[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Kudzupatch

I worked at a Wagner plant in a previous life. We made master and wheel cylinders and a few other odd brake parts.

One thing I learned was that say NAPA was buying brake parts from Bendix, our competitor. Our salesman convinced them to buy Wagner brakes. They sent in a team to remove all the Bendix parts on the shelf and replace then with Wagner parts.

The Bendix parts that were pulled were repacked in Wagner boxes and eventually end up back in the supply chain.

We bought parts from Bendix we didn't make and packaged them in our boxes. They did the same thing and not just them. It was quite common and I assume that hasn't changed.

On lower volume items it was cheaper to buy them from our competitor than spend thousands and thousands of dollars in tooling to make them.

While I strongly prefer American made products, what matters is the quality of the part. I would rather have a well made Chinese part than a cheap made American. Unfortunately made in America doesn't mean it is well made.

It's almost an oxymoron to put Chinese and well made in the same sentence.

While it's theoretically possible to get well made Chinese parts it's dumb blind luck to actually find them.

The statistical probability of getting well made parts made in the US or Canada is much better.