Locking Lug Nuts
 

I went to O'Reilly's to buy some locking lug nuts for my 2005 Tacoma. The Professional Parts Rep (per the shirt) asked me a question I wasn't expecting. I was asked, "are these for front or rear?" In my 60 years of playing with cars I've never encountered a case where the lug nuts were different, front to rear, on an OEM vehicle. Are there cases where a vehicle comes from the factory with different lug nuts front and rear? I plead ignorance here.

no

It could be a parts catalog thing. Lug nuts go on the hubs, hubs are part of the brake system and the brake system is often split into front and rear sections in the catalog.

Even though it doesn't matter (well, 99.99% of the time), you've got to pick a page to start with.

What color is your Tacoma?
They have no clue so they just have to ask what it says on the screen to move on.

You could have said left or right side... and once upon a time it would have mattered! There were some vehicles with left-handed threads on one side.

I seem to remember hearing about these.

Stude's in the 50's also had them.

Friend of mine is an assistant manager of on O'Reilly and although he knows his computer system is the worst, he laughed and the whole store did too when the parts girl asked a customer if his car was auto or manual when he was in to buy a clutch...Its sad that the manager would hire pretty much anyone

To be fair, there are automated manual transmissions out there in regular use. And maybe it was Monday morning or Friday afternoon.