Interesting article do we want to stock up before they go up? Or will this mean we will finally get "Made in the USA back again" Try to keep the political comments minimal please,if it gets nasty I will delete.
Are you missing a link? Myself personally, I think most stuff that comes from China is garbage and they should tariff the hell out of it so we can buy American.
Parts aren't junk because they're made in China. Made in China parts are junk because the American manufacturers have chosen to cut corners and sell a lower quality product to maintain (or increase) the profit margin. Apple has no problem selling very high quality products, despite being made in China, and it's a lot tougher to build a high end electronic device than something like a seal or bushing. If a company peddles junk, it's likely going to continue to peddle junk whether it's made in Ohio or Asia. Just my opinion.
It's not only automotive stuff, it's 90% of everything in every store. I agree with Bruce, we do occationally see some good quality stuff from China, so that that isn't falls back into the lap of those having the stuff built there and not doing proper QC
On a positive note - last winter, when talk of steel tariffs and a looming trade war heated up, it finally motivated me to pull the trigger on a 4-post lift I had been planning on buying for a few years.
Must be a link missing... At any rate, I agree with Bruce immediately above but like Jay I like buying American even though it costs more. Let me explain... In 2018 I am not so sure anyone is going to be able to get away with not being linked to a global economy. With the stock exchange, monetary investments around the world, etc, we all know that to find the real problem (or solution by the way) we have to just follow the money. I would think that everyone here wants quality parts - there is nothing worse than having no other option than to put a low-grade mechanical item on your car and have it "give out" too quickly. The issue is quality control like Bruce points out. Other parts like chrome pieces that here in the States have so many EPA regs that govern their production, or at least their high cost, drive aftermarket parts manufacturers overseas to get those parts produced. But still, some of that brightwork is still "junk" because of quality control. Back when our 50's cars were new, most of the parts and sub-***emblies were made in America, but not all of them. Seems I recall that such items as a voltage regulator were made in Germany, and there may have been other countries that produced small runs of this and that. These days, manufacturers are HIGHLY dependent upon foreign work, materials, and man-power to have parts produced, especially aftermarket companies. Coming from a family that has been "trade-reliant" for jobs and income (agriculture, manufacturing, trade work, etc), I loathe the push by such people on the popular show "Shark Tank" to have manufacturing completed overseas just for the sake of saving money and having larger profits (as that was the end all). I remember one episode where a rural entrepreneur had come up with an invention the sharks were after and he even stated that some of his motivation was to BRING JOBS TO HIS HOMETOWN in his community. The sharks liked his invention and wanted in, but were negative towards his idea about building (and ultimately investing) in the US. One of the sharks gave a very touching testimony of how his own father emigrated to the US sometime before the depression era, looking for a job, manufacturing, etc, and ultimately built up enough to hand much wealth over to his son (the shark speaking). Then the same dolt turns around and tells the rural entrepreneur to NOT INVEST in his people, but take the manufacturing overseas. We don't need to be isolationists, I understand that. But good grief, these days it seems like so much is going overseas - if we ever do get to see more of "Made in the USA" again I surely hope this generation of youth in America today will LEARN A TRADE or a SKILL and stay motivated to WORK. lol, rant over. But you gotta understand, my daughters are WORKING their way through college, one worked 35 hours a week her HS senior year at a restaurant to SAVE money for college. My son, who is 15, is learning to work with a 2 million dollar Heidelberg printing press each day of the summer (talk about learning a trade lol). That's how I was raised and how I am raising my own. P*** the popcorn.
Oh, and the biggie................I love our Fords, and I've long given Kuddos to FoMoCo for the way they handled the Firestone deal back in the early 0's(?), but I'm thoroughly disgusted with them for having their next new line of Fords built in China............wtf??????????? Anybody signing up to buy one?
Dang the link didn't post Anyway the Chinese are threatening to retaliate against the tariffs and one thing mentioned was auto parts. So big deal, now America can once again have more blue collar workers that want to work with their hands and our High schools will have shops to teach students a trade they won't need a degree for and American factories will open across the land and as of today unemployment is down to 3.9% this could send it even lower.
Well, one unintended consequence I've read about is that, by putting heavy tariffs onto auto parts, there will be that much more business for car thieves and chop shops. Generally, increasing prices to consumers make things less affordable, cuts into demand, and results in the loss of jobs, not increases. And if tariffs are suposedly temporary, the manufacturing industry will try to wait it out or find work arounds (like obscuring country of origin).
The EU is already coming to the bargaining table, the guys in Canada I've helped with their builds really pay high prices for things from here in the States but that's probably where Trudeau gets the cash to hand out freebees to non citizens those guys don't like him a whole lot.
Some of the parts for my Ford were not available as made in the US and I looked for NOS parts with mixed luck. And India is a player in the game. I ordered a tie rod set from there, there was a mix of castle nuts and I used my old ones.
No matter where you make parts, the manufacturer has to spend the money to have someone on the floor in the country where they are made...and Q.C.BEFORE the run is made. Once it gets here, you have paid $ for them...that's when they all screw up and rather than to lose the $...they sell the questioned parts anyway - hoping to make better next time - no matter where they were made. Our aftermarket parts need to be correct and honest. USA-made headers and parts don't often 'bolt-on' either. Good parts that fit and last at a fair price - no matter where they are made should be the goal.
there is a limit to what we all can afford at anytime in our lives. frankly, owning these cl***ics cars is not a necessity, so when parts get too high for you to afford, you have the choice of saving for the new part, fixing the old part, selling your car, or doing without. most of us will do without until good old simple economics takes care of the problem. supply and demand will drive pricing. actually, the supply production from china now with the relatively low demand for anything they produce is why stuff is cheap frim china now. if they raise their prices demand will drop and soon enough they will lower them again.
One other thing. It's unlikely a stateside parts manufacturer would be chomping at the bit to tool up to make parts for 60+ year old vehicles, the market is just too small. This includes the original manufacturers who likely sold their drawings and tooling decades ago. If they could be talked into it the prices would be so high there'd likely be few takers. Econ 101.
A good example of that today is whitewall tires. Even at the prices they currently go for, the thing that makes it economically feasible is that any one model tire can have wide application a**** models and years. If a tire had to be specifically made for say just '55 and '56 Fords, it's doubtful that any U.S. company would be interested in supplying them. Who would be willing to pay enough to make it worthwhile for the manufacturer?
In my opinion, Bruce is correct. It's about greed on the parts of corporate honchos who want bigger pay and stock options, quality is secondary.
Many US companies that do business in China have great control and also good QC... quality control. These are the ones we never hear about. What blows my mind is how they can fail to mage rudimentary parts and screw them up, like rubber boots for ball joints and tie rods. I have had both split even before I got to drive the car. Either something gets lost in the translation or one crucial tidbit of technological information is missed. I see this at work, change an operator on a product line and all of a sudden we have product problems. More often than not, the original operator is doing something small that is not captured in the work instructions and is not p***ed onto the next guy.
You are correct.....there are good products coming from China that we never hear about, so here's one: I'm extremely happy with my Rocket Igniter wheels. Have never had a leak problem or a balance problem, and once polished, they seem to go shiney forever without having to do more than a wipe down.
The deal is everything has planned obsolescence. They offer a lifetime warranty to trick you into thinking it is a good product. The truth is they plan on you trading off the vehicle before they have to honor their obligation. Americans have to demand quality and expect to pay a little more. Case in point, my dad bought me a vise for the shop. It was a chinese harbor freight type. It looked beefy and stout enough, until I started pounding on it. Huge chunks of bondo fell out. The castings were terrible. You get what you pay for....
So here we go. I got this in an email the other day -- "BendPak-Ranger has announced a major price increase, effective September 1, 2018, due to global market and increased costs for goods and services."
Worse then Chinesium parts... I got 3 different castle nuts with my tie rod set and used my old ones. Pretty bad when 55 year old parts are better than new ones. India is one of the major forces in the world for processing s**** steel and casting large industrial parts. Too bad that can muck up a simple tie rod set.
OT but a couple of years back I restored a 1960s english bicycle for a friend. He ordered many parts, in fact most everything except for the frame, seat and rims. All of what he ordered was made in India. The parts's quality was very very poor. So bad that I could not tighten a nut without stripin the thread. Chrome was.. well you can imagine. Ended up using many original parts. Wont buy that garbage again.
Had the same problem with my Spectre air intake adapters. Couldn't tighten the nuts on the t-bolt that tightens the chrome sleeve over the rubber sleeve. Finally pulled it apart a few weeks ago and realized the threads on the welded t-bolt were stripped where the locknut was trying to tighten.
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