We have brought up the subject of "off shore" parts before but this got under my skin. Car-Done has laid off 1300 American workers in East Philly and moving the operation to Mexico. Car-Done sells through a lot of vendors like rockauto and O'Reilly's even Summit if there is another brand alternative I'll be using it.
Shame on the corporate bean-counters at Car-Done. If Philly was a non-agreeable climate to do business, there are plenty of great locations in the US that are super business friendly and great places to live. That having been said, it's been my experience that the parts I've bought that say "Hecho en Mexico" are of better quality than the parts that say "Made in China"
Good article from 2006 on Cardone. 4200 workers at the time in 5 plants, biggest employer in Philly. http://articles.philly.com/2006-03-26/news/25415605_1_auto-parts-product-lines-cardone-industries Looks like 1300 (1/3rd) of the jobs are moving south. http://www.phillymag.com/business/2016/01/20/cardone-industries-layoffs/
Probably not enough jobs added in Mexico to slow down the illegal border crossings though. On a better note Ford announced it is actually moving production of it's larger F series 650,750? from Mexico back to the US....... Kudos for FORD!!!! They'll be built in the plant formaly used for Econoline production
That is great news. Good for Ford. After what GM did with the bailout scam, I'll never buy another new GM car or truck. It'll be Ford for me, for American vehicles or one of the foreign brands who have ***embly plants in the US. Fortunately, the new F150s are sweet vehicles, so I won't have to compromise when it comes time to buy a new truck.
Going back in time Pennsylvania was once the hub of America for the coal and steel plants that contributed to America's manufacturing greatness during several wars since we now ran them out of America with over aggressive EPA regulation they won't be there when we need them should history repeat itself. Hopefully next election we will be on the path to making America great again.
Carrier just announced they're moving their manufacturing from Indy to Monterrey, Mexico. I think that represents somewhere on the order of 3,000 jobs. It's a sad state of affairs but in some ways I can't blame manufacturers for moving out of the country. They're beset by over regulation and perhaps the highest corporate taxes on the planet, not to mention high labor costs and often obtuse unions. As far as quality goes, I work for a major Japanese transplant auto manufacturer that has 2 plants in the US and 2 in Mexico. The plants in Mexico export 2 model lines to the US and I gotta say their quality is as good as ours and often better.
I just heard about carrier hvac too,two years ago we took a trip to the goodman hvac plant in Houston,Texas, guess who's employed there, unless you wear a white collar shirt. it's sad for all the families that have been cheated out of their employment and benefits.
Yep, this thread turned into a political **** storm....... Fellas, regardless of how you or I feel about the current state of economic affairs here and their root causes, politics don't belong here. Mask it any way you want, political opinions don't belong on the HAMB. We all get enough of that **** every time we open a newspaper or watch the evening news.
+It's easy to get off track,but lets keep it regarding car parts suppliers only because that affects our hobby also p*** along the good guys too. I think we can all agree America has taken a turn in the wrong direction but that topic is suited for venting on facebook not here. Agreed ?
Jeff, it's VERY easy to get off track when talking about the degraded quality of parts coming from our suppliers. Everyone here feels that pain and it's frustrating for sure. Sharing the sources for better parts, a kudos or even a heads-up are exactly, in my humble opinion, what this forum is for aside from sharing the technical stuff. We all share that sickness for these old cars but engaging in a political dogfight isn't the cure. Personally, I disagree with the statement that America has taken a turn in the wrong direction. I won't elaborate any further because like you said, that topic is better suited for a forum geared for that sort of thing. Agreed, not here!
Sorry to swerve off the topic, I just miss seeing Stars and Stripes stamped on the parts I buy. I'll save the political stuff at the dinner table.
I won't buy re-poop for any reason unless it can be guaranteed that it's US made. I'll look for NOS or good used. I'm in no hurry.
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