[arbys]

Originally Posted by My442

I needed to replace the blower motor on my car.

A chineseum motor from the parts store was $30.

I took my Delco blower motor, and sent it to Casey's Auto Electric in Michigan.

It cost $75, buy I have a USA made part, refurbished by a USA shop.

Did the same thing for my heater core, starter, alternator, radio, gauges, etc.

Yeah, it costs more, but I sleep better at night......

I'm glad that you had good luck with him. I will never do business with that cheat again. He charged me for work that he didn't perform. I agree with getting things repaired but I'll deal with someone else.

[TheSilverBuick]

Originally Posted by wd45gto

i wish they would of taken that off before shipping to me

Ignorance can be bliss I suppose

[Sirrotica]

A couple weeks ago I'm having problems starting my 6.5 turbo diesel and the last thing I want to do is scrimp on a starter in a diesel and put a Hop Sing starter in something that requires a top notch starter motor to start in cold weather. I hunt down a Remy replacement, formerly Delco Remy with headquarters in Indiana, with a lifetime warranty and go to pick it up. First of all it's in a generic white box with a sticker that says Tough One on it and a smaller sticker with the Remy part number on it. I remove it from the box and it has no name on the starter whatsoever or on the installation instructions. It does have a prominent sticker that says "Made in China" on it though and I suspect someone has substituted a Hop Sing knockoff for a genuine Remy starter and being I could have bought a Chinese starter for about half of what I paid for the Remy. I'm pretty POed so I decide to call engineering in Indiana and tell them what I'm imagined happened and feel like I got royally shafted. The man asks me to read him the number on the bar code sticker on the starter so I give it to him and he says, Yep, that's a Remy starter". I say "but, it's made in China", he replies, Remy has a plant in China and it's a quality starter.

Well it has a lifetime non prorated warranty so we shall see, if it does screw up you know who is going to be laying under it changing it out for free, and it is gonna be the coldest day of the year without a doubt. It is working great so far, just makes me kinda upset that I paid the long dollar for a China starter when I could have bought a Chinese starter for a bunch less.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Brad,

That's why I send everything to Acme Auto Electric in Louisville. Good prices and service.

[Jeff Hamlin]

So what this is new? as stated this has been going on far longer then we all want to admit.
I don’t really care who makes it as long as it’s made right.
MADE IN AMERICA and/or MADE IN THE USA just doesn’t have the same meaning of quality any more. So whatever we buy is a crap shoot.
Oh and if your hell bent on not putting foreign parts on your classic then you better stop driving it because that's foreign oil making it run

[Dick Boneske]

Regardless of all the above, if you want a '64 GTO waterneck made in the USA, PM me. I had them cast back in the '80's and have a few left. If you need pictures, PM your email address. Price will be the same or less than the Chinese one.

[Heybuck]

I reckon this thread needs expanding considerably.

So you guys are moaning about your auto parts being made in countries other than America well, guess what, you are not alone. We are ALL suffering this new wave of commercialism whereby the average punter is only concerned about price - price -price. They simply do not CARE about the origin of the product as long as they can buy it cheaply and move on. They care not one toss about where their dollar is going and what the end ramifications are as they see local suppliers either falling off the tree or having to revamp their whole buying strategy just to compete (and survive).

This is a WORLD-WIDE problem. It's happening here just as much as in the US. maybe even more-so as we are closer to Asia and the shipping costs are so cheap.

Now start looking at the BIG PICTURE

Take a walk down the Supermarket aisle and start reading where your food is coming from? Have a look at how hard it is to buy something that says it is made in America from local produce. And that's it!! NO made in America from local and imported produce. Probably nigh on impossible???

Same thing over here. I live in a country which could probably sustain half the world food wise if it were economically feasible to do so. That's no doubt an exaggeration but you get my point!! Just last Saturday I was buying some lettuce mix. Pre-packaged, triple washed, ready to eat. I just needed a pack to throw in a cooler box to take on a picnic cum car show. So I read the label and it's a product of CHINA. Jezzzzus... Lettuce is as cheap a foodstuff you can get and they are importing it from CHINA!!!

It's almost impossible to buy processed foods wholly made in Australia. Looking at the frozen foods such as mixed vegetables, half seem to come from New Zealand. Pizza?? Made in New Zealand. Well OK you think, those Kiwi's are not so bad (half live in Australia anyway) so maybe that's OK. But it's NOT. Just the other day I saw a TV report indicating that some of the frozen vegetable packets sourced from New Zealand contain a proportion of vegetables which originated in China. So the Kiwi companies are buying in food stuffs made produced in other countries, combining them with Kiwi grown stuff then packaging it as made in New Zealand. And the Chinese vegetables are sprayed with a chemical which is banned in Australia but we are not told that. Only that the package comes from New Zealand.

This story is repeated ad-nauseum but you get my point.

Years ago, Australia's Riverina District (along the Murray River) had vast groves of citrus and stone fruit groves. We exported it by the shipload to Europe and mostly to England. Now, there are very few groves left. All bulldozed in and turned over to cattle farming. And now I'm expected to buy oranges from California or Argentina

We used to export frozen lamb and beef to England. Now??? NONE. Blame the EU for that. Even most of the bacon sold in Australia is sourced from CANADA.

At least we still do export a lot of frozen beef but huge amounts are ground up into hamburger mince. I understand a lot goes to the USA?

Our export meat trade is nowadays mostly confined to sending sheep to the Middle East in appalling conditions whereupon arrival they are treated and killed in the most in-humane conditions. Same with our beef trade. Sending live cattle to Indonesia where they are butchered in disgusting conditions. The whole thing makes me sick.

And just so none of you reading this think my family buys our vegetables frozen in packets or anything else, you are wrong. We only buy fresh vegetables sourced in Australia and our meat is only sourced from a butcher who we know. Local stuff and good.

Anyway, that's enough of a rant from me. You get my point.

Ian

[dennis kirban]

Just saw this thread.....you could print volumes on this subject speaking from a supplier standpoint we started making GTO parts back around 1978..personally I never dealt with any company outside of the USA.

Nowadays if I had to guess over 60% of your repro parts come from overseas. Several issues can rear their ugly head when dealing with oversea suppliers and I know this for fact since I know many owners of companies in our immediate trade.

Unfortunately when you go overseas ethics and scruples don;t mean the same as they do here in the USA. By that I mean a overseas company that a supplier here deals with may get 500 parts on their initial run and then when they reorder that same overseas company to increase their profit margins may farm it out to another hungry supplier who then makes it for them. Problem is quality has now been lessened than the first run.

I am not saying this is true in all the cases but it is something that does happen.
When we started, I can recall 2 items that were made overseas thru my supplier who had it handled. One was the cone portion of the ralley one wheel the diecast cone.
The wheels thank goodness where USA made as was the saucer part....old timers may remember we had them designed with a fixture onthe back so 3 lug nuts secured the
ralley I center cap...kept them from falling off and getting stolen.

The other part that same supplier to me had made overseas was the initial run of the 1964 GTO hood scoops. About two years ago that initial supply ran out and production has been moved back to the states. Making a profit on a part that fits one year on a low production car is no way to make quick money! A theory shared by all of us vendors/suppliers.

The main reason overseas is popular in the industry is of course costs which translates into profit margins....also, not so much in the GTO world but step into the Mustang world which is larger and you can bet you got 3 or more companies making the same part each one trying to get your buck so each of them is cutting corners/costs to make it work. I know this for fact having had some of our Mustang items copied and they even use my photos for their inferior product.

Quality can vary immensely if several of the same part is made by several companies dealing with several different suppllers.

On the water neck mentioned in the initial post I would lay it on a flat surface first to be sure it is machined properly before I went any further.

denniskirban@yahoo.com

[Goathead]

If you have a HDTV, it ain't from here....no TV's made here in the states in years.

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by hurryinhoosier62

Brad,

That's why I send everything to Acme Auto Electric in Louisville. Good prices and service.

Normally I rebuild my own stuff, in this case I needed it right now and all the wear parts had to come from the manufacturer, 7 to 10 day wait and no guarantee of them not back ordering something.

Not only that, the parts would be close the the price if not more than a new starter so I opted for the new Remy part. Being a dealer line mechanic formerly I always rebuild my own starters, alternators, carbs etc. That way I know it was done correctly and in most cases it's much more cost effective. Just so happens on this gear reduction starter it isn't parts that even warehouses stock so I had my back against the wall.