I used this little-known section of Amazon to repair my car — and it was surprisingly easy

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Flickr / Michael GilFour months ago, I walked by my car and noticed one of the mirrors was missing.

The actual mirror was intact, but the reflective piece had been ripped off, leaving me with a road-unready vehicle.

I don't know a lot about cars and didn't want to spend a lot of time at an auto body shop, so I turned to the store where I buy most everything else: Amazon.

I've gone over how Amazon's garage section works and even broken down some of the different parts you can get once you've added your car, but I'm still surprised by how easy it was to repair this problem myself.

Although I know my way around computers and other technology, I don't know a lot about cars other than "when I turn the key, it starts and I can go." My troubleshooting with car problems mostly comes down to making sure the check engine light isn't lit, listening for bad-sounding noises, and getting it serviced once a year.

But I had a trip coming up that required both of my side mirrors to be fully intact and knew Prime shipping would get me the part — if they had it — in a couple of days. Searching for the make, model, and year of my car with the words "side mirror" showed me exactly what I needed.

I confirmed that by adding my car to Amazon's garage (a process that takes all of two minutes,) which told me explicitly that it would fit. From there I ordered the mirror, followed the straightforward instructions, and was road ready within 10 minutes of opening the package.

Because I'm not too car-savvy, I also appreciated that the mirror's product page explicitly said the one I selected was meant for the passenger's side, with the option to switch to one for the driver's side in a single click. That's something I might not have thought to check initially, and it saved me from frustration and a return.

For major auto repairs, I'm still going to take my car to an auto shop to get properly inspected by professionals, but knowing Amazon has an easy-to-use parts store has me confident I can do smaller ones on my own. Even if you're not traditionally a car person, I highly suggest giving this section a look — you might end up surprising yourself.