Who is Autobarn

Autobarn is a chain of Australian service stations. Here’s some information about them.

Autobarn was founded in 1985 in Victoria when 9 specialist automotive parts and accessories retailers created a co-operative. Together they intended to counter the invasion of department stores, discount stores, and service stations who were stealing their business. They were so successful that within 5 years, they had grown to 28 stores under one unified brand.

In their early years, the group was led by the apparently tenacious Garry Dumbrell, who started Allbrells Parts in 1977 with just $5,000 before founding Autobarn and also Autopro. In his acceptance speech for the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association Hall of Fame, Garry said that success was not about trying to make money. “You should wake up and have fun,” he said. “You should never meet your competitor because you might like him … You’ve got to try to kill them every day.”

Autobarn remains Australian owned and operated. From 2012, Autobarn was owned by Metcash, the force behind other independent champions IGA, Mitre 10, Cellarbrations and Bottle-O. Since June 2015, Autobarn is owned by Burson Group Ltd, Australia’s trade specialist distributor for aftermarket car parts.

Autobarn has a wide range of DIY articles to help out any everyday handyman. Their slogan is “We know how to get you there.”

How many Autobarn stores are there?

Autobarn has 111 stores across Australia. You can find your nearest store online.

Things you can buy at an Autobarn store

Products available at Autobarn include:

• Audio visual
• Batteries and electrical devices
• Car care
• Car accessories
• Touring and recreation gear
• Spare parts
• Performance parts
• Oils and additives
• Workshop and maintenance tools
• Paint and repair products
• Storage products
• Safety and security products
• Gifts and collectables

Their Click & Collect service means you can order most products online and pick them up from your local store at a time that’s convenient for you. Products can be ready for pick-up as soon as 4 business hours after you placed your order. So you never have to waste a trip for something that’s out of stock.

If you’re no hotrod yourself, Autobarn staff are more than happy to find and fit whatever parts you need. They even have Australian-accredited baby seat fitting specialists in many stores.

Autobarn Autoclub members get even more benefits, like special discounts and entry to exclusive competitions.

Auto stores we surveyed

Canstar Blue commissions Colmar Brunton to regularly survey 3,000 Australian consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction. The outcomes reported are the results from customers within the survey group who have purchased a product from an auto store in the last 12 months – in this case, 1,368 people.

The auto store brands we surveyed are:

• Supercheap Auto
• Autobarn
• Autobarn
• Repco
• Autopro

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar Blue’s Site Editor, Dean Heckscher. He’s our resident expert on all things automotive, health & fitness, streaming and more. Dean is also one of Canstar Blue’s customer research report producers, helping to turn complicated subjects into easily-digestible information for our readers. He’s passionate about helping consumers make better-informed purchase decisions on all manner of consumer goods and services.