As I travel a lot I try to use national chains for tires, alignments, and oil changes. (WalMart and Costco for tires, Jensen, JiffyLube, and/or Brakes Plus) I truly would rather use locally owned businesses, but their warranted work is useless when I am a thousand miles away.
With the Rubicon, there are some critical parts that I could do myself, but warranted work is better in case of emergencies like ball joint failure.
Like anything, there are always two ways of looking at something like this...
1) buy less expensive parts and/or labor from a large chain store for ease of warranty and service...OR
2) buy more expensive and higher quality parts and/or labor from a reputable shop that are less likely to break and leave one stranded in the first place.
As an example, I will ALWAYS try to buy quality batteries made by East Penn Manufacturing. I do that because IME of over 30 years of using them in MANY vehicles, and even HD diesel equipment, they will OUTLAST their warranty period by a substantial margin. Also, and even more importantly, they will NOT leave me broke down or stranded when I am traveling, particularly offroad, where (thankfully
) there exist no big box stores to honor the warranty on a cheaper battery. Of course, it must also be said that proper battery maintenance IS part of the equation here!!!
I am also lucky enough to still have an excellent independent suspension/wheel shop in a nearby town. I am on a first name basis with them, and they have serviced all my family's vehicles alignment for many years now. I know that if this shop does the work with parts I specify (or even bring to them), I won't need to utilize a warranty, unless I do something stupid... in which case that's on me anyways.
You might be asking, How did I come to such a strange and more costly mechanical philosophy???
THAT question is fairly easy to answer and actually involves one of my first times needing to work on my first car, a 1968 Plymouth Satellite. (Dam, I do wish I still had that Sport Satellite today... NOT because it was an awesome car, which it wasn't, but because it's now worth ALOT more money as an underrated but still desired muscle car then back when I finally sold it for $3500, which, ironically is also about what my dad paid for it brand new 1968
).
Anyways, back in 1976, it was also around the time that Kragens Auto Supply (predates Autozone or Oreillys) was breaking into the California discount parts market, and in doing so they were also offering many of the parts they sold with a "Lifetime Warranty."
So instead of heading down to Larrys Auto Parts, I thought to myself, well THAT just sounds like too good a deal to pass up and so I bought that water pump from Kragens.
And then spent about a half day replacing the bad one on my car with the one with the lifetime warranty. Again, at barely 16 yo, I was just learning how to wrench on my own and I was super pleased and excited when the job was done!!! SoI fired up that bulletproof 318 to take a test drive and check for coolant leaks and IMMEDIATELY heard a light growl from the water pump.
Yup... BAD bearings, right out of the box!!!!
Of course, Kragens gave me another water pump to install, but no one was gonna give me back that half day, and early on I realized that lower prices and a "lifetime warranty" come with an actual cost -- lower quality parts AND more down time… Lesson learned!!!
Anyways, thats my story and Im sticking to it...