Where Can I Get a Sun Visor for My Chevy Cavalier?

I recently bought a used car for my daughter. She's 17, going off to college, and needs a dependable car to tote her around town. We were thrilled to find something that was both in our price range and in pretty good condition - both mechanically and cosmetically.

There was a minor problem, and I figured it would be no big deal to fix. The driver's side sun visor was pretty badly ripped up. I assumed I could go online to a car parts retailer/wholesaler and find a replacement. Alas, it was not so easy...

Where Not to Look

The car was a 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier 2 door coupe. It's fairly recent and fairly common, so I figured a quick search on Google would lead me right to the part I needed.

Instead, it led me to a bunch of auto parts websites that did not have the item I was looking for. JC Whitney listed a bunch of related items (visor repair kits, windshield shades, etc), but no legitimate replacements. GM Car Parts seemed like a promising place, but in the end it didn't help. It listed a part that sounded like the right thing, but there was no picture. It also provided me with no option to choose the color of the replacement sun visor... and I didn't want to end up with a beige visor that would mismatch with my existing graphite interior.

Where I Found It

I eventually went to a place that I often look to for replacement stuff - Ebay. A few months ago, I was at a loss to find a replacement lens cap for my Nikon Coolpix P80 camera, and I eventually found a perfect replacement on eBay. So, I figured I'd check out what was for sale as far as auto parts. [Ironically enough, we also found the car on eBay after searching local listing and used car lots]

Sure enough, a quick search on eBay brought up just what I was looking for. I searched for something relatively vague, like "cavalier sun visor" to make sure that I didn't eliminate any possible matches. After skimming through the auction titles, I was able to easily narrow it down to a few auctions that fit my needs - a driver's side, graphite (dark gray) sun visor for a 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier.

There were a few auctions for individual sun visors, since people seem to have salvaged them from old cars and sold them off as parts. However, I ended up buying a pair of sun visors from an established car parts store (North Side Autos and Parts). The items looked brand new, and the seller had a long and positive track record in selling on ebay.

The bottom line is that if you're looking for something relatively obscure, eBay might just be the place to look. I've had a lot of luck finding stuff there in the past, including camera parts and now car parts.