DIY growth amid high car prices driving Advance Auto to open 5 LI stores, retailer says

Advance Auto Parts plans to open five new stores on Long Island this year, as high prices for new and used cars spur more consumers to maintain the vehicles they have instead of replacing them, the company said.

Increases in do-it-yourself and auto shop repairs on older cars are among the reasons that the auto parts retail industry overall is seeing strong sales growth while sales of new and used cars continue to lag, analysts said. 

The five new Long Island stores that Advance Auto will open this year — in Port Jefferson Station, North Massapequa, Levittown, Lynbrook and Mineola — are among 60 opening nationwide, said Eli Rosa, Advance Auto’s vice president of operations in New York. 

“There are a variety of factors that influenced our decision to open new stores on Long Island. More used vehicles are being purchased and motorists are deciding to keep their vehicles longer, leading to an increase in the average age of vehicles on the road. As vehicle age increases, so does the demand for parts needed to perform necessary maintenance,”  Rosa said.

By adding stores, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company also is trying to catch up to its auto-parts retail peers after years of store closings and lower profit margins, analysts said.

About 60% of Advance Auto’s sales comes from repair shops and other commercial customers, while 40% comes from DIY shoppers.

Advance Auto Parts Inc. has 33 stores on Long Island, including one that opened in Oceanside in June.

Here is the rundown on the five Advance Auto stores opening on Long Island this year:

Dodging dealerships

For auto parts retailers, which are included in the auto aftermarket parts industry, growth has been spurred by consumers quarantined at home doing repairs as a hobby earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, and people keeping cars longer, said Seth Basham, a retail equity research analyst who covers the auto parts industry at Wedbush Securities, an investment firm in Los Angeles.  New- and used-car prices hit record highs due to supply chain issues, microchip shortages and factory shutdowns.

Typically, the auto aftermarket parts and labor industry sees about 4% annual sales growth from DIY and commercial customer sales, but it grew 8.5% last year and is projected to grow 5% this year, according to a report from S&P Global Mobility and two other groups.

The national average purchase price of a used car rose to a record high of $31,095 in April 2022. In March 2023, the average price was $28,729, which was 4.8% below the price a year earlier.

Baldwin resident Howie Frisch was at Advance Auto in Oceanside on Monday to check out prices for brakes that he wants to put on his 2015 GMC Yukon Denali. 

Typically, he and his wife buy a new vehicle about every five years because they prefer vehicles with low mileage, but with the price of a new Denali close to $100,000 now, the couple decided to keep their 2015 SUV, which is paid off, said Frisch, 67, a retired auto mechanic.

“I would have had a new car already … Car prices are crazy,” he said.

Baldwin resident Jason Aguerre, 40, was at  Advance Auto in Oceanside on Monday having the battery in his 2007 Acura RDX tested to see if it needed to be replaced.

He always has bought his cars used from friends or family members, partly because he prefers to not have monthly car payments and because insurance  costs less for older cars, he said.

“And, you know, it’s a lot easier to fix an older car than those newer cars,” he said.

Different motivations

Advance Auto is in a different position from its publicly traded peers, such as AutoZone and O’Reilly Auto Parts, because it has been closing unprofitable stores for several years and losing market share, analysts said.

Advance Auto's number of company-operated stores fell 9.9% to 4,770 between February 2014 and December 2022.

In 2022, Advance Auto opened 144 new stores and branches.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.