Thanks for your insight Lonnie.

I've worked with this one-man shop a long time; he's good and fair. He's okay with me getting the parts but reminded me that he can't back them. If he gets them locally, he can get replacements realtime. (If the waterpump fails in 9 months, he just makes a call.) If I get the parts via mail order, then it's on me to get a new part if one fails. (Also may get awkward if the Kia is in his way waiting for me to get another part.)

I haven't worked autos for a long while. Are these parts prone to fail these days? (I know starters, alternators, etc. can be bad out of the box, but I don't know about timing kit parts).

He looks at the Dealer price vs. vendors, and considers cost vs. quality. If Dealer cost is in the ballpark, he quotes it because its Kia's quality. He said everything else is from china, or from mexico if it's remanned. That doesn't mean they are bad, it just seems to raise the chance that they could be bad.

Thanks, your thoughts are appreciated.