasts who hail from mostly CT, but we have active members in 19 states and Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany and Puerto Rico.

We have recently been discussing you! You can find some RockAuto threads in our VENDOR RAVES AND GRIPES forum. Everyone has good things to say about you. You're welcome to add comments if you wish.

We're a free Club. No dues, no expenses, and no obligations (except vulgarity and hostility are prohibited). Please feel free to look us over and, if you like what you Zee, please join us! You don't have to own a Z to be a member here, you just have to love them.

We are a real Club, which holds monthly meetings during the driving zeason. Most of our members have met and know each other. More than 300 of us are active on the website, which leads to some very interesting technical exchanges about theze carz.

If you have any Qs or need any help, pleaze feel free to contact me (or just ask in the GENERAL DISCUSSION forum). I'll be glad to help.

Thanks again for your interest ~ hope you stick around.

Z ya ~
Frank Thomas

[quote="Frank T"]:thumbs_up:

I'm not even sure why we allow Rock Auto to advertise here. This forum was established in 2008 to let INDIVIDUAL CLUB MEMBERS exchange their personal experiences involving vendors while pursuing maintenance on their Zs. It was never intended to allow vendors to come on here and advertise, especially not for free. This forum exists to hear the opinions and experiences of our individual members to recommend (or warn) others about the services of individual vendors. Rock Auto simply began advertising here EACH MONTH since 2011 without asking. I'm confident they don't get away with that on anybody else's website. Many of our members use Rock Auto, but allowing them to post 3 dozen free ads on our website might get misinterpreted as meaning the CTZCC endorses Rock Auto, which we don't.

My experience with Rock Auto is that they're One-Way; willing to take our business but unwilling to help our member Burton Brown set the world Z Land Speed Record. I have not sent them any of my money since 2014.

Our sponsoring Nissan dealerships offer us 10%-15% discounts on parts AND labor and everything they sell us is guaranteed to fit. Rock Auto only offers us 5% and uses our Club Website to reach the thousands of readers who visit us each month. When I asked Rock Auto to even slightly help one of us in a world-class endeavor, they turned away without even offering to sell Burt parts at a meaningful discount.

I feel we should either charge them for advertising here or bar them from the website. This forum certainly wasn't intended to give them a free advertising platform and they sure weren't there for us when we asked them for even the smallest degree of help.

Frank T[/quote]

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www.RockAuto.com

Well you've obviously misunderstood our letter of greeting and explanation of our website rules. We can fix that. "Posting" is not advertising.

Please re-read my statement about "adding comments if you wish"; that refers to what you're doing now, exchanging ideas or asking quetions. It does not now, nor did it ever, involve using the official CTZCC website as your platform for free advertising.

You are welcome to participate here as an individual in Z-related discussions. You were never invited to use us for your free advertisements. Sorry you misunderstood that, but now it's resolved.

Thank you for your kind cooperation.
Frank T

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1970 240Z

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1985 300ZX- GLL Dark Pewter Metallic - Survivor

As webmaster, allow me to chime in to this conversation.

RockAuto, as you can see from their forum profile, joined the forum over six years ago. They were courteous enough to ask for permission to post promotional news prior to doing so. They were directed to post to the VENDORS RAVES and GRIPES forum because we did not at the time (nor do we today) have enough other reputable vendors to warrant a dedicated forum section. In return, they offer the club an ongoing discount code good for 5% off any order.

First, let's keep things in perspective: during the entire 6+ year span since they started posting here, RockAuto has posted all of 76 times (that averages out to once a month), and that number includes personalized replies to inquiries, etc.

To my knowledge, RockAuto has not posted any messages of an unprofessional, abusive or otherwise prohibited nature. If they had and any officer had been informed of it, we would have taken appropriate action.

Nobody on the forums or in the club is required to read RockAuto's threads or buy from them - each of us is free to shop around for better prices, products, service, delivery, etc. Similarly, and perhaps most importantly, nobody and nothing prevents anyone who has had a personal experience purchasing from RockAuto from posting their impressions, positive or negative.

We absolutely do not and will not allow our forums to become open spaces for advertisers to come and hawk their wares without prior permission. RockAuto received our prior permission. Over the years, several other businesses have approached us hoping to place their posts in our forums and the vast majority have been turned down. The fact that RockAuto is one of the very, very few businesses we allow on our forums should serve as a testament to the stringent criteria we use.

As far as I'm concerned, unless and until RockAuto's posts go beyond the scope in terms of frequency or content that we would deem acceptable, their limited presence in this one specific forum is a fair exchange for the 5% discount they are providing to our members. As you can see from the number of views several of RockAuto's threads have received, there is good reason to believe that our membership at large is benefiting from RockAuto's presence here.

- Jim

"They were courteous enough to ask for permission to post promotional news prior to doing so. They were directed to post to the VENDORS RAVES and GRIPES forum." "RockAuto received our prior permission".

Thanks for that info Jim. It wasn't known before. As you can see, when asked why they advertise on that forum they cited my Welcome letter as justification, which included no such authorization. I was unaware of any further correspondence from them.

Since they sell stuff, the CARS AND PARTS FOR SALE forum might have been a better choice for their ads, so that members who have good or bad things to say about vendors are not suppressed by the presence of vendor adverts in the same forum soliciting our opinions of vendors.

Frank T

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1970 240Z

Dear members,

I have to say I'm scratching my head on this one. Rock Auto contacted us in 2011 and very politely asked permission to advertise on our Discussion Forums. Their original e-mail appears below. We granted that permission because we thought their low prices, customer service and additional 5% discount would benefit our members. I, along with many other club members personally had good experiences ordering from Rock Auto, which made me inclined to say "yes". They agreed that they would behave well and not overwhelm (spam) our site.

We do in fact allow advertising on our site, when it benefits us. On our home page are links to Black Dragon (yes, we will remove them now that they are closed), Motorsport Auto, Bonzai Motorworks and Z Car Source. Rock Auto was the first vendor that wanted to periodically alert us to specials and we therefore decided upon a place in our Discussion Forums instead of a static ad on our home page. Oh how I would have loved to find all of these vendors listed in one place when I was working on my '78 280Z in the 90's.

We have peacefully co-existed in a mutually beneficial relationship with Rock Auto for six years now. Yes, maybe they belong somewhere else, but at the time, the "Vendor" thread appeared to be the best fit. Personally I don't understand the perceived offense and wish someone had e-mailed me and/or Jim before engaging them in a conversation that quickly turned ugly.

We have some pretty big challenges ahead of us if we want to remain together as a club. In my opinion, Rock Auto offering us a 5% discount on parts is not one of them.

I would encourage you to read the following thread, which is what prompted Rock Auto to contact us in the first place:

viewtopic.php?p=30787

Sincerely, Ross

Hello Ross,

My name is Cynthia, and I work in the Marketing Department at RockAuto. I came across the following thread and thought I may be of assistance to your forum.

viewtopic.php?p=30787

I was wondering if you would like to display a longer running discount code for RockAuto.com for you and your forum members to use. Secondly, would you be interested in being featured in our an upcoming newsletter as a forum of a month? This may be something we could do. If you are interested, I would just need a paragraph describing your forum to review.

In return would it be ok if I joined your forum and posted relevant promotions/features about RockAuto as well as respond to relevant posts? By no means do I want to "spam" your forum I just want to get interesting/useful information out to your members as well as help them find part, etc. if I can.

Quick Company Overview:
RockAuto.com was founded in 1999 and now ships thousands of auto parts from over 90 manufacturers to customers on every continent except Antarctica. The huge selection of parts and the low prices in the RockAuto.com catalog attract customers. RockAuto's responsive customer service keeps customers coming back. (RockAuto.com customer service consistently scores more than nine out of ten in customer surveys performed by Resellerratings.com and others).

Please let me know what you think!

Cynthia
Marketing Department
www.rockauto.com

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Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 36k Original Miles
2008 350Z Bob Sharp GT-33 Edition