BuyAutoParts.com recently announced its 30th year anniversary. This milestone is a major achievement for BuyAutoParts.com, a San Diego business that evolved from a friendly Memorial Day BBQ wager on “who could build the most successful business by Labor Day” to a $50M, 120 employee-strong national retailer of automotive replacement parts.
In 1989, John Pierre-Gilbertz started what would become BuyAutoParts.com in his small one-bedroom apartment rebuilding steering racks for European cars. The company grew steadily over the years with the biggest inflection point happening with the advent of the internet and the launching of BuyAutoParts.com, which allowed consumers direct access to purchase automotive replacement parts online.
“Back in 2001, BuyAutoParts.com was literally educating new online consumers on how to use Year, Make and Model dropdown selectors to find the correct part for their car. Today, we continue to lead the industry in part catalog accuracy, in value by purchasing a large part like a steering rack or turbocharger direct thereby eliminating distribution mark-up, and in service and delivery speeds,” Renee Thomas Jacobs, CEO of BuyAutoParts.com.
