Cr@ppy Chinese Parts!!

[JH27N0B]

I think the bottom line, is just that, the bottom line. I buy and use white box parts and yes, they're not perfect sometimes, but they are also a quarter of the N.A. produced stuff. Now you can point the finger where you will, but it seems to me that the price of iron ore is the same around the world (give or take), so WHERE does the added cost come in? Could it be guys who demand $35/hr in a foundry in Pennsylvania versus Hop Sing in Taiwan who's making $1.00hr? And then there's the government regulations ad nauseum here versus- "throw it out the back door there Hop Sing"? One needs only look at Detroit, to see the death of American manufacturing and the scary part is, who knows where it'll end. I just read that the interest that the US pays on the treasury paper that China holds, is more than it takes to support the Chinese army. 

$35 an hour??  I used to work for the company that made Raybestos and United and at least at my company, we weren't paying the guys who made the rotors and drums $35 an hour, it was more like $12 or $15/hour.  They shut down all the plants in the US and China around 5 years ago and now make everything in China, I think all the brake companies do now, we're screwed!
The labor cost difference all evens out after you factor in the costs of shipping everything across the Pacific.  I think it is more a case of China being so supportive of manufacturers locating there, compared to the US where industry is the "villan" that chases so many overseas.
I remodeled my kitchen 2 years ago, and at the same time, I had my contractor install a 220V electric heater out in my garage.  The Dayton heater quit after 13 months, and just this weak, my 2 year old GE over the range microwave died.  Also this summer, a little DVD/CD player I bought 2 years ago for the garage quit too.
You'd think at some point everyone would get fed up with crappy Chinese quality and demand better quality products, this buying stuff and having it fail a year or 2 later is getting a little old!

[torredcuda]

If you want to see a reason for America's fall from economic grace, look no further than the mopar parked in your garage.

I own five mopars made from 68-70. They are all noisy, poor handling, poorly made unreliable pieces of junk that I would not let my daughter drive across town in without a trunkload of tools and replacement electrical parts. A bit of hyperbole, but not much. And guess what? If it wasn't for the Japanese and German inroads into the US auto market, that would be the same quality of auto America would produce today. The principle is competition lifts all the boats on the water- i.e. everyone has to make a better product to remain competetive in the marketplace.

Making foreign-made products less desirable- "taxing the holy crap" out of them- does precisely the same thing. Facing less competition (fewer or economically disadvantaged foreign products) a domestic company has no incentives to "raise the bar"- either produce a higher-quality product or lower their operating costs- to remain competetive. The losers? You and me.

So why does China make such crappy junk if they are trying to be competitive?They are not making better quality parts for the same money they are making worse quality parts for less money so your piont is irrelevant.Competition should be the drive to improve quality and make a better product not make junk.

[priderocks]

torred- I never mentioned Chinese parts in the quote, did I?

[the_engineers]

$35 an hour??  I used to work for the company that made Raybestos and United and at least at my company, we weren't paying the guys who made the rotors and drums $35 an hour, it was more like $12 or $15/hour.

There is a lot more that goes into labor cost than just wages. Social Security, Payroll taxes, insurance, unemployment insurance, 401(k) matches, etc.

Depending on the state and company, $15 per hour could easily cost the company close to $30.

[GranCuda1970]

They need to cut the regulations and tax cost down for companies so they can keep the workers at that lower rate but still have higher rates for more technical aspects of the job.

[Cooter]

AMD Repalement FULL quarter panel is like what? Round $800.00?  Now, a $350.00 FULL quarter panel that has a little less Crisp edges comes on the market from China.....You make at your job say, $10.00/HR...You can afford that $350.00 Quarter than is a little rough..Now, Say there ARE NO $350.00 Quarters, only USA made $800.00 Quarters..You either have to make more money PER HOUR in order to buy HIGHER priced USA made stuff, or The US has priced a segment of the population right out of the game and it is now a "Rich man's" game.


 Doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you which will be the most sold....Oh sure, people tout that "Buy American" sh*t, then when they don't have the money for their own restorations, they buy the cheap sh*t just like everyone else.

I wonder how many of the "Buy American" folks put their daughter/son in a broken down, POS, fuel burning, American car rather than sending them off to College in a Brand new Honda/Toyota...

[GranCuda1970]

Will just have to save a little longer for the Higher quality panel. Get what you pay for that is for sure. They should tax the import to a close level as the home built product.

[GranCuda1970]

Then they would have to compete for quality! Not undermine the market.

[priderocks]

It's not that everything that comes from China is junk- far from it. The most state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities on the planet are in China. Most of Apple's stuff (ipap/iphone/macs) are made in China. My son's new HP laptop is Chinese-made.

It isn't that the Chinese are incapable of making a decent product. Those of you old enough to remember the first products out of Japan will recall what a joke they were. Now, items manufactured in Japan are synonymous with quality. The same happened with stuff from Taiwan. Mostly good stuff now. China's manufacturing is at a lower point on the evolutionary ladder. I am not familiar enough with the cultures to know if the same work ethic that exists in Japan and drives them to excellence in fact exists in China.

I have returned to the purchaser many products made in China because I was disappointed with the quality. One supplier said they stopped carrying the product because of poor quality.

The consumer rules. Manufacturers of shoddy products will not succeed UNLESS there is no competition, or if legislation exists that effectively disadvantages that competition.

[GranCuda1970]

But the Japanese are not communist and pointing nukes at us and trying to undermine our currency! That is the big difference.

[moparmaniac59]

Look back at the US before WW II. We were an industrial super power and made some of the best products in the world. After we leveled Japan with the "H" bomb in WW II we rebuilt their entire infrastructure with the best and NEWEST equipment known to man while our own manufacuring plants, steel mills ect were now using aging and outdated equipment. We gave the manufacturing edge to Japan and shot ourselves in the foot. Now we're paying for it, not to mention we've taxed our manufacturers right out of the country in order to compete on a global scale. We can be a manufacturing super power again but must do things like change our tax codes (like the flat tax) and we've already improved automotive quality for the most part to be on-par or even better than european cars. It's not too late, but we must adapt and not try to support the entire world economy!! 

                                                                       Matt B.

[GranCuda1970]

The management must also adapt for a quality product.

[torredcuda]

torred- I never mentioned Chinese parts in the quote, did I?

 Chinese parts is what we were talking about so I`m still missing your point?

[mopar12372]

japan actually makes good tools and parts. china parts are horrible!!!!

[dougs bs23]

And the master cylinder i just installed was made in.............................................................. Italy, go figure
Most of the beamers you see on the streets are made in the non unionizd south, as well as some of the Jap autos,  There quality is very good and the local governments in that region gave them incentives to build plants and relocate there, and even boeing was to move to south carolina, for a good work force and lower production costs,  but,,,, we clearly see the over priced to much power unions are trying to stop it.
China has the edge right now in manufacturing,  like japan did years back and America before that,  so maybe its a cycle and eventually it will come full circle,  but the fed, the democraps and the unions need to get out of the way.