[dataway]

It's painful to hear, but one of the driving factors in the destruction of quality US brands is .... us. The consumer constantly puts pressure on manufacturers to lower prices, at the auto parts counter if they have a few choices they will pick the cheapest one. Companies have to go to greater lengths to turn a profit, cut quality, off-shore manufacturing etc.

Bear in mind WE here do not represent the typical part buying public, we consider quality, 99% of parts buyers only consider price.

Back in the days of no internet and less mobility people shopped at their local auto parts store, often only one was within a reasonable distance, there wasn't much window shopping for cheaper parts. Many auto parts stores only carried one brand or tier of products.

I'm not certain of it, but it sure feels like (inflation taken into consideration) that parts are cheaper now than they were 40 years ago. I remember things like alternators and water pumps etc being a not insubstantial amount of money (but then I probably had less money to spend back then)

Kinda like the airlines, if you wonder why a modern flight is like taking a standing room bus in a bad neighborhood ... we'll people got online and searched and searched for the cheapest flight .... that's what the airlines started providing.