OEM KIA parts-the system is not working

[sawzall]

1. My 2001 Optima was hit last year. The body shop had it for 5 weeks, mostly waiting on a few parts that wound up being wrong.

2. My kingdom for an OEM thermostat. Had to go the dealer for even this. Autozone sold me one but it was tiny, like made for a motorcycle but there it was listed as an OPtima thermostat.

3. Wanted to do my front brakes today. I buy some nice Raybestos ceramic deals. Get them home and realize they are completely wrong and will never fit into the calipers. The sides are like photo negatives of the original pads. So back I go. No way I'm buying pads from the dealer, I'll just trade it in and demand they give me twice the value.

I even verified the Raybestos part number as the same. Could be a case of the wrong part in the wrong box but either way, I'm wasting another several hours on this crap.

Anyone else have KIA parts problems?

[Classic boy]

Hey I work on cars for a living and it is quite normal to get the wrong parts delivered and it doesn't matter if it GM, Toyota, Nissan, KIA etc, there is such a plethoria of models and changover dates that the catalogs are rarely accurate. As a habit I take the part with me when I order or i use factory part numbers.

[sawzall]

Originally Posted by Classic boy

Hey I work on cars for a living and it is quite normal to get the wrong parts delivered and it doesn't matter if it GM, Toyota, Nissan, KIA etc, there is such a plethoria of models and changover dates that the catalogs are rarely accurate. As a habit I take the part with me when I order or i use factory part numbers.

I can understand that, but in the 16 or so years I've been DIY'ing most everything on Chevy's, Hondas and Mopars, the KIA is off the map with parts problems.
Its not like this model just rolled out of the Auto Expo, its been around for 5 years. Just sayin'.