Q: I bought a car from McGinnis Houston Mitsubishi but I’m having some trouble with it. My friend says he can fix it, but he just needs me to get the part. How do I do this? Is there some Houston Mitsubishi place that sells parts?

A: You know, you could go and just get it from a parts shop like O’Reilly. I know that McGinnis Houston Mitsubishi is on I-10, and I’m not sure where an O’Reilly or an Auto Zone is near there, but they’re everywhere and shouldn’t be hard to find. But if you go to one of those places you can only get the after market parts, which isn’t a good idea especially if you have a new car. If you use aftermarket parts (they’re basically generic parts) to repair your car then it loses value.

What you can do is go to the website for McGinnis Houston Mitsubishi and they have a form that you can fill out to order a part. You have to know the part number, but I suppose your friend would know that since he is the expert. The great thing about it, too, is that you don’t even have to pay for the part up front if you’re still making payments on your car with McGinnis Mitsubishi Houston. You can just add it to your account and it will become part of your car note.

My neighbor did this a few months ago when he needed a new part for his truck, which he had gotten from McGinnis Houston Mitsubishi. I’m not sure what kind of part it was, but since his truck was broken down I drove him up there to get it. He had made the order online and a few days later they had called him up and told him that the part was ready for him to pick up. They were very kind and all we did was pick up the part and go. They offered to install the part, but he said no because he didn’t want to pay. Oh, well. It’s very quick and efficient though, so if you’re in a hurry it will give you more quality and faster than just a parts shop.