Damn, that sucks, I worked for them about,....9 or 10 years ago, It was a good company, got my Torque Thrusts at cost,...soon after that, employees couldn't buy at cost anymore. They had an odd way of doing sales, they wouldn't set up at any of the big car shows (Autorama), but instead set up one or two wheels in our customers (distributors) booths. I noticed at the time, over half of the cars at Autorama, had American Racing Wheels on the show cars. I asked the sales manager at American Racing why we didn't have a booth, and he said "Don't need one, like you said, half of the cars there have our wheels on them", then laughed.
I was able to bail out of this sinking ship before it was too late. Platinum Equity began drilling holes in this company from the start. An investment group is in it for one thing only and that is the money. The year before I left, TT molds were sent to China for production overseas. We told them if they built any of our Nastalgia products overseas, it would be the end. 3 years later, it is the end. The rodders would not purchase the TT's like they used to. I loved selling Torq Thrusts, TTO's, Salt Flats and even the Hopsters were nice wheels. For those who do not know, the Hopster was named for Hoppy Hopkins, the best 2 piece guy in the market. He retired from ARE before anything went overseas, had he been there, it may not have. I really miss going to the Rod Shows and discussing street and hot rods in general. Anyway, if you have any ARE nastalgia wheels 2005 and earlier they may be American made.
i'm real close to buying a set of hopsters so i will put them in the rest of china made parts pile i have started, pretty much everything in last 2-3 yrs. oh well chop sticks & eggfu yuck!
Damn it, everything seems to be going straight down the toilet. I guess I'll keep and plan on using my old Rocket mags instead and get'em powder coated.
Everyone complains about crap being made in china and how it's the end of the world, but soon there will be so much enviromentla pressure and workers rights in china that the costs of manufacturing will skyrocket essentially leveling the playing field. Also people complain so much about having to buy chinese made stuff and how everyone should buy american but they are the same guys trying to rip you off with the old nice stuff.
The sad truth is most are going to choose the low price everytime, I see it in my business every day. Quality doesn't mean beans to 99% of consumers if they have to pay more for it. Our steel is leaving by the ship load, tech jobs are outsourced, and small businesses that care about quality over the bottom line fold up. Walmart is displacing just about every kind of small business, but thats another story. I'm glad they dont make speed parts. What I wonder is, WHY manufacturing is going away in the USA. Are we overpaid on the global scale, are we just lazy, is it because of unions, lawyers? anybody know?
I hate to ask, but do ya know where the Radir's are made??? A friend said to me some years ago that "One day soon, all American commerce will be Americans selling each other Big Macs and cocaine."
The trend IMO is to aquire a respected American made name brand product. Close down the factorys here and get the products made in china or ? and then pocket the saving instead of passing it on to the American consumer. People in this country are pretty hooked on name brand stuff, So alot of people ( not all ) will overlook where it is made. Then if they do pass a little of the Mfg savings onto the consumer you will attract even more buyers, because we all like a bargain. This pressures the companys that make the same products in the U.S. to compete, Which of course they won't be able to for long. And in the end the owner of the co that's selling all the china stuff gets fat...really fat. Example: I was just working at an 11 acre estate in Beverly Hills that cost the new owner 46 million, before he desided to redo the whole property for even more $$$. The new owner owns Harbor Freight Tools.
Add in a lot of greed and a poor work ethic for the current generation and that's the recipe right there. We have a lot of kids at work showing up that are all of the above; lazy, non-motivated, want everything right now and always whine they're not making enough money. Keep in mind that these are 20-26 year old kids, with Navy experience only or a little college, making almost a six figure salary. Then they constantly complain that you're working them too hard and you constantly have to bitch at them to quit texting on their cell phone. Makes you want to smack them. We need to stop bitching about illegals and the Chinese and take a hard look at ourselves. WE let this happen. The current cost of gas isn't helping either. People that didn't have to are now having to make allowances and sell their crap to get by.
just a merger boys, I wouldn't worry to much about it. now instead of 2 companies battling it out and driving prices down they decided to combine into one. they've have now got more vintage throw back styles than ever. with more coming all the time. they know what sells, i deal with both companies on a daily basis. now they have a custom wheel monopoly. and of course made overseas, and thats why we can afford it.
screw them off shore wheels..........I taked to the cragar guy and he said their S/S wheels are still made in someplace called Califorina
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